Hola, and feliz Octubre! The quote above is from the book I'm currently reading about missionaries in Irian Jaya; makes life here look muy facil.
Oct 1st, a Saturday, so that usually means
we have a group coming to be ith the kids,
and since it was also Day of the Child,
they wanted to party.This group seemingly stopped by Burger King on the way over as they brought BK crowns for each child; think Luis' is a wee bit too big???
Then another group came on Sunday, and this time with a pinata! After Oliver gave a pinata-clobbering demonstration, Rosa and I were both invited to help bust it open. Looks like Rosa was trying to "reason" or maybe even threaten the pinata into bustin' open
Actually, I think she really didn't want it to open as it's full of dulces, something the children like but don't need! However, the kids won this round.
Our friend Mark Richard, director of Refugio de Esperanza, the kids' wheelchair factory, had asked us last week if we could housesit once again at his home in po-dunk Guate,literally in the middle of corn fields, so we agreed to help for 2 nights/3 days, mas o menos, each week. So G went out from Tuesday to Thursday this week. This is a neat addition to his schedule as it gives him some space of his own. Pink misses him though...I look at it as another layer of ministry where we can help another Kingdom person and as always receive a blessing in return. God works that way.....
Fastforward to Saturday, October 8th, Marta's 18th birthday! Being Saturday, a church group came in the morning and they just happened to bring a cake, so not only did they serranade her she also got her 1st bday cake! Then she got all dressed up in tipico ropa for her Saturday class, where they again serranaded her, and when she returned home, we had a princess cake waiting for her
Sure seems like 18 candles makes a lotta fire, si? I always love
it when the girls pray for each other with intention; seeLidia's hand on Marta's head? And to have Sonia who israther new want to pray is a blessing.
And no party is as good as when you have a payaso/clown, si? Miguelito was really impressed with one of the clowns who had come with the group in the morning, so here he is trying, rather successfully, to duplicate this profession with a piece of red paper he fashioned into a red nose! Too cute!
OK, crunch time to prep for the World Racers who are
coming on Wednesday, the 12th. FINALLY I got to make curtains for the kitchen/dining room/sunroom. Doesn't look so much like a fish bowl anymore, as these before/after fotos demonstrate, thank You Jesus! G figured out a way to hang them w/fishing line...can you see it?...so they can be close to the windows and not so close to the stove.
But any good plan needs to have flexibility waiting in the wings, and I'm glad I knew this as on Tuesday, the 11th, Rosa needed us to take one of the kids to zone 9 in Guate for a facial x-ray. She's been working with a university that gives free dentisty to kids from hogars and Alicia needs some extra work that includes x-rays, which were also free. We didn't want them to miss this op, so away we went, knowing this was also the day G needed to go to Chuya for his housesitting assignment. I love going to the city; it's always an adventure and a challenge finding not only the place but how to get to the place, and we got there in one try! Yes! And we managed to also get the shopping done, get back to Las Rosas, and send G on his way before dark!
Oh ya, it's been raining for days now and today we had quite a wind accompanying the lluvia.
So here's where we're gonna put the 4 young
World Racing women: I love how these rooms here at LasRosas are so adaptable; this is
also the classroom, psychologist's office/workroom,
and an occasional diningroom, and NOW it's a bedroom! The 2 WR men will be in the guestroom and all 6 will share 2 bathrooms, one across the hall from the guest room and ours.
AND HERE THEY COME!!!
From left, Dave-Florida, Dan-Illinois, Leanna-Santa Barbara, Nikki-Michigan, Melanie-Arizona, and Renee-Indiana. They took the chicken bus to San Lucas from Antigua and got to pay double fare so they could give their backpacks a seat too! They wasted no time in getting with the kids, who, of course, are delighted to have them here! Now if it would only stop raining! 
Even the rain didn't stop this
delightful bunch of Kingdom
sojourners from going on a
prayerwalk all about Las Rosas!
This is my favoritist part....so far!!!
You can read more about this amazing ministry AND the amazing yet goofy-in-a-God-sense Team Freedom, go to davegardner.theworldrace.org, and that will give you not only his blog, but access to the rest of the team down the left side.
