Busy Times, Good Times…
It has been over a month since our last post. Between having very poor internet, Christmas, birthdays, the wonderful Thompson family arriving, a fun-loving 16-member team from Belize arriving, construction and farming of the new property and remote island living – we have been swamped. God is so good and He is at work, in our lives, our community and in the islands. We see the seeds being planted and pray that God waters those seeds.
Now begins a huge number of photos taken from multiple cameras (hence the random order) recapping our time here:
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- Ellie shows the Thompson girls the ‘secret water hole’
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- With built-in water slide
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- Ellie head first
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- Learning the waters
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- Jennifer displaying her talent
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- We love our Bella dog, ready to eat intruders but she’s quite gentle with the little ones
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- Stockings for all 28 of us
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- Gwenie’s birthday
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- Gwen’s birthday
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- The team arrives from Belize
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- Cleaning the creek to fix the drainage problem
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- Cleaning the creek
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- Local chainsaw cut hardwoods, hard and heavy like steel
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- Lucy loves the mud
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- A machete is only good very sharp
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- Little black dog that lives on the new property
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- Our dock, bodega, big cayuco on the left and panga on the right
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- Some of the worker’s cayucos
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- Lucy + mud = happy Lucy
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- Free facials
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- Israel from the Belize team
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- Mud man
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- Elli (right) created the mud man
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- Lucy making mud angels
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- There is plenty of mud in the rainforest
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- Bella loves to have fun
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- Simon teaching planting
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- Building the new path
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- Digging a drainage ditch for more planting area
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- Locals
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- The new latrine for Santiago
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- Simon and Amalia’s house
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- Building the path in Santiago’s village
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- Trying to drown the large wasp nest in the toilet, slightly nerve racking
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- More latrine work
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- New property clean up, making room to plant
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- More digging for electrical and plumbing at the new property
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- Beautiful ditch at the new property – great job Team Belize!
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- Some of the Belize team, boy do I feel old around them
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- Culture meeting with Gene and others to learn about the Ngobe
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- Shirlene Shirlene the baking machine 😉
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- Thanksgiving at Los Secretos. We miss you friends and family – so much!
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- All I kept hearing was “this pie is amazing” or “Shirlene, Shirlene the baking machine”
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- What amazing kids we have!
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- Dreaming about Thanksgiving back home
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- Ethan the bridgebuilder
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- We’ve been having trouble with bats pooping on everything
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- After trying many things the paintball gun loaded with rubber balls works the best. By the way, yes these do suck your blood – no joke
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- Found Ethan quiet in the kitchen, hmmm, he seems to like cheese
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- Ethan loves his swimming pool
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- With his little wooden cayucos
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- We love you Ethan
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- Always searching for fun
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- Clean up, repair, build, paint – prepping for Thompsons, Bolts, Belize team, etc.
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- The new kitchen at our current place
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- Shirlene made a trip to Changuinola with Amy to see if we can decrease our food bill
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- Simon and Amalia coming to visit from David, Christmas break from Bible school
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- Talking about ministry. Looks like we’ll have a team of Ngobe staying in the other house working with them for a month or two
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- Simon wearing some glasses I found on the beach – I love it!
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- Ethan trys to start every engine he comes by
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- Homemade Christmas decorations
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- Coffee sticks, popsicle stick, paint, glue and glitter = Christmas decor
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- Craft time is fun
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- Craft time is usually fun
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- Ellie has become an awesome swimmer and loves to haul Ethan around
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- The Los Secretos pool is perfect for learning and having some fun too
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- My Bella
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- I love her expressions
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- Ethan with another George Bush impression, or something
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- Get down. It doesn’t take much to get Ethan to dance
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- Bobby’s birthday
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- Reading the girl’s card to me
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- The most awesome birthday gift, my family
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- Shirlene Shirlene the baking machine
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- Repairing water collection tanks in Pedro’s village
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- Pedro’s village
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- Pedro’s village
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- Pedro’s village school house
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- Pedro’s village school house
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- Chainsaw cut flooring in the school house
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- Ethan building bridges
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- Pedro’s village school kitchen
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- Welcome Thompsons
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- Welcome Thompson’s cake
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- Ethan testing the frosting
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- Swimming fun
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- Valor Thompson
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- Bobby taking Isaac for a ride in the cayuco – hence the death grip
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- Swimming
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- Swimming
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- Ethan and Bella always doing something interesting
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- Of course Ethan had to attempt to start the cayuco and drive it somewhere
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- Girls off to Santiago’s village to check on a sick woman, Susanna
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- On the way to the village
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- Santiago’s village
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- Santiago’s village
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- Leaving the village
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- Moe’s birthday party at Los Secretos
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- Shirlene baked her a cake and really touched her – this was the first time meeting her
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- Swim time
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- Ethan loves to ‘read’
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- Orientation time, Panama, solar power, water, etc.
