Jueves, Viernes, y Sabado

Jueves (Thursday)

• Thursday started early as we woke up around 6 to make pancakes for the kids. 
• Cali led devotions all day.
• We moved more wood.  So much wood.
• More library books were saved and organized.
• The school had an art show and lots of us bought the home kids artwork.  All the proceeds are going towards Myanmar, another orphanage the kids like to help.
• We had pizza night with the kids plus Abraham, Phillip's best friend.
• After dinner followed lots of "Will You Marry Me?" Christian is the only one who stands a chance of not breaking a smile.  It's just so hard to say "no" to those kids.

Viernes (Friday)

• Today I led devotions all day.
• We worked on the wood pile and are SO close to being done.
• The library books were also finished.
• The group led a junior high retreat for 17 kids.  We played reverse charades, acted out Daniel and the Lion's Den and the Men in the Fiery Furnace. We ate lots of Tres Leches cake (three milks) and had coffee.
• We had movie night after dinner and watched The Avengers.

Sabado (Saturday)

• We got to sleep in which was wonderful.
• After helping some kids with chores we played more soccer.
• We're taking lots of pictures to show all of you :)
• A group donated lots of English books to La Senda so we've been reading a whole lot.
• For devo's today, we each are in charge of 3 kids to meet with one on one and pray with. Then tonight we will gather our group together for another devotion.
• Tonight will be bonfire night! Can't wait!

We'll be back so soon which is hard to believe. Time has gone by very quickly.  Please continue to pray for us as we are about to say goodbye and journey back to the states.

~Laura

lunes, martes, y miercoles

Summing up days at La Senda is difficult, but I can assure you that everything so far has been wonderful.  We have been very busy in the best of ways.  Yesterday we went to Antigua for the day to eat at El Tenedor (beautiful restaurant overlooking volcanos), to check out some ancient ruins, and shop in the market.  The rest of the time we've been here at La Senda doing a crazy combination of the following:

playing soccer
organizing library books
leading devotions
cooking with nannies who speak no English (this is hilarious and very tricky)
playing Guatemalan hide-and-seek (also known as "chile cuatro con mi")
helping the school kids practice their Scripture memory
moving a wood pile from the bottom of a large hill way across the other side of the school
covering books with plastic book covers
eating really good fruit

Basically, a lot of sweating, laughing, living, and loving.  More later (probably -- we are really busy and time to access the internet is hard to come by) but thanks for all your prayers and support!  Keep them coming our way, and we can't wait to share more stories.  For now remember, Cristo vive!  (Christ lives!  Truth for us all.)

Buenos noches amigos.

--katie

We're HERE!!!

We made it! The trip went great and I survived my first time flying. We left the airport and went to Pollo Campero (like KFC) for lunch. Then, we played ultimate frisbee and soccer with the kids for most of the afternoon and evening. Tomorrow we'll be helping out around La Senda and hanging out with the kids more.

Cali

El Tenedor

Wow, so I can't believe that it's already Friday! This week has flown by! The rest of our evening on Thursday was spent hanging out with the home kids. Spending time with them this week has been such a blessing. Each of their personalities are so diffferent and they are the greatest group of kids ever. Every night we have devotions together then we play...and play hard until bedtime! Hanging out with them after dinner and devos is always full of tons of giggles, plenty of piggy back rides, soccer, frisbee, and tickle wars! Sure beats sitting on facebook or watching tv :)

