We Love our Volunteers!

Mike & Karen Johannes and Andy & Reatha Brink came to volunteer for EL Sembrador in Jan/Feb. Both couples were such a great help to us. Mike fixed everything imaginable on campus and Karen was my "girl Friday" who helped with Anna's schooling, in the group kitchen, boys store room, and more. Andy & Reatha are now on their 5th trip to El Sembrador. Andy worked with the hogs putting new floor in the farrowing house and Reatha helped out in the group kitchen and painting all of the classrooms for school to begin. Thanks to both couples for the tremendous amount of help!

Hawk Family

The World Gospel Mission board came to El Sembrador for a visit on Jan. 22-23. Terry & Colleen Hawk led the team around to the different Honduras stations, Tim & Sharon Hawk as well as Twana Johnson (Hawk) were a part of the group, Tom Hawk was on one of his visits to El Sembrador, and Travis and I live here of course. So, we had a lot of Hawk's here at the farm together.

Boys 1st Week of Work

Our boys work the first two weeks of school and then they begin their classes. They work hard with machetes getting the entire property cleaned up. They cleaned up the front entrance, 3 miles of the canal that feeds our reservoir, the reservoir area, pond areas, roads coming into the school, etc. They did a GREAT job and we are very proud of them.

Getting Ready for School to Begin

* Mike (one month volunteer) fixes the ice machine after it had been down for over a year.

* Israel & Edwin fix door locks.

Registration Day

Today is registration day. This means all the boys who have been accepted to attend this year will show up today. We have all our missionaries working at different stations to get all the boys entered. There are stations to get mattresses, machetes to work, fitted for uniforms, haircuts (if their hair is out of control), etc. Travis worked at the registration table and Lori was in her office with Sherri and Amy doing student interviews. It took from 7:00AM until 9:00PM to get all the boys checked in and we still weren't done with interviews at that point.

December/January 2008

As the students are on their summer break, it is our time to prepare for next school year (2008). Lori hired a boy to help her create a new "bodega" (storage room) for the boys. This room includes the needs the boys have during the school year: toothpaste, toothbrushes, bars of soap, shampoo, deoderant, jeans, shorts, t-shirts, blankets, sheets, tennis shoes, dress shoes, work boots, soccer cleats, etc. Although it looks full now, this is enough supply to last us about two months.