Village day

For the past few months, we've been working with some of the youth from church to plan a youth program (kind of like a youth rally) that we can take to different villages to encourage the youth there. It's been kind of a slow process, trying to figure out times to get together with everyone's different schedules as well as not meeting for a few weeks during Christmas. But today was the big day...the day of finally going to our first village to put on the program.

The day was all about learning to trust God, and Matthew 6:33 was kind of our theme verse. There were a few skits, lots of songs, and of course an impromptu message of encouragement from both Des and I, because what would a village day be without being put on the spot at least once. :)

It was really awesome to see this program come together because we've definitely had our doubts along the way. It all started with an idea that Scott and Shane had, and we just kind of ran with it. We wanted to design it in such a way that the youth can continue doing this even after we leave and go home. It couldn't have worked out better. Because most youth in the villages don't speak English, Des and I can't even be involved in a skit or anything. So we don't do anything in the program. We basically just helped plan it, but the town youth are completely in charge of it. It was really cool to sit back and watch them get excited about it and get into the skits. They did a great job, and even though I couldn't understand everything they were saying, they still made me laugh quite a few times. (I've tried to put up pictures, but the internet is being really slow. So just check out my new album on picasa.)

On the ride home, Livingston, one of the youth leaders and for sure the funniest in the skits, turned around all excited and full of passion. He told us that he and Dennis, another leader, really want to keep this going after we leave. It brought tears to my eyes to see how on fire he was for this, and to know that God working in the youth here. I have no doubt that this will continue after we leave and that is so cool. It's not about us, and God reminded me of that today.