Seeing Miracles

I seem to always be a day behind on making my post. There are so many amazing things to share, and I don’t want to miss a day! Hmmmm, well, I really want to tell you about yesterday AND today, so I will try to fit both in, and not make too long of a post!

 

Yesterday, September 17, 2012

 

Our mission for Monday was to update a creche (preschool/daycare center). This creche had two rooms, but they were both only about 12ft.x12ft. square. Our team of ten split up and started scraping the walls of tacks, glue, paper, and any other “bumpies” that would make painting difficult. After washing the walls to remove loose dirt, I moved on to painting the metal bars across the window with enamel paint. Here I will stop and ask how many of you have used enamel paint? Apparently once it makes contact with skin, or anything else for that matter, it will not come off unless scrubbed down with turpentine. Nonetheless, it had to be used so it wouldn’t come off the bars and flake all over. I used yellow (another not quite thought out pick since yellow does not cover up deep red/brown very well), and green to help bring more light to the one window, one light bulb room.

 

Before
Window bars that I had to paint with enamel. I still have paint stuck to me 2 days later.

 

By the time that task was completed Michael (Lucas’ son-in-law), Doug, Sue, Cindy, and the others had finished the base coat on the walls, and it was time to break for lunch. We had mini potpies that Leona and Llewellyn delivered to us, and they were so delicious! We ate in about ten minutes then got back to work drawing our designs, and beginning painting. Matt and I were a design team, but Matt did most of the drawing and designing. I just painted. I love painting. It is like watching something come to life before your eyes when you put colors together and give a simple picture character. I had the most fun while drawing and painting my sun. It turned out way better than I could have imagined, and it even looks “African”, according to Matt. The earth, planets, and rocket Matt drew looked great, and by the time we finished I wouldn’t have imagined what it looked like before we started! I will post picture hopefully if all this technology cooperates tonight! If not, they will be on Facebook.

Our sketch of what Matt and I hope will turn out to be a beautiful mural!
The beginnings of the sun! My shirt was from my trip last year to Nicaragua, and the spanish on the back of my shirt says, “Doing good works in the name of Jesus”. I didn’t even think about it when I put the shirt on in the morning. Throughout the day we realized quite a few of us were wearing similar shirts!
Matt bring the earth to life!
Operation Rocket: Teamwork!
Finished product!
This was the other team’s room. Love the Noah theme and animals! I have to say the elephants were my favorite!

 

All in all, the thing that amazed and touched me was how the woman who runs the creche was so blown away by all we did. She gave ALL the glory to God saying she had been praying for help or some type of aid, and then Leona came along and now we made her crèches “so beautiful”. She brought every parent back when they picked up their child that evening to show them our work. She told them over and over how they must start believing that God DOES work miracles, and they were all looking at her miracle. I think we all need to learn a lesson from her, and thank God for the miracles in our life. Miracles are huge, mind-blowing things. Miracles happen every day, you just have to look for them.

 

Today – Tuesday, September 18, 2012

 

Today we distributed preschool supplies to ten preschools. I don’t think I can explain what I experienced, so I will have to explain just through pictures. Enjoy!!!

Supplies for 4 creches
This is a single package of preschool supplies. It may not look like much, but there is a lot packed in there! Imagine only have some pencils and maybe a poster or blocks to teach and then getting this. Leona told us it would be like Christmas. It was!
We arrived at the first creche to all these little babies peeking out the gate at us. I immediately fell in love with them.
Big helper!!! All the children helped us carry the supplies in.
Such radiant smiles from all the children!
The first creche with all their new supplies!
This little child reached up behind her head to hold my hand from where I was standing behind her. So much unconditional love – it takes my breath away.
This was our second stop. It was quite normal to find the children sitting in a line against the wall on the floor. No tables. No chairs. That is where we come in!
This little girl couldn’t stop looking at me, but here I caught her being a bit bashful.
Isn’t she adorable?
So excited about their new carpet!
This little one was radiating joy. I want to leave this post with this picture to remind us all to exhibit that joy and share a smile with someone today.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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  1. Thank you again, Grandma, for your support! I loved getting your comments while I was in South Africa! I guess I must have missed this one. Missing you!

  2. I just now saw this!! I am so happy that not just my family and immediate friends read this!

  3. I just got back on to check on the blog since I had a few notifications! It brings back such amazing memories! Thank you for all you taught me, Lucas, and for being the most wonderful host imaginable!!!! Missing you all greatly!

    Sending my love,

    Kaitlin

  4. You are amazing..I love reading this blog. Keep up the great work Kaitlin:)
    If only we could all take from this and realize how very fortunate we all are.
    You are doing such a great thing..your parents must be so proud.
    Miss you

  5. Its so wonderful what you all are doing. Those babies are so cute! I loved the art wrok too, Keep up the great work!