Today was a hard day. Hard because it’s a Friday and the kids just wanted to play but hard because this was the day that we had to say goodbye. Our class (Anna’s, Lexi’s and mine) were actually pretty calm today, we started off with review of what we had learned the previous days and then moved on to fill in the blanks and such other fun games. We then had an early lunch and play time. The whole day I kept in the back of my mind that we had to leave the kids today but I didn’t want to believe it was actually going to happen. It was more like a dream or just a thought. After lunch we corralled the kids back into the classroom and helped them make bracelets that explained how first God made the earth (blue bead) then man sinned (black bead) then Jesus bleed for us (red bead) and because of that we had a clean slate (white bead). Then the yellow bead which is heaven, Jesus is coming again. Then they made letters thanking the kids back in America for their generous donations that helped get things such as crayons, paper, pencils, and other such artwork supplies. While we were working the bus came with the younger kids we taught last week and the coffee ceremony supplies. So we waited for the other busload of kids to come and moved into the assembly building provided by the school. We were preparing for the ceremony when the other bus full of kids arrived. One of the students who made a big impact on me ran up to me before I even saw him, jumped up in my lap and gave me a huge hug. It almost brought me to tears (still is to be honest) and he stayed on my lap for the majority of the ceremony. It was one of the most heart touching things to see the kids from last week come back and sit on every single one of our laps during the ceremony. The ceremony was cool to watch and the coffee made was the best I have ever tasted. Afterward we were all hanging out with the kids trying to prepare our hearts for what was to come. It didn’t help much, the bus came and we said our goodbyes. Almost all of the group was in tears, and some of the children just wouldn’t let go of us. It took almost ten minutes for us to load onto the bus and it was painfully hard the whole time. We gave our last hugs to the kids and got on. There were tears the whole way home. We are here at home now and the tears have mostly stopped, but we are all feeling the after effects of this very emotional day. Please keep our team in your prayers as we deal with this, and God bless.     –Eric Sipes