Puerto Rico day 4

Day 4 in Puerto Rico!

It started off rough for me.  I woke up hungry, so I decided to pick the ham out of my omelet.  That was a mistake, since I’m allergic, but allergy medication to the rescue.  And I will stick to cereal tomorrow.

            We got a later start today than the past few.  We were out the door by 8:45ish, stopped for more water and ice before heading off to see about getting a ladder.  We went to a repurposed senior center, Roofs For My People, run by Maria Morallis…I hope I spelled her name correctly.  After Hurricane Maria, she started this non-profit organization.  They started putting tarps over houses that had lost their roofs, but because the carpentry was so expensive, they just decided to reroof the houses completely. She stated there were still sixty thousand houses with tarps awaiting new roofs.  

            Back to the church we were painting at yesterday. When we arrived, it was raining. We were in and out of the church a few times because the rain would stop and start again.  Pastor Matt started working on a broken window pane in the bottom of the door that wasn’t there yesterday.  It took most of the day to get the replacement window, but Matt was able to complete that task.  I believe we were able to complete all but the top metal trim in front.  The colors are welcoming, white trim with flamingo pink and the metal trim on top is a lite seafoam green.  I like how much the lizards show up on the new color, too.  If Puerto Rico is anything, it is colorful!

            Pastor Rose Mary made lunch for us.  It was delicious and special for me, since she made a separate vegetarian dish for me!  It was also nice to get in from the sun for a while.  The special part of being there (and here, in general) is being a blessing to their church, so they can in turn be a blessing to their people.  

One of our hosts, Nicky, told us a story about an old woman who cleaned his church.  One day, he started to help her.  She noticed and told him that he had to stop because she didn’t want him to take her blessing.  It is a blessing to serve the church.  Nicky was moved yesterday because we are here doing the things that some of the people in his church would never do.  This touched my heart because God brought us here.  It was never our plan to be here.  I pray I will always be able to hear what God asks of me.  Where He leads, I want to follow.

But let me get back to the rest of our day.  A fun part of Pastor Matt’s day was before we left the church we were painting, a woman walked up the driveway with a Green Bay Packers t-shirt on.  The woman must have thought we were nuts because we saw her, we all were saying “Oh!!” and started calling Matt.  Guess you had to be there, but we had fun.  

Our hosts had dinner with us and then said they had to go somewhere, but they would be back.  We were waiting for a youth group to come and visit with us when they returned with a walker for me to use!  It has big wheels and a seat.  Dolly said it will be very useful for me for where we are going tomorrow.  How sweet of them to think of that!  A big hug for each of them!

Christian was the first of the youth to come hang out with us.  He is 11, but will be 12 this month.  His brother, Carlos played guitar for us and is 17. There were 3 other young men and 2 young women.  Christian taught us much Spanish and enjoyed practicing his English with us.  They sang “In Christ Alone” with us and we took group pictures.  It was far more fun than I was thinking it was going to be!

Now, we are just sitting around chatting.  The group is bonding pretty solid.  Dolly will be busy making flan and other Puerto Rican dishes for us, once we return.  I was thinking today that I really didn’t want to leave.  Didn’t think I’d feel that way about Puerto Rico like I do about Haiti.  We read their blog every morning and pray for them.  

In closing, cause it is getting late and I still need a shower, I’m grateful for this experience and we have an amazing God.  J  Della