Well, our busy month is almost done! We are working with our final work crew which leaves Thursday, August 28th. After that, we will have no more work crews until Jan or Feb. We have enjoyed working with the work crews. We have learned a lot, been challenged, made new friends, worked hard, played hard, laughed a lot, grown a lot, and been blessed through all of these crews!

Also, we had a lot of fun with our cousins and uncle here! They worked hard alongside the work crews but also got to spend time playing games with us. It was a lot of fun! We were so thankful for our time with them!

Now that its rainy season, we are learning that there are some things that are beyond our control and that we just have to adjust to. Things such as having to give our dog, Mia, 3 baths a day because no matter where we let her out, it is muddy and she loves water and mud! Also, that no matter how hard we try, it is very hard to keep the house clean... there is constantly mud and dirt being tracked through the house whether by canine or people. And, since our hot water heaters are solar powered and it is mostly cloudy... there will be little to no hot water! And we now have to find ways to dry our clothes inside since the rain doesn't allow us to hang dry our clothes and we have no Dryer. Lastly, mosquitos thrive during this season. And no matter how hard we try, we just can't seem to keep them out of our house! So we have a lot of new adjustments to make but we are thankful for the rain which is much needed on this side of the Island and we are enjoying the new adventure the rain brings.



On another note: Please pray for us as we have some big decisions to make in the next few weeks. Our jobs here have changed and the camp's needs have changed so we have some decisions to make. Please pray for wisdom and guidance for us! Thanks!

We got hit with a Tropical Depression on Friday. It was pretty cool! We were woken up at 4am by an incredible amount of lightning, rain, and wind! It was so windy that the rain was coming in horizontally. There was almost no break between flashes of lightning (although there wasn't a lot of thunder... at least not compared to what we are used to in Michigan). And the rain on the tin carport roofs was very loud! It was crazy! Later we heard that it upgraded to a Tropical Storm and got the name "Fay". From what we hear, we have another storm headed our way that might hit Friday. We don't know how bad of a storm it will be though.

On another note... our uncle and 2 cousins arrived Sunday evening. We knew that my Uncle Dick and my cousin Todd was coming but we didn't know that my other cousin MacKenzie was coming! It was an awesome surprise! We are so excited to have them! They are going to be here for a week working with the work crews and spending time with us. We are loving it! Thank you for those that took part in the surprise!

Here are some pictures from the last few weeks....

Below is a picture of a "cherry picker" (that was what it was called...I'm not sure of the technical name) with Mike on it. You can see how tall it can get based on how high it towers over the basketball hoop and light pole.The picture with Megin was taken from the top of a "cherry picker" . The picture is a landscape picture taken of the camp's waterfront.

This week has been a crazy week. First, we have two groups overlapping and running on different schedules so we feel like we are constantly juggling things like vehicles, schedules, sight-seeing trips, work projects, trips to the airport, and etc. Second, we found a large sea turtle on our property that laid eggs so we had the job of trying to keep it alive until the DNR (Department of Natural Resources) could come take care of it. Then a couple of days later we found baby sea turtles wandering around on the other side of camp so once again we had to save the turtles and wait for DNR. Since then the DNR has invaded our property in search for sea turtles. (Its kind of scary running into them in the middle of the night walking around our property.) Third, our camp secretary and financial manager, Tamara, just found out that she has to be on bed rest for the next couple of weeks which means that we have to not only juggle all the work crews but also fill in her shoes. So instead of working 60 hour weeks with a day off, Mike and I will be working 90 hour weeks with no days off (not even Sunday). Please pray for us during this time! Pray that we will have patience, strength, perseverance, joy, enthusiasm, good health, and so on.

Also, we wanted to tell you about one of the work crews that we worked with this week. They are a group from Palm Bay, Florida. They were so laid-back, adventurous, and had such servants' hearts. They were constantly surprising us! This group of 8 had more senior citizens than young adults. Yet when we didn't have a vehicle to go get Frappes (an awesome PR treat that all of our groups love), they all piled in the back of the pickup truck (despite the sprinkling rain) including an 84 year old man and his 74 year old wife. And they did that a few times throughout their time with us. Then on Sunday, we usually take the groups to the rainforest. Older groups will usually go to a rainforest that is further away and has a paved path for them to walk to a swimming area and younger groups will go to the rainforest that has waterfalls and a high cliff to jump from but requires some treacherous hiking. This group surprised us by wanting to go to the rainforest with the waterfalls instead of the other. And they had a blast! They were a fun group!

Unfortunately, for some reason, we still can't upload any pictures on our blog. But we'll keep trying. Sorry!

