May update

School is going great!                                                                                                                 MAY 2013

We just finished our first quarter at school, and things are going well! We are continually amazed at God’s faithfulness to provide for all of our needs, and are really proud of all of our students. We now have 4 students in Kindergarten, 7 in primary (1-2^ndgrade), 10 in escuela (3^rd – 6^th grade), and 4 kids in colegio (7^th grade). We hadn’t planned on teaching colegio, but the opportunity presented itself, so we jumped in, and those kids have been doing great.

Most of our students have settled into school and are really flourishing in the environment. We have high academic standards, but adjust the level to meet the individual student’s needs, which allows for each student to excel at their own level. We are seeing students excited about finally getting high scores on exams and looking forward to taking exams and coming to school. We are really pleased with the ACE program!

A group in Nebraska did a fundraiser for the school, and we were able to paint the walls and get desks built, and have the electrical work tidied up a bit, so the school looks pretty too! We were also able to raise the funds for our English program for the colegio level students, and classes for them are going well. It is fun hearing our students speaking English and understanding more every day.

Our niece, Jennifer, arrived last weekend, and we are looking forward to hosting two teams this summer, as well as some of our close friends who are coming for a visit. We are planning on completing 3 small building projects while the teams are here, and the team is also going to present a week long VBS program and spend some time with our colegio kids. We are all very excited!

Although most of our time is now spent working with our school, here is a brief update on each of our other ministries:

*Feeding  program for indigent elderly people – We are still doing this one day a week, and our students LOVE it! It has been good for them to share, and our elderly neighbors look forward to the weekly visits.

 

*Kindergarten program – Aly taught Kindergarten for the first quarter, and the students will return for the final quarter to prepare them for 1^st grade next year. They are a spunky group of kids! Alex, our oldest student (29) will continue coming to school 3 days a week to prepare for learning to read.

 

*Tutoring – Gordon is still working with the colegio kids who attend the other colegios in the area, and they enjoy spending time with him.

 

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English in our school, and has two classes – one for colegio students and the other for the younger class. Later in the year, she plans on teaching the primary students.

 

*Bible studies – we have an English Bible study for local ladies and a Bible study/craft time for children under 12. We now have a mixed study for students who are 13 and up on Friday nights, and are praying for a strong bilingual man to start Bible studies for the young men.

*Lunch program – We are serving lunch to all of the students who attend our school as well as 4 others who lack resources to have proper nutrition. This program has been going well, and we try to serve a balanced diet to the students.

 

*Schooling – In addition to our school, we have 8 students in other schools who have sponsors in the USA who pay for their schooling. We ensure that each of them is working to their full potential and are doing their homework and school projects. Each student also receives a nutritional lunch every school day.

 

*Children’s Church – After lots of prayer, we felt that we needed to be attending church instead of leading children’s church. We found a local church that seems to be a good fit for our family, with a lot of English speakers, and are enjoying attending church as a family again!

 

*Worship team – Our new church does not have a worship team, but anyone who wants to is able to get together to sing, and the girls have enjoyed this time.

 

Prayer needs:

·         Sponsor (s) for lunch at school! We try to keep the cost low, but we are feeding 22 people in the school every day, and this is not in our budget. We would like to be able to have one or two people sponsor the cost of this ministry. We are able to keep this cost at around $100 per month; $10 per day. (We reduced it from $150!) We would love to have one or two people sponsor this cost for us!

·         Please Continue to pray for our school! This is a huge undertaking, and we need a lot of prayer both for our teachers (Aly, Natalie, Chantalle, Lisa, & Gordon) and for our students (Cecilia, Franklin, Jennifer, Flor, Kellyn, Gaby, Eneyda, Fatima, Estefany, Katerin, Ruby, Cindy, Maria, Jefer, Aslin, Estefani, Jose, Danny, Deyni, Alex, Angel, Ashlyn, Nahomi, & Jadiel).

·         For more mission/work teams to come! There is A LOT of work to be done in this poverty stricken community, and teams can really change the lives of people here. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or have construction skills, if you are willing and able, we would love to have you! Contact us for more information.

·         We STILL need an electrician!!! We were able to get the electrical system fixed so that things are a little bit safer, but there is more work to be done. Our school assistant has a cousin who was able to help us out at a fraction of the normal cost, and things seem to be working well.

PRAISES:

·         We were able to hire an ASSISTANT at school! Suyapa has been a huge help to our school, and we feel a little bit less exhausted at the end of each day. Thanks for helping meet this need!

·         We finally got our electrical system in the school fixed so that it is safer and there are lights in all of the rooms!

·         New students! We have been praying for a couple of local teens who for one reason or another were not in colegio and not making wise life choices. Over the past month, one after the other of them has come to us asking if they could come to our school. We have been thankful that we were able to admit them to school, and all 3 of them are doing well. These are all students we have worked with in the past, and we are so happy that they are starting to make better choices!

 

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We could not do any of this without your help!

Love, The Eytzen family J                                     Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

March Update

(When I went to post a new update, I realized that I had never actually published this.... oops!)

