Local lovin'

Friday and Saturday afternoons/evenings are dedicated to local lovin', or hanging out with the people that we've met over the last week. The idea of me calling some random person with whom I had one conversation and asking them if I could hang out with them really made me uncomfortable. I mean, if someone asked me to take a survey, asked for my phone number, and then called me a few days later asking to hang out, I'd be pretty creeped out. Tony (project director) says that this is because I'm from NYC...To you non NYC people out there, would you be creeped out?

Anyway, as of Friday morning I had no contacts to hang out with for the weekend, so I went with a bunch of local-less teammates to the beach. The guys met a few locals by playing a pick-up game of football, and a few girls and I were playing with a volleyball. I noticed a young girl sitting and watching us, so I invited her to come play with us. We chatted a little and found out that her name's Raven and that she's 11, has 5 older brothers and stepbrothers, is from WV, and is currently vacationing here until Tuesday, but will be moving here permanently along with her dad and his girlfriend at the end of the summer. She's a really sweet girl who seemed lonely and in need of someone to play with her and to love her. As we were leaving, she asked us if we were coming back the next day . I told her that we didn't know what our schedule would be like, but I gave her my phone number so that we could arrange a play date before she went back home.

Saturday afternoon, we went to another beach to evangelize, and as we were wrapping up and getting ready to leave, I got a phone call from Raven asking "Are you guys gonna come back today?" Here I was, somewhat worried about not having any plans to meet up with any locals later that night, but God had someone call me instead and make plans! A friend and I went to meet her and we got to toss a volleyball with her and her dad and just get know them both better. They're Christians (she was baptized less than a year ago!), and just really friendly people. We ended up going to play with her again today (my free day), one last time before they left, and we asked if we could pray for them. It's been a blessing to meet her and spend time with her, even if it's only been for a few hours. My heart really goes out to her because she's been through so much brokenness in her family at such a young age. My hope and prayer is that she will find healing and security in Christ as she grows in Him.