Hello!

Thanks to each of you that have taken the time to email message me &/or comment on Facebook posts with encouragement over the last week! Having the team here certainly has sped the time forward it seems and a lot has been accomplished!

Here goes for week 3:

Spanish lessons: I continued lessons until the team’s arrival last wednesday…the lessons have now transitioned into application and practice. Our usual translator has been sick with bronchitis so has not been well enough to join our team and perform translation. This has forced me to apply & use what i have learned and has provided me with the confidence boost i needed that i can maybe figure this out. Many of the people i encounter have been patient with my slow and limited vocabulary. The good news is I can usually figure it out enough to understand what is being said & give a somewhat toddler like response….

Clinic and Activity Center Construction : Diego continues to oversee the daily progress of the center. Step by step this dream continues to come true to have a center where we can provide space for health care & mission teams to serve out of.

March mission team: Kelly and Dave arrived last week and our team of 4 is complete for this mission. We have enjoyed spending a day serving hot meals to about 100 people & playing baseball for a few hours with about 40 kids in the San Gabriel (the community surrounding the garbage dump).

Friday we were able to visit & taught a family how to make Recycled Lives’ top secret kettle corn through gifting them with the tools and supplies needed to add this product to their small home business of selling sweet breads & other foods. It was a blessed visit. This family has been in our care program since 2011 when one of my mission teams built them a home. We have assisted this family through high school for their 2 boys, helped them when the father died of diabetes (some of you may remember the story of Lorenzo from the hungry feast event). They struggle hard each day & the mother i a suffering from much grief and anxiety. Please pray with us for her & the teen boys.

Over the weekend we enjoyed receiving training in intercessional prayer through a couples prayer retreat hosted by a YWAM (youth with a mission) missionaries. The entire weekend was centered around prayer, worship and fellowship. It was a wonderful experience…well, except for the 4hr long switchback mountainous drive & throwing up as a result of playing the game “beanboozled”. A jelly bean game we thought would be a blast to entertain our missionary host’s 5yr old son. It involves spinning a dial and eating (or trying to eat) the selected color jelly bean. The bean has the potential to be a good or disgusting flavor….my selection was chocolate pudding OR canned dog food….yep, my lovely teammates were kind enough to record my instant gag and wretch response to the potent alpo flavor jelly bean i shall never forget. As soon as someone gets decent internet connection i shall be haunted by the video memory i am sure…

We shared many good laughs, shed tears, learned, experienced amazing prayer & rooftop worship times and enjoyed some much needed fellowship with Christian brothers and sisters who were equally desiring connectedness to Christian fellowship.

General update: we started home construction on Monday for a single mom with 3 young children. Please pray for them as well as any observers and helpers to experience Christ’s tremendous love through witnessing the work we are doing.

Prayer requests:

*for all persons suffering throughout the world that lack physical resources but most importantly that do not know the saving relationship available through Jesus Christ.

*for the families we assist to not only know the comfort of shelter, water & electricity but the comfort of their Savior Jesus

*for my entire family as I am away, I miss them dearly. leon (our oldest grandson) is in need of a care provider as he can no longer attend yet another daycare because of his special needs /behavior. Brad and i watch him quit a bit cor this reason so when we are away it is hard when this situation arrises. Please pray for the right help for him and for the anxiety and frustration that stirs in him over things he experiences in daily life.

*for me to continue to learn and be able to speak spanish so I may minister more directly to the people I have been called to serve

Thanks for all of your love and support. Blessings,
Shawn
Recycled Lives Founder & Executive Director