Saltshaker Aguascalientes Update (7/10/09)

From Matt and Sammy:

Hi. Our names are Matt and Sammy, and we like to party!

This shall be another 2 day blog. Yummy.

Yesterday, we woke up early again and went to have a devotional in Villas. Bobby brought the word and we all happily listened. Then we started playing a game using a frisbee with the ninos. VBS started and many more kids came. Thanks for your prayers. The final count was 55.5. I (Sammy) ran games and Matt was "The King of Crafts."

We crafted bible verse frames, similar to picture frames, but in the middle was the days' bible verse: Mateo 22:37. It was a fairly simple craft. The kids glued little foam shapes such as hearts, crosses and teddy bears onto the frame. Then we put a magnet on the backside so they can stick it on their refridgerator or on some other metal object.

We played many a game. There was a game called pelea de gallos, which translates into "chicken fight" that the kids really love. You hop around on one foot and look silly. Also, we played a rock, paper, scissors-esq game, called: bear, man, gun. Same basic principle. The kids really seem to like me and always give me high fives (which are completely inappropriate).

There are also three other stations where the ninos learn the bible story of the day, verse of the day, memorization, and song singing (in spanish). We, however, don't get to do any of those so we just trust the other teammates to do their job as we have no idea what actually goes on. At the end of VBS each day, prizes are awarded to the kids that participated the most in each group and Jaime brings popsicles for everyone to eat. After VBS we all travelled to the Giron's house to eat our lunch.

Matt's Day After Lunch: I went back to the Smuck's house and slept for like 4 hours. I was woken up at 7:15-ish by Roy and we headed to dinner with the Smuck's, Andrea, Robyn, Deidre, and Aris. We ate at San Antonio's. Oh Bub! A mighty fine establishment, I give it 5 stars. I ate the tostadas de pollo. After dinner we confidently walked across the street to an alive fish store. After shopping around for sometime we decided not to buy a fish and go back to Andrea's place for some hot chocolate and desserts. At 10:00 pm we called it a night.

Sammy's Day After Lunch: I went back and played card games with Bobby and Favi (in spanish that ryhmes). I also took a much-needed shower. After several hours, we went to the store and then went to a place to eat cactus fruit called "tuna." It is far different from the yucky seafood-in-a-can. I love the tuna here, it is juicy and delicious.

After the delicious, Bobby, Las Girones and I went to a Bible study with a man called Javi. That also rhymes with Bobby and Favi! He is a new believer and had a lot of good questions throughout the study. After that, we went to a place to eat tortas, which is like a sandwich with incredible mexican meat. Then we scurried home to go to sleep.

This morning we had VBS again, after Sammy's devotional. It was pretty much the same, but we had different crafts, games, songs, verses and stories. So... it was totally different. We had more ninos: 66 to be exact. Some kids that came yesterday didn't come today, so there were a plethora of new kids on the block.

Now we have the afternoon and evening off to rest up for a full day of VBS tomorrow.

You stay classy...America

Dios les Bendiga
(God bless you)

Samuelito y Matthew Ryan Newton

From Bobby: Italicized comments are Newton's, and Sammy's are the regular type. In case you didn't pick up on that.