I can’t say enough how much of a blessing it has been to be able to be back here! I have thought and talked so much about my previous trips that it’s a little hard to believe that I have the privilege to be on another one!

The VBS that I was a part of completely exceeded my expectations. One thing that we had discussed during our training and planning meetings was the difference in between hoping and expecting. For this Vacation Bible School we were HOPING for a lot of kids, but expecting about 25. And, there were about 25 kids … in the 11-13 year-old group that I was able to lead with Drew and Alex, out of about 130! My past experiences in serving with kids have mostly been with the around kindergarten-age group, so to be able to be with the older kids was an interesting but awesome change. With this age group, they had more of an understanding that my Spanish was limited, (as oppose to the younger ones who will just ramble on and on, whether you understood or not) so they slowed down a bit, and I was able to have some conversations with them (and hopefully improve on my Spanish!). There was a group of about 8 girls I connected with during the past 4 short days. I don’t feel like I really did a whole lot; I played with them during games, sat and chatted with them during lunch, complemented them on their crafts and attempted to learn their hand clapping games. However, the love and affection they showed me, with the hugs, smiles and notes they gave me at the end, just blew me away. I remember one time in particular where a bunch of them were around me, hugging and pulling me so tightly that I thought we were all going to fall over, and wondering what on earth I had ever done to deserve it. In that moment, with the warmth of their hugs and the sound of their giggles, all I could think was that this was a form of God’s love being showed to me.