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- Bella and Iona decorating
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- Ethan and Valor hanging out
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- Ellie and Gwen hanging out
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- Dinosaurs in the bamboo
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- Ellie lighting mosquito coils
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- Ellie and Lily hanging out
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- The Belize team arrives. 16 people with a ton of stuff – the boat was quite low in the water and quite slow too
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- Double rainbows
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- God’s promise times two
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- Bella’s birthday
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- Bella’s birthday
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- Bella loves Legos
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- We love our Bella
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- Bella’s new plastic car, some assembly required. Ethan is supervising
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- After a long hard day opening Christmas gifts
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- Care package received from Virginia friends – awesome!
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- Hot water systems using water bottles collected at the dump
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- We cut 600 or so bottles in about a half an hour
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- What a fun team to work with
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- Bella and her Christmas creation
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- How we modivate the team… using lines from Elf
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- Braveheart moments
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- Fun with wet chalk
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- Ellie looks like this quite often. Don’t worrry, it’s mud
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- The girls are always snapping photos that we find after downloading – here’s one
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- Shirlene getting her craft on
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- The team before ‘the dig’
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- The team 30 seconds later
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- Bella and her special birthday breakfast
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- Bella’s birthday cake
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- Bella with the Thompson girls
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- Ethan loves a good party
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- Bella waking to her birthday breakfast
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- Elf time
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- Elf time
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- The Belize team cooked us an awesome Christmas eve breakfast
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- Christmas eve breakfast
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- Christmas eve breakfast
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- Christmas eve breakfast, candy cane pancakes
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- Christmas eve breakfast
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- Christmas morning
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- Christmas morning
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- Christmas morning
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- Christmas morning
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- Christmas morning and Ethan loves his new slipper
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- New sunglasses
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- New sunglasses
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- 28 people eating three times per day – quite a zoo, but tons of fun
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- Christmas for the team
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- Christmas morning
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- Christmas morning
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- The Christmas story play – awesome job Ellie!
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- The Christmas story play – awesome job Bella!
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- The team was a great audience
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- Off to Los Secretos for Christmas lunch
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- Los Secretos Christmas lunch
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- Swim time
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- Sugar cane
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- Simon teaching harvesting and planting
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- Harvest and plant team
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- Harvesting and planting
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- Hand washing laundry. Low power – handwashing
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- Jesus film set up in Santiago’s village
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- You’ve got to love these kids
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- Ellie and Majellies
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- The Belize team doing a skit on sin
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- Simon and Amalia sharing with the village the things God has put on their heart
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- Returing after a failed materials pick up trip. The bobcat used to load the cayucos fell into the other cayuco I was renting – quite a sight!
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- Ethan drive that baby
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- Ethan start that 60
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- Go for it!
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- Praying all around the property
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- Contruction of house 2 of 5
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- Erica cut herself on barbed wire but Shirlene was there to fix her right up
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- She’s happy she didn’t have to get stiches
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- God’s promise times two
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- What an awesome God we serve
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- Praying over Simon and Amalia as they head out on outreach
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- Praying over Susanna who is ill
There were many things not captured in these photos of course. Things that require prayer.
We prayed over a Christmas paralyzed man named Francisco Marchado, encouragement, healing and love. Please continue to pray for this man, our hope is complete healing over his body which has been paralyzed for over 15 years now.
