One of our goals was to be an encouragement to the ladies who take care of the children. Their days are filled with lots of hard work and we felt like the Lord wanted us to "hold up their hands" like Aaron and Hur did for Moses:
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekite army with the sword. Exodus 17:11-13
We didn't exactly lift their "hands" but we did wash and massage their feet and give them pedicures.
We made them dessert and put our hands on each of them to pray for the tough things that they were walking through.
We also took over the care of the kids so they could go to town or have an outing all together. It helped us to appreciate how very hard their job is!
We also had times of doing activities with the kids. They had around 30 kids ranging in age from infant to about 8. Very, very busy!!
They also have Julio who is 14 but mentally challenged. He is the sweetest boy!
There were also a couple construction projects that the men were focused on. Don and Chris made forms and poured cement. They also helped build a "roof" over the lines used to hang all of the kids' laundry. The "roof" will help the clothes dry during the rainy season.
Don and I were on assignment from Samuel to find a "blue jean frog". We never did find one but we took pictures of millipedes, large toads and lots of lizards.
We did make some time for fun as well.
Judi, the oldest member of our team, taught us how to do flips off of the top bunk!
We walked down (and back up) about 330 steps to a beautiful waterfall.
We also had a day at the beach. We went shopping and took a trip on an amazing zip line! It was incredible!
The sunset on the beach was breathtaking!
Costa Rica is a beautiful country. We had an amazing team. We pray that we were a blessing to the children's home there.
"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ." Ephesians 1:3
