Hello everyone,
Hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather and have had a wonderful summer!
In the last couple months Raul and I have been able to concentrate on school activities and the youth. We are encouraged with how the older youth are being responsible in leading game time at youth. They have organized mystery night (complete with candles, and spider webs and spiders hanging from the ceiling), newspaper night (they plastered the whole church with newspaper) and kids’ games night (balloons galore).
Quite a few of these older youth have joined Raul and I when we go out to Las Jaguitas to do Sunday school for the youth and children out there. They help us with games and help keep the kids under control during lesson time. Afterwards, we like to explore a bit and always return to the city having had some sort of adventure- like swimming under a hidden waterfall with giant spiders observing us, seeing the people there kill a meter and a half long snake, and eating lots and lots of papaya. These trips are a chance not only to minister to the people in Las Jaguitas, but also to grow closer together as a leadership group. We hope and pray that these youth will also be growing closer to Jesus as they learn to serve.
We have a whole new group of adolescent youth coming to youth group this year who are SO excited to be at youth (judging by the noise level!). They are still very childish and we are struggling to make youth feel like youth instead of like a kids club, but we are encouraged by the fact that these adolescents want to be there and hope that they will continue come as they grow up.
School continues as normal with Raul in computer classes and me in sponsorship just finishing up the yearly letters to sponsors. Please be praying for our school this year as the school has been stretched financially to cover its basic monthly expenses.
Thanks again for being mindful of the ministry down here, and Lord willing, we hope be in the northern hemisphere sometime in the near future!
Jessenia and Raul
Here are some pictures to help you envision life down here. The first picture is of the group of new youth who have been coming on Saturdays (they were preparing for a drama, hence some of the strange face paintings). The rest of the pictures are of our trips to Las Jaguitas.
