Getting Their Hands Dirty

First of all, take a moment to enjoy the picture of Brett eating a whole lot of ice cream. The rumor around the team's house is that Brett has been given the nickname "hairball" by one of the kids here. No word yet on why that is! Brett shared with us last night that he joined the team late and got his passport in one day! Talk about a miracle!

The group of folks doing the construction work have been demonstrating a very strong work ethic and have worked all day long to accomplish their tasks. The pictures above are hopefully just the beginning of the pictures we can share on here.

Don was quite an inspiration yesterday as he was sick as a dog and still managed to squeeze out a half day of work anyway.

Pauline, Carol, Gale, Judy and the ladies of the painting team demonstrate the perfect attitude of servanthood and a humble willingness to do "whatever is needed."


The ladies in the office have been painting up a storm! They have already finished the office and are off painting class rooms. It is quite possible that this band of merry painters for the Lord will paint the entire building before we are done.

Outside, Hillary shows herself to be just as tough as the guys as she performs on their level all day long without complaint. Bill Brown is also an inspiration. Primarily a member of the ministry team, he has such a heart for the kids here and a willingness to serve. He can be found jumping in outside whenever he has some down time and being the first to jump in for the ministry team when we need something prepared for tomorrow's services.

It can sometimes be hard to manage a mission team of 3 different teams. The construction team, the ministry team and the dental team have very different tasks and very different roles to fill here. Each is equally important to sustaining the work of Mission Impact. It is hard for some members of the team to appreciate the work that the other teams are doing, and of course, the enemy seeks to use that to divide us.

You should know also, that many of the members of the team have talked about how they like the new accomodations (which are a much nicer facility) but they miss the Proximos Pasos location in the heart of Santa Maria. The daily interaction with the people and children of the village was a source of inspiration to them. A team will be returning to minister at that school on Wednesday.

On the family front, I am home sick today. Reagan and Jackson just enjoyed another bath in the backyard using bottled water, and we are getting ready for lunch and then the afternoon nap. They have been holding up relatively well under the circumstances, but your continued prayer for them is greatly appreciated!

I will be posting another blog later today with photos from the worship team and our ministry with the kids. Hopefully when Lauren and Jaci return this evening they will have some photos of the hard-working dental team for us to post as well.

One final update, despite being the rainy season, it still has hardly rained at all. Today is another beautiful sunny day.