Finally back on the internet!

We have been getting to know some pretty amazing people here!  They are so wonderful.  Two of the people that we are having the most contact with are two friends, who are our age – early 20’s – and their names are Julio and Angie.  Julio and Angie have been friends for a really long time and Julio is teaching Angie English.  It has been fun to try and work with Angie and convince her to speak to us in English.  One day, instead of her English lesson with Julio they came to the beach with us (PS it was so awesome being able to FINALLY go to the beach!  We had been here for 2 weeks and we only were able to go and look at beaches that were possibilities to taking the kids to.  We finally got to go and swim and spend some time there.  Wonderful).  While we were there Julio told us that we were only allowed to speak to Angie in English so we would have to stop her all the time and jokingly say “sorry, I don’t speak Spanish” then she would blush and say it in English.  So much fun!  It makes me feel more comfortable talking to her knowing that she is learning a new language too!  But she surprises me and I think that her English abilities are WAY better than my Spanish ones!  Haha

Julio and his mom created a wonderful non-profit organization called “Sicomoro” which is Sycamore in English.  They are trying to be like the sycamore tree in the story of Zacchaeus (LOOK UP THIS WORD!) helping people to see Jesus in their community.  They are mainly working with the kids in the community, they have Kid’s Clubs and a bunch of fun things for them to do.  They do a ton of other things too but I can’t think right now because I don’t have a lot of time lol.  But they are amazing!  They also make some sweet t-shirts to help raise support for their organization and I can’t wait to buy some.  Julio is wanting to open up a second hand store as a means of support which is SUCH a cool idea!  He has been taking small business classes for a while and has gotten a ton of ideas for that.  Second hand stores here have a really really bad reputation and they aren’t very good.  So he wants to make a good one!  I think that it will be wonderful.  God is working through them in some wonderful ways!  If you would like to pray for them I’m sure that they would love it!  Their names are Lucy and Julio.  Julio has been a great help for all of us because he has been working with us on our Spanish and has been showing us around the city a TON!

Being here has been so nice!  It is gorgeous, our host church has been very fun and helpful and it has been interesting getting used to going to church on a regular basis in a completely new culture!  I have loved getting to know Julio and Angie and all of the other people that we have gotten to know here!  It will only get better as the time goes on!