It's Monday morning...

One more day 'til we meet Eddy! I cannot wait.

We have been super busy these past few days. Saturday was a work day. We painted the inside and outside of the church in Magdalena. We also began laying the foundation and building the walls for classrooms. Quite a bit was accomplished.

Paul, Kensley and Emily went with the veterinarian from our group to give shots to cows, horses, dogs and pigs. Emily says it was "completely gross". They did lots of walking up hills and down. Kensley was so exhausted when they got back. She fell asleep on the bus on the way back to the Ministry Center. When we got home she asked if she could lay down for a few minutes before dinner. That was at 5:25 and dinner was at 5:30. We could not wake her up. She went to bed dirty with her work clothes on and without dinner - she slept until I woke her up at 6:30 the next morning!!! She was starving and had a sunburn from the day before but she was ready to go!

While at the church in Madalena, a group of children came for an English lesson after lunch. There is a young man who is the Sunday School teacher for the children and he works with them to teach them English. They come each Saturday. This week they worked on names of clothing in English and their numbers. Some of the kids caught on very quickly. Their teacher says he hopes by teaching them a second language it will help them be more successful in the future.

Yesterday was church day and a visit to Antigua. We had church in the morning in Magdalena. It was a wonderful service. The preacher was "Mario". The service began with a Marimba band. For those of you who do not know, the marimba is the national instrument of Guatemala - it is like a large version of a xylophone. We learned later in the service that one of the men playing the marimba was Mario's father, a recovering alcoholic, who is now a Christian. Mario told us that he had a rough life growing up because his dad was spend all of their money and even their possessions for alcohol. Mario talked about how he had been blessed.

Our second church service was in Guatemala City at an English speaking church. Their is a missionary school in Guatemala City therefore there is a large population of American missionaries in the area. The service was very nice. Afterwards we all went to Pizza Hut for dinner! Yummy!

Antigua was a good trip. I did lots of shopping - bought two purses and a hand embroidered blanket. Everyone was envious of my blanket - especially since I got it for $50.00 USD. Kensley purchased an authentic Mayan outfit and some lavendar jade earrings.

Would love to type more but we are loading the bus for another work day in Magdalena. I am on tile duty. My mom and sister are painting. Paul is on veterinarian duty and will be giving lots of shots and helping to castrate a bull!! Please pray that he will not get hurt. We will be teaching bible school this afternoon. Bye for now...