Day Four (English)

David Ing’s Blog post
Day Overview (The Boring Part)
- Delicious Breakfast
- Went back to Youth Hostel (Chinese Church youth joined us)
- Built basketball court
- Dinner
- Worship/Meeting
- Sleep (sort of)

Reflections (READ THIS PART :D )
I know. The day seems boring right? BUT IT’S NOT! There were a lot of cool new things today (by the Grace of God). And lucky you! You get to read about it :D

For starters, Today was the first day that the youth from the church joined us. This is especially awesome for me because I haven’t seen these guys since last year. It was both fun reuniting with some of them and sad because not all of them were still there.

That’s one of the depressing thing’s I’ve learned about Belize. A lot of the youth told me that they just want to get out.

Why? I think it’s because they feel trapped.
There are so few Chinese Youth in Belize. They live in the inner city so there’s always the possibility of crime. And one of the youth today told me that most of the time she just stays home where it’s safe.

Where does Jesus fit in all this? Well, Jesus is their ticket to true freedom. Jesus can wipe away their tears and return their wasted years. Jesus is the way for them to have a true and meaningful life even in the midst of bondage (koff Paul koff). But I’m not sure if they fully understand that yet. That’s where we come in.

As fellow church-born Asians, we get to talk with them and bond with them in ways that they may have never experienced before. And what better way to bond with them than perpetual hard labor!
That’s right. We got the Chinese youth to build the basketball court with us for the youth hostel. Personally, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to bond with the kids well, that the kids would just sit around and not work, and that the kids wouldn’t want to hang out with us anymore after working all day.
But God proved me wrong. We had a blast bonding with the kids on the bus ride over and they were actually quite willing to help out with the work. Especially considering that they are giving up their summer time to help us pour cement.

Frankly, I don’t really know what God has planned for the Chinese youth and us. I don’t know how much we will to connect with them or how much difference we will make in their lives. But I can tell you this:
In everything we do, they get to see how we act and respond. In the way we give our all for the Lord in construction work (and we really do give our all – the mission leader was impressed by our enthusiasm and lack of complaining). In the way that we talk with them and Love on them they can see the Love of Jesus through us.
And God must have something planned. Because later that evening we got a call from them asking if they could help us AGAIN with construction work TOMORROW. (What the heck? Adolescents actually OPTING for more work?)

Something must have really enticed them. And it’s not the construction work. Trust me.
Frankly I don’t know what it is that brought them back. Maybe it was our happy times on the bus rides over. Maybe we just keep them from being bored.

Either way. I know that God is using this to bless them. I know God is going to touch their hearts. I know that God is going to use this to show them sides of his beauty the world has never seen before.
And I tremble in anticipation to find out exactly what that is.

Stay tuned, folks.

David Ing, 7/19/10