Hebrews 10:24-25

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another – and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

After reading this in our bible class this morning at church we were told to turn to the person next to us and encourage them in some way. I turned to my left and next to me was Jackie. I met Jackie at MITS last July and saw her again this past March. She is probably about 15 years old, has a quiet spirit, has an incredibly serving heart, and has been at MITS for a few years. She looked straight at me and without any hesitation she spoke to me wanting to encourage me:

"We are different colors. We are different kinds of people. But aside from our differences we are exactly the same in the Spirit. The efforts you put into coming here and helping us is more than you know. I think of you often and pray for you always. Thank you so much for what you are doing."

Wow…how was I supposed to respond to that? My first reaction was to burst into tears, hug her sweet little neck, and tell her how much I loved her and how much God loved her. Thankfully I held myself together keeping in mind that I really didn't want to freak her out. After all, she thought I was a pretty normal person and nice enough to come visit her, I didn't want her to believe I was actually just some crazy mzungu. I looked at her and told her thank you. I told her that I absolutely love coming to visit and that I think of everyone at MITS very often and pray for them as well. She smiled her timid, beautiful smile and turned back to face the front. As simple as this may sound to you, this was a very profound moment for me.

We talked more about how each of us as believers make up different parts of the Body of Christ. We discussed how if one part doesn't function properly, it can have a very bad effect on the entire Body, reiterating the importance of encouragement to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Something that really grabbed my attention about the students this morning was that they don't give the typical "church answers" when discussing different things. They don't sit back and pretend to understand everything that is said. They don't instinctively agree with the words the preacher speaks. There were several times when something was said and a student immediately raised his/her hand to ask why, or to ask how to go about that kind of thing, or to really dig deep in order to understand. They said what was on their heart. They said what they truly thought and believed, wanting to gain more knowledge of what the Bible tells us concerning certain issues. Witnessing this desperate hunger for learning was shocking, yet inspiring. What if we all yearned for such deep understanding of what God desires from us? There's something to think about…

Maureen's sister was at the house with us this afternoon along with a friend from church. I helped the two of them and Maureen cook dinner. We made beef spaghetti and it was pretty delicious, if I do say so myself! While we were preparing dinner, Mbuvi and Jason were with the MITS boys playing soccer. They played a real, officiated, full soccer game against another team of boys from an orphanage around here. Once they finished and came back we all had dinner and now we are anxiously awaiting the final game of the World Cup! VIVA ESPANA! VAMOS! Ha - I'm actually not even that much of a Spain fanike Spain that much, I just want David Villa to score a 6th goal!

As another day winds down, another night of waking up every 2 hours arrives. Although, I think that I am finally getting used to the time difference so hopefully I will be actually able to sleep all the way through the night tonight. That is, if the rooster is fixed by sunrise. It's been broken the past 2 mornings, crowing at 5am, WAY before the sun actually comes up! Oh well… we'll see…

-SG