Esther Banquet

For the culmination for our character study on Esther with my Friday Bible study group, we celebrated with a banquet Saturday evening. I spent most of the day cleaning, decorating, cooking, decorating, and cooking.

In the morning the girls came over to do nails.

In the evening we enjoyed a formal dinner.

 And lots of pictures.

Reading the story of Esther.

and more.

Fair Week

This past week there was an unusually high amount of activity in town because of it being fair week. Traditionally among the evangelical churches the fair week is frowned upon...I believe mostly because of all the drinking and partying that goes on every night, all night long. The fair also does provide some "clean" entertainment like rides such as the Ferris wheel, and food like french fries. The youth here at the Finca, like most youth, find the fair an attraction and despite the fact that it is against the rules to go, in the past many have sneaked out to check it out. This year though they decided to provide the kids with the opportunity to go out at a reasonable hour to walk around an check it out...but under the supervision of someone "responsible". And that person was me! I ended up taking small groups of girls out to the fair almost every night this past week. I think I rode more fair rides this year than I have altogether in the past five plus years...and spent less money too! There are only about two rides geared for anyone over the age of ten, but I went on both of those more times that I would've done had I gone by myself to the fair. Overall it was fun to get out every night and take the girls so that they could see what it was all about and hopefully satisfy their curiosity.

Popular hangout...

Last night I opened the library like normal for the kids to read and play games. Before I realized what had happened I had over 30 kids in the library! So I locked the door, and had to say to various kids that it was full and I was no longer letting more kids enter.

Looks like its naptime...

As I was walking to my house this afternoon I had to step around this little kid who seems to be enjoying an afternoon nap. Being a kid can be tiring sometimes I guess...

Pupusas and craziness

Friday afternoon I took "my girls" out for pupusas and natural fruit drinks for something special. The "meal" was pretty calm...but afterwards I took them to the town park (in the center of town)....I'm not sure what I was thinking--or wasn't thinking-- taking 18 girls to the park with only one older girl to help me keep order! There was alot of screaming and running around. It was fun though.

Waiting for the food

Enjoying pupusas!

In the park

Food

I was thinking this evening about how so much ministry and relationship building revolves around food....well at least in my life here at the Finca. This morning Mirian and I spent over an hour together preparing enchiladas for lunch, this evening my Friday night group made soft pretzels. Last week I took a small group of younger girls out to eat for lunch for something special (something they rarely get to do), two nights last week I made hot dogs for the older girls' groups for an evening snack--something special that they enjoyed very much. This weekend I hope to take a group of kids out for ice cream for their birthdays.

Lunch (Enchiladas Honduran style--fried corn tortilla, ground beef with cubed potatoes and carrots, shredded cabbage w/lemon juice, a slice of tomato, ketchup, and shredded cheese) Que rico!

 Making soft pretzels

How can you use food as an instrument of ministry this week? :-) Peace!

more dia del nino...

Click on this link-- Horst Family in Honduras --to see more would-be-embarrassing pictures from Dia del nino- but since I was supposed to look like a clown it's okay that they are on the blog this time, Janelle.... :-)