Wednesday

Hola! It{s Mrs. Portillo. Today is officially our last day of ministry, and for some reason, it{s gone by super fast and it seems as though we{ve been here forever. The kids are doing great...I{m honestly just impressed with their good attitudes and desire to do ministry here. I sit in the crowd while they do their dramas and watch how people react to them...usually with rapt attention and tears in their eyes. Some of the natives here just cannot believe that these kids would leave their homes to come here to witness to others. Yesterday, Tuesday, we had an opportunity to go to some hot springs for showers. The downside was that we had to get up early to drive there. We had to hike to the pools about a half mile, but it was worth the wait. Everyone found a little pool and started washing their hair. It{s amazing how great it feels to be even a little clean.

For the Green Team, we went to the local high school and spent some time talking to the students there in English. The students there seemed pretty shy at first, but then they started to open up. It was quite a sight to see our students shouting out words in English, pointing to things and trying to get the Spanish students to pronounce things in English. For me, it was great fun to see them in the role of teacher. Maybe we will have a few future teachers in this group, who knows..

We spent the afternoon in the town square of Progresso, the same town where we went to church on Sunday. We put on a full program and even had several people come forward at the end, despite the rain that suddenly poured down on us. These kids are growing in boldness..I looked out at one point and saw them all huddled around people, praying or showing them verses in the Spanish Bibles we brought. We then loaded the van and headed to a little town in the mountains. THe audience was mostly children, maybe 100 or so. We pulled out frisbees, which apparently is a foreign object to most of them, and soccer balls. These children were obviously from poorer homes as most had holes in their clothes and had dirty clothes. But our kids played with them non stop without any reservations. We put on our program again, but geared it more towards the kids this time. We put together salvation bracelets with the children and Mr. Sauer gave an invitation message to the adults. It{s amazing how these people are so uninhibited and will come forward for prayer without any hesitation. They have such soft hearts. The church there, which is composed of about 3 families, served us a meal in their tiny building. Most meals come with some sort of drink, and this time it was very sweet coffee with cinnamon. This, unfortunately, left several of our boys bouncing off the walls. It was a long day, so we all headed to bed.

As far as prayer requests, continue praying for energy and endurance. We have had packed days so far, and even though these guys are tired, they have had great attitudes and will do anything we ask of them. We{ve been so fortunate to have little to no sickness, which is amazing considering we haven{t really had the facilities to stay clean. Danielle Whitmore wasn{t feeling great the second day, but is doing much better. We{ve encouraged the kids to drink a lot of water to avoid dehydration. Hannah Sparlin has had a constant headache and seems to have had a stomach ache as well, so we{ve kept her in the shade a lot and tried to let her rest more. Zach Wilkins had a headache yesterday, but seems to feeling great today. We appreciate all your prayers and will try to keep you updated on how we do. Tomorrow is our day of rest...we{ll probably go to a water park, maybe do some hiking and some shopping.

You all would really be so proud of these guys...I know that Mr. Sauer, Mrs. Miller and I keep saying that over and over again. The lessons you parents have taught them are shining through in amazing ways.

Gloria a Dios!!!!