July 8, 2023
Dear Diary,
Today the group chose me to be the leader. We had a time of worship followed by some solo time to connect personally with God and pray for each other and other prayer requests. After we were ready to go we headed over to the church once more and the pastor told us to mix the paint about half water/half paint and go over everything one more time. So we attacked it. I was very ready to be done with the whole painting business and I'm pretty sure the other girls were too.
Because the paint was so thin we were able to do everything pretty quickly and then take down the scaffolding and clean up. I had some of the girls start on cleaning right away because in-spite of the plastic and other precautions some paint had still gotten on the floor and we scrubbed with soap and brushes and scrubbed and scrubbed some more. The dear lady who lives at the church cheerfully helped us hook up a hose, gave us her kitchen scrub brush and much more. I wondered what she must be thinking of us white girls who didn't know very much. Her willingness to help us inspired me and helped me work more cheerfully.
At one point we discovered that where we were dumping our water drained out onto the street so any painty water was painting the street. Two of the girls went out there to mop up all the paint and bring it in to dump down a different hole. :) We finally got everything pretty much cleaned up/straightened up by 2:00 and went home to have lunch.
Over lunch we decided who is going to go on the bus next week when we go to Cotoca and that we will go shopping on Monday morning so we just took it easy Saturday afternoon and go ready for the church service in the evening. We got to wash off all the paint speckles one last time and did some laundry.
This evening we went to church between 5:30 and 6:00. We visited with a few early arrivals and then went upstairs to practice some songs. The evening was more of a fun and games type of night. They started out by thanking our team for coming and the work we had done. The pastor shared how our work was a big encouragement to them in seeing people from another country who came and worked hard. Many other people echoed the same and I felt humbled that God had used us in those ways. So often I wonder if they feel that we are intruding on their culture and way of doing things, but I once again am reminded how we can all learn from each other. The pastor's sister thanked us for coming and gave us each a gift from the church to remember Tarija.
We sang our two songs and they wanted another one so we taught them all "Bind Us Together" with the motions. Then we played games like River/Bank, did punishments, taught them some "American" games and had supper together. It was a good ending to a long day and I was very tired and had a headache. We had debriefing at the church in a class room after cleaning up and then went home.
I just found another little gift from the pastor's sister under my pillow. I am going to miss her sooo much. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to be here and I definitely saw God at work in my life today, using me in spite of places I feel weak. Good night.
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