Girl sleepovers and rainbows

This week was half-term for students - they got a nice week-long holiday, which meant that we got a nice week-long holiday too, because lots of students went on vacation with their families. We still did a little bit of ministry, but it was mostly fun stuff.

For youth group we had a movie night where we watched the kids' movie Monster House, which was quite a scary horror animated movie for kids. Then the guys left and some of the girls stayed at the church, where we had a sleepover. We watched A Walk to Remember (half the girls cried) and A Boy Girl Thing - total girly movies. Then one team member shared her testimony about body image and beauty and the lies that the media tells us about beauty, and I think the girls were pretty open and receptive to it, so that was cool. Then we switched off the lights and tried to sleep, but to no avail. The girls were super hyper, so we stayed up late and talked, laughed, made funny noises, and did gymnastics. It was good and we got to bond with the girls. The guys were so funny - we jokingly invited them to stay over with us, and they said no, because apparently all we do in sleepovers is paint nails, do makeup, and talk about ponies, rainbows, and unicorns.

The next day we did the ultimate girl bonding experience - SHOPPING :) I was proud of myself for practicing self-control and only buying a bag and a Lush face mask. I love fun ministry, although I feel a little bit guilty for enjoying myself because I feel like I should be doing something more... productive. But hey, bonding with the girls is important so then we can invest in their lives.


Later in the week, we had tea and fellowship with the elderly, and three of us shared our testimony, me included. It went pretty well; people were interested in asking me more questions about my life, so that was cool.

Other than that, it was a relaxing week, not much different from any other week, actually. I'm beginning to feel rather purposeless and useless here, because we really don't do much. I think it's affecting the team too, because we only do ministry on mondays and thursdays, and the rest of the week is free time - we watch movies, go to the city, go shopping, laze around... I feel like I'm still in college or something. It's fun because I love hanging out with new friends and learning more about their culture and watching movies and shopping, but I could totally do that at home or in school.

I guess I'm a little disappointed in the program and the organization as a whole. I expected something more from this, and it really wasn't what I expected. I thought the ministry would be more... difficult? fulfilling? challenging? And it's really not. It's just... normal life. I guess I should've gone to Africa or something if I wanted something crazier. Not that I would ever be allowed to set foot in Africa if it were up to the parents.

Hopefully things get better and we feel more purposeful and have more to do.