Nontraditional Family Members

My little darlings just finished their “Family” unit in Basic English and we did some more cool projects that I want to share with you! My students often surprise me with their creativity and when they choose to use it – some projects or assignments that I think they will love they only spend 3 minutes scribbling something down, while others that I think are mediocre they devour and produce the most beautiful creations. As well, I always seem to struggle with designing projects that are at their level – they can either handle the directions easy peesy or I find myself surrounded by little ducklings begging me to do everything for them. These two assignments turned out to be successful in both areas and my students made me very proud with their final products!

Fingerprint Families: One of the problems with teaching “family” vocab here in La Unión is that my students have ridiculous families. Everyone is somehow related to everyone because they have countless aunts, uncles, and cousins. You would need a billboard to map out their family trees! So for this project I limited who they had to include to those who lived in the same house as them. Each student had to stamp their finger prints on a paper and turn those finger prints into people in their families! Unfortunately I did not get any photos of what they created before they ran home with their pictures, but here is mine (and it wasn’t even the best looking one out of the bunch!):

Magazine Families: This one was really fun to watch my students piece together new families. I put all my kiddos into groups and pre-ripped out (to avoid any awkward or scandalous advertisements) an assortment of pictures of people from magazines and they all had to leaf through them, cut out the people, and create a new family! They glued the pictures to a poster paper and labeled each person with the vocabulary word that would describe this person’s new position in our 3^rd grade classroom families. They giggled the whole time and had fun choosing their new family members!

Please be praying for some 12^th graders this week as they await responses from universities in the States about scholarships. Darwin is waiting to hear from Kuyper College (Michigan) about a full ride. Kevin, Nelson, and Lucely are waiting to hear from Hope College (Michigan) about more money, a full tuition, or a full ride to the school. And Darwin, Nelson, and Nelsy have second interviews with the Walton International Scholarship Program for a possible full ride with extra perks to one of three schools in Arkansas. Pray for them by name, that they would be filled with patience as they eagerly wait to hear back and that they trust fully in the Lord during this time. God is beginning to reveal their futures to them and I pray that they are ready to faithfully follow His plans! 

2014

It’s a new year which means change! Honduras is not really known for getting things done quickly… it’s like watching a pot of water boil. Everything eventually gets done on “Honduran” time. The nice thing about leaving for break is that when I came back, a few projects were magically finished!

Project #1 – the school bathrooms. They started working on building the school new bathrooms even before I started working in 2012. By the time school started last year, a foundation had been laid to build bathrooms on, and that’s as far as anyone got. This year things started looking more promising as we watched walls go up, a roof go on, and toilets show up at the school. Finally the bathrooms are finished! (At least the girls’ side is ready to use.)

Instead of two separate shacks (or torture chambers, you decide) disguised as bathrooms, we now have 5 dazzling new toilets and functioning sinks… and that’s just for the girls! I no longer fear going to the bathroom – the seats are not falling off, the doors lock, and there are more than enough for everyone to use so there aren’t any children pounding on the door disturbing my peace.

Project #2 – a paved road. “La Union with a paved road,” has been a rumor for years. People have been saying for years that, “next year, they will start paving the main road.” ‘Next year’ never seemed to come. Until now. Coincidentally this past November was election season and the current mayor was running again, so naturally the best way to win popularity is to start building the road. The pavement was fictitious no more! They started paving the road in September and took a fearful break in November; I thought they were trying to send the message, “the road will not be finished unless you reelect the mayor.” The paving recommenced before the results were in, but coincidentally the mayor was reelected. It’s only a portion of the main road, but it is paved nonetheless and it is marvelous!

Project #3 – our oven. About two months ago the wires on the back caught on fire and that was the death of our oven as we know it. The top coils would still heat up but not the bottom ones – so we could melt cheese to make nachos but not bake anything. We heard the typical answer, “it will be fixed next week,” or, “we are waiting on a man to bring the right part.” But just like the road, ‘next week’ never seemed to get here and I started to believe that the ‘man’ did not really exist. We were hoping for a miracle over break but were sorely disappointed when we got back. We politely reminded our landlady about the oven and the next day… A BRAND NEW OVEN STOOD IN ITS PLACE! The new oven is absolutely beautiful and it works like a wonder. I baked celebratory cookies immediately.

