Good days

VBS week

Some of the boys

Us, girls working on our life of Jesus Books

Emily with girls

Emily teaching

Here are some pictures back from the VBS we had last week.

May has come. In 21 days I hop on the plane for Haiti. People ask me if I'm ready my reply is "I'll be ready in 21 days". These past few weeks have been very fruitful and busy.

A couple weeks ago, I did an intensive study on "The Pilgrim's Progress" written by John Bunyan. "The Pilgrim's Progress" is an phenomenal analogy of the Christian life ... I found it extremely well written. (Maybe that's why it has become an Christian classic :) Aaron's father lead me in that study.

The next week was followed by Vacation Bible School. The kids were on Spring break. VBS was six hours each day. Good times. Aaron and Jumar would take the boys to a park in the mornings. Emily and I had the girls here at the house. We would progressively watch part of the Jesus film and then work on our "Life of Jesus" book. The girls seemed to get into the film even though it wasn't action packed. Different people brought lunch each day. In the afternoons, we had the girls and boys together. The first two days it was rainy. That means we had all of them in the house. To say the least, it got a bit hectic. Day three, the sun decided to show it's face. That day we had lunch park and spent the afternoon there. The theme in the afternoons was - We are more than conquerors.

It is emotionally exhausting thinking about the future of all those kids. The future of these kids are bleak without God. I want to make the kids choose the decisions which lead to life. All we can do is live out the truth, pray for them, teach God's ways, and trust God to do the rest. I am encouraged by these lyrics ..."Our God is mighty to save ... Savior He can move the mountains, our God is mighty to save He is mighty to save forever, author of salvation He rose and conquered the grave Jesus conquered the grave..." I thought if God can move mountains and conquer the grave. He can save these kids too. Jesus can show them another way to live...

Last weekend, Emily and I went down to see our family's. It was a wonderful visit. I cried when I arrived and when I left. One of my favorite parts of the trip was our Sunday afternoon hike at Colum Branch. At Colum Branch, we walk up a creek a little ways then through fields and woods. At one point we were at a little pond with teams of salamanders. Some of the little ones decided play in the mud. It was just relaxing. At one piont I asked, "Emily, what do you hear?" She listen for a long time and said, "No traffic, just running water and birds" Anywhere here you can hear traffic ... Sveta has pictures on her blog.