Altavista Presbyterian Church

We made it to Puerto Rico and continued the PPM tradition to visit the Piñones beach. We met our HOPE partner team and had pinchos by the sea. 

Getting ready to set out for our first day we were visited by a fledgling Reinita (Bananaquit). This beautiful yellow chested native bird was a fun reminder of God’s wonderful creation. It bravely stayed with us and then we carefully returned it to it’s parents. 

This morning we met pastor Felipe from the local Church Cristo Redentor. He showed us around the worksites and he joined us on our prayer walk in the Torre de Plata residence. His wife prepared for us an amazing meal!

We visited the local residents and did a prayer walk. We took the opportunity to invite families to the VBS we would be working on during the week. It was a blessing to be able to join the community in prayer for health.

This morning we are at Pastor Elvis's church. We are moving cinder blocks and sifting sand. More than anything we are excited to be back and be a blessing. 

We cut wood panels and tied the rebar beams to be used tomorrow. We will use them to reinforce the walls of the church. 

After working on construction as a large group, we split off into smaller groups. While some of us worked construction the rest of us held VBS at Residencial Torre Plata. We taught the children and youth all about God's creation. After they learned the creation story, we did some science experiments to see how amazing God's creation is. 

We mixed concrete to pour down the walls of the church. This will reinforce them and set up for the steel beams that go on top. We are joyous to be a part of building a new temple for the Lord.

We continued to mix cement to pour down the walls. We are about two thirds of the way to completing the columns. 

We joined the service of Pastor Elvis’ church. Pastor Felipe preached about how sometimes we are called to sow the seeds. Even when at times we don’t get to see the full harvest of what we planted. It may take time to see the church fully built, and the communities we visited to join the local church, but we leave joyful of having sowed the seeds. 

After a hard working week. We had fun playing in the sand. It was a wonderful time of fellowship. We got to play and splash in the water. It was also great seeing God's hand in creation.