Tuesday didn’t start off as early as Monday. I think a full day on Monday had taken the edge off most of the youth. I still think I ended up getting up about 6am or 6:30am.

Shockingly, the showers were still cold.

Although I was feeling better than Monday, I still wasn’t feeling all that sociable. So I stayed in my tent and read the Bible and worked on the Journal thing we were supposed to do for YUGO. It was mainly a reflection on the previous day. It was trying to get you to think about how things were working out vs how you imagined them.

Breakfast was the same as Monday, but with a different dish.

The children’s ministry meeting was pretty short. They had each team give a high and a low of the previous day. I’m not sure what our high was, actually. Our low was, “no one showed up.” All the other teams said they had about 20 kids show up. After the high/lows they showed us how to do the craft for that day. Like most crafts, it was really easy.

Then came the practice lesson. Since I had been nominated to give the one for the team, I had to give mine on Tuesday (since both my lessons were Tuesday lessons). The group that went before me actually acted theirs out. Since we were made up of two different churches, we had talked about it, but never really practiced it. So I went up there with Nate (aka “John”) and gave it. Nate just helped out with the hook (I need to punch someone bigger than me) and hold the “visuals”. I’m not sure how it went. Most everyone was giving me a freaky look. I’m not sure if that was because I was doing a bad job, or I was the oldest looking youth they had ever seen.

The morning worship service was next. I was feeling better, so I participated. That said, the woman leading it has one of the highest pitched voices I have ever heard. There were times where it was physically painful for me to listen to her. That and the sound was cranked way loud. It also made singing along difficult, since I don’t have a high pitched voice.

The speaker of the week, started laying out his message for the week. He basic message was “You should all be foreign missionaries to places that have never had a missionary before. Go now, go now, go NOW! Why are you still here?!?!” That’s only a partial exaggeration. He had a lot of good points throughout the week though. He talked about how a lot of people tag God onto the end of their life. As in, if they have time, they might do what God wants. As opposed giving everything over to God, and doing what He wants first.

After the worship service, was the daily quiet time. I had been struggling with a bad attitude so far, so I devoted my time to that. I analyzed what I was feeling the best I could. Then I tried to figure out why I was feeling what I was. I found that I resented any kind of assumed leadership over me. I found that I felt like I was being treated like a youth and not an adult. I also found that I was still having serious doubt about God using me. I felt that the cause of all of this was simply me being selfish. I was focusing on my wants and needs, instead of why God had me here in the first place. I also was worrying about how I could work to do good things, instead of trusting God to work through me. I used my quiet time to ask God to give me humility and the heart of a servant. I felt much better after my quiet time.

After the quiet time was the team meetings. I’m not sure what was said during the team meeting, but I do remember the ministry meeting. Joy, Kristy, Noel, and I talked about how to actually get kids to show up. We also tried to come up with a “Plan B” in case all we got were the church kids like Monday. We decided to go to a nearby park and play and invite kids that way. In the evening service, we do crafts like before, but we’d include a little bit of the stories.

Lunch. Same as before, but different.

After lunch we left for the church. We got there a little before we did on Monday. The children’s ministry went to a local park. The park was about nine blocks away, and not the same park the sports ministry was at. Because of cultural differences, we didn’t want little kids around when the big kids/adults were playing in the sports ministry. The park was nice. Probably a little too nice. Noel (aka Bob), Tiger (aka George), Cat, me (aka Jim), and sometimes Elaine were playing four square. I found out everyone plays by slightly different rules. I’m not sure if Mexican kids play four square because no one paid us any attention, much less asked to play. They had a jump rope going too, which was more successful. That actually attracted some attention and some kids joined in for a while. Unfortunately, this was a more affluent part of town, and none of the kids (or their parents) wanted to go to the drug rehab church.

After spending time at the park inviting kids, Noel shuttled us back to the church using the SUV. We waited for the kids and had supper there (sandwiches, as always). None showed up.

The evening service went as before, except this time I didn’t even bother with the collared shirt. There were several members of the congregation who showed up in t-shirts, plus I was going to be in the back, working with kids. Like before, they sang lots of Spanish songs that I didn’t understand. But it had a nice beat, and you could dance to it. And in this church, someone probably did.

The crafts went really well. There was a small turn over in kids. We only had five all together, and two of them had been there on Monday. Kristy went through Monday’s lesson on Jesus really, really quickly. That was so we could explain Monday’s craft (that some of them were doing): “Why does Jesus shoot into the sky like a rocket ship?” I also got involved this time. I got to explain the new craft, since it was tied to the invitation of the lesson I was supposed to have done. It was a folded piece of paper with gift paper on the outside. On the inside was Jesus enclosed in a heart. The message being: having Jesus in your heart is a gift from God. Anyway, I got to present a very concise version of the gospel to explain the craft. I also got to help one of the kids, Valentin. He was there on Monday. He was very quiet and well behaved. I provided him with crayons and glue.

Elaine was back there translating for us. I remember her asking Valentin what the word for glue was. This amused me because I actually knew the answer (goma). We had just learned it in our children’s ministry time that day.

After the service, we went back to YUGO. We managed to get back earlier than Monday, I think. We even made it back in time for snacks.

I don’t remember going to the sharing time, but I guess I must have. But it was the last time we made it.

After the sharing time, I went to bed. It had been a long day, but I considered it better than Monday.