Sometimes God has Different Plans...

I mentioned in my last newsletter that the future of the PT site was a little uncertain as Dan, the site leader, had decided to go back to the States.  Since Cristian is not a certified Physical Therapist yet, he would not be able to stay working in the clinic alone unless there was another PT there to supervise him.  SI has been looking for someone to take Dan's place but had not been able to find anyone.  So, unfortunately, at the end of the summer the PT clinic will be closed and Cristian will be out of a job.  This came as a bit of a shock for us as we thought there were some contingency plans in place for Cristian to continue working for SI even if the clinic was closed.  But like I said in the title, sometimes God has different plans.

After some thought and prayer, we now see that this change may really be a blessing in disguise.  If Cristian is out of work for a while, that will give him the opportunity to work full time on our house construction.  Also, he has already been in contact with another PT clinic here in town and they are hiring, so we are not really worried about him getting another job.  Although we are sad that he will no longer be working for SI after almost 10 years of working for them, we know that God is not going to leave us high and dry.  We trust Him during this change and know that even if we struggle financially for a while, He has us in His hands.

Please pray for us during this time.  Pray that we may learn to trust God more fully and not worry about finances.  Pray also that if need be, God would provide us with more financial supporters to be able to make up for the deficit of Cristian not having a job.  Pray also that God would provide a new job for Cristian when the timing is right.

Thank you for your prayers and support.  We really appreciate it!

Girls group and English class

The women's group in Mata Gorda has been going great, with attendance becoming more consistent.  There have been several teenagers and younger girls who have been wanting to participate so we have had to break the group into two, Daisy staying with the women and me taking over the girls group.  We do a Bible study and then a craft, just like the women's group.  It has been going great and it is really fun to be able to connect spiritually with some of the girls who used to be at the school when they were younger.

Here we are making paper mache bowls.

Now that the public school is out on vacation we have started giving an English class in the afternoons for older kids from the community.  This picture is of them playing "Simon Says" after we learned about the parts of the body in English.

House update

In the last month and a half we have made a lot of progress on our house.  We have finished laying the block and put a solid concrete beam above the windows all around the house.

The next step was pouring the concrete roof.  First wood was placed to form the mold for the roof and then it was filled with rebar.  These pictures show the workers shoveling and spreading the concrete on top of that structure.

Now we have to wait about 2 weeks before we remove the wooden mold and the roof is done!  So exciting!  Next step: pour a concrete floor and put plaster on the walls.