And the week draws to a
close. This has been a very exciting day
as we scrambled to finish the projects that were set before us. The team started the day very energetic and
enthusiastic – Alisa was called on to pray for breakfast, but I am not sure she
was even awake. Seriously, the group has
worked so hard (and played hard) and they are getting tired.
The work that we are going to do
on the projects was finished today, even though the projects themselves are not
completely done. Praise the Lord that they
were all brought to a finishing point that will allow the people here to use
the new spaces, even though they are not finalized.
The church group finished the
painting of the rooms and much of the rest of the facility that they were
supposed to paint. The walls were
finished in the bathrooms and they are ready for the church to purchase the
toilets and install them. There was a
lot of technical work at this project, and with the “creative” planning that
needed to be done to accomplish the things they needed to do, they did an
excellent job with all they accomplished.
The pharmacy group finished the
walls and applied spackle to all of it.
Apparently they ran out of spackle at one point and were told they would
have more at 2 PM. By 4 it still had not
showed up, and Luke said, “It’s because we are in a warm climate culture” – if you
don’t know what that means, you will just have to ask. Anyway, when we broke for dinner, they still
had work to do, but some of the crew went back to work after dinner.
The laundry room was finished
today – drop ceiling finished, lights installed, ventilation for the dryers
completed and the washers and dryers hooked up electrically and placed in the
room. It is ready for operation. At about 2 PM, Julio (the administrator of
the hospital) showed up with ceiling fan blades, and eventually a ceiling fan
that they wanted installed. Adam had to
alert them to the fact that the drop ceiling was not designed to hold that kind
of weight, and if we were to install it, it would require a lot of work to
revamp the design. It was agreed that it
could not happen today, but they were thrilled with the rest of the project.
After dinner, most of the team
went for ice cream (even those that worked on the pharmacy), and then some
stayed at the hospital and played games while others went and played
soccer. The soccer games were fun and
eventful, but most importantly was the opportunity Ben had to share the gospel
with 3 guys who asked to talk with him.
We discussed at devotion time the impact that the group has on the
community as all eyes turn to the hospital and the church when “gringos” come
to town. They want to know why we are
there – and the answer is always the same – because Jesus loves us and we want
to share that good news with you.
After soccer we had our devotion time and spent some time in one of my favorite passages in Romans – Chapter 3:9-20 (really it’s my favorite because 21-31 complete the thought). We discussed the indictments that Paul records against all mankind – resulting in an impossible defense, “every mouth may be closed”. Praise be to God that we no longer have to fear standing before a holy God and see the truth that our righteousness is useless, but rather Christ has clothed us with His righteousness.
Tomorrow we will be waking up,
packing, doing final clean up around the hospital and church and we will be
heading for Guatemala City. It is a long
drive back (somewhere between 6-8 hours depending on who you ask). We will be staying there until Monday when we
return home. The trip is not over, and
the work (albeit different than it was) is not over. We need to pray for strength and continued
focus.
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