Whew!  This week has been quite an adventure!  The entire team is exhausted, but  more importantly, we are really and truly joyful for all that we have seen God do this week. 

In the past week, the Valley Summer Project Team has:

-Led a 12 year-old boy to Christ! =)
-Prepared for and led two four-day Vacation Bible Schools at Primera Iglesia Bautista, Hidalgo and Iglesia Bautista Cristo El Rey in Mission, respectively
-Led a two-day Kids’ Rally at Buckner Children’s Home in Mission
-Helped organize shoes that have been donated to Buckner’s Shoes for Orphan Souls program
-Red Door, our BSM band has faithfully practiced in preparation for leading worship at Manifest Hope Camp at South Padre Island
-Prepared a seminar, teambuilding activities, media, music, volleyball and sand castle-building tournaments, and helped with many administrative tasks that needed to be completed for Manifest Hope Camp

These are just a few of the things we have accomplished this week.  What has amazed me the most about this entire process is our team’s willingness to do whatever it takes to serve. 

During our second day at Buckner Children’s Home, several members of our team saw that there were more volunteers (13 from our team plus 30 from a local church) than children that day.  Instead of standing around keeping to ourselves so as not to overwhelm the kids, our team went and asked if there was anything else that we could do to help; a representative from Buckner told us that the only thing they needed help with was in the warehouse, but said that it would probably be too hot for us to work.  We told him that we would serve wherever we were needed, including inside the hot warehouse.  God used the short time it took for the seven of us to finish that  project to allow us to be a part of His plan for the children who will be receiving those shoes.

Honestly, we had fun serving God in the hot, dusty warehouse.  We knew that God was there with us, just as He was with the rest of our team ministering to the kids.  What God really impressed upon my heart that day was the fact that as servants of God, we must be willing to be hot and sweaty, freezing cold, smelly and dirty, etc. in order to share His love ith those around us.   Little did we know that God would use our running around playing tag with 8-10 year olds, dressing up as a bunny for preschoolers, or re-stacking big boxes to show us that what He is really looking for is a willing heart.   God gives us the opportunity to choose whether or not we want to serve;  He has proven and continues to prove to our team that choosing to serve is far more rewarding than being comfortable could ever be.

The chorus of the song “Little is Much” by Downhere sumarizes something that God has been revealing to our team these past two weeks:

“Little is much when God’s in it
And no one can fathom the plans He holds
Little is much when God’s in it
He changes the world with the seeds we sow”

Lord, we pray that You use the seeds we are sowing to change the world. 
We’re ready to work.

 

-Ali Cepeda