Chicken Pox has been spreading among the kids lately. I think that something like 15 to 20 of the kids have caught it this past month. Lester and Jenifer were nice enough to show off their spots today.

This weekend we got to celebrate Cesar’s 18th birthday. He came over with Elias to visit us in order for some math tutoring, and so we decided to surprise him with a birthday cake!

Cesar came to Casa Shalom over 7 years ago with his younger brother and sister, and this fall he will graduate from high school. In Guatemala, everyone specializes in a different area in high school, and he’s learning to be a car mechanic. He’s even helped us out with our car! Next year he’s hoping to work in a mechanic shop and start college in order to learn mechanical engineering. Yuli and I have been praying for him because we’d really like to help him out in the future, and we’re hoping that he will be one of the guys who comes to live with us in our half-way house this coming year.

Our good friend Mateo has been here visiting us these past 10 days. He started coming to visit the kids at Casa Shalom with me about three years ago, and he has been such an encouragement to Yuli and me over the years. So it was great to see him again! We had a great time hanging out together and catching up, and the kids at Casa Shalom were really excited to see him again.

Mateo was the first one who reached out to Celia and her family after they left Casa Shalom two years ago to return to live with their parents. Since then he’s made it a priority to visit the family to see how everyone’s doing each time he’s in the country. This time the family came with us to a nearby mall for pizza and games. Afterwards he bought new shoes for everyone. It was a great blessing to have him here with us again, and we look forward to seeing him again in the future!