Sunday

As this Sunday draws to a close I am sitting here waiting for clothes to finish washing and listening to the boys play outside. It seems every minute or so you can hear them hollering, "Akh Fadi....so and so hit me....Why did he hit you?.......I don' know, I wasn't doing anything!!.....So and so why did you hit him?....Becuse he took the ball from me......I thought you said you didn't do anything!......Well, he had been playing with the ball for a long time."
We had a good morning. TC went with the Bouchers to their church. I went with Akh Fadi, the Residential Director, to the church he attends. He was the worship leader this morning.
It is a fairly conservative church. Men sit on one side of the sanctuary, women on the other. Women wear skirts not pants. Women keep their hair covered in church. When the service is over, the men remain seated until the women leave the sanctuary. While all that could prove distracting to some, the feeling of being with fellow believers as we all worshiped the same Lord and Savior was what was important.
I am sure they would consider some of our church practices strange if they came to visit us. Besides, we came here to serve along side, encourage and be encouraged, not to impose our views and practices.
Most all of the Evangelical (Believers, non-nominal) churches here have headphones with instant translation for foreign guests. All of the services we have attended had non-Arabic speaking people attending. Many of them are domestic workers from the Philippines, Sri Lanka, India, or Ethiopia. The world has come to Lebanon and the churches are reaching out.
For lunch today we had the boys from one of the apartments come and eat with us. Their housemother had the afternoon off so they ate with the Bouchers,TC, and myself. After they helped us clean up, they went upstairs to their apartment to rest until 2 PM. I'm not sure how much of the rest is for the boys or the staff. I know we appreciate it.
We heard that the rest of the team has made it back to Waco. I know that they are glad to be back home. They will be missed this next week! Already the boys are asking about them and if they will be returning next year.
That is a major difference this year. The first two years they were asking IF Calvary would be returning. Now they assume we will and are asking if people from this year's team and previous years' teams will be coming next year.
You, the Calvary family, have become a part of these boy's lives, just as many of these boys are now a part of your lives. As we continue to be your presence here at Dar el Awlad, please pray for us. Pray that we will be used in the lives of the boys and staff as He desires, that we learn the lessons from these boys that He wants us to return to Calvary with.
Tim Smith