Escoge Sabiamente: It's Monday? I'm not supposed to get tired until Wednesday!

Hmmm, as Monday closed, just our third day at the City of Children, a bit of exhaustion has already set in…. Usually, weariness doesn’t rear its ugly head until around Wednesday. But as Monday ended, David Skidmore has lost his voice, a few teens are medium rare from the sun (yes, even though the theme for the week is choose wisely – teens aren’t always choosing to wear sunblock) and Jeff McClain is already so sleep deprived he’s a bit dopier…than normal. Please pray about Skid’s voice (yes, pray that it returns...)

In contrast to this exhaustion is the wonderful exertion and exuberance of the younger members of our team and the young-at-heart like Papa Joe. The general buzz among the adult team members is what a wonderful group of teenagers you’ve raised, parents. We’re honored to serve beside them. They’re working hard and getting a lot done – raising the walls of the house we’re building in Maneadero; cooking more than 300 hotdogs and serving lunch for a group of 150 Mexicanos who gathered at the Church here; passing out donated clothing and toys; painting the front wall of the City of Children; playing with the kids throughout the day; communicating without the benefit of knowing the language; setting up for meals and cleaning after; studying the Bible with their Mexicano counterparts; singing, dancing…ah, make that exercising; and entertaining the Children and Staff with skits. They’re working without complaint, without praise, without pay, without extra credit, without ultimatums. What a wonderful group they are.

And at the end of each day, instead of rushing off to bed, they circle and share stories about how they saw God throughout the day. Odd, that with so much activity it would serve to make us more conscious of God’s presence? But then, on the other hand, we’re free from so many distractions here. No, television or video games or movies…

Our intern Justin Simms related a story tonight about one of the Mexicano children who was a little bit concerned about whether or not the white knights in our skit would be able to overcome the evil dark kingdom in the quest for wisdom and power. And it’s no wonder he’s worried. If you’ve ever seen Cindy Patton play an evil queen then you know the Mexicano youth was justified in his concern. In fact, next time you see Cindy, ask her to do the laugh. It will give you an idea why the child was concerned. He was so worried, in fact, that he asked Justin if he knew how it was all going to end.

Justin didn’t know exactly but he had a general idea. You see, the script for the last night hasn’t yet been written…but the ending is already certain.

Justin compared this to our relationship with God. How many times have we wondered the same thing? Is God really in charge of what’s happening here? Does He really know how it’s going to end? Is this really His plan? Why is this happening, God? Does the part I play matter at all? It sure seems like evil has the upper hand. We’re left to choose whether we’ll follow Him when things aren’t looking too good. Or go our own way. What is the wise choice? It might just depend on what or whom you draw your wisdom from and what or who your God is….

Our Evil Knights…. Yes, their shields spell out the word EVIL… have taken the magical implements that will allow the users to decipher the riddle and obtain wisdom and the power to restore the kingdom. EVIL has the upper hand!

Or so things seem. He who has eyes to see let him see… Because all is not as it seems. Lord knows.

To Be Continued.