Saturday, July 16, 2016

Day 9 As if This is Almost Over

Thursday was our roughest day. Thank you for your prayers. The anxiety and fear were overflowing. People wanted to go home. Our PAX was cancelled that day due to rain, so we were sent into the Underground City. But we got lost. We seperated into smaller groups so we could cover more ground. Only a few of us ended up in the right place. It was frustrating. It was a long day of wandering. We went out for poutine afterwards, but Riley and I took a taxi back to the college with Kennedy because she wasn't doing well.

Kennedy has been collapsing every evening around 6pm for the last 3 nights. We decided it would be wise to go back to the hospital. We had been feeling disconnected from each other as leaders, so we all went to the hospital together. Fiona, who's part of the lead team, stayed with our girls. One of us stayed there with her all night, and the rest of us went home so we could sleep. They got back at 4:30am. It was a long night with no answers.

So that was Thursday. Stressful, tense, just plain not good. But Friday. Friday was amazing! From the moment people woke up, you could feel the change in attitude. We started the day with a powerful worship time. Then we went outside as a team and sat on the lawn. Kurt shared with us about laying down our burdens and finding joy in God. He talked about the difficulty in trusting God both with your head and your heart. It was just what we needed to hear.

We ate our lunch outside on the grass, the headed out to a park to do PAX (public acts of Christ). We brought a soccer ball, chalk, bubbles, face paint; we showed up with no agenda, we just wanted to spread joy. Camille, Jenna, and I spent a solid hour writing and drawing with chalk. We covered a huge portion of a sidewalk with bible verses reminding people of God's love for them. I made my way over to the playground where they had set up the face paint station. There was a splash pad in the playground. I walked up to chaos. Kurt, Jessica, and Abe were running around with a bunch of kids, spraying each other and getting soaked. More of us joined in. It was awesome! They had become friends with two families sitting there, and their children were excited to play with us.

Justin made it his personal mission to talk to 10 people in the park. He talked to 16. That guy has a gift.

While I don't think there were any crazy conversion stories or huge changes in peoples lives, our team was greatly impacted by the experience. We were given hope for what we're doing. We got to have fun. I found real joy in those moments.

We got back to the college to find out public worship had been cancelled. So we started our own worship. Then Levi put on some FNL songs and we danced like crazy people. It was awesome. We even had a banana rave later on. We got to be ourselves and it was perfect.

As I lay here, thinking about going into our last day of ministry, I am blown away by the strength of our team. We have faced so many personal demons, and we have grown so strong in God. It's going to be hard to say goodbye to this family. I'll let you know how today goes!

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