Day 2 - Wandering Around Barquisimeto

We get to sleep in and recover from traveling 12+ hours.  Today we get to explore, the Farm, food, Las Buenas Nuevas del Este (LBNE aka Good News Church), and Barquisimeto.  We get acclimated with a breakfast of good ole Kellogg's Corn Flakes.  Next we get a tour of the house and review all of the much needed repairs, mostly electrical.  It seems there are no electrical codes in Venezuela, wires are hanging out of circuit breaker boxes which are not covered, exposed wires that are supporting light fixtures and masking tape in lieu of wirenuts.  There is also much landscaping work and painting on the agenda.  Before arriving, we received an email from Desiree, on staff at Proyecto Jonas and LBNE, "This is such a beautiful house, but lately we have had so many problems with it, it takes a lot of money to maintain this place and honestly our priority has been the kids."  That is motivation enough to get to work!

Our first adventure of the day is to go to church at LBNE.  We find out that they have been renting a banquet hall on Sundays to hold 4 services.  As it's not a permanent facility, we have to set up and take down all the equipment every Sunday, including speakers, sound boards, projection screens, etc.  Just think if we had to do this at Northpoint or Buckhead.  They have made the best of their situation though.  There is a room to use for children's programs just like Up Street.  The service is very similar to Northpoint's format with "5 Before" instead of "10 Before".  The pastor, Jose Rea, is a very good speaker (think Andy Stanley but more latin looking and speaking Spanish) and he does a great job engaging the congregation.  We meet him and some more of the staff after the service.  He is very grateful that we have traveled all this way to help out. 

The rest of the day is spent exploring Barquisimeto.  We have lunch in the food court of a mall that could be Lenox Mall in Atlanta.  The only difference is the large TV screen showing the World Cup soccer game and hundreds of people gathering to watch.  Everything really does stop when there's a soccer game on.  Then off to a park for some photo ops. 

Next stop is Santa Rosa which is a quaint village were the main attraction is a beautiful Catholic church that celebrates Divina Pastora, the "Holy Shepard".  There is a festival every January 14th where people from all over Venezuela come to parade through the city and pray to her.  There is a square at the foot of the church where, we come to find out, that is where Proyecto Jonas started.  There was a real problem with this tourist attraction that street boys would lurk around the square panhandling, pick pocketing and loitering.  These boys were considered a nuisance until Jhulio Gimenez started going to the square and handing out food and talking to the boys.  Several years later Proyecto Jonas takes in boys from troubled homes and gives them a safe place to live, receive an education, Christian based counseling and guidance.  More on the boys tomorrow!

After a long day exploring, we get back to the Farm, relax and strategize for tomorrow's work.