Day Four: Lora and Morobo

Today was a beautiful, rainy day in Yei! Both teams headed out, prepared to teach the kids about the cross and how God showed us mercy by sending His son to die in our place. Each day with the kids, I feel they are coming out of their shells more and more. In such a short amount of time, it's difficult to really get to know each of the kids. I think many of us have struggled with the fact that we just simply don't have enough time to form the relationships we would like to. I find comfort in the fact, that though tomorrow is our last day, what we are really here to give the kids at Lora and Morobo is something that doesn't leave when we climb into our vans and drive away. We are here to communicate the message of reconciliation through Christ, the hope of Christ, and this does not change according to our countries, our houses, or our friends.

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation."

In Him,

Hannah Elmore

I just wanted to write a quick note about how encouraged I was today at Lora. The upper classes (P6 and P7) were given the opportunity to ask questions about the lessons for the last couple of days. I honestly didn't expect that many questions because they seemed to be somewhat disengaged during the teaching time. To my surprise, they began to ask some very theologically rich questions. For example, one of the boys asked me, "If death truly is the punishment for sin, why are there bad people that live and good people that die?" We were also asked about why Adam and Eve's sin in the garden was severe enough to earn death. I was able to answer these questions as well as a few others along with John, an evangelist that works at the orphanage. I would answer a bit and then he would add something more to it. He told me the things he added were things he learned at one of the pastors conferences put on by The Village in the past couple of months. I was so excited to see some fruit of the work our church has been doing here. More than that, it is exciting to see how the Lord works through the barriers of culture and language to bring glory to himself by reconciling the nations to Himself.

"For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

-Romans 11:36

Grace,

Justin Gladney