We just finished with our first work crew. What a great group! They were a Senior High and Junior High Youth Group from Indiana. They worked so hard and hardly complained at all and they were so fun and nice. They were a blessing to us! Thank you Indiana work crew!
Another work crew came yesterday from Florida and a second group is coming tomorrow from Seattle. So we will have two overlapping teams here for the next week.
Please pray for us as it can be pretty chaotic with more than one team here at a time.
Also, please pray for us and the teams as it has gotten pretty hot recently (105 degrees) and will still continue to get hotter as August progresses. The heat makes it hard to work (especially with the type of manual labor that we do here) and it can be hard on our bodies making people tired and cranky.
We were hoping to post some pictures from our time with Indiana but we are once again having problems with the internet so we'll have to try again another time.
Thanks!

Please pray for us as we begin our busiest time yet! Starting Wed, July 30th we will have work crews non-stop till August 29th. Life will be crazy and very busy!

Please pray....

• that we will be able to get a lot accomplished,


• for strength, energy and enthusiasm,


• make new and lasting friendships,


• keep our marriage strong,


• for good relationships with co-workers


• safety and health


• that we will grow closer to God and watch Him work!

Thank you for your prayers and support! We love you and miss you!

PS ~ Here are a few random, funny pictures......

Culebra!

Yesterday, Mike and I took a visiting missionary from Uruguay to an island called Culebra. Supposedly Puerto Rico is known for this island which has the World's 2nd Best Beach called Flamenco. Alex practically begged us to take him there. So Tuesday morning our adventure began....

We started our day at 1 am with a 2 hour drive to the ferry. We had no real directions, just a map. Once we got to the port, we got in line. Unfortunetly the 4 am boat was already full so we had to wait for the 9am ferry. So we slept in line on the concrete floor waiting to buy tickets for 6 hours. During this time we found out that the normal ferry which can hold 500 people was in repair and they were replacing it with a cargo ferry which could only hold 150 people so there was a good chance that we would not make it on the next ferry and would have to wait for the 4pm ferry. As people heard this some of them began leaving which was a blessing because if they hadn't left, we might not have been able to get on the morning boat.

After a 2 hour trip, we arrived on Culebra, got a taxi and headed for the World famous beach. It was beautiful!! White soft sand, very clear blue-green water, some reefs for snorkeling, and lots of sun! There was also bathrooms, changing areas, and places to buy food and drinks. It was nice! So we spent hours snorkeling, swimming, eating, and laying out.

We were getting ready to go back to the dock to buy our tickets for the ferry home when we were told by some people that it would be nearly impossible to get on the evening ferry because of the tons of people who were already in line trying to get tickets. (We had also heard numerous stories before coming to Culebra from other people who had been left overnight on the island because the evening ferries were too full to take everyone.) Since Alex had a flight to Costa Rica the next day, staying overnight in Culebra was not an option for us! So we decided to go to the airport and try to get a flight back to PR. Unfortunetly, all the flights on all the airlines were full so we had 2 choices... we could charter a private flight for $350 or we could try to get on the ferry. So we quickly got a taxi and headed over to the dock praying that we could get on one of the evening boats. Praise God that because it was a holiday, most people were staying overnight or for the whole week so hardly anyone was in line!

Our 6pm ferry didn't show up until 8pm so we just walked around the town, watched kids jump off the dock, slept, watched the sunset, and just relaxed till our boat came. We really wanted to change out of our wet bathing suits but we couldn't find any place to do it so we finally decided to stop at a Chinese restaurant, buy a few drinks, and take turns using their bathroom to change. Their bathrooms were really weird for some reason. They had these elevated toilets so when I (Megin) sat down, my feet weren't touching the ground (I haven't had that happen since I was a little kid)!

We were so tired that we slept on the floor of the boat for the ride home. Then on our 2 hour drive home, we got lost for about 30 minutes but finally made it home at 1am. It was a 24 hour long day for us but it was worth it! It was fun, beautiful, scenic, and adventuresome! And God provided for us every step of the way!

Sorry that I didn't update last week... its been crazy around here! We had a team from Tipp City, Ohio here. They worked hard! Since they were here during camp though, they couldn't do any construction type of project that might put the camp kids in danger so they were stuck with jobs like painting, replacing screens, cleaning, and etc. And they were able to build a skylight for one of the missionaries. Even though they didn't do any major construction or heavy labor jobs, they were such a blessing to us! We really enjoyed getting to know some of them!

On a different note: Mia is getting big! Of course she isn't full-grown yet but, for a puppy, she is big! We have a lot of fun with her and she is learning quickly! Yesterday, we took her out on the beach and she actually swam for the first time! We were really proud!