Day 9 (July 27, 2012)

Today we started off with worship for our team at 8:00. When we were singing “Your Grace is Enough” I was caught by the line “You send the weak to lead the strong”. This always seems to be a recurring theme in the Christian life. Those who are sent always feel that they are weak or not good enough to be doing the job that God wants them to do. I have often thought, “Why would I ever be a missionary? I don’t know enough.” But it seems to be the way of God - to choose people who are “weak” in some form or other and give them a job to do. I feel that I have already grown so much more this week as a result of this work. God is so amazing.

At 8:30 we did warm-ups with the kids - I led some vocal warm-ups, Bananas, Show Us How to Get Down, and then taught them the Pony game. After that we cleared of the stage and set up the gym. We did a run-through on the stage for the morning, which went very well. Our biggest challenge is to get the kids to speak loudly. The Hungarian word for louder is “hangosabban” (pronounced hongawshob-bon), but I have been having trouble saying it and one time yelled out “hogwash!”. So now whenever I want them to be louder I say “HOGWASH”! :)

For lunch I had a nice vegetable soup (they had meat soup), and rice with large breaded mushrooms on the side (the kids had breaded chicken that was pounded flat). For dessert we had this bread that had jam on it and was rolled up like a cinnamon bun.

After lunch the kids got into their costumes and we did another run-through. They looked amazing!

Cinderella's slipper fits! :)

 Cinderella was having some difficulty with her song, so during our break I worked with her a bit more. Ilana asked her if her parents were proud of her and her face crumpled and she started to cry. I put my arm around her and cuddled her as she told us about how her father picks on everything she does. She said he points out everything she does wrong but never notices anything that she does well. She is worried that he is going to come to the performance and point out all of her mistakes. So I spoke with her a little bit, and told her that he must care about her a lot, and wants her to do well. I said that he might just be one of those people who shows his love that way - through trying to help you do better, and that maybe he has trouble showing his love in other ways. But I also told her that she is not doing this performance for him - she is doing it for herself. She has come so far and learned so much. I told her that God does not give gifts to her by accident. He gave her these wonderful talents so that she could use them, and even if she feels that her father is not proud of her, her Heavenly Father is most definitely proud of her and encouraging her all the way. I told her that everyone in the cast is also proud of her, and that I am so proud of all that she has done and the hard work she has put into learning this role. Some of the other girls had gathered around while we were talking, and echoed some encouraging words as well and had a little group hug. It was a really heartwarming moment. I pray that tomorrow she feels the encouragement of all of her cast-mates and production team, and that she knows that God is smiling on her. I also pray that her mother and father are inspired by her performance and let her know how proud they are of her work.

After our break, we did one more run-through. A couple of parents came to watch because they are not able to come tomorrow to the performance. The kids did extremely well - the best yet - and everyone was excited when we were finished. I think that Juli felt a lot better about her performance too. The kids decided that they wanted to do another dress rehearsal before the performance tomorrow, so we will be doing that at 2:00 (performance is at 4:00).

Our Cinderella invitation (made by Alegria - the kids made the title)

Attila took us out for Chinese food, and then we went back to the training centre. I was supposed to be making mouse ears, but was having such trouble making them. Plus I had a monster headache (probably from the unbearable heat yesterday!), so I decided to give up and go to bed. I will make them tomorrow morning. Time to turn out the lights!