Ending in a whirlwind

The last two weeks has been an absolute blur!  We were super blessed to have a team from our home church, First Christian Church of Covington, VA, come the last week of school.  The team was able to see the school and meet our students while doing some fun end-of-the year activities and experience graduation with us.  The day after school ended, all of us hoped on a SAM airplane and headed to the community of Mazamari in the high jungle.  Mazamari is the home of the Ashaninka Bible Institute, a center that holds bible classes and other training programs for the Ashaninka people. Well, I say all of us boarded planes, but one of us didn't make it.  With our large team and luggage, we reached our maximum weight limit, and Mike had to race back into town to catch the next bus to Mazamari...a 22 hour bus ride while we had a nice little hour and a half flight. We have a new appreciation for SAM Air after Mike's long trek! In Mazamari, we met up with David and Rachael Powell. The Powell's are the missionary couple that hosted us our first time to Peru four years ago, and the family that introduced us to SAM Academy, starting our journey to where we are now!  We were really excited to return to Mazamari with them and continue some projects at the Institute.  Four years ago, we were building trusses for a roof.  This time around we worked a little lower, eight feet in the ground to be exact, digging trenches and columns to make room for the concrete footers that will be the foundation for a new chapel.  The FCC team did ALOT of hard, blister-inducing work and did a really great job.  We were so blessed to have them here, and to be able to soak in some time with them while letting them experience a bit of our life south of the equator. A week later, we are back in Pucallpa.  The team has returned home and we are unpacking...just to pack again for our Home Ministry Assignment.  Friday we leave for a four month furlough in the States!  Please pray for us as we travel and adjust and soak in time with loved ones and our wonderful supporters. 

Last day Camping Party: How many elementary kids can you fit in a sleeping bag?

The team brought REAL marshmallows for Smores...mmmm!

   

...And the extras we used for marshmallow shooters!

Graduation!!  Congratulations to our 8th and 12th grade graduates!

 

Somebody didn't quite make it!

Mike praying over the graduates.

 
 Off to Mazamari we go...

Our wonderful SAM pilots making sure our weather going over the mountains is good.

Our awesome team from FCC

Here we go!!

My wonderful pilot friend Joy

 On the ground...Time to work!!

Look who finally showed up!

Our project site: the chapel is being expanded and built again from the ground up.  We were digging the trenches and columns you see at each corner. 

This is the house we stayed in this time but worked on four years ago.  Isn't that a pretty roof?

Liam met up with a friend from four years ago...and was able to talk to him this time!!

 

Yep...we dug out all that dirt...and shoveled it back in too!

Lots of concrete and sore muscles for our guys!

Our girls spruced up the place with paint in several rooms and on the new ceilings.

Ella with friends from before

Finally!  Walls going up!

So thankful for our wonderful friends!

The knee bone's connected to the...

Our last couple weeks of school, we went a different direction in science and studied the human body...all things cool and icky.

We checked out how bones give our body structure:

We looked at some real human and animal bones:

And labeled our own bones:

We picked our brains a little:

And followed the path of blood through the body while checking out the components of blood:

 

Besides flexing our muscles and taking a deep breath with our lungs, we also simulated how food passes through the digestive system.  You can tell from their faces how much they enjoyed that one!

Crenshaw

Our fourth grade has been reading the book "Crenshaw" by Katherine Applegate.  In the book, the main character Jackson is dealing with some crazy big issues in his life as his family faces the prospect of living in their car, again.  In the meantime, Jackson's imaginary friend-- a large, surfing, jelly-bean-loving, talking cat-- has reappeared.  Jackson's not happy about this.  He's about to enter the fifth grade and has enough to deal with.  So how does he get his feline friend to go away?  And how is he going to handle the problems his family is having?

We absolutely loved this book!  It was serious with just the right amount of humor to balance it out while delving into some deep issues.  We kept a Reader Response Journal that led to some GREAT writing, and then culminated the unit with a Baggie Quilt Project where we displayed important themes, events and character traits from the book.