Day 8 - Friday

By mosquito binge time on Thursday (about 6 pm), the team had started the final 4 latrines for this visit. Claudio had set a stretch goal of 15 for the week and he was ecstatic to be exceeding the goal! These last 4 were about 1/4 mile east of our base station. Sand & gravel had been delivered in bags by a truck, but the rest were walked back and forth so these had some built-in time delays. Even at that, we were finished by lunchtime with time to eat our final meal in our kitchen, debrief the week, shower and make some farewell visits.

Erik and his sisters Marilyn and Karina had returned from their responsibilities and sat with us after lunch. Pablo asked the team to share their highlights or memorable aspects of our time on the coast. After the team shared their thoughts with Pablo translating for our hosts, we asked them to share from their perspective.

We were blown away by what they had to say. To begin with, each one of them struggled to get through what they had to say without completely breaking down. Through tears, Marilyn told us how much physical need they had after the earthquake, then Christians started showing up and helping them with those physical needs. What surprised her though, is that they had even greater spiritual needs that they didn't even know about that these people began to minister to. She then told about how our team was so friendly and set such a good example of obedience and love for God and had impacted her and the rest of the family through our relationships. She recognized that she might never see any of us again, and she was finding that very difficult to think about that. Her brother Erik also spoke of strong attachment to our team and of a void that he would feel in our absence. Their mother spoke of shock and depression after the earthquake, and how the smiles of Christians were what encouraged her and caused her to start turning to God for encouragement.

Later, Claudio told me how much he has seen this family change in the 3 months that he has been going there. At first they had statues of saints all over the place, and several relics associated with various local superstitions. Those things are all gone now, and they are sending the children to Sunday school, and Alfonso and several others went with us to the mid-week service. He does not believe that they are believers yet, but he feels they are very close.