Nicaragua:: Day 5

Wow... we had our longest day of work today so far. God granted us with another beautiful day - He provided the cloud cover when we needed it and even a breeze at other times. Building a home in just over a week is a huge undertaking and we have all been nervous as to whether we will finish or not. But today we were able to make really good progress - the walls are up to the mid-level to where we lay another trough of concrete. I would guess a few more rows of block until we reach roof level!

The girls helped in a major way with some painting of the steel beams for the porch and roof joists before heading over to the school to work on their "specialty" painting in the preschool building. They worked a long day as well and are making great progress there.

It has also been a real treat for us to interact with the residents (especially the kids) of Los Cedros. We bring treats & trinkets for them everyday and it is a blessing to just be able to give and bring a smile to such a place of poverty. But God is showing me how blessed they really are in their "lacking." I'm finding that having less distractions, responsibilities and the trappings of the way of life I'm accustomed to may actually make life more difficult in ways that it seems would be easier. Just like with God's kingdom - it tends to work in reverse of how we think.

At our team time tonight we all were able to reflect on what God is teaching us and how the mission is going so far. God is uniting our hearts and we are really working together as a team. It is hard to believe we are in the home stretch of the mission already.

We are looking forward to another big day of work tomorrow before our next team (camp team) arrives on Wednesday. Praise God for what He is doing in and through us so far this mission!