Wednesday

Children’s Ministry:
Today was our last day with the ninos and so we made it a fun day, which included making animal balloons, face painting, jump rope, frizzbie throwing and games using water balloons and soccer balls. The children loved it; Luis was a master at making different creations with balloons, and Alice assisted providing blown balloons, making it a good manufacturing line. Drew, Denise and Tanya were the Picaso’s of face painting. Each child had their face painted some more than once.

Prior to the games we had to go to the households of the communities to invite the children as they did not have school until next Monday. Since this was some of our first time doing a mission trip, seeing where these families live in reality verses on TV, really brings into perspective how much one takes for granted. The irony is that these families are more content than those who have more like us in the US. Paul stated that we should be content in every situation. This experience is truly humbling and a blessing we will never forget. This was the least stressful day we had with the children, and we had all ages at one time verses separate age groups at different times. God is so awesome. If I was to sum up the children it would be, bright eyed, intelligent, sneaky, beautiful and joyful children. By Gods grace they will all be saved and we will see these children again.

Construction:
We started out the morning thinking the only task we had left on the building extension was to add the roof. We were reminded very quickly that we needed to be flexible on this trip. We were instructed early that we would be adding significantly to the concrete pad which would include the overhang area at the perimeter. Once again we were hauling wheel-barrels full of sand and gravel and mixing with cement on the ground. The day was hot, the work was hard and we were all working in a very confined space. We stayed with it till the job was complete and we had no left over concrete. Meanwhile, the roof was being built. It was a blessing having Ronnie on the trip. His experience welding came in handy since the framework for the roof was comprised of metal box beams and “C” channels (each joint required welding). Additionally, the local welder said Ronnie was an excellent welder and he was excited to learn from him. Painting continued with the exterior of the church being virtually complete. By the time we left for the evening the roof structure and panels were complete the concrete pad in place and the exterior concrete sink was in place and functional.

Women’s Dinner:
What a blessing we had to night. The girls, Kevin, Carlos, Drew, Kelly and Ronnie came to help celebrate being women of God. We had set pretty table for them and had wonderful samples of makeup and nail polish thanks to Melanie Wilson, her associates and Carla all Mary Kay ladies.
About 25 women came and were pampered for the evening. The evening started off with some wonderful music from Luis and some another musician, then Tanya and Alice gave their testimonies, then Cecilia, Mario’s wife gave a talk about being beautiful and God loving them and transforming them. She tied this in with the lotions we had brought from Mary Kay. To see the look of joy on those women was worth all the hard work.

They were served by the men and Pastor David insisted that we ladies be served as well so we were blessed by being served by the men. While Cecilia was giving her talk, the men were outside and around praying for the women! What an awesome thing that was.

We gave each woman a booklet that had our testimonies, the 4 Steps to God and we took their picture and put it on the back. We handed out the bags of makeup that we had prepared after dinner and we painted all the ladies nails. Then we had dessert – Tres Leche’s and what a special treat that was.

After dinner our extra special blessing was to have a blessing by all the ladies of the church to us and oh the hugs, we were so overwhelmed.

Pat one of the missionaries here has been praying for 2 years for this dinner, some real meat for ladies not fluff and they got that tonight! What a blessing to be the beginning of something.
Thank you God for showing up and blessing this night.

PRAYER REQUEST: Pray that God works in the hearts of Jorge and his wife to mend their marriage. Carlos and Drew helped re-assure Jorge of his salvation.