I will just update briefly since there seems to be a fiesta going on in the lobby here that I am missing (: --- to piggyback on Melody's post.... Stacy and I talked to Dimas today after we (finally) finished painting and he was so grateful. It felt so good to get the chairs set back up in the sanctuary, clean up the paint splatter, and see that the place had been brightened by our paint job... it looks much crisper and cleaner.

It has been hard for some to not get to see the people we are helping with our work at the church but we have become increasingly closer to Marie, Dimas, Ani and the people at the church whom we have worked with on a daily basis.
Everyone is looking forward to Sunday when we will get to participate in regular service with the parishioners. Dimas told me today they have a membership of over 200! He talked with Dr. Domin, Stacy, and myself at the end of the day about how the government's new regulations about the proximity of churches to the residences (it is packed in here! Costa Rica is comparable in size to West Virginia, so you can imagine the issues with population and industrial growth, which we have of course been discussing in detail with Dr. D and Dr. Bob). Apparently in two years, the church will no longer be able to occupy its present space and will have to come up with the money and manpower to build or renovate a new space. He shared this with us and told us that Mercer students are welcome to come back to help in the future with this "problema" for the growing church and it felt good to know that he had appreciated our group and felt confident in our work. The language barrier makes it harder to assess how these people are reacting to our presence and our work but it truly feels like each day we learn a little more about each of them and feel more and more like we have made connections.

Dimas told us that the children of the church are very important to him and seemed very excited when we told him about the games and toys we had brought to share with them tomorrow --- thank you to those of you reading who sent things along with us! They will come in handy! There are lots of children playing around the church every day who smile at us and seem curious and it will be nice to interact with some of them tomorrow! We are going to throw a little party and possibly use some Mercer funds to purchase almuerzo (lunch) for them while they are with us. I'm excited because kids are my favorite. (: It's great that while we are here there will be different kinds of work as the trip goes on, because I really feel like everyone has (or will have) a chance to be "in their element" and we are even learning that some of us have skills we didn't know we had! (Me?!?! A painter?!?! A wall scraper?!?!)

Perhaps that wasn't so brief.... we get to sleep in tomorrow a little bit because there is going to be a barbeque at the church and we are staying later there. So we are off to catch up with each other and on our sleep! Adios amigos.