Work Day #3 We started our day with VBS again & Elijah serving the widow who’s oil never runs out. The craft was “magico”. They colored the back side of a jar with markers. When you paint the front with oil, the colors magically appear. It was fun and a great way to remember the widow who showed hospitality to Elijah, as well as Elijah serving God when he was down. 
After lunch, we realized the kids can’t get to VBS until 1:30, so we learned more about flexibility. 
Flexibility is the name of the game on our family mission trips. We changed our afternoon snack to sandwiches each day because the kids had not eaten lunch when they arrived for VBS. They quickly came home from school, changed clothes and ran to our center. Thank goodness, God provides and we had plenty of sandwiches for them each day. During our teen Bible study, the orphan girls are quiet & respectful. I know we can’t see how God is working in them, but trust He is using this time to work in each of their lives. With the neighbor teen girls, they heard Kallen’s story about her boyfriend dying 1 1/2 years ago. I appreciate these college girls being honest about struggles they’ve had. I pray God uses these stories to help these teens turn to Him first when they are struggling.
Steve’s work crew at our next door neighbor had finished the addition (new walls & roof). But to put the roof on correctly, they couldn’t use the existing roof over the house. They tore off the existing house’s roof and put on a new roof.
This poor family has a brand new roof that won’t leak when it rains. This is more than we understand, but a huge blessing to them.
SHIP Shop
Every Wednesday. the SHIP shop is open for ladies to come buy clothes, mostly t-shirts for about $1 a piece. The ladies can sell t-shirts for $2-3, making $1-2 profit on each piece of clothing. It is so cool to see the ladies buying for the family, as well as for items to sell. 
We set up the SHIP shop a bit differently this week. In the past, they laid out the cloths on a table & it was a gigantic mess. This week, we hung clothes and the sales were one of the highest ever (besides Christmas time).
Outreach
Neighbors from all around came to our outreach on our soccer field. Well, it’s actually a dirt field where we play soccer with the kids. We sang, listened and watched dancers.
Aaron told his story of his mom being gone most of his life. I think this is so pertinent to many of these kids who are in a single parent family. Paige talked about her brother who has been in & out of prison, doing drugs. Again. a story that is common in this area. Both of them shared how God helped them through these difficult situations. Some of our team members are dancers, so they learned a dance to a Spanish song that says we will come to sing & praise God in the heavens. 
Finally, Cody brought a message to the neighbors about finding the light of Jesus, even when we have a heart of darkness. We had the largest crowd I’ve seen for an outreach for any of our family mission trips. I am praying that God uses that time to bless the community & plant seeds of faith in our neighborhood. 
After most of the neighborhood left, we celebrated 2 of our neighbor kids’ birthdays, Jocelyn & Carlos. We send both of them to school and are very excited to see their growth in the Lord. Jocelyn was one of the first neighbors to be baptized last year. Carlos is taking on a leadership responsibility in the neighborhood as he stands for Jesus as a 20 year old. 
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