Cherishing the Moments

Today was a much easier day, as far as work goes. We were able to rest and relax a bit this morning. We spent a few hours packing, cleaning, and organizing. We had to sort through all of our things to separate those that we are taking home and those that we are leaving here. As a team, we were able to leave almost two full suitcases of clothes and such. It blessed us to be able to bless the family here with some things and then to know that the rest will go to children who truly need it more than we do. We spent the remaining hours before dinner simply playing with the kids. We tried our best not to think about having to say goodbye soon.

After dinner, the kids blessed us with a little goodbye ceremony. One girl gave a short speech of thanks to our team and the work we have done here. Another sang us a song she wrote for our team about God taking care of her. Some of the girls performed a dance for us. It was a very sweet time. The best part of the night was probably when we presented  each of the kids with a jersey of their. By the grace of God, we had enough jerseys donated to give one to every kid here in the orphanage. The sitting room became utter chaos as we called each child's name to give them their jersey and a team bracelet. There was a tumult of cheering and clapping and laughter. Such a sweet sound! Afterward, we spent about half an hour worshipping our Lord around a bon fire. We loved getting one last opportunity to sing praises with the children. Some of the kids came back inside to play games before we had to send them all home for bed.

Though we do not fly out until Tuesday, we are departing from the Agape Children's Village in the morning. There is another team coming here in a few days, and the missionary family needs time to prepare. We will be spending the remaining three days in Ntinda with the Ugandan family who started this orphanage. We are going to a Compassion project at Agape Baptist in Ntinda tomorrow. Agape Baptist is the church which bore the orphanage here, and it is the church to whom the church here is accountable. We are excited to stay connected with the work that is happening at ACV by being apart of the ministry in its entirety. We hope to post pictures from the last two days tomorrow, but we do not know what the internet will be like in Ntinda.

Thank you so much for all your prayers and thoughts. They are greatly appreciated. We feel them as we are here. Please pray that saying goodbye to the children tomorrow will not be too hard on us and on the kids. Please pray for God's peace and comfort upon all of us as, saying goodbye will be so hard. We all send our love and gratitude to those at home.