This morning at the radio station, Ross P. and Ross W. gave their testimonies and Domingo and the Rippers sang “10,000 Reasons.” Brad preached about the calling of Levi the tax collector. Jesus doesn’t care about who you were before, he cares about who he intends for you to become. Brad told us about how when Jesus calls us, we have no choice but to follow. We will be changed because of our relationship with him.
We were excited because the foundation for the structure at La Barrera was finished yesterday! No more digging ditches or pouring concrete! Instead we drove way out to El Laredo. This is a town that is mostly concrete block housing that was built by the Red Cross after Hurricane Mitch. The difference between the housing in El Laredo and Cofradia (where we went on Tuesday) was shocking. In Cofradia, the most prominent thing is the trash everywhere from the nearby dump. In El Laredo, everything was in much better condition; good concrete sidewalks, well-constructed houses raised off of street level, and running water. It was still definitely an impoverished place, but the people there are richly blessed compared to their neighbors. We painted one of the houses yellow with bright pink and red accents. Because this didn’t take too long, we made a stop at the Mountain of Prayer. This peak right outside downtown Somotillo gave us a great birds-eye view of the villages we’ve been serving and even into Honduras.
We had lunch in the common room today. The electricity had been shut off to the whole compound. Don kept a few of the buildings running off the generator so the refrigerators and some of the air conditioning could still run. We were very thankful to get to come back to a cool room and a delicious lunch (Mama Maria’s Chicken Wings).
After lunch we drove back out past El Laredo to San Francisco (not CA) for some medical work, food, soccer and baseball. Don told us the town lacks much in the way of significant moral leadership. Pastor Ronaldo has been pouring into the people as often as possible, but the culture in the village is so terribly stained by sin. We are praying for God to send someone to be a full time pastor there and begin to push back against the forces of evil that are so prevalent there.
Tomorrow most of the team from Dawson will head back to Managua by way of Corinto for some sight seeing and good food. They’ll fly out at 7:45 Saturday morning. Be praying for their safe return to Birmingham. Jon and Ben will be staying behind from the Dawson crew for one more week. Morgan the Intern will also be staying around to help welcome and work with the next team that will be coming in from Virginia. Pray for the work that they will be doing in El Laredo and other villages around Somotillo.
