FrequencyOC

Day 4 (Day 5)

I am having quite a few internet troubles, and it is because of this we had no update last night, I am so sorry about that. So let me see if I can update about two days. Yesterday we went to Barrett property and moved lots of things. And when i say lots of things Im talking giant trees. We had to arm ourselves with Machettes and cut branches and them haul these 20 foot trees up a hill to a giant pile that we will later burn. We saw so many amazing creatures that day, beautiful frogs (the non-poisonous one), locusts, and the elusive bullet ant. No one got hurt and we had so much fun. Barrett's property looks so different. The main reason we had to clear everything is a back hoe is coming to clear the large brush so they can build their house, but the company will not bring the equipment unless all brush is first cleared.
The 5 boys i mentioned last post did the surf camp with some locals and had a great time doing it. Afterwards they went to the skate park and did some hard work there. They had to clean the rain gutters that had never been emptied. The gutters were completely filled to the top with leaves and muck. They also tried to move some ramps that had slipt backwards, but that didnt go so well.

Today as I wirte this was our river rafting day. It was crazy we went down the Pacaure river. It is a 18 mile stretch of rapids that takes about 4 hours to tame. The guides were hilarious the entire time, kepping us laughing throughout the trip. No one fell out of the boat on any of the rapids, but everyone except two people (me being one of the two) fell out during the safe calm parts. It was during this time we had the "practice rescues" or just times to swim around. The tour company took some amazing photos and those will be online as soon as I can get an internet connection that can handle the bandwidth.

The evening back at the hotel was a wonderful chicken dinner that the hotel staff smoked all day long, then we had a sweet bonfire at the beach. Last year I was in charge of the fire, and to be honest, it was pathetic. I even had a tank of gasoline, and I couldnt light any of the brush, the gas would burn and then the fire would die quickly. This year I placed the fire making in much more capable hands: Bryan, Billy Holder, Dayne, and Ryan. To light the fire they used 1 match and no gasoline, and it was magnificient. The blaszing fire was 7 feet tall, every jumped over it (just kidding, hahaha). We just played at the beach and it was wonderful.

Now I do not think I have mentioned it yet, silly me, but I required of the students this year to write a devotional and share it. So we have 1 in the morning and 2 in the evening. So far everyone has done a wonderful job. To date the following people have shared their devotional: Chris, Matt, Mike, Bryan, Alex, Michelle, Kennady, and Alyssa. The devotionals have ranged from testimonies to exegitical sermons on a favorite verse. It has been so awesome. I had really wanted the students to share for two reasons, first they hear a lot of me, but secondly and most importantly, often times students feel alone, even if they have many friends. They think they are the only one struggling with something, only one to have experienced something, or only one to have gone through a tragedy. But then they can releate to a story someone shares and see firsthand that there are others that struggle through the same things. It has been really amazing so far.

Well it is very late now, and there is so much more to write, but I wont even be able to post this until tomorrow, so until then...

Update: i added some more rafting pics to the photo section