Holy Spirit among us!

Hola! Today was an amazing day from the get go. All prayers have been answered!  We started the day with rain, I mean RAIN! If it was snow we would be snowed in.  But upon arriving the rain cleared just enough to finish, then BAM, the flood gates opened again. PRAISE THE LORD!!!! 
This is an amazing trip that i have felt the God with me every day. And when I feel him I get real emotional. I cry with joy, literally. As I was watching the new fridge get delivered, oh ya the build team chipped in for a new fridge,I saw Juanita cry from joy. when we came back for the celebration the new bible school was all set up. Then Katy started with some worship with the kids. I was so amazed to see the love she has for the Lord that pours over to those children. Those ladies are so faithful it is a great example for what we all should inspire to be like. when I was watching all this I could feel God enter that place as if he was standing beside me. JOY!! I am getting emotional just thinking about it. Fast forward to the end with our group prayer. The whole team and the wonderful locals and support they have with the local ministries huddled all around holding hands praying. As we where praying again I felt blessed with the Holy Spirit . Listening to the prayers I was crying with so much joy. I had the honor of closing right after the Pastor gave his prayer in Spanish and it was like I understand every word he was saying. The love they have for the the Lord is so amazing. What we think is nothing they think of everything they have as a blessing from up above. As I think to myself as I usually do on a mission I take for granted for what I have. Not only do we get to bless others with what the Lord has used us for, the have given me much more and that is spiritual blessings that can not compare to anything else we have done. In closing I want to thank God for such a perfectly organized trip!! I am so thankful for all for everything. Love this place and all the people from here and our team. GOD bless and thanks for all the prayers, they all where answered. Thank you JESUS!!!!!!!!!!AMEN

Greg

Answered prayers

 About 110 to 120 kids showed up to this morning's outreach at Templo Biblico ( Sequoia's DR partner church)

 Seven kids responded to Ben's invitation to become Christians.

Just a couple days ago this boy was throwing rocks at a little girl.  It's amazing what prayer, Bible teaching, and a demonstration of love can do.  Here's Sebastian wearing Donato's hat.

Children's ministry in the pouring rain thanks to the successful build project. There were about 87 of us under the 16' x 30' shelter.  Oh how I (Reed) wish you could hear the joy in those kids' voices as they sang.

Thank you so much for your prayers.  Despite the rain, we finished the build project, had a two spine-tinglingly wonderful children's outreaches, and prayed for an impoverished and spiritually dark neighbourhood.  I can see clearly now the rain has gone... it's gonna be a bright, bright, Son-shining day.

Very successful Outreach and the build project is done!

Details to come...

Pray for today

This is Reed, blogging from my bathroom so I don't wake up my family. I'm like a modern day Fonzie in his office.

Here in Caberete, it rained very hard for most of the night.

In Pancho Mateo, the build team plans to finish the structure this morning. This afternoon the entire team will dedicate the structure and pray for the community.

This morning at Templo Biblico, we have another children's outreach with the potential for very big numbers... if it's not raining.  Most kids probably won't come if it's raining because they have no way to get dry and warm.

Please pray that last night's rain will not interfere with today's ministry.

Prayer Request for Saturday Afternoon

God is speaking to us about the community of Pancho Mateo.  The Build Team has been working there all week building a Ranchero for two beautiful women of God (Juanita and Kathy),  that provide lunch for 100 children a day.  Yesterday, the Outreach Team was gripped by the extreme poverty and the violence in that neighbourhood.  We saw boys physically abusing girls as young as 6 years old.  We did see this a few times.  We also saw 2 woman physically fighting.  The poverty is so severe that adults and children are fighting  - a lot.  Our hearts are hurting today with what we saw.  There has been lots of discussions today.  We have decided to do a prayer walk either through or around that community tomorrow afternoon.  Please pray that God will guide us and will protect us.  It will be sometime in the afternoon that we do this.  Thank you!

An Afternoon in Pancho Mateo

By Emma

Yesterday our outreach team went to Pancho Mateo.  It was very sad to see the poverty down there. 

The children down there were very fun to play with and there was lots of kids so it was pretty much craziness, but I was so happy that the Lord used us to reach out to those kids and bring them the Gospel.

Pray that lots of those children will come to know the Lord.

Build Team Update

By Paul

The first day of the build (Tuesday) gave us weather pretty much as you would expect - quite warm, very humid and blazing sunshine. As you can see from some of the photos at the start, we were sweating steadily and staying hydrated was a major consideration.  That day we managed to get the front wall (posts and beams) into place and braced. In addition, we managed to get the rear wall posts cut to length, notched for the beams and the beams cut to length for work on Wednesday.

