Second Workday

The team continued to work hard on Saturday.  We had to pull another crew to help the painting team for the day as we had to paint five offices and waiting area in one day.  They have a worker who is expecting a child and wanted to paint while she had a day off.  You wouldn't believe the number of spiders we found!

The cabinet crew, while being very serious and diligent with their work, forgot to add the nails to the nail gun and were trying to figure out why the cabinets wouldn't stay together.  Fortunately, Willie came to Bobby's rescue with "nails." The rest of the teams worked on their projects and made a lot of progress.

The property has avocado trees, which are very tall, and lime trees.  We had a picnic with the kids outside yesterday and had real Guatemalan guacamole...it's very simple but their avocados taste different - probably because they aren't picked until they're ripe.  Same with the pineapple, melons and bananas.  The taste is so sweet and concentrated. (Hi Andy and Austin; Larry & Lori say Hi to their disciple group.)

A few members of the team went to visit one of the school staff member's church.  The church has about 25 attendees weekly and is held in a very small room built of cinder block with a metal roof.  It has lights hanging from the wires and no other furniture inside except a pulpit and two speakers.  Elmer, who is the staff member, just received his theology certificate (even though he only has a 3rd grade education - when God calls you, He will provide!) and will become the new Pastor in one week. The room definitely needs work and we will help with wiring during this trip.  On one of our future trips, hopefully we can add a concrete floor and paint the walls.  On the way back to the school, there were several small churches like this in session.  The worship style of standing and dancing and really unabashedly worshiping our Savior was an awesome sight to see!

The kids are really interacting with us and it's a great feeling to see them come running up to you with a big hug or tug to play with them. Even with the language barrier, the team feels connected to them already.  They are all so happy with seemingly so little, but when you have Jesus' love that the staff showers on these kids along with life necessities - what more is there?  Below are some photos of the kids.  We'll keep posting more - note the smiles - and if you knew some of their horrid backgrounds, you would know that only God could have intervened to save them!