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| Standing right outside the widows ministry. |
Most of us feel a lot better after a great night's sleep. We do have a couple students and chaperones feeling under the weather, so please continue to pray for healing and protection physically as we're traveling around and playing hard!
Widow's Ministry
We started our day by driving across the city of San Jose to the Los Guido area, a neighborhood of extreme poverty, where there are many who have fallen into selling drugs and prostitution to make a living. In the center of this neighborhood is the Bethesda House, a ministry that serves widows, women who have suffered from physical abuse, and the elderly. On our way to the house we stopped at the Maxi Pali to purchase groceries for 20 families. These groceries were paid for from our trip fees, and every time it surprises me that we can feed 20 families with only $400 or so dollars, that is ONE family's grocery store bill sometimes at home!
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| Los Guido Neighborhood |
Our kids divided into pairs and were responsible for picking out the cheapest option of the items they were assigned : salt, milk, corn meal, sugar, toilet paper, beans, tuna, oil, and more! Once we paid for our groceries we went out front and divided all of our items into 20 bags to be delivered to the widow's ministry.
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| Shopping for Groceries |
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| Dividing the groceries into bags for each family. |
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| All bags packed and heading to the widows ministry! |
When we arrived to the Bethesda house we were immediately welcomed and were able to hear the purpose of the ministry from the owner with the help of her son translating. After learning more about the ministry some of the women served by the group were able to share their testimonies of God's faithfulness in their lives! This was followed by a time where our kids could ask questions, a time of corporate prayer, and a time of corporate worship. It was so cool to hear the women praying over our kids all at once, something many of our kids have never experienced before. The worship time was also a highlight because it just reminds us that God is being worshipped across the globe and even though we speak different languages we can all worship our God together.
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| Learning about the ministry. |
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| Praying for the Widows |
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| Eating the delicious lunch of arroz con pollo, platanos, and beans! |
At debrief tonight these were some of the thoughts our team had about the widow's ministry:
- Hayden - Not just bars on the windows in this neighborhood, but also barbed wire.
- Bre - She learned from Andres, the interpreter that Miracles aren't always physically healings, but God works miracles when he changes someone's heart and removes the fear, anxiety, and depression. She also was reminded by the widows testimonies that God is a provider, always.
- Jacee - Noticed the neighborhood was really run down, made from random scrap materials and houses built on top of one another, no city planning.
- Elise - Was impressed by how welcoming the widows were. She felt like even thought we bought them food it wasn't enough to deserve how welcoming and thankful they were for us to be visiting with them.
- Emma R - In the widows testimonies, prayer, and worship, Emma recognized that they had a very genuine faith and trusted and believed that God would always provide.
- Emma C - She was surprised at how the widows provided lunch for us even though they don't have that much to start with! Some kids added that they almost felt guilty accepting a meal from the widows because they didn't have much to start with!
- Emily - Noticed that when we were hanging out in the Los Guido neighborhood there was very little traffic or people out, unlike the rest of San Jose that we've been in...and today was a Saturday! That seems to confirm that it isn't a very safe neighborhood.
- Abigail - When we were asked to pray for the widows only one person prayed, when the widows prayed for us they all prayed out loud at the same time! We discussed this as a team for a while because almost no one has participated in corporate prayer like this before! At the end Abigail said it felt more genuine, like everyone was really praying their heart, instead of giving a speech.
- Rebecca - The widows just seem so grateful for everything they have, even if they don't have much. Their houses were not perfect and were under construction, but they still have people over and are hospitable. We talked as a team about how sometimes at home we feel like we can't invite people over if our house isn't the "cool house" or if everything feels perfectly clean and organized, but that is obviously not the case here and it is inspiring!
- Senora Harrison - She said the time at the widows ministry really made her process a lot today and was reminded of her mother. Mrs. Harrison is one of 8 children and her father passed when she was 3 years old, so she resonated a lot with the widows as it reminder her of her mother. She said that similar to them she grew up with very little and did not always know there would be food provided, but God ALWAYS provided for them! She said she sometimes wished growing up that they lived in the US, but after processing, she's really glad she grew up the way she did!
