Indescribable.

Hello again everyone!

Wow, it’s a beautiful day yet again in South Africa! As usual, we’re working on crafts, but now we’re actually ahead of schedule. Today’s craft involves paper chains linked together with stickers for the story of Paul and Silas, which Ashlyn and I will be telling. We’re just finishing this craft and now we’re working on tomorrow’s craft, and it’s only 10:00am our time!

Yesterday was yet another incredible day. We all worked on crafts, and Ashlyn and I worked on the blog and pictures. This reminds me, I apologize again for the lack of pictures on this blog. Due to the limited amount of time and the speed of the internet, it truly is difficult, even to post one or two, but I promise that once we return to George we can use the Laughren’s personal wi-fi, and everything will return to normal! What we’ve been having to do is write the blog ahead of time just on a word document, save it to a flash drive, then bring it to the internet café where they have desktop computers. So having to upload photos from a flash drive to an online blog takes far too long, and the money adds up. But, as I said previously, ask Peter Laughren to be your friend on Facebook, and check out his photos. He has a Blackberry, so he frequently posts pictures of the VBS crafts and worship. If you’re anxious to see pictures, go check it out there!

Prior to VBS yesterday, we had some free time to visit the Nqweba Dam just outside of Graaff-Reinet, which is spectacular. Pete and Fran said that they rarely ever see it flowing because of the frequent droughts and it was poorly built. They greatly overestimated the size, so it actually drained more water than it was meant to. But our trip happened to fall on a week that it had received enough rain to be flowing rather continuously, so that made some great photos!

Vacation Bible School went incredibly well yet again! We were all blessed to watch all of the kids dancing, singing and having a blast. I think each member of the team has now met and connected to at least one individual child, and that’s been a true blessing for us. When we first arrived, Sandy was anxious to get out of the van to go play with the kids waiting outside the school before the doors were even unlocked. Elizabeth and Stefanie are always holding every child they can find, and Andy and Wanda love to dance right in the middle of where the kids are. I even caught Toju dancing and smiling with the kids! And, of course, I can’t describe to you how precious it is to my mom and me to stand on stage and lead worship for these amazing children. Their enthusiasm, energy and passion are truly contagious. We even recorded their worship for one of their songs to show our kids back home how African children worship!

After all the children left, we waited anxiously to find out how many had attended this time. It turns out that despite the fact that several people were trying to keep track, the number of children was lost in the confusion. But it’s been estimated that there must have been around 850. Wow!!

The church members served us yet another incredible dinner—this time it was chicken on steamed rice with vegetables and lots of curry! Curry must be a local favorite, which it’s quickly becoming one of my favorite spices, too. It was absolutely delicious. I may not have mentioned earlier, but every night, my dad (Andy) has been delivering short Bible lessons before dinner to all the volunteers and workers. Last night, however, Matthew volunteered to deliver the study, and the leaders agreed to have him lead it. Even though Matt has been feeling under the weather the past night or two, he did a wonderful job and encouraged everyone. He even had a good discussion going afterwards! Also, Wanda and Stefanie led the group in a beautiful song. It was an incredible night of worship for everyone.

Soon we returned to our hotels for the night and worked on more crafts while listening to worship music, singing and laughing together. Toju even rapped for us, which was awesome! Around 9pm, Pete and Fran sent us to bed early to reward us for our hard work, but a few of us weren’t ready to sleep! Denzil, Ashlyn, Terri, Pete, Fran, Toju and I enjoyed a couple of rounds of “Apples to Apples” to close out a great day. It was so much fun just to unwind and have great fellowship with one another before going to bed.

So today is another day, and we’re all cheerful and excited about what today will bring! Again, please continue to pray for our health as we are battling sicknesses. I know Matthew was really struggling last night, and had to miss our game of Apples to Apples just to get some extra sleep in order to feel better, and several others are fighting as hard as they can with antibiotics, vitamin C and lots of cold medicine!

But thank you so much for your prayers, and I can’t wait to tell you how our VBS goes again today!
God bless!