We can’t believe this week has gone so fast. The weather has been perfect for work but nowhere near warm. Then again, at least we haven’t seen snow like back in Indianapolis.

Today our lesson was about love. We came ready to show our love, but we are the ones experiencing their love. We have had meals made for us, donations and words of wisdom. They have trouble saying goodbye when we leave. Tears of gratitude have been shed and friendships made. We have even shared this blog with others.

But the important question is: have we loved like Jesus did? No, we haven’t even com close. We have not sacrificed everything, but we have started the process.  We are learning, a work in progress. Mother Theresa said, “True love is love that causes us pain that hurts, and yet brings us joy. That is why we must pray and ask for the courage to love.” We do have joy this week and our muscles do hurt, but we don’t think that is what Mother Theresa meant.

We have learned that we cannot love God without loving others. We have work to do!  It is so much easier to say than do, but we made a start.

Continue to pray for Angie.  We have no updates, but we know she is on a long road.  She needs us now.

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What a day!  We can’t believe our days go so fast.  We can truly say we have put in a full day’s work. The missionaries we are working with are so touched. They are so humble and want to do things for us.. including homemade cinnamon rolls, brownies and errands. We feel so blessed being with them and learn from them, but that is how they are feeling also.

Our big lesson today was in obedience. Oh, what a hard lesson. Why is it always so hard to obey? We have been slow learners, but we are learning. Many of the students came for a fun spring break, but many did come out of obedience–obedience to a higher calling. We’re all learning what that looks like. In one neighborhood, one of the neighbors comes down every day to check our work. So far we are passing, but we think he is really looking for more. He wants to know why we are doing this but is afraid to ask. We just keep working and sharing.

We are learning that through obedience, we are investing our lives in something bigger than us. We are such a small part of God’s story but each small part must happen for everything to fit together. It’s just like a puzzle–and we have put together lots of puzzles down here (literally).

Keep praying for Angie.  She is now asking for strength to just make it through each hour.  It is hard for her but she is learning obedience also.

God bless you all.  We couldn’t be doing this without you.

–Spring Break Team

Today was our first day of work and work we did.  Hope you enjoy the photos.  But we did so much more.  The healing has begun.  We installed a new faucet for a family and the wife cried.  The faucet was leaking terribly and they were embarrassed to tell us.  It didn’t take long for us to figure it out.  But we did so much more than just work.  In the words of the Pioneer Bible Translators, we helped with Bible Translation.  How did we do that?  Simple, we freed these missionaries up to do the work at hand.  Yes it really is all about the work.

But wait, there is more.  It is about humility also.  We want humility that demands an explanation.  If our work is only for our glory we haven’t achieved anything.  Our work is for the glory of God.  And boy are we having fun doing it.  We have learned funny songs, watched goats fight; chickens escape and yes work until we are almost too tired to move forward.  We have played with small children and been very blessed in the process.

Tomorrow is another day and another lesson.  Watch and wait with us as we expect what lies ahead.  We are beginning to understand why Satan was so afraid of this trip happening.

Also, we have a prayer request.  Please pray for Angie.  We can’t say more now but the request was to pray for her every hour of every day.  Angie needs God now in her hour of need and we have prayed down here for Angie.  Please join us.

-Spring Break Team

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What a Sunday–we planned a week of devotions back in January.  Our week is based on a life that demands an explanation… and that is exactly what we heard about in church this morning.  Was that an accident? Not at all! That was God going ahead and preparing for us.

We read from John 5:1-15, which is a story of the Healing at the Pool. The story is all about the work.  Who was doing the work? God was, just like he has worked and is ready for us here. We are coming behind and doing the physical. Will it all be easy? No. We have spent the day preparing for the work, and tomorrow it’s time to begin our work… to do what we have planned and prepared for months.

In our story, people were blind to the miracle and blind to the Man (Jesus). We are seeing the miracle step by step. We don’t want to miss any of it, but we will. Why? Because we will get busy in the work. Will we miss the Man? We pray not.

What we want is for the “healing” to provoke questions of those around us.  The Jews asked questions but missed the importance of the healing. We will be healing homes but as a result we pray to provoke questions. Tomorrow, we pray for a day that will require an explanation because of our actions, love, service, and compassion that do not make sense without Jesus.

-Spring Break Team

Well, we are here!  This trip has been such a process.  What we know is that satan is alive and well on planet earth. He tried to stop this trip in so many ways.  In fact–more than once, we laughed.  That is right, we laughed at satan because our GOD is Bigger. We knew we were going to win this and the trip would happen. We know that God has big things planned this week because satan has had to work way too hard.

We had a great drive down, the weather here is great!  We are very tired but there is always time for sleep later.  Scott & Kathy Graves met us and gave us the big tour.  What a facility!  There are so many people involved.  Everything seems to run like clockwork and the new building we will be working on will be completely paid for when it opens.  That is a God thing.

So tonight is a dinner with other missionaries and planning for our week.  We have a list of projects that need to be done that could take a month.  But with God, we should get a big chunk taken out this week.  We are excited about what God has planned and ready to tackle these jobs.  Tomorrow is church and we are excited about worshipping and praising our God!

–Spring Break Team

At 7pm last night, our Spring Break Mission Team said goodbye and headed off for Dallas, TX to work with Pioneer Bible Translators for the week. And . . . they made it!

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Check back throughout the week for updates. Keep praying for their team!