Roatan Mission Trip 2008 - Day 2

DAY 2: Hello church! Here is the update for Sunday, June 14 from the beautiful island of Roatan! We led worship this morning at Calvary Church here at the inn. It was fun and the people said they really enjoyed it. Adam does a great job of singing in Spanish! After church we had Sunday schools for all the kids and I was really impressed at how bilingual the children are at a young age. Most of the people we've met so far speak English. After church, our hosts, Chuck and Tia, fed the whole church a wonderful lunch. They eat dinner as a church every Sunday! What a ministry they have here! This afternoon some of us went swimming and snorkeling and diving. I sat in the cabana and had an ice cold coca cola and it tasted so good! I went back out on the dock where everyone noticed that my arms and legs were full of red spots the size of peas with little red dots in the middle. Several sand flies had had me for lunch! It looks like a terrible disease but they don't itch too bad and the spots will go away eventually. Several of us then went on a drive to the West End of the island where the sea and the beach is postcard perfect and the bustling village is quaint and charming with several brightly colored souvenir shops along narrow dirt streets. At 4:30p we split into two teams and went through the village of Sandy Bay handing out invitations to the little kids for VBS starting tomorrow. They were well received and I have a feeling that we are going to have quite a crowd this week once the word gets around. As we walked we saw unbelievable poverty in paradise. The contrast between the beauty of the landscape against the homes, which in the US would be considered uninhabitable and condemned, was really a stark contrast. After handing out fliers we were treated to another awesome, flavorful dinner at the Inn. We were also invited tonight to sing some songs and share testimonies at a charismatic church halfway up the mountains across from our inn. Most of us were tired and the thoughts ran through our mind that we'd like to just stay at the inn and relax for the evening -- but we drove up to the village because we were honored to be invited and we're glad we did. As we got closer to this church that resembled my old horse shed with gray, concrete walls and a corrugated, metal roof, we heard loud singing and the beat of drums and tambourines. It was standing room only as people spilled out of the church onto the street and more were still walking up the dirt road in the dark wearing their best clothes. The uplifted hands and passionate praise of these people who materially have nothing, by American standards, broke my heart and I just cried and cried as did others. The tears just kept pouring down my face as I watched these people singing their hearts out to the Lord. God's eyes roam to and fro across the earth and tonight I'm sure He was exceedingly pleased with the offering of praise that was coming up to Him in the dark night from a tiny church in a little mountain village on the small island of Roatan. It was a humbling experience. What a privilege it is to be here. As I close this email for the evening, we request and would appreciate your prayers for the following: We start running two VBS's per day Monday-Friday, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We have supplies for 50 kids but it looks like we may have way more than 50 kids showing up each day. Please pray for God to do "loaves and fishes" with the supplies that we have.

We will be working on 3 different construction projects while we are here. Clinic work starts Monday for Darla, Laurel, Marlene and Joan. Marlene gets to help set up the new lab too.
Tuesday and Thursday is a jail ministry day. Starting Tuesday each afternoon we'll go to the village to hand out hygiene packages and share Jesus with the people.

Thank you and God bless you! Gabra and Team Roatan 2008