New Year, New Look

Well as you may notice, I've updated my blog. A new year called for a few new changes.

I've put up some great new pics (only two for now) from the amazing John Hillin. He was here shooting a promotional video that's going to be premiered this March, so check out his other stuff in the meantime.

Also I've added a few new pages you can see at the top. All the informational stuff, such as About, My Story, How to Help, Donate, etc.

My personal favorite, because pictures truly do say volumes more than I could possibly write on here, is my gallery page. This has a personal link to my photobucket account where you can browse 1000s of photos from my time here in Honduras.

So in honor of a new blog and new year, I am hoping to do a better job about blogging. It will be difficult during our busiest season (March-August), but its one of my new year's resolutions to be better.

And lastly - please take a look that you can SUBSCRIBE to my updates. PLEASE DO THIS. This avoids me emailing you a big chain email just to say, "Hey... what's up? I updated my blog. Alright, cya".

So please take a gander to the left side of the blog on the home page, enter your e-mail, and click "subscribe"! It's that easy, and I would really appreciate it!

For today, this is all. Thank you all for your sweet words of encouragement. It helps drive me everyday to remember why I'm doing what I'm doing!

Christmas, New Years, and Everything Else

Well apologies for my absence, but as the holiday season is for everyone, its been an extremely busy few months both at JEC and in my life!

Starting a two weeks ago, we had the blessing of sharing a sweet moment from the local bilingual school, Alison Bixby. They have been so supportive and patient to our 6 boys we have enrolled there, and we cannot be more grateful for their time and hearts for Jovenes.

For the past several years the faculty gives out one or two names a piece to each student at the Alison, and they in turn bring a gift for the assigned boy at JEC. Usually the boys at JEC only get one magi box to open for Christmas, and this has been an extra special day (when they come to turn in the gifts) for us at JEC. The boys sit and wait as a teacher or student from ABSS calls our their name, and then all 56 open their presents at the same time.

Thank you so much everyone from ABSS. We are so grateful for your constant help and love for JEC.

We received Christmas blessing #2 one day last week when a group of first year medical students from VCOMM showed up in a big, yellow bus with endless gifts and Christmas fun. They shared the first part of the day splitting up in groups, teaching boys about healthy habits, and giving check ups. After providing lunch for all our employees and boys, we broke pinatas, had a water balloon fight, and passed out a Christmas gift to each boy. Every single boy received a backpack filled with special treats such as a watch, a soccer ball, and school supplies for the 2013 school year.

The smiles on the boys faces at the end of that day were just too priceless. To say they were spoiled would be an understatement. We are so grateful for all of those who bless our boys at Christmas time.

The rest of the activities included an employee Christmas dinner, the Alison Bixby Christmas program, and a fun game of secret santa between the staff.

Another blessing was a kindergarten service project from St. Paul Christian School in Nashville. The kindergarten children had all collected items from flip flops, toothbrushes, school supplies, and books to send down to give the boys another present to open on Christmas Eve (tradition in Honduras). It has been a blessing putting these bags together and seeing the anticipation in the boys eyes as we placed them under the Christmas trees in each house. Its a special treat to have more than 1 present to open this year, and we are so grateful to all the kids and parents who helped participate in this special project.

Last but not least, my friend, Marcos, is finally almost able to move into his new house. The final touches are being added, and I had the joy of running Christmas errands this past week with him to buy a new bed for each of his two kids and other fun outings. God is so good, and He has shown His unending love for His faithful servant, Marcos.

Thank you, everyone, for all for your support this year. I can't thank you all enough for your kind words, donations to the boys, and prayers. I was lucky enough to spend Christmas and New Years with my family, and now I'm back at Jovenes working and back in the swing of things. This week we are working on filming a promotional video for JEC, so look forward to that in the spring!

Please pray for me as I start 2013 back in Honduras and seeing what the year holds for me here.