Day 6 - Cleaning up rubbish, cleaning up hearts

Today was a very thought-provoking and challenging day. Starting with everyone waking up after a good nights sleep – apart from Sweeden, who had quite an adventurous night.

Every morning starting as usual with breakfast – cereal and bread, which was a change up from constant rice! Then we continued on with the morning by having a community worship session lasting around an hour. It was enjoyable to see different cultures interacting through worship.

Afterwards, we wanted to give back to YWAM for all we’ve been provided with by helping through cleaning the base; picking up rubbish, sweeping the terraces and floors and cleaning up rain water.
We still had time before lunch, so we decided to head off to the local markets, a 25 minute walk. As a reward for the walk, we stopped by a small convenient store and were all shouted an ice-cream each.
For our trip back to the base, we caught PT, squeezing 12 people on 2 trikes (a motorbike with cart attached as mentioned in previous blog). Once again, we all made it safe home.

Lunch consisted of curry stew, pineapple and as per usual, rice. After lunch we had Siesta time, where most of us played card games, and some slept.

Afternoon came and we headed back to the first slum we had visited on day 3. There were more children there than the time before, but those who we had met previously remembered us and their smiles and joy grew as we arrived. The program was similar to our last visits; we sang songs and danced with the children, shared our drama skit and performed a second telling the story about the Wall of Jericho from the bible.
Being able to show love and encourage the children through simply playing with them and sharing the gospel was incredible. While we thought we were there to bless the families, they ended up inspiring and teaching us more than we could have ever expected.
After a heartbreaking goodbye to the children (as this was the last visit to the slums) with several hugs and high fives, we strolled back to the base, pondering on the amazing experiences.

After dinner we had an about half an hour to spare. The guys spent their time in the cabin chilling, playing an alternative ‘kick wall ball’ and had some beats playing. Not sure what the girls got up to, probably whatever girls do to kill time. Following the free time, we gathered on the rooftop, preparing for tomorrows YWAM’s ‘Olympic Sport Festival’ by creating small Australian flags and collecting ideas. Pretty stoked.

- Josh & Sweeden