“He’s not homeless. He’s a prince.”

This week we are back at Cicirin and while part of me wishes we could stay in Balgue for our last month, I know that God is not done with us at Cicrin yet. This week, my daily service ministry was painting. My teammate, Trinity and I painted a lot of ceiling and half of a room this week. We jammed out to disney and backstreet boys and got covered in paint (that was mostly me actually) and continued to grow in relationship with each other.

We also got back to spending time with the kids here and having nightly hang outs with them. They really are starting to attach to us and a lot of the walls that they put up at the beginning are starting to come down. They still change every ten minutes whether they like you or not, but I have noticed some bonds of trust being formed between the kids and I and the kids and some of my teammates.

There was another group staying at the orphanage with us this week. They were from California and one of them was related to a staff that works at Cicirin. They all spoke fluent spanish and it was so cool to see them connect with the kids alongside us and shower them with love and affection. On Tuesday, they had a concert for the kids and we were invited too. While these other missionaries were there, they were teaching two of the older boys at Cicrin how to get better at the drums and the bass guitar so this was the time to show off their skills. They did a couple worship songs and one really cool song that you sing in english, spanish, and an african language. It was so fun to worship, sing, and dance with the kids.

On Thursday we played group games with the kids and last night we watched Meet the Robinsons with them. While it might be challenging a lot of the time, it's so wonderful that we get to love them and show them Jesus' love. We don't even have to talk, just something as simple as watching a movie. It's so great how God creates bonds and love even through time like that.

Our team had a fun week of bonding too. One night we watched a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls, another night we played telephone pictionary. It was so funny playing with the nineteen of us and taking the stories too far. I hope we do more fun games like that in the future. Another thing we did this week was watch a documentary called Finger of God. It's about this guy who goes around the world and looks at what God is really doing and all of the miracles and crazy things people are doing through God that nobody seems to want to talk about or bring to light.

He captures footage of people who are totally on fire for the Lord and are boldly doing what Jesus did while He was here on earth. He sees blind people see, deaf people hear, sick people walk. He sees the scripture being brought to life when Jesus says, "whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father." John 14:12.

This documentary opened my eyes to the fact that we have power in the name of Jesus and with His spirit in us. We are so powerful that we can do the things that Jesus did in the bible, and even greater! Not just we can do it,  but people are actually doing them!

My favorite part of the documentary though was the last two minutes. After he goes all around the world and see all of these miracluous things. He's back in the U.S. and him and his friend see a homeless man on the street. The friend goes up to Him and asks if he can pray for him. The man says yes and he begins to pray for healing from any pain or sickness. As his friend is praying, the maker of the movie talks about how this homeless man smells like he hasn't showered in months, he's dirty and sick and well, homeless. He also talks about how all of that is a lie and not who he truely is. He says this in the movie, "He's not homeless. He's a prince."

How cool is that?!? When I look at people on the street who are homeless or even anyone walking down the street. There are a lot of labels and things I could say about them, but do I immediately go to, they're a prince or princess? No, sadly, I don't. That line has stuck with me this whole week and I hope it sticks with me from now on. If I really want to proclaim God's love and kingdom, I need to start constantly seeing people for who they really are. Precious sons and daughters of the almighty king.