Day 8

We began the morning with our daily devotionals. Today, we looked at the Parables of the Hidden Treasure and Pearl (Matthew 13:44-46) and the Parable of the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7). Tom shared that there are two schools of interpretation on these parables. The first is that the Kingdom of heaven is like a hidden treasure or valuable pearl and we need to give up everything to obtain it. However, Tom wanted us to look at these parables as we are the hidden treasure or the valuable pearl and God is the one who has sold everything to obtain us by giving up his one and only Son on the cross. We were reminded that we are so loved by God that he is constantly pursuing us and we are so valuable to God that He has paid the ultimate price to obtain us.

It rained the whole day today so we could not work on the roof. We were able to finish painting the hallway and the living room and the doorways today. We still need to apply a second coat of paint tomorrow. Today, two of our team members learned of the tragic news surrounding the terrorists attacks in Uganda over the weekend. For Christina, after Costa Rica, she will be heading to Uganda with her church in Hong Kong for a two week missions trip. She is now seeking discernment from God on whether she should still go. For Drew, one of the victims of the bombings is associated with a non-profit organization that he is affiliated with. After dinner, we had a night of prayer and worship. During our time of prayer, Damian, a 19-year old Costa Rican student at Portantorchas, prayed for the salvation of his family. Damian is relatively quiet and shy, but during this time of prayer he was crying out to God to save his family. His prayer moved me so much because I can't remember the last time I prayed for the salvation of a loved one and the last time I said a prayer which brought me to tears. God, please use Damian to bring salvation to his family.

Please keep Christina and Drew in your prayers. They will be sharing more on these prayer requests in separate blog entries.

Here are some pictures from Day 8.


Painting the hallway


Painting the baseboards


Taping the edges before painting


Painting the cabinets


The kids asked us if they could help...so we let them paint a shelving unit


Then they painted moustaches on themselves


After painting, we played with the children