{FECA Vision Choir} Report 6B

Thursday, July 13 - Today, the team woke up and had breakfast at 6:30am, did our devotionals and prepared to leave for our last day with Knoble Academy, where we have been teaching and playing with the children all week. 

Our last day of VBS consisted of the lesson that "Jesus gives us love." We incorporated owl crafts to match our Bible buddy, Olivia, who reinforces the theme of love. Our team spent more time interacting with the children knowing that we would not be seeing them again. There was a nostalgic air to the day and many tears shed on both sides of goodbye. Our team has grown to love these children who have stolen our hearts and it was sad to see them left behind. On the bright side it was beautiful to see the children singing and dancing for Jesus, they already know all the hand motions and lyrics to the  songs! They can make song requests using song phrases and hand motions and sing/shout the songs as they dance. It's wonderful to see how God has been working with these children this week. 

This evening we met downstairs at 5:30pm to leave for our evening program. Again, due to Indian traffic, we waited an hour for Pastor Joel and our translator to meet us at the hotel. While we waited, we watched the construction/maintenance being done outside our hotel. These men were working with the most minimal safety and a lack of materials and tools, one was barefoot, others were not safety clipped to the equipment, and the group of 8 or 9 of them only had one wrench and one hammer. They were an excellent example of teamwork and trust. 

Once in the bus, we drove for about two hours and a half, arriving at about 8:15pm at Bethel Telugu Baptist Church. Our program was again directed by Calida who led us in 5 or 6 songs and then preached on Philippians 6 and the name of God. Gentle shared his testimony about how his life has been changed by God saving his little brother. Katherine shared about how God has changed her life and what the name of God means to her, sharing about God lifting the weight of the world from our shoulders. At the end of the service Calida offered to pray for those who wanted to know God, to draw closer to Him, and to return to God. By the end of the invitation, about 5 people had their hands raised to pray together, praise God! Later we were told that this church has been a significant presence in the small village and that all could hear what was going on, the church has a speaker outside blasting to the village, very interesting.  

At the end of the evening, we were given cola and local potato chips. We arrived back home around 11:00pm and had Indian fast food burritos again for dinner. Today has been a whirlwind. 🤗