Getting in the Groove

This last week has felt longer than usual. For probably a few reasons. 

One of which is that both of the majors, as well as Brother Li were on vacation this week, so we didn’t have those contacts, which made for a little more work for us. Nothing we couldn’t overcome, of course, but it would have been nice to have them around since it did rain a bit this week, which necessitated us to change our plans. We didn’t really have a tight rain plan for this week, at least at the Harlem Temple, because we didn’t have someone to help us find back up plans. So there were a few days when the rain caused us to scramble to try to find something for the teams to do. 

All the corps were also closed Thursday and Friday due to the holiday. We did manage to navigate over 30 people through the crowded (and let me emphasize the word CROWDED) Manhattan city streets to go see the fireworks on the Hudson. Which I think is deserving of a medal. 

And then there was the teams themselves. After our first week, just about anything would have been a let down. We did not bond very well with one of the two teams this week. None of us did. We all struggled to get them to volunteer to do things or to do the work we provided for them. But if there was ever any downtime, they didn’t like that either. So we really couldn’t win. And the larger team really didn’t seem interested in bonding with us or the other team, and there were points in time when we wondered why they came on a mission trip at all, since they didn’t seem that eager to serve.

But I am confident that God still moved. I may not be able to see it like I was able to the week before, but I know that there were still moments of surrender in the kids. And even if there was only one small moment like this, my job would still have been worth it. But trust me, it didn’t feel like it at the time. I had to try really hard to be intentional with the kids this week, and I hope that my attitude and feelings did not get in the way of their growth

I would love prayers for strength and patience this upcoming week. The team (there’s only one larger group this week) is all incoming freshmen in high school. The team leader says they’ve been doing a trip like this for years, and it’s become a sort of rite of passage. I want to be able to encourage growth for them this week, and I’m sure I’ll be exhausted and my patience may be tested by the end of the week. But I’m anticipating a good week overall. 

Love you all. Don’t be strangers.