Things did not go as Planned

   Our first few weeks here in the Mole we began to reconnect with our girls from our Bible study last summer and invited them to join us again to study the Bible this summer. It was super awesome to see them again. How my heart had missed these girls and had prayed over them in the months that we were apart. 

As we were reconnecting with our girls, Patrick was working on making some connections with the boys of the community by taking a soccer ball down to the community soccer field and playing with whoever happened to be there. He was hoping to build relationships with these boys and then to invite them to a Bible study. 

Things seemed to be going just as planned. Our girls were coming to our first few weeks of Bible study and Patrick had a good start to a boys' Bible study. It seemed like this was going to be an awesome and fruitful summer of ministry. 

 Then, they stopped showing up and coming to Bible study. Patrick invited some specific boys to come to his Bible study and no one showed up. Then, our girls also started not showing up for Bible study. We also tried to host VBS on Saturday for any kids in the community who wanted to come and after waiting for over an hour, we only had four kids show up. This was not expected at all. As a mission, we have never had this much trouble getting people involved in activities and Bible studies. It was hard and disappointing. 

However, we learned and grew from it. Patrick invited some more boys again and told them that he was having a Bible study and that after Bible study they would watch a World Cup game together. Some of our girls started coming again and we are trying our best to pour into them and love them. For VBS, we took it to the streets. Instead of waiting for the kids to come to the church, we decided that it was time for us to go to the kids. This enabled us to also reach kids who might not be able to or willing to walk to the church. 

These were not the lessons or plans that we hoped to have this summer, but God has been faithful through it all. He has been teaching me that even though you may only be pouring into one little girl. That little girl is still His child and princess and she needs to know that He loves her. So although our plans did not go like we thought they would, I'm so thankful that I serve the God who is the Ultimate Planner and Provider!