Since I have three and a half days left to tell you about, I'm going to try and pace myself so I don't rush through anything. For now, I want to finish talking about what happened on Monday.
On Monday night, we had the privilege of attending the youth fellowship service. This is kind of BCH's version of Kairos, and it was one of my favorite times of the whole trip. I know I've said it a lot, but these guys are so sold out for the Lord. It was truly inspiring to spend time with them.

The time that they spend just in praise and worship alone is amazing. There isn't this sense of needing to sing two or three songs and move on. They were taking requests and we sang at least 6 or 7 songs, including several with choreography. The guys in the picture above are part of a group of guys called the Baptist Boys. They were so awesome. They led part of the singing, but also came back later with some hilarious drama. Singing David also was on the praise team, and it was tremdous joy to watch him worship with this group of people who were just full of joy in the Lord.Here's a picture of the Baptist boys doing part of their drama. They were absolutely hysterical. They did a series of short sketches, covering everything from super heroes to the Garden of Eden to menthos. It was fantastic. Later on in the service they came back and did a whole choreographed skit to "God is Good All the Time." We were laughing ourselves sick.

How amazing that live on opposite sides of the planet, and yet in so many ways we are very much the same. This service could have just as easily been taking place in Tennessee as India. But what made it so incredible was just getting to know the people involved. They were 100% in this faith thing for life. It is not just a part of who they are; it is who they are. I hope I am forever altered in my thinking and how those thoughts bear fruit from having had the chance to walk side by side with these amazing people. That's Emmanuel playing guitar in the background. He was one of our escorts for the week, so we got to know him pretty well. It was so fun to hear him play and see him in a different role from the one we were used to.

Jeremy gave the message that night, and he did a great job. He spoke about Jesus turning the water into wine. He said that God knew this story from beginning to end, and that the wine represented the love of Christ and what he was going to do on the cross. So if you go back and read the story with the idea of the wine representing what Christ truly came to do, it takes on a new meaning. Jesus took water from ceremonial cleansing jars, and turned that into a representation of his ultimate sacrifice. It was great.

Afterwards, there was a short time for snacks, and then at least 30 of the "youth" (I say that because they were more like college age and early adults) came up on the altar and had mass prayers. Everyone went around the room and voiced a request, several of which concerned upcoming exams. Then we all prayed out loud at the same time, and Solomon closed it up.

Again, we were just so impressed with the commitment level these people have to this church. After a 2 hour and 15 minute service, they still wanted to stick around and pray together. I loved it.

That's it for now. I'm just waiting on the kids to go to bed so I can fall in behind them. I managed to not take a nap today, but I don't think I can last much longer. My body really is trying to catch up on all the hours it missed. I can't believe we have to turn the clocks back tonight and miss an hour of sleep. That's just wrong.

More tomorrow...