Buenas Tardes,

Today the team has continued to work on the church and home of the congregant in the community of Hatillo.  Several of the team members that worked on the church roof finished removing the cinder block wall and metal framing.  Although the work has been physical they have all enjoyed their days especially as they work alongside several congregation members from Samuel Culpeper.

Unlike the previous days they are currently experiencing a power outage, over 1.75 million individuals have been affected.  Living in this reality that continues to face those living on the island puts things into a perspective that brings clarity and understanding.  There are things that you learn to live without, such as the ability to turn on the lights at your discretion, refrigeration, cell phone being fully charged, use of computer or TV or even going on social media to post etc.  What you gain from dealing with a circumstance such as this are closer relationships.  The time spent on distractions no longer controls you but instead you spend time with those that surround you.  You laugh more, you learn more and you engage more.  We wouldn’t want anyone to deal with not having consistent power, however during the times that power is not available think of it as a gift of time being given back to you.  When the power went out back on September 20th many were left literally in the dark, after a few days of adjusting to the new normal many just did what they do when they have some down time.  They played dominoes.  They spent unstructured time together, they laughed and simply enjoyed the time that was given back to them.  How would you approach a circumstance such as this?  The team not having power is truly not affecting them so far, they have a generator that is providing power to the facility that they are staying at so there are no issues with not having power even if it is limited.  This includes charging their phones.

So yesterday we spoke about food and although I still do not have photos to post just wanted to let you know that the team has been invited to dinner at a congregants home tonight and on Friday.  Perhaps you will see or hear more about this aspect of the Puerto Rican culture, a culture that is rich in so many ways one of which is hospitality.  Look forward to sharing more tomorrow, bendiciones!