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Help wanted...blog writer needed:)
October....almost November....seriously? I have been a very poor blog updater this year.
An endless amount of big things and little things have happened in the last 5 months. Ups and downs, good times and bad, but overall we have been blessed through it all.
In June/July, Ruan and I got to visit the States for about 5 weeks. We went to Michigan camp meeting in Cedar Lake and then to the 2010 GC Session in Atlanta. Both were huge blessings and we are so glad we were able to attend. After the GC Session we went to the GMI leader retreat in Tennessee. We all joked that the only people who are tired after a "relaxing" retreat are a bunch of Type-A personalities who can't stop working even for a little bit:) That, too, was a blessing and we all experienced a renewed dedication to "finishing the work."
Back at the school Keila and Lyli held down the fort while we were gone. Lyli also dog-sat for us since Boesman stayed at the school.
In late July, the students and staff had a short mid-term break and we started up classes again at the beginning of August. With the new semester, we had some staff changes. Jason and Carrie joined our team. Jason teaches English and does the accounting, and Carrie teaches Math and Science. Jenny also joined our team. Jenny previously worked in Rurrenabaque at our sister school, but came to Guayara "just passing through." She came just as some other staff were leaving, filling a huge need. Praise God! Josh, Jose Luis, and Grace decided to go to Santa Cruz to work on the new TV station construction there.
We had a week of consecration with our staff and students in August. Since then we have been studying the topic of "True Education" weekly as a staff. Our staff is becoming more and more unified in mission and vision and we are moving forward as God opens the doors.
A couple weeks ago, we had an amazing experience in which several students (and staff, too!) rededicated their lives to Christ. Tears filled my eyes as I heard the heart-felt prayers of our dear students.
Time has marched on and we are just 3 weeks away from graduation 2010. Please keep our Seniors in your prayers as they decide where to go and what to do after graduation.
 5K - Michigan Campmeeting
 Ruan came in 2nd.
 Then he came back to find me. I always walk. He always finishes the race and then runs back through the course to come in with me :)
 Sabbath lunch at the Heslop's. We both had multiple layers on even though it was in the low 80's.  Dessert - yum:)
 Spotted the Bolivian flag at Campmeeting.
 Visiting Camp AuSable where I worked during the summer of 2000...wow, 10 years ago! That's why all of my campers are in college or working in the "real" world!  Getting ready to board the ferry to Mackinac Island.
 On board the ferry   Another ferry with the famous Mackinac Bridge in the background connecting Michigan's upper and lower peninsulas.  Fudge - gain weight just by smelling:)
 Then rent bikes to burn off that fudge. I was actually a "good" girl and spent the whole day on the island without even tasting the fudge.
 Ruan and me:)
 Self-portrait while "driving" on M-185. Bikes and horses only:)  Beautiful M-185
 Celebrating nearly 9 years!
 Sabbath at the GC session - nearly 70,000 people attended the church service in the Georgia Dome.
 Hanging out with my friends at the Weimar booth...looking forward to seeing Weimar in Bolivia in March!
  GMI missionaries
 When we got back to Bolivia, it was really cold (low 50's)!
 Before you start teasing me for being a "Michigan girl," remember that we have no where to hide from the cold when it is 50.
 Sabbath lunch - all bundled up!
 Getting ready to walk to Yata!
 Our first classroom/cafeteria/chapel/everything building. It finally came time to tear it down.
 Jenny (mini-me), me, and Nancy.
 Silly girls!
 Jenny and I wearing the same shoes.
 Jenny, Keila, me, Nancy, and Lyli.
 Up to no good :)
 Gabriel, Nancy, Ruan, me, Keila, Jenny, Lyli, and Kody.
 Students' Day - balloon toss.
 Check out the purple balloon in this picture.
 Game time
 Special meal with our Seniors - Nancy and Samuel.
 Jenny ready to get some yummy food!
 Grecia, Max, and Carla
 Kody and Alcides
 Some teachers and most of the Seniors
 Baptisms - these are 3 of our upper grade elementary students.
 Flying to Manaus on my way to Michigan for Melanie's wedding. This is a tributary to the Amazon and the shore of the Amazon.  Amazon river - absolutely huge!
 Banana market - Manaus, Brazil.
 Flying to Miami. North shore of South America.
 Beautiful clouds
Stay tuned. I will try to post some pictures of Melanie's wedding here (as soon as I get pictures!)
God Bless!
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Can May really be almost over?
