Thursday - Finishing Well

Today was our last full day of service and we finished well! We worked hard and played hard and said goodbye to our new and dear friends with tears and hearts full of love.

Casa Famoso has 7 rooms with new curtains and The Sparrow House is completely sealed with most of the ceilings and walls newly painted.  It's been a big week and we are so grateful to the children and caregivers of Hogar de Amor for their open hearts, open arms, and welcoming smiles.

After morning devotionals we started the day with an hour of futbol with the kids.  Team USA managed to hold its own against our pint sized competitors but man can those kids play!

Playing against smaller opponents does open up unique opportunities for holding.

While many kids played soccer, the rest received our parting gift - a new box of crayons and coloring book for each!  The loved them! I think today is the only time in human history that sitting quietly trumped a rowdy game of soccer for popularity! All of you who donated crayons and coloring books, you put huge smiles on the faces of a whole lot of kids today!

I have never seen these kids work so diligently for so long!

Nothing smells better than a new box of crayons all for you

Everybody loved their books, boys and girls alike

And all ages got books of their very own!

Even the caregivers got in on the fun, picking out their own coloring books and getting a brand new box of colored pencils.  It was such a blast to see everybody blessed by our little gifts.

And after the soccer and coloring book extravaganza we headed to the new house for our final day of work.

Putting on paint is so much more rewarding than applying coat after coat of sealant over the cement and we enjoyed putting a little polish on The Sparrow House.

And Team Sewing put the final touches on our seven rooms of curtains in Casa Famoso.  Making the house look a little more homey and polished felt great and seeing the joy of something new and beautiful in her home put such a big grin on the house mother's face that we couldn't help but smile with pride and joy in return.

We toasted our final full day of service this evening with giant cups of horchada, dinner on the town, an evening walking around Colima's city center, with all of it capped of by hot homemade stuffed churros.  It was the perfect way to celebrate a week finished well.

Please pray with us that the small acts of service that we performed this week would encourage the kids and caregivers of Hogar de Amor - that through our love they would each know the love of God in an even deeper way!