Monday, June 25, 2012

Kings Kids

We had our first team of the summer from June 13-23 and they were awesome!  We always love having teams at our base and this one was no different.  Mario and I have noticed how teams seem to bring us life and we definitely needed an injection of life!

The team was a group of youth called Kings Kids.  Kings Kids is a program that Youth With a Mission does and there are many different groups all over the world.  This group came to us from St. Croix.  I was asking so many questions when they first got to Guatemala, trying to get my head around the idea of how a U.S. territory works (I am still not sure I completely understand and think that a trip to see for myself might be in order).  They brought dramas and dances with them- some of them new to us- which was really fun for me to watch.  I was reminded how much I love dramas AND dances AND watching youth perform.  They performed on busy street corners, in parks in the rain, in a very dangerous part of Guatemala, in churches and in schools. 

For Mario and me they were more than just another team for a few reasons.  First of all, there was a boy who is 17 who we both really took to right away.  He reminded me so much of my littlest brother in size and he also reminded Mario of himself when he was a teen. We ended up "adopting" him as our son and were able to encourage him and speak into his life.  We also got to be injected with life, as I said before, but it was something more for both of us.  Neither Mario or I have ever really heard much about Kings Kids except that it is a YWAM program, but after working with this group we realized that the program has a lot of things that we want to have in our future ministry in Livingston.  The more we talked about it and spent time with them, the more we got excited.   We are still praying about the how and when, but we are sure that God has plans for the children and youth of Livingston and we would love it if Kings Kids could play a part in those plans. 

 Finally I will leave you with some pictures of our time together...

Some of the group doing one of their dances

Friends from zone 3

They did a program on a busy street corner with the help of a local youth group.  It was AWESOME!!!

Praying for Guatemala in Central Park
Thanks for reading!!!

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Hawaii

Last weekend we got a wonderful invitation from some of our very good friends- actually they are more like our Guatemalan Parents.  They were going to go to Hawaii with their family and invited us along.  Okay, so before you start to wonder, we really did go to Hawaii but not the Hawaii you are thinking of... we went to Hawaii, Guatemala!  Bet you didn't even know it existed!!!

We were there Saturday and Sunday and we relaxed, swam, hung out, slept in the hammocks, and swam some more.  It was just what both Mario and I needed! 

The water was warm- just like bathwater!

The waves were pretty big and the undertow was HUGE so we didn't get in too deep                                                                                                                                  

Mario getting some much needed rest

The girls

Our Guatemalan Family, the Coloms

The group