Day 2

Flexible, flexible, flexible.  That has long been Glenn's message for us on any mission trip and this one is not different.  We got up this morning to an uncharacteristically pleasant temperature and enjoyed a good breakfast together.  We thought that we knew what our plan for the day looked like but it just didn't start out that way.  Not that anything bad happened, we just weren't able to get started on our tasks as we expected.  We spent some time resting, making alternate plans, and shopping lists.  During this time I was reminded by something that Glenn said about the importance of presence.  Frequently in the old testament someone is said to have "pitched his tent" somewhere or near someone else.  The intent seems to be to indicate the intent to commune with someone and stay awhile.  Presence.  While we aren't here very long, I think one of the main things we bring to the people here is simply our presence.  It's hard to measure or define the impact but I believe it is a very real and powerful way to share God's love with others.  After we had lunch, we went to the local supermarket, Jumbo, and got some supplies.  This put us back at Casa Pastoral well after 1:00 so we had doubts about going out again after that.  When we did get back we learned that part of our group was in fact going to go to one of the batayes to share bible lessons with the kids there.  The children were all very well behaved, focused, and engaged in a positive way in the songs, bible lesson, and related crafts.  It was interesting to watch as some of the older kids took on "assistant teacher" roles and helped the younger kids do the crafts.  This was the first time we could recall doing only VBS in a community without at the same time doing medical clinics, water filters or construction.  The overall dynamic was a bit different and the community seemed genuinely touched by our presence.  After the bible lesson and craft time, the children were given some medications and vitamins and then the older girls were given their hygeine kits that many in Trinity helped make.  While this was all happening, a smaller group stayed behind at Casa Pastoral to begin making preparations for the medical clinics starting Monday.  David, Pete, Jessica, Mike, and Julie worked on organizing the medicines that we have which meant sorting, counting, and bagging large quantities of pills and vitamins.  When the others returned from the batay we had a wonderful dinner followed by a devotional led by Renee.  She talked about how the book of Nehemiah describes how it was by the "gracious hand of God" that the wall was rebuilt in 52 days following exile.  She discussed the extensive planning, preparations and details needed to make this happen and compared that to the extensive planning, preparations and details needed to make this mission trip happen.  Particularly by Glenn and Teresa and the leaders of our subteams like Beth for VBS, Keith for water, and Julie for medical.  She closed by reading Ephesians 4:11-13 and discussing how the many roles different christians play work together to build up the body of Christ.  This is definitely happening when all of Trinity goes on mission.  Keep it up Trinity!