Villas: January 23

It was a half day of ministry and the team broke off into 3 smaller teams. I had the opportunity to visit Villas, which I had not been to before. It is a nice colonial with 2 stories and probably one of the older colonials. When you walk in, you get a sense of a sweet spirit in the colonial and a kindness about the people. We were going to host a Bible’s study for the women, led by Heidi, and at the same time put on a kids’ program. There would not be any food trucks or medical clinics – which gave an opportunity for the feeding team and the medical team to serve in other areas.

The pastor, I think it’s Juan Carlos, began by leading worship before splitting off. I did not realize until just before worship began that I would be leading the entire program. The children’s team for that day consisted of Katie our translator, Amy the nurse, and her daughter Caitlyn. Debbie, Uncle Andy, and Aunt Sharon did watch and I had to use them as plants because the kids were a little shy. But they were great at helping the kids understand it was okay to be a bit silly. Amy turned out to be a natural in clown-like behavior. We did the “Your Special Gift” to open up the ministry portion of the program which led into the parable of the talents. While Katie read the story in Spanish, I helped the kids act out the roles of the various servants. I got a lot of laughs with the 3^rd servant in hiding the coin and then looking for/digging up the coin. However, the room was crazy hot so we switched to an old song I know from the “Dramatized” drama team called “Akazumba.” I had been teaching it to the team as we waited for boat rides, car rides, etc. So, they were able to help me teach it to the kids and get some of the wiggles out. We went back to the “Jesus Fills the Hole in my Heart.” Following the skit, I asked the kids if they had Jesus in their hearts. All of them did, so we prayed that Jesus would show us all our special gift and teach us how to use it for Him.