Kari and I before we left the Hotel for the day! Today we will return to the school to do one last devo. It was hard to tell the kids goodbye. Ira pleaded with me, "Mama MaryKay, please don't leave!!" Ugh. He broke my heart! Such a sweet kid. All of our "men" did the devo this morning, each sharing in a favorite scripture and telling why, then Collin followed with a few songs...which is so fun because the students really love to sing! We were able to stay and visit about 30 minutes to share addresses, etc. Hopefully we can keep in touch! 
One last picture with Ira, my Antigua buddy!We left the school, returned to the Hotel and changed into our work clothes. Today we are going to tackle a very overgrown lot next to the church building. It has a vacant house on it and the weeds are tall as me! It is quite an eyesore and after talking to the Elders last night after church, we thought this would be a great way to end our service projects! Kari took Emi and they went and bought some clothes for our little guys on the other side of the fence. They have been there at the fence each day, usually in the same clothes, or hardly any clothes and so we decided we would give the boys some new clothes and shoes. While they were gone, the rest of the group got to work! The tools available to us were pretty rustic, no weedeaters, etc. Weed wackers...or a big knife was the choice of tools. Here is a before and after picture of our labors: BEFORE:
DURING:
AFTER: 
I really have to brag on the girls! They really rocked this project! I have NEVER seen such hard workers! Even the men admitted we really showed them up!!!We ate another wonderful lunch, always lots of fresh fruit and veggies...straight from their gardens! Oh how delicious! Here is just a sampling of the food they laid out for us each day! Really, really AMAZING Christian Women!!!
After lunch, we went back to work and finished up. Then we went to the Hotel for a quick shower and change. The vans then took us downtown to some vendor type stores where we spent 1 hour shopping and looking before walking back to the church for our last day with the kids, again, hard to say goodbye. We treated them to Watermelon..though I am pretty sure it was as big a treat to all of us! So nice and cool! Emi was able to give the boys their new clothes, talked to the mother and even shared a couple of watermelons we had left over. After cleaning up our mess, we returned to the Hotel to freshen up for a Bible Study that the church has on Thursday evening. When we got back to the Hotel, some of the members had left us some fresh baked fish and veggies for supper. We set it up on the porch and let everyone come get some to eat! It was a nice treat not to have to fix supper after the day we had all put in!
We headed back to the church, where Justin taught the Bible study. These people put us to shame! They asked Justin to speak and told him he had a FULL hour to talk. When his hour was up, he asked them if they needed to go and they all said," No, keep talking brother!" Justin said he had never experienced that before! Afterwards we visited as we knew it would be our last time to see these members before we left Antigua. They are family. We have grown to love them so much. They have inspired us and strengthened us. We for sure are leaving this country better people for having the chance to get to know them!
Here is a picture of all who stayed to visit after Bible Class.
After saying our goodbyes, we drove back to the Hotel and had our devo and talked about the plans for the next day. We are taking tomorrow to sightsee, do some shopping, go to another beach, etc. It should be fun and I think everyone could really use a day of "rest". Though we will be busy, it will be a different pace. We had a really great devo...everyone has been so impressed with these people and have truly been touched by their faith.
1 comment:
It's amazing all the amazing things you were able to do!
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