Walls down...and walls up

I am posting mostly because of some encouragement...someone wrote and wanted me to post more about what the groups have been doing! Someone actually wants me to post? Well, how can I say no?

What a whirlwind. The first group, the optometry team from SCO FCO left on Thursday as we tried to balance the responsibilities of two groups at the same time. I had to run unceremoniously from the airport seeing them off (Jana stayed behind to make sure they got upstairs and through security ok) to Little Caesar’s to buy enough pizzas and supplies for a special lunch for the other group to share with the clinic staff and some of the guys helping on the TSP....which also served as a pre-Mother’s Day celebration for the staff as well. Good food was shared, as well as some stories, testimonies, and encouragement. To hear the group share what impact they see being made by the clinic, and to have some of the staff share what the ministry means to them and how they use their lives to glorify God and share His love (one even leaving in tears with the emotion overcoming her) was powerful stuff.

 

 

In the finishing days of the eye group, the group from SOCC/CSF was working on construction...continuing the rock wall work, and helping in moving the last big pieces of the Church (definitely the “smallest” of those big pieces) to get the porch done and the bathrooms started. Lots of concrete mixing, rock breaking, rock moving, fill, etc...all to God’s glory and much visible progress!

We will have to get all the interior work done on the bathroom still...but step by step the work continues.  Your donations, big or small, really do keep it moving forward! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday brought a visit to the school our kids attend...a time for the group to encourage the kids there, let them practice their English (it is a bi-lingual school) but most important help make an impact on them in Christ for their futures. It was a mutual edification I think, and some pen pal relationships (or Facebook) are likely to come from the several hours they all spent getting to know each other.  (in this picture some of the group are leading the youngest kids in the school in simon says)

 

In the afternoon Friday the group had some time to spend with the kids from the milk project...sharing songs, helping with Mother’s Day cards (more on that later), serving food, and in general loving on the kids. How the volunteers manage to do all that...and more...when groups are not there really is pretty impressive. It may look like herding cats, but there is a plan and way it gets done in which no one gets left out.

I was too busy translating on Saturday to get any pictures...we spent the day with the youth from four different Churches (1. The Teguc Church, 2. San Juancito, 3. Cantaranas, and 4. Sampedrana) in a mini-retreat setting just outside Tegucigalpa up in the cloud forest. We played some games, had four break out sessions on topics pre-selected by the youth: how to honor our fathers and mothers, how we can use our jobs/schooling to glorify God, overcoming our fears, and a deeper discussion on evangelism, and finishing the day just before we left with a baptism of one of the young men from the Church here in Teguc.

Did I mention they drug me to see The Avengers on Friday night? I fear if it were not for groups we would never go to the theater (the last time I went was with another group in January.)

Today was a great service at Church and then an afternoon of distributing food (Kids Against Hunger rice) nearby the clinic....over 15 families encouraged, better nourished, and prayed over...in between the rain we received.

Busy week....tomorrow going to the children’s ward of Hospital Escuela, and of course some souvenir shopping time.

Two groups at once...there were pros and cons, but the pros were all super-pros for the Kingdom...the cons were mostly exhaustion related! :-)