I thought that we should retrace our steps a bit and recap the last  several months.   Per usual, it's been a very full and wonderful season.

In September, we had an awesome group that visited us from Emmanuel  Christian Center in Minnesota.  They worked really hard, but knew how to play hard too.  They built an aqauponics system (to grow fish and vegetables  together),  helped us finish our community kitchen, and  brought some fun crafts  to do with the kids.   We really enjoyed  our time with these guys!

The holidays were a special time here.   We utilized our fantastic new kitchen facilities to make the traditional Christmas fare: tamales.   It was an incredible feast!   And of course, the kids  were pretty excited about their presents too.   (Thanks to all the sponsors who sent a little something extra for their kids!)

Thanks to our  donors, our Christmas Gift Catalog was a success!     With the gifts given we're now purchasing 4 more dairy cows and we're able to continue teaching English and computers for our village school.   Others helped us  towards the purchase of our solar project and our bus.   

So far this year we've  prepared to homeschool our kids on-site (that's for another post) and we've installed our solar electric system.   We just received the final components for the solar project and  as soon as they're installed, we'll be ready to flip the on-switch.    This is such a HUGE step for our long-term sustainability!

In our years in Honduras, this is how  we've  moved a crowd:

While riding in the back of at truck is a great way to view the mountain scenery here, it's also a great way to get covered in dust or soaked to the bone, depending on the weather.   It's also not the safest mode of transportation, especially for young kids.   And we move kids around here:

We currently have 25 kids and teens that live on our property.   On Friday nights for our Youth Group we'll have 60 young people try to squeeze into the trucks like you can see above, and that's just from one village!

It's time to buy our bus!   Yesterday Jason and our  two house-dads, Wil and Oscar, traveled to view  a  bus.   They feel that it's perfect for our needs.   The size is right , the price is right,  and it's in great condition.   We're excited!   This has been a long time coming.

We feel overwhelmingly  blessed.   Thanks to some generous donors, we raised over $3000 for the bus in one day!   Now we can purchase the bus outright and do the little tweaks it needs to  work just right for us.

We want to say thanks to  those who passed along the message about our goal and an even bigger thanks for those who gave.    Thanks for believing in our work!