We have been in La Paz, under the new ministry initiative just over one year. At times we are frustrated and feel that not much has been accomplished, then other times we are reminded that God has been at work and blessing us immensely. An example of this overwhelmed me just 3 days ago.
We have been leading a basketball club that we started, using a public court that didn't have shade, so very early hours. Not many came. But we had a good start with 5 youth. Then we approached the Jr. School that has a roof over their court, and they openly accepted us, but only days when there wasn't any school. They then allowed us to come after school finished at 8:15 pm. Late, but it works as Mexicans generally eat supper very late and go to bed late.
We realized that by the age of Jr. High, many of the students have already decided that they don't like basketball, or won't give it a chance, so if we want to grow, we should introduce basketball to children in elementary. I went to visit the elementary school, and they were welcoming. We put on a basketball day camp for 3 days during Christmas holidays. It was a fun time where we saw 10 new children come to learn. Since then we haven't had much success in trying to get more children; partly do to waiting for responses from those we had asked for advice as well as waiting for permission to use the elementary school more regularly.
We not only received permission to use the school regularly, they even entrusted us with a gate key, and I was overwhelmed by the kind welcome and words as I accepted the key. This is a rare thing we are told, to have schools willing to open up to you as you come from the outside to work with children. We thank God for his goodness, going before us, and opening the doors. We pray that we continue to see his blessings, and don't take them for granted.
No comments:
Post a Comment