On Today's Schedule...

Today we welcomed our two Semester Students, Chelsea and Taryn.  These two young ladies are here with Bethel College in Indiana.  The Semester Students have spent the past two months in intensive Spanish classes, learning about the D.R., and missions.  Now, they’re taking all of that equipping, and joining our ministry sites. 

Along with helping with the different groups (the Teens can’t wait for some English classes!) Chelsea and Taryn will also do a longer-term project.  In the past students have helped put together a brochure for the site, and also a policy manual.  We are excited to get to know them both better, and to see how Jesus meets them, and works in and through them.

This morning we planned to go over their schedules, tell them a little about El Callejon’s history, what we do at the site, etc…

All of that changed when we unlocked the door and walked in.  We were greeted by the unmistakable smell of something no longer living.  The smell was especially strong in one of the corners, filled with different projects and plastic containers. 

Daisy called in a couple of the neighborhood boys and asked if they would be willing to help us find out what was lurking there.  And, gracias a Dios, they were!  It was a rat.  A big, dead rat.

Once the rat was found, everything else needed to come out and get a good washing.  One of the women in the community comes on Monday mornings to clean.  Negra isn’t squeamish, and scrubbed away.  We moved stuff out back and began looking in all the various containers and piles.      

Chelsea and Taryn were amazing!  They helped sort through plastic bins of material, yarn, and other things.  Even though we encountered some mouse-y ‘leftovers’, as well as cucarachas (thankfully, all were dead, or at least, nearly dead!), both worked without complaining.

In the afternoon we met with the Women’s Group.  Nearly 20 women came to sing praise to God, to hear a Bible lesson, and to work on their Christmas flower craft. 

Daisy shared with them about a young mother in the community whose son fell at school, cut open his head, and now seems to be having seizures.  Our icky morning faded into proper perspective as we lifted up petitions for Ana Mercedes and her child.

One of the songs we sang says, “Submerge me in the river of Your Spirit, My dry soul needs You, When I come up, I will be filled with You.”  That is our prayer for Ana Mercedes, her son, for the women, teens, and girls of El Callejon, for Chelsea and Taryn, for ourselves. 

Today didn’t turn out how we’d planned.  But, it was still a great day, because it was another day to serve and share.  It was another day to pour into the lives of the people of El Callejon… and to be filled, in turn, by the presence of Jesus.  It was another day to be submerged in the Holy Spirit’s power. 

Sure, schedules in El Calleojon are often a ‘wash’, but our dry and thirsty souls will continue to find all we need in Jesus, our Living Water.