How can you plan for somthing like THIS!

IF San Isidro were Barling, then Bella Vista would be Little Rock. Today we went to the Village of Bella Vista. It is a thriving metropolis of mixed cultures with an abundance of bars and even a house of ill repute. It is a prime place for our group to work. It is also a wee bit overwhelming!
Instead of walking one main street with a couple of cross streets like we did in the other villages, there are major roads running in all directions. There are feeder streets and main streets. Even though the streets are a little straighter than they are in the Fort, I got a little turned around. Instead of 100 kids like in the other villages, Bella Vista has 1020 students in their local school (we should pray for the local school, 33 teachers, 2 Administrators, one secretary and a “first aider” for all 1020 students!). According to the headmaster, they would have more students if they had the physical space for them. Instead of one little local store where we could pick up a cold Coke, there were two major markets where we could not only get something to drink, but we could purchase all the necessary ingredients for Taco Night.

Bella Vista is just bigger. There are more people. So when we set up our little operation in the corner of the school yard, we kind of thought we might see something different. We saw 182 kids! That was different.

At the end of last week, we sent word to this team that we needed to prepare for more children. Instead of bringing supplies for 40 like last week, we more than doubled (we were walking out our faith!) our craft supplies to be prepared for a cool 100 kids! That means that when we pulled out our crafts on the first day, we were only 82 pieces short!

We learned a few things today….

• When doing evangelistic work, our willingness is more important than our supplies.
• Jolly Rancher candy will take a child’s mind off of crafts for about 5 minutes.
• If you throw a soccer ball out on the field, all the boys will chase it, leaving just enough girls to use up all of your craft materials!

It seems that sharing the Good News is not always a tidy, well planned out and executed event....sometimes it is simply getting the message out any way you can and leaving the results to the Lord. It helps to have Jolly Ranchers, too.