Painting and Hugs

Another awesome day in Costa Rica....

Sorry I missed yesterday, readers...I must say, I WAS WHIPPED. We spent all day setting up for VBS and felt prepared and calm when the first ninos showed up at 2 p.m., but our calm quickly turned to frantic when 130 kids streamed in the door! More than twice what we had expected and planned for. Every 10 minutes or so another table and another 20 chairs would appear, only to be quickly filled by more, very cute kids. I will tell you more about that later.

As for today.... we started out painting. Painting the entire exterior of the church, plus the sanctuary, was added to our growing list of tasks, which also includes VBS and the replacement of the parsonage ceilings. I was skeptical, I will admit. But by the end of the day, two out of four rooms in the parsonage had brand new drop ceilings (replacing wooden ceilings which had recently suffered major water damage and termite damage), the exterior of the church miraculously became a bright, fresh Mt. Bethel yellow and one wall in the sanctuary was also a sunny yellow. And we had a great VBS on top of all that. Many hands make light work! I thought the whole time that Grandpa and Teeny would be appalled by the paint job we were doing... no prep work, no cutting in, paint all over everything. But in the end, it didnt look half bad.... If you look at it from afar, while squinting... But Pastor was very happy with it and said he had dreamed about the new colors the night before, and it turned out just the way he imagined. And you just cannot receive better praise than that.

I saw some of the same kids we saw the first day at VBS, and I was able to finagle enough Spanish to talk to them a little and praise the beautiful little crafts they made. Their faces just lit up at the sound of my clumsy Muy Bonitas and Buenos... and their smiles were priceless to me. One little girl, about 4 years old, named Michelle, pronounced MeChell, came up to me and held my hands and asked Como se Llama...I told her my name and asked hers. Then she said Que Linde...which means you are pretty, and she wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me one of those melt into you hugs that my own little girl gives me. I thought my heart would just split in two, with both happiness for this little girl and a strong aching for home. At the church service tonight, I saw Michelle with her mom and 7-year-old brother, Byron. Mom had brought the kids to church so that Pastor and the congregation could pray for Byron, who has leukemia. And we did. And we will.