In the morning we attended church service at Toledo Faith Outreach Christian Center. This is the same church that we had the privilege of attending last year. Walking through the doors and sitting in service was like being back together with an old friend. I truly enjoyed worshiping God with fellow believers there.
Today just happened to be Pastor Appreciation Service at church. The congregation had put together poems, songs, dances, and tributes to Pastors Victor and Sharron. These outpourings of love and gratitude were truly heartfelt and beautiful. I loved watching the children get up to recite poems, sing songs, and dance.
After church service was a potluck lunch at the church. My teammate Nicole and I had the privilege of sitting with Pastors Victor and Sharron. It was so nice to be able to talk to them and get to know them a little bit.
Church and lunch were followed by time at Laugh Out Loud. Our team hosted a Fall Festival for the kids in the afternoon. The plan was to have a costume party for all of LOL but due to delayed baggage that portion of the Festival had to be postponed. Despite the change in plans the kids all seemed to enjoy the time anyways.
During our time at LOL in the afternoon I experienced some frustration with myself at not being able to remember the names of the kids I had meet last year. Some of them have grown so much though that I tried to cut myself some slack. Some of the kids were also in quarantine due to an outbreak of pink eye that hit Belize very shortly before our trip.
Our Fall Festival consisted of Tae Kwon Do lessons with the kids, watermelon carving, apples on rope, snacks, an obstacle course on the playgrounds, and an improvised dunk tank.
Following the days activities we got a tour of LOL before the sun went down. The sun sets in Belize around 5:30pm every day and comes up around 5:30am. It felt like it was about 8pm, the fact that it was still so early in the day was a shock.
LOL has made amazing progress in the last year and it shows in the kids. They are in the process of restructuring some of the child care. As a part of that they are building a new home on the property to house some of the kids in a more family style environment. Part of our tour was seeing the new home that they are building.
The end of our day was spent at the "boarding house" where we stayed settling in, having dinner, and getting some much needed rest.
(Photo credits to my teammates: Bruce, Dustin, and Dan. Thanks for sharing your pictures!)
No comments:
Post a Comment