Thursday, July 16, 2015

So Much Painting!

Wednesday July 15, 2015

Bible Verse: Ephesians 6:10-13 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God,so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand."  In our bible study we talked about the armor of God and which ones we would need today as we paint the shelter.  Jennie led us through this verse and we got talking about a lot of different things!

These kids are so adorable.

 The adminstrators with all of the school supplies - they were so excited!

 Abby painting another coat of paint in the pink room.

 Bethany and Katie painting the door.

Oh my gosh more painting. I would have never guessed. 

 Eating lunch in the library.. wait I though food wasn't allowed in the library?

Katie, don't turn around.

 No light? Don't worry, that's what iPhones are for.

 I'm painting, but first, let me take a selfie.

 Fierce, hard core painters right here.

Dont. Touch. The. Camera.

All of the kids eating lunch. Rice, bread and potato salad, yum.

Washing the paint tray like nobody's business.

 Scraping paint off of the hallway floor. 

 Finished look!  We painted the entire outside of the shelter with the help of older kids from the shelter and a few volunteers from another local church.  Everything blue and brown is what we painted.

At the end of the day, we taught them the cup song and these two little kids stared at us doing it :-)

 The finished "pink room."

Stefani posing for the camera as we leave.

 Posing at the pool

 That's adorable.

Eating dinner at the hotel, which had very good food.

Jumping just because we feel like it.

       In the morning, we put all off our school supplies that we had collected into grocery bags and drove them to the day-shelter, which the Hondurans appreciated very much.  One of the kids walked by all of the supplies and all she said was 'wow', which translates pretty well! A group of volunteers from a local church also arrived to help us with painting.  It is amazing how many different people God is bringing in to accomplish His mission at the day shelter.  Together, the Hondurans and the volunteers from the church put plaster on the ceiling and painted almost all of the outside walls.  It is humbling to know that I am only a small part in this massive project.
       Meanwhile, our group continued to work inside. We painted the doors, a bathroom, and painted a room upstairs, put more coats on the pink room, and touched up with paintbrushes. The bathrooms were particularly hot during the day and made all of us drip with sweat.  Fredy was the best with a brush, being the most cautious and meticulous painter.  He called himself an "artista." 
       In total, we painted, scraped and cleaned for nine hours.  God gave us the strength, and we used it for His glory.  The time went fast because we were hanging out with friends and talking the whole time.  A few people brought speakers, so we also put on music and sang while we worked.
       Bethany and Katie like to sing a lot while working!  Even when there wasn't a speaker around, they would sing whatever they could remember.  At one point, we had ran out of songs so we started singing the 'Star Spangled Banner'!
       At the end of the work day, we started scraping paint off the floor of the main hallway, but there is still paint in the rooms and all over the staircase.  As we were scraping, two or three of the little girls asked for a scraper, sat down next to us and helped us.  They were under the age of 10, and I had never seen kids so young work so hard.  Ms. Grachen later told us that this is what the culture there was like and girls learn to just jump in and get a job done.  We were very thankful and happy to talk with them and make them laugh!
       Another thing that touched all of our hearts was when we left.  We all waved to the kids and said "Audios, mi amigas!" or "Goodbye, my friends!"  Even though we couldn't even talk to each other in the same language, we had become friends.
       When we got back to the hotel, we cooled off in the pool and discussed our day during dinner.  Miss Grachen said that her favorite part of the day was seeing all of the rooms painted and done after talking with the administrators, who came to see our progress.  Hannah, who had multiple conversations with the Honduran girls said that the girls were very curious about us.  They asked if we believed in God, to which Hannah replied yes, and if any of us had boyfriends, to which Hannah replied no.  They talked about boyfriends a lot, which Ms. Grachen also explained later that the culture here is obsessed with boyfriends & girlfriends.  So we promised ourselves that the next time they asked us if we had a boyfriend, we would encourage them that it doesn't matter.  The only thing that matters is that God loves them.  I wish I had said that today but I wasn't a part of that conversation!  
        Many of the girls don't go to church, so we talked about how we wanted to tell the girls about what we believe and why we came here this week.  So far, we have had so much painting work to do.  So we are hoping that Saturday, God will give us an opportunity to share our faith.
        Another thing that we will always remember is how much joy these kids have.  While I was painting outside one of their classrooms, I looked at the kids doing school and noticed many of them staring at me with these huge grins on their face.  We just looked at each other, smiled, and made funny faces for almost ten minutes while I painted.  Smiles are a universal sign, and these kids have the happiest smiles!  They can find the joy in anything, despite their rough life at home.  It broke my heart to think about how kids like these are abandoned on the streets every day, and they have no choice but to join gangs and steal things to survive.  It made all of us sad as we talked about it later in the day, yet we felt blessed to have this opportunity to serve them and love them this week.
      God moves in mysterious ways, and he has been tugging at our hearts on this trip.  All of us love these kids, and we can't wait to see how God uses that for his glory!  We miss everybody at home and we are very thankful for your prayers and messages!  

2 comments:

  1. It is amazing to see how God is working through each of you. Praising Him for this opportunity and each of you and your Nuevo amigos!
    ❤️

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  2. ReaIIy enjoy reading the bIog and seeing the photos! Praying that you continue to see God's hand in aII that you are doing there!
    BIessings,
    PauIa Raves

    ReplyDelete