Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club visits El Puente!

Last week, we were grateful to have the Dixie Sunrise Rotary Club visit us here in Quepos.

Lynn Spafford, along with other members of the Utah Rotary Club, came down to donate their time and resources to the Quepos community. All the kids received new school supplies, in addition to the books that Rotary bought for El Puente after we lost half of our library when the school flooded.

Dr. Gooch also gave free eye exams to all of our students and donated frames for the students who needed them.

Bradley received a much-needed new book bag!

Thank you for sharing your time and your hearts with all of us at El Puente!

Dental Health

Heather and Ara, PA students from Colorado, visited El Puente to teach our students about good dental hygiene habits. They shared with us the reasons why we brush our teeth and how our eating habits affect dental health.

Below: Practicing good brushing habits with our new tooth brushes

Fluoride Treatments! In Costa Rica, there is no fluoride in the water, so treatments like this are especially needed.

Thanks Heather and Ara, for teaching us more about dental hygiene and for giving us toothbrushes and fluoride treatments!

Our First Christmas Pageant was a Success!

Many having never heard the Christmas story before, we decided putting on a Christmas pageant would be fun...and it was!  We were so blessed to have approximately 50 parents and community members show up to watch our small production, and the children did an excellent job retelling the story of Christ's birth.  May we all "prepare Him room" in our hearts more this season and in the coming year.  Merry Christmas and God bless you all!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at El Puente!!

To celebrate thanksgiving, some of the older students made hand-cut-out turkeys. Each feather
listed something they were thankful for. Enjoy their artwork. Thank you for continuing to check out our blog! We are thankful for YOU!

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness!

Come before him with joyful songs!

KNOW that the Lord is God

It is He who made us,

and we are His!

We are His people, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter his gates with Thanksgiving and His courts with praise

Give thanks to Him and praise His name

For the Lord is GOOD

and His love endures forever!

His faithfulness continues to all generations!

Psalm 100

Learning about Sharks

Did you know that there are 217 species of sharks and only 5 species are known to attack humans?

Or that while millions of people die in car accidents each year, on average only 5 people die from shark attacks?

These are just a few of the interesting facts that the Oceans Unlimited Team shared with us in their shark presentation this week. They explained that our fear of sharks is often blown out of proportion, and that we need to protect sharks as they are valuable part of the ocean's ecosystem.

The Oceans Unlimited Team giving their presentation

The students working on their shark posters.

The finished posters- they turned out great!

Thanks Oceans Unlimited for coming to share with our class!

These Precious Little Ones

Thanks for all your help in putting smiles on each one of our kids' faces. We are so blessed to be able to work with them and ask that you pray that the Lord will protect them and keep each one of them with us, despite financial problems their families may be experiencing.

Bible Class

Bible class is by far one of our students' favorite classes. They study and memorize God's word and often talk excitedly about wanting to follow Jesus. It is a privilege to be able to share the Bible stories with them, but, as teachers, WE are often the ones who are blessed and learn from their child-like faith and passion!

Noah's Ark.

After learning about Noah and the flood, students painted thier own ark cut-outs!

Students' re-lived the challenge of trying to create their own "Tower of Babel" that reached the ceiling without being able to communicate with one another.