Be in prayer for Santiago’s village, that they would soften their hearts and turn to Christ, we believe that Susanna, his wife potentially be the one God uses to make this happen. Santiago is blind, we build a latrine in his village because he was having so much difficulty getting to the mangrove to go potty. There are many that God wants to have a relationship with but some specific ones we have become more connected with are Porfilio, Luis, Deliah, Feliziano and of course Santiago and his wife Susanna.
In the villages near our new property there is much hardness of heart towards God, just talking about the Bible will cause some of them to just leave. But God has laid a few on our hearts, Orlando, a strong man in his 20s, has a woman and two children. He is quiet, strong and well respected as far as I can tell. I feel that God is going to use him greatly, please pray for him, Orlando. Others are Rodolfo and Jose who have a softness of heart. The hard ones are Ernesto, his brother and much of their families. Lots of drunkenness, abuse in all forms and major dishonesty. But what are we to expect without Christ? Of course human nature gravitates towards things that are not of God. But in Christ there is hope, there is peace, there is mercy, grace and forgiveness.
We have a wonderful couple joining us in a week or so, Chris and Ashley Bolt – be in prayer for their transition here.
We will also be hosting a team of 11 Ngobe for 1-2 months, partnering with them to reach the local villages.
Please be in prayer for two more families that may be joining us soon. Pray for that we, and they, only hear God’s voice as the one who orders our footsteps.
Please be in prayer for our solar equipment coming from the US on an empty banana container towards the end of the month, protection and that there are no problems with the equipment.
Please continue to be in prayer for our new property, the construction, the bureaucracy, the planting, and the hearts nearby – we are super excited.
Do you see a theme? Pray, pray, pray! We REALLY appreciate your prayers! God answers prayers! God speaks! We love to hear what God is saying to each of you so please share.
Praise You God for the work you are doing! And thank all of you for your prayers, they are invaluable.
Yay for the update! So want to come 😉 Praying for you. (small side note: the diff photo layout you have used here makes its a bit harder to view the photos. I guessing your working with lower res/size due to connection speed etc, but thought I would just mention it). Miss you guys. xx
Happy to see you and family are doing great. God is doing miraculous works through you guys and your many talents. For your love for God and the people I see many blessings to come. You guys are in my prayers.
Paul
Great work! Hugs and kisses all around. Miss you all!!! Sending help soon. 🙂
It was great to read all the things God is doing amongst you all! Keeping you all in daily prayer…Grace, favor with all, and supernatural provision for divine health and prosperity of body, mind, soul and spirit, be made manifest in each and all!
Every blessing in abundance!
Merri T (Church of LIFE, Orlando FL)
The pictures were sooooo good! I can’t believe how long Bella’s hair is now. Good job with the “Welcome Cake” Shirly. Happy belated birthday Bobby. Indeed you are a blessed man. Ellie, keep swimming everyday so you can be an olympian. You’ll be on the Panamanian team. 🙂
Thank you so much for the picture story of all you’ve been sharing together. Your pictures give life to the prayers of all who were among you the past couple weeks and what the Lord was doing in their hearts and those dear people receiving. Sas your labor of love in the kitchen continues to be a calling and obvious gift! You know how to make the simplest foods MOST tasty and gourmet! Oh, how I love the pics, tears freely stream down my face as I sit at the office in brief glimpse at you in your Panamanian world. Warms my heart to see Ellie & Bella in your living out the Christmas Story tradition, Panamanian tropical style! 🙂 Ethan’s going to take off in a boat on his own one of these days, just like Camille did on the tractor when she learned to start the engine! 🙂 Praying with you for clear voice, direction, details and protection in all the irons in the fire! Love you guys … Abrazos y besitos! 🙂
Jess says Hi and she misses you!
Thanks for all the pictures and updates. I ‘am praying.
Well, so sorry I’m just now seeing this. The pictures are wonderful. The ones of the bat are quite frightening. You guys are very brave! I love the one of Ethan and the cheese…too funny! It looks like a constant party there, even though I’m sure it’s not, but it’s nice to see that you guys get to have a lot of fun with great people. Shirlene, you make beautiful desserts and it looks like you bless many people with your gift. Bobby, you look like you’re getting younger! You guys have your work cut out for you there, but I know God is using you in mighty ways and he will continue to lead you and guide you. Many prayers sent your way! Hugs~