Sunday in Africa

Today we took the matatu 30 mins. away to attend church services.  On the way there, we practiced the EFY medley, in full voice.  We were quite a spectacle driving through towns with the full choir singing out the windows.  I of course was in tears listening to these amazing kids singing about being Children of God, Loving each Other, and working together.  Drage and Boen blessed the sacrament, Jayden and Cal spoke, Abi. Anna and Naomi helped teach primary, Becca was asked to lead the singing in sacrament, everyone sang and brought such a strong spirit to the meeting, attended sunday school, YW/YM, and helped teach the lessons.  Jacob Bingham was asked to go with one of the missionaries the third hour to teach a discussion.  After church, a member of the bishopric asked if any of our boys wanted to go home teaching with him for an hour.  Drage, Jake, Naomi, and Jayden volunteered to go, along with one of our leaders Matt Smith.  They were supposed to meet up with us at 4 p.m. in another village where we were meeting up with some kids from the slums.  We had a great time with the kids, coloring, bubbles, playing games, giving away Nick's pile of shoes, Derek's colored pencils, crayons, Ruth Ostergar's homemade skirts, Brooke Davis' headbands and bows......no matter what we had, it was a hot commodity.  Some little girls followed me out as we left, begging for something more.  I looked in my bag and said I was so sorry, everything was gone but a few zip lock bags.  "it's okay, I would love a bag".   My panic set in at 6 when we had still never heard from the group who had gone home teaching.  We tried to call the number we had been given, and got a message that the phone was turned off.  By now, the 1 hour of hometeaching had turned to 5 hours.  I found a corner to give an earnest prayer that these amazing youth would be protected and blessed for all of their service and faith.  We returned to our "home" and just as we started dinner, at 7:30 p.m., while Hayden was blessing the food and asking that our group return safely,  Matt, Drage, Naomi, Jake and Jayden walked in the door!

Reporting that these few hours had been the most amazing part of the trip thus far for them. 

Tonight for devotional, we had each person share what they have learned thus far.  I wish I could have recorded it for each of you.  Each of them expressed deep gratitude for their families, recognized that any problems or trials they felt they had experienced in life, were really inconsequential, acknowledged that true joy does not come from any kind of earthly possessions, and shared their feelings of gratitude for being able to travel and see how people are people and everyone just needs love.  Drage caught everyone off guard when he announced that although he had always planned to serve a mission, it wasn't until today when he was out teaching, that he realized what an amazing blessing this was going to be and he is TOTALLY PUMPED to go.  Olive shared how she has always been taught that you love those you serve, and how true this has been, Lainey spoke about how grateful she was to have come out of her comfort zone and try new things.........

Tomorrow we all go to the IDP camp and provide a food and medical day, these circumstances will be much more dire than what we have seen at the schools, keep those prayers coming on our behalf.  So far so good, Nick Wagener does have  a sprained ankle from his run, and Hayden has a bug bite, but otherwise all are well! Today was Cal's birthday and we have had some banners/ decorations, and several rounds of happy birthday.  The group has been THRILLED with the Oreo's Darin sent for the group. I believe there are some birthday games going down right now!

Mindy