Summer Teams Summary

How is it that time passes so quickly between blogposts?? Ah, well, anyway, just wanted to give a quick summary of what went on with our teams this summer. We hosted 5 outreaches from the end of May to the beginning of August. We had teams from PA, CA, WA, and VA, plus a few scattered individuals. We had 8 interns that also spanned the globe, including 2 from Nicaragua. Our teams worked hard this year doing several things. Some of the students worked at our new Photography Studio in La Capri, readying it for Dustin Woida to begin teaching classes. Some helped launch the Wood Shop in Los Guido with Jeremy Janzen and worked alongside youth from the community to do simple wood projects. Others supported Krysta Williams at the Tutoring Center with her ongoing tutoring and mentoring of kids from Los Guido. And still others worked with Cailah Pritchard in Las Fuentes doing a myriad of activities in the community including tutoring/games, sports, aerobics for women, and baking for and visiting elderly ladies in the area. It was a busy few months, and we were all thankful to have interns to help with some of the logistics of transportation, translating, and being a bridge for our sites between the community and students. Jeff spent a lot of time running around and making sure things ran smoothly, arranged for logistics, tried to maintain all the office and paperwork that didn't magically disappear like we were hoping :), and even led a construction project at the church where the tutoring center is (they remodeled 2 bathrooms--good thing he helped Uncle Ken do ours in CA a few years ago!). I held down the fort and played hostess to all of our teams during orientation, cultural activities, and when our staff brought their groups over to work on various projects here at the house/office.

Our kids, incidentally, LOVE having teams here, and try to be as involved as possible (read: they made LOTS of new friends. :)) They loved being able to go to the beach a couple of times with teams, to fly kites at Parque la Paz, and have the teams at our house to hang out. We keep telling them that the teams don't come just to play with them. . . I don't know if they believe us, but at least the students serve as good role models for Olivia and Sawyer! And this is important when you have a daughter who is 6 going on 14!

Anyway, our prayers for our teams (students, adults, leaders) are that God would continue the good work he has begun in them (whether before or during their time here). That they will see the world with bigger, more God-like eyes, and that they will allow God to transform them more into the image of Christ and discover more about the true calling he has placed on their lives--to love and follow him, and to serve others in whatever area of life or vocation they may be in (or end up in someday). We pray that they will not wrap their time in CR up in a little box and keep it separate from everything else they do. We pray that it permeates all their families, churches, high schools, universities and job sites--and that they realize they have the same calling in their everyday lives as they did while they were here with us.