The latest from Mark O’Henry:
Friday: We got up bright and early and enjoyed a great breakfast prepared by Janice Schaaf and the wonderful ladies from West Virginia! This is the first time anyone from WV has ever participated with Grace Ministries and they have been fantastic! You should have seen the intensity of Magen on Tuesday morning as she searched for a “board stretcher” that she was asked to get from the tool box! She even went down to the van looking for it!! She gets the award for “the most dedicated to a task” I have ever seen! Back to today… We left the mission house for our last day of house-building after hearing a challenge from Gordon Armstrong on “truth”. After arriving at the village, a number of us went to VBS while the rest finished off the remaining houses. When we showed up for Bible School there was a very large group of children already seated in rows, eager to hear the story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus! Wow!! Pastor Mark was required to minister for the first 45 minutes without a translator! (L-o-n-g story that we will spare you the details of…) Mark exhausted every word of Spanish he knows at least 5 times… sang every Spanish song he has ever learned… and recited every verse of Spanish he has ever memorized… a total of 3). Let’s just say it was a s-t-r-e-t-c-h-i-n-g time indeed! BUT, in spite of Mark’s obvious limitations, you should have heard these children SING! When Lazaro and David FINALLY arrived, it was a WELCOME sight indeed! This afternoon, a van load of the team went with Pastor Mark to the village of Chuacacay (where the Grace team worked last week) and finished off a house that wasn’t quite completed. After that, we returned to Chuacajay Uno to bless 100 families with food and clothes. Because of a delay in getting the supplies to the village, Pastor Mark and Lazaro did an hour long service with all the people, singing, preaching and presenting the Gospel. It was so humbling to hear many of the people audibly praying to receive Christ as their Lord and Saviour when Lazaro gave the invitation. (Many children have also prayed to receive Christ at VBS!) The Lord gives the increase!! At the end of a wonderful day of ministry, we drove back to the mission house for an amazing chicken dinner prepared by Jan Kapenga and her assistants. There were also three different kinds of divine cream pies! The teens are currently socializing in the Upper Room and on the roof of the mission house. Please pray for our day tomorrow as we dedicate all the homes that we have built. Pray that the people will come to trust in Christ, if they haven’t already, and that the community of Chuacajay Uno will be forever changed by the presence of Jesus in their midst. Also pray that our time at Casa Alleluia orphanage will be truly blessed. Thank you all! The trip is going great!