Travelling Mercies

Thanks be to God, we made it back to Virginia safe and sound. Truly, God blessed our journey, because several of our planes arrived late and twice, we went speed walking to gates where the our flight was already boarding when we finally got there.

Thursday morning we spent time at the site, finishing up our work and saying our "see you laters." Our work forewoman, Glee, got everyone organized, so we finished up sanding, priming, and painting one coat on all three of the walls (the fourth wall has to wait for the doors and windows to be installed, which hopefully began yesterday (Friday).

We also accidentally created a new project for ourselves. Just inside of the gate, there was a part of the brick wall that had been spackled, and used to display a painted sign of the Methodist church. I mentioned to the pastor's wife Franci that some of us had thought it would be nice to re-paint that and put handprints on it. She thought it was a wonderful idea, and said we would do it immediately, so we were put to work painting over this very dirty piece of wall, with paint that came from a powder.

But of course, as God's plans always do, it worked out beautifully in the end. We had one coat of paint on when they called us for our closing time together. The church members, Franci, Teca, and the District Superintendent Pastor Emanoel expressed their gratitude that God had brought us and gave each of us mementos to take home, personally and to our churches. We thanked our new friends for all of their work and gracious hospitality, and gave them prayer bears that the Calvary children made last year at VBS. We promised to pray for our new Brazilian family and they promised to pray for us.

When we finished, the wall was ready, and all of us, children, adults, the US team, the DS, and even the hired professional masons put our handprints and names on the wall underneath the words "Igreja Metodista - Aerolandia & Virginia." It was beautiful.

There were many tears on our departure...from children and adults alike. And when we showed up later at the airport, showered and ready to begin the trek to VA, 10 of the core youth and several of the adults were there to see us off.

We are thankful to all who have followed our journey, who have written us comments and emails sending love and encouragement, to all who wrote the cards and letters that we received every morning in mail call, to all who have prayed for us...you have truly been a part of our journey. We are most thankful to God, who has been the author of this whole experience and who was present with us from the very beginning. Truly, anything good that has come of this journey is thanks to God, not to us, for we are mere servants of the Master.

Keep watching the blog...we hope to post a few more photos now that we are back, and we might also put up some closing stories from different team members as we reflect on how this experience has changed our lives.

Deus ti abecoe! God bless you!