It's a beautiful day at Emmanuel

It has been beautiful day here at Emmanuel and all of the projects for the day are complete!  The morning began early at 6am with devotion circle time at the children's houses where each team used a fun fish puppet "El Pez" to tell the Creation Story to the kids in English and Spanish.  The kids loved "El Pez" and enjoyed eating the marshmallow pretzel animals and people they "created" as well! After our circle time with the kids they had to get ready for their school day to begin.

The mission teams worked all throughout the grounds here at Emmanuel assisting in various projects today.  The irrigation project is off to a really great start - all the digging was actually completed this morning for the irrigation lines (which I have been informed is ahead of schedule) and the PVC pipe has been laid in the ground today and is ready for testing tomorrow and cover up.  There will be some sprinkler heads added tomorrow to the irrigation lines and phase II of the irrigation project will begin. There were over 20 volunteers digging today with pick axes and shovels working together to get the irrigation lines in the ground - it was quite a sight to see early this morning with everyone out there working together!  Team work at its finest.

The baking of the cookies for 500 kids has become a project itself too; as of right now the gas for the big ovens is not working.  Hopefully that will change, but in case it does not, the cookie team is ready to improvise and bake in a small oven for over 1000 cookies.  I keep hearing everyone say to be "like water" when in Honduras and go with the flow - yes, 1000 + cookies, 1 small oven, 500 kids and a missionary team that is determined to make sure these wonderful kids get these cookies one way or another.  The cookie dough has been made and the 1st batch of cookies has been rolled and is ready to be baked - it would be great to have the big ovens but it will work out one way or another!

There have been so many beautiful things taking place today across Emmanuel - some of my favorites were the 200 brand new shoes that were donated and brought by the Unterreiner's family and handed out to the kids today that really needed new shoes. These new shoes will go a long way here and are really appreciated by the kids.  The little kids, aka the "power toddlers", loved watching the shadow puppet play and they really were excited during the showing of Jonah and the Whale - the little boys were all squealing when Jonah was in the belly of the whale and they loved the shadow puppets!  It was truely a wonderful experience to get to sit in the audience with a pile of little kids on our laps and watch the the play as well.  

The farm was a treat for some of the mission group teens today - after working on the irrigation lines and completing their project work they went up to the farm to help out some of the older Emmanuel boys with their daily work.  They helped out with milking the cows and then made the rounds visiting the rest of the farm animals.  

This evening we had the Emmanuel staff join us for dinner and enjoyed time with their families as well. Today has been a beautiful day and I cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring.