Recently...

Another busy couple of weeks it has been. I’ll begin with a few of the highlights, of which I also have many pictures. First was our movie day with the orphans. Since the directors of the orphanage know us pretty well, and since it’s only about a 3 block walk from the church, they were nice enough to let us come get the children and walk to the church for movie day. I have never seen such excited children. You can tell that going to the movies is something they have probably never gotten to do. We also made popcorn (the old fashioned way because that’s all they have here), and had drinks for them.
This is Leticia and I making popcorn on the stove. It was crazy.


Here’s a few of the youth group boys about to serve the drinks to the kids.
The "Movie Theater"

This is Milagro (it means miracle in English), and she is absolutely precious. Every time we go to the orphanage, I get to play with her. Her smile brings joy to my heart. ☺ Mom, if you hadn’t made me promise not to bring a kid back, I might be adopting her.

Most of the kids will started school Monday (their summer is from Dec-Feb), and every year the church gives the orphans new school supplies at the beginning of the school year, so they all left really excited with new markers, crayons, notebooks, glue, etc.

Here's some action shots:

Another great thing about our movie day was that not only did our youth come to help out, but also parents and children from church came to help also. It was great to see everyone working together. We had about 70 people total- 40 orphans and about 30 people from the church.

Now for my second highlight. We are with the youth or university students doing activities the majority of our nights, but one night we had all the younger girls from church (the ones not old enough to be in the youth group- like 9-14ish) over to our apartment to spend the night. It was tons of fun, and it was definitely 100% energy the entire time! When they got there in the afternoon, we went swimming, then later we played games, ate pizza, watched the Chronicals of Narnia, painted nails (of course), and sang devo songs with them for about an hour. ☺ It was a great night, and the girls had a lot of fun. Here's some pictures:

Valeria and Leticia swimming

Group shot! ¡Qué lindas! :)

Don't let them fool you...they are not asleep...nor are they anywhere near tired

And here's a video of us all singing...I hope it works!



Now for the 3rd part of my update... 2 weeks ago we got to be a part of the team retreat the missionaries take every year to plan the upcoming year. The first part of the retreat we worked at the church building then the last part of it we went to a place about an hour outside the city that was absolutely beautiful (especially the stars Britni)! It was really good getting to know the families on the mission team better. I also got stung by 2 red wasps one day and cried like a baby. ☺ It was a great retreat though.

This last couple of weeks we have been busy getting prepared for our new upcoming 7 week English program that starts next week. Last week, we visited one of the main universities to meet students and invite them. So far there are about 100 people that have called and are signed up! This program is similar to the one they have taught before- it's basically just using the book of John to teach English. There will be a class every week for beginning speakers (taught by one of the missionaries), and the intermediate English speakers will be divided between us for one-on-one instruction. So I will have about 15 or 20 students total, and I will meet with each one twice a week, whenever their schedule permits. Our main purpose with these English studies is just reaching out to those in the community and getting them involved in and interested in the Bible. We still have other Bible studies with people throughout the week, but they are different than the English studies (and they are mostly in Spanish).

In addition to our current English studies, and preparation for the new English course, I have been busy organizing, planning, and helping teach the children’s Bible classes on Sundays. One of my main goals with this ministry is to teach the Paraguayan ladies how to teach Bible Class, and it’s a lot of fun getting to work with them in this way.

Thank you so much keeping all the work here in your prayers! The people here are such a blessing, and I will have even more things to share with you all when I return! Have a blessed week!