Trampolines and crabs...

The Three Kings (celebrated January 6th here in Puerto Rico) brought my kids a trampoline this year.  Since then if you can't find them, most likely they are in the trampoline playing.  It has been used as a house, reading nook, jedi training arena and many many other things.  Here they are with their cousin Madelyn who is visiting for a while.

 It's been pouring outside for the last few days.  That just makes the trampoline more fun and slippery though. 

 

When the rain comes, crabs come out too.  Last night there were people with flashlights all along the road and the property in front of camp.  Sunny, our big goofy puppy, even chased a little old man back to his car.  So Jon, Julio and Fred (friends of ours) decided at midnight to go out crab catching.  They came back 45 minutes later with a bucketful of about ten big land crabs.  These crabs live in deep holes in the ground; and when their homes flood, they come crawling out.   

Logan woke me up this morning in the same crab catching mood as his daddy was the night before.  So first thing we went out and sure enough within five minutes had caught ourselves a little critter.

 

We're going to be crowded!

Camp normally has 160 beds available for people to sleep in.  This year World Changers (a group that comes every year for three weeks in the summer) will be bringing 230 people.  This has caused us to do some very creative cramming....

add on a shower room here...

put 14 extra beds here (triple decker bunks)...

We even had to construct about twenty new beds from wood to use in the lounge and chapel which are both going to be makeshift dorms.  Mealtime will be interesting as well in our dining hall that seats 150. 

World Changer Staff arrives the 1st of June with the rest of the group coming in the 6th.  Please pray that all the changes can be made by then and that we can really serve this large group in a way that is pleasing to God.  Our prayer is that they go away from CdC having felt His presence and love during there stay with us.

 

Logan learned to snorkel recently

Now he does it whenever and wherever he can.

Just a peek..

Here's a quick peek at the last few days in our home/life

Thursday

staff meeting in the morning, staff played the unichallenge games to make sure they were ready, ballet and baseball at night

Friday

graduation in the morning for campers, ballet at night, plus last minute shopping for the unchallenge

Saturday

Unichallenge all day, ballet rehearsal and show at the mall, baseball game (the last one YAY!!!)

Sunday

out of the house at 6:45 to get to church in San Juan, three services promoting camp, baby shower for friends 

Monday

Jon to the airport for a trip to Michigan (board meeting)

Tuesday

another graduation for some of our counselors, ballet

Wednesday

pick Jon up from airport, swim lessons for kiddos

¡Gracias!

Well, they just announced the winner of the fourth annual Unichallenge.  Mambo Cayllo (a small group from the San Juan area) won for the second year in a row.  Glennview, the group that has been wanting to win for 3 years, came in second again.  They lost by 1 point. 

Thank you for all of your prayers and thoughts.  We got through the day with minor scrapes and bumps on the head.  The biggest injury happened when everything was all over and a girl trip while celebrating their victory.  She ended up being fine though, just a nice shiner!  I'll put pictures up as soon as I can, so that you can see the fun.

Pray, pray , pray

Tomorrow is the Unichallenge, ane there will be around 100 people here to play crazy, high-energy games.  We always have a paramedic on hand.  Today our paramedic called and told us that he wouldn't be able to make it because he had something unexpected come up.  Although Jon has some medical experience and there will be a couple of nursing students participating, we will be without a person who has been trained in emergencies and without the equipment that our paramedic friend usually brings.  Please pray that things go smoothly and that no one gets seriously injured.

IT'S COMING!!!!

The Unichallenge numero 4 is only two days away!

 For those of you who don't know what in the world I'm talking about......Four years ago we decided we wanted to do something to bring churches together.  Here in P, churches don't mingle much.  There is not a sense of unity and camaraderie.  We think there should be.  We are all basically looking to do the same things...bring people to Jesus, help people to grow in their relationship with God, reach out to our communities.  So why can't we help each other do those things and be supportive of one another.  So with the help of some crazy college counselors, we settled on a day of extreme competition followed by  worshiping together.  The Unichallenge was born.

      

It's a day of sweat, mud, dirt, sore muscles.  A lot of fun.  So far we have six different teams of 12 people each signed up. This year a church named Glennview is looking to win.  They have been sure of victory for the past two years only to be crushed in defeat. Apparently they are taking no chances this year and have been training for the past few months. We'll let you know how their story ends!!

Getting started...

 
I have a best friend. Her name is Heidi.  We talk on average three times a year.  It's OK because she understands that while I am horrible at daily, weekly even monthly communication, I love her and think of her all the time.  She also know this about me and appreciates not having to feel guilty for being that type of person herself.  While this works well for us, it doesn't work so well for the Marshalls who are missionaries and need to keep people, friends and family aware and involved in the happenings of life here at camp. SOOOO.....we are getting started. A habit needs to be formed.