"Let the little children come to me"

 This is Tiyou. He's got to be one of the cutest kids I've ever seen. I've told him many times, "I just wanna eat you Tiyou" which probably doesn't sound quite right to a kid who doesn't really know our English idioms. Tiyou can often be found skateboarding around the Bens with little jean overalls on (or a giant Hawaiian shirt that he likes to keep completely unbuttoned, his choice on the outfit depending on the day) or flying his kite (a plastic bag tied to a string) with his brothers Wilson and Stanley.  Today he grabbed Taylor's chapstick out of her purse, smashed it all over his lips, and then attempted to put some on his brother's face. He just looked at us with a huge smile. Taylor didn't ask for it back.

 Us with the boys. We miss you Whitney.

 Daphne, Davidson, and Lukey braiding Taylor's hair. Each time they've finished a braid, Taylor has unbraided one more. She wasn't quite ready for the Tami hair-do

 Estaline loving her new potty chair that our friend Angelo built for her. She started kindergarten this year so the diapers need to go, and she agrees. She's just a chubby love with a whole lot of sass for a girl her size.

Nahom and Angelo, two of our neighborhood boys that go to MDL school. I chased them down and snuck up behind them to take this picture because i thought this was the cutest thing. It's so sweet to see that now some of the kids that live in the tent city nearby are able to go to school, thanks to sponsors back in the states. It's amazing to me how stoked these kids are to learn. For them, school means moving up in life. One of our feeding program kids, Eddie, asked Taylor last week in his sweet broken English if she could meet with him and teach him English. Eddie can't afford to go to school but wants so badly to learn; he carries around his old tattered English phrase book with him everywhere, and now Taylor has had a few teaching sessions with him. The more we're here, the more I'm realizing that getting an education is CENTRAL in allowing people to lift themselves from the never-ending cycle of poverty. If you would ever consider sponsoring a tent-city kid to go to school, please let us know because we can talk to the principal and work out a sponsor system. That's one investment that will not burn up in the end : )  Jesus says, "Let the little children come to me." Matt. 19:14