Living, Learning & Loving God!: Pillars of Hope & King Fisher Resort!

Day 5: Pillars of Hope

This was such a FUN day for me!! In fact, as far as the trip went this had been the best day so far! We went to visit the children at Pillars of Hope, but before our whole team could go there we had to check into our new hotel and sort through all of our luggage since it would be late tonight before we got back. So, our team leader asked for a few volunteers to spend time with the children while the rest of the team checked into our hotel. Right away my hand went straight up! I thought to myself, “Why wouldn’t I want to volunteer to spend time with the children?! This is WHY I came to Africa—I want to LOVE and CARE and spend as much time with whatever children we meet!!” So really, this was such a no brainer!! So myself, along with three other girls got dropped off to spend a few hours with the children all by ourselves before the team got back. We walked off the bus and started headed over to the building when all of a sudden…the kids ALL came RUNNING and SCREAMING and LAUGHING towards us!!! Oh my goodness—This was THE BEST welcome—EVER!!!! :) Thankfully some of our other friends on the bus were able to capture this moment.

We then had the opportunity to spend the WHOLE afternoon with them! It was SUCH a BLAST! We played games…we taught them new games…they taught us new games…and then we played MORE games!:) Wheew! After a while I was starting to sweat and starting to feel a little tired but I told myself that doesn’t matter—You can take a warm shower and sleep when you get back to America! I’ll only have a few days like this where I can spend all this one on one time with these children!!! :) So that is exactly what I did. I thanked God again for this opportunity and I soaked up this whole afternoon…learning new songs…learning new hand claps…making new friendships…and making new memories that I would forever hold in my heart. Here are some pictures of our time together.

Playing one of their games! :)

The 4 very tired--but HAPPY Girls that Volunteered!!

Passing out dresses...

They all LOVED getting their picture taken! ...Below they're singing some songs for us!

The girls standing in line to get a new & clean dress!!! :) They were SO happy & Excited!! :)

The boys with ther new Cottonwood Co-op Hats!:)

Showing their new clothes!!! :) This just made their day!!!

This day was such an easy going day—We seriously just played and spent time with them and we had SO much fun. I got just as much out of today as I think all of those children did! It was just so simple and enjoyable! :) …Makes me wish I was right back there with them …laughing …learning …and LOVING God!!

After spending time with these children, we went to our next location—which was the Amani Baby Cottage! However, although we only spent a few hours at this baby cottage…It really had a HUGE impact on my life so I feel like it deserves a whole blog post to itself!;) SO, my next blog post will be about the Baby Cottage! I am SO excited to share my story with you about this place and to share a few more pictures with you!!! So, stay tuned!:)

Later that night we went back to King Fisher Resort…Here are a few pictures of our time there.