Asbury VIM Construction/Water Well mission trip - Entry 3

Habari…

I will start with wow!!! What a day we had today. We were blessed with wonderful worship and fellowship at Gezaulole. This is the village where the first water well was drilled. It was wonderful to see the economic impact and other uses for this well. The well, besides doing the very obvious (providing healthy and clean drinking water,) has allowed them the opportunity to start making bricks. In return this has given them the opportunity to start growing their community. The village has a much better countenance - the people are great! Several of the groups that had been there previously were able to share stories of changes in the lives of those they had met in the past trips.

One of the many highlights of the day was when Mike Mastraccio gave a young man his ball cap. The young man was wearing a ball cap that literally was torn to shreds, not just holes but rather strings… Mike gives him the hat and he just began to glow and instantly threw his old hat into the bush. It was very funny and everyone laughed but you can tell he was overjoyed to receive the hat as a useful and needed gift.

We are having wonderful devotions at night. The food has been GREAT! You have to understand this is coming from a person who feared what I may have to eat (I am very picky.) They served us great food, broke out the China, and best of everything to show us their gratitude.

We met Leonard, the resident evangelist, and his brother who is a traveling Evangelist, who gave the message today. It was a great story about the widow’s mite and being thankful for all the ways you can give and receive blessings. I was touched beyond measure and we were lucky he insisted that Grant interpret for us, which I understand is not always done (it can be disruptive.)

We also were blessed with being present for an auction. This is where they bring things in and our entire group bought everything and then we gave it to those who could use the items that we purchased. It is a great system where we overpay and then give everything away … The people would run up and fan you, it was in fun and they are singing to you and trying to encourage you to bid higher… The highest priced item purchased today was a large bag of corn, which we gave back to the church. You should have seen the look on those faces around the circle as the priced just continued to rise. You have to understand we are just having a great time bidding against one another. There is no attempt to try to purchase the items for the lowest price possible. It’s the exact opposite we are trying to see just how much we can pay…
This is such a beautiful place with the mountains and valleys. It is truly amazing. Tomorrow the construction team is going to Maseyu to put a roof on a church there. The water well team is off Sietema to check on a local for a new well. We stopped to see 2 other churches that have been either built or worked on by Asbury Mission teams. We also witnessed first hand the horrible water that these people have to use when there is no water well. I cannot put into words the blessings we are giving these people, village upon village by drilling these wells.

Well, I will sign off for now and ask that you continue to remember the teams in your prayers...

In His Grip,
Glen