It was a hot one!

Sorry I didn't blog last. We had an extended worship time and they rushed us right to bed. However, yesterday was a hot one. At Belgica, we stained a fence all morning. And we were in the sun most of the time we were staining. All 5 of us worked on the fence while the 4 from Virginia installed the banister they made yesterday. Our staining turned out pretty good if you think using 3 different colored stains is the right way of staining. Our fence has a beautiful gradient of cherry, walnut, and oak. After lunch, our group had a lot of fun walking around the community handing out more rice and beans and invitations to the party in the park today. We practice our Spanish and we were laughed at many times and were extremely thankful when they spoke English. We talked with one man that had all of us say at least one thing in Spanish and another man that lived in Lancaster, PA for a part of his life! The meeting last night discussed "labels.". Labels we put on ourselves, labels others put on us, and how we should give them over to God. It was again another challenging message afterwards, all three groups had a fun extended worship and prayer time. We are having a blast! Thanks again and keep praying for us!

Professional Cleaners!

Today was a rainy day in Ponce. We woke up to the sound of rain banging on the rooftop of our room. This caused us to have to change our plans for the day. We got a late start but eventually ended up at a house is Bellica that was donated to TEAMefftort for storage and a place to make lunch. At te house we blessed the woman that donated the house by cleaning it. Katrina and Taliah scrub the bathroom, Elizabeth swept and mopped the floors and Becky helped fix the cranks on the windows. We then all scrubbed down the window panes and washed the windows. We made the home sparkle. Also at the house, the other half of our team built a banister for a woman that lived around the corner. We helped paint it white after they built it in the garage. We hope to install it tomorrow. We then went back to camp for lunch (that we helped make because we are awesome!) it was nice to be inside for a little to dry off. After lunch we went back to the house and finished up cleaning. After that, the five of us walked over to Luis' house an helped him carry wood out of his basement to a pile of wood at the end of the street. We were professional cleaners today. Tonights chapel was about pride. They discussed attributes that can be considered as pride such as wanting to win, not admitting when you wrong or making up reasons why you're not totally wrong and the need for attention. It was another challenging teaching that lead to great discussions. After chapel we prarticipates in the church's weekly prayer meeting. We prayed for the church, the community, and personal prayer requests. They also called all the missionaries to the front of the church and individually prayed over all of us. This was a first for me. Usually the missionaries pray over the people of the church but they blessed us. It was very moving and really showed us how much they appreciate what we are doing. Overall, we are all doing great, learning a lot about God and what He is revealing to us and meeting cool people from the other churches. We are known as the group the always has cards and spoons with us :-) Please pray for good weather the rest of the week. We are the last group of the summer and there are still lot of project that need to be completed but we can only do that if it's not raining! Thanks again for reading and please comment. We love to hear from you! The Puerto Rican Missionaries!

Professional Painters

Today was out first day at out work site. We worked at a man named Juan's house. He is an older man and his grandson comes to spend time with him often. He had asked for a railing to be built on his second story balcony so his grandson could safely play there. He also needed the rest of his downstairs entrance gate to be painted, so that's what we did! We spent the morning painting white onto the fence. It was a tight spit for some of us. Taliah and Katrina were wedged into an area about an little more than foot wide to paint. Becky and Elizabeth were inside the porch painting and I finished the outside part. We were joined with 4 other members of the group from Virgina, Dave, Jordan, Trip, and Sarah and our TEAMeffort leader Tim. Dave and Jordan built the railing and Sarah an Trip helped with the painting. It was a lot of fun. We then ate lunch in the local park and and prepared baggies of rice and beans to pass out to people in the neighborhood. After lunch Becky, Elizabeth, Sarah, Jordan, Trip, myself, and our translator Harold walked around and talked with some of the people that live where we are working. Many of them were elderly and had lived in the area for many many years. They also had lots of grandchildren they were very proud of. Everyone was friendly and loved the rice and beans. Taliah, Katrina and Dave went back to Juan's houseto finish the painting. Juan's grandson, John Micheal had come to visit and wanted someone to play Wii with him. Becky and Elizabeth both joined him bit he was not all impressed with their Wii skills and kicked them off :-) After our worked day we came back to camp, cleaned up, ate dinner, and went to chapel. Tonight's message was the about the "baggage" we carry through our need for materials. We had a great discussions about pratical ways we can loosen our hold on things by such things as putting your phone away when you spending time with people you love. We are having a great time and can't wait until tomorrow when we paint another fence! Keep us in your prayers!! Love and miss you, The Puerto Rico mission team :-)

We're here!

We made it to the base! All of our flights were on time, the rental car was ready, and the GPS didn't get us lost! Puerto Rico is a beautiful country. We had to drive through the mountains to get Ponce and the views were breathtaking. We pulled over for a quick photo shoot. We hit a little bit of traffic and had an interesting time ordering McDonalds in Spanish but we made it here. We are 1 of 3 groups and definitely the smallest. There are 49 people in total. The base is nice and the staff is great. The part of town we are in is very safe and colorful. Every house is a different color and the park is full of funny looking lion statues. We also stopped and ate some "ice cream" but it's more like a creamy water ice. It was refreshing since it's 91 degrees. Chapel was great as well. The message for the week is dealing with our "baggage." It's a challenging topic to talk about but Jesus is faithful and loving so it's going to be good! Pray for continued safety, open hearts, and God's will to be done! We are starting our project tomorrow so check back to read about it!! Love and miss you all! The Puerto Rico Mission Team :-)

Puerto Rico 2012

In less than 2 weeks, a small group of girls will be heading to Puerto Rico for a short term mission trip. The girls going are Katrina Tavenner, Taliah Kurylak, Becky Meredith, Elizabeth Collins and myself. Katrina has been on a mission to Haiti, Taliah has been to Belize and Costa Rica, Elizabeth has been to Costa Rica and this is Becky's first overseas mission. This is my fifth overseas mission and I'm excited to be going with this amazing group of girls.

Our group has been preparing for a few months for this trip. We've practiced our construction skills by helping to repaint a barn. We've eaten authentic Puerto Rican food at Las Palmeras. And we've had great meetings to help build unity, pray and prepare for our mission. We will be traveling to Puerto Rico on Sunday July, 29th and returning Saturday August, 4th. We are collaborating with an organization called Team Effort. We will be working on a construction project and building relationships with the people we meet. We are so excited to travel and see what God is going to do in Puerto Rico.

Thank you for reading this blog. I hope to keep it updated while we are away. Please pray for us and comment below to give us encouragement. Some of our prayer requests are:
 1. For safety as we fly and drive in Puerto Rico.
 2. For us to be obedient to the Holy Spirit.
 3. For team unity and support.
 4. For my driving skills. I will be renting and driving a van while in Puerto Rico and I just hope it's similar to driving here :)
 5. For God to teach us about ourselves and his plans for us. I think that is it for now!

Keep checking back for updates and prayer requests!

Crystal :)