Our first day of work at Luz de Vida

You will see the church on the right and the parsonage still being built on the left. We were amazed to see the progress. Last year we helped brick the bottom story of the parsonage. 

Thomas tried his hand at some carpentry work. He and Jerome hung a door for the new restroom. 

We scraped plaster off the concrete floor to prep it for the subfloor.

We swept and swept the dust. Maureen compared it to sweeping a desert. Every time we got a lot of it up, there was more to sweep and scrub. This was important so that the concrete subfloor would adhere, on which the tile would be lain.

Professor Wilson brought his English class over from a few blocks away so that they could practice their English with us. The teens were thrilled to meet Thomas and invited him to play soccer during their break. 

There he is playing with them! 

This is the group with the trusty cement mixer! We are putting it to good use. Our recipe: three buckets coarse clay/sand, one bucket of pebbles, one bucket of water, one bucket of cement mix and one bucket of fine sand then let it spin! Then we haul it in wheelbarrows and carry it in buckets upstairs for the subfloor.

Our cook, Delia, made a signature Cochabamba dish for us called Sil Pancho. It is a layered dish beginning with rice, then potatoes, then a flattened hamburger patty that is mixed with pepper and garlic, then a fried egg, and finally a salad of tomatoes and onions on top. It was amazing and we felt so spoiled by this meal. Honestly, we are enormously blessed with every meal by Delia's gracious cooking.

After dinner, the pastor of both Emmanuel and Luz de Vida Church, Pastor Daniel, came to do a devotional with us. We studied 1 Thessalonians 3:7-10. He shared a very personal story with us about how his friends in the faith had encouraged him and lifted him up out of his distress. The groups that have come from Trinity were a part of this story. He told us how he could see the joy on the faces of his congregation from our encounter each time we visit. Any Trinity team member can testify that this is a mutual experience. We were so moved by this special time of devotion together and prayer that we can create the kind of fellowship that Paul talks about in this passage:

 ^{1 Thessalonians 7}For this reason, brothers and sisters, during all our distress and persecution we have been encouraged about you through your faith. ⁸For we now live, if you continue to stand firm in the Lord.⁹How can we thank God enough for you in return for all the joy that we feel before our God because of you?¹⁰Night and day we pray most earnestly that we may see you face to face and restore whatever is lacking in your faith.