The Lord's Teachings

I have now been in Trinidad for six weeks and three truths have stuck out to me:

• God is faithful
• God cares for His people
• God transcends boundaries

Ever since arriving the Lord has been so faithful to me in helping me to settle in to life here. I have been able to reestablish the relationships of those people I knew before and also made some new friends. My Spanish is surprising me more and more as I am beginning to understand morning devotionals, church sermons and am breaking through to the advanced levels of the language. I have received so many compliments on my Spanish and how my accent is so much better. I have formed close relationships with the leaders of the project. The Lord has even given me a little extra money I didn't count on that will be very beneficial in transforming the computer lab. I have also seen the Lord working in providing funding for both the new health center (under construction) and the new retreat center being built out at the Chaco.

I have also seen just this past week that God cares for His people. I shared briefly about a girl from the school who was hit by a car on her motorcycle and was hospitalized for a week. What I didn't tell you is that as soon as this girl was hit by the car, the driver took her and rushed her to the hospital. This is in a country where a lot of people would drive off so as not to be implicated. Then, at the hospital, the doctor on duty who performed the surgery to repair the tendon in this girl's foot, happened to be a young man who grew up going to La Palmera and had worked for awhile in the La Palmera health center. He immediately recognized this girl as a La Palmera student and worked hard and fast to repair the foot. Later as Lucho and I were talking to him, he said ten minutes later and the tendon would have been lost and the situation complicated. He was successful in repairing the foot, forty stitches and one week later she is now at home and healing. The other part of this is that normally doctors try and charge extra for their services, but the doctor said the family would only have to pay 200 Bs ($25) if the girl was found to be at fault, but if the driver was at fault then he would have to pay $200.

This past Saturday night, we had a festival for King's kids, a choreography group in the church. They invited all of the local churches to attend and perform worship songs, dramas, or something of the like, most of which attended. One of the churches got up and started singing this song and partway through, said to everyone that we are all worshiping the same God and we are all brothers and sisters in Christ and had everyone in the crowd stand and hold hands together as we sang the final part together. There were over 400 people there and it was an incredible sight. Lucho commented in his sermon yesterday that older people are sometimes a bit arrogant about their churches, but he was really struck that a young person would have the courage to ask everyone to come together and seek unity as Christians. What a welcoming sight for the coming generation.

It's been such a joy to be here thus far, I feel like I am really riding a big wave and the Lord is pushing me further and further along, closer and deeper into His presence.