2nd and 3rd VBS Pictures

 These past few weeks have been cram packed with VBS's and lots of fun with children. We have had lots of laughs! It has been so crazy and we have seen so much excitement from the kids. The second VBS had 84 in attendance and the 3rd one we had 126 in attendance. Each time we go to a new village we see different needs. We are so blessed to be able to work here. God has blessed us beyond our imagination.

Puppets!

Learning new songs.

They were too scared to play. They said they just wanted to watch.

Game time.

I love him!

Playing hot potato with a ball.

Little boy listening to a Bible story.

A church in the US donated money for each child in this village to receive a ball. They were thrilled.

Jerod and our friend, Nacho were miming a story. 

playing a game.

lunch, that would be turtle! 

This was actually just for the picture, but they do eat turtle in this village and had them there for that purpose. I was just happy they didn't serve that to us that day!

Our group for our 2nd VBS.

#3 VBS, the youth from our church near our home, traveled an hour each day to help with this VBS. It was  a lot of work and a lot of traveling, but well worth it. 

This village is very isolated and very poor. 

Most all of these kids were shoveling this food in their mouths like they had never eaten. I asked one of them when they last ate and they said last night around 6. It was 3pm. My heart sunk. Poor kids were starving. 

We were feeling a bit tired.

This is their take on pigs in a blanket. Hot dogs fried in a tortilla. 

This is how they pull the logs in this village and it made me sad for these poor bulls.

These little girls were curious about all the outsiders passing by their home. 

This was the nursery corner. I made play-doh and they loved playing with it.

This little fella liked Greg a lot.

I was having fun taking care of the little ones.

The older girls enjoyed learning and as you can see they weren't bothered by having to write on a tiny ledge of the bench. 

The road in the village.

This little boy was playing with this bottle in front of the church. He was precious!

This little boy's name was Bonbon, which translates, Marshmallow. I thought that was fitting because he was so adorable I could have squeezed him! 

I felt like I had succeeded when the little ones let me hold them. They are usually very scared of my blonde hair, so I was happy they were content in my lap! 

It was 2 great VBS's and today started the first day of #4. We had 117 today and for the first day, that was really good! So, we are gearing up for a long day tomorrow. I will try and keep you up to date! Love you all ! Missy

  ( I made a mistake when I was posting this, that is why it is all whopper-jawed. It will be
back to normal next time, I hope!)

Hi friends! We had our first VBS on Tuesday and it went sooo well!

 We had 35 kids come, which was more than we were ever expecting.

This is a village where not many people let their kids hang out with the

"Christians"so this was a big deal for us. We had a great time telling stories,

singing songs, having fun with puppets, eating and coloring.

The kids were so excited about little things that it reminded us how hungry

for the Word they really are. They were happy just being with us. 

It was a wonderful day and the youth that helped us were awesome. They were all ready

 at 8:00 (which is a miracle in itself!) and we drove and hour, then we worked until about 2:30,

then drove home another hour. Then they decided to reward themselves with a movie so they

 drove another 45 minutes to the movie theater and saw Ice Age 4 and finally arrived home about 9:30pm. It was a long day for all of them but we were thankful to have their help! 

There were a few kids that especially touched our hearts. Of course you should all know Chata

 by now. She is the 15 year old who Rachael and I have been sharing with and she is also Estella's daughter. (my house helper) Well, Chata decided she wanted to go with us, which was a huge

 blessing because she speaks the indigenous language and so do all the small kids. There were

 these 3 small kids walking on the street when we arrived and Chata got out and invited

 them to come. They ran to ask permission and showed up soon after. The oldest one,

 Marlyn was 7. She was clearly mama to her 3 year old brother, Andres, and 1 1/2 year

 old sister, Kristina. They hung on her and cried for her and would not leave her side.

 Finally Chata, knowing how hard her little life was, decided to intervene so that

Marlyn could have some fun. So Chata took care of the little ones and Marlyn came to life.

 It was fun to see and we enjoyed helping them have a fun day. Both of their parents

were working, their dad was on a farm and their mom was cleaning out stables. They were pretty pitiful. This is so common to see, little mamas at such a young age. 

We also enjoyed seeing 15 year old girls have fun just coloring. Boys of course had fun

 sliding down the big wall of rock and the youth seemed to enjoy watching the kids have fun

 learning more about the Word of God. It was all in all a perfect day! Thank you so much for

 praying for us. We cannot do this without you. Please keep praying, we have more VBS on M, T, TH,F and S. It could be a very long week!  Love you all! Missy

This was on the way to where we were having our VBS. Wish he could have come too!

I had to go to our friend's home and pick up the food. When I got there I was greeted by our 

old dog. We had given her away 4 years ago and I hadn't seen her since. I was shocked when 

she ran up to me started going potty from excitement and knew me like it was yesterday. 

It was hard to leave her. She was so sweet! Love our Coco. This first picture was the last time we saw her.

The kids were a little timid at first.

Then they started singing songs and got a little more energized. Of course, Alex (jumping there) was a big motivator! 

Learning a memory verse.

Hearing the story of Jesus calming the storm, and then acting it out.

This was when they were acting it out, and the girl in pink was spraying them with water

 b/c they were on the boat when the storm came. 

Boys and rocks.

This is Icho, it was his land we were on. He is the leader of our group in SL.

This is his wife,  Barbara.

Annie and her old friends.

The youth singing songs.

Alex running in a relay. 

Passing a rock relay, they loved this game!

Egg toss.

This is Alex's best friend, Carlos. He and Alex were REALLY enjoying the egg toss.

They won!

Saying a verse with hand motions.

Awesome group!

Great friends for 6 years now! God is so good!

Taking the kids home.

Day is done!