Kid Stuff and Prayer Request

A few weeks ago, Pastor Felix asked the 4040s to prepare a children's festival for the last weekend before school started.  The team was excited to do this for the community and planned an awesome event for the children of Fernando de la Mora!

We started the day at 7 AM getting the church grounds cleaned and set up.  As the children began to arrive at 9, they were placed into one of four groups (yellow, green, red, or blue).  At 10 we started with a time of singing and getting to know each other.  After the group time, we split up and rotated between four stations (art, Bible story, VeggieTales movie, and water balloons).  

 After a lunch of hot dogs and bananas, the kids all had the chance to participate in a relay race.  It was fun to see them working together in their teams!

 As any good children's program, we then ended the day with a hot-dog eating contest..... and more singing :)

 It was a great day and we met lots of new kids in the neighborhood - and their parents!  We pray that the church might be able to touch the lives of these families and that God would continue to work throughout the city.  Already some of these new contacts have attended the church and we are hoping to see more relationships formed in this community.

Last week, Isaiah and Landon started school.  They were a little nervous their first day but are enjoying attending a "real" school (they were both surprised that they had to raise their hands to talk in class!) and are making new friends.

 The school is a Christian bi-lingual school and they attend classes 8 hours each day.  Landon is in preschool and spends the first four hours of his day in English and the last 4 hours in Spanish.  Isaiah is in 2nd grade and does 4 hours of Spanish in the morning and 4 hours of English in the afternoon.  They have Bible classes every morning and weekly chapel on Thursdays.  We are so happy to have found such a perfect fit for our boys!

It's hard to believe we've only been here a little over 7 weeks.  It's been a wild ride, but things are falling into place and we're so thankful that God has blessed us with this ministry!  Satan, however, is not pleased with us and the whole team is feeling his attacks.  Please be in prayer with us for health, safety, and precious SLEEP. It seems nearly everyone on the team (including Isaiah and Landon) are suffering from an inability to sleep and we know how detrimental this can be - not only to our health, but also to our attitudes and the way we act and react to others.   

Thank you for joining us on this journey and lifting us up in your prayers!  

Stretching.....

 When we first moved to South America 4 and a half years ago, God began stretching me in ways I never knew I could go!  It had always been a dream of mine to stay at home and raise our children.  In Argentina, I was faced with the necessity of putting Isaiah and Landon in daycare half-days.  Not much, I know, but it was still very difficult for me.
After we finished the project in Argentina, God stretched us (me) by calling us to a place where we would be the only Nazarene missionaries for nearly 6 months.  Then, we moved to the jungle and, let me tell you, I was STRETCHED farther than ever as we learned to survive in nearly unbearable heat with no air conditioning, no  hot water, and very few modern conveniences.  It was certainly an adventure and I praise God for what we learned during each of these "stretching" times.
Well, we've moved and it's happening again :)  This time, our children are old enough to be in school all day, we are blessed to have a team of Nazarene missionaries with us all working towards the same purpose, and this is one of the most modern cities we've lived in South America.  So, how is God stretching me this time?
FINANCES!
With our new positions, I am now the Financial Coordinator for Extreme in Paraguay.  Scary!  When I graduated from NNU, my advisor, Jerry Hull, told me that I would maybe be able to one day help my children with their math until they hit 5th grade :)  I'm great with people; math, not so much.
My good friend, and Extreme's accountant, Sydney Drinkwater, flew to Paraguay last week to help me set up the books and train me.  It went really well and, armed with my very detailed list of what to do in each program and each month, I think I will be just fine!

Also, while Sydney was here, I tackled another one of my bigger fears and stretched some more - driving in the city!  

And, finally, this week I stretched even more by agreeing to cook dinner every other Monday for our 4040s.  I love them and very much enjoy their company, but it's HARD to make enough food to feed 8 ravenous young adults :)

We have a wonderful team here and we are confident that God can and will do amazing things through them. 

 As God continues to grow and stretch us and our abilities to be of greater use to Him, I am grateful for His ever-present hand in our lives!