Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns."

So, 5 weeks have passed and I'm starting to get to a countdown point which seems really weird. Part of me is really excited to come home and see everyone again, but part of me is also starting to get really attached to the people and kids here which is going to make it hard to leave in three weeks.

This past week we had a group from His House Christian Fellowship at Central (the church I go to) come down. That was fun to get to know some of the faces that I've seen here and there but have never really talked to. We also had two individual volunteers plus our interns making it a fairly small week. It was a welcomed break from the chaos of last week.

We did two camps again. In the morning we were at Batey Madre and in the afternoon we stayed in Monte Cristi and did a camp at a small church that is actually pastored by one of the ladies that has been helping with the cooking and cleaning over the past few weeks, Adelina. They were fun camps but also hard to do because they were two of the poorest communities that we had seen yet this summer. The morning camp was fairly small with only about 40 kids, which made for a nicer more intimate feeling. I was in charge of story and had fun coming up with different ways to present the story: we acted out Daniel and the Lions Den, did puppets to the story of Joseph, acted out Joshua and the battle of Jerico, and then read the resurrection story from a children's story book. Overall I felt that the camp went really well here. I also got the chance to get to know some of the older adults there too which is fun. We played a little bit of Jenga and talked a little bit.

In the afternoon, we had closer to 80 kids in a very small church/chapel. I made friends with one girl, Jennifer, after singing with her the first day and it was fun to see her wait for me to get off the bus every day after that. It's crazy how these kids remember a specific person or name. I also fully realized that a lot of kids here like me simply because I have blonde hair that I let them play with. I even got a few comments this week of "Is this really your hair???" haha. There were also a few deaf boys at La Capilla which really struck me. It was hard to see these boys and know that it was very likely that they would never receive schooling or be able to communicate with others very well. Yet at the same time, they had managed through their life so far and will continue to do so. It was cool though to see once again the community that was there, as all the other kids would look out for them.

Then yesterday for the fourth of July we went to the beach with the orphanage kids. That was a lot of fun and I got to swim with them for a long time and get to know some of the kids that I hadn't really interacted with. It amazed me there too how they all know my name, even ones who I didn't even know lived at the orphanage!

Today we are just hanging out and doing some projects around the orphanaged. Then this week it's just us interns so we'll be doing a few more service projects in the morning and then doing a reading program with the kids in the afternoon. I'm excited to spend some more one on one time with them during this.

That's all for now I guess. Once again, I can't thank you all enough for all your prayers and support. It is so great to know that back home myself and the work being done here has so much support in prayer. God truly is working down here in my life and in so many other lives. What an awesome God we serve!

P.S. If you would like to look at some more pictures. The team leader here, Eric Woods and his family have a blog where Eric puts up a lot of pictures at. Feel free to check it out at southwoodsfamily.blogspot.com. The pictures are of anything and everything that goes on here and at camps, so they are kind of fun to look at.