Santa Elena...

On to a new spot and a new village! Though this one is more of a town. Santa Elena is right across the river from San Ignacio, a bussling tourist town where all kinds of internationals come to base their jungle adventures. We are about 8 miles from the Guatemalan boarder (thinking of you Sarah and Kim Knuth!). And Santa Elena is basically a "suburb" of San Ignacio. San Ignacio is about 12-15,000, and Santa Elena is about 3,000. Little bit more up-scale comparatively, with the influx of tourism dollars. We are staying in San Ignacio, and we walk everyday across the bridge, over the river to Santa Elena Baptist Church. Our group is a Lutheran group, some interesting challenges, some differences in doctrine and the handling of our faiths, but we all love Jesus. They are working tremendously hard, putting a roof on a new part of the church that will house a few Sunday school classrooms, running VBS in the afternoons, and leading youth services every night. Needless to say, we're all really tired by the time we get to crawl into bed! Don't have too much time today, lots of prep needing to be done, will try to get on again when we return to Caye Caulker on Thursday. So looking forward to my home church's trip starting on Friday; Heather's on this one! Can't wait for you all to get down here and to return to La Democracia. Ate at Cheers on our way out on Sunday, Heidi and the gang served a fabulous burrito bar, as always! And our shirt's still up! Praying for you, Lakeview team!!! Starting to miss a few things, esp. chocolate... Maybe Heather will bring me some M&M's... And most of all, all of you. Be in prayer for Mandy now too, as she departs for Fiji tomorrow for aid work and teaching some medical training. We really are an international family this summer.