We've Arrived!!

Wednesday
After a non-eventful flight from Atlanta (well, Judy does have a story to tell), we arrived in Aruba right on time! After settling in to our hotel, we took a long walk to a restaurant for dinner. Splitting up into a couple of groups, we took walks around the Oranjestad beach or to a shopping area. Rosmery and Alejandro led our nightly devotion based on Isaiah 6:1-8 and then shared their testimonies with us. We finished a fabulous devotion period with songs both in Spanish and English. We are definitely bonded as a group and are anxious to share God's word with the people of Punto Fijo!

Thursday
Rising quite early, we are on our way to the airport by 7:00am! Flying Tiara Air was an experience as it is quite a SMALL airplane. We were only in the air about 15 minutes total! During our descent we notice that a military band was on the runway in formal position. Was this for us? We soon found out that they were preparing for the arrival of President Chavez the next day. Why would he come to Punto Fijo? Found out he was meeting with the Colombian president. Pretty interesting. Customs clearance was quite easy and then we were met by Samuel(he serves as our mission trip escort and is from another town in Venezuela) with a hearty Bienvenidos! Checked into our La Peninsula hotel and then we took the short drive to the church. The children were jumping up and down and were so happy to us - especially those that remembered from trips before! Ladies of the church prepared a wonderful meal of fish, fried bananas, and an onion/carrot salad. AND - a few of us were so happy to have some Coca-Cola! After lunch, we spent all afternoon playing games with the children. Joseph, Shaun, and Kyle were completely exhausted as they had the pleasure of carrying children around on their shoulders and participating in some pretty active games. Rachel, Janet, Rhonda, Alyssa, and Stephanie played some circle games with the girls - it seemed to go on forever since the kids didn't want to stop! We have definitely had lots of opportunities to practice our Spanish! We came back to the hotel for a couple of hours and we are now on our way back to the church for the Welcome Worship service. We will also perform the Everything skit for them this evening.

Internet connection has been difficult and we are using a borrowed computer right now. Lots of photos have been taken and we are going to try and figure out a way to get those loaded by Friday so you can catch a glimpse of what we are doing!

Until then,
Dios te bendiga (God Bless You)!