Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Painting Duty!

Tuesday, July 14th

 Bible Verse: "For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mathew 20:28.  Hannah led us in a bible study this morning all about the gifts of the Holy Spirit.  We talked about what gifts God has given us specifically and how we can use that for his glory on this trip.  Then we remembered God's gift to us when we read Mathew 20:28, and we prayed that we would be able to serve God's children as wholeheartedly and humbly as Jesus.

This is a before picture of how the classrooms used to be painted.  They paint a darker color on the bottom because all of the dirt from kids shoes and hands doesn't show up on the dark paint.

Rae helping to clean windows.

We did this room in bright pink paint :-)

Bethany cleaning paint off the tile floor that dripped off the rollers for the ceiling!

 Our bus driver, Fredy, helping us paint.  He is an amazing artist!

Keep up the good work, ladies!

Us and Stefani (top), Karla, Maryurise, Josaline (middle), and Kati (bottom)

All of the Honduran children  having school in one of the class rooms.

Jenny and Miriam doing a soap opera after dinner.

The team eating out for dinner.

       Today was a very productive day.  We painted the walls and ceilings of three large rooms at the day-shelter, working from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. However, it was only possible through God's handiwork.  God gave us a beautiful sunny day, all of the necessary materials, plenty of helping hands from the Red Cross and the Hondurans, and the strength to get the job done.
       In the morning, Bethany and I painted one of the ceilings.  I felt very unfit for the job, being on the shorter side and my arms not as strong as the guys.  I could barely see where I had or hadn't painted, since the new paint was the same shade as the old.  I figured God was using my weakness to show his glory, just like he used David and Gideon.  A few times, a little Honduras girl named Kayla came in to say hi to me, which made me smile and kept me going.  It was a true blessing.
       Abby and Miriam finished the front doors to the shelter with our bus driver Freddie, who came to paint with us.  He was extremely picky about how well they painted the doors, because he wanted it to be done expertly.  He told them, "If you're doing it for people, it's okay to have a few spots that you miss with paint.  But if you're painting for God, it has to be perfect."  That's a lot of pressure on one paint job!
       Margarita told us later how blessed we are to have Fredy with our group.  He is a family man, which is rare in Honduras.  He has three kids, and loves them very much.  He has been faithful to his wife, which is also rare, and he loves God.  It was amazing for the group to hear about one man who was shining God's light in Honduras, because we also heard about all of the sad things that went on and it broke our hearts to listen to it.  We learned that many girls would become Moms when they were our age, but the Dad would leave.  There were also situations of abuse or parents who didn't want their kids, and that broke our hearts to hear about.  Some of the kids were at the shelter because their parents would leave them out on the streets while they went off to work.  Overtime I saw a little girl give me a huge smile I would ask myself, 'Why would someone ever treat her terribly, or tell her hateful things?'  
       That's when I thought about why God had sent us on this mission trip.  He loves his children and he wants to show them his love, which he is doing through us.  It is our job to make each child feel special, and loved.  It is my hope that one day they can experience the same love and grace that God has shown me.
       For the rest of the morning, the rest of the team painted the bottom half of the rooms with rollers and then went back over the edges with a brush.  Dave was the leader of the group, giving people jobs and helping people figure out how to paint certain rooms.  We said that God had given him the gift of leadership, referencing our bible study that morning.  
       Two of the bathrooms didn't have working lights, so we had to get creative with the flashlights from out phones!  We had a lot of fun painting, even though it was extremely hot and we were all very sweaty.
       For lunch, the women cooked us tortillas and made pineapple juice for lunch, which everyone loved.  After lunch, we went back to the classrooms and continued painting, making the rooms look absolutely perfect.  Fredy, whom we started calling Picasso, taped a paint brush to the end of a stick and delicately touched up on the edge of the ceiling paint.  The rooms wouldn't look as perfect as they do without him!
       While we painted, I had a chance to talk to Fredy about what we believed.  He was very interested to learn about what I believed, and he asked me pointed questions about Jesus, and why he died on the cross.  We talked about the demons in our lives, and why it is important to share our faith.  I was glad I had a chance to talk about my faith with someone from Honduras, and we agreed on almost everything.
       When we had some time left before we had to leave, we tried to talk with the kids and teach them ninja, but they didn't get into it as much, although they like to laugh at us as we played it.  The older girls became very attached to Miriam, Abby and Jennie, and as we left they hugged them goodbye.  Karla hung on to the back of the bus looking at our group until the bus pulled out go the driveway, and it was a great goodbye gift, although we didn't want to leave.
       At the end of the day, we also went out to dinner at a local restaurant, which was both fun and satisfying after a long day's work.  We were entertained by Miriam and Jennie's soap opera at the restaurant, and for dinner we had an assortment of meat and vegetable and it was the best meat we've ever had!
       Everyone went to bed feeling fulfilled from the busy day, but ready to go back tomorrow and share God's love with the kids again!

4 comments:

  1. So proud of you guys! You are working so hard to transform the shelter which will ultimately demonstrate God's love and provision for these children. Way to go!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ps. Why were the shortest ones doing the ceilings? Haha!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you Katie and Caroline for the excellent blog updates! A lesson in doing "all things through Christ"!
    The pictures especially are "worth a 1000 words"!
    Persevere in His strength!
    Me gusta Tu blog!!

    ReplyDelete