A Wonderful Day!

Today was a wonderful day! It began playing around with the kids as always. After a while a group of about 15 showed up and we sang Bible school songs and talked abou the stories they are learning at preschool. I´m always amazed by how much they retain of the stories they are learning.
After a few of the kids left we walked down to the pulperia for some Sprite (I`m giving up Coke), where I was informed by the owner that I needed to hurry up and marry someone from El Mogote. I laughed and asked who exactly it was that I should be marrying (there aren´t exactly a lot of available 24 year olds in Mogote). The teenager sitting on the wall behind me (who the kids informed me is named Nedy) promptly volunteered for the job. What wonderful day is complete without a proposal :).
The best part of the day happened on teh way to pick up some school clothes with Ariel. Yesterday I gave the boys their Bible study and fully expected them to put it away until I prompted them to get it out so we could do it together. Once again I was humbled by their simple faith. As we were riding in the truck Ariel picked up my Bible and starting flipping through it, obviously looking for something. Soon he looked up and said that as he was studying last night he found a verse he really liked but that he couldn`t find it in my Bible. I handed him a copy of the study I had in the turck to see if he could find it there. Once again I underestimated him, expecting something simple and sweet about God´s love. The verse he found was II Corinthians 4:8-9 - "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed." I asked Ariel what that verse meant to him and he went on to explain that when people make fun of him for being a Christian they can hurt him but could not take away his faith and that as long as he believed in God nothing could destroy him or his faith. This was coming from a 14 yr old who, 6 months ago, really wanted nothing to do with God or the church. I pray that we can all have faith so honest and deep.