day 7

today (thursday) was a busy day at the village! the screens were finished and installed, we painted the front gate and entrance to the orphanage, and we did our concrete pour. it was our last day of working and we are tired, but we really believe we are leaving the village with some noticeable improvements, and we hope they are pleased with our service.

when we went back to the village for dinner, many of us went up to where the concrete was poured. there is a nice view from that point, and we were also able to see a sunset. i think that might have been a first, since we havehad many rainy evenings.

the medical team had a great day! their clinic was at a different location today, they were actually working in a clinic rather than a church building. so, they had an exam table, a desk for triage, and an actual pharmacy with shelves. they treated about 60 patients, who were generally healthier than those they had seen in previous days, but had some different sorts of problems. they also came back with a very encouraging story, which i will share with you here.
earlier in the week, there was a day when the medical team was driving and a boy approached the car with a letter. the letter was given to darby, and explained that this boy was 14 years old, had lost both parents in the earthquake, and he was requesting to be adopted. he even included a graduation photo to prove that he had been to school. the letter was passed to darby's dad, and darby got the boy's phone number as well, hoping that there might be some way to follow up with him. this boy really stayed on kristen's heart especially, and she continued to pray for him. today, the team just happened to make an unexpected stop at one of darby's dad's offices, and that boy just happened to be hanging around outside. this was a different area from where they saw him before, and it was not a planned meeting. so, darby and kristen took about half an hour to talk with this boy. they shared the gospel with him and he ended up praying to receive Christ into his heart. so, in our understanding, he ended up getting adopted today, into God's family!

tomorrow we are headed to the beach and then to darby's parents' house for dinner, as i shared earlier. we plan to go to the village in the evening to try to print out our boarding passes, and that is when i hope to get this entry posted to the website. please pray that there are no complications at the airport. some of us don't have our plane tickets anymore, so we are hoping that pre-printed our boarding passes helps us to avoid problems on saturday afternoon.
thank you again for the way you have participated with us through this blog, and through your prayers. we are excited to be coming home to you soon!