For the past two weeks I have worked for the government. YWAM Darwin has been contracted and funded to put on a holiday program for underprivileged children in the community. So that means Tuesday through friday at half eight, (my leader if from england) we jump into vans and drive around Aboriginal community's picking up kids, our target age is ten to sixteen. It is kind of like a scavenger hunt. You see a kid on a trampoline behind a house so you stick your head out the window and yell "Oiii, Do you wana go to the wata paaak?" They run up and ask, "Can Denzel, Justin, and Ryan come? Oh and my other cousin?" But you can't make out the names until you have collected wavers from all of them with their names spelled out on them. It took me fifteen tries to figure out Denzel was not Dethil, finally he just sayed exasperated "LIKE WASHINGTON!" We took an average of sixteen kids everyday on adventures to things like Litchfield national park waterfalls, mini golf, fear factor games in the park, and the water park. To tell you everything that happened or how crippling tropical heat is on your energy level would take all day. I will just give you a few photo that will speak way louder than any words I may have.
The worst moment: Usually my van was the one that went to Mimarama and Kululuk. We only ever picked up boys. But today we picked up a girl named Bianca. We were on our way to the Mall. The plan was to play live "Where is Waldo" in the mall. My team was me and nine kids from the ages of eight to sixteen in a mall! If you can not already sense disaster you obviously have never tried this at home. Well DON'T! Right off the bat I lost the three oldest boy because they thought the game was lame. I thought, "Fine I will find them later." Then the rest of the kids began to forget the game and began their own, including running, punching, climbing, and minor swearing. I managed to keep a gentle control by hold the worst boys hands when they started to knocking things over and stuff. I was holding onto two children rotating at a constant rate. I managed to retain most of my patience and keep us on track. But my heart was beginning to break because this one little boy just wanted to walk holding my hand. I just couldn't hold his hand because I had to keep pulling kids down from the top of displays and pick up the things that were getting knocked over all along the way. I began to notice that Bianca was the instigator of it all. She was always the first to run, the first to climb, the first to touch things that were not hers, always the first to swear and the hardest to catch. I finally got ahold of her and she started to scream and flail and try to grab something to break. I gave up. I sat down. And I held on for dear life. The next ten minutes where full of teeth, fists, spit, and more profane language that you could even imagine an eight year old to be able to remember. I was almost brought to tears, but I stood my ground and just began to pray quietly in tongues. They all stopped and just looked at me. All I could do was look back and continue. From that moment on they were quieter. And Bianca began to listen to me. I don't know wether I spoke in their language or wether it was just the holy spirit talking but in that moment the understood and listen to what I said. We later dropped the worst kids off at home and went to lunch without them.
The best moment: Teresa is from Germany and everywhere she goes she seems to be praying or singing quietly to herself. It is really quite helpful to remind me at least of why we are here and doing what we are doing with cheerful hearts. One day after lunch she was singing a bit louder than usual "One way Jesus, you are the only one that I will live for." Since we are government funded we can't really be as forward with what we believe; we can only really love on them. It honestly makes you feel like your hands are tied behind your back at times. But on our way to take the kids home there was no radio on for some reason and the kids just started to sing that song! Small at first but after a few times the whole car was singing!!! "One way Jesus, you are the only one that I will live for." It was unbelievable and such a comfort that God works even when your arms are tied behind your back!
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