May 19: Week in Review

The weekend ended on a high tonight as we enjoyed a wonderful evening of fellowship and worship with the guys at Casa de Amor rehab center.  George continued his series on 'heroes of the faith' and focused on the apostle Paul tonight.  The guys had requested lasagna so that's what we made along with a new dessert I tried (Peanut Butter Brownie Truffle).  Thank you, Ha & David, for the brownie mix - it was a hit! We are so very grateful for the blessing it has been this year to be involved in this ministry.  The guys warmly welcome us each time and it's where we feel like family.

A few highlights from the week:

It's always a joy to see what the students create in Art Club and art class.  Valerie decided to make her tropical birds 'love birds' :) 

I've been spending a lot of time organizing El Puente's library.  This first picture was taken soon after we arrived but then we brought a bunch of books down as well as the HC soccer team and there were a bunch of books in other places at school but there wasn't any more shelving.  George has made a bunch of cubbies, and I've put cards in nearly a 1,000 books and organized them into categories.  George hopes to make one more cubby and then the library project will hopefully be finished!

Friday night I got a phone call from Penny, Seeds of Hope staff member, who invited me to join the girls on a catamaran tour Saturday morning.  A woman from a local tour company has been giving the girls tourism classes the last few months and wanted to reward them for their hard work.  She invited them on the tour and they loved it (except for getting sea sick!).  For all but one of them, it was the first time they had ever been on a boat.  Highlights were seeing  dolphins a few different times and seeing how much fun the girls had jumping off the boat and snorkeling. 

Never EVER did I think I would find myself doing this:  I was a judge for a dog show today!!!  We skipped church this morning since our friend Laura invited us to a 'cultural' event (the dog show) at her son Gabriel's school.  Turns out two of the judges didn't show so Laura volunteered herself and I to do it.  For those of you who know me, you know I detest dogs so this was quite a stretch for me....I added absolutely no expertise whatsoever to the judging but I admit it was interesting and fun just because it was so out of character for me.  Here we are writing down the entries for the seven categories we judged: best hair, cutest dog, best costume, best trick, oldest,  best mutt and most similar in appearance to its owner.

Between categories, there were different student dance groups

Entrees for 'best hair' category getting ready to walk across the 'stage' area.

Continued prayers from previous post:
1.  For "G" from Seeds of Hope.  She was the only girl from the older group who did not go on the catamaran tour.  Things do not seem to be improving at all and she has not opened up to the staff about what is going on.  They are afraid her mom may have gotten her some 'work'.
2.  George stayed home with Nathan all week from school because of a fever.  He went to the clinic and Dr. diagnosed him with ear and throat infection.  He is on antibiotics.