Jaynie attended her first ever summer camp this month. It was an interesting experience (have I said that already in another post?), but well worth the time and money we invested for her to be able to go. She worked really hard this past year in school, and Jose Luis and I wanted for her to have a different experience for the summer.
The camp was sponsored, organized, and directed by King's Kids, a ministry of the Youth With A Mission base in Guadalajara, Mexico (http://www.ywamguadalajara.org/in/es_hr.html). Each day was packed with activities - opportunities to learn, to serve, to fellowship, and to play. Jaynie had to get up around 6:30 am and breakfast started the day's activities at 7 am. Bed time and lights out were at 10 pm. Jaynie's favorite part of the day came at 9 am with the start of the classes. Although the classes were all in Spanish, Jaynie took great notes and even today can still explain to me about the messages that most touched her! She took great care to illustrate her notes as well.
In the afternoons, the camp divided into 3 smaller groups - drama, dance, and choir. Jaynie was placed in drama, and she mostly enjoyed it. She participated in one skit. After 8 days of intense classes and practice, the camp took their program on the road. They visited a local orphanage, a nursing home, and the main plaza of a neighboring town. Jaynie performed with her group the skit of the parable of the sower at the orphanage.
She also went with the camp to the nursing home and enjoyed visiting with the residents there.
I am thankful to God for providing in an unexpected way so that Jaynie and I were able to go to Guadalajara for almost 2 weeks! WOW, I never would have imagined that we would have been able to do this now. Thank you, Lord!
On the same day that Yoshiah graduated, the children in San Luis Majimachi graduated from 6th grade. Jose Luis attended this ceremony and took many photos (this has become a tradition and many people in the community ask him to take photos of their children). 
Finally, we attended the graduation of the granddaughter of the pastors in San Rafael from secondary school. This was a long ceremony with 70 students graduating. Mixed in with the receipt of diplomas were songs and dance numbers.
Speaking of dance numbers, in both San Rafael and San Luis Majimachi, students performed a dance called "the old men" - so crazy and not really a dance as much as it is a drama or skit. But all in attendance absolutely love this act.
After each graduation, students are sometimes given rings to commemorate the milestone - just imagine, 4 rings before you turn 20! 
The DTS (the photo is of our students with a couple of their children) graduated on June 26 and by the next day the base was so very quiet. The students returned to their homes, but they left us plenty of work cleaning up after them to get the base into shape to receive short-term teams this summer. Thankfully, we had help cleaning up - Manuel and Adelaida came from San Luis Majimachi to lend us a hand. However, our first group did not arrive as planned and we later found out that they decided to stay in another town in the mountains. But, I was so thankful to have the base mostly ready to receive groups anyway.