I have so much more I want to share, but also want to be sensitive to everyone's time. Of course, you can always stop reading, right? :-) So first I want to talk a little more about the orphanage. I'll try to upload some more pictures when we get back or maybe during our 6 hour layover, but I'm just not up to the time consuming-ness of it right now. Anyway, one of the stories I want to tell you about started the week before we left on this trip. Tim saw a new client couple in his office and he let them know he wouldn't be available for the next week because we were going on a missions trip to Lebanon. The guy said, "Here - take this $100 and give it to the orphans". Tim asked the guy how he knew we were going to an orphanage because he hadn't mentioned it, and he just said God told him and wanted that money to go to the orphanage. We gave it to the director, Karim, yesterday and he was so happy - it was awesome. Tim felt like he couldn't give Karim the guy's name since he is a confidential client, but Karim wrote a thank you note and a receipt and asked Tim to give it to the guy.
Tim did some art therapy with the girls having them draw pictures of something that makes them feel safe and other pictures of emotions, and then we took their pictures and stapled them into little booklets. Some of the girls really got the idea and their drawings were very expressive - which was Tim's goal - that they would be able to get in touch with their feelings. Then the last order of business of the day was Chagy the clown, which the girls absolutely loved, and many of them accepted Christ. We then passed out gift bags we had put together for them earlier in the week, and they just loved them!
The team just got back from dinner, and I went out so I could say goodbye to Kim and David, our host couple. David's background is tech arts, and for the service tonight (again, Tim and I didn't go, so I'm just letting you know what David told me) he had Nicholas sit with him on the boards and help out. Nicholas just came in our room and said he really enjoyed that, and really loved getting to know this team. I have to agree with him - everyone had such great attitudes and were just awesome! I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone about their day today, and will hopefully have some pictures and stories to tell. Blessings to you all!