Our group was up and at it early this morning as we all had to be on the bus by 5:30am. No complaints, the team came ready to work. We drove a short distance to the Ministry Center for Hope for Guatemala where we received a quick orientation about their meal program. Then we enjoyed a breakfast of black beans, eggs with ham, watermelon, and cheese. The food was great!
Team 1 stayed at the Center today to feed the kids, paint, and work in the bakery. Teams 2&3 went over to City of Hope for a day of demolition, construction, and cleaning. Since we have three teams and we are working Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, each group will rotate through each worksite at least once. I was with the crew at City of Hope. Our jobs consisted of: demolishing a large concrete wall, cleaning out the outdoor chapel, scrubbing bathrooms, demolishing a room on the second floor, un-hardwood flooring two rooms, cleaning the concrete soccer field, and picking up trash. We arrived at City of Hope at 7am and worked until noon.
It was fun to get back with our counterparts at the Center for lunch. They really enjoyed getting to know some of the kids and worked hard with serving and cleaning up meals, painting, and working in the bakery. All three teams worked hard and got a lot accomplish. For lunch, we had spaghetti with red sauce and sausage, cucumber, fried potatoes, watermelon, corn tortillas, and some amazing lemonade.
After lunch, everyone relaxed for a bit and got some rest before heading back out. We worked the rest of the afternoon on our projects and made a ton of progress! The team headed back to the Center around 5:30 to visit the surrounding neighborhoods and see the kids in their environment. We were quite a sight…33 gringos walking through the streets! We gave and received tons of hugs and had a blast hanging out with some of the sweetest kids you could ever meet.
Jose encouraged us to look for hope in the kids. He explained how easy it is to be sad for the conditions they live in or when we realize how much we have. We truly had a chance to see Christ in the eyes of the kids we played with and sang with. They asked us to sing them some songs in English and then they sang back in Spanish. It was a glorious glimpse of what I hope heaven will be like! We closed this time by joining hands in a huge prayer circle as Andrew Nuckolls prayed over the kids that they would know the love of Christ.
We ate dinner back at the Center…hamburgers and French fries along with a dessert surprise of chocolate covered fruit…bananas, canteloupe, strawberries, pineapple, and watermelon. Lots of smiles and not much talking while everyone dug in after a hard day’s work. Coach Timms shared a devotion with us about remembering that God has us here for a reason. He encouraged us to embrace every moment to share Christ.
Our evening continued when Mrs. Carr shared with us the sweet notes and Bible verses the 4th graders sent for us. They have been awesome prayer partners for our team!
We are on the bus now headed back to the seminary for the night. We are loading up early again tomorrow for another full day. Our team continues to have an amazing attitude….and they are a blast to hang out with! I wish you could be on the bus right now to hear all the giggling and chatter. God is knitting our hearts together in His perfect love this week.
