We were off and running for our first full day of construction.  Knowing that we are a “combo” team means that everyone does both, but most certainly has an affinity for the camp & kids or for the construction & work.  But we always remember that God uses and needs both on our team and that it what it is like to have different gifts and passions, but serve the same God and mission.

When we arrived to the Ranch, we decided to take a walk through the Las Parcelas community and go visit the school.  They usually have recess at 9:30a so we made it a bit early.  Once they saw some gringos walking down the street toward school, I’m pretty sure the teacher just had to wrap the lesson.  So they came busting out the door excited to see us and have some “big kid” playmates.

The school is a special place for us.  Not only have we invested in these Parcelas kids over the last 5 years or so, but also the community and the school.  Just last year, we painted the interior of the school.  Prior, we had painted the exterior, bought and painted playground equipment and bought classroom equipment.  Again, we are so grateful for God’s faithfulness to use our teams year after year and for the privilege to see the progress each passing year.  Many of these kids have been with us at camp in the past, so we invited them out to the Ranch to play after school.  We only invited a handful, but word travels quickly somehow and around 40 kids showed up to play!  We had a blast playing on the playground, frisbee, baseball, soccer and an epic water fight.

Some continued on from the morning construction projects while others played.  But at some point, everyone was in on the play action (everyone needs a break every now and then)!  But it was back to the grindstone for sure.  Most were working on the cantera stone walkway around the waterslide.  This was an amazing amount of work in the hot sun.

I had a small team working with me on the first ever Ruby Ranch water fountains.  These will be spread around the play area and we are having to trench to tie in to the main water lines we laid a few years ago.  But we were excited when we reconnected water and they were working!  We’ve got a few more to construct and tie in tomorrow.  Finally, Brinson drove up with a truck bed full of foliage.  So we started looking and placement and preparing the grounds for new plants!

So it was a fully, hot and sweaty day of construction.  We arrived back to the compound looking like we were playing in the mud just in time for dinner.  Clean hands are all that matter around here, so we jumped right in.

Our team time at night continues to be so encouraging.  It’s awesome to have an hour to just open God’s Word and dig in and look at how we can fix our gaze upon Him.  And then to be able to break down into small groups and dive into each others hearts and process what God is speaking to us.  God is most certainly working in us and we are grateful.  And we are grateful to each of you for following our mission and praying for our team!