I wanted to show you a picture of the "tree house" where the Cruces are staying while their house is being built just a hundred hards away. They had me over for a bean burrito dinner on Wednesday night and it was great!

This week we've been busy with the normal ministry afternoons/evenings at the skate park. God has really helped me to start connecting with some of the youth, both teenagers and kids who are 7-12. It was funny...the other day I happened to be riding my bike past a group of five of the younger ones. They knew that I was heading to the skate park, so they started chasing after me, wanting to pile onto my bike and hitch a ride. I made them run for a while, but eventually let them catch up to me. I agreed to give one of them (the first one to get on) a ride. He had the BEST time rubbing it in to all his friends afterwards. At the end of the skate session that day, one little boy named Oscar gave me a big hug as a way of thanking me for letting them skate.

Lately, it's also seemed that the kids have been behaving themselves a bit better and following the rules (I'm finding that consistency in enforcing them is so important!)

In terms of my housing situation, I have nothing new to report, but a few new leads, and I'm supposed to check out one rental house tomorrow which I'm excited about. A lot of people have been asking around for me.

By the way, as a follow up to the story about the handcuffed man whom I had given some water to, I've since had more contact with him. He recognized me on the street the other day, and quickly asked me if he could buy me a juice, as he said "for respect". I agreed, and picked out a grape juice with him at the nearby store. It was a nice moment. I remember reading a book somewhere about how men and women have different needs, and it argued that one of a man's biggest needs is to be respected. It also said that when a man needs respect the most is when he feels the least respectable (or the least honorable). I think the reality of that came to life for me in my encounter with this guy. My compassion for him (regardless of what he might or might not have done to get arrested) seemed to have impacted him in a positive way.

Sorry not a lot of pictures today, but here's another of Jose (the skater from last week), clearly enjoying himself at the skate park, and loving my skateboard which I have been loaning him.