Today was our first full day in the Kogi village. We had our first program with the kids for several hours. The students did an amazing job engaging with the kids in the various activities (Bible, Spanish, games, and crafts). When our official 2.5 hours with them was up, the ECA students asked if they could keep doing activities with the kids, so they spent even more time playing with them.
Later in the day, we did a program with the youth (around ages 10-18). It was neat for the students to be able to spend time with other kids their age. Two of our students talked about how God gives us confidence and we don’t have to fear. At the end, they had the youth write down things they were afraid of so they could reflect and apply what they learned. Some of them gave their papers to our students so we could be praying for them. It gave us some insight into what they struggle with and how we can support them through prayer. Tomorrow we will have a soccer game with the youth after church, so pray that God gives us further one-on-one opportunities to encourage, challenge, and connect with them.
In the evening the leaders were able to talk with one of the pastors to get a better idea of how we can better serve their community in the future. It was sweet to hear his perspective of how they appreciate El Camino coming and spending time with the community. He said their main needs were teaching Spanish/socializing with the kids, encouragement for the youth during this stage of life as they are looking ahead to separating from their family and starting their own, getting books for their school library (we brought 60+ books down to give them tomorrow) and acquiring Sunday school resources. If anyone has ideas of sunday school resources to give them in Spanish, let me know! We are so excited about how this Christian community is ministering to the people around them who don’t know Jesus by giving their kids an education at their Christian school. Pray that God would bless their ministry abundantly and that many would come to know Jesus through that!
Tomorrow our main activities are teaching Sunday school and going on house visits. Pray we will ask good questions, that they will be willing to share, and that the time is a mutual encouragement spiritually for our team and the Kogis.
Blessings
