We had a fantastic end to our day! The first baptism since the gospel meeting began took place after the lesson. We are happy to welcome Julie as a sister in Christ. She was a neighbor to the previous church building they had. Daniel mentioned how hospitable she was while they were doing construction on the original building. This has been a two year long process for her and we are overjoyed that she has decided to finally give her life over to Christ! Praying that she grows in her faith and that others will follow her example in the coming days. Sometimes all it takes is the encouragement of another person, and a push in the right direction, to make you take that final step.
It has been a slower day for some of our members. The VBS
crew stayed at the church and had a program for the children of the
congregation, as well as, the ones close by. We all had a great time playing
and laughing with the kids, but they definitely have much more energy than we
do. Most of us were worn out after 20 minutes of playing soccer with them, and
we still had 2 more hours that needed to be filled. I think our efforts with the children payed off because there were 60 in attendance for the children's class tonight during the meeting. It made things tough on those trying to keep them all busy and in one area but we are thankful for problems like that. The day went by quickly. The
ground breaking for the children’s classroom took place. It has not gone up as
fast as we were hoping, but there’s a good start and it will be finished
tomorrow. After the daily rain shower following lunch, those who were not
working on the classroom headed out into the streets to invite children and
families to the classes tonight and tomorrow. There were also some more bible
studies going on this afternoon. The long days and short nights are beginning
to take it’s toll on some. I can’t believe we only have one more work day left!
It seems like yesterday we were flying in to San Jose but we’re actually at our
halfway point in our trip! God is working in everything we do and hopefully we
can continue to have good attitudes about all that is happening here, no matter
how tired or sick we are. God is able to supply us with the strength we need to
continue our work here so we do not become slack towards the end of the trip.
On the other side of the spectrum, the medical team has been working incredibly hard the past 2 days doing the clinic. Today they saw 60 people and according to Dr. Matt Bolton most of them weren't simple cases. They have been seeing complicated medical issues and have tried their best to find some relief for those that they saw. We have an awesome group of medical staff with us and while we wish they could do the clinic for another day, the work they have done already is more than commendable.
The medical team arrived at the reservation in the morning and met the Costa Rican health care team members. Then we set up stations for the nurses to triage, the doctors to see patients and the pharmacist to dispense meds. We began to see patients and figured out their problems working through the translators. The nurses took vitals, then sent them to either the doctors or the dentist. We saw about 90 patients. It was really hot, but in the afternoon it rained and cooled everything down. We were working hard but it was interesting and fun. God was certainly glorified in our work!
Noel Cherry led us in our devotional thought tonight. He spoke about some of the experiences he knew about through working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We also had the privilege to hear another great lesson from Joe Roberts tonight about seeking our salvation. If we want it, we have to go after it ourselves because Jesus is not going to come back and die for us again. One important thing to remember is that our value in God's eyes does not change because we have been dirtied by sin. God will always love us and wants us to be saved so we can spend eternity with Him someday soon!
God is good all the time. All the time God is good.
Leah
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