So there you have it: it’s a new year which means new bathrooms, a newly paved road, and a new oven! I do not think the year could start off any better here in Honduras.

This week you can be praying for one of our students who recently got in a terrible motorcycle accident. Molly and I saw the accident happen on our walk home from school and it really scared us both. Nelson, a 12^th grade student, was in the wrong spot at the wrong time and collided head on with another motorcycle. While the initial injuries looked horrific, he was able to walk away from the clinic that night with no stitches, no broken bones, and only a couple of scrapes on his face. However, since the accident his head has been the main concern. He missed an entire week of school because of constant headaches. Pray for his continued recovery so that there is no serious, long term damage and he can come back to school soon. Also, send up praises to the Lord for protecting him during that accident because he was not wearing a helmet and, as I mentioned, the initial accident looked like he would be in a much worse condition.

Israel

Last year Kara decided to take a risk and attempt making a trip to Israel happen with her 11^th grade Bible students. She first went on the trip as a student in her high school, Holland Christian. She was so moved by the trip that she returned to Israel while studying at Calvin College. She fell in love with the history of Christianity and the Bible and went on to major in Religious Studies. The organization, That the World May Know, makes the trip every year and while teaching Bible here in Honduras, she had the idea of seeing if the organization would consider sending her students on the trip. Last year she began inquiring and asked to be granted a meeting with the heads of the organization. Once they agreed to meet with her, she and her class began working hard.

Over the summer and at the beginning of this year they all put together a proposal for the trip to get official approval. They have pulled together a portfolio of letters and profiles of the individual students, and an incredible video. In October Kara went back to the States for a wedding and made a quick detour to Michigan to meet with the director of the trip to discuss the final decision – if it were even a possibility for these students to go. She would not reveal the details of the conversation until she got back so we all waited eagerly to hear the results! Screams could be heard all over town when she announced to the class that the organization wanted to send them to Israel! The trip itself could easily be the biggest adventure many of them could take in their entire lives, it could inspire some to pursue greater things in their future, and it would give most the opportunity to make their faith their own.

To check out their profiles, go to http://www.followtherabbi.com/site/abundant-life-schools.

Now the big issue remains fundraising. The trip costs $5500 per student and that price is beyond anyone’s means here. Kara has put together a fundraising packet including a video featuring the students describing how much the trip would benefit them, personal letters from each student describing their own faith stories and what the trip would mean to them, and a letter asking for financial help. They have reserved 30 spots on the trip for our students and are going to fundraise as much as they can to send every single student. If they do reach the full fundraising goal, they will send as many students as possible however Kara does not want to be the one who decides which students will not be going.

The organization is sending out their own letters to accompany her packet for a month of power-fundraising; she has also set up a site on Indiegogo to spread the word. Would you take a look at it? Even if you cannot donate any money personally, prayers are just as powerful. I would love to see those students get the opportunity to leave this tiny town and have their worlds rocked by the Lord. Kara has worked so hard to make this trip happen and everyone wants to see her dream come to life for her students. So start praying with me! I have faith that the Lord will make this trip happen for every single one of those 12^th grade students. They have already saved money to get passports and are fundraising around town to contribute as much as they can to the trip. Pray that the money is raised for everyone to go so that they can experience God in an incredible way!

Here is the website to read more, watch their video, or donate, and thank you for whatever support you can provide: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/honduran-students-dream-of-israel

Who am I?

My third graders recently learned “adjective” words in our Basic English class and we did a project that I want to share with you! Each person had to create a poster decorated with the vocabulary words that described themselves, but without putting their names on it so that everyone else could guess who the poster belonged to. We cut out flaps that said, “Who am I?” and could be lifted up to reveal the mystery person. I took really goofy pictures of all my students to put under the flaps, and then hung the posters on the wall outside of our room for the whole school to see and guess. There were lots of visitors lingering outside of our classroom for a few weeks and laughing at how silly everyone looked! The vocabulary list is rather specific and not too extensive so almost everyone’s poster has the same words on it, but they are still fun to see. Here are all the posters we made… see if you can match my students with the right poster!

(from Top to Bottom, Left to Right: Juan, Bessy, Rut, Abner)

(Carlos, Me, Gersan, Xochtil)

(Yulisa, Emelyn, Gabriela, Sofia)

(Francias, Karla, Gissela, Lenny)