Today was the VBS Celebration. The children were able to recite their memory verses and put on a skit of Moses crossing the Red Sea... watching the children play the water crashing onto the Egyptians was a hoot! They sang "Pharaoh, Pharaoh" and "Father, I Adore You" (all three verses in a round... it was beautiful!) for the audience. Pastor Matt spoke, followed by one of the Passion Center staff.

Then it was time to eat! The children each got a cup of juice, a corn chip type snack, and a bag containing four pieces of candy. Watching the children with the candy was priceless, and we quickly saw they fell into two groups. The first group dug into the candy and ate it within seconds. The other group tucked it into their pockets to save for later. The excitement over a pack of smarties, one dum-dum sucker and a couple lifesavers caught us off guard a little. You'd think after being with these children for the past week, we'd know by now what to expect. But still, the way they treasured these pieces of candy... it tugged at our heartstrings. After the celebration we headed back to the residency center for lunch.

Some of you may have heard about a little boy at the center, named Talitso. Their guess is that he is somewhere around four years old (because the village does not keep records, there is no such thing as a birth certificate, so most people do not know their exact age). Talitso came to the center last year, after having been hospitalized with horrible burns. His grandmother is a village witch doctor, and though she was his only caretaker, she refused to feed him. Because he was starving, three year old Talitso stole food to survive. When he was caught, his grandmother took his hands and held them in a fire. Even after surgeries, his hands are still severely disfigured, and he isn't able to bend many of his fingers, a few of them are just little nubs.

He pretty much will go into anyone's arms who is willing to hold him, and we do so with pleasure! Today it happened to be me again. Seeing these children walk across the rocky ground with no shoes still bothers us, so when I saw him without his beat-up tennis shoes, I quickly picked him up and carried him to the residency center (not exactly a quick jaunt!!). He sang his songs on the way back, and when we arrived, he scampered alongside Joni and me, but we quickly realized he was the only child there. The rest were back at the multipurpose room eating.

Joni decided that today was Talitso's lucky day! Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, banana and a bottle of Fanta! If you could have seen the look on his face when he got the banana and Fanta, you'd want to squeeze him just like we did!! And they say that last year, the child wouldn't speak, and never smiled. Now he's full of smiles, giggles and fun. My heart squeezed when, on our walk back to the center, he saw the building in the distance, patted my shoulder and said "Passion Center!" I can't put into words what it's like to see this orphaned child, just like all the rest, feel so safe, loved and cared for.

Wow! Didn't mean to get off the trail that far, but in reality, I could go on and on, because each child has a story, and they are blossoming here at the center. Today during play time our team spent over four hours playing until we were WORN OUT! But the children kept us going. Tara, Joni & I played duck, duck, goose with them for an hour, while Rob and Jill entertained the others with hand clapping and music. Drew and Chris (team member from Dayton) had the older boys going with balls and just talking, while Erin had several girls crowding around to play with her hair.

At one point, we pulled out the music and Jocelyn, Rob, Jill, Tara & I had a bunch of them doing the Cha-Cha Slide... and hopefully that video will never surface!! We (Tara & I against our will) even captured the children on video doing the "OH-IO" cheer. Tara & I then got them to say "Go Big Blue", but Matt had turned the camera off 

While we were playing it up, Andy and Matt were hard at work making tables and benches for the multipurpose room, and building a fence at the residency center. All their work looks AMAZING! John and Travis pulled out their GPS equipment and got back to work on the fields for the irrigation project the Passion Center hopes to start soon.

To sum up today, one of the Passion Center's girls said it best. When talking to Joni, she described her happiness as "I am jumping inside!" The staff keeps thanking us for coming, and we're beginning to feel guilty. To us, this isn't work. We're having a blast with these kids and seeing the projects completed!

It's going to be an emotional day tomorrow. Many of these children are so young they don't understand the concept of us having to leave and not come back the next day. It was a pretty somber group tonight when we talked about what to expect at the good-byes. We already know that when we get on that plane, we're leaving a little piece of our hearts here.

I hope you get over here to experience this for yourself! You won't regret it.

Brooke