Tuesday

¡Gracias a Dios! Today has been an incredibly long day, but was more of an exploratory trip of sorts. The truck took about 14 people to "the village" of New Armenian to see the 4th church of Manos Extendidas. This totally wasn't what I would have imagined and I am thankful for your prayers of safety on our behalf. 

We left around 830 and began the long, curvy, mountainous ride. That was about half the trip. Then we approached the Rocky Mountain and started the trip. It was over an hour of bump. I literally thought I had been displaced to the Grand Canyon. The site was THAT Rocky. 

There were stray goats, cows and horses all along the way. Several donkeys kept us from going a couple of times. 

Our first stop was the church under construction. The ministry owns about 3 acres on the top of this mountain in the village and they are under construction now to finish the church within the next month. 

This church has about 70-80 members and now they are just worshipping in homes. The pastor (at the open door on the left with the hat) and his son, Terrance (in the far back with hat on doing work) have been working tirelessly along with a team of five men from Texas last month to build this. The next plan is to build a home for 5-7 young men that would be able to care for this land, learn trades, and harvest the land for sale in town. That building would go here past those trees. 

And the crops would be harvested here

While it looks like a bunch of dry woods-well it is. But with visions that always come to pass, I am confidant that in the next year we will see this happen. The boys living on this property would be men that have been released from the juvenile jail and need a place to recapture what it's like to be in society as well as a safe place for them to be (rather than back on the streets with the gangs). 

After we left the church we went to Cindy 

And Terrence's house for lunch. We had packed sandwiches but the other folks with us didn't have anything. So, Bessy just started making tortillas and Cindy started the wood stove. This house was so incredibly humble. No more than 300 square feet, three rooms and two beds for four people. No electricity and no running water. Chickens for eggs and meat, mango trees in the fields and a breathtaking landscape. I felt like I was in the 1700s in the desert!

J and Carlos picking mangos to bag and bring into the city to sell. 

The view in their front yard. 

Of course I got some time with the kiddos. 

The view from our ride down the mountain. 

This is Brittany. I met her last year anxi was so glad to have her on our trip today. She reminds me of a great mix of Miriam and Lydia and she latches on immediately. She's actually Bessie's little sister, but knows her as her mother and she treats her as her daughter. 

I LOVE this family, Carlos, Bessie and Brittany. Their stories are seriously unbelievable, and their Love for others is so grand. 

So I would ask your prayers for them:

- continued provisions for their family (and the other 4 folks living in their tiny 1 room home in the city)

- for Bessie as she's taking classes in nursing school

- health for Carlos as he serves as a right hand man and works with Alvin and the ministry

- for Bessie as she has probably the biggest desire I've ever seen to have a child biologically

- for Brittany as she grows, that she would better understand why she is with Bessie