Loaves & Fishes

Oh, Friday comes so fast! Work today was finishing the murals, mounting fans - both ceiling and heat extractor, packing goodie bags, and surviving the Friday crowd at VBS.

Margel finishing up

The murals look GREAT. The yellow room mural is now labeled "Santa Ana y San Tomás." Margel, Claude and various other mission artists have done a fabulous job - better than any of us could have imagined!



The heat extractor fan involved beating a hole through a concrete wall and removing a section of iron rebar with a hacksaw! Bob and Jim were prime in that effort... and succeeded, as you can tell by the photos. The ladies who cook will be grateful for a long time.

This fan required a hole to be broken through the concrete wall.

Goodie bags are a mixed blessing. We love to decorate the bags and stuff them with pencils (thank you, Susan Maukenhaupt), stickers (thank you, Perry), bracelets (thank you, Claude), cookies, candies, etc. Then we pray. We pray for another loaves and fishes miracle. We need enough bags for the children who show up on Friday. The kids who have been at the church all week should be sure to leave with one but, the kids who show up on Friday want them, too! Oh, please, Lord.

225 goodie bags!

We did manage to satisfy most of our VBS kids. The oldest ones were willing to let the younger ones get bags and left with smiles.

Finishing up is one of the most difficult things we do all week. Hearts are full of love that has blossomed between the mission team and the Cristo Salvador folks. Hearts break as we realize that this is the moment we say goodbye. Sure, we'll be at church on Sunday but then, we're gone for a year. Remember that old movie Brigadoon? It's like that. Or that guy in Pirates of the Caribbean that comes back for a short time every 10 years. It won't be 10 years before St. Anne's heads back to Cristo Salvador but it feels like it today.

Rock Star Poly

A note from Yanibel

Thank you, St. Anne's family, and St. Thomas, too. Your "on the ground" team couldn't do this without you at home in Virginia. Thank you, from the bottom of our joyful and tearful hearts.