Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Home safely

Our team has returned from Puerto Rico safely.  Thanks for your praters during the trip.

Tuesday, October 9, 2018

Our last work day

Today was our last work day in Puerto Rico.  We divided up into two teams.  The first team spent the morning at Bill's Kitchen whose mission is to serve nutrious meals to those infected by HIV.  Our team helped pack meals which included the Puerto Rican staple of rice and beans.  In the afternoon, this team returned to our host church to complete some painting that was remaining from our first day.

The second team visited a local non-profit, Tarps for my People.  This group began just a couple of weeks after Hurricane Maria with a high school English teacher and her friend sending out pleas on social media for tarps to help those in their neighborhood.  It has grown into a full-time effort for them and they have recently been provided a location by the city to be their home base.  We spent the day there painting the interior, pulling weeds from around the site, painting the exterior window bars, and trimming the grass.

As we prepare to wrap up this week, thank you for your prayers.  Continue to keep the people of Puerto Rico in your prayers as they continue the long rebuilding activity.  Also, please keep those who are in the path of Hurricane Michael in your prayers as it approached the gulf coast.

- Keith































Monday, October 8, 2018

Work Day 3 - On the farm

Today started a little earlier than the rest as we had a 1.5 hour ride West to Lares. There we helped demolish a couple of large, outdoor hydroponic nursery structures that were damaged during last year's hurricane. Another team helped weed some growing fields. We discovered that the fire ants of Puerto Rico are more vicious and painful than their American counterparts!

The owner told us a very moving history of the issues struggles of the nursery since the hurricane. His goal is to re-employee at least 15 locals to help with the local employment . Carlos, a 16 year old fine young man accompanied us today. He worships at The Metropolis Church and worked as hard as the rest of us today. He wants to become a personal trainer with emphasis on good nutrition. We made a lot of wonderful new friends today.

- Brad