2/12
This afternoon,
Alessandro took us to see Paraiso Village. They run a woodworking shop there
run by a Haitian man. My hope is that someone from Esperanza can go there to be
trained in woodworking---and we can hire him to build bookshelves for the
library in Esperanza. Pray for connections/open doors in Villa Paraiso!!! This will fulfill Lukny's dream for a library in Esperanza and resources to teach the other men. He is a truly unselfish leader thinking about the big picture of the villages needs--while working 6 or 7 days a week teaching scuba diving to touristas at the hotels.
02/13
Ash Wednesday morning…
I truly feel sustained by your prayers. We are healthy-truly a gift of God! In the morning before the kids get up, Mike and I
do our devotions together. “May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you:
wherever he may send you; May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you
through the storm. May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown
you. May he bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.“
Last night, my neighbour
Belkis arrived home. Her son passed away
at 3am. Pray for us as we try to minister to her in Spanish. Pray she will feel the Holy Spirit in her
heart when she can’t hear our English words.
Our Runnymede small
group is looking at ‘waiting’ for God. I think there’s a nugget there to be
explored. What is God whispering to us?
Today we start ESL
classes with 17 people with each member of our family teaching a small group of
4. I think they’re excited. Students expressed concern about not affording the
‘cost’ of the class. No hay necessita dinero, but the ‘cost’ will be for them
to ‘teach’ a friend how to speak English. They will bring the notebook and
pencil we’ve bought for them with their homework and the homework of their
friend. We keep hearing from the workers down here, that people who get
something for nothing don’t appreciate it. Something that ‘costs’ or has to ‘be
worked for’ is more effective. Well-meaning people have been handing out
clothes, shoes, money etc for free and put people out of business like the tailor in the village, the shoe cobbler, the small tiendas. It has also created a culture of dependence. Instead of working together to get out of poverty using
natural resources and God given intellect, skills, hard work and cooperation, people just
wait for the next plane of Gringos to come down. Short term, 1 week mission
trips can do a lot of damage. More on this later. Many NGO's/missionaries have now read "When Helping Hurts." How does God factor into good
development work and appropriate practices when we're being called to compassion, to go out into all
the world and when it's easier to give money or food than a job? Supporting long term workers on the ground is crucial.
Ash Wednesday Evening…
We got to the village an
hour before our class was supposed to start.
We had arranged with the director, Juan Ovalle, to use the school cafeteria
in the morning for ESL classes. While
talking with the people interested in the class, we discovered that the
afternoon was better for them since they were in school in the morning. What we didn’t realize is that the cafeteria
is used as a classroom in the afternoon.
We therefore had no space and there were no students to be seen! We went through the village to find our great
recruiter Alesandra & we came across our friend Lukny who was home on a day
off. By the time we were done talking
with Lukny, there were more teenagers waiting for us at the top of the village
than we could handle! We went up and
talked with them & pared the group down to those we had talked about with
Alesandra. Juan gave us the use of
the school library, which is slightly bigger than the broom closet.
We got the 2pm class going at about 2:45 (and
you thought Runnymede time was bad!) Pam did an amazing job of teaching the
first English lesson – ABC’s, family, and John 14:6 using MariAnne Dibbley's book Learning English through the bible(shout out to you, MariAnne! The kids and I backed her up in small groups.
The students were typical teenagers, but
they really wanted to learn! We have to
admit that we thought that the ESL class was going to be the easiest thing we
did & we were all exhausted after it!
After the class we went
back to Lukney’s house for a visit, had a good conversation with Mateo the Jefe (chief) and Fanta purchased from
Fifi’s Colmado.
Good Friends-Lukny and son Luknito in red.
Alesandra (You're welcome, Dawn & Esther)
Talking with the Jefe (in yellow) of the village. Pray for Mateo because an investment in the leadership is significant. He blessed us and the work we're doing. We look forward to a positive relationship together.
Back down the bumpiest
road in the universe to pick up chewy chicken and rice & peas for supper
& home again, home again jiggity jig.
Thanks for posting. Thinking of you.
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