Day 2 - Celebration & Ultimate Frisbee

I think we are all back to our normal selves after catching up on our sleep! Most of us actually woke up an hour earlier than we had planned since our bodies are still on Eastern Standard time! It's one hour earlier her just in case you are wondering. Josh and Tim join Julie and walk to the other side of the community as she cleans and rebandages the foot wound of Carmen (the lady who's son committed suicide in October). She has diabetes and has a large HOLE, yes hole, in her foot. If the would does not heal in the next couple of months, the foot will be amputated!! Please pray for Carmen everyone. Healing is needed desperately needed and the Great Physician has the needed resources.

We walked to the church building and installed the new sign that New Life made for the church here. It looks great on the fence in front of the building and for the first time, visually tells the community of the pressence of the congregation -- though the ministry here over the past 5 years is certainly well known in the community. Now the name and a cool logo greet the village.

The Celebration begins with about 45 minutes of worship and music. Like last night, this is a wonderful time as believers worship the One True God in tow different languages, thought I must admit, that some on our team are getting pretty fluent at singing in Spanish!!! David, the pastor in training here, brings the message "Two Ways". He shares about the fact that each of us have a choice of directions to take and we can only choose 1 -- Follow Christ or follow the flesh! Check out 1 Corinthians 6:12-17, 1 Corinthians 10:31, Matthew 7:13-14, and Hebrews 11:25-26 to study this subject. At the conclusion of the message several people come forward for prayer and the Holy Spirit sets in in a wonderful and powerful way! Only God can minister to people this deeply. We are only conduits for His grace.

After church, most everyone heads out for a trip (by foot) to a nearby park --nearby, meaning about 3 miles...uphill...anyway...We spend the afternoon together, Gringos and Ticos, having a picnic lunch, playing pickup basketball, soccer and teaching the Ticos ULTIMATE FRISBEE!!!

4 games, many falls, lots of unbelievable catches, lots of laughter, 2 fights between Alan and Patrick (all for show by the way), 1 forehead hit with a frisbee later -- a great day was had!!! Back to the Casa -- this time DOWNHILL.

As I type tonight, the ladies are organizing for the children's program that will begin tomorrow and the guys are carting in luggage containing all the supplies needed. At this point, they are waiting on female leadership before they do anything!!! Just like in real life, huh guys?

Great day and lots of projects tomorrow!!! Keep praying for us church!