Despedida a nuestra Ana

Today we had our goodbye get together for Ana, a woman who has been in our program for over two years. We will miss her greatly, but know that God has a plan for her and will be at her side as she transitions into her new place in a different town.

After eating lunch with most of us board members and the shelter ladies, we had a nice prayer time to bless and strengthen Ana before she left. It got a little teary. I know I will miss Ana's upbeat attitude and all of our jokes and sarcasm. It will be hard to adjust with her gone. She has been such a big help to the house administrators, always happy to do a favor.

Please remember Ana and her 3 year old son in your prayers the next few weeks as she adjusts to her new home and life. And if you'd like to support Ana in her continued studies or with a donation to purchase items for her house, please let us know and we will help make that happen.

Rachel

~El Refugio Team

A visit from new friends

This past Friday, the shelter was blessed with a visit by some local University students. We knew they were coming to spend time with the children, but they surprised us all with small gifts, a piñata, pizza for everyone and lots of games. Oh, and best of all, they brought a huge food donation that they had collected from the community. What a wonderful blessing and fun way to spend our Friday evening.

It wasn't the first time these young people have come to visit us and we pray that it isn't the last. They told us they would like to come every month and bring a food donation and spend time with the kids and the women. They are also going to see how they can help us more financially by talking to their University and other students and friends to get involved and donate food and other resources to the shelter.

University students act out a play for the children. We laughed so hard when the stuffed lion came on stage.

It was truly wonderful to see these students full of passion to help and serve the people in their country. I hope this relationship continues to grow and they we can bless them as they have blessed us.

Hit it hard, girl!

 Candy for everyone!

Meanwhile the ladies were able to continue their crochet lesson which they have every Friday afternoon.

Look at all the food they brought!

Staff development "retreat"

Back in February all of the staff from El Refugio got together for some professional development time. We began with prayer time as a group. What a wonderful way to begin a day of hard work and problem solving. Our first goal was to come up with a concrete vision and mission for El Refugio and how we would cooperate to accomplish the goal~ how can we be His hands and feet?? 

After a short devotional from Susan and a lesson from Jessie on servant leadership, we began the afternoon with some group activities and brainstorming. There were 4 main areas or pillars that we addressed which were  Unity and Teamwork, Boundaries and Professionalism, Respect for our Ladies, and Good Communication. We worked as a group to share and communicate ways we could improve each of these areas. The day was full of laughter and even some tears. We didn't quite finish with everything we hoped to cover so we plan on finishing up in the next week or two during one of our weekly staff meetings. 

 Rachel and Pamela writing down ideas for Splash board activity

Sorry, this blog is coming late. I wasn't able to send it out a few weeks ago as I meant to! Please pray that we can continue growing and improving as a ministry, specifically in the 4 areas I mentioned above.