July 20 (Wed)
This morning, Elisa joined Mel and Jerfelis and went to La Vid Church to complete the Paint Project in the Sanctuary. Once they completed, they began work on the exterior of the church building too. One of the pastors on staff at La Vid Church - Pastor Fernando stopped by and was amazed at how it was turning out.
Pastor James spent the morning touring some of the underserved communities with Carlos. It was eye-opening to see the disparity and how many of these areas don’t have the basic necessities and resources that we would think of back home in the states. But my goodness, some of the views from these communities were incredible of the valley here.
For lunch we all gathered together at the church! We have been blessed by a lady in the church named Dolores who has been blessing us by cooking lunch for us! She owns a little food store front, fast-food location and we have been eating well!
Later on in the afternoon, Elisa gave a health talk in the community of Hatillo. Although the community was not as responsive as Crucero - they received and were incredibly appreciative of all the wealth of knowledge that was shared!
Mel, Pastor James and Jerfelis had scheduled house visits that were canceled due to a family emergency for Pastor Eduardo - so they went to visit a staple in the city center of Jarabacoa called Helado de Ivon - to try some local, homemade ice cream with flavors that are unique to the area: BATTATA and MANGO. And my goodness it was good!
After dinner, we gathered together as a team to have a brief time of worship, testimony, sharing and praying for many of our church family that are ill back home on Long Island.
