You know that feeling when you pray to God actually believing He is powerful and capable to do what He has promised? I know that doesn’t typically characterize the prayer life of many followers of Christ, but we are learning to grow in our dependance on God and our communication with Him through prayer.

So, honestly I wasn’t too surprised to see all our team at breakfast this morning. I mean, after all, we have been crying out to Him for healing as I know many of our supporters have been. So after my morning rounds (I have to assume the role of Dr. Todd here), we were all praising God that everyone was on the mend and ready to go out together today… as a full team. That was pretty miraculous considering Nica stomach doesn’t want you to be anywhere further than a few feet from your bed or the bathroom. So we started our day rejoicing and thanking God for His powerful healing.

We did all load up the bus to head to our last full day of construction at Ruby Ranch. Even though a few were less than 100%, everyone did their best to pitch in and help. Before we started on the work, many headed back up to the school to catch the kids for recess. Just like driving up the dirt road on the bus through a few other towns, we are so warmly greeted by smiling faces and children running toward us. We took the time to invest in their lives and speak God’s love through the language of play.

Back at the Ranch, we had to take down a few trees that were in the way of the steps and sidewalk project. So with some help from Henry (the Nicaraguan Chuck Norris) we were on our way to moving them. The stone guys were already hard at work laying out the front steps of the Rancho. We finished up our volleyball court – yes, by moving even more dirt to get it leveled out. Then we also moved some more dirt… this time to the playground to level out some of the ground underneath all the equipment.

But our day was punctuated by some play time as I rounded the corner with a wheelbarrow to see a bunch of wide eyes looking at me through the gate just waiting for the green light to come in. We welcomed them in to play some more after they had completed school for the day. We continue to be taught how to love fully through these kids.

Shade and water breaks were a necessity, but the teamwork displayed and the encouraging words shared today were awesome. God continues to bring unity to this team.

We had hoped to see the completion of the stone project, but seeing as we purchased over 1,000 – we were pretty confident we wouldn’t be able to finish that project with our time left here. But thankfully our support raised will cover the funds for the project to be completed. And before leaving, we all gathered to say goodbye to Henry and to pray for him and his family and for the continued ministry of Ruby Ranch. It wasn’t a tearful goodbye (yet) because we will get to see the kids tomorrow, but we’ll tell you all about that tomorrow.

Much to the team’s delight, we returned a bit early for some time to cool off in the pool. Then after dinner we sorted all of the donated clothes, complete with our annual Nica fashion show… let’s just say those pictures usually don’t surface online to protect the innocent (or not so innocent in this case)!

Our team time continues to be powerful as we look at living from a fully alive heart. We’ve certainly faced the spiritual warfare that we’ve were talking about tonight, but so appreciate your prayer support. It is needed and felt.

We’re in the home stretch… also pray that we finish strong!