A Tour of Emmanuel

This morning was a nice relaxing morning for me.  The tiredness from travel has worn off and I was ready to go!  I woke up without the alarm clock, and very early.  Must be the time difference between here and Wisconsin.  I have to be careful to stay on Wisconsin time so that when I get back and get to work, I'm still getting up on time.  We are on the mountain time zone (I believe?) down here...so Wisconsin's 9am is really Honduras' 8am.

They say church normally begins at 9am, however it started at 8:45 this morning (good thing we got there on time).  A pastor from one of the teams spoke as one of the staff members translated into Spanish.  Kimberly thought that there were a nice array of songs (both in English and Spanish), and just like at New Hope - the words flashed across the screen so that all could sing and participate.  Part way through the service, Doris came to sit next to me.

After the service, I chatted a bit with Lydia and saw Elvia (who was excited to see me too) and then headed to the yard out front of the church to chat with the medium and small girls.  Doris came over and I offered to walk her over to the staff house where she had to babysit the rest of the day.  She shared some difficult information with me (about something that had happened to her indirectly that was weighing heavily on her that morning), and we talked quite a bit.  I let her talk it out, and tried encouraging her and also let her know that I'd be praying for God to give her strength.

After lunch, Wade led a tour of Emmanuel.  Because there are 2 teams down here, there were so many people who went on this tour.  They rigged up a trailer to a tractor and put a bunch of chairs on the trailer.  A pick-up truck followed behind with the bed of the truck filled with teenagers.  I was told that they generally do a tour like this on Sundays when there is a group here.  I had never been on this tour before, and since it was Kimberly's first time at the orphanage and she had not seen the entire thing yet...we toured with the groups.  I heard some history about Emmanuel that I had never heard before, so was very grateful that I decided to hop up onto the trailer.

After suppertime, Kimberly & I went for a walk (to burn calories...she's an avid exerciser back in the States).  We walked around by the farm and stopped by the fish farm that was just built one of the last groups that was here.  That was amazing.  We stopped by the greenhouse and saw the cherry tomatoes as well.  Later I headed over to the team house to see what Joanne was up to the rest of the week and to see how much I'd be able to help them with.  Looks like we're doing gardening tomorrow!