Good Morning!

Good morning everyone! We hope you are having a blessed Saturday! Sorry it's been a little while since we blogged! Life gets so crazy and busy it can be hard to find free time to sit and write! The Christmas spirit continues to grow here in Jamaica! Right at this moment I am listening to the song "The First Noel" and what a wonderful picture of what Christmas is all about! It's really humbling to realize we have a God who sent his only son to live with man on earth and to die for our sins. That is a crazy love. What an amazing God we have!  Everyone at school is antsy and anticipating Christmas break which is in one week! The teachers are preparing their classes for the Christmas program by practicing songs and poems to share. We are looking forward to the Christmas program! We are having a dinner, a small program put on by the teachers and children and giving of gifts! Hopefully all the parents will come so we can meet them!
So what's been going on with life here?
We celebrated Thanksgiving with some vegetable stir fry over Ramon Noodles! It was a very chill night and the first thanksgiving we spent alone. We definitely missed celebrating with family and friends but we were thankful for a night to spend together! We experienced our first Jamaican birthday party! It was awesome! Our good friend Anik hosted the party at her home for her son Brendon. They had a D.J., lots of food and lots of people. We got our first taste of Manish water. Manish water is soup made from the head, stomach and gut of the goat. I know the thought of that might make you cringe but we loved it! We had a wonderful time just hanging out, chatting and meeting some new people from our community! We both agreed that it was one of the most fun birthday parties we have been to! We loved that it was so simple and just a good time of fellowshipping with friends.
Teaching brings on new challenges each day but is still getting better and better for me. I am definitely getting better at planning which is a skill I don't have! In art class we have been making paper mache Christmas ornaments by using balloons. Although its very messy so far it's been going well and the children have been enjoying it. I feel like I have really been growing in my love for teaching. It definitely has it's ups and downs and some days I really struggle with feeling incapable, but God is really strengthening me each day. I really am falling in love with the three young girls I am working with, Cavel, Quacian and Brittany. They are so fun and challenging. I have to think outside the box to plan activities for them which is good for me! It's been a lot of trial and error to find what they need and what works for them but I am really enjoying planning different activities for them. We have been working on writing letters, learning/recognizing letters, learning sign, counting, recognizing numbers/quantities and colors. It is definitely a lot of work and some weeks are better than others but I love being able to spend time with them and seeing how they are growing.
Caleb has a big project starting Monday that he will be overseeing. They will be building new bathrooms for the dorms that they rent out to camps during the summer. Caleb has been taking care of the livestock here and just got 45 chicks for the school to grow and be butchered. Caleb has been getting a lot of experience in butchering which he says is good and is thankful for having help when they butcher 45 birds at a time. One new experience Caleb had this week was trimming our trees with a machete. It was hard work and his arms were sore from swinging the machete! The trees look great though! They remind me of the tress from Dr.Suess's book the Lorax. He is always working hard on anything that needs to get done. He really does a great job!
Youth group has been going well for us. Attendance has been very low though. This past week we only had two kids come, Tre and Dwayne but it was a wonderful time of reading the word, praying and hanging out with one another. We are studying Matthew and it's been really great for me and Caleb to be working together. I feel like our relationship with God has been growing and challenged by leading the youth group here.  We had a bonfire and enjoyed some smores that reminded us of home!
We thank you all so much for your continual prayers, support and love! We love you all so much!
We ask that you would pray for our community here and that God will continue working in amazing ways through us and work in this community. Please pray for all those fighting the chikungunya. Chickungunya is spreading rapidly here in our community. Caleb and I are thanking God that we have not gotten it and feel he is protecting us but it is a very painful if you get it. Thank you all so much and have a blessed day!

Soup night! The kids joined us!

Looking for bees to spray!

This is "Puttss"

Playing some Rummikub with Tre and Colleen.

Caleb using the Pyro to kill all the bees!

Thank you so much everyone for the goodies!

CRANBERRY SAUCE!

Goodies from home!

Interesting public urinal.......

I love these kids!

Brenton and Patty!

HUGE toads we found!

We got a free puppy from Junction! We names her Patty because we got her in front of Juice's Patties! She is a ball full of energy but a wonderful addition to our family!

The Lorax Tree!