Season of Joy

Hello All! Merry Christmas from the land of the sweating sun. I pray all of you are well and enjoying the advent season.

I have receieved a few e-mails from people asking what they can send for Christmas, and with the help of my community we thought of a few things that our programs could use. Just to restate, we are not in NEED of anything, we are very blessed and fully capable of running our programs and doing our jobs with the supplies we have. One of the tennants of our mission is to live in simplicity, and therefore we are trying our best to live without the luxuries of home, in order to be in solidarity with our neighbors here. With that in mind, if you would like to send anything to the program we will welcome it with open arms and gracious hearts.

1. Vitamins- we want to start giving the children at our program vitamins, so donations of chewable tablets or flinestones would be greatly appreciatied.
2. Books - The hospital where I work is severly underfunded and there are no resources for educational materials. Andrew and I have found it to be very helpful to bring along the few children´s spanish books we have. Here are a few we don´t have that I would like to acquire:
- Cordoroy (my favorite as a child)
- Madeline
- Rosaurio en Bicicleta
Any spanish written material would be wonderul, primarily for children ages 4-9.
3. Stickers- our incentive program to reinforce positive behavior allows kids to earn stickers based on attendance and good behavior. They LOVE getting stickers, as they are a novelty here. 4. Erasers- they seem to be what we go through the fastest at the afterschool programs
5. Water paints and brushes- they can be pretty expensive here


Please continue to pray for our community here, the people we live and work with, and God´s will to be done.

**To update everyone, our beloved community member Kasia went home today due to her worsening medical condition. Please pray that she heals rapidly and that the doctors can figure out a way to restore her health. She will be very missed by everyone here.

I pray that this Christmas season we come to see the truth of what Christ´s birth did for the entire world and all of creation.

hugs and snow angels.
colie