After a very busy week, the team took a little Rest & Rejuvenation time on Friday and had a cultural exchange day. We spent time together and with locals just enjoying the surrounding area of Punta Gorda. I took the day off from blogging as well!
Rise & Shine
Saturday dawned bright and early, right along with the parrots and some new bird sound we hadn’t recognized before. He sounded like a long-winded trumpet – with one straight shrill blast! Woke right up to that! With a full day ahead of us for our VBS/Activities day, we didn’t want to miss our only opportunity to see the Market in Punta Gorda. We headed into town at 6:30am and found the Market in full swing!
The store opening times here are not quite the same as back home!
We were done touring the Market and shopping and were back on the road to the Mission House by 7:30am – no Mall hours here! The meat market photo will make you appreciate our USDA approved stamps!
VBS/Activities
We were so excited to have our VBS/Activities Day from 9:30 to 11:30 Saturday morning. What a whirlwind that was! We had our planned activities that would relate to specific scriptures and principles from God’s Word. We did a Balloon Stomp – where the kids had as much fun stomping out their own balloon as they did everyone else’s!
We had a Balloon toss, a Share the Word circle, Tug of War, Human Chain to Untangle, and a Balloon Toss.
Then, there were the unplanned events – such as turning the well organized balloon toss into a balloon blast!
We had a great time – non-stop in 99% humidity (and that was NOT raining) – and sent or took all the children home with arms full of extra balloons, water balloons and bracelets that Lucretia had brought for the ending treat.
We greatly enjoyed and felt privileged at the opportunity to use this tremendous way to touch the lives of these children and let them know how much God loves them.
A Foray into Laguna Village
After such an exuberant morning, we spent the afternoon learning about the nearby village of Laguna – a little Kekchi Mayan Indian village nearby. A lady there has coffee bean trees on her property and she roasts and grinds coffee for sale. We originally went to buy some of her native coffee and found oh so much more!
She led us through her back yard of cacao, coffee and fruit trees – which she is quite resourceful in using to care for her family. Then she took us into a nearby grass hut structure with a dirt floor – inside were two sewing machines and a number of short stools the height of a footstool. Along one wall were hanging brightly colored woven purses, fabric pieces and various articles of clothing. A young lady was sewing a Mayan blouse and we soon learned that we were standing in the middle of the newest enterprise in Laguna – a collection of young women who could not go to high school, single mothers and women were the sole support of their families. They had just formed their group the week before and were combining their skills and talents to create a business that would enable them collectively to sustain themselves and their families. The weaving was absolutely magnificent – and done with sticks and thread – they tied the yarns to a post on the wall, sat on the footstool about four feet away, and using four or five different pieces of sticks and wood, they formed the patterns in their woven cloth.
It was an unbelievable demonstration of what can be done using almost nothing! It was a humbling and magnificent experience – I felt like God’s hand was on that bundle of sticks and yarn, transforming it into His loom, weaving His patterns into the lives of these precious women. What they can yield by hand is beyond comprehension. We felt like – no, we knew – we had found an unfathomable piece of God’s handiwork.
We finished our day with the best watermelon and cantaloupe imaginable and closed out Saturday with a refreshing rain shower. Thank you, Lord, for you are awesome, indeed!
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