Still kicking

Nope, I didn't die.  Two months of teams followed by trips to Colombia and the USA combined with my lazy blogging style might have made it look that way though!

First, my super awesome summer staff arrived...

Me, Morgan, Nick, Allie, and Hannah

These guys got ridiculously few hours of sleep and worked crazy long hours beside the teams.  They got up before everyone to help me plan the day, were the last in bed to help the boys with homework and make sure all the lights were out, hand mixed more cement than we ever want to measure, helped dig over 100 holes (thanks for the fruit trees and new garden area!), made fools of themselves at children's evangelism, lost voices, gained parasites, were last in all the meal lines even though they knew the french fry plate would be empty by the time they got there, loved and counseled friends and strangers on the teams, and were my family.  Allie and Nick are actually on staff with CIN, so they had numerous other projects too!

Then our first team arrived...

June Open Team

This team was a wonderful mix of friends from my Florida church (www.fbcrpb.com), families of CIN staff, faithful sponsors of the boys, and more.  They worked HARD, LOVED my boys, and took JESUS to the children in Cochabamba slums.  It makes me so happy when a team can blend right in and feel like the boys' family, and this group definitely did that.

Then the Colombians arrived...

El Pacto partner church team from Bogota, Colombia

I have to admit, this team had me terrified.  Our first all Spanish speaking group.  I'd never done orientation in Spanish and since I had never been to Colombia, I wasn't sure what cultural differences to explain.  And they talk super fast.  Turns out, they were INCREDIBLE!!  Lifelong friendships definitely created.  And all those mad Spanish skills just meant they could do so much more...like preaching at church.  During this team is when I found out that I would be making my own trip to Colombia and would see them all again very soon!

And then another team arrived...

Life Fellowship Church shaking their tails with me at Sidewalk

A wonderful woman who has come to Bolivia since our first year with her church has recently joined a new church...so she brought them down with her (thanks Julie)!  Lots of new faces, but all ones I hope to see very frequently in the future.  And I already know one who will be back for our anniversary celebration in October (8 years, baby!).  This team also brought enough extra cash with them to buy new shoes for all of the boys.  While they were here, they helped take half of the boys to the market so that they could pick out exactly what they wanted (time restraints sent the rest of the boys the next week with me and the staff).  Huge blessing!

All too soon, the final team arrived...

July Open Team

I loved this team!  Small, but powerful.  Made up of Morgan (my summer staff)'s family and friend, some awesome long time friends from my church, Julie Apple who I've known since college and her mom, Kristen Larson who has known the boys since they were in diapers (literally) and her dad, and a kinda random guy who very quickly made it clear that he is called to children's ministry by the speed at which he won the boys' undying love.  I really didn't want these folks to leave.

And then my summer staff left too...

Me, Morgan, Nick, Allie, and Hannah

Not real happy that they all left me, but survived since I was on my way to the USA too :)  More on my travels in the next post!