Day 3: Amor y Esperanza

Today was our first full day of teaching, constructing, and of course some soccer and a devotional. To say it was a tiring and full day feels like an understatement. However, by the end of the day we all felt the fulfillment and joy of spending our day serving others. It was a good day. Humbling, for sure, but still so so good. I think humility is the best way to describe what this day taught all of us. For many of us it was merely our first or second time teaching, and it’s quite a daunting task, especially considering the language barrier. Construction was similarly humbling as we carried over 700 cinder blocks up 3 flights of stairs. It was really beautiful to see the humbling process, though, because I think that’s where God wants us to be. We find Him in that spot when we understand that we can’t do things on our own. Frankly, apart from Him we can do nothing. In this state of humility, there was also a great amount of unity among the team members. Students teaching one grade would help students teaching in another grade who ran out of stuff to do for their class. Our strong Spanish speaking team members graciously served the ones who were struggling. We split up into our different groups that we were assigned for construction-- groups of people who don’t necessarily know each other super well. In an ordinary situation, high schoolers would grumble about being placed with people who aren’t their best friends--this was different. Everyone was happy to work with their group and we truly experienced trinitarian community as we served God together. Unity was also strengthen when we formed a huge assembly line to carry the cinder blocks. There were people lined all the way up the three flights of stairs, staring from below at the back of a truck, and we simply passed each block up the line. It took an hour and a half of doing this, but it was actually super fun. We sang to keep our spirits up, and God gave us the strength we needed when we came together in that way. There is something really special about people from different sports, different grades, different ages, different families, and more coming together for one purpose. When we got back to the Seminary where we are staying, we played a lot of soccer, ate dinner, and had devotion. During devotion, many students opened up bravely to everyone about stuff they have been going through and the redemption they have felt on this trip already. It was absolutely amazing. We got to hear how God used many different kinds of trials in many different students’ lives for good. There was an immense peace for a lot of us who haven’t felt that in a long time. God’s presence was there, and He truly blew us all away. Praise the Lord!
We are excited to keep teaching the precious students and keep building together this week. If you’re praying for us on the trip, you can be praying for energy (we are all pretty exhausted already), healing for a student who got sick, Pity (one of the leaders of Amor y Esperanza) who got sick, and for strength from the Lord as we continue to serve Him. Thanks again for following along with us on this journey. God is doing some amazing things.

-Grayce