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!