After the long trip and visiting with the De Hoyos into the wee hours, we were grateful for the opportunity to be able to sleep. 10:30 AM brought many wonderful saints, both familiar faces and new as they gathered for church at the De Hoyo’s home. We didn’t use the new building mainly due to the inconvenience of the bathroom being so far away. The church building itself is finished, but it is an open building with no amenities as of yet.
We sang and played instruments. Jamie amused those gathered as she accompanied on her homemade maraca constructed out of rice and a film container. You can take the instrument away from the musician, but you can’t take the musician out of the musician!! Or something like that :P Next, dad shared about being “normal” using the illustration of Leslie and Joe’s miraculous health issues. We all appear normal on the outside, but it’s what God does for the believer on the inside that really counts. He also spoke that for a believer, God does not promise an easier or better life free of complications. Life for a Christian isn’t problem-free, but Christ is with the believer and promises to help them through any difficulties, and also that the trials will be for their ultimate benefit. Mr. De Hoyos continued the service in Spanish. I caught some of the illustrations and some familiar Spanish words, but mostly just enjoyed the corporate gathering of the saints.
Naps, walks, and talks were the order of the afternoon. It was a beautiful and warm sunny day, and we took full advantage of the weather and the unscheduled time.
At about 5 PM, we gathered at the church building to clean it up a bit in preparation for clinic set-up the following morning. Sweeping, shoveling piles of concrete, and hacking weeds with machetes…
we were a busy crew of workers!
Although the work was tough, it wasn’t drudgery. We managed to find a bit of fun along the way!
Dinner was a type of flattened, breaded chicken called, “milanesa.” Much to our chagrin, we discovered half way through dinner prep that the tank of propane was just about empty. Kriss and I (Dena) grabbed some pans and oil and drove over to the neighbors (God bless the Martinez’s!) to cook our dinner. I think we were bad luck though, because we hadn’t even finished cooking the first pan of chicken when the flame went out on the stove. The Martinez’s had run out of gas as well!! Mr. Martinez ran to buy some propane, while we visited with Marcella, their oldest daughter. Dinner was done eventually though, and it was delicious!
While at the Martinez’s watching as Marcella expertly cooked the chicken … whoops! Did I let that out??? ;) Kriss told me that as we drove up on Saturday night, they were doing karaoke with Marcella and Alejandro Martinez. They hooked up the computer to the guitar amp and played youtube videos with the words. It was so fun, that they wanted to do it again with us. Dickmar did his convincing (although a bit more treble) version of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.”
It was an instant hit … well, sort of . :P
Jamie and I took a midnight walk to look at the stars. She brought Mona, Kriss’ adorable boxer puppy wrapped in her sweatshirt, and we had a fun time catching up. What a gorgeous creation God made for us to enjoy!!
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