May 5th

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

We celebrated by waking up to a 4am alarm, threw on our clothes and headed to the bus for a 4:45am departure and 5 hour bus ride to the remote mountain village of Quillaorgo, this means moon hill.  Unfortunately Rendee was getting sicker and she decided to stay back where medical help would be more readily available if she should need it.  It was sad to leave one of our team members behind but we knew God would use her in a special way at the PDV campus.  Our devotion on the bus was from Philippians 2:14-36. "Do everything without grumbling or complaining…" Just the passage we needed to put us in the right frame of mind for the 2 days ahead of us; Sleeping in tents in 40 degree weather, cooking outside, playing with the kids on the dirt field, no showers or bathrooms, well, no indoor bathrooms anyway.  The challenge was finding the perfect place to create our own bathroom aka. a tree or a rock.  The best part of our banos was the view of the valley and the mountains on the other side.  I wish my bathroom at home had such a view!  Our 5 hour bus ride only got us so close to the village.  We unloaded the luggage, supplies and people on a flatbed truck that could navigate the rugged terrain and get us to the village.  We unloaded our supplies, set up our tents, and had a half hour to spare before our VBS started.  Our Bible story was Jesus healing the blind man.  We played lots of games with the kids in which they were blindfolded.  They loved all of the games and the songs that we sang.  Their smiling faces encouraged us.  While we were conducting the VBS, Brenda and Teresa, our capable nurses conducted a medical clinic and not only saw the children of the village but their parents as well.  After lunch we enjoyed a competitive game of soccer aka. football with the children. School was over at 3 and the children went home because some of them had to walk 2 hours to get home and needed to get there before dark.  We enjoyed a nice break and dinner before our evening church service.  Jason preached a great message to the people of the church continuing with our theme of Jesus healing the blind man.  The 35 people in attendance seemed to enjoy the service and music, we did too.  Our stretch an blessed was shared around a roaring campfire, which was a blessing in the 40 degree temps.  Off to bed hoping the weight of our luggage and our bodies would keep the tents from blowing off the mountain.  We are thankful for the children we were able to minister to today and are looking forward to an awesome day tomorrow.

 

-Gail