"Choose to do God's Will" Jn 7:17: Day 11

Please visit the EO blog - it is a private blog (you will need to register for a username & pw) and has some pics of us & kiddos:) http://www.embracingorphans.org/blog/

At our nightly meeting tonight, Julie shared a great verse of encouragement for the team – 1 Cor. 5:18 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord”

As we are working hard at BG this week, this verse seems fitting… sometimes doing the menial “grunt” work does not feel very rewarding but knowing that it is the work of the Lord – He has each of us here for a reason – makes it worth it! He called us here to this mission field and boy is it big!

Again, we spent a wonderful day at BG – not sure where all my energy came from today! Maybe the Joy of the Lord!! I got to spend the morning with the toddlers today. It started out as the usual morning of hanging out on the veranda – having children sit in our laps to read or sing to, or refereeing any little squabbles about toys… today we were blessed with a Jamaican tambourine singing grandma – boy was she FILLED with JOY! She came bounding in and all the kids were extremely excited to see her. She asked for song requests and the little toddlers answered – so precious! The next thing I know – I looked to my right toward the baby’s veranda and there were 5 little heads peering through the steel latticed walls enjoying the music as well – I so wished that I had my camera and could take a picture! L I will just have to picture it in my mind… Soon after the tambourine lady left we took the kiddos outside – it was definitely a day to be under the trees – not very many clouds and thank goodness there was a somewhat of a cool breeze. We tried to let the kids color sesame street pictures – we had to keep a close eye on those toddlers! Many of the crayons ended up in mouths or coloring on the outdoor furniture –oh well… at least they had the opportunityJ the todds seemed a little crabby and tired this morning – it was a bit of a challenge to keep a few awake until lunch. And that’s pretty much what we did the rest of the day… played outside with various toys etc… Brayden enjoyed playing with his buddy Kwan (sp?) and begging me to adopt him – J I had a sad moment seeing Breanna dressed in her best – her and her brother had a court date this morning. I’m hoping to find out what happened tomorrow – maybe I’ll get to see her again, maybe she’s with her parents or maybe she’s gone to a permanent children’s home??? We shall see…

Another mission group has arrived here to do work with EO. They are meninites from the east coast – 19 of them and most are teens. We had dinner with them tonight – tomorrow their boys are doing work at the Father’s house and the girls will join us at BG. After dinner we had our devotion/team mtg with just our group. Please keep Crystal in your prayer as she had an asthma attack tonight. We were able to get her breathing ok with her inhaler etc…

Tomorrow (8/1) is our last full day at BG – we are planning on pampering the nannies with a little pedicure/spa treatment – we are hoping to bless them as they do those precious children every day!