Party time

Today, a local church visited Casa Shalom and brought a party for the kids. They played basketball, passed out candy and snacks, and had piñatas for the small children.



Julio, who turned 11 today, enjoys a popsicle with his big sister Eliza.








Anggie, Linda and Abby weren't sure what to make of all the action.














Jorge gave that piñata a run for its money.














Evelyn managed to crack open the piñata quite a bit.













Abby sizes up the piñata.















Cesar and Alex
















Alejandra and Maria, along with a fussy baby Mynor.












Sarai and Jorge.

















Tony
















Volunteer Justin with Alejandro and Colim

This week, we were blessed to have a visit from Jessica's parents, Rick and Letha Whitter from Palm Beach Gardens, FL. They blessed the kids with some new books, shoes and clothes. Here, they hold Anggie and baby Mynor!

Pure water

Casa Shalom has received a huge blessing! Thanks to the donation from Rich and Margaret in Minnesota and Bob and Georgette here in Guatemala, we have been able to install a new water purification system at Casa Shalom! Anyone who has visited the orphanage can testify that the water that comes from the faucet is not p...ure - it is filled with bacteria and parasites that affect the kids and visitors alike! Thanks to this new purification system, which will purify the water using both a filter and UV light, every single drop that comes out of a faucet, hose, or even washing machine at Casa Shalom will be pure, drinkable water! A special thanks to Bob for installing the system.

Personally, we are so grateful. For nearly 2 years, we have been both drinking and brushing our teeth with bottled water, carefully boiling any water we use to cook, and being careful not to get any non-purified water in our mouths. This is a big, big blessing for us and for Casa Shalom!

We'd like to welcome a new member of the Casa Shalom family - yesterday, Justin Sullivan arrived from Alabama to spent 7 weeks volunteering at the orphanage. Justin first visited Casa Shalom in December of 2009, and he feels a call to full-time missionary work. To "test the waters" he will be living and working with the teen boys during his stay here. He just arrived yesterday and has already jumped right into work - he spent hours yesterday afternoon helping the kids butcher chickens at the Casa Shalom chicken farm! This photo on the left is of Justin when he visited last year.