Day three

Today's word is Joy.

  Immediately after the gates opened, we saw from the windows of our bus multiple faces filled with excitement and genuine joy. Little kids stomping their feet without control. The core of their excitement? Our arrival. I was the first off the bus and I was greeted with an abundance of hugs and smiling faces. In that moment I wished that God had blessed me with much longer arms so that I could hug more children at a time.
  Today we focused on repainting the large walls that separated Pastor Waynes school from the world outside of it. During debrief tonight, one of my team members mentioned the truth about the school being an oasis. Life outside of those walls seems so sad, troubled, and to some extent evil. The second you enter those walls you become overwhelmed with joy and love. The type of joy and love that we easily take advantage of on a daily basis back home. This wall became very symbolic to us all by the end of the day. We compared our work to the works that were done in the bible (I'll add scripture later ). This wall brought us all together as a team. We work so well together even if some of us were just strangers not long ago. Our hearts are for God and we are all here for the same reason, because He sent us to serve. It was brought to our attention that many of us have our very own walls in our hearts. Walls keeping us from entering the oasis that God created and molded perfectly for us to live in eternally. It's very similar to the outside of the kid's oasis, sad.
  It's not far into this trip and I already know my heart has been made new. This doesn't come smoothly as the enemy hates what we are doing here, but I am confident in our journey as a team. God is doing great work here, in all different areas.

Today's highlight: walking up to a class room and seeing all of the kids rise from their seats and in English say "God bless you". (Of course I recorded it)