Everyday is something new...

Friday October 10, 2008

So yesterday I was sick ALL day…it was horrible! I’m not sure what caused it but I woke up nauseous and it stayed with me and came in waves all day long...NOT GOOD! I wasn’t much use for anything. However, Amber got some practice teaching the little kids by herself and she had 10 children and it went really well. Then they went visiting homes and the people in the village. They talked with 4 or 5 families and prayed over them. I was sorry I missed out but Amber had a good time and it was good experience for her. She also went to the home service by herself, (they hold a service on Thursday nights in a different person in the church’s home each week ) which went really well and was very intense with a lot of passion.

Today I was feeling a lot better and they went to visit families in the village again and I was able to go with them. Amber and I, Luis, Wendy and Yensel all went out together and visited a really rugged part of Reynel Funez, Sector 3. It’s in the very back of the village and no cars can get back to it. A lot of the houses are built into the mountain and are in the middle of what looks like a jungle. These people are in living conditions even worse off than the rest of the village and they’re really far from most things. We had to travel down into a canyon and then up the other side of the mountain to get to the houses. The physical stuff is kicking my butt haha…so much walking! It was a really good experience though and so beautiful once we got to the top. We prayed with a few families and we met with one younger man probably in his early 20’s with a little 2 year old boy. He let us come to his house and talk with him and found out he wasn’t saved but was really open to everything and ended up getting saved right there. We all prayed for him and Yensel led him to Christ. Yensel is 18 years old and he can preach better than most preachers I’ve met…he just sat there and explained everything to him and was so natural at preaching…these youth are complete leaders! We continued walking and it started raining so another family let us come into their house and we just sat and talked with them as well. Everyone in the village is really nice and most welcome you to come in and pray over their families. We prayed for a brand new baby who was only a month old and her family. This mother had about 4 kids, an older gentlemen, her daughter and her daughter’s baby all living in this tiny house that was the size of 1 room…it was crazy and yet they’re still happy and consider themselves blessed. Life here is so much harder and we could all learn a few things from these people...I know Amber and I are.

After we got back we taught the youth English again and they are really getting good! Our class is fun and we’re all starting to find a rhythm and get into it. We’re with these youth all the time and then we’re teaching them so it’s fun! J They’ve now learned on top of the others, the seasons, the months, the days of the week, action words that are “doing something” , all of the family members including extended and all the parts of the body! Really proud of them and they all show up to class and participate so that’s a plus because at least we know they’re all excited to learn!

Tonight we got to experience our first Spanish Birthday party for one of the youth and it was neat how their party was much different than ours. Everyone said something to him and had a word for his life. They read verses and kind of thanked him for being the man he is and then what they believed his life would become and prayed over him. In the US our parties are fun but it’s a neat custom and something that was very special and traditional for them…they had taken time and had thought about what they would say. ALL IN ALL it was a good day!

Love, Alisa