Buenos tardes, hermanos y hermanas en Cristo! Hope you're all doing well back home in Canada. We are all still having an awesome time here in La Esperanza. We finished our first week, bringing the VBS program to a close. I think I speak for all of us when I say that it was exhausting, but such a good time. In the afternoons, we would sing some songs, watch a movie, and then divide the kids up into three groups for crafts, snacks, and games. By the end of the week, we had around 130 kids attending, and we all fell in love with them! The girls were always demanding that the boys lift them on their shoulders and run around. They loved it when Buck would toss them over his shoulder and let them slide down his back. They wouldn't let him quit!

In the evenings we would lead a youth event at a couple churches here in La Esperanza. It was usually an utter gong show, as we never really had a plan for the evening, but everyone had fun. One evening we watched Madagascar. Other times we played some games, shared testimonies, and worshiped together in Spanish and English. It was funny to watch Kyler playing guitar for the Guatemalans. He was at least a head taller than all of them! Thursday evening we had a "bonfire" at one of the churches. Each person that came was supposed to bring a log to burn with a prayer request wrote on it. On Friday evening we had a night of worship and testimonies. It was amazing to see God work through that night. Even though the worship was in Spanish it was awesome to see how we could all worship together. All together we all really enjoyed the youth events!

Friday morning was really nice because we didn't have much to prepare for VBS, so we just hung around at Steve and Elaine's, and played with the children. Lauren, Josh and Kyler helped them wash the truck, which they loved because they got to splash around in warm water. Then the girls had fun braiding Josh's hair. When the boys left, we finally had their attention, and we had a Spanish lesson! Two girls, Keila and Aricely, loved teaching us phrases in Spanish, and then we would tell them how to say it in English. It was amazing, because we acutally communicated for a couple hours, even though we speak different languages. When Keila said "good-bye" in English, the tears almost started flowing already!! (Yes, it's a little pathetic.) So today we are just having a nice, relaxing Sunday, and tomorrow it's back to work, doing some odd-jobs around the retreat center and wherever we're needed. We really appreciate all the prayer so far. We could all use prayer for health, as we're getting run down and a little sick. Thanks so much for the support! Hopefully we'll get another blog up here soon!

Stacey and Virginia