Ricker family missions

Friday, July 26th - Sunday, July 28th

On Friday, they celebrated my birthday at breakfast and dinner.  This is the singing at breakfast.

Then we went to another school to share the gospel.

This is Joe teaching discipleship lessons before dinner.

This is my birthday cake.  They said it was made with fig, peaches and nuts.  It was good.  They were sweet and also bought me a piece of chocolate cake because that is my favorite.  They didn't have any whole chocolate cakes left at the bakery.  They said this was their best cake. 

Sarah and Ellie with the cat outside Nelly's.  That is where we ate most of our meals.

 

This is Saturday morning.  We made 350 sandwiches to take to the village at the city dump.

This is Pearl.  Her and her husband head the orphanage ministry and the ministry of taking care of the people at the dump.  She said there are about 300 families living around the dump.

 

Our team performed the drama, MMA, and the painting to share the gospel.

Then we fed them lunch.

This is the family that Joe taught discipleship to on Saturday evening.  (above)  Then we ate dinner and went to an MMA presentation at church.  Stephen shared his testimony at the end. (below)

These are pictures from this morning before church.  I made a scarves for Nelly and for Solanda to thank them for feeding our families.

This is Solanda and Nelly!!  We love them.

This is the Curtis family.

This is Nelly and Cristobal's family.  Their family is active in the praise team at church.

This is Monica and David, our host missionaries!

This is the kitchen clean up crew.

We gave out more cards that the kids made in VBS to the children in Sunday school today.

This is the praise team at church.  Joe preached the sermon this morning at the church we have been working with here.  A. C. preached at the other Baptist church in town.

 Since the internet connection is working well now, I downloaded more pictures from our trip to the remote village from last week. 

 This is A.C. and Stephen above demonstrating MMA moves while Pastor David is translating.  They relate MMA fighting to the fight between good and evil.

This is the school we went to in the village.  We handed out some of the cards the kids made at Getwell Road UMC VBS.

Abby found the card she made in VBS and she gave it to Sandy.  They became fast friends.

 

David, Monica and their family performing a redeemer drama to illustrate the gospel.

This is the dining area in the bamboo home that we stayed in.

This is the area on the back porch where I washed dishes.  They had a water source from the mountain.

This is me sharing my testimony with Digna.  Monica is translating.

This is the children playing swords with sticks of bamboo.  Their church is in the background.

This is Sarah helping Digna make fresh orange juice.  They don't have a way to keep food cool, so each meal everything is made fresh.  Any leftovers are given to the chickens and pig.

This is dinner one evening.  We were served chicken, rice, beans, salad and plantains.

This is Sandy and Abby.  Abby was crying because we were leaving early the next morning.  She was sad to say good-bye because she didn't know when she would see Sandy again.

Alison and Digna

I made Digna a scarve to thank her for her hospitality!!

These two pictures are when we had to unload our big van and walk across a bamboo bridge to make it to their village.  They didn't think that the van would make it across the water with so much weight.  The village worked for a week to make a path the last mile to their homes for the cars to make it.  They usually walk, ride a horse, or ride a motorcycle.

This is Rukaado and Digna's home.

This is the living area.  This is where we all slept in sleeping bags.

This is the dining area.

This is her kitchen.  She is a wonderful cook!!

This is the bamboo plank to the bathroom outside.  It was about 10-12 feet above the ground.

This is where we took a shower.

This is the view from the bathroom to the house.

This is one of the paintings that Pastor David painted as he explained the gospel.

Amazingly, they did have electricity, but they only turned it on at dark.  It only worked for about an hour and then we had to get the flashlights out about 7:30pm.  Therefore we went to bed early which was good because the roosters woke us up between 5-6am!!

Hola!  I finally had some time to get on my computer and download pictures!  The last few days we have been visiting schools during the day to share the gospel through MMA, a redeemer drama and a painting.  In the evenings, Joe has been sharing some discipleship teachings with the family that feeds us, their neighbors and some of the people from their church.  So far, Joe has taught the Great Commission, Multiplication, Vision and Strategy, and Thessalonian Legacy.  It is a small group group, but  they are eager to learn!  The kids and I clean up dinner and wash dishes so that the family that feeds us can attend Joe's teachings.  They are very thankful!  It is helping our kids learn to be servants.

Yesterday, we went to visit an orphanage about an hour away from here near the ocean.  There are currently eight abused children in the home.  We helped make lunch and clean up lunch while we were there.  I taught biblical womanhood to the women, the two older girls, and Abby and Ellie.  The people here are always so receptive.  They are eager to learn!

It has been interesting to visit some of the schools.  Many of the children have never seen an American in person.  They like to touch our hair and listen to us speak.  They think Sarah is adorable.  At one school, two girls kissed Nathan on the cheek and then they ran away screaming?!  At one of the nicer girls schools that we went to the English teachers brought their students over to us to practice their English.  They were all very polite and friendly!

cooking lunch at the orphanage

teaching biblical womanhood

the houseparents, Monica and Wilton

the house the children live in at the orphanage

 

I forgot to mention that yesterday on our way home from the orphanage, the men helped put out a fire about a block down from our hotel until the firemen came.  They were able to save the house and no one was hurt, just dirty and tired.  The men had to fight the fire with buckets of water from a well!!

Joe teaching and Pastor Tony translating at church last night.

These two pictures are from the girls chool that we went to on Tuesday.  Their English teacher is in white in the background.  She was having her students practice English with us.

We have celebrated two birthdays so far this week!  Our host missionaries son, David, turned four on Monday.  On Wednesday, the son of the family that prepares meals for us, Leonardo, turned 20 anos.  We have had a lot of birthday cake!!  My birthday is tomorrow!  I am not going to share my age!!

 

This is Joe teaching and Monica translating for him after dinner.