Recap

I can’t believe I’ve neglected my blog for so long! Without a doubt the past 3 weeks have been a jam packed, nonstop whirlwind, so I guess I’ll start by skimming over what all has been going on. Not my favorite kind of blog to write, but I feel like there are huge blanks to fill in.

After Dad and Shark left, all of our bodies decided that it was time for us to get sick. Alli was gone visiting home but Darwin, Amber, Tess, and I were all sick for about three days at the same time. Amber and Tess had swine flu symptoms and we thought they were going to have to be quarantined at Hospital Escuela, the scariest hospital on the face of the earth. But it’s all good, it was just the regular flu and they lived to tell about it. I had some stomach thing, it was probably just food poisoning since it was pretty short lived. Darwin had a bunch of random symptoms, who knows what his problem was. But we’re all better now, life goes on.

As soon as we all got better, spring breakers started getting here. First to arrive was Bob, a friend of Amber’s. He got here from Oklahoma on the day that Alli came back, which was before the rest of the group got here. He is the one who started the Shine program with the first graders we tutor who are on scholarship at a bilingual school. He was so much fun to have around, he always made sure we were entertained and well fed and was just wonderful! Before everyone else got here we went to the movies, the circus, and the water park with the Shine kids. A few days later the rest of the group started trickling in and by Sunday all 45 or so were here. About a third was from Dell City, OK an the rest were from the Memorial Road church in OK. A few of Amber’s closer friends stayed with us at her house which made for cramped quarters but also for a lot of fun times!

Having the groups here was definitely a blast. We spent time in El Magote doing a VBS and a few days at Jovenes en Camino pouring concrete and hanging out with the boys who live there. Everyone in the group worked hard all week and got along really well, and there were a lot of college kids that Alli and Tess and I hit it off with. Tess had to fly home unexpectedly because of a family emergency about a week ago and now that she’s gone and the group has left Alli and I can’t get over how much we miss everyone. Our house feels so empty! We had a fantastic week that provided a lot of new friends and great memories.

Over the course of the week Amber took a lot of the group members out to feed with her. She had a full car every time so I gave up my spot to let others experience it. By the beginning of this week I was surprised at how excited I was to go back out with her! I had really missed seeing everyone and serving them and laughing with them. But while I missed being out with everyone, I’m also glad that so many people got to see the work that Amber does with the homeless feeding. Hopefully that will allow more people to see that this is a ministry worth supporting.

Lately we’ve also been spending a lot of time at a local boys’ home. We got connected with it when one of the kids from the homeless feeding got attacked on a bus and, after a stint in the hospital, was sent to live there. On any given day there are between 40 and 60 boys in this cramped little building. The staff is very kind to the boys but they don’t have any planned activities from day to day, so we have been going to visit them and bringing cards and board games. Amber has really taken this place and the boys there into her heart and always talks about wanting to bring all of them home with her. They really are sweet kids and it’s hard to see that they have ended up where they are because of the rough lives they’ve lived. It has been a pretty interesting experience going a few times a week and seeing old and new faces and building more relationships with them. It’s hard not to just love them.

OK well I think that pretty much covers the big things about the past few weeks. Sorry for the length, but I think I did a pretty good job of covering 3 weeks in one post. I love and miss you all and can’t tell you how much I appreciate all of your love and support and prayers :)