A few days worth of updates

Well, it has been a few days since an update. So I will need to tell you about Saturday, Sunday, and today.

Saturday was another day in Guarari. We spent the morning on our work projects as well as playing with the neighborhood kids as usual. However, in the afternoon we were not doing the VBS program. This time we participated in the regular program that Melanie, Norma, and Fernando do each Saturday at the community center. It was similar to the VBS programs we run and it was good to see how they run things.

Sunday we went to the Heredia church and were tremendously blessed with an incredibly warm welcome. The worship was great and we were able to share with them in both testimony and drama. It was also terrific to be able to meet the families of the Heredia teens on our team and let their parents know how much we appreciate them. We were also surprised when Eduardo, the contractor we have been working with, showed up at church with his son, who has been attending VBS. The men have really connected with him and Gord had invited him to church.

After church we did some touring around town, hanging out in a local park watching the skateboarders and touring a small coffee plantation. Then returning to the base to relax for the evening.

Today was our final day in Guarari doing VBS. We were nearly able to complete the work projects. The septic trench was completed and the wall only had a few hours of work left which the contractor will finish tomorrow.

We may have finished the wall today, but Eduardo asked the men to go with him to get some tools. This turned out to just be a trick to get them to come to his house where his wife served them tea and he proudly showed them around his house and gave them a craft his wife made for them. This was truly an honor for those that went there and all considered this to be well worth the delay of work.

We finished the day in Guarari with a prayer time with the team, Norma, and the women there. With Terry interpreting the prayers, it was a moving dedication of the building and the work that will be done in it.

There were some tears shed as we said goodbye to some of the women and kids that won't be coming to the park day tomorrow. It was particularly hard for the men to say goodbye to Eduardo.

Tonight we had a sharing time with the team at the base. There were many touching stories shared that brought many to tears. We also prayed for Liseth, one of our Heredia teens, that will be missing park day tomorrow to get some medical tests to investigate bad headaches. Tomorrow will be a tough day for us as we say goodbye to the Guarari kids. It will be just as hard to say goodbye to the Heredia teens who we have come to love and will also go home after supper tomorrow.

The rest of the team is already in bed so I need to get going.