Forever Changed

Every morning we begin our day with joining a Vida school for their morning devotions.  The children in the schools begin at 7:30am every day thanking God for His goodness and mercy and raising their voices in praise to Him.  The team is in awe at the way these kids praise Jesus with total abandonment.  Some of the children come from places of complete desolation, but they realize that it is not their physical environment that brings them joy and peace, but it is the love of God that they feel.  They are so thankful for how God has brought them out of the darkness and into His light, so they worship Him with all of their might.  Witnessing and being a part of this has been extremely eye opening for the entire team.  As leaders, it has been amazing to see the team grow closer to Jesus and appreciate what He has already done for us.

In the evenings we have been debriefing our days and these have been powerful times.  Les came to talk to us and helped us to process some of the things that we have been experiencing so far.  After he left, the team continued to meet and began to share their hearts with one another.  We talked, prayed, sang, rejoiced and cried together for three hours.  The bond that has been built amongst the team has been absolutely amazing.  Many expressed the desire to let go of things from their lives that would distract them from having Christ at the center. Thank you for your prayers!

We are so excited to have the opportunity to go to Vida Nueva, our sister school, to share the gospel of God’s love through VBS.  The moment we got out of the vans we were greeted with children jumping up and down yelling excitedly.  Each day they would come running to  blanket us with hugs, no one wanting to let go.  We shared the gospel through skits and songs and did crafts and played games with them.  The days went by too fast and it was so difficult to leave them each day.  We all carry memories of these beautiful faces that we saw for only a short time, but have changed our lives forever.

We have completed our work project for the trip.  The team was given the task of moving large cindercrete blocks, sand and rocks from one side of a bridge up to the site of Vida Nueva School.  We loaded wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow and walked them up the road to take to the site.  The road was bumpy and hilly which made the trek more difficult.   We are amazed at the heart and determination that the team showed as there was not one complaint from anyone on the team. There were smiles on their faces as they took load after load up the hill.  We worked through rainy, muddy conditions and after finishing the work we were disappointed that we didn’t have another work project to do.  Though our muscles were sore and fatigue set in we were so happy to help our friends. 

Today we will be going to the market for an activity and then we will be doing home visits of our sponsorship children. We look forward to all that God has in store for us today.

Sorry we are unable to upload any pictures right now.  I will try again later on.

Thank you so much for your prayers!