BC VBS, Day 3 - WINDSday!

by Sue Chan Acuna on Thursday, July 14, 2011 at 9:16am

Thursday morning, 6:40 a.m.

One of the amazing things about this - and probably every - mission trip is watching how hard the kids can push themselves from their comfort zones.  Take Alex for example, who is very shy, very artistic - and very quiet.  So quiet, in fact, that at morning campfire on Tuesday another adult asked me if he was okay because he was keeping to himself.  Yesterday in our village, I saw him with one little boy on his back, and ANOTHER little boy up on his shoulders.  I called him "3-headed Alex."  At campfire last night he shared how the two boys had asked him to pick them both up at once, but he'd told them he didn't think he could.  They looked at each other, then at him, and said, "JESUS could do it!"  And, as it turned out, so could Alex.

Yesterday was another hot sticky afternoon - 26 degrees, but so humid it felt closer to 30.  (Are you looking the temps up yet?)  In the morning I'd given my team a pep talk, warning them that Wednesday is always a hard day, but if they kept saying positive things instead of mentioning how hot and tired they were, they'd feel better.  In the heat of the afternoon, Erika kept muttering one of our camp songs:  "I'm alive. . .awake. . .alert. . .enthusiastic. . ."  We were sitting on the bleachers in the hot sun watching soccer camp, and everyone was sticky and droopy.  But Erika - and the others - still hugged the kids or kicked the soccer ball around with no complaining.  I was so proud!

Sarah shared how she'd used an EvangiCube, which unfolds and refolds to show different pictures, to teach 6-year-old twins about Jesus.  One of them asked, "Does Jesus only love white people?"  "No," she said, "He loves everybody!"  "But I thought only white people went to Heaven," he said.  "Everybody who loves Jesus goes to Heaven," said Sarah.  And the little boy let out a cheer: "Woo-hoo!  I'M GOING TO HEAVEN!!"
Victoria spent time getting to know a local teen who was visiting our campsite.  After a game of Twenty Questions, the two girls - one from Northern BC and the other from Yuma - were surprised to see how much they had in common:  they both love Bruno Mars, Glee, and Ryan Reynolds, they both really like to sing, and they share a birthday!  Her new friend also thought she heard Victoria say she'd like to "buy" an Italian husband, which sent the two girls off into giggles.

Last night we thought we'd get rain, but the thunder showers went right around us (again).  However, the wind picked up, flattening a couple of tents and blowing over a few chairs.  It meant that even though we had a guest team from Oregon visiting us in the evening, we couldn't light the campfire.  Thankfully, the wind dropped by bedtime, so our rustling tarps didn't keep us awake.

I have to feel sorry for RV-ers who pull into this beautiful, remote campsite, only to see kids everywhere: playing soccer in the road and volleyball in the grass, playing cards and chatting at the picnic tables, sitting around the campfire singing and praying together.  They don't know that half of those kids will leave by 10 p.m. - and the rest of them are the cream of the crop of teenhood. I'd love to tell every one of them how these kids have given up ten days (or more) of their summer vacations in order to spend a week smelling like bug spray and woodsmoke, getting too little sleep, standing in line for meals, and scratching mosquito bites.  But each one of them is here because they have the heart to share their faith with others, in the hope of changing a life - and maybe someone's eternity.

Tonight we will host Family Night, which is when we invite people from all four villages to join us for dinner.  Please pray that our team members will make the guests feel welcome - and that the rain will go AROUND us again.