On the 25th of September I got to spend my birthday with my kids teaching in the school. Everyday we do english class, grammar, math and crafts. They are learning verbs, numbers and food in english, their numbers, alphabet, and spelling. It super fun getting to know the kids and be able to build relationships with them. Nanie and the girls later that night made me my favorite cake and took me to ice cream. On our off day Saturday I went to the fair for Dia de los Niños that was going to be celebrated on the first of October. Sunday the 27th was our first day working in the church and teaching Sunday school. Some worked with the babies, some with elementary kids, and others in the youth center. The church was so thankful for our help and said that they had been praying for a while that they would get volunteers to work with the kids. On Sunday my team visited Francis’ family again. We brought them flowers and checked up on his parents health. Monday Luis had a discipleship meeting with us at the house that lasted all day so we did not go to ministry that day. That morning I woke up with the flu and could not get out of bed so could not attend the meeting with everyone else. On Tuesday I woke up still sick so I had to stay home again that day. On Wednesday I was finally well enough to be back in the classroom. Today they needed my help in the pre school class. The kids in there were ages 2 to 3. I helped prep crafts and file papers for the teacher, as well as do crafts with the kids. My favorite part was playing with kids on the playground. October first was Dia de los Niños ?. I bought about 40 balls for the orphanage that they said they needed and cookies for my class. It was a day full of games, piñatas, candy and fun. The kids were so excited to recieve the toys I had brought . On Friday after english and math class we celebrated one of the kids birthdays for the rest of the day. We ate cake and they had a clown come in for the kids. When we got home we found out that Rafa, the one we were building the house for, got beat up really bad by his neighbors earlier that day. Luis and some of the others had to take him to the police. Then a couple hours later we found out that Gustavos little sister died at school that day. She drowned when she got sick on her school field trip. We all personally knew Gustavo because he translatesaid for our bible studies sometimes. As a group we decided to cancel the bible study that night to attend her funeral. It was really sad to experience an 8 year old sister funeral. On Saturday half of our group went to help out at a car wash fundraiser for the youth ministry. In the evening me and seven others went to Guatemala for the Enrique Iglesias concert. Yesterday we worked at all three church services. We put on a special service for Dia de los Niños. For the service we did two dances, Will did magic tricks, and I played my flute. In between services we did face paint for the kids and gave out soda, cake and pizza.Later that day Luis told us that for the first time the church was supporting his youth ministry due to what we had been doing in the church. This was a great encouragement to us. The rest of the groups this week contiuned working on the widow’s house, teaching english, and teaching morals in the public schools. Please pray for Rafa as well as Gustavo’s family. Also please pray for all those affected by the mud slide that happened this last Thursday night. Six hundred people are still missing and many are dead. It happened about an hour to an hour and a half away from where we live so we are all safe.
