A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words

We have had a lot happen since our last post and there is too much to type. Since a picture speaks a thousand words, this post will mainly be photos. Besides, I know some of y'all only look at at blog for the pictures!

Jauna, Courtney and I got to go out for coffee and bizcochos with our beautiful new sisters in Christ. We talked about "what happens now" that they have been baptized and they also received beautiful silver cross necklaces to remind them of their new life.

In the beginning of March we celebrated Carnival with the Hacienda kids. We played with water balloons, spray foam and buckets of water. It was so much fun running around with the kids but we were definitely very cold and dirty by the end.

Spray foam is awesome!

Jake gets Maria Beatriz with a buck of water.

Jauna, Jenny and Courtney

We also played Carnival with our school kids during an area wide sports day in Tabacundo. First, I'd like to say that both Jake and I were completely impressed at the behavior of our school, students and teachers, compared to all the other schools in Tabacundo. They all sat together and were well behaved, so we rewarded them with a large foam war after everyone left.

Ms. Silvana (4th and 6th grade teacher) started the foam war.

As you can tell, they loved playing with Mr. Jake.

A random picture to show you how hard we work in class…

This month we had a guest speaker come and make a special presentation on the "choking game".

Ken Tork was in Ecuador on a mission trip to work at the Cayambe Church of Christ. When we heard of him and his story, we did a survey on our staff and students. After finding out what a large percent of our students have either heard, know people who have participate or have person play the "choking game", we knew he had to come speak. Ken gave a very moving speech about loosing his 15 year old son to the game and about the dangers of playing. You can find out more info on the "choking game" here: For Kevin's Sake

 Kevin talks to our teachers.

We hosted our first American group of the year. 

We had 12 people from Harding University/Harding Academy.

HOH Academy hosted after-school sports camps:

Karate

Dodgeball

Soccer

American Football

Volleyball

They also painted and organized our new school Library.

We are excited about all of our books!

Anthony is pretty excited too.

Some of them helped out in the Learning Centers.

They also painted and organized our new Teacher's Lounge.

Our students liked helping too.

 The guys helped build a new drainage system in the parking lot. This will be a BIG help since we are now in the rainy season.

The group lead our chapels all week.

Little kids chapel really enjoyed the puppet show.

On Wednesday we took a hiking trip up Mt. Mojanda.

Unfortunately on our hiking trip, Jake took a bit of a tumble. While sliding down and after doing a complete flip, his foot caught on something and caused his knee to snap. We took a trip to Quito to get an MRI and survey the damage. Turns out, Jake completely tore his ACL, damaged his meniscus and has some bruising on his bones. We have been seeing several traumatologist and getting various opinions and prices as to what to do next. In the next couple of weeks, we will be scheduling arthroscopic surgery in Quito. Please keep Jake and I in your prayers as it is a physically difficult time for us and as Jake is in pain.

Despite the knee injury, as you know, the show must go on. This week the Hacienda hosted a group from the LCU Education department. They took three afternoons out of their schedule to teach some of our classes.

The students enjoyed hands on lessons on various topics.

This week our Learning Center supervisors and monitors are doing ACE training to get re-certified. 

Here is Jill and Jhoe working in their offices.

So, as you can tell, we have had another busy time. Later this week we have a third group working up at the school, Madison Academy. Those pictures will come later. Until then… enjoy this last random picture.

Yummy!

Celebrate good times….Come'on?

We have had a lot to celebrate this past month!

I'll start the story by saying we have quite a few birthdays in February down at the Haciendas (5 Hacienda kids to be exact). This can be time consuming (less for me and more so for Jauna who bakes all the cakes!) but it is also an exciting time.

Also, two Tuesdays ago while we were getting ready to celebrate Maria Sevillano's 13th birthday, we found out she and another one of our girls, Maria Beatriz, had expressed the desire to be baptized. This was exciting, but not so surprising. They have been thinking and deliberating baptism for some time now. So before eating cake we all went out to the water basen and rejoiced as both Marias were baptized. We celebrated their birthday days (physical and spiritual) by playing games and enjoying each others company. Then the next Sunday our sweet and silly Jenny was baptized.

Maria

Maria Beatriz

Jenny

The wash basin were we baptized the girls.

It has been a really exciting and joyous time to see our young kids growing in their walk with God. These young ones have been through some hard times, but we have confidence that it will only make their lives more of a living testimony to the amazing power and love of our God.

This last week we also had a scary moment. Last Thursday we came home to news that our oldest Hacienda kid (who isn't so much a kid because he is 20), Cristian, went to the hospital because of seizures. We had a difficult time at the hospital in Cayambe because they didn't have the right kind of equipment to give him any sort of scans or test. To make matters worse, they did not have a driver for their ambulance to take Cristian to Quito. So Justin, Jauna and Carlos drove to one of the hospital and Quito so he could get the right tests. He got an EEG and we are now waiting for results. In the meantime, he has gotten much better and has returned to normal activities. We are still watching closely over him and making sure his stress levels are low. We would ask that you continue to pray for him, his health and the fact that he is his senior year at school and making some big plans for his future.

Yesterday we celebrated Maria Beatriz's quinceañera. Jake and I have never been to one before and I don't think we realized how much it is like a wedding. We had a good time celebrating this lovely girl's birthday with our whole extended family out here.

Maria Beatriz looks so beautiful and grown up!

Jake "walked her down the aisle" to be presented to her dad.

House Dad Xavier put on her "big girl" heels as a symbol of growing up.

I think she made a very big and important wish on her candles because it 

took her awhile to blow them out!

We played lots of games, including the Limbo! As you can tell, Cristian is feeling MUCH better!

We have also (FINALLY) started our Spanish classes. Jake and I cut out early three times a week (M,TH,F) from school so we can drive to Otavalo (30 minutes away) for three hours of classes. I feel like we have learned quite a bit in the past 2 weeks of classes. Although, Jake will tell you what he has learned is that he doesn't know a lot.

Busy busy!