Living Life!

We've had lots of enjoyable events over the last couple weeks!

Ladies from Guadalajara
Last Thursday, the group of ladies from Guadalajara came to put on their monthly activities for our kids. This year, they have been doing a country theme, as they come from a variety of different countries and continents. They choose one representative from the group to organize a powerpoint, games, food, and crafts about their home country. This time, we learned all about Norway! What a fascinating country! The kids had a blast making a traditional dish (which involved lots of flour :). We had little friends covered from head to toe in flour, simply loving their life! I've attached pictures below.


New Students
As I mentioned in my previous blog, we recently had two new students join our school from the village. We walked them home last week to touch base with their family over homework and other details, as well as just to encourage them. However, we ended up being the ones encouraged as we left. The younger student has homework every night that involves reading stories out of a children's storybook Bible and answering some questions. As is typical in Mexican culture, multiple generations live in the same house. One of the members of their household is their elderly grandmother who is blind. As it turns out, their mother has been reading stories out of the Bible to their grandmother who is hungry to hear them! What started out as homework, has ended up being almost like a family devotion time for a family who does not know Christ (as far as we know)! Praise God for how he works!


Mission Team
We have a college team currently visiting from New York who have been extremely helpful in many ways! They've helped with childcare, painting, making a crib for one of our little ones, cooking, and various other projects.

Practice Test
We took our four oldest students into the city to take a practice test this week in preparation for the end of the year tests. It was a good experience for them and put them out of their comfort zone a little bit. However, they came out of it on a positive note. We enjoyed the opportunity to take them out to lunch afterward and spoil them a little bit :).

Kids Club
We had another kids club this week, with the help of the mission team. Basically, it functions like a VBS. We invite all the children from the village, play games with them, do crafts, sing, have a Bible lesson, and then feed them at the end. We had around 80 children again this time. Many of the members of the team speak Spanish, so they conducted all the activities and shared the gospel through skits and testimonies. It was very cool to see God using them to bless the kids!

Birthdays
This was one of our big birthday weeks! With so many people living and working under the same roof, birthdays are common occurrences. We had three this week. Our youngest turned one, another turned 10, and one of our new students turned 8. We enjoyed celebrating with them and seeing how God has worked in each of their lives.

That's all for now! Thanks again for all your prayers! Enjoy the pictures below. :)

Norway powerpoint and presentation

Covered in flour! Making an authentic Norwegian dish!

Taking the kids out to eat after the practice test!

Kids Club

80 plates of snacks!

Our 1 year old celebrity! So many cameras :)

Moving Along

We’ve enjoyed the company and help of several mission teams and individual volunteers over the past weeks and are anticipating another team this weekend. Here are a couple of the biggest pieces of news:

Testing

Due to our new accreditation, our students will have to take a government test at the end of the school year. A few weeks ago, we obtained the government curriculum and have been adding that to the curriculum we've already been teaching. We've had to extend the school day a bit and the kids have had really good attitudes so far. While this has added many hours of preparation work, I have absolutely LOVED having the excuse to study more Spanish. It is also extremely beneficial to our students to be forced to work with academic Spanish for an extended period of time as well! We would appreciate prayer as we continue to prepare the students well. 

New Students

Last week, we had two boys from the village show up at our doorstep unannounced and wanting to become a part of our school. After investigating the matter further, we found that they had just moved back to the village from the States and speak/read fluently in English. We prayed and felt the door opening, so we’ve accepted them into our school for the rest of the year. Although they are not a part of the shelter, we are extremely excited about the possibility of reaching them with the gospel. They know nothing of the Bible and we’ve already had the opportunity to teach them several stories and share the bridge illustration with them. We would greatly appreciate prayer for their hearts as they encounter Jesus for perhaps the first time!

Class photo with our two new students! 

Paperwork

The accreditation process has come with loads of paperwork and requirements. At this point, we may run into some trouble since Jenny and I are only certified in the United States. We are looking into different possibilities, one of which being the pursuit of Mexican teaching certification (if it’s within reach). As we search, we ask for prayer that God would uncover the best means possible to help the ministry with the paperwork needs.

The newest members of the family-5 little kittens!

A wonderful surprise picture from my niece and nephew! Nothing like pure encouragement :)!

Our Bible Timeline-major stories completed from the Old and New Testament! So exciting!