Day is done, gone the sun

Good evening from La Romana.  We have had an incredibly full day.  The construction team today continued the task of moving the dirt and rock from the sewer/water hole for the school as well as cleaning rubble out of the classrooms.  The hope is that tomorrow we will be able to complete the moving of the accumulated rock.  

The VBS team worked out of a school in one of the poorer areas of the city.  They had about 115 children that they worked with today.  So many amazing stories from that group will be mentioned in the God sightings below.  

Tonight during our team time our local coordinator shared about all of the other missions that are being done through the organization.  It is amazing how much they are trying to do in order to raise the standard of living of so many people.

We then looked at John 9 and the story of Jesus healing a man blind since birth.  It was hard for people around him to believe he was the same person after his encounter with Christ.  Our prayer is that as a result of our encounter with Christ this week, each person will be noticably different.

Here are our God encounters from today:

Ellie saw God today in Fernando who was her kid helper for the day on the construction site

Peyton saw God at VBS as a local boy who helped her police the trampoline on the playground.

Grace G saw God in Alli as she sang Amazing Grace for a group of children

Abby saw God in our interpretor Mike as he shared about Christ with a group of local children

Grace Tatro saw God in the kid who she was playing soccer with her and saved part of his juice to share with her

Amelia saw God in the compassion of the children toward our group

Alli saw God in Eric helping to keep her positive throughout the day

Ellie saw God in the two local girls who sat and constantly filled the water bottles for our team

Elizabeth saw God in herself as she knew that she could not have done what she did today without God

Callie saw God in the mother of the 3 month old who seemed relieved to have those present to help love on her baby

Todd saw God in our teams work ethic

Rachel Wright and Kris saw God in the woman who gave so much of herself to care for the children of the entire neighborhood and share a personal touch with each child who came.

Tim saw God as he visited a little boy who had surgery a few days ago.  As they walked in the mother had spent time mopping the floor for them.  The boy attempted to return the crayons once he had colored but the team insisted that he keep them.  Please pray for this boy.

So much seeing God today.  Tomorrow, for the first time on this trip, part of our group will be heading out to a batey, aka a sugar cane village.  I have been to one.  Pray that God will move the hearts of our group as they truly encounter a new level of poverty.  

Pray for the team to receive strength for the days ahead.  Many of us are very tired.  May we leave every bit of energy we have in the bateys and on the construction site.

Goodnight followers.  As we wake tomorrow, we will be about 60 hours from heading home.  It has been an amazing trip.  Thank you for following and for supporting our journey.  Until tomorrow