A Day of Answered Prayers

   They were determined not to participate in the C.I., they used language that is not permitted, and they wouldn’t join the rest of our team. They were only two young girls, yet they drove me to the end of my rope! What was I to do?

“I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me.” Ps. 77:1

   Today began like a perfect day should begin-nothing planned until 11:45! Karen, our accountability group leader, wisely decided that we should pace ourselves and take ad-vantage of a chance to catch up on some rest while we could. So we had wisdom search over lunch at a wonderful little sandwich place called La Petit Prince. You can’t imagine how excited I was over a bacon sandwich and a bit of sweet potatoe salad! Seafood wasn’t even on the menu! OooRAH! While we ate, we discussed Isaiah 57. The book of Isaiah has been a source of hope, encouragement and promise for me in the last 5 years of my life and so studying it as a team is such a blessing!

   After our scrumptious lunch, we walked to the church to prepare for the C.I. At teacher training, Kirsten effectively demonstrated the power of a story by reading to us “The Children of the King”. And she challenged us to use stories from our own life to impact the hearts of the children on our teams.

   Then it was time for the children to arrive...and I was already stressed and at the end of my rope because I knew that my two young troublemakers from yesterday would be returning today. Charlene and Charmaine are sisters (12 years and 9 years old) who decided that they were “too cool” to do any of this “childish stuff”. But this wasn’t just the normal “too cool” syndrome, this was the ABC (American Born Chinese) “too cool” syn-drome where they speak better English than you do. I was at a loss of how to reach these girls who demanded my full attention and balance that with my responsibilities to my team leader, Tim Kruse, and the rest of our team. What else was I to do, but to cry out to God and trust Him to be true to His promises.

   Charlene and Charmaine were the last to arrive at our team and as they walked in, a peace and calm came settled my nerves and as I waited to see how they would behave, I was shocked! They both put on their sashes which they wouldn’t wear before, they sat down with the rest of the team and listened attentively to the lesson, they helped with the craft, and they even did the hand motions in large group! God is so good! He never fails and He answers prayers!

Dominique Aguilar