The B-I-B-L-E…

by sara

Several times a week we have been leading a Bible class for all of the big kids. It is a fun time to sing songs, act out bible stories, memorize verses, and do crafts.

The first week of Bible classes we talked about prayer and how we can pray by thanking God and praying for other people. The kids made prayer books and drew pictures of the people who they were praying for. Erin had some of the kids explain their books to her and it was humbling to hear the depth of some of their prayers.

This week we have been talking about how we can trust in God all the time. We acted out the story of Jonah and the big fish complete with a parachute-fish that swallowed Jonah. The kids thought it was great. They really paid attention.

Then we talked about the fiery furnace and how the three friends trusted God even when they did not know if they would be saved. The kids helped act out the story, then made pictures of the three friends and the angel in the furnace.

The king made a golden idol that all the people were to bow down to

The three friends told the king that they would not bow down, and that they would trust God and obey Him even if it meant that they would die.

The guards threw them into the furnace because they would not bow down to the idol

But God sent an angel to them and protected them from the fire.

Martin working on his fiery furnace picture

Kevin

Javier

Kevin, Edy, and Rubi   

Maribel

Ana’s finished picture

Rubi

 

The third story this week was how Joshua trusted God’s plan during the battle in Jericho. A few of the kids were the Israelites and the rest were the big walls of the city. The kids enjoyed falling down at the end, and they had fun making their trumpets.

Javier

Gilmar

Mr. Beto and Wilson

Ivan and Gilmar

 

All week long they worked on memorizing Philippians 3:5.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

We had kids hold up the words of the verses, we did sign language to the verse, and we even had kids leap like frogs from one lily pad word to the next. They enjoyed this one the most…

Anna was so excited

Even Martin could do it with a little help from Miss Erina

On the last day anyone who could say the verse got a piece of candy.

“…and not on your own understanding”

Meeting Our Maria!

by emily

Last week Sara and I went to Cuenca to meet Maria, a girl we sponsor through Compassion International. We left from the city of Shell on Wednesday the 29th at 8 PM and after 10 hours of travel and several bus changes we finally made it to beautiful Cuenca around 6 AM Thursday. We took a taxi to our hostel in the city center and Sara struck up conversation with the friendly driver.

Luckily the room was ready for us early and Sara and I dumped our stuff and crashed for a few hours.

Sara and I were supposed to meet our compassion guide, Juan, at the bus station 8 AM  for the ride to Maria’s village. Due to delays it was about 10 AM when we finally met up with him and caught out bus.

The three of us arrived in Parmaos around 1 PM.

Juan called a car to bring us to the project…

….where we met our Maria!

Sara was our interpreter and did a great job! We talked a lot, getting to know each other better, and looked at old records from the project and photos of a very cute little Maria.

       

We found out that she has been attending the Compassion program since she was about 5 years old. Now, she has about two years of school left and hopes to study and be a doctor when she grows up. She goes to the local high school in the mornings, and three days a week she attends activities at the Church. She does Bible studies, music, and a class that lets the kids explore different hobbies. There are about 150 children that attend the Compassion program at her church. 

Sara and I had been planning on taking Maria, her family, Juan, and the pastor of the church that hosts the project out to a restaurant. But they surprised us by having a large, delicious meal already prepared for us.

Seasoned rice, papas fritas, fresh tomato slices, some kind of coleslaw (my favorite part), and fried chicken. Oh, and coke to drink.  Everything was really good!

Then we got to go to Maria’s house. She showed us her room and I gave her the gifts we brought. Maria rocked the shades like a movie star! B-D

She gave me  a beautiful gift. I was so surprised and touched. And it was perfect, just what I had been looking for but unable to find.

We did a craft I brought and then it was time to go. But Maria’s mother surprised us again with hot herbal/green tea, boiled potatoes, cheese filled empanadas (rolls), boiled eggs, and a local bean. It was so nice to warm ourselves on the surprisingly cold day and have a few more minutes together. After one final prayer and a family photo it was time for goodbyes, which are always the hardest part. 

(Maria’s sister, Mother, Father, Maria, me, Pastor)

Then we were off to catch our bus back to the hostel.Once in the room Sara and I passed out  quickly and slept gratefully. We spent Friday the 31st sightseeing around beautiful Cuenca and then caught a 7:30 PM bus. After about 10 and 1/2 hours in transit we arrived back in Shell Saturday morning, exhausted!

It was so good to be able to meet our sweet Maria! I think my favorite part was seeing her beautiful smile. I knew she was a pretty girl from the pictures I had received but she had always looked so solemn. When I saw Maria smile for the first time, her face really did light up and made everyone around her smile too.

Tutoring Time

by sara

This summer we are doing a lot of fun activities with the kids: bikes, capture the flag, Legos, art projects, and swimming to name a few.

However, we are also doing a little bit of “school.” Here at Casa de Fe the classes are all taught in English. Most of the older kids speak English well, but it is challenging for them to read it. The teachers have been especially working on reading and they asked that we keep up  that work over the summer.

The daily 15-minute tutoring times have become some of our favorite parts of day. Emily, Erin, and I take “our” kids and read to them as well as listening to them read.

Ivan and I reading with Isaiah, a little boy from one of the teams

Rosa and Erin have been reading princess books

Maria and Emily are reading buddies

Marcia and Erin

Yulisa and I like to read Bilingual books together

Weekend Fun

by erin

On Saturday we had a relaxed day at the orphanage (yes, that is possible :0)  We built forts and played dress-up. Such fun times. Enjoy these pictures!

All the kids loved making the forts. These 3 actually played in them.

 

Kevin looking handsome in his “chompa” (jacket)

 

Princess Dubiesca!

 

Wilson’s new hair-do

 

Ivan the Superman

 

Ivan’s little brother Edy. Yes, he is wearing a sparkly blue dress and fuzzy slippers.

 

Beautiful Greis with her baby.

 

Jimmy is hiding in the dress-up suitcase

 

Little Gilmar the ladybug

To Market, To Market, To find….

by: sara

...a new fruit!

I was so excited when I saw this fruit at the market. I had it in Peru a few summers ago and have not been able to find it since. So while it is not a new fruit for me, Erin, Emily, and Luke were excited to try it.

The pod looks like a fat bumpy churro and when you break it open there are white fleshy pieces of fruit wrapped around seeds. The flesh around the seeds can be blended into a drink, or you can just eat it right out of the pod.

We are not sure what they are really called, so we have started calling them furry bananas.

Two Little Imps

by erin

Today Luke and I took two of the craziest, cutest little girls out for dinner. They both have big beautiful eyes and an amazing amount of hyper energy (I think the other volunteers thought we were crazy to take the two of them at the same time). Their names are Nila (say: nee-la) and Sheila (say: shay-la).

We started out the fun by going to our house, but quickly realized that there are entirely too many things for these two imps to get into at our house.

We then headed to the park for some crazy run around fun and a rest on a bench…

Dinner time! Hamburgers at Jonny’s. Apparently peeling apart your hamburger and eating everything one-by-one with a dollop of ketchup on top of each and every piece is a must.

Nila had to have her arm around Mr. Luke for this picture, but she can’t quite reach his shoulder :0)

 

Sheila loved the yucca fries!! Bottoms up

 

Three potty breaks later (three for each little girl) we headed back to Casa de Fe, happy and tired.

Being able to take the children on one-on-one outings is our favorite thing to do while we are here in Shell. It gives us the chance to get to know the children better and make them feel special with some individual attention.

Pleas continue to pray for Greis’ hand. She has a check-up (to see whether or not they need to amputate the thumb) on Monday.