This is from the youth group night which they have on Friday’s at 7:30. We have spent the week doing mostly manual labor during the day and the home visits in the evenings so we’re exhausted but having a blast. We are all learning a lot about ourselves and also how to live in community with 12 people that you do everything with all the time. Next month we’ll be in the Dominican Republic and with the whole squad of 47 people so that’ll be something very new for everyone. We have visited a few beaches which are beautiful and the weather has been FANTASTIC! It is a bit weird, we went to the airport to say goodbye to Pastor Peter’s daughter who is going to spend the next 6 months with some missionaries in Tampa, FL. We realized, we’ll be back at that same airport in less than 2 weeks and it isn’t to go home but onto the next country. I’ll be sure to upload more pictures later. Our first project was Steven’s house, he is a youth from the church who lives with his mom. It was a major project of cleaning up, chopping down growth, and painting. Friday we spent at a widow’s house (Aida or pronounced eye-da) whose husband died 5 months ago. She was in desperate need of help so I was glad we had 12 sets of hands. The project of cleaning her house was huge, we washed all the dishes, dealt with bug infestations and other areas that were not fit for anyone to live in. Aida was at church today and the pastor asked volunteers to come up and we gave her the gift of hugs. I realized that I had seen her as a ministry project and not someone that I could just love on. As the pastor mentioned, the words “I love you” are beautiful but what significance do they have if we don’t follow them with action. A few in the group mentioned they are generally more comfortable with the “love the orphans” part in the bible and haven’t spent time or put thought into “love the widows”. So I ask you this: Who are you loving? Who has become your project? This week has surely opened our eyes to needs that people have that we have been blind to before so we’re excited to take what we’ve learned on to our next country.
