Ministry and birthdays...

Heather and I have had opportunities to contribute and teach in the ministries here. The kids have also found meaningful ways to contribute and love on the kids of Pantanal.

Heather has been able to lead several kids events and use her giftedness. One section of Granada is quite poor and has had a reputation for being dangerous so people have avoided the area. There is a "kids club" there and Heather had a good time singing and dancing with the kids there.

She worked with some of the local kids in another area with a local church Fortin where they have a feeding program. There she taught the kids some fun
songs and a lesson that Jesus is powerful based on the story  of the 5 loaves and 2 fish. She had 5 loaves of bread and then she brought out lots of bread and fed all the kids there. They all had a great time.

All the kids were happy to help pass out the food. Kaiyin was a little unsure, he knew it was serious and didn't want to do it wrong. Heather had good conversations with the local mothers and the kids were able to connect with the local kids there.

I had to return our rented car before the event was over so Heather and the kids had to walk back the 3 miles from Fortin.

We had planned on helping out at a "backyard Bible Study" for kids in Pantanal. We all crammed into a taxi to drive out to pantanal. 9 people in a tiny toyota. The many speed bumps were exciting as the
car creaked and scraped. We arrived and walked down the dirt roads of Pantanal but didn't find anyone. Kaiyin ran around and didn't quite understand that the streams in the roads was sewer water until he got some on his shoes and exclaimed, "my feet smeel like poop!"

We found out that the event had been canceled. Heather already had her lesson on Jesus is Powerful so we gathered local kids, the girls brought out the face paint, a trip to the local store for bread and it all came together.

At each of these ministries Anzo has helped with setting up and organizing things so nothing gets left behind. Eli played soccer and tag with the other kids and helped keep things orderly for the girls while they painted faces and fingernails. Abi even performed a special ballet dance for the kids in Pantanal.

The Sports ministry and soccer league have been moving forward. The soccer league just started last week and league games are in full swing. There are 31 teams and over 300 attendees. before each game the teams are presented with a short gospel message.

There have been a couple birthdays here. The daughter of Jesse, one of the locals who is involved in the ministries here, had a party where we were all invited. one of the "hits" of the party was watching Kaiyin dance blindfolded while smacking the Pinata.

Eli also had his 14th birthday here. For his birthday we went out to breakfast at the local waffle house for chocolate waffles. I rented a car (the one I had to return at Fortin) and we went 20 min away to a volcanic lake called Laguna del Apoyo. We spent the afternoon on kayaks, tubes and jumping off the pier into the warm water. Eli loves cheesecake but it is unheard of here. Heather managed to make cheesecake in glasses with some slices of mandarin on top for his cake. It was a great day.

We have also had fun with the people on the team here. Much of our fun has come in the water. The heat here isn't too bad but the water is a great place to horse around and cool off. We went to the lake beach on a play date with one of the missionary families. The beach has lots of slides and playground equipment (and biting ants). There was one 3 story spiral slide that is held up by two beams on the side. Kaiyin learned that if he stopped after the first turn he could reach out, grab the pole and then slide down it away from the slide.

One afternoon we taught the missionaries some of the songs we were doing for the kids that they enjoyed so much. Even while we were teaching them in the front room of their house, local kids started accumulating at the door so we opened it up, invited them in and had fun singing and dancing.




We have had lots of fun on our own as well.

Lots of pictures and not much text, but, I have to get going. Heather and the older 4 kids are working making hammocks with the deaf today and I am watching Kaiyin and Kiya. Kaiyin has much more interest in escaping than listening to me so...

Blessings to you and thanks for your continued prayers (we need them!)