Thursday-- June 28, 2012
Today was yet another amazing day! God is working through so many wonderful people and churchs down here! He keeps showing us and over and over how no matter what culture or what language you speak, we all serve the same God, a great God, and we are so SO profoundly blessed by his mercy and grace.
God has brought so much laughter in and amongst our team and the people we are encoutering and spending our days with.
The cooks made a wonderful breakfast again for us-- cheesey eggs, salsas, pineapple, watermelon and yummy orange juice! It is so neat in the mornings because we not only get to eat with our team, but we get to eat with the other teams as well and really share and get to know one another to start out our day. Steve and Garrett led us in worship again and Garrett also led our devotional, coming from the book of Joshua.
We loaded up the bus and headed to Aaron's house to work more on the worksite. A few new kids were there today, helping us along the way working. It was so wonderful to see their personalities come out today. The sister, Carmen, who we are building the room for, is a bit more on the shy side, as well as most of her children too. It was wonderful to those kids who have been so shy, come alive and really come out of their shell today.
The Raub's got to go meet their sponsor children. Mary, Scot, and Maribeth sponsored 2 children: Osmara, a second grade girl at Belzar's school, one of NRN's schools they work closely with, and Jeremias, a preschooler also at Belzar's school. Meghann also sponsored her own child, Moises, a third grader at the same school. A few other members on the Carmel team with the help of Hannah and Ginny Campbell rounded up around 10 sponsored children to go out to lunch at McDonalds.
What really touched my heart was seeing how truly excited these children were just to go to McDonalds, when most of us have gone a thousand times it seems.
My little guy, Moises, really touched my heart to the core. The day before yesterday, he was working through an exercise with one of the other teams, writing down a list of characterics and likes and dislikes along with what he would want to tell his sponsor if he had one. His response was, "I hope you are doing well. I am praying for and I hope you are having a wonderful time with the ones you love."
I found out that the kids had been making fun of him at school, because he didn't wear socks. Moises didn't own any socks until today when I brought him some. His response to the kids was, " I don't need socks, its too hot."
Moises, along with Osmara, were smiling ear to ear, along with the other kids. Every night when we come back from our day, we debrief as a team and go around the circle and say our favorite part of the day. Mine was the following:
We got to McDonalds and Moises eyes were opened so wide. Juan Carlos, one of our main translators, was working with me to figure out what exactly Moises wanted to order. Not ever being there, he looks up at the menu and there is a giant triple cheeseburger value meal picture right in front of his big brown eyes. He turned and looked at Juan Carlos and said, "I want that! That BIG burger!!" Juan Carlos looked at me laughing saying, " He wants the triple!" We both started dying laughing and later persuaded him to go with the happy meal and if he was still hungry after finishing we could go back later to get more food.
As I sat with my family eating with our children, I was just so in awe of these children. They were giving me more than I was giving them. We are all so wonderfully blessed, so profoundly rich in so many resources. All the children got to play in the indoor playground! I even got in on the action! I was touched by the children's pure joy and love.
What gets me the most was meeting this child, this child that I had never met before, and falling in love with him instantly. I am not a mother, I do not have children of my own, but I am proud to say I have a little boy who needs me and loves me so much. I have given him hope through God's blessing and resources he has given me. I am the vessel and I am beyond excited to see what God has in store not only for Moises, but for my parents children and for the other sponsored children that go to the Christian schools.
With our help, these children's futures can be forever changed.
Saying goodbye was one of the hardest things I have had to do. I didn't want him to leave. My family had such a wonderful special moment, crying and hugging together, praying to God for our children as their bus left the parking lot to go home.
The team got so much progess down on Carmen's room today. We almosy finished the walls, and started actually digging to make the floor even! We headed back to the La Quinta, where we had another fantastic dinner, Dave's favorite actually which was steak with an amazing sauce, mashed potatoes, and salad. Let me tell you we are not suffering for good food by any means.
After dinner, we got to go to Pastor Oscar's church. What an amazing testimony and passion for Christ her has. We were welcomed by the church, singing and worshiping together! Some of the songs we even knew singing them in english right along side the rest of the congregation.
When I say the Holy Spirit was present, I mean He was profoundly present at the church. We truly witnessed miracles happen right before our eyes as people came forward and gave their lives to Christ for the very first time. It didn't matter that we didn't know all the words. We could see with our eyes wide open that God was working in BIG ways in and among the people at the church tonight. After the service was over, many of the people came up to us hugging and thanking us for being there. What a warm and welcoming feeling it was to have so many people come up to us and accept us for who we are: brothers and sisters in Christ.
We got back to the Quinta and put our food bags together, loading up different staple foods into bags to delived to homes tomoAftrrow. Rice, beans, sugar, salt, laundry soap, toilet paper, cookies, and oill were in the bags. We made 33 different bags to give to families for tomorrow.
Along with the food distribution we are fitting shoes to men, women, and children of all ages in a village about an hour away in the country side from the La Quinta. It will be such a blessing to do this for a church village that has very little. Our team is super excited for tomorrow!
Thank you for all the wonderful prayers! Keep them coming please!
We are ALL SMILES!!! :)
We love you all so much!
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