When he first asked his group of volunteers to make the best circle they could, they had the natural reaction of stretching out their hands to make a perfect circle. Pastor Greg showed how this kind of circle doesn't allow for anyone else to join and in fact caused the group to turn their backs on the rest of those gathered. He then brought a cross to the center of the circle and asked the group to connect themselves to Jesus (via the cross) and then reach out to bring others in. This circle may not look as perfect as the first one, but it is much more effective in daily discipleship.
After the morning devotion, it was time to start our mission of doing 12 clean water projects in one day. Pastor Silvio took one team of Lisa, Ray, and Cindy and Justo Guillermo took the other team of Pastor Dave, Bill, and Andrea. The second team had the blessing of visiting Justo's house for their last stop in the morning. I say blessing because Justo's mother, Carmen is a remarkable woman of faith. She is extremely crippled by arthritis to the point that she can not walk or use her hands, but she shared for more than 20 minutes about how much she is thankful for and how important Jesus is to her. It was amazing to hear at least 3 other households of her relatives credit her as the spark that led them to faith and to New Jerusalem Church.
While the two teams were out this morning, the Strand family was busy at the church. Greg and Diana continued their health and hygiene class with the adults, stressing the importance of not just having knowledge but also acting on it and sharing it with others so that their family members and neighbors could also benefit from clean water habits.
Adam and Audrey spent their morning playing with the local children. Adam overcame the language barrier enough to organize two teams for a soccer game, and Audrey (who ignores the language barrier as if it doesn't exist and is all smiles, all the time) shared jump ropes brought by Bob and later got Francisca to play some music. Dianna Hart was also with the kids and found herself a two-month old baby to snuggle.
During the lunch break, the soccer ball (brought down by our intrepid P.E. teacher, Bob) was used by Pastor Greg, Justo, Pastor Silvio, and others. Those three always find a way to enjoy each others' company.
Then it was time for VBS and the kids' health & hygiene class. The kids started today with the Parable of the Sower and memorizing a portion of Joshua 24:15: "Choose this day whom you will serve" to practice in a ball toss game.
During VBS, the afternoon water project teams went out to visit 3 more houses each. Pastor Silvio and Lisa took Ray and Dianna Hart, along with Jose their translator, while Justo and Pastor Dave took Greg and Diana Strand-- and no translator since Frank serves as the VBS translator. It wasn't until they were departing that I (Diana Strand) realized that I would be translating for Pastor Dave for the family health surveys, a completely new translation project for me. But I appreciated working with Pastor Dave and getting to know the families better, along with their water and health challenges as we did the surveys and prayer ministry.
So now we are at the close of our second day of the clean water project in Quince de Julio. 18 families have been given water filters and Tippy Taps and we have 22 more homes to visit over the next two days. Please continue to pray that God enables us to complete our work with the energy, love, and compassion needed for our tasks. Some of us are starting to feel rather run down and finding it a challenge to even eat lunch in the heat in the middle of each day. Yet we have had no serious health challenges so far, so again we say, "Gracias a Dios!" ("Thanks be to God!")
You are all doing wonderful things ! May God watch over you as you minister to the adults and kids there. Cyndee
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