We started today normally. Devotional, breakfast.. I gave a
little testimony/devotion in worship service. I talked about how God’s law used
to seem mean to me, but that I realized He gave it to us to protect us. I told
the story of how I used to have a scooter and the parents instructed me not to
attach the dog to the scooter, but I did anyways and there were consequences. I
was trying to illustrate how the law can be evidence of love, of God as a
Father trying to protect His children. But then we still fail, so He sent Jesus
to protect us from ourselves kind of.
We had two English lessons, and then in the afternoon there
was an optional discussion time for the kids where they could go to a seminar
to learn about sex, or they could go snowshoeing with a group of our guys, or
they could just hang out with some of us. Steph and I ended up sitting around
with a group of girls just talking and playing spoons and
curling/straightening/blow-drying their hair. It was good to feel so connected
to the girls, and since it’s rare to find someone who curls their hair here,
getting that done was a real treat for them.
For dinner, we had tortilla soup. I didn’t realize that was
unique to my part of the world, but most of them had never tried anything like
it before, which is kind of fun.
Tonight was our Bodenseehof-lead “spiritual evening”. We had
our worship team sing a few songs, then Britta gave a message in German and
Josh gave his testimony with Johen translating. Josh had been talking about how
powerful the spiritual warfare around him had been all day, and the night
reflected that. After the speakers, one of the students, Luca, who’s really
been on my heart all week, performed a rap he had written. It was in German, so
I didn’t understand it at the time, but later someone explained that he
accepted Christ yesterday and had received freedom from his drug addiction. He
said that the longings he used to feel for drugs were now satisfied by Jesus.
This morning, he learned that his girlfriend had gotten an abortion and that was
really difficult for him. But he has decided to live his life from now on for
Jesus.
After Luca, our team performed two skits and they were
extremely powerful. At the end, Steph went up and prayed over everyone and
invited kids to stay in the sanctuary if they were interested in talking to us
or praying with someone. I was surprised by how many kids stayed. There were a
lot of tears and also a lot of questions. One girl, Sarah, (the girl who I
bought a shirt for and brought back with me from home. She has a disease, I’m
not sure exactly what it is, but it has something to do with her food and her
muscles and blood transfusions and it’s very painful.) was just sitting there
by herself, so I went and sat with her. She’s not very talkative usually, so I
just hugged her and prayed for her and then sat there for awhile rubbing her
back. I asked her if she wanted to be alone, but she said I should stay. I
think I probably sat there for a good half hour just rubbing her back. Finally,
she turned to me and said, “I hate my sickness…I hate being in the hospital.” I
asked her if it was hurting her and she nodded her head. I asked if she ever
wondered why it had to be her to suffer through it and she quickly said no, but
she said she was frustrated. We sat there for another 15 minutes or so before
she looked at her watch and got up to leave. I gave her a hug and said
goodnight. What do you say to a 15 year old girl who knows she will be in pain
for the rest of her life?
When we had herded the kids into their rooms and the halls
were relatively quiet, we had a quick debrief with our team, told some stories
about the night, shared some prayer requests and prayed. After being so tired
and still watching God work through us, I think we’ve all been filled with joy.
But we’re still aware that we have an enemy and we prayed for God’s power
against him now that so many walls have been broken down. I’m excited to see
what tomorrow will bring.
