Day of Esther

Covering Wednesday June 17th, 2008

Esther 8:3-4
Esther again pleaded with the king, falling at his feet and weeping. She begged him to put an end to the evil plan of Haman the Agagite, which he had devised against the Jews. Then the king extended the gold scepter to Esther and she arose and stood before him.

The next day, wait, that morning I had another nightmare. I don't remember the exact details of this one. It wasn't as bothersome as the first nightmare. The next day we had to wake up early. This time I actually noticed the horrendous rooster that sounded more like it was croaking than waking us at 5:00 in the morning. I will always remember Chrissy back talking to the rooster. It always put a smile on my face because she did it sweetly but would say something like "I will put you out of your misery."

We began our Vacation Bible School at their assembly. On Wednesday, we were up early enough to join the children at their daily assembly. This is where the children were told various announcements and sang songs together. One of their songs made a lasting impression on our team: Jehovah Jirah. Everyone met outside the school. I don't think I explained this in any of the earlier posts, but in Butula our life was strictly set on the compound where Sevo's parents lived and where the school resided. We could walk from our bedroom to the school in five minutes or less. It was a large compound and I didn't explore it much. I kept to the places we were told to go.

During the assembly, they told us how excited they were to have us as guests and that they hoped we would enjoy our stay. The students were informed that school would be different for the rest of the week to give us time to give the students instruction on the Bible. Our plan was to teach to the students each day about a different Bible character that began their walk of faith as a child. This way they could see that God used children for his ministry and that he valued all of us despite age. That was the message we were presenting these children-- and I do believe they understood what the love of Christ meant. It's cool to think that we were apart of a healthy ministry to these students.

On this day, Lance and I would be giving out the craft for the Esther lesson. We would be going to the older classes which were the 3rd, 4th, and combined 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. We would be giving them a long piece of construction paper that would become a crown after cutting and coloring. It was a simple craft but it took up all the time that we had. Lance and I did our best to disperse the long pieces of paper into the students' hands, to have them color it, to cut it, and staple it together in 30 minute increments. We basically walked into the door and never stopped moving. It was a mess; there were pieces of paper all over the floor. Lance and I did end up having fun in this extreme race to finish this craft. We had to keep crafts simple because of our limits on supplies and weight at the airport. The students did enjoy what we had brought and they wore their crowns for the rest of the day.

During our last class, we actually ran into a problem: we were low on paper. We were also low on staples and the teachers at Hekima Academy were suddenly becoming more interested in making the craft for their self instead of the children. Some children barely got a chance to work on their crown while others hogged crayons. It was fairly intense, and unexpectedly messy. But when we had only a few strips of paper left we had to be creative for our last class. We ended up cutting the paper into thirds which worked except it still wouldn't be enough. I passed all the crowns out and we knew we didn't have enough after counting several times but somehow everyone did end up having enough paper. It was bizarre.

After making the crowns, and lunch, I went to the girl's room and slept for awhile. I had been more exhausted than I was in Nairobi-- maybe I was still trying to cope with all the energy loss from Nairobi. I was tired the whole week, my spirits just felt lowered. I tried to keep my energy going but it was tough. If I remember correctly, this was the day that we met with Sevo's Mom, who we called Mami, and Nicole and Chrissy gave her all the resources that had been collected in America. Butula was a bit more of a blur to me than the rush of Nairobi. Each day was so similar that in my mind it all blended together.

I also say that Nicole and Chrissy gave the resources, even though our whole team had a part in giving them away, because this was something special these two teachers had put together. They had worked hard for this moment and seeing them give all the supplies to Mami was special to them.
While we worked with Mami, the boys of our mission team helped build a classroom for Hekima Academy. We ended up fishing out materials from various suitcases and organized all the books, paper packets, scissors, glue, and the sort. Mami was clearly touched and excited for all the possibilities and newly opened up opportunities for teaching these students who she loved. Time went by as Mami talked to us about life; she basically considered us as her daughters. She sincerely meant that. She poured out her life to us and gave us wisdom on everything she could think of from marriage to children. It was sweet to see how much she loved us and how she was pouring out her life to us.

I went back to the girls' room and found a chicken's egg sitting in the twine that was on the lower bed of my bunk bed. My first thought was that this was another one of the boy's half made pranks-- they had been planting a fake snake in several places since Nairobi. I showed everybody the egg and then we began to suspiciously believe that
Sevo had put the egg in the one empty bed because he was trying to teach us a lesson.

We then had dinner, not with the newly found egg, and we had our first bonfire. While being in Butula, we saw each other more as a team. When we were in Nairobi, we were constantly moving and getting to know the Journey. While we were in Butula, we worked more together; I wasn't trying to shirk doing busy work but while people were cutting strips for tomorrow's Mary-craft-bracelets I was coloring a crown. Lance didn't get to color his crown during our craft so I thought I would do that for him and it was my way of saying thanks for being a cool friend and for helping me with the craft lesson. We had many good talks during the whole trip and I appreciated that he looked out for me and the rest of the girls during more iffy situations. After awhile, people noticed that I was just coloring so I began being attacked on being distant, however I cut the strips incredibly fast and was done so I had already moved to a new project.

For some reason, I wanted a little more alone time and I think it was just because I was overwhelmed with so many things from the trip. At the time, I wasn't particularly happy with myself because I kept wanting to withdraw from the group and we were actually finally bonding as a team.

After finishing the craft, we played mafia which was a silly game that got people ridiculously mad at each other and began to show that we were a group of intense arguers. We also went star tipping. After the bonfire, several people had gone to bed; a few of us went to a dark corner of the compound to play the weird game just mentioned. You were supposed to look at a spot in the sky and keep your eye there while you were spun around in circles several times. When someone holds up a flashlight to your eyes it's supposed to be unbearable so you end up making a strange face and then you fall to the ground. We couldn't figure out whether it was too bright outside or what the problem was but I never fell. Most people did, and it was completely hilarious. Some people would actually make a face, take two or three steps, and then fall to the ground.


Esther 7:3-4 Then Queen Esther answered, "If I have found favor with you, O king, and if it pleases your majesty, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. For I and my people have been sold for destruction and slaughter and annihilation. If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king. "