Hello,
We have been doing great.
A couple weeks ago, we had a dedication weekend extravaganze. A local non-profit sent a shipping container with a playground inside and two guys to help set it up. There was a debacle with the paperwork, so we were not allowed to open the container for a few days. The land was given to La Fuente by the government, so there was a lot of red tape. We had a huge kids event planned for that Saturday, and we still hadn’t gotten permission on Wednesday. The paperwork came through literally in the last moments. John Mark and the volunteers were able to get it up in two days. On Friday, We had a character program in a school a few blocks from the playground. We are not alowed to teach about Jesus, but we did a program for 700 kids, using crafts, sports, video, and dance to teach character. One of the crafts was an invitation to our event the following morning were we could talk about the Bible. We also had a free medical clinic. We had vison, dental, general health, and chiropractic volunteers from the local community. It was a very sucessful day.
Craft time
Picking out new glasses
Sports and games
Dancing
On Saturday, our kids program went great. About 700 kids showed up for the event. The mayor’s wife also came to show her support. We had music, crafts, balloons, family photos, food, games, and John Mark had his own station for the slackline. We had had a lot of opposition from the community the weeks before, including a disparaging article in the local tabloid. John Mark’s picture was in the newspaper. Several times things nearly became violent. The police arrested two people to keep the peace. Once the playground was up, things clamed down quite a bit.
Setting up the Playground
Grand Opening
Passing out food to the kids
Mark's Circus - John's slacklining station
AJ teaching the kids to slackline
Giving out wheelchair to local kids
Sunday morning, we had a special service to dedicate the new sanctuary and thank the people who had made it possible. It was a great celebration that included a ribbon cutting. We had a second one in the afternoon for the Spanish congregation.
New Sanctuary
Ribbon cutting ceremony
John and I went hiking with some friends in the south part of the bay in a place called Boca de Tometlan. We hiked through the town, out of the inlet, through the jungle to the beach. We ended at a beach that has no roads to it. The only way to get there is to hike 2.5 miles or take a water taxi. It was a beautiful hike. We found orchids, a light house, and spiders the length of my index finger. Some of the boys we were with were not thrilled about those spiders. A dog also adopted us and walked most of the way there with us. We packed a picnic lunch and played king of the rock in the ocean. It was a great day.
Sketchy bridge
My friend, Kenia, and I
Huge spider
John has been doing a lot of construction to prepare for the inaguation weekend. I have been continuing to work with incoming teams, teaching kids classes, and do random things that need to be done. Right now, I am choreographing a hip hop dance for the youth for the christmas program. I am pretty excited about it. We had our first practice today. It was a lot of fun.
Recently, I have been helping a couple girls with their English homework. It is very different trying to teach English grammar to someone who is not a native English speaker. Both of them speak a bit of English, but they are so shy, that I only realized that recently.
On Thanksgiving, John and I hadn’t planned anything since it is just the two of us and I couldn’t fit a turkey in my toster oven. Nearly all of our friends are Canadian, so we celebrated Thanksgiving in October. On the day of American Thanksgiving, I was feeling kind of lonely and far away from family. I wanted turkey, and gravy, and cranberry sauce. Thanksgiving afternoon, our closest friends (a Canadian family) invited us out to celebrate, knowing that we were going to be alone. It made our Thanksgiving so much better having people to share it with. I am so grateful for them. Later that night we had a bonefire on the beach which was awesome.
There was recently some changes in leadership at the missions. John and I were thinking that we were going to be moved to another mission. I was secretly hoping that we would stay. Our mission is the smallest, but I love it. I didn’t want to leave the kids that we have been working with for the last year and a half. We found out last week that we are going to stay where we are, and I am thrilled.
Thank you so much for all of your prayers and support. We are doing well.
Blessings and Peace,
Moorea
