Wednesday, 23 November 2011 11:47

Lukie started school in September!! And he loves it!

He is attending a small school in our little village outside Santander: it takes me 3 minutes to drive him there!

It is a public school which is doing great in integrating children with special needs. He has three specialists working with him several times during the week, including physiotherapy and speach therapy - this means I don't have to take him anywhere else for therapy as we had been doing since he was six months old.

He is the youngest and smallest in his class and they all absolutely love looking after him and smothering him... His teacher and assistants are great and we are really thankful to God for putting this school on our doorstep!

Other big steps for our little boy...

He is progressing really well with his two languages (!!). He is also able to stand still on his own for a little bit and is walking around as long as he can hold on to someone or something (even just the wall).

Luke said goodbye to his dummie (pacifier) in June during the crazyness of Gloria's weeding... and he got a new bed for big boys in October! He tries really hard to help with dressing and undressing although that is still imposible on his own. He is eating... well, same as six months ago! That's not improving that much.... unless we are talking about ice-cream...

He is "always" happy and has a great sense of humour. He is starting to play more on his own, starting to pretend (yay!), and can be really loud when wreastling daddy or just screaming with joy when he sees someone he loves...

These next photos are from his 3rd birthday: super happy at school with his crown, at home opening his cards, and playing with new toys.

We keep praying

We can't but praise God for the amazing miracle of Luke's life and his development. We are so overwhelmed and thankful. We keep praying for God's love and power to determine what Luke can achieve in life, and not the facts of his brain damage and the stats of what he could do. We keep praying and believing for each milestone, and we celebrate as he reaches them. God is good.

We are now praying:

• For his muscle tone to go down, specially inhis legs and right arm/hand
• For his balance to improve (we dream of him walking!!)
• For his bowel movement to get regular (so we can take him off medicine)
• Development of logic, spatial concepts, language...

Thanks for your love!! 

Monday, 25 July 2011 21:30

In writing about the “highlights” of this past year (school year! That’s how you count the years when you work with students ;-)) I picked a couple of the main things we are involved in:

• The 9 month discipleship and training in music and media program
• The 10 day summer camp also focused in music, arts and discipleship
• Our 9 month program first ever “old students’ reunion”
• How Luke is doing and developing

My mind is filled with other topics I could write about:

• Darren’s design business and work for Freedom Church
• Friendships with parents of kids also in occupational or physiotherapy
• Our team of missionaries and new visions and projects we are praying about
• Pregnancy, wedding and funeral in the family
• Our local church and plans to build
• Etc!!

You can skype us if you want to know more about any of these things (or others)!

But there are two thoughts or realizations about God that I did want to take time to write about. They probably seem super basic to you, but I’d invite you to read on…

1. God is our Provider!
2. God lives in us!

   Read more...

Friday, 22 July 2011 16:48

Lukie Luke

Well, Luke is of course the brightest of all highlighted blessings anyone could talk about...! He turned 2 in November and since then has been surprising us with his achievements! He has quite a wide repertoire of words both in English and Spanish (some of them already in a format understandable by people outside the family!) and is putting them together in super cute sentences. His favourite things are cars (real ones, not toys!), bikes, water, ice cream, drums (he’s even been having “lessons”!!), guitars, computers, phones (preferably iPhones), and lots of other things.

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Friday, 22 July 2011 16:29

Summer Camp

We held our Faith and Art camp from the first to the tenth of July. We were fully booked in May (woohoo!!) and we could not have squeezed one more person in the secluded Monastery we used. We had an amazing group of volunteer teachers for all instruments, vocal singing, a couple of dance styles, sound, surf and art.

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Friday, 22 July 2011 16:16

Discipleship and Art Training Program

We had 4 new young people join La Industria in October and they graduated from our intensive course at the end of June. They were able to put together a great show for colleges which was on the road from January and was performed in many cities around Spain, but mainly in towns around us locally. Many churches asked them to perform, lead worship, preach, do street evangelism, and serve in different ways. Through these opportunities they were able to develop their artistic and musical talents in the context of church and/or evangelism.

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