Sam and Pastor Brian worked diligently to fix the rusted door to the church. Brian spent most of the day creating a temporary fix, but it will serve to secure the church until some welding can be done. We were also blessed to be able to give a gift to the national church that will pay for the repairs. 
Our work of installing the Tippy Taps and water filters finished yesterday, so all that remained for that project today was Pastor Dave's interview with Pastor Silvio since he was the recipient of the last filter. Besides discussing health matters, they also discussed Coca's interest in the ministry. In between translation work this week, Coca has been constantly asking Dave about being a pastor, so Dave figured that the interview with Pastor Silvio today was a God-given opportunity to connect these two men. Pastor Silvio also let Dave know that the MOST team that had been in the village for just two days last year had brought so much improvement in the health and the lives of the people with the water filters that this year his congregation had highly anticipated our visit. 
VBS continued this morning with even more children -- 64 came today! The students played a servant relay game in which they ran across the yard to get a piece of candy for the next person in line as a means of serving them. 
To go with the Bible story of “Fish for Breakfast” from John 21, the students made paper bag fish. They especially enjoyed adding stickers and Spanish Bible verses to them.
Pastor David and Pastor Paul presented a Gospel message lesson using the colored bead witness bracelets with both the children in the morning and the adults in the afternoon.
Some informal games of Frisbee took place during the lunch break and with the children during the afternoon adult class.
During the afternoon health and hygiene class, the 52 children on site used watercolors to decorate their copies of some healthy habits books. They also enjoyed playing playdough, bubbles, and Frisbees.
While Julie kept the children engaged, Pastor Greg and I (Diana) had one last health and hygiene class with 36 adults. Before the Gospel presentation (via the witness bracelets) by Pastor Dave and Pastor Paul, we discussed the three-legged stool of nutrition and were glad to have Sam's help for demonstrating the giant teeth and toothbrush. 
After our final class concluded, the congregation had a special farewell program prepared for us. Pastor Greg was invited to sing our favorite Spanish praise song with the worship team again: 
Pastor Silvio, Paula, and Hermana Aurelia all spoke words of gratitude and blessing to us:
The most entertaining part of the program was the skits performed by the youth. Here they are telling the story of Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha:
After that it was time for pictures, hugs, and goodbyes. It was hard to leave our brothers and sisters!
We will continue to hold our new friends in our prayers and in our hearts. Tomorrow we'll be American tourists for the day as we head to Managua, but we wanted to close today's post with some of the faces of the many people who touched us this week. As we wrapped up our team devotions tonight, we came to the conclusion that the people of New Jerusalem Lutheran Church were truly servants. In our Bible study preparation for the trip, we read this quote from Richard Foster's "Celebration of Discipline": "We must see the difference between choosing to serve (an activity) and choosing to be a servant (a person/a lifestyle). When we choose to serve, we are still in charge...when we choose to be a servant, we give up the right to be in charge...we become available and vulnerable."
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