Wednesday was an entirely different day from a weather standpoint. We worked all morning in a misty, intermittent showery and occasionally outright rainy conditions. The team managed to get the rear wall in place and braced, then started putting up the roof trusses.  The team worked VERY well together, with everyone taking a turn at different jobs to get a good feel for the project. The afternoon brought a halt to work mid day due to a never ending downpour that had us scrambling to get tools inside and shut off power. We waited quite a while to see if it would clear but no such luck.

Thursday the mountains, a short way off, were shrouded in mist, we had steady light rain and showers all day again.  None-the-less, we pushed through when it was safe to do so and managed to get the rafters in place by lunch. In the afternoon, we continued and by days end had finished the roof strapping up top and another group worked at floor level cutting and installing the cross bracing.  The entire team worked very hard today to advance things despite the weather.  At the end of the day we were back on schedule. Saturday morning we will begin the roof sheeting and finish the cross bracing. I can't wait for the community celebration at 3:00 to bless the new facility.

Visit to Pancho Mateo

Sheri here....
Yesterday was one of the most heart wrenching days I have ever experienced in my life.  We arrived at Pancho Mateo, the neighbourhood that the Ranchero is being built in.  I have never seen poverty like this before.  The homes are pieces of metal and garbage put together to make a wall.  There are garbage piles all along the street.  Most of the kids were wearing filthy dirty clothes and clothes that are too small for them.  And, then the worst happened....  I saw this adorable little girl curled up in a ball on the ground crying.  I looked over to try and figure out why she was crying.  I then saw a 8-9 years old boy hiding behind our van and throwing rocks at her. Rocks, not stones. I put my arm on her back and rubbed her back while another team member went and spoke to him.  Thankfully, we were able to take both of these kids to the church for our childrens outreach.  While in the van, Leslie silently prayed over this boy as she placed her hands on his shoulders.  There was an instant peace and a smile that came on his face.  I am very happy to say that these kids heard of the love of Jesus yesterday.  Most of the kids raised their hands to accept Christ.  Honestly, we are not sure how many actually understood and really did pray to accept Christ and how many put their hands up because the others were.  The Lord knows which ones are truly part of God's family now.  However, we do know that many, many seeds were sown.  

More Construction pix

The crew... doing what they do...

Compassion Children Sponsor Child visits...

These are our sponsor children and their families. 

Ruth and her family

Christian....

and Ismail in orange striped shirt (who happens to be cousins with Christian)

Compassion’s child sponsorship program helps children develop healthy minds, bodies, and relationships while discovering God’s love for them.
For 41 dollars a month, you can make an eternal difference in the life of a child,  We have seen it first hand.
Here’s how it works:

• Children attend activities at a local church each week
• Children enjoy a healthy meal or snack
• Children receive regular health check-ups, dental care and routine vaccinations
• Children get to go to school, receive vocational training and be tutored as needed
• Children participate in sports, field trips, and art programs, where they get to just be kids
• Children find hope in the gospel through age-appropriate Christian teaching and discipleship.

There will always be poor people in the world but you can make a difference for one child.  Please consider sponsoring a child.  We chose children who are the same age as our children.

Blessings
Donato, Leslie, Ryan and Morgan.

Plane deicing leaving Ottawa...photo by Ryan DiPietrantonio.... Epic!

Jamie's home visit

Sonyeli is making a funny face because Jamie is poking her to make her smile!  So funny!

Outreach ... Thursday

Build Pictures... Start to ... today

Here's a quick chronological view of the build from the start to Thursday

Hi Gang!  Another busy day in Pancho Mateo.  As you can see from these photos that by mid day all trusses were up.  By the end of the day the strapping was all up.  They are ready for the metal sheeting now.  I am so proud of these guys who have been working sooo hard without complaint.  The weather has not been great although at least we are not dealing with heat stroke and sun burn!!  The outreach went really well.  We prayed on site with Katy and Juana and then bused the kids over to the church in the gua guas.  The program went well today and the kids were much better than last year.  I have to be perfectly honest and say that I was bracing myself for the activity time because it was so chaotic last year.  Although I would hardly say it was organized it did not have that same out of control feel and all the kids seemed to be having fun just doing their thing either with balls, bubbles, skipping ropes etc.  I feel like the work that Katy and Juana are doing to bring these kids under control is really showing and I am so glad that God led us to support them.  So all in all Thank-you God for another great day!  We will be taking a day off tomorrow for family day!  Pray the weather co-operates.  P.S. Jamie's back was a bit better today and he was able to go on his home visit-Praise God for this as well.  I know that the family was so happy to see him and it meant so much to him to be able to go so thanks for the prayers but please continue to pray as he would like to be able to get to the build for a while on Saturday!  M

DiPietrantonio's Here!!

