Tuesday

Good evening everyone! My name is Alexis Jeltema, I am from First Cutlerville CRC! This is my first year on the Mission trip! It has been such an amazing experience so far! I knew coming here that I would leave changed, but I didnt realize how much I'd really change. On to our day today! We started out our morning here with a moderate volcano warning! We definitely don't have to deal with that in Michigan! We also had to deal with a demonstration, which is like a protest. So that made our typical drive of about 45 minutes. But with the protest it took at least an hour and a half or longer. We had 3 teams today that put the fronts of the houses on, and my group went to pour cement at our last house! My group went to the duplex house today to help put the cement in! This family will always have a special place in my heart. This family has 8 kids in their family! We got to the house and they kids ran up to the doors with open arms waiting for our group to arrive. I was able to make a connection with 3 of their kids, Gabby (age10), Henry (age 7) and lastly Jakcelin (age5). These kids have stolen my heart. The guys in my group worked real hard, and I was entertaining the kids! However we needed water so we could mix the cement, and this family doesn't have a direct access to water. They have to walk a good 5-10 minutes to get to water. Which made it hard to mix our cement, so we had to get an IBC tote (250 gallon tank) and run into the nearby village to fill with water. While the guys worked I took out my Polaroid camera and the girls wanted to each have a picture with my name on it to remember me! They have stolen my heart! This family was so grateful for the house! We had finished and packed up all of our equipment said our goodbyes and walked out the door. When the dad came running out and told us to come back, the women of the family made us dinner again! They made us dinner yesterday, and again today! We had fresh pasta with tomatoes, beans, fresh lemonade, and best of all right off the fire tortillas(they call them pollo here). It was amazing! They most amazing part of the day is that I was the translator for my group. And I failed Spanish class in High school. I was able to fully communicate with this family in Spanish! After we finished eating we headed to the Refugee center. Which is from the volcano last June. They have over 400 families in that camp. We were told about stories of families that lost almost all of their family. I was old about a story of a pastor who lost his wife and 7 out of his 8 children in the volcano. Along with their personal possession, and their house. And they don't have a lot to begin with. That story immediately made me think of a modern day Job. He lost everything, but is still putting his full trust in the Lord. How incredible is that?! While at the camp we joined up with our whole team, to put on VBS for the kids, and help pour cement for one of the churches in the camp. The refugees at the camp had started the cement at 6am this morning, and had gotten half way when we arrived. And we were able to help finish the cement in about 2 hours. The rest of our group put on the VBS. The story was about Paul and Silas, and their time spent in jail. The young adults in the group acted out the story for the children. The whole point of the story was about salvation through time in trouble. Which is a huge part of their community today. Over all i'd say it was a pretty successful day! I can say I have been truly blessed by this small country! Thank you for continued prayers and support. We all can defiantly feel them! Thank you!

Alexis