Oct 20, 2019 Christ Venice

Today we woke up and ate breakfast and then headed out to church. We were greeted with open arms and lots of hugs. It was so good to see Jaime, Daisy, Estella, Carolina, Kendys, Carmen, and many other church members all together. I even got to see Lourdes (the pastor’s house keeper most of the time I have been here). The service started out with an interpretive dance and songs of praise by the worship team. The songs were shared in English and in Spanish. The team even shared in singing This is the Day. Sairy preached by wrapping up a month long study on how God educates us. She summarized her previous sermons and gave today’s message. She talked about when we are in the desert, that is where God is teaching. We have many lessons to learn.

After church, we took pictures together, and then changed and ate our lunch. We then waiting on the church members to join us and I got time to catch up with Kendys, before walking with the team to see the statue of the three Maribal sisters.

Kendys shared with me about the start of the school year. She stated that Luz Maria is now the assistant teacher. Luz Maria is the mother of Gilbert and Yordany, who were in our school the first 3 years it opened and are now in the tutoring program. She has recently joined the church and so the church honored and loved her commitment and offered her a job in the school. Juancito is also helping in the school. Kendys told me she provides him with instruction and then steps away for him to lead the tutoring program (she assured me she still keeps a close eye on them from afar). Kendys said we have 15 in the preschool and they held their first parent meeting of the school year last Tuesday and every single parent was present. She was so excited, informing me this has never happened in the history of the school.

I mentioned to the team that she has recently gotten her passport and is interested in coming to the states. She stated that she has the summers off and her mom can help with her daughter. She would like to come and volunteer in a school. The team thought maybe over the summer, there might be some vacation bible schools she can volunteer. This would be a great opportunity to connect with some churches as well as get new and fresh ideas for the school and church.

At 2pm we loaded up the bus with missionaries and church members and headed to Villa Liberacion. When we got there, as usual, it was organized chaos as we unloaded the bus and divided the team people community members homes. The doctors set up on two different porches, while the pharmacy and dentist were inside the homes of two other homes on the block. Sairy found another porch to do crafts with children and we set up 3 team members to paint a community member’s home. It was beautiful to see the church members and missionaries working diligently in the homes of the members of the community. The dentist saw 17 people, cleaning and extracting. The doctors saw 54 and we gave our over 100 pairs of reading and sunglasses. Doctor Reina was with us today, as she started a new job and wasn’t able to take any days off work.

We came back to La Islita (where we sleep), exhausted, dirty, and tired. Sairy was waiting on us for dinner. We then spent a quick moment reflecting before getting back to work counting pills and preparing for tomorrow’s clinic. The team is exhausted and the music blasting behind the dormitory is slowly ceasing. There is only a limited amount of time to sleep before the roosters begin to crow, literally.