Ryan's up first ... Having a great time, especially in the ocean on our off time.  During our outreach time the kids are so amazing and friendly.  They smile at me and are happy all the time.  Even in all the rain we are experiencing right now.  I have been giving balls that my soccer coach gave me as a donation to each village we visit.  This has brought so much joy to the kids who have nothing. I'm so thankful for this experience. My sponsor bother was so nice.  We played soccer together and I will see him again on Sunday.

Morgan here ... My sponsor sister Ruth and I played ball also together.  I shared some of my clothes with her and she was so happy.  She has a little puppy who's name was KID.  He licked my leg all the time. In the villages I have been making lots of friends. Can't wait to meet more kids this afternoon.

Leslie here....Kids are having a great time, they love sharing and playing with all the kids each afternoon at the outreach programs.  Seeing them grow has been amazing.  But I think the one growing the most right now is me.  I was overwhelmed with the way the Lord was moving through everyone.  Seeing the joy on the kids faces when they gave their life to Christ, was simply incredible!  It was so good to leave them with skipping ropes, balls, bubbles, etc to play with.  Yesterday had a huge impact on me.  Hope to post pictures off of Donato's camera soon.  Hopefully, he will be back from the build shortly.

Amazing

From Jamie.  How amazing and loving God is. I was told that many brothers and sisters awoke in the early morning with prayers for me. I also awoke in the early morning with my last major spasm.A coincidence... I think not. I didn't think I would be able to see my sponsor child today, but when I awoke I was able to get out of bed and shower !!!! Thank you for all your prayers and I thank God for His awesomeness. I was able to have a wonderful (but too short) house visit with Sonyeli. Thank you thank you thank you.                                                                                                                                                    

Bringing Spanish Bibles from a Church in Ottawa

Dorca and her Mother are so happy to receive Spanish bibles donated by a Spanish church in Ottawa.  These ladies work hard to share the gospel with the kids and families in their community.  But, they are tired.  Please pray that God will give them strength and that He will provide Sunday School resources for them.  This is a real need.  Pray for them.

This was such a beautiful time as these woman of God shared their heart with us.  They shared their joys, but they also shared their struggles.  Then, we gathered around them in a tight circle and prayed for them.  All I could think of was, 'the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few'.  Matthew ?:? !!  I believe this group from Canada were able to encourage them!

Trek Up the Mountain

This is a picture of some of us walking up the mountain yesterday.  The road was so muddy and the weight in the back of the 16 passenger van was so heavy that some of us got out and walked the last few minutes!!  On our way, we wondered if any kids would show up due to the rain.  However, we were so happy to see God bring many, many kids out to hear the message we came to give them.  The message of God's love for them.

Answer to Prayer - Jamie

Thank you for praying.  After 1.5 days in bed, Jamie is up and gone to visit his sponsor child right now!  We found out this morning, that many of us woke up in the night praying for him.  So, we were so happy to see him able to make it down the stairs.  Praying he has an amazing time with his sponsor child this morning.

Boca Nueva

Many hands make light work

[from Al Landriault] Like my son Nicolas, this also is my first Mission trip.  A three generation trip - my dad Chuck, my son Nic and me.  Great male bonding trip so far.  Being on the Build Team for a non-handy guy like me is a bit intimidating.  However, I quickly realized that many hands make light work.  Moments after arriving at the build site for the first time, I was tasked with 2 other team members to cut 7 x 1.5in re-bar.  I am being blessed beyond words as I serve in this capacity.  Being in the midst of this level of poverty, that I have never seen in person before, has brought some serious perspective to my life.  Being with Nic as we visited Steven was also a very touching moment for me.  Watching Nic hug him like a brother brought tears to my eyes.  I explained to Steven and his family that they are a blessing to us.  It is a privilege to have them as a part of our lives.  Steven wants to be a pilot when he grows up and wants to fly over to Canada to visit us.  What a precious child!
Since Nic and I are serving in different ways on this trip, we have long chats back in the room at night exchanging stories and being amazed how God's hand is on this trip and how we are being impacted.
Having Chuck here makes it that much more special.  We have so many shared life experiences, why stop now!  Pics to follow.

Boca Nueva Children's Outreach

Boca Nueva outreach

Some images of the fun activities