So, I have been wishing to write this blog update for...well, just about as long as we have been back in Bolivia. Most of you probably assumed that we have fallen off the edge of Planet Earth. Fear not, we are still faithfully occupying our little corner of the jungle here in Bolivia. We are just managing to keep busy as usual. Ruan is continuing as the director of the mission project here. He is also teaching Junior and Senior History/Geography/Civics. I am still educational director of the school (i.e. - principal). I am teaching Freshman - Senior math classes, as well as mixed choir and mens' choir. I'm doing the school's accounting while patiently waiting for a real accountant to come:) I am also happy to mention that my administrative assistant, Yaneth, arrived last week, so I will have some help in the office.
We have welcomed a few new staff members this year. Josh, a mission pilot in training, has joined us this year from the U.S. to teach English. He is also giving violin lessons to some of our students. Salim has joined us from Puerto Rico to teach Language Arts and to make life, in general, a touch more entertaining:) Nancy has joined our team from Colombia. She is teaching primary grades 3-4 and has been helping me with the school paperwork . Jose Luis and Grace have joined us from Ecuador. Jose Luis is teaching Physics, Chemistry, and Health. Grace is teaching primary grades 1-2. Jerry is back with us this year after spending a year at Familia Feliz in Rurrenabaque, Bolivia. He is in charge of the boys' dorms and is teaching Religion to our Juniors and Seniors. I always say this, but it is so hard to believe how fast the first several weeks (now months, really) of the school year have gone by. I know it's hard for all of you living in the U.S. to think about the beginning of the school year in May when everyone is gearing up for summer vacation, but here we are finishing our first trimester of classes. We started the year with 62 secondary students and 19 primary students. We were expecting near between 70 and 80 in secondary, but were actually pleased to not be at capacity. For the first couple weeks of the school year, our 62 young people were jammed into two over-sized huts that we have been used as dormitories since the school began in 2004. The sardine-conditions helped encourage our boys to put in time and overtime to get the new girls' dorm done enough to live in. The girls moved in to their new dorm at the end of March, and the boys got to spread out between the two older "hut dorms." I am excited to share that we are finally using our new classrooms this year. It's so nice to be in big classrooms with real cement floors. We don't have windows or doors put in yet, but they are so much nicer than any other classrooms we have ever had. Hopefully we will get the roof insulation done this year so we can still teach when it is raining! The rain is so loud on the tin that you cannot hear anything. So, in essence, I guess we have "rain days" instead of "snow days." :) Fortunately the majority of the school year is pretty dry as dry season lasts from April until October. Like every year, this year has started with its new set of challenges. Though we started with 62 students, we are already down to 50. A few have been expelled and others have chosen to leave voluntarily. We are always sad to see the students go, but with the vast majority, we know it's what is best for the rest of the students. It's a challenging program, and we don't require any student to stay who doesn't want to be here. It's so sad to see the hearts of parents breaking when they see their children opt to give up the opportunity of a good education and moral training. Even after they leave our influence, we continue to pray that a seed was planted in the short time they were with us. At the end of April, we had a visit from a mission group from Brazil! Brad Mills, director of the Luzeiro Project on the Amazon River, brought a group of 11 volunteers from the Luzeiro project to our project. What a blessing it was! The group set up medical and dental clinics in the communities close to the school. We were blessed as they shared testimonies each evening about the ways God has worked in the Luzeiro project and in their lives. Brad was actually the first director of our school in 2004, so it was really special to have him on campus. Because of this experience, our Seniors are now planning to do a class mission trip.
So, we continue to move forward. Each challenge and trial helps us rely less on ourselves and more on our Heavenly Father and His guiding. Please keep this and other mission projects in your prayers:)
 Aerial view of the school. The white square in the middle is the new girls' dorm. The white roof to the left of the square is our house. The rectangles to the right of the dorm are the cafeteria and new classrooms.
 Front of the new girls' dorm. Still some work to do, but getting there.
 Moving day - the girls getting settled in to their new rooms.
 New classroom! This is my Freshman math class.
 Rice harvest 2010
 Brad Mills, director of Luzeiro project in Brazil, and Bruno.
 Medical clinic in Yata. Our students helped register the patients, take vital signs, translate (Portuguese/Spanish), and distribute medications.
 Ms. Francisca - She talked and talked to us in Portuguese even when we told her we had no idea what she was saying. She just repeated it - louder:) She bought decorations for our little chapel.
 Mindy and Susie working at the medical clinics.
 The "pharmacy."
