Tuesday July 20

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Hola friends!!! This is Heather and Pamela! Today started off with an awesome breakfast including French toast, bacon, and fresh fruit prepared by our very own Joe, Bill, and Logan. After breakfast Steven presented us with a devo on how big God truly is! Then it was time to split up into groups to go do some work. Most of the guys stayed back to work on the church balcony and let us just say they had some heavy lifting! Heather, Michele, Amber, and Katie tried to pick up the metal roof frames and with all four of them they couldn’t even lift it up off of the ground! While the guys were working on the balcony Michele and Donna painted metal beams and everyone else went to the parsonage to do some digging. In just two hours the parsonage crew made ledges for the ditches and completed the rest of the work at the parsonage! Since the parsonage crew finished so early they came back early and helped paint the metal beams. At around 3 o’clock we all headed over to the coffee plant to see how coffee is roasted, washed, and packaged for El Salvador and the states. After we were rejuvenated from the smell of fresh coffee we headed over to the ice cream shop, post office, and Rudy’s general store. Along with delicious ice cream we were all able to grab some sodas to get us just a little more re-energized for only 50 cents! Why can’t things be this cheap in the states??? Once we arrived back to the camp we were welcomed by some boys from church that were playing beautiful music so we joined in while they were singing praise songs in Spanish we sang along in English. We compared songs and artists and they taught us how to say a couple of words in Spanish…. prepare yourselves for when we get back because I have a feeling we are going to be speaking in Spanish for awhile ! After we got some singing in, we asked the boys to join us for supper where we were served hotdogs and hamburgers… yumm!!! Next it was time for devo and praise and worship songs! The awesome boys that we met stuck around to provide us with some music to our songs, and it was amazing to see them sing the same songs that we sing but in Spanish and then on top of that they live in a different country than us! It was awesome to see that God is so BIG that his love and his word is spread around the world… not just Tennessee but the entire universe!!! After praise and worship Wayne provided us with an AMAZING devo on how we need to keep our eyes on God, not to worry about what others think! To make the day even better, we ended with small group… something that will stay with me forever! Being able to tell what is on my mind and heart with people that care about me is and experience everyone should go through! All I have to say is I know that this trip is LIFE CHANGING and that when you are around people that love and care about you and God is on your side… you can do ANYTHING!!! He is soooo big that he is known worldwide, and so important that we should always keep our eyes on him at all times! He can get you through any problem no matter the size!!! WE LOVE AND MISS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!!!

God is Good, All the Time! (your part This is Lyndon sharing a few thoughts. God is moving in a great way and people are opening up and sharing. Steven started off today with a great devotion about how truly BIG God is. As we soak in all of the beautiful people and landscape here, we realize that our knowledge of God and creation is not a grain of sand on God’s beach. We split into two teams today and as one group finished the work grading the soil around the new parsonage to divert the water, the rest of us painted some primer on the metal here for the new construction at the church and some of the guys helped place the heavy ceiling trusses (about 40’ wide) into place. Of course, this turned into an opportunity for the guys to flex their muscles and do a few pull-ups and other demonstrations of manhood. Jimmy was really called upon a LOT being the strapping young ox in the group. I took a few minutes to run with Bill Johnson (Joe’s dad) to the school for us to seek permission for the group to visit tomorrow and so I could take a picture of Bill with their principal since Bill is the principal at Bethpage Elementary. It struck me funny to see a half grown cow lying among the boys playing soccer on the playground. When I inquired if this was their mascot, they said, “No, there is just a teacher that wanted a cow, but didn’t have a place to keep it so he asked if he could keep it on the school grounds.” Apparently they said, “yes”. HA. This afternoon, we enjoyed a tour of the local coffee factory where they produce all grades of coffee beans, including the premium beans that go to Starbucks. You can believe that excited a few in this crowd. They’ve placed orders to bring home. A trip to the local ice cream shop and Rudy’s store was also refreshing and then the evening was capped with some beautiful singing acoustically between our folks and some local youth at the church with a guitar….very inspiring. Speaking of singing, I have to share how unifying it was to sit in their church services and recognize that they were singing “Revive Us Again”, “There’s Within My Heart a Melody”, “Shout to the Lord”, “At the Cross” , “Count Your Many Blessings” and many more that we do at home. So incredible for us all to be singing them in our own languages and just lifting praise to God! God bless and keep you all until we return. Please know that we have you all at Gladeville in our prayers.

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