On Friday we took a trip to Antigua, a really neat city in Guatemala! We started the day off with chapel with the school kids, then we headed out to Antigua. Rather than eating our normal breakfast of toast, we had brunch at a sweet restaurant (named "The Fork" en espanol, of course) way on top of a mountain overlooking not one, not two, but THREE volcanoes! The view was breathtaking and the food was delicious! Then we ventured to the city for some shopping...a lot of shopping. We learned that Antigua has a central park, and that was our meeting place. Then off we went to the artisan market to spend the sum of our cash, praise the Lord that they took our American dollars! After buying enough souvenirs to fill Jamie's massive army bag, we took a little break for some Guatemalan McDonalds. Now when you think of McDonalds, you're probably imagining a small fast food place with slow service and a lack of seating...but oh no, not in Guatemala. They took the saying 'go big or go home' to heart. This place had a courtyard, waiters, a cafe just for the coffee drinks, and excellent service. Way to go Antigua McDonalds! We were able to explore the city some and Kaiser took some really great pictures. What a day, we hopped into the van and traveled back to La Senda, full tummies, empty wallets, an assortment of souvenirs and all!

We had dinner with the home kids and got to spend more time with them just having a blast! Since it was Friday we got to have movie night! We watching "Change of Plans" a heartwarming production brought to you by Walmart...what a winner ;) ! Then we hugged the kiddos goodnight, and spent some time with our team just being so silly! Tonight is going to be great, you'll hear all about it later!!

With love from Guatemala,
Lindsey

Choco Chiwi

So, one of the things about running around like crazy people all day is that we eat all the time.  Which makes it very nice that Pam and Steve got us tons of food for the week.  And I mean tons!  Including awesome old-school cereals like Cookie Crisp and Choco Chiwi's.  Aside from eating, yesterday was another big work day filled with more teaching, baking banana and strawberry bread, painting a fence, cleaning gutters, washing more sheets and towels, and helping kids with English in the school.   We cooked spaghetti for the kids in the home and then played lots and lots of ultimate frisbee.  Some of the boys are really good!  They would love playing intramurals at Asbury :)  Today we are trying to get as much work done during the school day since this is our last main work day before our trip to Antigua tomorrow.  So far today, a few of us have had to test out our teaching skills because one of the English teachers didn't show up.  Jamie is in charge of devotions all day and so far has done a great job. Hopefully we'll get to write a little more later.  But as for now, Christo VIVE, a su nombre GLORIA, a su gloria VICTORIA, a su victoria AMEN.

Day 2 Guatemala

Day 2,

Our first full day was a complete success, full of work and fun. We started off early at 7:45 with morning devotions with the entire school. Arlie led devos and talked about how we are a lot like seeds. Though we are small, once given love and care, we can do big things. Just like a seed when it's been taken care of can make a big tree. After, we helped the kids throughout the day with their English, math, and other school activities. In our down time we helped out around La Senda where ever we could, painting, cleaning, moving large scraps of metal and wood, and organizing. At 3:15 the students ended their school day and we helped the kids that stay at La Senda with their chores followed by playing some soccer and ultimate frisbee. They really enjoy sports and having fun, they are all so full of joy and laughter. Dinner came around and our team enjoyed dinner in our area of living and went to our night devotions which Katie led. She spoke on love and forgiveness and how Jesus loves us no matter what we have done. She pointed out how Jesus never stopped loving Peter even after Peter denied him three times. It was very uplifting and always refreshing to here what a merciful God we have. Our night devos were followed by dessert which was ice cream with carmel and little apple pies. The ice cream down here is so good! After we spend time just playing with the kids till bed time around 8. It's crazy how much energy these kids have! We played the Guatemalan form of hide and seek where you run and hide and once the person who is "it" tries to find every one, it's your job to run to the center of our playing area and shout out in spanish, "Chili quarta," which in English translate into spicy room before you are caught, if you make it your safe the rest of the game. We determined the spicy room kind of means hot spot. It was loads of fun because there are so many great places to hide and the kids always help us find the best spots. Bed time came soon enough and we retreated to our rooms for some great talks with out team with popcorn and lots of stories. As soon as our heads hit the pillows I think we all fell straight to sleep. Though our day was full of work, it never really felt like work because it was fun and we did it all to the glory of God.

7/31/12
-Jamie

Christo Vive

Greetings friends. We just got some internet time so hopefully our team member Jamie will update ya'll about our day yesterday soon! We're having a wonderful time!