 Ruan with Dr. Ricardo
 The "new and improved" airport in Guayara. It's an asphalt runway in the middle of nowhere about 4 miles from town. Completely inconvenient...but as long as we are advancing:) This is the airport's communication tower:)
 Steve on one of his village flights.
 Tree fallen over our entrance road. Ruan, Jerry, Salim, and Noel (one of our Seniors) hacked at this thing for quite a while one morning so we could leave campus and get to town.
 Keila and me.
 Salim
 Staff worship
 Jerry likes the snakes.
 Boesman doesn't:)
 Steve, the pilot, and Jose Luis.
 Abby and her monkey, Georgy, taking the clothes off the line.
 Bridge jumping. This is Josh showing the boys how it is done:)
 The boys jumping.
 Primary school kids peeking out of the classroom.
 Kody and I enjoying some music time with a couple of the students after church.
 Nancy, the tarantula, and me.
 Jacqueline, Jose Luis's daughter, and Paulina, our student from Las Amalias.
 The fumigation crew. They blow a thick smoke all over campus at dusk to kill the mosquitoes.
 Kody and Lyli at Lyli's birthday celebration.
 If you aren't carried to the river on your birthday, the river is carried to you. One of our Juniors gets a special birthday surprise.
 Lizeth, one of our Freshmen, wants to learn to play the guitar.
 Teacher Josh with some of his students.
 Max is practicing the piano. Kody gives lessons to two of our Seniors.
 Sleepy Ruan with me playing the guitar. This was late one Saturday night. I would like to learn to play, but my time is somewhat limited right now.
All of these pictures are from other people's cameras. I used my camera for the first time today. I know, it's terrible. So, hopefully for the next blog I will have some more pictures of Ruan and I together. I charged our camera's battery, so really I have no excuse now:)
I hope you enjoyed the pictures!
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Furlough 2009 - 2010
Well, our time here is rapidly coming to a close. We are sad to leave, but at the same time, we are glad to be getting back to the school. We are here much later this year than we normally are. In fact, we celebrated Ruan's birthday yesterday here in the States for the first time since 2005. We will begin our journey on Tuesday. We are taking two days to drive to Miami and we will be flying from Miami to Bolivia on Thursday evening, February 25. Keep us in your prayers as we travel.
We thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our friends and family. We only regret not seeing more of our dear friends who live so far away from our mid-western base:) We also enjoyed making some new friends. For some of you, you may have never read this blog before. Please take the time to look over past pictures and stories.
We worked hard gathering resources and materials for the school. The Lord blessed in many ways. We will be taking down some new textbooks for our math classes (my favorite books, and in Spanish, too!) and we purchased a number of resources for our English classes. We also found some great DVD's that will help our history teachers (especially Ruan) prepare for their classes. We will be purchasing an inverter and some small solar panels that David or Jeff can fly down to Bolivia in the small planes as they have the space.
Slightly disappointing for us, we were not yet able to send a container to Bolivia. We still have pallet-loads of Spanish books for literature evangelism, boxes of donated clothes, school supplies, power tools, equipment, desk/chairs, a 6-wheel drive truck, trailers, and more here waiting for the moment that we are able to ship the container. We will continue collecting funds for the container shipment and Ruan's family here in Michigan will help load and ship everything as soon as all comes together.
Please pray for us as we start a new school year. We have accepted more students than we originally wanted to, so it appears that we will be right at capacity, around 80 students. If all the volunteers show up who have committed to come, we will actually have all the teachers we need to start the school year. Some of the teachers will be slightly overloaded until mid-year when additional volunteers plan to join the team, but we feel so blessed to begin the year with the team that God has given us.
I included a spattering of photos from our furlough this year. I hope you enjoy them. I will try to get a beginning of the year post up as soon as the beginning of the year rush is over! :)
 My 3rd and 4th grades from my first year teaching (and one from my second year teaching). My first class will graduate in May:)
 Jared - I taught him typing when he was in the 5th grade. Now he's studying aviation. Maybe he will be a mission pilot in Bolivia :)
 Winter fun with the doggies. Katryn, now 14 years old, got a new lease on life when we came home with Boesman.
 Katryn, Boesman, and the newest doggy "cousin", Kindassie
 Quick photo stop on a Sabbath afternoon walk in the woods:)
 Drew, my nephew, just before Christmas
 "Family portrait"
 Another photo at the Heslop abode, compliments of Darren. He actually managed to catch Ruan with his eyes open for the photo.
