Another Day's work

Wow! was a lot accomplished for the Lord today. I don't even know where to begin writing about the wonderful events that happened today. There are so many stories that have affected each individual personally; it is absolutely impossible to write all of these stories. I hope that those stories are all shared with friends and family when the group goes home.

I will start with the fantastic eight. These eight stayed at the mission house and yet again packed food. They entertained each other today, and I had more fun than ever packing food. Oftentimes, people choose to pack food because they believe that it will be an easy or light day, but it as equally as hard as any other thing that one could choose to take part in. The group was entertained by the Wheelbarrow lady and her sidekick as well as Bouyon Boy. There are now 700 boxes of food ready to be delivered to the hungry people here. Today the food packaging group had a blast serving the Lord and getting to know one another better.

Nueva Oriental... Mark Connell led the team to victory as they accomplished the three houses that were left unfinished yesterday because we never got our wood. (Actually these were the three houses where the teams had only dug postholes for the corner posts.) God used Billy and Cisco today to do great things for him. Some other preachers from the states worked with them also. By God using these men, 3 people in Nueva Oriental are now our sisters in Christ.

Santa Anna... Lots of work happened here today. The foundation at the church is ready to be laid; there are footers and level ground today. We will need Cynthia White here to show those men how it is done. Also the land for the orphanage is cleared and ready for work. Can't you imagine how cute those precious children will be? Also on the land today, was another day of VBS. Everyone saw the love that Phyllis Chaffin and Marylin Hunt gave to the children. They spent much one-on-one time coloring with children. They even missed the water balloon fight that has become a highlight of the VBS. Everyone involved with all of the VBS teams has done a great job and spent much time planning.

The VBS crew had to move some cement tiles sometime during the day, and they were all touched by a little Honduran girl Estephania who spent the time helping. She could only move one tile at a time, but is was one tile at a time that the group did not have to move. She did this the whole time with a big smile on her face.

In a remote area near Santa Anna, 4 houses were worked on. They are all almost complete. Two of them are finished, and the others will not take very long to finish. Praise God that 7 families who didn't have a place to live in this morning do now.

In Ojojona... Ojojona is a neat community directly up the hill from our land in Santa Anna. Today we had our first clinic of the trip. Doctor Jason Kelly from O'fallon, IL and Dan the dentist manned this project. They saw about two hundred people in about 5 hours. This group probably saw things that they have not seen before. Many of the children have worms and diareah.

There also was a VBS and Bible study with the adults here today. No one showed up for the meeting at 1:00 or even at 1:30 today, but that is ok; the group did not let Satan get them discouraged. They studied with people that were in line for the clinic, and we have three new familie members in Christ now in Ojojona. That means today we recieved 6 familiy members. What an amazing reason to celebrate!!! In just two days we have 17 new Christian family members.

Les Ferguson told a story of Daisy Gonzoles. She asked him to put her in his prayers. She is a married mother of 5 who became a Christian today. She asked for prayers that God would help her not do things that are wrong, that she would flee from evil ways, and that her husband woul accept God when he hears about him on Wednesday.

Food distribution... The Krug girls, Claire Chessir, and Russel Shaw had more fun riding around in Marc's truck delivering food. They found out that Torch's delivery truck runs like a HumV when it went up to places that even Marc was unsure about. This group was Jesus to many people today as they delivered 125 boxes of food. One lady even told them that all of her thanks was to God for the food. She said that she knew it was from him because she prayed for it. Praise God that she knew the work we are doing is not from us.

The hospital team... This morning Anibal Tamacas otherwise known as AB led a team to the hospital of about 15 people. There were two girls in our group who spent the day playing with a girl with Tiburculosus. They had no worries of catching this; and when asked about why they were doing it, they said that the little girl needed God's love too. Also some of our younger crew members experienced the burn unit. This is always a heart-wrenching experience. The crew saw a baby with a hernia. Also there was a little girl there with a pole through her leg. The entire group had a very emotional day.

AB told me that the most heart warming fulfilling part of his day was the part of the day when this group went to the special needs orphanage. This is a place where kids that are severely retarded can be taken care of and loved. The group spent about 3 hours with the kids. He said that they were able to play soccer with them, and it was much fun watching them try. They also spent time on the new playground built for them in the spring by a Torch group. Everyone was very uplifted after spending time with these special people.

Much happened today. God is awesome! It was another great day.