Day Five (Wednesday)

Before I start today's post, the team would like me to pass along their gratitude to all who are praying for us.  Not many of us brought along devices for internet access, but I do read any comments left on the blog to the team over breakfast each morning.  So, feel free to leave comments at the end of this or any post -- team members love hearing encouraging words and thoughts from home.  If you can't figure out how to leave a comment on the blog, you can always leave it at our Strands on a Mission Facebook page that my family has -- if you have Facebook access.

So today upon arrival at Quince de Julio, we were led in our morning devotion by Pastor Dave.  He related the story of Andrea's stolen passport as he spoke on Romans 5:3-5.

Pastor Dave invited Andrea to share part of her experience and the hope that she had even in the midst of a difficult experience.

After our morning devotional time, it was time to send out the clean water project teams with an even more ambitious goal today:  we are hoping to finish up the project tomorrow morning to allow for some special activities tomorrow afternoon, so today's goal was for each team to finish 7 filters, so that there would only be 4 left for each team tomorrow morning.  Frank, one of our translators, took along my camera today, so for once I have lots of pictures to share of one of the morning teams.  He snapped a few of the team that included Pastor Dave, Bill, and Cindy before he went off to work with Lisa, Ray, and Andrea.

Morning at the church went much the same as yesterday:  Greg and Diana were able to lead the mothers in the third health & hygiene class which today covered fun topics like parasites and diarrhea.  The mothers had lots to contribute to the conversation and were happy to all go home with a special measuring spoon for making an oral rehydration solution (from a bottle of water, a bit of salt, and a small amount of sugar) as well as toothbrushes and toothpastes.  Thank you again to the many of you who contributed supplies for our work!

While the Strands were teaching, their kids were again playing in the church yard with many of the local children under the supervision of Dianna Hart and Bob.  Adam worked on some jump-roping speed today and Audrey tied jump ropes together to use for three-person jump roping and for limbo practice.  The kids had a great morning, as always.

After our lunch break, we had just 7 filters left for the two teams.  We went out in the same teams as yesterday, with Lisa taking Ray and Dianna Hart while Pastor Dave took Greg and Diana Strand, as well as their son, Adam, who got to serve as team photographer for the afternoon.  I'm not including all of his shots here, but I did want to include quite a few as I thought it was interesting to see the afternoon through his eyes.

In terms of the clean water project, today was probably the most challenging day so far.  Lisa's team found that their visits took longer than expected because at nearly every house there was someone sick to pray over.  Pastor Dave's team met a woman this afternoon who just seemed to have no hope about improving her family's health and living situation.  We found ourselves wondering aloud to each other after we left if she would even be supported by her family members as she tried to introduce healthy habits through the handwashing with the Tippy Tap and having the filter available yet in need of minimal maintenance to provide clean drinking water for them all.

The afternoon session with the kids was huge today -- more than 60 children with at least 20 that we had not met yet this week.  The children learned about the Parable of the Mustard Seed during VBS and spent their health and hygiene time learning about nutrition and oral hygiene.  This meant that the children, as well as the moms, were are able to go home with new toothbrushes and toothpaste today, along with their VBS crafts (some of which Adam took a picture of above when he saw them on the wall at one of the houses we visited.)

So as hard as it is to believe, we only have one more day with the people of Quince de Julio.  We are so grateful for God's provision so far and pray that he will continue to guide us tomorrow.  We also pray for all the sick we met today and that God would protect their families.