How does having family coming to visit make you feel? We get excited at La Casa when we have teams coming from churches we have gotten to know and love over the years. It feels like family! In a big way.
We recently hosted a youth team from a partner church in Atlanta, GA who has served alongside us for many years now. We all got excited… and six were returning leaders or youth whom we’ve gotten to know before this trip. That’s always fun!
But best of all is the heart behind their desire to visit. They came to just serve.
If you read an earlier blog from this summer, you know that we have been planting cacao on our property. Cacao is a a tree that produces a fruit. Inside this fruit are seeds, which are harvested and dried and processed into cacao nibs and powder… eventually becoming what we know of as CHOCOLATE. The property we own was originally partly a coffee farm, but over the years, the coffee plants have served their lifespan. As we have looked at how to replace the coffee, we have discovered that although we can grow coffee on the property (and still have sections of coffee), our land is at the perfect altitude to grow high quality cacao.
This youth team continued efforts of an earlier team this summer and planted more cacao plants…. over 400 in 2 ½ days of project work. It takes at least three years to produce fruit, but we are learning about the cacao plants and how to grow it.
This youth team also had some fun times with the children in our homes. Most of our kids love to play sports, so whenever there is a time to show off their skills, they love it. As one team member came dragging themselves back up the long staircase from the soccer field, he proudly announced, “We did pretty good today. The score was only 2-4 today”. We won’t mention who won!
This team had also raised project money that was not all used for the cacao, so we purchased mattresses for our homes. Every child got a new mattress, replacing the old saggy ones that had been used for way more years than they should have. They also receive a new set of sheets and blanket. Our children are grateful for comfortable beds in which to sleep.
Their service did not stop there as they loved on our neighbors. Just going out to visit, encourage and pray with our neighbors brings about closer relationships.
Here’s a big THANK YOU shout out to GlobalX and their continued partnership and ways of loving us so deeply!