Long time since the last post – yeah we have been busy. Friday afternoon one of the employees and our friend, Carmen, shared her testimony. How great our God is to bring someone through so much in life and live to be a humble servant for Him. She has such a powerful testimony for the ladies that are admitted to the program. Friday night we met with the local youth group again ford bible study, prayer, and singing. They have been a blessing for us.
Saturday we were simply blessed. God provided a beatiful day and the only one that it didn’t rain. We asked for sunshine because we went to the beach. Pastor Heli and his wife blessed us with their condo on the beach and the 6 pools in the resort (Colt even got to play mini golf with Heli’s son). We all hung out on the beach for a while. Then Heli grilled burgers and we ate on the veranda overlooking the resort. After some time in the pool and lazy river we headed back. Max and Lydia, our hosts, treated us to dinner at Martin’s BBQ. It was awesome chicken, sweet potatoes, fired plantanes, rice, vegies, and more. Of course we couldn’t pass up Maggie Moos ice cream next door for dessert. It is rough being a missionary. Seriously though, we were so blessed by those in PR that love the Lord and how they bless us. Funny when you think you come to give and so much is given to you.
We found out that night that Carmen had fainted and probalt had a stroke earlier that day at the olympics for kids. We prayed to God for healing and that the numbness of one side would return to health. That night we had a burden for her. Lydia let us know at church that she was discharged Sunday AM and all was fine. Praise God he heard our prayers. I can’t wait to see her again but she is supposed to be on vacation this week.
Sunday church was great. They sang with such passion. The pastor even gave us a little of the message in English. It was on the exact same passage as the first/only blog I posted that God showed me for the team. Jesus tells Nathanael he will see greater things. This is my prayer for our team and pray that we will see even greater things on this trip.
Sunday PM we honored the day of rest with a nap. Then we left for old San Juan with the youth group leaders, Juan and Jennifer. We did eat at a PR buffet which was really cool. Old San Juan was beatiful. Since we can’t take photos of the ladies or children for their safety everyone was eager to take photos. Amazing how God cleared the rain just as we parked for us to walk around (it had been pouring rain). We walked around the old fortress walls which were so cool. We also got to pray over the worst area in PR called La Pearla. It is the name that the shelter we are staying is named after because the founder went in the area in the 80s making a deal with the drug lords to bring food, clothing and more to meet the needs of the people there. Only the police can go there now or it would be really bad apparently. The first lady of the shelter came from their and has a wonderful testimony that hopefully we can get the video of.
The name of our shelter Is La Pearla Gran Precio. It uses the biblial reference in addition to the beginning of it. We prayed and shouted in Spanish that god loves you. All we could see of it was a wall and darkness behind it. Probably the same spiritually. As we walked back we challenged the group to pray for someone. Several found someone and it was really good. We headed back really late that night only to get up early the next AM.
Yesterday half the group went to take the children from Pequeno Joshua, the place next to us, to a vbs in a church in Guaynabo. The other half visited a veterans home with mostly men. Both groups were great and blessed those they went to. The men really enjoyed the visitors and prayers. The church appreciated us helping “contain” the runners and help with crafts. We were exhausted from the late night out so after a short break in the afternoon we went to make tshirts with the kids. They drew on their shirts and got to keep they.
Most of the group transformed into a caballo ( horse) or jungle gym as the kids love to play and be held. The rest of the night we spent with the team in study and prayer. We prayed specifically for Adriana, a lady here. We also prayed for Jame’s (teammate) father’s health. It was ended by snack time.
To all the parents (and my wife): we are fed at 7:30 12:30 5:30 and snack at 3:00 and 8:00. If anyone is grumpy or to prevent grumpiness, you might need to keep this in mind until we adjust – haha. We have ate so much good food and a lot of it. One more bit of advice for the dads: if you want the girls to get ready fast threaten to turn the water off by 9:00. Amazing how many showers can happened in just a few minutes. I know this is long but since I had the chance I wanted to share. Pray that we would finish strong and keep running the race.
