It has been a while since I've had the opportunity for ministry somewhere besides a local church (not implying that I'm tired of visiting churches), but it was a nice change of pace going to an orphanage. Upon arrival, my team and I were expecting a couple kids and were shocked when more than two dozen guys from 5-18 years old came outside to greet us. Even though we arrived with eleven people from the ship, we split up (some went to a retirement home, and some to a girls orphanage) which made it me plus three others: Adam from Texas, Teschee from Japan (the one behind the camera), and Saravanan from India.
We began by showing a short ship film for children starring one of the kids who lives on board, searching the entire inside of the Logos Hope for the captain. Afterwards, all four of us introduced ourselves and spoke about what life is like living with 400 people. Then I pulled out some life jackets I brought along and made the offer for some people to try it on and demonstrated how we would rescue someone by performing a "Man Overboard" drill. This gave us plenty of opportunities to share our faith openly and allow then to ask us questions.
We proceeded outside to play some games with the soccer ball (I hardly remember having the kind of energy they had!), and then I had an idea to teach them hacky sack. As I stood inside of the circle already formed from the soccer ball game, I kicked it to each one of the kids to see if they could return it. I still can't believe how focused they were...we played for over an hour straight and could have gone on for literally hours more. Unfortunately, with the Sri Lankan heat and humidity consuming me in the worst way, I slowly stumbled back inside the house where I was greeted with a cold glass of Avocado juice (which is delicious by the way). The boys shortly followed me inside and asked if I'd like to watch the World Cup Cricket game on T.V. that was currently being played in the same city. After weighing the options of returning to the ridiculous heat or staying inside for cool breezes via fan and sports on the T.V., I quickly decided on the latter.
A few other guys who originally went to the retirement home came to meet us for dinner and attempted to explain the game of Cricket to me. Not sure if my brain was fried from the heat, or I have a general dis-interest for Cricket, but by the second hour of watching, I was more confused than when it started. Dinner was then served and all of us enjoyed a home cooked meal Sri Lankan style. Which is a story in itself!
