Today was our first day of vacation Bible School, and like all first days, it was a little chaotic and a little crazy, but we found some important schedule tweaks that we can make for tomorrow to make things run a bit smoother. Overall it was awesome!
The children are just so unbelievably precious. They run up to you without hesitation and just attach themselves to you just hug you and hang on you. I continue to be a source of huge fascination to the little kids. At one time I think it had five of them just hanging on me touching my arm hair and my leg hair, taking off my hat staring at my bald head and white skin (“blanc”), and the tattoos (“tatooooo”) continue to amaze. They stare and then call their friends so they can stare some more. They live to look at pictures on my iPhone. I think they looked at my whole photo stream twice. They especially likes some pictures I had from last winter of “snow.” Which was surprisingly hard for me to define for them! (Think about it – how would YOU explain what snow is?!)
VBS ran from 9-12, then we fed them lunch (which was a pile of rice and beans). We then fed some others from the town that had gathered in hopes of being fed.
After that we taught English for about an hour, another first experience for me that I really enjoyed.
The hotel has a pool, which has been such a blessing to come back from being in the heat all day and relax and debrief the days events with the team. (And as an added bonus I just witnessed Candy and Rachel V push John V in the pool…twice)
Thank you all for your prayers, they are being answered in amazing (and downright comical) ways. Please continue to pray – four more days of VBS to go!
Mike Ruel 
looks like rachel is bringing one home and ruel’s are adding some additions to their family. JV probably needed to be cooled off anyway. may God continue to bless your efforts of sharing the love of Jesus.