"if Dalton eats it, then everybody should...." ... Day 2

06.22.2012 Today I noticed that it's not constantly on my mind that I stick out like a sore thumb. This is huge for me as I usually am aware as I head into the market or walk across the street. This is confirmation that I am home. Just to quickly catch you up to today, we had a very long day traveling yesterday! 8 of us drove down to Chicago where we met my two cousins from Indiana. Janel and Diane were flying separately to Panama City! Things went okay, some parts could have gone smoother, but I was very impressed by the way the group handled things. Just the simplest things as in moving gates three times to getting wrong information in Panama City. I kept on imagining the fight between Satan and God, but was so excited to finally meet up with Pablo and get to the hotel and know I could give God all the glory!  Last night was a very long night after traveling and most didn't get to bed until after one in the morning. We had plans to be ready for Pablo to pick us up at 8:30am. I made sure everyone was up....then realized I woke everybody up an hour early!! WHOOPS!!!! :-) oh well we enjoyed the nice breezy morning, along with bananas and twinkies! We have some wonderful ladies making our meals near the church. We had breakfast, lunch, and dinner there. It consisted of polenta, rice, chicken, spaghetti, and some other Lind of meat! The joke is..."if Dalton eats it, then everybody should!!" (side not...Mark: Dalton ate like pig! Ha!!) We did some odds and ends at the church today including....moving sheet metal, rocks, sand; scraping the outside front of the church and beginning the painting; digging of flower beds and readying them for plants; and cleaning the inside of the church. It was a fun and successful day that also included the kids playing with the local kids. Dalton really enjoyed the drumming the boys did...they have some great rhythm! Dylon, Brad, and Michaela enjoyed playing around with the stacking cups and also passing out candy to the kids passing by from school.  We had one incident. Brad was walking past the metal sheeting and didn't even notice that he had rubbed up against it with his leg. It was super sharp, cutting a gash. Deena went into nurse mode. After looking at it, I made the decision to head to the clinic which luckily was just a 1/2 block away. It was unbelievably, amazing to walk into a clinic and instantly be ushered into a room. We got 5 star Panamanian treatment, I even got a tour of the clinic and was introduced to the head doctor. Brad was a trooper and even got 4 stitches!  Around 30 minutes, 4 stitches, two prescriptions, and free service...we were back to the site! Tonight we showed the movie, La Esperanza, The Hope. Several students were in attendance and we showed it in a local school. A few came to the front, recommitting their lives for God! We were able to pray with them. We are all exhausted, most in bed by 10pm. We are prepared for a VBS in the morning and a full day of work at the church. Continue to pray for us! We are so excited to be serving God in this way!  Good night!