Thursday VBS

It seems like a lot has happened in the past couple of days. Oh, and my apologies, the Pebbles don't "get in your shoes," they "get under your feet." My memory is faltering. It's interesting how after I make a post, I'll lie awake at night thinking of all the things I should have said or forgot to mention. It's terrible.

Thursday we had VBS like normal, Nathaniel was doing the teaching and spoke of Paul's missionary journey. The country we have been studying about all week has been Sudan, and we were trying to raise money to send a satellite phone to the missionaries. By the end of the week we had raised over $200, which was pretty nice, since our goal was $100!

After that was over and the children had gone home, the team and the youth played Scattergories and finished the game we had started Monday. The winning team had 99 points I believe, the team I was on (with Betty and Stephen) finished up at a respectable 96. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad we were able to finish all 12 lists during the week.

We went door to door in the afternoon. I had Laura and JD as my partners. It's funny how the group I was on had three people (if there was an extra person, he or she would go with one of the other groups) these past three days, at least I think that is so. We moved along quite rapidly but had most people tell us they were too busy. JD said that it's sad, but when going around fund-raising and asking for money, people will almost always give them something and it's a whole lot easier to get people to listen. But as soon as you mention "Reformed Presbyterian Church," you more often than not hear a "well, we attend church already" or "I'm really busy right now," or something similar.

We had one young man who answered the questions correctly but didn't seem enthusiastic about it at all. That could be because we were disturbing him.

There was another person who was smiling and answered the questions, but when we asked if he would go to heaven or hell if he died right now, he stated that he would probably go to hell, because he drinks, smokes, cusses, etc. When asked if he wanted any more information he just said that no thanks, he didn't want anything but that we were doing a great job! It was sad because he didn't seem worried about the condition he was in, nor did he want to speak further on the matter with anyone. He was content to live in his sin and had not seriously thought about the consequences. I really do pray that the questions we have asked may spurn him on to study and searching and seriously considering his life and future.

We had one young lady who had just moved there and had three children and wanted to find out more information because they didn't have a church yet. We encouraged her to come and gave her information.

There was another man who said he was a part of the First Presbyterian church. When we knocked on the door we heard him say "come in." and so I opened it up and walked inside. He was tottering around (probably about mid-forties but with disabilities) and the phone had just rung so he answered it and as soon as he was done, cheerfully asked us what we wanted. When we told him what we were doing, he agreed to answer the questions and though he believed that he would probably go to heaven based upon doing good things, he was definitely open to hearing if his beliefs were wrong, so we got his name and number and I hope that much fruit will come out of it.

However (this was the highlight of myself and my partners I think), there was another man who was in a wheelchair, probably about thirty years of age, and when he answered the door, he was smiling and asking what he could do for us. We asked him if we might query him on his religious beliefs and he said that we sure could. He answered everything exactly right (as far as where his hope of heaven lies especially) and encouraged us. I gave a relieved smile and shook his hand as I said "it's really encouraging to hear your answers, we get a lot of answers that aren't too good around here." He said that he imagined that was the case and invited us in for some water if we wanted some. I didn't and neither did Laura or JD so we politely declined. He encouraged us to keep going and really appreciated our courage to do so and wished he could be out there with us. He was the type of guy that I'd love to spend the afternoon with discussing religous things. I think I'm going to try to stop by again some time. In our excitement, I think we forgot to ask what church he went to. Or at least I don't recall him stating.

We had supper at the Yost house in the evening, with some fantastic lasagna and chicken, then we came home and I talked for a while with David and Clay about my future and desires. It was a very good time for myself, even if it did mean that we were in bed rather late :)