Day 3

Sorry we could not post anything last night. When we got back to the House the Internet connection was so bad there wasn't enough signal to post anything. First, thank you all for your prayers. While we are being blessed more than I can tell you in this post, we need them desperately. And I assure you we can feel your prayers here! God continues to be with us each day, going before us on each trip, and staying with us as we minister to the wonderful people here. So, what happened yesterday? We started off in upper room with worship, singing "How Great is Our God" and "Call to Worship". Then Brother Arnie led us in a time of study on John 6:32-58. This was such a fitting passage for us in this time. I encourage you to read the passage and thing about how it applies to us this week, and how it applies to our church each and every day.

After upper room we split into 2 teams and went back to the same churches we went to the first day we went out. We played with the children and sang songs with them. For our team, we walked into this church where maybe 10 children sat. As we began to sing and play music, children kept coming in. By the time we left we had around 100 children in the room! We left the churches and came back to the House. We grabbed what we could for lunch and headed back out to a school/children's home for part of the afternoon. We learned a great deal about the home and spent time playing ball, reading, and hanging out with the children. We also helped to begin planting some trees and building wooden boxes to place around them. We will be going back this week to help load and transport 20,000 lbs of supplies back to the home. We left the home and came back to the House, quickly cleaned up, grabbed dinner, and headed out in 4 teams to churches for revival services. In those four churches we witnessed 13 people give their lives to Christ and 95 people make rededications or other decisions. If you are keeping count this week, at the end of day 2 in revival services we have seen 21 saved and 135 other decisions. And, overall, the attendance in services over the 2 days has totaled 975!!! We still have 4 church services to go!!! At night we break into teams to go the churches. Last night the teams were: (1) Brother Joe, Patricia, Ryan; (2) Brother Arnie and Aaron; (3) Sam, Abby, and Kaitlyn; (4) Pastor Kevin, Samantha, and Janice. I am so proud of our youth! Sam, Abby, and Kaitlyn (ages 20, 16, and 18 respectively) went on their own to help lead services last night, with Sam preaching!!!

Please continue your prayers. Though this post is about what happened yesterday (Wednesday), as we prepare to go out this morning we are faced with the realization that we are growing increasingly tired. Our days begin at 6 am here with devotional (7 am NKY time), and go until around 10-11 pm as the groups come back in from revival and we spend time in fellowship and sharing in the joy of what God has done that day. Once we are all back and start to wind down from the excitement of the day, we head to our rooms to take cold showers (not hot water here), and write down our thoughts in journals, spend time alone with God in prayer, and attempt to get some much needed rest. I can tell you that the mornings come quickly, the days are long, and our bodies are tired. Some have felt a little 'green' at their stomach, some have swollen feet/legs, some of us are being eaten by mosquitos despite the bug repellant (praise God for malaria medication) and all are tired. But, God is providing in every way. All are pumped up despite the exhaustion and are ready to take on the new day! We love you all very much and are also praying for our families and friends back home. May you have a blessed day today, and may you see an opportunity today to be a blessing to someone else. God bless you!

Patricia