One of the places we've been getting involved with down here is a church named "El Puente" {The Bridge}.  It was started by Charles and Sarah Kaye, who are missionaries in Granada with their two kids, Banks and Willa. This is an amazing place to spend time- they're working on renovations on the building and continually trying to fix it up. There are basically 4 or 5 guys who do all this work on the church. And actually some of these guys live at the church to be security at night too.

-*-First, there's Manuel {fondly called Manny}. He's pretty shy; when our group first went to the church to meet them, the abundance of gringo girls caused him to barely look at us. But he's gotten over the shyness and is so much fun to hang out with! He is such a hardworker- when we go over to help them out with yard work, Manny ends up doing most of it himself anyways. He lives at the church and I believe is one of the men who guards with the dogs at night.

-*-Then, there's Guillermo {Memo}. His house is actually next door to the church and he's brought his five year old son Micheal {adorable} over a couple times. If ya'll could pray for him, he really wants his family to come to El Puente. Since they're so close, you'd assume they would have come but they haven't and he really desires them to.

-*-And then there's Carlos who also lives there. He is from Rivas {which is where I was 2 years ago when I was down here} but moved up to live in the church to help. He is also the worship leader basically, playing the guitar and singing. He's a great guy- taught me a new version of tic-tac-toe :)

-*-Next would be Danilo, who has blessed the girls with the house we are living with. It is his family's house and I heard his grandmother was living there but moved to live with other relatives. He has already come over to the house a couple of times to help fix items {like bed slats, the refridgerator and freezer}. He's a huge blessing.

-*- Roberto helps out with ministry aspects of El Puente but doesn't live there. His story is cool- he is from the streets {and was a pretty important person I think} and one day told Charles Kaye that he wanted to go to the rehab progam {which I'll explain in a bit}. And so he is now on fire for God and a great example of how God can change people. People who knew him before are seeing how he is now and are wondering how and why he changed. So pray for his witness please...

-*- And I guess last would be Ezekial. He doesn't live at El Puente but he's a good friend.  He's alot of fun to hang out with :) a piece of interesting information- Nobody knows how old he is. The ages that have been said range from 16 to 18. He claims one age while other people will state something else. I don't think I'll ever know...

----------------- Most of these guys have gone through a Christian rehab program, whether to help them with drugs, alcohol... And so living in a community with men with similar situations is great for them. Actually, this past Sunday, two men went up to Charles Kaye and told him to take them that very moment to the rehab program before they change their minds- they had to drive up to the mountains while it was raining and ford a river but got those men there and started them on the path to get better :) And one of the major drug dealers down here happened to go to the rehab program and changed his life :)

There's actually a couple of personalities I haven't yet mentioned at El Puente- the dogs :) There's an older one who's name, for all I can figure, is Joe. He's sweet, loves the soccer ball and usually lays around the church grounds.

And then there's El Capitan. 

Remeber the drug dealer that I mentioned above? Well, when he came back from the rehab program, a man came up to him holding a puppy, held it out to him and said "Here's the money I owed you". And as much as Capitan is a blessing in ways {he's adorable, sooo energetic, very entertaining... did I mention adorable?}, he is also a reminder of the past that this man led. He's a reminder to this man every day of what God helped him conquer.

 So that's a sum up of one of the places we've been working with and the people I'm meeting :) Church at El Puente is only the first and third Sundays of the month so today we don't have church this morning but we are going to a church called Restoration tonight as a group and I'm really excited to see what it's going to be like!