Hi everyone, CJP back on the mike here. On our final day of work we are getting ready to help a community group of people with disabilities who reclaim beads and recycles them. Not a big problem in any other city, but here in Mardi Gras land the landfills are overflowing with them. Yesterday, to catch you up, we broke off into a few smaller groups and had a chance to revisit some of the earlier sites from this week. Back to the community gardens to weed and tie up tomatoes, back to the food and clothing bank to sort out bags and bags full of clothing, and then a group of leaders from both teams went to the Berean Centre, a government supported nursery school for 4 and 5 year olds. Wow, were they ever cute! Sad to think of 4 and 5 year olds all trying to tell us of how many members in their family have been shot but then we redirect their attention to work on vocabulary where they are learning words like copious, ameliorated and baffled - crazy combination of hope and despair. We also helped the teachers get ready for the school prom and graduation - I think I'm still picking glitter out of my hair!
In the evening, we separated into our 2 groups and returned to where we had the soccer clinic and basketball drop-in with the boys. The soccer kids were fantastic and as Whitie said, when you say you're going to come back and you actually do, you automatically earn their respect. The basketball games were against amusing to watch and this night the soccer girls joined us as we had pizza with the APEX group.
The Bulldogs will be driving back home today and the TWU girls have one more night here and then a half day of work around Camp Restore but overall we had an amazing experience. Last night our team session was all about choices - we were here to grow but also to maintain what has already been established....in life, in faith and in relationships. God has been good in revealing so many life lessons - gratitude for what we have, a sense of blessing for what we haven't had to experience, seeing joy and learning joy from people who don't have anything but yet can't stop thanking us for being here. Our desire as coaches was to provide an opportunity for our athletes to spend one week in the shoes of others. There were so many folks out here who had 15 minutes to grab a bag of clothes and found themselves being housed in classrooms in makeshift beds for weeks, months and even years.
Thanks for your support and prayers, please continue to think of us as we travel home but especially that we can return with changed hearts and open minds to serving others not just on special trips or occasions but in every day we have here. Blessings! CJP