Wednesday, March 20

Hello Iowa! You make your plans and you hear God laugh. For several months now the two groups that go to Grace one Primary School have been preparing songs, devos, and skits. SURPRISE!! When we got to the school this morning we had to break up into four groups. When we found this out yesterday we had to regroup and rewrite out all of our plans. On a missions trip this is what being flexible means. So we went into the school this morning feeling unprepared and unsure about how it would all turn out. God however had it all under control as always. “For me it gave us more individual time with the kids. We actually got to talk to them and it gave them time to ask us questions about Iowa. I loved it! That is how we grow and stretch, by being flexible and obedient.” (Julie) “I liked being able to experience both of the groups big and small. Personally I enjoyed the smaller group more. Our group really connected with the kids and they were able to teach us more songs that we didn’t know.” (Zach) “The school morning was really good we had kids ask us several questions about Iowa and where we are from.” (Logan T.)

Logan and ShyAnna’s Work Project: BIG accomplishment today at our work site! Due to the weather climate and termite infestation several people build their houses and seal their windows with concrete. So when you replace the windows you have to beat through several layers of solid concrete. For one project we are replacing 14 windows in a concrete house. We don’t have the best tools here in Belize so we have beat out concrete with normal hammers and on occasion when the other worksites are using them a couple of power tools. All of the people from this work project have blisters and sunburns all over our hands.
“It is a lot of hard work and sore muscles but today we finally knocked out all of the concrete and put in all of the windows! They then set the windows with more concrete so that we can start painting tomorrow!” (ShyAnna)

Julies Work project: we have so much left to do, I hope God is still in the miracle business! We still have to finish the inside walls, paint the entire inside and outside of the house, and finish an outside stair case. And we only have two days left….

Zach’s Work Project: Today was a lot of hard labor. We started out mixing concrete then poring it into the trench that was dug a few days ago. We didn’t finish poring concrete until one o’clock. Then we had to make sure that the bricks for the wall were level. John and I then made mortar for the wall.

We got to spend our evening in the Wednesday night church service with our friends at Open Door. Ryan preached a good message about Stephen being stoned. We also had a mix of worship tonight. We started off singing some of their favorite songs then Jolena, Erin, and Julie lead us in some of our own worship music.
After that ice cream for everyone and now we are hitting the hay to prepare for the big days ahead of us!

Love to all of our Iowan Friends and Families!

-          Julie, Zach, ShyAnna, and Logan T.