Day 3

Real quick, something hilarious I forgot to post last time! At dinner, JD decided to branch out and order a native drink called "horchata" which mauricio described as "rice milk". Well it already looks like watered down milk and the descriptions I'm about to give you did not help at all. Christina tasted it and looked at Krista and I with a very serious face and said "it tastes kind of like slim fast mixed with pepto bismol" as if that description weren't bad enough Thom decides to help out by adding "no, it's more like vanilla milk and milk of magnesia"!!! Seriously, I'm NOT trying horchata!

Okay here goes for today! We felt like we were in luxury conditions today, a fully finished church with four fans and an actual restroom with soap and running water! In comparison to what we were in it was much much nicer. The neat thing we learned is that this church was much like the 1st church about 3 years ago...that gives great hope that in 5 years the first church will also be complete. This time frame is not acceptable for the men on our trip, they would like to see it finished much sooner!

The schedule today was much the same, costco and Walmart for supplies and off to the church for prayer walking and door to door invitation. The neighborhood was also different, mauricio described It as several steps up in income from the neighborhood the day before but it was still stricken with poverty!

When we arrived at the church, JD and Christina gave Maurico their camera to keep. We were later told that he was proudly showing others his "new camera". That's awesome! As I've mentioned before, mauricio (our GBC rep) is one of the most passionate, God driven men l've met and I believe that feeling is echoed throughout the group!

Last night, the service was excellent, the turnout was great and from what I could tell people were very intently listening to Jeff's sermon! I keep telling Thom that I can't sing and I finally got the opportunity to prove that loud and clear with a microphone in my hand and a bunch of kids waiting on a clown who was having technical difficulties! We sang Tin Tin Tin and Jesus Loves Me...it was fun!

Wow

During debreifing last night, some needs of the local pastor were discussed and I ask you to pray for both the pastors here as well as Mauricio and Nathan (a young very sweet guy helping Mauricio).

Dinner of course was EXCELLENT!!! It was a restaurant that served flank steak or chicken and a baked potato or a baked onion! The meat was melting in your mouth it was so tender and the flavor was superb! As were eating, Shannon who is sitting beside me tries to calculate how many ounces we were eating by dividing it by kilos...fortunately I wasn't able to do the math in my head so I can continue to be in denial about how much I'm eating here! Haha. To me the restaurant we went to the previous tonight is still my favorite...I don't think we will be able to top it!

After debriefing, JD, Christina, Krista, Shannon and I decided to play some Phase 10. Shannon had never played so we were going to teach him....yeah right! He killed us! It was a wonderful hilarious time playing cards and getting to know people I otherwise would probably never gotten to know On this level! Although, we're here for these people, it seems like God always takes time to change you too! It's an amazing God we serve!

We pray that today (Friday) God will work miracles, that he will open doors and that we will be able to plant many seeds to be watered and fed by the local church! Please pray for us today! As Shannon's "fortune mint" said last night - "when all the doors close, a window opens". How appropriate!