 Lazy, lazy dog
 Gingerbread castle at the hotel lobby at GYC
 Main auditorium at GYC in Louisville
 Keila, Monica, and I at the Gospel Ministries booth at GYC
 Lots of DVD's at the GYC booth.
 Song service
 Friday night - singing in the hotel lobby
 Overlooking the Ohio River from a friend's balcony
 Walking to Lake Michigan, St. Joseph, MI
 Keila - barely surviving the Michigan winter
 Visiting the Athearn's and their giant animals. This is Rocky, the cat...
 ...and Natasha, the Great Dane.
 Working on the living room in Ruan's parent's house.
 Piece by piece, putting down a rustic maple floor.
 Almost there...
 Several weeks later...the finished product.
 We drove south to meet winter. There was an ice storm at Laurelbrook Academy in Tennessee that knocked out the power for a day.
 But it was pretty:)
 Super Bowl 5K
 Ruan placed 3rd in his age group. I walked it...but I did walk fast:)
 Ruan, Dr. DuPreez, and Melanie all medaled in their age groups.
 My new nephew, Brayden, born on Super Bowl Sunday:)
 Mike and Drew sledding behind the new house.
 My nephew, Drew, and me
 Such hard work:)
 New little nephew, Baby Brayden, and me:)
 Cute little nephew:)
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End of the year photos...
A busy end-of-the-year made for zero time to blog. We are now back in the States. We arrived in Atlanta, Georgia on December 2. For those who are interested, the following is our confirmed schedule:
Dec. 26 - Mt. Pleasant SDA Church, Mt. Pleasant, MI
Dec. 30 - Jan. 3 - Generation of Youth for Christ Conference, Louisville, KY
Jan. 4 - Indiana Academy, Cicero, IN
Jan. 9 - Lansing SDA Church, Lansing, MI
Jan. 16 - Kalkaska SDA Church, Kalkaska, MI
Jan. 23 - Hannibal SDA Church, Hannibal, MO
Jan. 30 - Toronto, Ontario (tentative)
We are happy to share with other groups during mid-week gatherings, but our weekends are pretty much booked. Hopefully we will get to see most of you! For the sake of not giving away some of our newest adventures, I will only post pictures in this blog. For those of you who haven't heard the Lear jet story, I will have to post it after we are done touring the mid-west:)
The following are some miscellaneous photos from the end of the school year.
Road construction in front of the school entrance. They are currently widening the road between Guayaramerin and Riberalta with plans to pave next year. Since this is our only way to town, a new road will mean a whole new way of life!
Lyli, our volunteer who was in the plane accident one year ago, with Savana, Jeff and Fawna's premature baby girl. Both are doing great and are constant reminders of how God cares for each one of us.
Ruan "bike-pooling." The preferred method of transportation in Guayaramerin.
Teacher Lyli with her students in Kindergarten through 4th grade.
K-4
Christmas in October. We celebrated Christmas this year with our students in the month of October. Since our students are not in school during the Christmas season, they have a very limited exposure to the holiday. It is a time when their parents get drunk and the locals parade through the streets in a half pagan/half Christian (if you can say that) ceremony. Most of our students do not know any Christmas carols, even though they are right there in the hymnal. And very few knew the story of the birth of Jesus. So during one week in October, all of our group worships centered around the birth of Jesus. We also shared some Christmas traditions from each of our countries. I made sugar cookies and apple pie. OK, so apple pie may not be a Christmas tradition in every American home, but it is Ruan's favorite dessert, and I wanted to make some for him.
My "Christmas" present - a fan. What a difference it makes! I feel spoiled! It's such a blessing to finally have enough electricity to use one.
The sugar cookies. Without a refrigerator to chill the dough and rolling pin to roll it, they looked more like peanut butter cookies, but they still tasted like good ol' sugar cookies. It was so fun that day. I got done with my classes, had Christmas carols playing on my computer, turned my fan on high, and just enjoyed baking.
The finished pie - Ruan's Christmas present:)
We taught the kids some Christmas carols and they went caroling around campus in groups. We handed out the goodies that we made and shared more of the story of the birth of Jesus.
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About 5 months after her accident, Keila can bend her knees almost completely normally. What a blessing!
Boesman with Lyli the day we left to come back to the States. Boesman got a bath and an American flag handkerchief around his neck. He was so concerned as we packed our bags and very excited when he was told to come along.
A view into the plane.
Pilot and "co-pilot"
The "economy-class" section.
And the "first-class" section:) Boesman was the most comfortable passenger during the whole trip.
