Hola! This is Noah Doody. Yesterday we painted Michael’s house. So our work today was pouring the cement for the floor of the house. Every bag of cement was mixed with 12 buckets of gravel and 2 buckets of water. We had around 11 guys all working together to lay the cement down. Even some of the local kids came over and helped with the process. It took us about 2.5 hours to complete the flooring. It would have not been possible to do it in that short amount of time without the help of the local men and boys. It was really awesome to see the joy on Michael’s face after we had finished. He truly cherished the help we gave him and the house that we helped build. After laying the cement we took a short drive down the road to see where Michael lives currently. He followed us on his bike. When we pulled off the road it was amazing to see the literal shack Michael and his family live in. Tin sheets and plywood made his walls and roof. It was just so incredible to be apart of building Michael’s new house and to see how much of a blessing we could be on his life.
Buenas noches; this is Brynne Dillingham here to fill you in on the work that the women did for the morning. After breakfast, we went to the village of El Larado. Like yesterday, we interacted mostly with the children, except this time we worked at a church. We played games with them, sang worship songs in both Spanish and English, then concluded with singing the "Monkey Song, one that neither I nor many of the other American people knew but we could obviously see the kids LOVED it. After this, the kids exited the church and on their way out we gave them each a gift of clothing, in which they appreciated more than anything. Concluding our time with the villagers, we played outside games such as soccer, blowing bubbles, and tossing around a beach ball.
After we returned back to Casa de Shelly to refuel with some lunch, we headed back out to a village called El Ojoche together as one team. Similar to yesterday, we were able to provide the community with a large pot of chicken and rice soup and spent lots of time loving on the families there. We played American football, painted lots of tiny fingernails, colored in color books and did some face painting. Towards the end of our time in the village, some of the students acted out the story of David and Goliath, a story that few had heard. I think they got a kick out of seeing Katriel throw a "stone" (tennis ball) straight to the forehead of our "Goliath" sending him down to the ground.
It was another beautiful day in Nicaragua. Continue to pray for us as some of our students head to the radio station tomorrow to share their testimonies and lead us in a time of worship.