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| Our host fam took us to Savannah on our off day |
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| The Cathedral and Forsyth Park were my favorite |
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| It's not often you're a tourist in your own town, I thoroughly enjoyed it!! |
Well Hello
there!
You want
to know something hilarious?
Of course
you do.
The last
church.
Building.
The
building was hilarious…
or it
thought it was anyway…
And it had
it out for me.
As in:
“let’s
put this fire alarm right where a light switch should be so when the blind girl
is wanting to explore she can embarrass herself dramatically…”
I caught
on to the dastardly plan at the last second and so avoided such a scene.
And…
“let’s
have all the doors in the children’s wing be flush with the wall and be a part
of the really elaborate theme so that when the blind girl is told to go get
more chairs out of the other room she says she has and then they tell her no,
the other room, and she says that she got them out of all the nearby rooms and
then they’ll say that they mean the one next door and she’ll ask if they mean
Meredith’s office and then they’ll say that it’s the one between Base Camp and
Meredith’s office and then one of them will go out in the hall and point at a
wall.
Then
they’ll open the wall and she’ll be totally whacked out because she totally
didn’t see the handle even though it doesn’t go with the color scheme thing.”
And..
“let’s
randomly make the entrance flat and then pull it into a sudden incline that way
the blind girl can trip over it every time she walks to the youth area where
she’s supposed to eat twice a day.”
Except I
only tripped on it once AND I figured out which part of the wall opens AND I
found the bathroom (though it was hard to see and the picture made me think I
had to walk up steps to open the door when really the door goes all the way to
the floor like any normal door) AND I did NOT pull the alarm…even though my
finger did start to apply some pressure: thankfully in the wrong direction.
As you can tell, I survived the church and came out the winner! Points for blind kids everywhere!
Despite that church’s all around wily-ness. It had a very big redeeming factor:
An indoor
playground…
like the
ones you would find at a fast food restaurant…
except
ten times better…
and we
got to play on it!!!
It has a
twisty slide that is EPIC and big enough for an adult and really fun…
Yes, I
work with children and I am not ashamed to admit that part of the reason is so
I can have a good excuse to still be giddy over a twisty slide = )
Another
reason I love working with children is seeing that “light bulb” look in their
eyes and hearts as they grow to know God better. We ask the kids to write
letters about what they learned in Base Camp and here’s what a few of them
said:
Dear God,
Thank you for teaching me to respect my friends and being
able to forgive 2 people and for a person to forgive me. I yelled at them for a
silly reason and those 2 people yelled at me back and now we are all friends
again. I also need to respect my parents and older adults and you’ve helped me
to do that.
~Emily
Dear God,
Thank you
for teaching me to pray more every day and read my Bible more. I prayed before
my science test because I was nervous. Later I found out I made a 100. I’ve
learned new things about myself, and more about God. These have been a great 2
weeks. This also helped me deal with things at school, like friends. I hope one
day I can also go and do work for the Lord.
~Gabby
Dear God,
Thank you for teaching me obedience when I didn’t
want to obey my parents. Also for teaching me to be patient and loving to
others, when I let my siblings and parents play with me. Thanks for also
teaching me respect, when I had to respect other people. Also for teaching me
just to be myself and not want to be another person, for liking myself as you
made me.
~Riley
These are
just a few examples of what God is using us to do in the hearts of these kids.
My prayer is that He will continually use me and my teammates to bring Him
glory in this way.
Right now,
I am HOME!!
So SO happy!
The team
was given a break from November 24th until January 6th.
It’s one of the longest breaks we’ve ever had and I know it’s needed.
At the
same time, though, it’s always hard to get back in the groove once we hit the
road again and with a longer break it’s going to be even harder since we’ll
have time to really get settled at home. Please pray for us: that we would be
intentional with our time at home and that we will continue to seek God’s purpose
for each day no matter where we are!
I hope
this holiday season has started off well for you all. I know I am enjoying the
special decorating, music, food and family times. My goal this Christmas is to
have everything centered around the whole reason we are celebrating: Jesus.
I often
find myself getting caught up in the hoopla that the world presents as “Christmas”.
The gifts and trees and food are all wonderful, but they could never compare to
the gift of Christ Himself. Please pray with me that I will not become too
comfortable with that knowledge.
May He
ever be the beat of my steps and the joy of my heart.
Merry Christmas
everybody!
Love,
Anna