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A Long-Awaited Update:)
Wow…time just doesn’t stop! So much has happened since last time I was able to post a blog. July started out as a very difficult month financially for the school. Many of you, our family and friends, responded with your prayers and economic support. God is good and we were not only able to purchase the food and fuel we needed for the month, but we were also able to take care of Grecia’s medical needs, move forward on our construction project preparation, and finish some basic maintenance on our truck. We also got a gift to buy a much need keyboard for the school.
 Examining the new keyboard. A huge blessing for our choir class and church services! 
In early August, the students worked very hard with Ruan’s dad to get the construction site ready for the mission group coming from Texas. A few times they worked well into the evening hours using a generator and light bulb to provide the necessary light for the work site. By August 5, the site was mostly ready and we all traveled to town to march in the Independence Day parade. We have learned in our previous parade experiences that it is just not worth it to spend the entire morning waiting for our turn to march. (You can refer to the blog post “Potpourri” from 2008 to read about the exciting parade day in Guayaramerin – it’s probably not anything like what you are picturing). Since we are always the last school to march, we always have to wait about 5 hours for our turn. This year we decided to take all of our students to Itauba, a small hotel/resort on the edge of town to wait for our turn:) There they have “beach” volleyball, a lake in which one can swim or canoe, and a variety of tropical animals in a small “zoo.” Ruan and I monitored the parade progress while running last minute errands in town. New flag poles….check. Mattresses for mission group arriving next day…check. Shoes fixed for student…check. New skirt for Albricia…check. Around and around town we went, always checking to see which school was marching. Finally we rounded up our kids from Itauba and brought them to town to march. Overall, it was a much more pleasant way to spend parade morning.
    Pre-parade activites at Itauba    Mindy and Clint - Jess, this one is just for you:)  Ruan with the Senior class  Snow cones...nothing tastes better when it's 100 degrees outside.   That evening I flew to Santa Cruz with Grecia. Grecia had to go for her second surgery on her collar bone. The bent nail that was holding her broken bone together had finally punctured her skin. I picked up our friend, Paeter, from the airport that evening and our long-awaited mission group from Texas the next morning. Just like that we were back in Guayara. The following week we cancelled all classes. Students and staff joined together with our Texas group and in just 6 days we put up all the walls on the new girls’ dorm. It was amazing! We know God will continue to bless so that we can have the building ready for use at the beginning of the 2010 school year (February). Our kids are slowly, but surely, stuccoing the interior walls now. Doors, windows, roof, plumbing, and floors still left to go. You can check out the group's photos at www.flickr.com/photos/kejay/sets/72157622004148347/ . I got to be on the clean-up crew until I started a small burn pile that went slightly out of control. I got nervous long before anybody else did. "No pasa nada, teacher," my students kept telling me. After burning a bunch of dry brush the little fire turned big and started moving toward the water system and tank. Fortunately, it only burned a small leak in one pipe before the students and other staff came to help put it out. I then retired from clean-up crew and made my way to safer work in the kitchen. 300 tortillas in 3 hours:)             Much, much safer in the kitchen:) August also brought us a new teacher, Kody. Actually, Kody has been here before. He was a student missionary when Ruan and I arrived in 2005. After finishing his teaching degree at Walla Walla, he decided to join our team for another round. We are super glad to have him at our school. In addition to Kody, Paeter joined our team. Paeter has been working in the garden. The challenges of the fierce heat and scorching September sun take their toll on anyone, but Paeter has been a real trooper in that garden. You can check out more of his experiences at his blog, http://www.waeter.blogspot.com/.  Teacher Kody (middle)  Green beans  Tomatoes  Peppers Unfortunately, we also had some hard experiences during the month of August. Every year there are challenges, and every year the challenges are different as God refines our characters. Teenagers here are much like teenagers in other parts of the world…the hormones are a-ragin’. We had to expel 6 kids – 3 guys and 3 girls – who had been sneaking out of the dorms at night to meet and “chat.” Two of the kids were our two Seniors. Sadly, we won't have a graduation this year. One couple, a Junior and a Freshman, was particularly rebellious and had been warned multiple times to change their course of action. They chose not to and we were left with no choice but to let them go. The girl has a pretty bad relationship with her mom and was not very interested in returning to her house. As some members of our Administrative Committee were taking her to her house she decided to jump out of the moving truck. She wasn’t badly hurt, just a couple bumps. But that started quite the drama with her mother who spread the rumor that the driver of the truck pushed her daughter out. Long story short, she then began various lawsuits against the school through different departments of the government. Her ultimate goal was to close down the school and get Ruan in jail. The District Office of Education and Child Protective Services both came out to the school to investigate how we do things. The District Office was impressed by what they saw. Child Protective Services was working closely with the girl’s mom, but could find nothing of which they could accuse us. We had an open meeting at the school. Church members, parents of current students, and parents of ex-students all came to hear what was happening. In the end, by the testimony of staff and students at the school, God was glorified and we gained even more support than we had before. Though we have heard nothing more of the situation, we are working closely with our lawyer should anything else surface before it’s all said and done.
