Having teams and short-term volunteers come through Beautiful Gate is always an interesting and humbling experience. As the only long-term volunteer who consistently lives in the Maroon House on campus (where we house short-term teams) I usually have the unique opportunity of getting to know the teams perhaps on a deeper level than many of our other long-term volunteers. Additionally, as someone who has had a great deal of experience in leading worship I'm often invited to participate in leading worship times and devotions for the teams while they are here. During those times we generally begin by going around the room and allowing everyone an opportunity to share their "high" for the day. While many times the "highs" are things I expect to hear from people working with orphans in southern Africa each person has a unique and personal way of sharing their experience with the group. That's one of the reasons I love living in community with the short-term teams that come through. As they experience Beautiful Gate for the first time, I'm reminded of my own first few weeks here. Through their eyes, I get to re-experience the beauty of seeing true joy, love, hope, and peace in the lives of our kids and staff members for the first time. It's always a wonderful reminder of why I'm here and it reenergizes me even when life here seems repetitive or tedious at times.
As I write this we have a team of high school girls from a Christian school in Southwest Michigan with us for 10 days. Late Wednesday night and into Thursday morning several of the girls got sick and were bed ridden (or couch ridden) for the whole of Thursday. We usually anticipate one or two people on a team coming down with something during a trip, but this was eight girls all getting hit at the same time. It was kind of crazy! All of a sudden over half of their team was forced to miss out on a day of service here at BG. This was clearly not part of the plan for their trip and it was evident that the sick girls were terribly disappointed they would not be able to see the kids that day. Despite this rather unfortunate turn of events, however, the team's blog entry for the day was entitled "God is Still Good." They honestly shared their disappointments with the situation, but at the same time rejoiced in the blessings they still saw. It was so humbling to see such a young group praise God amidst hardships, suffering, and disappointment. It was a brilliant reminder that things don't always go according to our plans. We have an enemy that tries to derail our efforts to do the good, pleasing, and perfect will of our Father. But even in the battle we have hope because our Abba Daddy has already won the war. He is in control of all things at all times.
Just as Barnabas (Son of Encouragement) was an encourager for the early church the short-term teams that come to Beautiful Gate are encouragers to us. They encourage the house mothers and staff by affirming the work they do and the sacrifices they make. They encourage us volunteers by coming alongside us and praying for and with us. They encourage the children by taking time out of their busy lives to come to a little country called Lesotho and show love to those that others have called unlovable. Each person who comes through here is a Barnabas in my life. Whether they mean to or not they redirect me to God and prove that His love and faithfulness are greater than I can ever begin to imagine. I am so grateful.
Interested in reading the 2015 Holland Christian team's blog? Check it out here:
https://hcbeautifulgatetrip2015.wordpress.com/
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