A visit from the Yoder's

Relaxing with Stan and Barb after a hard day of work

Stan working on one of the three boats that we made.

The kids at Mis Primeros Pasos in Los Higos with their new sandbox

         Well now that really narrows it down
doesn't it? We were glad to have my sister Barb and her husband Stan Yoder come visit us for a week the end of February. Barb is an educator in Northern Indiana and so she enjoyed spending time with Karen at Genesis and then going around and seeing the other three preschools that SI has here. Stan spent his time here helping me make three sandboxes, shaped like boats. I get a donation from a family member every couple of months and this seemed like a great place to use those funds. Probably our highlight of their time here once again was just showing them what we do here, where we shop, go to church. We had a great time with them.
         We are now entering our second round of teams for 2014. We have (3) one week teams in March and we look forward to getting back into that groove again of having teams here.
      For those of you that have been here at the SI DR location before, you may remember Carlos. He was the guy in the kitchen that washed dishes and did general clean up in the kitchen area. You may remember him as being blind also. About mid Feb he was found in his apartment one Sunday morning by another base staff. We took his body to Santiago for an autopsy but will not have those results back for another month or so. Carlos is greatly missed. He always had a smile on his face and loved having fun. He lived right here in an apartment on the base so many people got to know Carlos over the years. Please pray for us as we continue to grieve over this loss.
      We have a new couple here Clint and Amy Parsons from the East Coast area. They are here to start up a new site, Media. This site will be used to take the photos of the teams when they are here and then when there are no teams here, they will be working on various things from newsletters for the national staff, to promotional videos for SIDR to maybe working with other agencies in town if they have a specific need. We are excited to see where this site can take SI and then to involve students with them that have an interest in media is a great addition also. We hope to get a new Blog or Facebook page for that that will be updated daily when we have teams here. That way the sending churches back in the states can follow what their groups are doing on a daily basis. Once that is up and running, I will let you all know how to access that.
      Here is a transcript of one of our dinner conversations in the last week with Janae, A little background, she is needing a form signed to take a test at her school, Doulos.

Janae: Did you stop at the school and talk to the director about that paper you're supposed to sign for me?

Mike: Yep, but she said that she didn't have it ready yet and will send it home with you either tomorrow or Monday for me.

J: But they said I have to have it tomorrow!!!!

M: I can't help it. They didn't have it ready.

J: Ok, I will just have you sign a paper then and I will take that tomorrow.

M: What? What are you talking about? I just told you they did not have it ready for me to sign.

J: I know that, but you can just sign a piece of blank paper, I will cut out your signature and then tape it on the paper that they give me then tomorrow.

M.....................Did you really just say what I think you said? You are going to "tape" my signature on a piece of paper and you actually think they will be OK with all of this? And you are actually 14 years old? 

J: What? Whats wrong with that? What????????????????

      Now you know better how to pray for our family. HA!!!