the paquettes

Thursday was Makarios’ end of summer school carnival day!  I took pictures, James grilled almost 400 hot dogs (with help!), and the girls got to help the “balloon dart” booth a little, and walk around the carnival and participate in the games along with the other kids.

They got their faces painted again!

blue lips!

ice cream cutie!

balloon darts!

serve’em up!

The carnival was a success, and many of the student’s families showed up to celebrate the end of summer with fun, food, and a Gospel message.
After the carnival, we got ready to go to the soccer tournament final game! The girls made signs to hold up at the game and so the players could run through!

Can you tell Rilyn colored the “n”?  My girls LOVE rainbows!

cheering them on!

nice goalie block!

After the game, we headed back over to the Makarios school, where we had a trophy ceremony and medals for the winners and the participants. James helped a great deal in the soccer tournament with the refereeing, and he was being recognized here.

One of the sweetest things I saw in the ceremony was when a 10 year old boy got his medal.  He immediately walked over to his sister and put it around her neck.  No hesitation.  Just pure, unselfish love.  The sister was beaming with pride.  🙂

Here are the boys praying after the trophy ceremony. I love this picture because the boy on the far right is actually kissing his trophy while they are praying!

This was our longest day out in the sun. We were out from 8:30-5 p.m. and the kids were tired, but I don’t remember them complaining.   Rilyn even mentioned to me, in her cold shower that evening, how she couldn’t believe our trip was nearing the end, and how she wanted Asher to come here, so we could stay longer!  Whoa, that comment really hit me, because for the first time I thought about one of the reasons we came on this trip was to plant seeds in our girls’ hearts about being a missionary one day!  Now home, my goal is for us to start going through the Christian Heroes set which has biographies of Christian missionaries (written for children ages 5-10 to understand.)  They also have a series for children older than 10 here.

*to read about day 6, click here. To read about day 8, click here*