Gideon is cool

Oh man!!! I have so much to say!!!!

Let's back up to yesterday. I took the morning nice and slow. Then I ate some delicious food for lunch, and went to the university for... taekwondo!! I went with Sydney, and we had a great time. We were laughing... much of the time. It was good. It didn't really feel like we were doing stuff right, but we must have been, because the professor called us up to demonstrate for everyone!!

After taekwondo, I went to voluntariado. I think I mentioned this before... every other Sunday, there is a group that goes to a church and school a little ways outside of the city and spends time with some kids there. The group meets on Saturdays to plan what they will do on Sunday. This week, the group decided that on Sunday they want to put on a little play for the kids, with the central concept being that it is more blessed to give than to receive. The play only needed about 10 people, and there were at least 20 there, so I had no intention of being involved in the play. But, before I knew it, I was voted in by the rest of the group. Ahh!!! I was slightly afraid when I realized that the part that they wanted me to play included talking, and I was slightly more afraid when they told me they were going to do a run through and that I should just improvise.

IMPROVISE??? What? I don't even know what this play is ABOUT! How am I supposed to IMPROVISE???

But, you know what, it wasn't that bad! Many of the people there were very helpful and encouraging, and it worked out!

After voluntariado, I got to spend some time with Danery (one of my conversation partners) and some of her friends, which was quite fun as well. And then, this morning, I had to be at the university at 7 for voluntariado. We loaded on to a bus and drove about 30 minutes outside of the city. There were about 40 of us. First, we all went to church with all the students. The kids were all between the ages of about 4 and 10 or so. After church, we walked to their school, which was a short ways away.

As we walked, I talked to some of the students from San Pablo, and I looked around. The atmosphere was VERY different from Arequipa. There were dilapidated buildings everywhere I looked... I think they must have been houses, though they hardly looked like they could be anything at all. The street wasn't really a street. It was more of just open space with huge rocks in it all over the place. I don't know HOW the bus was driving on it. The school didn't look much better than the houses that I saw. I was amazed at how different this reality is than what I have been exposed to in Arequipa. I still don't quite understand a lot about what is going on. For example, why weren't there many adults at church? I found out later on that many of these children have had to grow up very fast. They work with their families in order to survive. The time that we spend with them is time meant to allow them to be kids--to run and jump and play and have fun.

We started out by getting in a big circle (the 40 of us plus about 75 kids) and sang a bunch of songs that involved some movements and dancing. I followed along and tried my best to learn words. By the end of each song, I was catching on. The kids loved this! After that, we did our play, which went great! And then we spent a while just playing with the kids. Some played soccer, some drew pictures. I went inside with the group that was drawing and I sat with some of the kids and drew pictures with them. It was fun just to talk to them and draw and laugh. After that, we served them breakfast, and then they left. We loaded onto the bus and went back to school.

I think it's going to take me a while to process all that happened. It was really cool, though!

From school, I walked over to Comunidad Cristiana de Arequipa, a church that is nearby that I found a few days ago. There was a service that was supposed to start at 12, but it was 12:15 when we go to school and almost 12:30 when I got there. But it hadn't started yet, so it's all good!!

At church, the pastor talked about Gideon. He was hiding from the Midianites when God chose him to rescue Israel. He was the youngest, least important member of the poorest family in his tribe. But God came to him and called him varón esforzado y valiente, strong and valient man. He didn't FEEL strong and valient. He was doing something in secret to hide from the Midianites, and he was the least of his poor family. But God called him varón esforzado y valiente--that is how God saw him.

We sometimes get caught up in the way we see ourselves instead of the way that God sees us. When God looks at us, He sees a beloved son, a beloved daughter. We are children of the Most High God! But many times we appear to forget that. The pastor encouraged us to walk in our true identity--the way God sees us--instead of what we hear people tell us or what we see in the mirror.

Here's one of the songs we sang at church: