And the Love keeps growing....

A lot has happened in a week! The sports camp ended last week and the weekend was a very relaxing time (which we ALL needed here!) On Friday it was a "free day" and a bunch of us Crusaders went to Pike's Market to buy souvenirs for loved ones and ourselves. In the picture a friend I made on project, Sarah, and I are looking at the fresh produce at Pike's. It was a beautiful, crisp day on Friday in the morning, but at like 3 PM it started to rain so we headed back.

That night we had a group talk on faith, as usual, but the focus that night was on prayer. Together we prayed for about an hour and a half! It was so awesome. One particular prayer that stood out was the prayer of one of the student staff members here, Erika. She had lost her keys a few days before and asked God to reveal to her where they were. I don't blame her for asking God for help -it costs $125 to replace a missing key! That night after prayer a bunch of the girls, including myself, went downstairs to a lounge area to watch a movie. When the movie ended one of the girls realized that she had been sitting on someone else's keys the whole time - Erika's! God decided to answer her prayer just a few hours later. Sooo cool :)

On Sunday we went to another mostly African American church, and afterwards we had a picnic with The Cross church (the church we went to the first Sunday we were here). It was SO fun! There was bean bag tossing, cotton candy, a popcorn machine, face painting (which I helped with). Then near the end there was a cute puppet show/music performance put on by a young Christian group from Georgia. The show was meant for a much younger audience, but us college kids had a BLAST singing along and dancing to the songs- even more than the kids there! At the end of the performance it began to rain and us Crusaders just kept dancing our hearts out. It's awesome, being able to let loose with those around me.

This week we are continuing with our ministry sites, only my group goes to a Vacation Bible School thing to help out some of the kids who had gone to the Sports camp. Working with these kids, aged 6-11, really tires us out! But it really takes us back to being a kid and I've even been able to get into some Spiritual conversations with some of the kids. It's amazing what these kids grasp at their age! The theme of the VBS is "Ubuntu", which is a South African word that means "I am because we are" which helps kids really grasp the meaning of a community, especially a Christian one.

The spiritual discussions at night are really getting more specific for our prison ministry now. We are learning about how to minister to them, and there is A LOT more to it than I ever imagined! One thing Ron, the man leading the discussions (who has ministered to prisons for like 10 years or something), mentioned that really hit home with me was that "not all prisoners are behind bars"- as in, some are in the "prison" of the inner-city and many of them, or loved ones, will enter prison. Ministering to prisoners starts on the streets! We were reminded of this verse:

"Blessed is he whole help is the God of Jacob, whose help is in the Lord his God,
the maker of heaven and earth... He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives
food to the hungry. The Lord sets prisoners free."
-Psalm 146:5-7

Also, I learned the difference between a prison and a jail- prisoners are the ones who have already been convicted of a crime and will be behind bars for more than a year. Jail is for people who are either waiting for a trial, to be bailed out, or will be behind bars for less than a year. So we will be ministering to the Prisoners- or, the ones who already realize that they need help from their situations. Ron said that prisoners are usually easy to convert because they KNOW they are desperate. I am so excited to start talking to prisoners!

That's all for now :)