Glory to God

Over the past two weeks, we have seen 4 people come to know Christ! Glory to God! It is so encouraging to hear these stories. I was just reading a few days ago in I Corinthians..."Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

How very true, indeed.

Our family has been so busy the last few weeks. Lexi and Aaron have been going out with groups doing ministry. Aaron has enjoyed a wonderful week with a group from Valley Springs doing a VBS/Sports Program. He has been able to be the drummer for the praise team each day. He was upset yesterday because he had to miss the afternoon session due to an orthodontist appointment. Which, by the way, we have been able to start the "braces" process on him! Found a great doctor here that speaks English and less than half the cost of anything I was quoted in the states. He has been needing them for a while, so we are very thankful. Lexi went on a build this week..the first time by herself. Here is a picture of her and one of our interns, Rachel, who has been a dear friend.

Nate has been splitting his time between office work and building. We have been so blessed by the response of churches out there. Our fall is getting booked with dates!

We are so excited!

Here is a pic of him and a new home owner:

  I have been splitting my time between the feeding program and office work.  

 Here are a few pics from the feeding program:

After much prayer and research, we have decided to go through Evangel homeschool in Montgomery. So, I have been trying to finish up everything needed to start school in the fall. I'm almost there!

Little Adam man has came a long way since we first moved. He used to not like being at the camp. He didn't want to try to make new friends. Now, he likes to be there and is doing better meeting new people. He was over late last night with a group of kids, he met on his own playing Uno Attack. He also loves preaching now! At family devotions, he asks for everyone to listen to him. He will get behind something pretending like its a podium, and go to preaching. It is SO HARD for us to keep a straight face sometimes. This kid has such an amazing relationship with Christ. One night this week I was tucking him in and saying prayers and he said "I want to pray to you tonight, Mom." I said, "Honey, you can't pray to me..you pray to Jesus." He said it a couple more times and I would try to explain..finally I just said Ok, Adam. So, he starts praying and his prayer is "for me" not "to me".  He prayed that I would stay healthy and happy and all these others things. I couldn't believe it. At 5 years old, he's having these conversations with Jesus on my behalf! We've never even taught him how to pray for someone like that.

Here is a pic of one night when he dressed up like a preacher: 

Centerpoint

It's kind of funny how we are pretty much at the center of the summer season here and we had a small group from Centerpoint Fellowship in Prattville, AL just spend a week with us.  They wanted to experience the trip, the camp life, the people here, and see the need before they brought a church group on a trip.  We really enjoyed spending time with them. It was nice to hear a familiar accent and to see the Auburn Tigers represented! HA! Seemed like everyday someone was wearing something with AU on it! Love it! We were able to show them some builds that were going on and take them to a feeding program.  It was a great week. They absolutely believed in the ministry here and committed to bringing groups back in early 2012.

We left at 5AM on Friday morning to take them to the airport in San Deigo. We had one of the longest waits at the border yet, but we all survived. Being in the back of what everyone calls "the prison van" (because it literally was before EOC bought it) with the three kids..no air...and tight conditions for 2 hours was extremely testing, but I made it! Woo-hoo..there were times when I had my doubts. I was thinking either me or one of these kids is not making it out of this van!!  The Centerpoint group was so gracious and patient! They let Adam crawl over them about a million times as he would get antsy. It all paid off though, we had a wonderful family day in San Diego! After the group was dropped at the airport we did our monthly grocery shopping. We also found a very cool thrift store that was so much fun to explore..got stocked up on lots of good movies. We were able to take the kids to Inflatable World..which is this big park of inflatables outside. It's all fenced in and really nice. Of course, it was a high of 75 in San Diego yesterday, so the weather could not have been more perfect. The boys just ran from one to another for hours! They were definitely able to get all that stored up energy out!

We are excited to start the second half of the summer. We still have so much we want to do and get accomplished. The leaders of the feeding program in Lomas Bonitas will be out the next 2 weeks, so we are going to help there each day to keep it running.
I still need to get together a plan for homeschool. It is coming up quickly! I have researched many curriculums and umbrella schools. I wish there weren't so many choices! HA! It can be quite overwhelming, but in due time I KNOW God is going to give me a peace about which one to choose.

Real Need

This is a clip of song time at a feeding program.  There was over 100 people that came to get food.  Mostly children, some mothers came as well.  It still bewilders me how alot of children don't seem old enough to walk to the church by themselves, but yet they also bring their younger siblings with them. Children that are 6, 7, and 8 years old bring their little 1 - 3 year old brother or sisters. They show up around 9:30 in the morning and just play around the church. Singing and Bible story time start at 10:30 and then they eat. We  leave around 12:00 and the children are usually still  playing outside the church. The older children actually do a good job of watching their little ones. They  have to feed them and take care of them.  I think it is just amazing to see how much our children are really capable of.   I think sometimes we hold them back because we think they are too young or too immature to handle certain things, when really they are gifted, intelligent beings that can learn and do as much as we teach them. 

 It also really struck us this week just how actually hungry these people are.  There are a group of older boys that come that are around 12-15 years old.  They have got to the point in life where they want to look cool and be accepted, but they must come in and do Bible songs and story time in order to get food. So here they come and they happily sing Jesus Loves Me and listed to David & Goliath!

And I can tell you that every single child, ages 1-15, gets exactly the same thing, whatever is served and does not complain once. I have never heard, "Oh, I don't like the beans with that stuff on it" or "I don't like these kinds of noodles"! They eat and eat until whatever is served that day is gone.  Since I have a "picky" eater, this completely frustrates me. Just moving here and eating at the camp everyday has been a new challenge for Adam. We are working through it and he has eaten more new things than ever before...but we still have a ways to go!  So, there is such a real need and we feel so blessed to be able to help.

I also think it is kind of funny that these kids cut up and get in trouble just like ours back home. If you'll listen, the lady gets on to a group of boys during the singing because they are playing. She tells them they are going to have to come do a solo if they don't start behaving.  Reminds me of doing children's ministry at CCC!

Lexi went with our interns yesterday to a VBS program that they are helping a local church with.
They had over 200 kids come out! Lexi had a great time and fell in love with a little girl named Rosa. Here are some pics.

It's been a good week. We celebrated July 4th with fireworks after night chapel out on the beach with the team and interns.  I've never spent a July 4th in jeans and a sweatshirt!! The weather is actually warming up recently. Its been around 85 during the day and 70s at night. As long as we keep our windows open and fans on, we do just fine. 

Nate has started working on contacting pastors and trying to book appointments for the fall. So, he is taking some time for office work and is not on a build this week.  We will be back in the States in Sept - Oct and need to spread the word about EOC YUGO! They will start booking trips for 2012 soon and would love to have the calendar full!