The Christ Community Church group of visiting workers from Nashville arrived on Tuesday evening 25th May for an intense three day schedule of medical clinics, building and teaching work. It was their first visit to Armonia.

For the three days they would be working with Armonia, the group split into three teams and worked at the Jalalpa community center. One team taught singing, sports and crafts to the children, another joined the team of Jalalpa builders who had started the construction of an extension to an upper floor, while the third team ran a series of medical clinics.

A tragedy occurred on Wednesday afternoon, when a lady called Marta phoned the center, crying that her husband, Raúl, was seriously ill and had stopped breathing. One of the Nashville team - Laura Dawn, a practising nurse - went over to the house with Saúl to try and revive him, but the attempt failed and Raúl was pronounced dead when the ambulance eventually arrived.

The reaction of the Jalalpa Transformation course and local Armonia volunteers was wonderful. They gathered financial contributions from the community for Marta and to assist in organizing the coffin and the wake. Members of the Nashville group also contributed generously to these arrangements. That night, members of the Transformation course led Marta and her family in prayer and Bible readings at Raúl's wake. Armonia staff also attended, as is the custom, and at the funeral the following day two of the Nashville team acted as coffin bearers.

On Sunday, the group attended the worship services at both Santa Cruz and Jalalpa, joined by the team from Orangewood Presbyterian Church, Florida, who had arrived the day before. The team sang and gave some moving testimonies. At Jalalpa, as the team lined up at the front of the center to receive some small gifts of thanks from the community for their work, Marta came forward to give a special present to Laura Dawn for the help she had given to her. With tearful thanks, Marta praised God for the love and care He had showed her in the support she had received from her community and the foreign visitors.

In our human frailty, it's often easy to focus on the problems, divisions and arguments that assail our efforts to live as chosen members of God's family. Here, on this Sunday afternoon, as two women who had met each other for the first time only five days before embraced each other, God let us glimpse the wonderful joy and fellowship there is in living life as His children, according to his commandments.

For the full story of Marta and Laura Dawn and the team's visit, click here.