Day 9

This morning I took the 2 suitcases I brought and tried to get a little organized. One of the suitcases is much bigger than the other. I had been using the smaller one for dirty clothes but the time had come to transfer to the big one. So as I packed the remaining clean clothes into the small suitcase I realized the trip was winding down. That is of course bitter sweet because I am anxious to return home but yet don't feel like I am done here yet.

We set off for Baloc after breakfast and a quick team meeting. We got a little feedback from the students on their small group time with the FTC kids last night. I was really impressed with all the groups and what they decided to cover with the kids. This group of students is pretty amazing. They seem to have boundless energy which I appreciate except when we are crammed into a van and they break out in song. Then I dream of emo kids.

At Baloc we went door to door again which of course is a funny expression to use for homes that have no front doors. We distributed some of the StuCo clothing that was donated. StuCo is global and coming to a garbage dump near you - so watch out! We prayed for a lot of the families and some of the students shared words of encouragement and prayed. I told them since they were shy about that the first time they had better step up or I was going to call them out. I did pick on Ashley and volunteer her at one point. She of course rose to the challenge and did a great job. As we were leaving the dump one of the workers heard we had a mechanic on our team. I assure you I did not label myself as such but I offered what limited knowledge I had. As it turned out the guy who needed help was the bulldozer operator and I almost conned my way into driving it. Probable best I didn't. We don't need relations set back when I run down a building or something.

We returned to Santa Nino for lunch - that is where base camp is. Lunch was a pork chop-ish looking thing. I enjoyed a granola bar - almost out of peanut butter sadly. Speaking of food, yesterday I had to run into a gas station for something and the first thing I saw was Tostido's Salsa. I expect a huge meal of Mexican food when I get home - I have already placed my order with Brandie.

After lunch we returned to Baloc for a concert at the school. Ironically there is a sign in one of the three classrooms that says "cleanliness is next to Godliness". Talk about an unobtainable standard - they are in a garbage dump! The concert consisted of our students doing a few songs, a couple of Filipino's singing a some songs and whoever Noriel could put on the spot to talk. Debbie got to share today. She did a great job and it seemed fitting since we were at a school. Then we handed out donated toothbrushes and toothpaste along with some candy. Seemed an appropriate combination. Baloc is in a beautiful spot. I tried to take a picture of the landscape with Debbie's camera of the beautiful mountains in the background with a mountain of trash in the foreground. I don't think it turned out.

We returned to Noriel's house for dinner. Debbie, Bob and I rushed back to Santa Nino to clean up for the Crusade. First of all, the opportunity to speak on an international stage and share the gospel was something I had really been hoping for. So I was excited when the opportunity came. However it was originally supposed to be tomorrow night and got moved up. When we arrived there was no translator so they asked one of the FTC girls to do it. She did not want to and barely made it through Debbie's testimony moment so when I got up to share the message a guy who spoke little to no English joined me on stage. I got really flustered because of speaking through an interpreter and did absolutely horrible. After I was done, the translator went on for some time when. Apparently my alter call wasn't thorough enough. Much to my surprise a woman came forward. Then the almost the whole audience came forward but I am not sure for what.

I had an experience a few years ago where I attended the wedding of a former employee and friend. He is very polish and so was his fiance. They are also very Catholic so I sat through an incredible long service all in Polish and to this day I am not sure they were actually married since nothing was recognizable to me. I feel the same way about tonight's service. I have no idea what took place and I am not sure what God intended or did. I just have to trust that He did move. He said go and I did. I suppose that is the point of this trip. I want it to be wrapped up in a cute bow and make perfect sense or walk away with this great aha. That doesn't seem to be the way it works. I may never know what happened in that little tent tonight. It frustrates me that I came half way around the world to deliver a solidly below average talk, but in the end I suspect I am the only one that cares about that. It certainly would have been a greater blog entry had it gone differently. My hope and prayer is that the first woman who came forward made a decision about her faith tonight. I prayed before I spoke that selfishly I would love to see many people give their lives to Christ but if just 1 person was impacted it was worth it. Maybe that is what happened. Or maybe she just wanted a closer look at the extremely sweaty Americano with the puzzled look on his face. I did get to pray over the audience that was standing before me, which was an honor and a privilege.

God seems to blow up my expectations a lot - tonight He gave me a little shock and awe. Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Ice skating actually, which is pretty unexpected - I may just lay down on the ice and enjoy the coolness. I have no more clean long pants and no socks longer than my gym shoes so it should be interesting. We are taking the FTC kids and I look forward to hanging out with them. Some of them actually think my jokes are funny. They don't get out much.