- Spencer - Noticed that the second oldest lady, Esperanza, was almost falling asleep on the couch when the women were giving their testimonies, but as soon as the worship music turned on she was a spitfire and was dancing up a storm!
- Michael - Appreciated that the widows ministry didn't have a fee and they just provided those services to the widows out of what they did have and a desire to serve their community.
- Skyler - Was really surprised how every one of the widows was so lively and happy just to live another day!
- Jadon - Recognized that every women really had a passion for God and you could see that through their testimonies and worship. He was also impacted by one of the women who shared that her husband had died 5 months earlier, but she was so thankful for the support she was receiving from this group.
- Kyle - In addition to noticing the interesting materials that all of the houses were made of and the fact that everyone just kind of built whatever they could, Kyle said he found it interesting that they have SO many chairs that were all filled when we were there, but he wondered if they were filled by other people or groups visiting?
- Logan - Was surprised to see there are very different kinds of worship music. After they played a song we all knew in Spanish they played one that the women like worshipping too, which our students all started dancing too (along with the women). Logan shared that he didn't even realized there was worship music that you would clap and dance along to.
- Tanner - Was impressed by how committed these women were to the group. He said he started going to a small group at CCV earlier in the year, but as life got busy, and he got tired, he made excuses to not go. We all talked about this struggle, but the importance of being connected to a community of believers like these widows are!
- Bryan - Was really perplexed at how poor these people are, yet they all have up to date cell phones, he wondered how they afford those, if they see cell phones as a necessity instead of a want, like we do in the US?
- Clausen - I'm just always touched when we worship the same God in more than one language! It is so cool to know that there are people across the globe that are declaring the same truths about our creator!
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| This small kitchen made so much food! |
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| The bathroom of the house in the widows ministry. |
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| Homemade chips for the bean dip. |
Tournaments
After our time at the widows ministry the boys and girls split up to play in two separate tournaments. The girls went to the PanAmerican School and were able to play Santa Barbara (a city club team), Escazu (a city club team), and the Pan American School. Our girls went 3-0! Still undefeated on this trip!
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| Game two against Escazu |
- Jadon - These teams are fiesty!! I was also very impressed that one ref reffed all of the games the entire day! Felt like the concrete floor was actually soft!
- Michael - Didn't love the concrete floor they played on, but did feel he had more traction on that than the Yuma court!
- Jacob - Was shocked that he was called a bad word and couldn't tell if they didn't like him or if they were just mad about not playing well/winning. Side note - Jacob also gained quite the following on Social Media tonight! He was a fan favorite!
- Emma C - Volleyball felt more mellow than at home, kind of like an exhibition game. She also thought it was really interesting that there was no score board or flipper, so the ref would just occasionally tell us the score.
- Emma R - Was NOT a fan of the shared warm up time they do down here! Both teams are on at the same time, hitting across the net at the same time, and it just felt chaotic!
- Rebecca - Found it interested that they do a mandatory timeout when someone gets to 16! It felt like they had a ton of timeouts!
- Jacob - Was thrown off by the difference in the layup rules down here. At home you can only take two steps, here you can take 3!
- Logan - Found it interesting how much the other teams were cussing at themselves.
- Bryan - Felt like the CR teams protected the shooters in the key VERY well, but anyone who was out past the 3 point line had a free for all. He also found it interested that at home we get in trouble for a hand check, but here people can full on grab jerseys!
- Abigail - It was really interested to play volleyball on basically an outdoor court! The wind was crazy!! Also, diving on concrete floors really hurts. At home when you see people wearing tank top jerseys you automatically assume they are not good, but all international teams and our olympic teams wear them, which is interesting! We were definitely out of place with our long sleeve jerseys!
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| VCHS & Samuel High School |
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| Final Score of the Game against the National Team - we won! |
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| How the boys feel about playing three games with only 7 people! This was during halftime! |
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