Cristo Viene

Yesterday we went to a different orphanage to serve. This orphanage is an all girls home and they are building new dorms for the girls and doing a ton of construction. In the morning, I carried bricks and textiles and then we started bending rebar, which is hard work. Even though it was hard work we had some good conversations because we were all working together. Here is a picture of us with Lauren's class of vet professors. It's her intermediate English class. We helped them with their pronunciation, which was a lot of fun. We will be at Cristo Viene the rest of the week doing construction and leading some Vacation Bible Schools and we are going to try to catch a soccer game Saturday night before we head back for the states. God has really taught me a lot about trusting in Him for all that I need. Thanks again for the prayers.

Talita Cumi

Talita Cumi is a children's home we've been working with the past couple of days. It is an orphanage of around 30 kids.

We threw 13 of them a birthday party on Saturday that was so much fun. It's so heartbreaking. This birthday on Saturday was the first birthday party some of them had ever experienced....some still don't even know their birth dates. They each received a 10 dollar gift that we had gotten for them in the states and to see them open it up was priceless, it's hard to even articulate it. They loved getting attention from us and we loved loving on them. My little girl was named Neomi (Naomi) and she turned 4. She was so sweet and loved holding my hand and telling me her colors (thankfully I know most of the colors in Spanish because Reagan has a puzzle with the Spanish colors on it). We ate lunch with them, had cupcakes, played cornhole, tag, and just hopefully filled their cups...they definitely filled ours.

Sunday we went to lunch and did some touristy things that I'll post about later.

Today was a full day. We got to Talita Cumi at 8:30ish and got a tour of the campus and then got to work. The guys started building two closets (they lack storage space) while the girls painted and helped in the kitchen. The majority of the kids were in school (it's winter here). They only go to school half day because there is a shortage of teachers, so when they got home from school, we had lunch with them. It was a Bolivian meal (I forget the name of it and Lauren is asleep, so I can't ask her). It was really good. It was mostly rice, chicken, plantaines, and a fried egg. Delish! After lunch, the kids had to get started on their homework and chores and we continued helping out as much as possible. When they were done with their chores, we gave a mini vbs (vacation bible school) and did a skit of the good samaritan. The kids loved it. We did a small craft with them and tried to love on them some more.

It was then time to go to help Lauren with her English class at the vet school. This was a lot of fun. We were paired up with a student to help them with their pronunciation. We had a lot of laughs...they were mostly laughing at our lack of Spanish. We have another full day at Talita Cumi planned tomorrow.

God is changing me more and more every day that I'm here. The kids here have been through so much and still have so much love to give and so much to teach me. Thanks for your prayers. They are working. God is answering.

36 hours

Our team will be leaving in just over 36 hours. I feel like I have so much left to do. Thankfully our bags are all packed (except our carry-ons) and waiting for us at the office. The last few days I have been a bit emotional and overwhelmed, which I think {I hope} is normal. I just feel like I'm going to forget something I need to pack, forget something I need to tell Carl about the kids' day to day routines, even weird things like forget to pay a bill...I've looked at my bank account several times to double check that I'm not forgetting something and 90% of our bills are automatically deducted. I'm glad God gives us verses like Psalm 29:11, "The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace," at times like this. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to update this, but will try to if I can. Please continue to pray for divine strength and peace.