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 (1-2ndgrade), 10 in escuela (3rd – 6th
grade), and 4 kids in colegio (7th 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 1st 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
Wow!!! God has really blessed your ministry there...that is so wonderful!
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