Outreach week

So last week team Nica went on an outreach to a small village names Los Quijotes (I know I butchered that spelling).  It was really great.  Saturday morning we went to the border to get our visas.  We got back at about 9 in the morning and rushed off to finish packing for the week (I still forgot my sleeping bag on my bed).  We then said goodbye to Seth for 2 weeks, and everyone else for one.  We loaded about four 5 gallon water jugs, 2 large coolers, the 8 of us, Benito, and our translator Gabriel into the van and set out by about 10:30.  We got there by about 3 pm and were really hungry.  We met the families that we stayed with, the girls together with a couple named Margarite and Gilbert.  Trevor, Garrett and myself stayed with Enrique and his wife, Tyler and Gabriel stayed with Alesia and her husband, and Benito stayed with who ever would take him in on that particular night.  After getting unpacked, we went back to the girls house and were fed some amazing food, and we ate a lot.  Little did we know that we where invited to a birthday party for a 5 year old boy named Juan Hosea.  After being stuffed from dinner, we waddled down to the party to be fed more and more tamales as well as soda and chocolate cake.  Needless to say, we where very full by the first night.  

The room I stayed in had concrete walls about a food thick with a roof to match, so we didn’t hear anything in the morning.  The other groups where less lucky, being woken up many times by roosters, donkeys, people, and anything else that moved.  That Sunday was a very relaxed day, we spent a bit of time in prayer before the church service that night, also sending out teams of 5 into the community to invite people to the service.  I was in the second group to go out, and we went to the family of Enrique and prayed over his mother that had been bed ridden for a couple weeks in pain.  We then talked to his brother and sister for a while, shared the gospel with them and moved on. When we walked by later, his mother was up and walking again as if she had never been sick!  After that we went to the church service.  Benito preached about how close salvation was to us all, with great passion that was of almost no need for translation.  That day we also made our tentative schedule for the rest of the week.

For the next few days, we would start construction at 7, work till 10, eat breakfast, work more until about 2, eat lunch, take a siesta/team time/outreach time till 5, then depending on the day we would either have a church service or a vbs.  We stuck to this schedule for the most part, except for when Jessica saw the need for a morning prayer session for the community every day before construction, which meant praying from 6 till 7am at the church, and then the siesta time disappeared with whatever was going on during the day, then we felt a need for quite time before the prayer so we got up at 5 every morning to do that (alarms go off at 5,  roll over until 5:20, then do quite time).  Monday night we had the vbs which was tons of fun.  We reenacted  David and Goliath (you’ll never guess which role I played).  Tuesday Tyler preached at a service, Wednesday we went to San Carlos and saw some amazing scenery, tequila and churches.  Thursday we made tamales, fed the community then had a service that I preached at.

The next day we where packed up, had said goodbyes, and where on the road by 8 am.  The three hour car ride turned into a busted radiator, wet spark plugs, pushing the van, getting it fixed twice yet never actually fixed, eating tamales on the porch of a most likely mafia member, and rolling into The Gateway 10 hours later.  All and all not a bad journey, we all learned so much about being immersed in culture, being dependent on God, having patience, being united, and the power of God.  We came back with a few stories, a lot of new relationships, and a real appreciation for all that we have and take for granted.