Second day of VBS. Each day we start and end with our team meeting. We eat breakfast and time with God and then our meeting at 7:45 am. We showed the children the finger rockets as they arrived. The children also have the joy of experiencing the puppet show of Sponge Bob, Sandy Cheeks and Snail Gary…all made by Arwen!!! The children just love it!!

Then singing and Bible time. Following was craft time…decoration of the finger rockets. Then games…water balloon wars!!! Lunch…which Jennifer, Ed and Melissa are providing an excellent selection of food for our team. After lunch we all walked to an ice-cream shop for parfaits! Along the way, each group was to take pictures of things that made them joyful. Then we went to the local pool!!! The pool is not just any ordinary pool…it is extraordinary! It is a moving pool in a figure 8 but without crossing! On Monday we were allowed to throw the children…on Tuesday…the life guards came up with a rule that we were no longer allowed to throw the children. ☹ We used our many floating devices to float around.

After the pool we return back to the church (by bus) and wrap up with the children. We then clean up and get ready for dinner with the teens and Sadowitz family. After dinner we had Bible study in Jonah. Then we had an ice cream contest between the Japanese teens and the JJJ team. The Japanese won with banana cars and flowers on top of vanilla and chocolate ice cream. The JJJ team built a wonderful octopus with banana legs and M&M suckers…unfortunately he became sad as he melted away quickly. Our group still enjoyed having some ice cream as we had made some sacrifices of sweets! It was a wonderful treat after a hard day of service.

After the teen’s departure (8:30 pm) and some cleaning our team meet again at 9:00 pm to wrap up our day and to once again give thanks to our Lord for the strength and encouragement He provided for us, but for also the wonderful opportunity to serve Him by building relationships with these beautiful and wonderful children.

At the end of this day, a group of us decided to visit the same restaurant that we had earlier in the day for pizza and French fries. Isn’t it the simple things in life you miss the most some times? Upon arriving, two of us decided to switch our wants to what seemed pictured as chicken fingers. Jeremy and I were so excited for the chicken…but once we put these chewy little battered and greasy pieces into our mouths and chomped down. Mike and Arwen also had ordered a platter of these fine deliquesces! It tasted so much like chicken but not the meat part. Have you ever had fried chicken and eaten in too deep at the top of a drumstick? Yep…you’re right…it was the cartilage of the chicken that was sooo disgusting. Renee and Arwen had guessed that it was such after the wonderful sample. (we later found out two days later it was such!)

Praise the Lord for the simple blessing in life. God’s grace and mercy is very evident if we would just stop and listen. Try it…but first you have to remove yourself from your American bubble/mindset. While one does not have to travel overseas to do this…it is a challenge when we have life so good! May God bless you today and remind you of His goodness.