After another four day break we welcomed two more groups: Quarry Church from Minnesota and Grace Community from Pennsylvania. Hazelin (intern) was nothing short of thrilled for this week as Grace is her home church. Her mom, brother, and sister were all on the trip! This summer, four out of the seven American interns have been able to see and serve with their home church which is such a blessing and so fun to witness. It’s like one of us gets our energy and enthusiasm renewed and that in turn spreads to the rest of us.

Unlike last week, these groups did separate ministry and separate chapels so we were only together for devotions, morning construction, and meals. And even though we interns were split as well, our bond continued to grow stronger. I was put with Quarry church and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. There were a lot of teens in this group and they were all very outgoing, fun, and willing to serve which (personally) made the week so much easier and enjoyable!

For ministry this week, Quarry church ran VBS at a church in Hatillo pastored by Noe (missionary). Sunday afternoon we went out into the community to invite people to the VBS and we held it Monday through Wednesday. The invites must’ve worked because we had well over 100 kids show up! It was so encouraging to see how involved the group was. They were very on top of planning for games and craft and were excited to give the Bible lessons and testimonies. I absolutely loved the energy and enthusiasm of this group.

As for construction, there was a LOT of work to be done in order to complete both chapels but we finished no problem! Both groups picked up construction quickly and some teens even had prior experience. One day we were in the middle of construction when the truck arrived with another load of wood. We only needed a few people to help unload so we just moved our panel templates out of the way and kept working while the wood was being unloaded in the driveway. It may have looked chaotic to an onlooker at first glance but in reality it showed both group’s ability to be flexible and work as one team despite there being a lot going on in the moment.

Because we had two groups and only so many missionaries, we flip-flopped chapel and fun days. Quarry church had their chapel day on Thursday while Grace was at the beach and we swapped places on Friday. I want to share a little God moment that happened on Quarry’s chapel day. When we build the chapel we simultaneously build from each corner of the foundation using lap panels (corners), plain panels, and window panels. When my team and I went to set up our final plain panel… well there wasn’t one to set up. Confused, we walked around the site thinking maybe it got misplaced. Finally we realized… we had forgotten a plain panel!! Sure enough it was sitting back at the TIME Center nearly three hours away. The only thing to do now was to build a new panel right then and there. By some miracle, while we were loading the truck the night before, Noe decided to throw on an extra 2x3. We were confused because normally he wouldn’t do that, but this time he thought “why not?” We were all mind-blown because it was that EXACT piece of wood that we needed to build a new panel!! It was abundantly clear that God’s hand was over that situation and so we gave Him all the glory. God pays attention to the details. He knows exactly what we need and when we need it. Thank you God for being our Provider!

Another really cool part about this week was the mission-focused conversations I had with the group. First of all, the youth pastor’s wife was a World Racer! How cool is that?! And while she took a shorter trip (3 months) I was still able to talk to her about her experience and she was kind enough to give answers to my many questions. I was also able to talk to two people about Thailand. One had grown up as a missionary kid in Thailand and another had just recently visited for fun. Both conversations gave me a lot of insight into the culture, what to expect there, and even practical advice (for example: how to avoid pickpockets). For some reason, Thailand keeps popping up over and over in little ways like this, so I’m really expectant to see how God will move while I’m there on the World Race.

Thank you God for another wonderful week of summer!