Paint and Dirt

by Sara Calderon

Today, we had Jamie open us up in our devotion time sharing about how we are to praise our heavenly father with a thankful heart, and really see and understand just HOW great our God really is.
After breakfast, we split up into the usual groups: one group working on the construction of the cistern, and the other group finishing up the painting projects around the girls school.

Day 2 working on the cistern consisted of digging 5 feet deeper into the hole the group from yesterday started. Once the hole was about 6 feet under, it was difficult for us (ok, at least for me!) to shovel the dirt up so Lito quickly constructed a pulley system where we lowered a bucket down, filled it with dirt, and pulled it back out. The boys have definitely impressed us all, doing their fair share of the work plus more!

While the boys were hard at work, Katie, Courtney and I went outside to play with the local kids who lived nearby. After a while we had 8 children swarming our cameras, and we loved every second of it. Daniel was sharing some music from his phone with the kids, bumping some Michael Jackson..LoL. Jon and Joey were probably the whiniest of the bunch, but also the funniest, most entertaining people I’ve probably ever met in my life! All the boys have definitely stepped it up and not only taken on most of the heavy workloads, but also have followed through and taken very good care of us girls. At the end of the day, we were exhausted, dirty, and sore…but it was entirely worth it. Knowing all of our work is for the family and Guatemalan people we have grown to love in these past few days, and everything we have done as a group thus far is the very least we can do to show them God’s love, simply because He loves us.

The girls who painted today got a lot of work done around the school, and so far a total of 5 classrooms and two hallways have been painted. The girls from the school enjoy peeking in to see what the “gringos” are doing! Over the past few days we have been informed of many ways God is at work here. Not only are the girls getting an education here, but they are receiving the love and guidance from teachers who also are sharing the love of Christ to them. The teachers and staff here at the school are not only trying to give them an education, but teach them life skills such as sewing, as well as provide them with a theological foundation.
After our team regrouped for the day and ate some more yummy dinner our cook and new amigo Edgar prepared, the group went to the First Baptist Church in Santa Maria to visit Pastor Carlos whose last year’s team had met and befriended. During the youth service, the team sang worship songs and played games with the kids. Jamie and Elsa went up on stage and sang “How Great is Our God” while Daniel played guitar, and Elsa translated Pastor Carlos’s sermon for us.

At the end of each night, we have been spending time getting to know each other…probably a little better than we would have hoped for!

Daniel showing us his hidden tallent.

It’s funny how uniting catch phrase and the infamous grand pumba can be! Megan and Jolene have been doing a great job leading our team and coordinating with the director Jeff to get everything done and everyone taken care of. Elsa and Jamie are cracking everybody up with their jokes…but mainly each other=)

We LOVE and MISS you all! Thank you for all the prayers! Until next time…