not quite Osha approved
me & Gabbo
the tool room with the new shelves
Christmas concert
These 7 kids got baptized!

sorry it's been such a long time since i updated this. last time i was in montevideo forgot the cord for my card reader...now the cord doesn't work, so i can only post pics taken from my iphone.

it's been a great couple months! the building is coming along, nicely. i'd say we'll be moved in there no later than august, when i get back from visiting seattle for about a month this year. we seem to be constantly having people over to "interview" (if u will) to come on staff when we get to the new spot & begin to quadruple the amount of kids under our roof.

more importantly, the kids that we do have (14 now, 15 starting tomorrow) are ON FIRE for Jesus Christ! they are getting past a religion & getting into a personal/daily relationship with their Savior. He is backing chains, healing pasts, & producing fruit in the lives of all of the older kids.

in my life: God is teaching me how to serve Him out of love...not obligation. I'm beginning to see why out of all the places in the world & all the people in the world He would send Tyler Smith to the small, country, farm town of Ecillda Paullier, Uruguay. here there's not much interesting to me, so there's nothing to do but seek God...here very little is easy for me, so i can't forget that i need Him...& here i see/deal with people with very sad lives every day, so i can't forget His goodness. The Master Potter definitely i sculpting me on a wheel that He knew would be perfect for this particular work :)

items for prayer:

*a continuation of what He's doing in the older kids & i.

*The Holy Spirit's touch in the lives of the younger kids.

*salvation of lives in the town we're in.

*that God would send the personal that He has chosen for this home.

*my knees aren't like a 28 year olds knees should be (healing in my knees).

thank you all sooo much for your prayer & support!

our God reigns!

Thank you for your prayers...I'm adjusting quite well this time around & things are going great! we had a short term team (mostly form Westgate Chapel) at El Hogar for a almost 2 weeks which was an enormous blessing. Spiritual crops were tended to & new seeds were sown, the playground was built, & relationships were started/strengthened, but above all else God was worshipped :) These are a few pics of pastor Bill preaching, the new home, the existing home, the playground in progress, & Elly & Emmy w/ our Christmas dinner.

Please continue to pray for David & Matias (the 2 new teenage boys), the fruit in their lives is abundant...pray that it keeps flourishing. Also i ask that you joint me in prayer for Cristofer, a suicidal 16 year old boy from up the street we've decided to take in. Love yall, miss yall.

I landed safe last night & am @ Ernie & Tina Dueck(the missionaries from Westgate Chapel)'s house in Montevideo until tomorrow morning when Ernie will take me to El Hoger (the children's home i'll be living at). getting my phone situation settled is more complicated than i thought, but i'll get something sooner or later. i was worried for a while earlier today because my laptop wouldn't charge for any longer than a minute. i asked some friends for ideas, then went for a walk. when i got back a friend had sent me the solution :) God is good!

on a more disturbing note, when i went for my walk, i went through a park i've been though numerous times...but never @ night. prostitution is legal here so i'm not sure why the park is the preferred spot for it, but there were plenty of male &/or female hooks & their pimps along the street that goes through the park. i'll spare the details but, advertising of all sorts is also very legal..apparently :( this was a gross & troubling experience. pray for this nation!

This past thurs-sat i was fortunate enough to be able to go to Buenos Aires. It´s a beautiful city...I had a blast! This computer takes forever to upload pics, so here´s 5.

i´m better now...

...thanks for your prayers. i´m gonna try to get some pictures up soon. though i´m fully enjoying being here, i´m starting to get pretty homesick. eating sushi, while playing with my nephew, & listening to a pastor Alec sermon would really hit the spot right now. ¡ciao!

please pray for me!

for the past 2 days ive had the worst food poisoning of my life. the other american guy down here (daniel) had it w/ me for about the 1st 30 hrs. & even had a fever, but seems to be better now. it hurts & the peoples stomaches here have higher tolerances for microbes in food, so this could easily happen again later. we're still not exactly sure which food caused it. thank you

sorry it took so long...

...to post something new on here. i thought the website was trippin but i was entering my password wrong because of the spanish keyboard. it´s really different down here, the people are the most humble i´ve met. so far the foundation of the 2 new homes have been bricked & it looks like we`ll be pouring floors soon. other than that we´ve helped dig a well, cleaned & re-painted inside the old folks home, helped till & plant some new vegetable farms (so now i have an actual farmers tan), & the remainder of my time is spent playing with & talking to the kids in the orphanage i`m staying in...there`s about 15-20 kids from ages 5-17, 2 boys the rest girls. i don`t have much spare time, but i`m gonna try to get on here semi-often & throw sum pics up when i can. gotta go, lunch is over. love yall!