Thursday, July 19th, 2007

Hola la genta en ustados unidios!
 
  Wow day 5! In the morning we were split up into 4 groups and 3 went and did trash clean up and one group stayed and cleaned up at Parales I was in the group that stayed at the school, and my group emptied out 2 classrooms full of about 24 desks and so many chairs, then we painted them all a brownish red color. We also did a little cleaning up around the school, i.e.- sweeping and gardening. When back at the seminary, we ate rice (of course) and i honestly cant remember what the main course was =)...sorry. Around 2 pm, as a group we left for VBS which went on for about 2 and half hours.  The theme of VBS was Daniel and the lions den, Kudos to Molly´s group for that amazing presentation...the kids loved  the paper plate masks that they made for a craft. After VBS, we were all EXHAUSTED, but the plus side was that the sun came out!!! That made the day even better. After seeing foggy skies for a whole week, the sun made everyone a little more cherry. Dinner was INCREDIBLE! this was a meal that i do remember because it was my favorite so far. Beef stew! Potato's, beef and carrots, oh my! I give an amazing amount of praise to the kitchen crew, they treat us well. Praise and worship time was reflective and joyful, as usual. The song choice this year was amazing! Everything so far has been great! Lots of exclamation points this week.
    God has some GREAT plans in Store for these next few days.
 
Thanks for reading and come again!
 
Lauren "muerte" Schoelen <3
             ^ its an inside joke

     Another amazing day here in Lima. The team really came together yesterday and it was evident today as we were out and about doing ministry.  Had a great morning of cleaning, painting, and other tasks to serve the village that the church is in.  It is such a good thing to serve in this way as it opens doors and makes the church so visible to the community.  God will use our cleaning and trash picking up for His glory.  VBS today was good.  Our numbers were down a little (180 kids down from over 200 on Wednesday). Typically when we arrive at the school we play with the kids out in the soccer field just outside the school for about an hour.  It really draws a crowd and the chaos makes us very visible. Once we head in to the school we are behind closed doors and behind walls.  Today there were some guys at the soccer field described described by Moises as "bad boys". He was concerned for the kids....not our kids...they would not do anything to the visitors...but for the young children who were coming to VBS.  So we just started by inviting the kids into the school, so that kept the numbers a little lower...many kids stayed away because of the "bad boys". But God still brought just shy of 200 to hear the gospel, so as we often say GOD IS GOOD...ALL THE TIME.
To all the parents out there ...I have to tell you what amazing children you have.  I know you don´t always get to see it....but trust me when I say that I am privileged to be able to lead this team.  These students are learning, growing, serving...and having a blast doing it.  God is moving and it is fun to be along for the ride.  I can´t believe I really get paid to do stuff like this. AMAZING.
 
El Jefe (The Boss)
aka  Mateo
aka Mathew your friendly neighborhood Youth Pastor