Two Days of News!

July 3, 2011

Update for July 2

Don't Start Thinking We're in Argentina…

                  Day 3 started bright and early with some papaya for breakfast. There were some mixed feelings about that. The rest of the morning was spent once again at Los Calabazos.  Our first goal was to round up as many villagers as possible for some bingo.  We used the bingo to teach the village kids some English and to learn some more Spanish ourselves.  We used art and song to teach English as well.  Each person drew a picture of something that we then put up on the felt board that we showed them how to make. 

Some of our team were out in the community like myself (John), Paul and Jordan to help some of the teenagers that had to work. We ended up hauling away mud blocks from a swimming pool-sized pit. We found out that we were making a fish tank for Los Calabazos to hold catfish and create a sort of hatchery. It was refreshing to be able to help them out in a physical way and show them the love of Jesus. Erin, Josh, and Allison also had a similar opportunity, planting tomatoes (a very tedious job).

As lunch time drew near, we all climbed the 202 steps out of Los Calabazos and returned to La Salle briefly before going somewhere new, Buenos Aires. This town is more urban than Los Calabazos, and has a larger church building. We arrived in time to help with a kids program and played with the kids, meanwhile teaching them bible stories through crafts. We returned to Buenos Aires after dinner for a youth group (more teenagers this time) and shared some testimonies (Josh and Kaylyn).   The ministry known to many Calvary folks as The ARC is where we held this youth event nite and there were many that showed up.  We also taught them some games from Timber Bay and they taught us some of their games. Today we really started to establish relationships with some of the Dominicans. Pray that those relationships grow over the next 9 days and that they open doors for us to share our faith. And praise the Lord for translators!

--John

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Update for July 3

Todos Para la Gloria de Jesus (All for the glory of Jesus)

Today we got a double dose of church with some flex time in between. The morning service was in Los Calabazos, and was full of both English and Spanish worship, as well as testimonies from Kamaria and myself (John). It was so cool to see how enthusiastic the leaders in Los Calabazos were when they worshiped. When we sang Amazing Grace in English, I think I saw some teary eyes from one of them, and he couldn't even understand the lyrics! After the service we had some time to hang out with the kids and let them use the cameras and the guitar, as well as entertaining Elvis, a mentally retarded Dominican, but with fun personality. Lunch in La Salle was followed by some intense Ka-boom Ball, the team-invented sport that is just awesome. In the evening we left for Buenos Aires and participated in their church service. Probably the best moment of the day was when the entire room was singing Nothing but the Blood of Jesus in both languages! Bilingual worship is spectacular. The night also saw testimonies from Jordan and Colleen, as well as the chair skit, which had also been performed in Los Calabazos.  We saw some familiar faces from yesterday, namely the goofball Benito, as well as many new faces that we are creating relationships with. Pray that the teenagers from both communities can join us for our mountain hike on Tuesday and for the continued health of the team. We're ¼ of the way, with zero illness! Hallelujah!