“Then I will lead the blind along a path they never knew to places where they have never been before. I will change darkness into light for them. I will make the rough ground smooth. I will do these things for them; I will not abandon my people.”- Isaiah 42:1
Once again the day started bright and early.
We ate breakfast (which was French toast and sausage) and then got on the bus, ready for our second day in Little Africa. I slept the whole way there because I stayed up late the night before writing. Once again everyone was very happy to see us when we arrived.
We split up in to our groups to do VBS with the kids.
Our teams would rotate zones everyday, so since we were in zone 2 the day before, today we got to go to zone 3. Since zone 3 was quite a walk all of the kids met us at the church in zone 2 and we did VBS there. We had a good bit less kids than we had the previous day but it worked out better that way– since we had less seating. We started things off with a few songs and then we jumped into story time. Our group has told the story of Noah for VBS. It’s kind of funny how when we ask the kids what kind of animals they think were on the Ark they say things like goats and sheep and horses. It’s also kind of sad– because those are the only animals they know of.
After the Bible story was over we did some crafts.
Our crafts consisted of a sheet of construction paper and a few Noah themed stickers. The kids had never seen or used stickers before so it took them a few minutes to understand the concept of peeling sticky pictures of one piece of paper and placing them on another. But they all eventually caught on and became sticker professionals. One girl in particular caught on pretty quickly despite the fact she only had one hand to peel of the stickers with. Her hand had been crushed and mangled up– completely useless– but she didn’t let that stop her.
After we finished with the crafts we gave out some beanie babies that had been collected for the kids in Little Africa. While this was going on Janie and me noticed a little boy standing behind the church all alone. Naturally we wanted to find out why this kid wasn’t hanging out with everybody else and taking part in the fun. We walked over and waved at him, and then I tried to give him a high-five. I held my hand out in front of him in high-five position, then I high-fived my own hand to show him, I even tried to demonstrate a high-five with Janie but the boy did nothing. He just stood there totally ignoring us. The whole time this was going on some few teenagers were watching us and laughing. One of them finally came over and told us the little boy was blind. He wasn’t ignoring us– he just had no idea what we were doing. Of course Janie and me both felt terrible– not only because of the fact he couldn’t see, but also that we just spent five minutes trying to give him a high-five. I can only imagine how much more difficult being blind makes life in a place like Little Africa– but I trust that God has a plan for this child.
After we finished VBS we loaded up on the bus and went back to the church.
We had the rest of the day to just hangout and build relationships with people. Some of us played soccer with kids, some of us played other games with them, and some of us just sat down with them and talked. One boy came up to me and started talking to me– the only thing was, I don’t speak Creole and had no idea what he was saying. After a minute or two he realized this and grabbed my hand and started walking. Sometimes I feel like that’s how my relationship with God is. He’ll start speaking to me and saying things but I’ll have no idea what they mean– so He just takes my hand and walks. Sometimes He walks so He can show me something; sometimes He walks so He can take me somewhere. Sometimes God walks just so He can be with me– but whenever I don’t understand, we walk.
The team split up into three groups once more.
Some of us went to check and see if the people were correctly using the water filters we gave them back in January. Others went to hand out Special reusable diapers that our team member, Allie, had designed. The rest of us hung out at the church on our property with the kids until it was time to leave. And like the day before, the time to leave came all too soon.
We left Little Africa and went home to New Life for our usually evening routine: dinner, devotion, and then bedtime.