Another early day. I knew the team would be sleeping hard after the night of celebrating with Rose of Sharon church, and would be hard to get going. I decided to give them a little help waking up. I have the songs from last night at church on my iPod and I plugged it into my little speaker and turned it on full blast at 5:30. (keep in mind that breakfast is at 6 and we leave at 6:30, so something drastic was in order lol) I got a few mean looks and heard some groans, but it did the trick and the team got up and got ready. Sherree and Jennifer knew I was going to do it, but it was a surprise for the rest of the team. I think they have finally forgiven me.
After breakfast and loading the van we took off to pick up translators and have our last bathroom stop at OTR. We had told everyone that we really needed to get on the road quick, as we had a ways to drive today. We asked that they just use the bathroom and not buy anything unless they really needed to. (the checkout service is very slow and I didn't want to waste time in line). Mary repeated the instructions to her van and then German reminded them again. Wouldn't you know it, a few people, who shall remain nameless, ordered muffins and such. In their defense, they thought that the process would be like in the states. BUT, we who live here know about the slow service and therefore had asked that this process was avoided. The culprits have repented and been forgiven, and I think everyone is learning that there is a reason behind our requests. Of course, after all that, German ordered a breakfast sandwich and coffee and was the last one on the bus. But he was punished when he was trying to share his breakfast in with Mary in the van (I think he was kissing up) and he ended up dropping part of it and then spilling his coffee on Mary. I guess she got the punishment... Anyway, it was an interesting morning and we hadn't even gotten out of town yet.
The first stop was at Pastor Yader's church in a forgotten neighborhood. It is a little area and most of the kids were in school, but we had over 20 kids (whose parents had kept them home from school to come to VBS. school here is not mandatory like in the states) and another 20 teens and adults come. We got to do the VBS inside the building which was great since we were in the shade. Having a smaller group meant that more of our team could go out street witnessing, which was perfect for this location. The kids absolutely loved the VBS. John and the girls do a great job of leading music with the funny songs. They kids listened intently to the Bible stories and know most of them. Everyone loved making the tambourines. It's amazing how much 'music' they make when you have 20+ of them rattling at the same time. I loved seeing the laughing faces of the kids and parents. This neighborhood doesn't get visitors. They were soooo thankful that we would care enough to come at all and to invest time and energy in them. We left craft supplies for the kids who were in school. The Pastor will make sure that they get to make their own things. We didn't want them to be left out. While the kids were doing games outside, I was blessed to share my heart with some ladies. I noticed some older teen boys hanging around watching everything going on. I gave them snacks when we passed them out. I asked them to come inside to the shade, but they preferred to stay outside. When John was through with leading music, I asked him to come out to speak with them. (They would relate to him much more than me!) He had a good talk with them and passed out New Testaments. I haven't had the chance to ask about decisions, but I know he planted some good seeds. He spoke with them a long time. We had to jump on vans to get to the next place. So we were off like a herd of turtles...
At the next church, which was more in town, we met with Pastor Oscar from Todopoderoso church and his people. They are instrumental in this church plant. They always do a great job of decorating the location with balloons and having a piñata and lots of their membership to help us. We ended up with a lot of kids who enjoyed all the VBS activities. We were inside a medium size building so it was a little cooler. There was room to have group jump rope fun with the kids as they arrived. We also got the chance do more street witnessing. The team is doing really well adapting to the different locations and limitations and challenges of each site. We got to help with the feeding. Which means we get to help pass out the food that very hard workers have spent hours preparing. They are thankful to us for the money to provide the food. We are thankful to them for preparing it. We are all thankful to God for allowing the blessing. I love it when we can have feedings.
We got in the vans for the sort of long drive back to León. Part of the people in our van fell asleep and we took the usual pictures of the sleepers. It's a tradition with us to catch snoozing people on film. :) We stopped at La Unión to drop off the translators. Mary and German kept a few people with them to help buy food for the feeding on Wednesday and also some groceries for the team meals. I went with the other van to get crema and queso for our lunch on Wednesday and to pick up some ice. Then we made it home to enjoy lunch. Everyone was so tired and I think the trip to the beach was a quick one and everyone rested a little more this afternoon. Sherree got a good nap and I laid down for about 90 minutes and slept maybe 45.
We had a team meeting before heading out for church. Everyone is experiencing God's hand in the work this week. I love to hear them share about it.
We went to 2 different churches with 2 different experiences. One church service didn't last very long, but was good. The church I went to with my half of the group was wonderful. You could feel the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit as soon as we walked in. The Pastor was very nice. The church was so thankful for us to come and share with them. They were minus a keyboard player and Jeremy, one of our translators (who happens to be the worship pastor at his church) stepped in. The worship leader at the church was very talented and the songs were ones I knew and love.
I spoke a little about Voice of Hope Ministries and the team. They kids did the drama again and it brought tears to my eyes again. The church loved it to. It is so simple and powerful. And it shows how Jesus took on so much to protect us from sin. He is so precious!
Grace and Bethany both gave their testimonies and Mariano gave his testimony and then the message. All were very heartfelt and genuine and honoring to God.
When we were leaving, they gave us a bag of mangos. Yum! We are sharing them with the team for breakfast. We finished up at the church about 9:15 and headed towards home. We dropped off the translators near their homes on the way. It was close to 10 when we got home. The other team had been home for a couple of hours. It was good for them to get some down time. Our van was engrossed in some riddles and guessing games with the translators. Some of them were pretty hard to figure out. Rydder had some good trivia questions about people in the Bible. Jeremy set up his scenario right before leaving the van. The team came home and part of them worked diligently to figure out the answer to it. They are proud to be able to tell him today that they figured it out. We have a great time with our translators. I'm glad to be able for the team to interact with them when we are traveling.
I don't have totals of salvations yet. They are being kept track of, but I just haven't had the time to find out for myself. I'll post that info later. What matters most is that God is working, people are being saved, encouraged, fed and blessed. And God is being Glorified!!
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