Seeing God’s love through the hands of my teammates has been amazing. While painting houses and working on needed construction projects is important; it’s the broken conversation, laughter and prayer with each family we help that builds the relationships that lead to open hearts. Each team member has skills that seem to be just right for what is needed here. Just as each of us has a role in God’s plans. Each day some of us may go and paint or build a roof on a families home, others might break away to visit homes and provide medical assistance but each of us must embrace the talents which we’ve been blessed with and use them to show Jesus’s love to others.
Today, some of the team stayed back and prepared several laptops for use by students in the area. Ecuadorean High Schools have “cyber” requirements that often prove too expensive for students to complete. For some, these laptops will go a long way in easing this burden. Elsewhere, doors were installed on a home for a family that had been living without them. After dark, a true Savannah low country boil was prepared for the men of the town of Bolivar and a message of salvation was given. All of these projects were completed by team members recognizing the talents the Lord has blessed them with and using them to love on the people of Ecuador.
“Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.”
(1 Peter 4:10-11)
– Fred Barrantes
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