Christmas Service

We're so busy lately that this post is coming a week late! It'll be a photo dump with captions.  :)

We got a Christmas tree! It's a sad little table top deal with a few ornaments but it will do. We're getting into the Christmas spirit....even though it's still 90 degrees out!

I think even Charlie Brown laughed at this little guy!

Last weekend some of the neighbors set up a little hand crafts sale at our neighborhood clubhouse. Some ladies were selling jewelry and crafts etc. Audrey didn't want to be left out so she set up her own shop in front of the pool. Those are boats made from disposable plastic plates and cups. At first she was selling them for $10!! Then she crossed out the 0 and dropped the price to $1. No takers this time but she didn't get discouraged! 

Out at the pool the kids found these leaves with tiny star shaped insect eggs on the back. I thought they were really pretty!

A couple of the higher ups from Mitchell's company came down to visit us in the 'deep south' for a Christmas party! It was especially exciting this year because the company just finished building a new office a week before! The Nicaragua office has grown and is ready to grow some more! We had a nice dinner party in the lobby of the new office. 

On Saturday we got to participate in the neatest service project! The current CTO at Mitchell's company (Mitchell's boss) was the one who originally opened the Nicaragua office. He and his family lived here for about a year while they got it running. In that time they met a wonderful man, named Dean, who runs a ministry in Managua out of his home. Dean runs a preschool out of his home 6 days a week in the mornings. Between 30-60 children from out of town rural towns walk as many as 2-3 miles to attend preschool each day. At 8:00am he feeds the children breakfast and they walk home again at noon. 

At noon Dean and his wife load up several buckets of food (oatmeal, rice and beans, cornmeal mush etc) and go to the dump. There at the dump live quite a few families in shanties and they scavenge for food and recyclables to survive. Dean brings one meal a day, seven days a week to them. He says there are 100 children that he regularly feeds there. He is an incredible man doing some truly Christlike service. We very much enjoyed meeting him and hearing about his ministry.

Over the last year Mitchell's boss and his wife collected donated toys, school supplies and hygiene items to put together Christmas bags for Dean's kids. We were able to help with assembling 210 bags filled with school supplies, stickers, crayons, a big toy, quite a few fun trinkets and half a pound each of rice and beans. It was a wonderful experience for us as well as the kids.

Donated toys. Some were new, some were previously loved but in good condition. I am sure each child who receives a bag will be thrilled!

Coloring books!

We sorted all of the items and set up an assembly line. The adults helped man the stations and the kids took each bag-210 bags!-through the line to be filled.

It thrilled my heart to see the kids so thoughtfully and excitedly looking at the piles of fun toys and choosing the perfect toy for their girl or boy. A few times I heard shouts of "this will be perfect!" or "she will LOVE this!" 

Here is Reid posing with the final count of 105 bags for girls and 105 bags for boys! It was a very long but rewarding day.