Tuesday - Family Pictures, Bibles, and FUN!

During last year's visit to La Bendicion, Edwin, the village board president expressed a desire to have his own bible.  What a joy it was to see his hope fulfilled this year!  This was made possible by a young couple from New Community Church, who is getting married this spring.  They donated the funds for us to purchase the bibles that we gave to the families today. 

 We bundled a Spanish bible (for adults) together with a Spanish version of the Jesus Storybook Bible (for the kids/students) for each family.  

Aron was able to talk to each family, shake the hand of the parents and present them with their bibles.  

In the room where the crafts were happening (more on that below), there was a man who immediately sat down and began to read his bible.  He sat and read for a long time while all the activities buzzed around him.  Watching him read intently was a beautiful affirmation to the gift that God's word is to all of us, and one more thing that we can sometimes take for granted back home.

 The craft today was a picture of each family.  All the family members gathered together to get their picture taken by Jenn Martino.

The families then took their picture into one of the school rooms to attach them to a foam sheet and decorate them with stickers.

 It was beautiful to see each family working on this craft together as a family.

They took great pride in making this craft in order to have a special picture of the their family together.

The families loved showing off their end product to us and to each other! 

Agros also brought in a blowup bouncy "house" into La Bendicion today. 

It was a HUGE hit, and the kids (and some adults) lined up to take their turn!

Even girls in beautiful dresses didn't let their attire stop them from jumping right into the action.

These kids were so excited by this large blowup, that they congregated together in sections, rather than moving through it, and bounced around each other laughing together.

Do you know the "Where's Waldo" books?  Check out this picture and see if you can find Aron.  I'm sure those who know him are not surprised to see that he joined right in with the kids!

The joyful faces of the kids coming out of the blowup was priceless!

 Enjoy some beautiful pictures of our team together with the kids of La Bendicion.  

Don't be surprised if the kids from Nicaragua are not smiling.  It is a tradition down here when a camera goes to take a picture, that they look serious and they do not smile at all!  The smile actually comes just after the picture is taken!

Finally, as we went to leave for the day, we looked over and saw a group of adults looking through their bibles.  When we went to take a picture of them, they held their bibles up as a sign of thanks.  Thanks be to God who blessed this mighty day, and may His Word bring life to these people.

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."  2 Timothy 3:16-17