Rising Star Outreach - Day 6

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Today was Good Friday so the kids were off school on holiday.  People in the Colony were also off for the holiday, so we did things a little different than we would have.  We headed out this morning for another charity that was down the road by Chengleputt.  We stopped off to get some candy for the kids there.  When we got there we were welcomed by a custom sign that welcomed us to the school.  This charity is a school that takes in homeless, begging kids off the street.  Clothes them, feeds them, and teaches them (if they are unable to go to regular school).  There are some kids that are there that had had no formal school before this charity picked them up.  They are almost 3-4 grades behind, so they teach them at the school since they cannot put them in the local school.  The kids there were so sweet and excited to have people to play with.  Then at the end they did a little talent show for us.  They danced around, and then we joined them.  It was really fun.  After that we went to Pearls for a Purpose and the Bindu Art School.  Both are micro-grant businesses that are targeted to teach the local leprosy affected patients to have a skill.  The ladies at the pearls business are all leprosy affected in some way, either themselves or someone else in their family.  They custom make the jewelry and then sell it locally and online.   They seem to do quite well, then of course Rising Star helps them out quite a bit as well.  The Bindu Art school is the same.  I am not too sure if the money gets back to them the same way as with Pearls.  But we helped them out nonetheless.  We were able to get pictures with the artists that painted the pictures which was really cool.  After that we headed back to the outreach and we had a special play time with the kids.  They setup a full cricket field and we played cricket.  I was able to bowl and hit.  I did reasonable with both.  That was quite fun.  After that we had prayer time.  We repeated the first house that we went to, which I thought was really good since that house has Mousa in it.  He was the first to approach Carl and they have been more or less inseparable the entire week.  They totally forged a close relationship.  After prayer time we came back for dinner.  It was the last time the group that came for this week was together.  It was really neat, we talked about what we are going to take away from this week.  I was amazed that it was all almost the same about living in the moment and not in the future.  It was also along the lines of making life more simple and doing what is most important.  We often get bogged down in trivial things and we let them bother us.  I am really blessed to have this experience and and see that life is simple, and we have to keep it that way.  There was a great conversation on the car yesterday that was so profound and amazing.  We were talking with Virginia about loosing her husband to ALS.  She said that as soon as they stopped thinking that it was terminal they were able to enjoy the time that they had together.  Several years ago Elder Eyring taught that we should catalog what was good in our day.  And always find the good around us.  I find that to be very important.  I am thankful for this opportunity that I have had here.  It has really changed me in a deeply personal way.  I am so excited to take this new outlook back home and try to refocus on my daily highs and lows, and fully commit to serving those around me and to this wonderful gospel that I have.