Thank You, La Croix UMC

This past week we had a team of 17 from La Croix UMC. They built school desks, repaired a glass cabinet, painted, lead school devotionals, repaired the food prep table in the main kitchen, and painted some more. We're thankful for all of their hardwork.

We dropped them off at the airport early this morning and found out a bit later that they are in fact still in the city. Their flight was cancelled and will be going home on various flights over the next two days. Would you join with us praying that the new iteneraries would see them home safely?

We were also blessed to have Mollie & Emily from Oregon spend their spring break here. They joined in on the work projects with the La Croix team.

Here's a picture of all 19



Lee helps to oversee all of the work projects with teams - and often helps out. This week, he was the welder.

Holy Week Continues

We promised pictures, we know, however, we haven't taken one this week. We'll steal a few from coworkers and post them when we can.

We had a sleepover in our apartment the other night. I think we both appreciate our parents and our friends' parents even more that did such things for us at that age. It went really well, but it still seemed to take quite a bit of energy to host 11 little boys. We were surprised when they all went to sleep by 11:30 - and even more suprised that they were up and ready to go at 6am!

Tomorrow will be our last afternoon of games - today's highlight was the tug-of-war in a mud pit. All members of each team were in the ditch.

During the evenings the kids are going through the "Journey to the Cross". There are 12 different stations set up that follow the gospel's account of Jesus during what we now call Holy Week. They seem to be enjoying it - you could join with us in praying that this time would be spiritually impacting.

Pictures to come....

Holy Week begins....

Yesterday at church instead of the "normal" service, they put on a production of the "Via Dolorosa" or what translates into "the painful way" It was a production that depicted the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. It was a great way to begin Holy Week.

The kids do not have school this week, as with every other Holy Week. Today, thanks to the team from Lubbock that is visiting, the kids who rank well in the behavior system, about half the group, a few homeparents, and the two of us went to Auto Mariscos, a small waterpark. We had a great time, and we're very excited to report that we have no accidents of any kind. Just a few eyes that look very tired.

It's a tradition here at the children's home to have Holy Week Olympics. Each afternoon there will be a couple of hours of various games like a basketball shootout, various water relays, crab soccer tournament, 3 legged soccer, dodgeball tournament, and so on. We promise to be better about pictures so that you too can enjoy the festivities.

We mentioned having a team from Lubbock, TX earlier in the email. We are enjoying getting to know the 12 on the team, and are thankful for the help that have been and continue to be for us.

What are we doing?

So a few have asked, "now that you're at the children's home, what are you doing?"

We are learning more and more of how this children's home works and how our gifts and talents can be used here. Lee is helping to coordinate some work projects for upcoming teams, and helping to plan upcoming events for the kids. I (Staci) am helping with short term teams that are coming. specifically with the communication with team leaders - getting them the paperwork that they need and being sure that we have everything that we need on this end for teams. I'm also helping to plan a few upcoming events for the kids.

Next week, as you know, is Holy Week. The kids will not have school at all that week. It is a tradition here, to have "Holy Week Olympics" during the afternoons & sleep overs at night. What more could a kid want? So, recently we've met with small groups of kids who want to help us in dreaming up games & planning certain days. For instance, one day will be the day of food games. Ever tried make a plate of nachos by dropping the ingredients off the second floor to the plate that your team member is holding below? Or tried to eat an apple that is hanging in the air without using your hands? We'll post pictures next week.

Of course we are still adjusting to our 3rd place to live in 10 months. We are really enjoying our apartment here - it's quickly becoming our home. We'd ask that you'd continue to pray with us - not only for the adjustment of living in our new place, but the adjustment of working here as well.

A few of you already heard that we will be in the states in April. This is true - for various reasons we are making a short trip to Texas. We will post a schedule of places that we'll be on the blog in a week or so in hopes of seeing as many of you as possible.

Home, Sweet Home

We're writing from the children's home. We've written from here a few times over the past few months, but each of those times were only visits. Tomorrow we're not going back to Antigua, tomorrow we will not be attending language school because we finished!

This past Thursday we finished language school. Friday through today we attended a conference for missionaries in Guatemala. When the conference ended today we packed up, said adios to our host family and came to Villa Nueva.

We're super excited to be in our apartment. We still have a few things that we need to do to really live in the apartment,like getting dishes to eat off of and cups to drink out of. Those are minor details though.