Pt. Loma Nazarene University-LoveWorks

It is hard to know where to begin to talk about a group of people that I only knew for 16 days and yet had such a big impact on my life. We worked hard, and played hard. We ministered and were ministered too. We spent a lot of time in close quarters learning how to share, and I hope we each grew in our relationships with the Lord.
This May Oscar and I had the privilege of hosting Brittany Shook, Carrie Stewart, Evelyn Sandoval, Hailey Hardship, Lessee Gillespie, Jessica Stigler, Lyndsay Toner, Marion Fredericks, Monica Telfer, Jenny Berry, Blake Nelson, Nikki Fountas with their leaders Frank Serna and Rebecca Tate.

LoveWorks is what the Pt. Loma Nazarene University calls their summer missions program and it is evident why. It truly is a work of Love to come into a situation where you do not know what is going on (you know the overall purpose but have no idea what will happen on a day by day basis), you may or may not understand what is being said around you, you are asked to sleep 2 feet off the ground hanging from ropes in a hammock, and you have to figure out how to share one bathroom with 22 of your closest ‘new’ friends. They did it all with smiles on their faces and joy in their hearts! This group was very flexible as we worked in many different areas of Punta de Mata and Barcelona.

We were given permission to go into several public schools to share the gospel of Jesus Christ. The LoveWorks team joined with the youth from the Punta de Mata church to share with dramas, puppets, songs, games and the evange-a-cube. The picture at the right is Yuris sharing with the students the salvation message using the evange-a-cube at an elementary school. The teachers were very glad to see us visit and have asked for the people of the church to come back whenever they can.

In Barcelona we continued to minister; part of the team going to the local elementary school while the rest of us painted the inside of their church. The following day we finished a mud church that Mt. Vernon Nazarene University started the previous year. It was quite a process. First, dirt was dug from the bank behind the church and then brought inside the church and water was added. Second, several people with their shoes off walked through the mud until it was smooth. Third, the mud was thrown on the rocks that were already in place. Finally, another person smoothed out the mud for the finished product. It was a lot of fun, and thankfully a river was close by to wash all the mud off at the end of the day.

The highlight for me was visiting an orphanage just down the street from the church. We only spent an afternoon there, a few hours really, but a piece of my heart will always be there. I met Ani. Her two sisters and brother had arrived just 3 days earlier. I had to ask several people and finally found Ani’s big sister and she told me her name. She was so new that none of the workers could remember. That alone was difficult, but leaving was even harder. I am grateful for the opportunity to have visited there, and hopefully I will be able to return or at the very least place a volunteer there to help out for a few months. The organization called FUNIPAVE is very open to having someone come and work with them on a long term basis.

The Lord blessed our time with the LoveWorks team. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work and share with them.

To see more pictures click on this link:
http://reflectionsofavolunteerpix.blogspot.com/