Tuesday: Learning to Build Toothpick Houses

Mudding and taping

We began this morning worshiping with some of the HFIC camp kids.  This has been a good way to start each day before construction begins, and a great way to start the day focused on God.  After worship we started in on our constructions projects.  We continued to mud and sand the chapel, where Nate G., Ashley Ha., Anna, and Ginger have become quite proficient at mudding uneven surfaces.  Hopefully, that room will be ready to paint by tomorrow afternoon.

Many hands make light work!

The dental office waiting room was sanded this morning and received a fresh coat of paint after lunch.  Austin, Ashley Ho., and Sarah have particularly put a lot of effort into this room, and it will receive a 2nd coat of paint in the morning.  Megan and Emily also had the opportunity to learn how to install base boards, and are now the official baseboard installing team.

Tom and Mike helped head up different projects today while Lisa and Nate W. worked on getting needed supplies for the projects.  Through all of our work this week, we are learning to build "toothpick houses" (an analogy from our poverty lesson yesterday, to be explained when we hold our report at Calvary in late July).

Installing baseboards

After construction, we had the opportunity to visit the gardens behind the HFIC facility.  Joel, who is in charge, gave us a history of American food production.  Three days a week, kids from the camp come and help him tend the garden.  The garden contains flowers, vegetables, and herbs, as well as chickens and goats.  Some of the kids in the community also come every Saturday and they cook bean soup to provide to the local neighborhood.

HFIC garden entrance

After supper, we drove to a Hispanic neighborhood to hold our BBC.  When we arrived, there were no children, but by the end we had around 8 kids.  We sang some songs, helped them learn a Bible verse, taught them the story of creation (which Nate G. did a wonderful job of presenting), and then did crafts and had cookies and lemonade.  Nate W. also organized a prayer group at the beginning to pray for the kids and families in the neighborhood.

It has been wonderful to see how God plans things perfectly and today's BBC was no exception.  Tom, who grew up in Guatemala, had the opportunity to talk to the parents of some of the kids:

Crafts at BBC

"God orchestrated some unique circumstances in today's BBC. He also answered many of our prayers. Three or four Hispanic families attended our BBC today. All of them were from Guatemala where I grew up. This made it easy for me to invite two of these families to the BBC when we were walking through East Lake Park looking for children and families to invite. It also made them more comfortable interacting with our team. Note: all four families come from the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala which is in the highlands of Guatemala where they grow a lot of coffee and the average high temperature is in the 70's most of the year. It never gets in the 90's. Many of these families said they would come back tomorrow."

Please pray for the kids and that they will return tomorrow, and that their parents will come with them.  BBC today was a good opportunity to minister to not only the kids, but the parents as well.  Please also pray for safety and patience for the team as we minister through construction and BBC.