We’re off to a good start!                                                                                                 MARCH 2013

We had a good break from school, and are one month into the new school year. Thanks to a few generous supporters, we were able to raise enough money to start our neighborhood school. We have 21 students in Kindergarten through 6^th grade who are all eager to learn, and we are excited to teach them. In Honduras, there is no system in place for children who have any sort of special educational needs, and if a student struggles and is unable to pass one class, they are held back for the entire grade. This system, coupled with class sizes of 50-80 students, makes learning very difficult for some students.

 

Most of the students in our school have been held back multiple times and feel very defeated. All of them come from troubled backgrounds and have been victims of abuse and neglect. We are hopeful that our school program will help the students gain self confidence and be able to reach their full potential. We are using the ACE program (Accelerated Christian Education), which allows each student to work at their own pace and spend more time on subjects where more time is needed. We are also teaching everything bilingually, with extensive classes in learning English as a second language so that each student will be able to learn English fluently. Our entire curriculum is Christian based, with character training incorporated into each class.

 

While the need for education is somewhat obvious, it is even more important in Honduras. If a girl is not able to stay in school, there is a lot of pressure to marry, even if the girl is very young or doesn’t feel ready to take this step. One of our students was telling us how happy and relieved she was to have the opportunity to attend school again because her family was pressuring her to find a husband, and at 13, she did not want to have to marry. Girls are also often victims of slavery, and staying in school can help them avoid this. Thank you to all of our supporters who are helping these kids have a better future!

 

We have had to scale back some of our other programs, but are still running most of the programs:

 

*Feeding  program for indigent elderly people – we are doing this one day a week for now with our school kids.  Some of the children are collecting food donations from neighbors, and the children are helping with the cooking and delivery of the food. We are also keeping track of anything that is needed, and the older kids will be helping with projects around the house as needed.

 

*Preschool program – All of the children who were in Natalie’s preschool program are now in Kindergarten with Aly three days a week.

 

*Tutoring – this is the first thing that we started, and kids come every day after school to get help with their homework and to use the internet for educational reasons. Gordon has taken over this ministry, and it has been good for the kids to have a positive male role model.

 

*English classes – Chantalle is teaching English in our school, and as soon as we receive the new curriculum for teens and adults, she will be teaching classes to our colegio students and adults in our community.

 

*Bible studies – we have an English Bible study for local ladies and a Bible study/craft time for children under 12. We also have a study for girls 12 and up, and we would like to add more studies soon. We are actively looking for a young man to help with the study for young men.

 

*Lunch program – We are serving lunch to all of the students who attend our school as well as 4 others who lack resources to have proper nutrition.

 

*Schooling – In addition to our school, we have 8 students in other schools who have sponsors in the USA who pay for their schooling. We ensure that each of them is working to their full potential and are doing their homework and school projects. Each student also receives a nutritional lunch every school day.

 

*Children’s Church – We are in charge of the Sunday children’s programs at our church. We have about 40 children, birth to 12 years old, who we teach lessons to, do crafts with, and love on.

 

*Worship team – Also at church, Natalie and Chantalle help lead worship for Friday and Sunday services. They have really enjoyed being able to serve in this way.

 

Prayer needs:

·         Sponsor (s) for lunch at school! We try to keep the cost low, but we are feeding 22 people in the school every day, and this is not in our budget. We would like to be able to have one or two people sponsor the cost of this ministry. We are able to keep this cost at around $150 per month ($7.50 per day). Please pray about the possibility of helping us in this way.

·         Sponsor for an assistant at school. We would really benefit from having a full time assistant at the school to help with cleaning, lunch preparation, Kindergarten, and odd jobs. Having a special needs school requires the full attention of each of us, and it is very difficult having to try to cover this need as well. The cost for hiring someone would be $100 per month.

·         Please pray for our school! This is a huge undertaking, and we need a lot of prayer both for our teachers (Aly, Natalie, Chantalle, Lisa, & Gordon) and for our students (Flor, Kellyn, Gaby, Eneyda, Fatima, Estefany, Katerin, Ruby, Cindy, Maria, Jefer, Aslin, Estefani, Jose, Danny, Deyni, Alex, Angel, Ashlyn, Nahomi, & Jadiel).

·         For more mission/work teams to come! There is A LOT of work to be done in this poverty stricken community, and teams can really change the lives of people here. Even if you don’t speak Spanish or have construction skills, if you are willing and able, we would love to have you! Contact us for more information.

·         We need an electrician!!! If you have the ability to help with re-wiring our house and the school, we could really use your help! The wiring is in very bad condition, and is not safe nor is it very functional and we really need someone or a small group to come help us get the electricity in working order. Please let us know if you could possibly come help in this way! There are very few trained electricians in this area, and those that are here are extremely expensive.

 

Thank you to everyone who supports us in our ministry! We could not do any of this without your help!

Love, The Eytzen family J                                     Email: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

If you would like to contact us, our contact information is:

Lisa and Gordon Eytzen
c/o Roberto Diaz del Valle
9 KM. Carretera la Guama a Pena Blanca
Hotel Finca Las Glorias, Pena Blanca
Santa Cruz de Yojoa, Cortes
Honduras, Centro America

(it takes about 2-3 months to receive mail)