House Dedication

This morning began with a church service led by Frank (Esau's pastor from the California group that is here).  I've heard him speak before and am just amazed by his ability to reach out to people.  Much of his sermon came from 1 John, which contains many verses that I had went through with Alina just a week ago...on how to be a child of God.

At 11:00, the new boys' house was dedicated.  The pastor here from the Ohio group (yep, there's 2 groups here this week, which is actually pretty unusual) did the dedication and prayed over the boys' house.  This house is for boys that are around 13-14 years of age and John will be in charge of the house.  John had told me this morning that when he was just a volunteer 4-5 years ago, he lived in the boys' volunteer house & had prayed/envisioned that some day God would lead him to be in charge of a boys' house in the very spot that this new house was built!  The verse that the Ohio pastor chose to use in the dedication of this house was:

How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!  It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron's beard, down upon the collar of his robes.  It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion.  For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.  ~Psalm 133

What an appropriate passage to choose...brothers living together in unity.  We all know how boys are (SO energetic) and how they can get very physical in times of play, in times of work, and in times of anger.  May God bless this house and nudge these boys to get along well together as they go through life's challenges.  I would like to have these verses in a frame or engraved to send down here to John to put up in his house above the door.

After the dedication, Alina & I at lunch at the tienda.  It's amazing how our stomachs have "shrunk" to accommodate the smaller, healthier meals here.  I ordered a hamburger for Alina and myself...I didn't have to eat for the rest of the day (and this was LUNCH), and Alina had to wrap up about 1/3 of her hamburger left-overs to take home for later.

After we had eaten, we went over to the little girls' house to help with lunch.  On Sundays, volunteers "technically" are given the day to rest in the Sabbath, however we were missing our girls!  After lunch we headed home to call Bob with our last-minute list to bring then headed out to the medium girls' yard to chit-chat for about 1/2 hour before heading over to the little girls' yard to take Marisol and Yanira to the tienda for ice cream.  Yanira's sister, Maria, had special permission today to be over in the little girls' yard to spend time with her little sister (she is a big girl), so we took her as well.  Siblings in different houses don't get to see each other much unless they get this special permission...and if they are siblings of the opposite sex, they never get to see each other except in school (as Yanira & Maria told me about their brother who is 6 years old.  After the ice cream, we took the 3 back to the little girls' yard and sat there until supper time.

This evening we went out front of our apartment and the medium girls were playing a game of soccer.  Michell's team was losing 1-3, so I told Alina to join in on her team.  Alina played hard, and the girls really enjoyed Alina spending time with them.  After they were called in to go to bed, Alina & I also headed back to the house to call it a night.