We Had to Say Goodbye. :(

Good Morning!

            Sorry that we are just now posting again. Yesterday was a very hard day on all of us because we had to say goodbye to all of the students. We started off the day going to the first Vision Trust project, Huerera School. It was definitely hard to see the neighborhood and the poverty. Huerrera School however has flourished with the help of Vision Trust and the Church they partner with. The school has almost 600 students; the first half come in the morning and the second half come in the afternoon.  They are a private k-12 school and have now had 6 graduating classes. We were able to see the opening ceremony for the school where they read from God’s Word and then sang worship songs together. It was so simple and yet very powerful. After that, we walked around the neighborhood and saw the way the people lived in this area. The houses were extremely small and stacked on top of one another. There is no trash system, so they use the river. They throw away their trash into the river and wait for the rain to come and wash it all away. It was very hard to see, especially the fact that there were many kids wandering around the neighborhood who aren’t able to attend school. It’s amazing the impact that Vision Trust has already made and how they continue to work with the people in this area.

            After Huerrera we went to the botanical gardens with all of the students from the Deaf School. It was so much fun and very educational. The students were able to tour around the gardens and the teachers translated about all of the plants. Then, they took a small train ride around the whole park and saw all of the amazing plants from numerous countries. After that, we had lunch and talked a lot with the students. Then all of the students sat on the lawn where they signed worship songs and praised the Lord right there in the middle of the garden. A few of the older kids even acted out the crucifixion of Jesus, while one of the teachers shared Christ's story. It was AMAZING! After that the sad part came where we had to start saying goodbye to all of the students. Many tears were shed and leaving them was very hard for our team and the students.  We also had to say goodbye to two of our team members as they headed off for the airport, Trish and Hannah. Goodbyes are never easy.

            However, we had a great time last night as a team. We shared a meal and talked a lot about all of the kids and the week. We even took time to play some games. Which was hilarious! I wish we had a video of us all playing the game Ninja. We even had Cheryll, Diane, and Lisa playing. It was great!

Well today is our last day, we are about to head out so I have to go. But we love you all and thank you for all your prayers!