Hello all! I signed up for this mission trip not really knowing exactly what to expect. I prayed for patience and for God to use me in any way He see fit. Today was our first day doing work in the town of Bolivar. We spent the day interacting with the people and making children smile in any way possible. Painting houses was first on the agenda and personally I was looking forward to it. Going from house to house asking what colors they would like us to paint their houses was an adventure in itself. The cool thing about painting these houses is that although there is no real trim on the house we paint it as if there were. Our first house was for Ingrid. She is a beautiful young woman. Like I said earlier, I really didn’t know what to expect coming into this town. You simply can not imagine the house here until you see them for yourself.
While painting her door the most beautiful shade of turquoise I caught a glimpse of the inside of her house. The house is built from bamboo and insulated with newspaper. The floors are dirt and there is one room. Ingrid, her husband, and their eight month old child live here. Can you imagine living in one single space with your entire family? Thankfully, our entire team knows a little Spanish so we were able to have little communication with Isabel. She was very welcoming and extremely patient with our Spanish. After finishing painting we pray with the family. To our surprise, Isabel did not know what praying was. Devin did such a great job explaining to her what exactly praying was and used his newly acquired bilingual skills to pray with her.
This town is full of loving people and it is amazing to see that they are so open with everything we are doing. The children are so precious and communication is not an issue with them. Love really knows no language.
-Traci
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