Today was our second day in Santa Barbara.
The day started as it usually does, with breakfast, and then we were off on our way to go love on some people. We were going to help build a new classroom for the school– so we picked up some building material and a couple of Nicaraguan builders to help us.
The dirt road to get into Santa Barbara, which had been a mud bog the previous day, was now (with the help of some prayer) miraculously dry. We got down to the school without a hitch. The kids were pretty pumped to see us again– which was good, cause we were pretty pumped to see them too.
After about an hour of painting and mixing concrete we decided the builders we brought along could do what we were doing a lot faster, and a lot better than we could. So we left it up to the professionals and went to play with the kids.
It didn’t take long to get a game of soccer going. Although there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, so the sun felt a bit hotter than it did the day before. The kids didn’t care though– they played as hard as they could while us gringos tried not to overheat.
After a couple of hours filled with soccer, it was time for another Bible story.
This one was about how what Jesus did while He was here on earth, such as: loving His enemies, spending time with the poor, sharing meals with sinners, and so on, was considered weird. The point of it all was as Christians, we sometimes have to act how the world would consider weird. We should be proud of our weirdness and even encourage each other to be weird like Jesus.
After the story we just hung out and played with the kids.
I believe children are the closest thing to Jesus we’ll ever see on this earth.
They love relentlessly, never judge; they’re always carefree as if they know that something bigger than them is watching over their every move. I don’t know what makes us lose these things as we get older– they slowly just slip away into the night and we end up using the rest of our lives trying to find them again. But I think that’s why Jesus wanted the children to come to Him, and why He wants us to have childlike faith. Kids understand Jesus– they’re like Him. They still have all of the hope in the world and they aren’t so slow to believe; like us older folk are. They see no bad in people– only the good. I know it hasn’t been that long, but I wish I could be a kid again– or at least have faith I once had.
After we hung around at the school a little while, we went to lunch in another home in the community.
Once again we had an awesome meal that costs our hosts much more than they should have given. But these people didn’t care what it costs them. They just wanted to show how thankful they were. The people here, for the most part, are like that– gracious and humble. We could all learn a lesson in humility and gratitude from them.
Once we were done with lunch we headed back to the school to finish building a wall. After we finished it was time to go home. When you spend a long, hot day of work, nothing sounds better than some relaxation in the pool.
We spent time bonding as a team at the pool and then had dinner (which was amazing by the way).
We did devotion together after we ate, and shared some of our favorite parts of the day, as we always do. After, we all retreated back to our rooms to sleep for the night. Tomorrow will consist of church, shopping in the market, and a trip to a lagoon in a volcano.