Our last full day of work at Matochos, and the team was up and ready to go early. We were eating before 7:00, and began our devotions close to 7:30. Our discussion centered around James 1:19 through the end of the chapter. We talked about listening, hearing, being slow to speak and slow to wrath. We discussed the righteousness of God and what true religion was. Then we headed off to serve God by loving on the kids at the child care center.
When we arrived at the center, the team got right to
work. Some were playing with kids, some
were painting, Jon and Jesse were mixing concrete, Pat began working on the
Jonah and the whale mural, and Ronny began working on the AMG logo on the
outside wall of the building. Since
Ronny was outside the gate, I sat and watched her work. I felt rather useless as the rest of the team
was working, and all I was doing was keeping an eye on Ronny’s safety. Eventually Jon came out and we switched
places and I had the chance to mix and pour concrete. This team is getting a lot of work done –
from painting 5 classrooms, painting many of the exterior walls, painting the
bathrooms, to the digging of the footer for the water tower (and pouring the
footer today) and putting up “coke lights” in the bathroom and a
classroom. They are getting a lot done
and everyone is chipping in.
Today the kids asked us to sing some songs, so we attempted
to do so. I only have a few Spanish
songs memorized, so after we sang them, we were at a standstill. We tried singing some English songs, and the
kids were gracious, but eventually they got bored with it. For some reason I decided to play “Every Move
I Make” and the team (and the kids) came alive.
They were doing hand motions, jumping around and singing. It was a blast to watch. I broke a string in the middle of the song,
but the kids told me to keep going. We
sang “Father Abraham” in English and they sang it is Spanish. Silas, Bailey, Emily, Kris, and Inger were
all part of the “chaotic” singing – it was fun to watch and be a part of. This would be the last time we saw these kids
on this trip, so it was a great ending to the afternoon.
After giving the kids some candy, and finishing up some of
the work that was needed, we packed up and headed for the hotel. It was a wonderful day of ministry, working
and loving on kids. The people at
Matochos (the workers and teachers) are so giving and hospitable – they have
fed us well, kept us hydrated, and have loved us through their actions. They have been a blessing to serve.
Tomorrow is our final day here and then we head back to the
city. I think it will be an emotional
time as we say good bye. But we still
have much to do – we are visiting Las Vistas on Friday!! I get to see Ludsvin. It’ll be exciting seeing him again.
Thought for the day: As I worked with Ronny, (yeah, I did some
work) we were painting and drawing on the concrete wall. It was very difficult – especially with the
marker – getting the color into the crevasses of the block. As we were working on it, we had our faces
close to the wall (since we were on ladders) and the imperfections were obvious
and easy to see. However, when you
stepped back off the ladder and gazed at it, the wall looked pretty well
painted and complete.
As I thought about the devotions for this morning (a good
hearer looks into the perfect law of liberty), and I thought about the
observation we made, I couldn’t help but correlate the two. Many of us stand back far enough from the
realities of our hearts and observe ourselves as rather good and complete
people. However, if we get closer and
truly critique our lives, we can’t help but notice the imperfections, and the
closer we get the more obvious and evident these imperfections are. There isn’t just one or two, but rather
thousands of small minor issues that if left unchecked and un-confessed the
will destroy our lives.
We must, no I must, look at the perfect Word of God and
allow Him to evaluate me and show me the blatant areas of my life that need
Him, that need His righteousness, that need the Gospel!
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