The Benevolence Center & Fireside

Yesterday the students had an opportunity to come to the Benevolence Center for 45 minutes. The Benevolence Center has gently used clothing, over the counter medicine and vitamins, and various donated items. This time they were such things as donated Avon perfume sets, Coloring books & Crayons, sugar free butterscotch pudding, first aid kits, combs, chapstick and misc items. The sugar free butterscotch pudding was not a big hit, but everything else was pretty much gone. The Adult Multi-vitamins went the fastest and then Children's vitamins. They seem big on Ibuprofen, but not Tylenol or Aspirin. The Center also includes several used books. They take whatever they want from the center for free, it is all donated.

In order to control it a bit they only put a little bit out each session of the clothing and medicine. This keeps them from being completely depleted and the next set of students from not getting anything. Sometimes they get donations from the short-term workers who come each session and sometimes they don't so they try to spread it out a bit.

In the evening, they had a bonfire where everyone could come. They had asked Debra to speak about the reason short-term workers come and her experiences on other mission trips. She was very nervous, but did a great job. Then two of the Ubekistan students gave their testimony. Both testimonies were extraordinary. It would be way too much to reiterate in the blog. The main premise is that in Ubekistan, the primary religion is Muslim. If you are not Muslim, then you are a shameful person. The conversion from Muslim to Christianity is very traumatic experience, but God has done great things through the Ubekistan students. It is difficult to imagine that about 8-11years ago these same individuals would have killed a person who converted from Muslim religion to Christianity. I will have to share more about them when we get home. It started to rain towards the end of the evening and most people ran back to their rooms. Some of us decided to stay and still roast marshmallows. No Smores, but burnt marshmallows are always yummy!