Sheep calls

Monday 9/15/14 I saw a baby cow today. Like, a fresh baby cow. Since I am the one writing the blog, I get to point out that this was the most exciting news of the day. Actually, the most exciting news was the threat of no water in the team house after a pipe busted. Thanks to David and Jeff, however, and a lot of muddy hard work at the end of a muddy, hard day, they restored water safe and sound and none of the teenagers had to bear the burden of a single day without a shower. The day was the celebration of Independence Day, and it included an early round of face painting to get the kids ready for their parade through the entire campus. We were prepared with cheering and clapping and water on demand as it has been a bit warm during the day. However, the nights have been quite cool and in the mornings, although we think it feels pretty nice, the children come out of their houses in long sleeves and jackets as they are too cold. This is the day the group really jumped in and split across the campus on multiple projects. Greenhouse work, transplanting plants, making rounds to all of the children’s houses. We have a team of master bakers – Virginia, LaNeve, Tammy, Amy, Morgan, Cheryl, Cindy, and Heather -- that are preparing somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,000 cookies for all of the children to decorate. Or, they may just re-enacting Lucille Ball moments to see how much flour they can throw at each other in the kitchen. We try to be mindful of resources here, but we also do manage to sneak in a little fun. In between baking runs, we run the ice cream machine almost nonstop, bringing different age groups up for mini-ice cream parties. The toddlers have to be my favorite so far. Kate had a lapful of children – and drippings of ice cream down both legs – that made it well worth the messy clean up. Cara won for story of the day, however. All of the children are divided both in gender camps and then further divided by age groups. The "Power Toddlers" seem to top the list of the team choice award as most aptly named group. They are an all-boy group between the ages of roughly 4 to 6 -- too old to be in with the babies and a little too young to make it in the next housing assignment. So, Cara was impressed with how sweet the little boys were by playing with her hair and even giving her a shoulder massage. Until a few minutes later when she realized they were not rubbing her shoulders, but secretly dropping ants down the back of her shirt. Yes. Meet the Power Toddlers. Kate had this wonderful idea, since she heads up the children's ministry and we are at an Orphanage, that unbeknownst to us, we are all equally empowered with the gift of children's ministry. So, she planned lessons and activities for each age group both at their morning devotion and for afternoon playtime, all focused on the theme of the Shepherd ... El Pastor. All was well and good, until Blake Roberts discovered only men volunteered to lead the Big Boys devotion and activity and he would be left trying to fashion sheep out of marshmallows and pretzels ... or even worse, by blowing bubbles tinted with food coloring on sheets of paper. Lovingly, Blake has become the sheepiest of us all, and is most often referred to as Bl-eh-eh-eh-ehke, mimicking sheep calls. As night settled in, adults nervously tried to navigate what it would be like to lead a disciple circle the following morning in a foreign language. Mary Elizabeth, one of our teens who have been leading our worship in the evening with amazing music, offered this sage advice however, that we all need to be reminded of from time to time. "Just don't worry about if you are going to mess up or not. Look, as a worship leader, playing guitar and singing, I just know I am going to mess up. A lot. So just accept the fact that you will mess up, do your best and get on with it!" Great advice for us all! We also invited the entire staff to come up and have dinner with us and later had a testimony by Andy, the Team/Volunteer Coordinator. Hearing the stories of those who have chosen to live and work here full time is a humbling experience.