Sunday Update

We had a great day at church this morning!   The morning started with a "fellowship" time in the Ladies class.  35 ladies attended this morning.  This is the first time that ladies from the class took on the responsibility for the refreshments.  It was such a blessing to me to not have to plan it and make sure everything was there!  

We had 151 in church.  One of our missionaries, David Proaño, preached and did an awesome job! The gospel message was presented so simply and so clear.  It was great to have David and Monica along with their family in our services this morning.  2 dear ladies accepted Christ as their Savior this morning.  What a blessing it was to see the Lord melt their hearts.  

This Saturday evening we are planning an outreach again in Jaramijo.  We will be working with the Proaños. Looking forward to what God will do there.  Then next Sunday, David and Monica will be leading our Children's Church time.

Thanks for your prayers for the ministry here.   It is so exciting to see God at work in the hearts and lives of people.

Blessings to you!
Joy

Back to School!

There is always something exciting about new beginnings!  The start of a new school year is no different.  It is a clean slate, a blank book, waiting for the pages to be filled.

I have spent a lot of time making plans, sorting, organizing and purging our school stuff.  The fact is I'm a "pack rat" by nature, and the last couple  years I've come to realize that we definitely needed to clean out and just get rid of stuff.  You know those things that you've saved because you are just sure some day you might need them.  I've decided that if that day ever comes, we will just have to get new ones, or do without!

This year, Teddy Boy will be working through Sonlight's Core F.  We have decided to spread it out over 2 years, so for his 5th and 6th grade years he will be focusing on the Eastern Hemisphere.  I'm really excited about this, as it is an area that I know very little about.  I love Sonlight.  All the way through, from Kindergarten on, they have exposed us to more History and Geography than I ever learned about in school.   At this point, Teddy has spent 2 years studying World History, 2 years on US History, and now we will spend 2 years studying about the other side of the world!

Carla is starting 2nd grade this year and Matthew 1st.  We will be working through Sonlight's Core B, which is the first year of World History.  Carla will be doing more advanced readers and Matthew will be working through the grade one Language Arts.  This is the first year, that I have actually planned to do a whole History Core with them, as I feel that they have finally mastered English well enough to understand the books we will be reading.

Today, we started with just some fun activities.  Tomorrow we will start into a full day.  Here are some pictures of our first day, and our "new" school area.

Blessings to you!  Thank you for your prayers for our family!
Joy

First Day of School at Living Hope Academy, Manta, Ecuador!

Carla at her desk

Carla and her "work folders"

My desk, and our Listening Center and Computer area

Kids working at our "work table in the area right outside Teddy and Carla's rooms

showing off their "Welcome to School" bags.

This is our "Look What We Did this Week!" board.

Matthew at his desk in his room.

We are ready to get this year started!

Teddy Boy at his new desk.

Teddy's room

Our "Work Table".  The map on the wall is for Carla and Matthew to mark places we learn about this year.

This is our new "Writer's Corner" and Center Table

Breakfast!  Tony made us, biscuits, bacon and eggs!! YUM!

5th grade, 1st grade and 2nd grade!  Let's GO!!

Our new white board! You can see into Matthew's room on the left.  That's our "hammock chair" hanging over the white board.  The kids really enjoy it, so I didn't want to take it down, but I pull it up out of the way during school time. :-)

Other side of the "TV Room"  Looking down into Teddy's room.