I first must say, I love Puerto Rico! God’s creation is so beautiful. The scenery is absolutely magnificent but the people, the people… They are so beautiful. They have fully welcomed us into their country and have taken every opportunity they can to honor us and bless us while we are here. We have had the privilege of working in a local church doing hard manual labor to tear down everything inside of the church and rebuild everything new. We have been using axes and hammers and shovels and crowbars… We are true construction workers now haha. We have worked at the church for less than one week and the amount of work we have accomplished is truly incredible. I am so proud of our team and I am so thankful to God for giving us the strength we needed to do a job well done. After we broke down the stage, tore down the walls, and basically refurbished the entire inside of the church, we were able to start painting and cleaning and already today it looks so fresh and new. As we were tearing down all of the old and replacing it with new, one of our teammates shared that God reminded her of how that is exactly what He is doing in every one of our lives right now. He is tearing down the walls within our hearts, and He is rebuilding our very foundations with His love. In just these 2 1/2 half weeks that we have been here, God has been teaching me so much about what it truly means to serve without expecting anything in return–and the true blessing that comes when you serve with pure motives and a willing heart. The people we are serving our so beyond grateful that it is easy to want to go above and beyond their expectations. We have had the honor of getting to know them in a personal way as they are onsite with us while we work. And one of my favorite moments was yesterday when we were able to play with the children from the school right next to the church. We played with them and talked to them and they melted our hearts with their smiles, hugs, and kisses. As soon as we walked out the door they came running to embrace us and to shower us with the love only a child can bring. As they sat on my lap, crowded all round me, and wanted to get as close to me as they could, I felt like I was home. They reminded me how much God wants us to be like little children running up to Him just eagerly waiting to be in His presence. It is easy to get caught up in the everyday work we’re doing here and feel like Martha, but we cannot allow ourselves to forget to be like Mary and sit in Jesus’ lap every day. On a side note, I am still using my phone to type my blogs but next week I will be getting my new tablet and I am so excited! I ordered it online today so it should be coming in shortly 🙂 Thank you all for your prayers, love and support from back home! I truly am blessed to have all of you stand behind me as I live out this amazing journey!!! If any of you could please remember to throw up a quick prayer for me tonight or tomorrow, I will be sharing my testimony with our host church tomorrow night at their mission meeting. I just want God to give me the right words to say and I am believing that hearts will be touched by my story. I can’t believe we are already leaving to our next country in 8 days! My prayer is that our last week here will be strong and impactful. We want to leave a mark on this country all for the glory of God! 
