We've had a good work day, today. Up by 6am for breakfast. I had some cold oatmeal, but the team had eggs, fruit, beans, rice, sweet bread. They seemed to enjoy it.
We got ready and had devotions. Then we left at 7:30am for the rondevous at the stoplight in León at 8am. We picked up German and Jeremy and Juan, our translators, and also Michael, one of Juan's English students that Mary and I got to work with one day. He is coming along to get his feet wet as a translator. His biggest desire is to translate the Word of God and lead people to Christ. Amen, brother!! He is such a sweet kid.
We headed off to the Sewer Pond. We met up with Pastor Miguel there. We did our Fiesta there and the whole team participated in the drama, since there are only 6 of them. Pastor Chet was wonderful as the Strongman. We had a lot of fun. It was nice to be back there with so many familiar faces. After the Sewer Pond, we went to the next little village, where we have given out some food, but never really had a chance to do a Fiesta before. We didn't have a huge turnout, and some of them were actually from the Sewer Pond. But we did the Fiesta and shared the Gospel. We only had 2 people from the team to do the drama, so Chuck had to be the Strongman, Drunk, and Singer himself. The kids really got into his performance, though, and it was great. We finished up that Fiesta and packed up to head home. I didn't get a count on the total salvations today. I'll have to ask Pastor Miguel later.
On the way home, we stopped at a Cell store to get Chet's Nica phone working. That took a while and some of the team got out of the van and walked down the street to buy some fruit. They met a homeless man begging on the street. They stopped and witnessed to him for a very long time. They gave him a New Testament, which he leaned up on the wall. Hopefully, he set it there because he treasures it, and not because he's trying to sell it. :)
We then stopped at a bus stop to meet a couple of ladies from the Sewer Pond, who wanted German and Mary and I to meet a lady with 4 kids (one has menangitis and needs something like Peadisure to survive on) and a newborn. The other 2 kids are probably 4 and 5. Her husband left her and she had no where to live. So a friend let her build a one room shack on her property. it's structure is tree limbs with black plastic as walls. There is a full size bed that all 5 of them sleep in. They wanted us to see her home and to meet her and the kids to see if there is anything we could do for her. We gave her $15 out of our pockets to help buy formula for the baby and special needs girl, and told her that we would pray about what, if anything else, we could do. She let us take her family picture to share with prayer partners and potential supporters. Bless her heart.
It was a long walk to her house and we had to pass a slaughterhouse to get there. Peeuuu!! I took a picture of large intestines that were blown up (by mouth) and hung in coils over some lines to dry. Amazing. We were glad to get back to the van. My heart breaks for people who have to live in these circumstances. There is so much need and only so much that we can individually do. It's in God's hands to show us who to reach out to and how to do it.
When we first got to the Sewer Pond area for the Fiesta, Hope, the 7 year old girl on the team, broke out in tears. She was so overwhelmed with how these people, especially the kids, live. Bless her sweet heart. She was my prize-giver-outer for the games at the Fiesta. She did a good job. By the second place, she was warming up to the kids more.
We finally made it home for lunch at 1pm. It was shredded beef with onions and peppers and a brown gravy, rice, beans, cabbage slaw and a tortilla. Yum! Then we had down time until dinner and evening church.
I sat on my bed and researched some books for Juan Pacheco to use for his school. It was very peaceful and I had to struggle not to take a nap! Mary came and got me and we went to talk to the cook about what items we needed to buy at the store for the next few days. We have so much crazy conversation with our Spanish and English. We got it all figured out for the rest of the team's stay and when we would buy the items. Hopefully, we got it right. :)
Dinner was hamburgers and then we headed off to church at 6pm. We went to Cristo Viene church, which is in the next little town over and is where Saturnino (our guard) and his family go. It's a medium size building with bright yellow and white decor. As all churches here, they have the molded plastic lawn-type chairs to sit in. I love it when they have the kid's sized chairs, too.
We were greeted very warmly when we got there. Freddy, Araceliz (our cleaning lady)'s son, met me at the door and said in very clear English "Hello Vickie". He wants to learn English so much. He is very good at picking up words. I wish we could have the time to work with him on it. Maybe someday... We felt very much welcome at the church. I think it's one of my favorite ones! The service was long, like most here, about 2 hours. There was a lot of singing and praying and singing and praying, testimony, singing and praying, testimony, singing and praying, sermon, singing and praying, etc. Mary spoke on behalf of VOH. She is getting very comfortable with that. I'm glad for her. I think it does her heart good, too. She invited everyone in the congregation to come to AR to her church. :) One of the team members gave his testimony. Pastor Chet gave the message and German translated. It was a really good message on forgiveness.
I sat by myself a row in front of the team, partly because it was the only seat I saw when we walked in and I also like to sit apart from the translators in the congregation so that I can try to understand what's being said myself. I enjoyed that very much tonight. Oh how I wish I could dunk my head in Spanish and have it all sink it! But it's getting better every day.
There were some young boys gathered around the large windows of the church to listen to what the North Americans had to say. A couple of the guys from the team took a translator with them outside during the service and spoke with the boys. One young man, Michael, age 13, gave his life to Christ tonight. The Pastor brought him up to the front to pray with Pastor Chet and Jas, the young team member who gave his testimony, also prayed with him. It was very special.
We got back home and the team had share time and we all retired to our rooms. It's been a good day. God is blessing in His way and His time. I'm enjoying the team.
But I'm not enjoying the clock ticking away. It feels so strange to be leaving next week. But I know that God has lots planned for me to do each day of my life and I'm ready for the challenge. I trust Him and His plans. I'm excited to see what each day brings. He is awesome and so worthy of praise and honor and celebration!
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