I have to admit, it can be a little nerve-wracking to start dealing with legal issues, not to mention legal issues in a different language. But we just had to continue trusting that God was ultimately in control of the situation. I was then blessed to find this little passage in the Bible that brought me a lot of comfort. In Deuteronomy 19:15 – 19, Moses writes:
A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
Though I have casually read the passage before, it sure held more significance during this experience.
 Retired - I no longer teach 4th year math since there are no longer any 4th year students:( All in all the last two months have been full of blessings and learning experiences. We are grateful that God has led us in the ways that He has. Though this month is starting with some financial challenges, we know by previous experiences, that God will provide. In the mean time, we will continue to enjoy the scorching sun and insanely high temperatures while we long for enough electricity to run a fan and make ice:) And we will dream of the "winter" days when the temperature dropped into the upper 50's and made us nearly freeze. :)  
Oh...and the cherry on top, on September 7, guess who turned 30. I think this last decade has gone faster than all previous decades.
 Officially 30 and very busily working on this blog:) (Thanks, Allison, for the shirt.)
Just for fun...
This is what Tuesday looks like at the internet cafe on the main plaza in Guayaramerin, Bolivia.
    And, last but not least, our cat's mother had yet ANOTHER litter of kittens. Cute, huh? No, we don't plan to take another one home. :)  Signing off for now from beautiful Guayaramerin:) Tara & Ruan (and Boesman, too!)
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Blog Mania!
So, since it has been forever since I have actually posted a blog...and since I am in Santa Cruz with actual high-speed internet, I decided to share some bits and pieces of the last two months. You will find nine new blogs with photos below!
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Getting ready!!
In August a group from Texas will be coming to our school for a little over a week to help us build our new girls' dorm. We can't wait and we are working hard to get the site ready for their arrival!! Follow their trip at http://boliviatrip2009.wordpress.com/
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Classroom Construction Project
In April, Ruan's mom and dad and Tim, one of the members of their church, came to Bolivia for a couple weeks to put the floor in our new classrooms. We are now getting the wood ready to construct the rafters and put the roof on. We are looking forward to the day when we can use the new classrooms!
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Bakery
Outreach and income! We have recently started a bakery at our school. The bread is sold to the students and to the people in the village of Yata. We have now expanded from just simple white bread to wheat bread recipes as well. We are hoping that through the ministry of the bakery, the people in Yata will be able to learn more about healthy living. The pictures will tell the bread-baking story.
       Pan dulce (sweet bread) in the foreground and simple wheat bread in the background.
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Keilita
Most people on our contact list have heard that Keila, Helen, and one of our students, Grecia, were in a motorcycle accident at the end of May. Keila injured both of her knees severly. Her right knee collided with the oncoming bike. Both knees were ripped up by the rough dirt road. She was flown to Santa Cruz where she had surgery to clean and repair the damaged muscles, ligaments, and tendons. After spending a month in Santa Cruz, Keila returned to the school for a week. We have started vacation she is back in Santa Cruz for physical therapy. We are praying for effective therapy and a complete recovery.
In the plane getting ready to fly to Santa Cruz from Guayara. She had to lay down in the plane because her knees were unable to bend.
 Helen with Keila in the plane.
 Grecia (broken collar bone) and DJ, the pilot. Post-surgery in Santa Cruz.  The evening she returned to the school for her week-long visit. All of the students met the taxi and serenaded Keila.   You can keep Keila away from Yata, but you can't keep Yata away from Keila. The Sabbath that Keila was at the school she was unable to go to Yata for her weekly Bible study since our only form of transportation right now is by motorcycle. So, the majority of the people came to the school on motorcycle and Keila told the story of Moses in the afternoon. Listening intently  The pictures on the left were taken the day after Keila arrived at the school (one month after the accident). That was the most she could bend her knee. The pictures on the right were taken exactly one week later. Since vigorous therapy cannot start until six weeks after surgery, she had only hydrotherapy and massage two times each day. We were all amazed at how much she improved.
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