Lots more students!

Almost daily we have new students applying. We have added a new teacher to our staff. She doesn't know any Sign Language yet, but we will begin training her. As I mentioned before, there just isn't anyone to hire that does.
As we have grown, we've added students one by one to classes, until the class size became very difficult to manage. We are finally able to take a few students out of each overcrowded class, and put them with the new teacher. I'll be working with the training of three teachers, and possibly four, if we can add another soon.

The children are improving in behavior. It is a long road for some. One of the best things is that we have children that have been with us for years, and are good examples to the new children coming in. They encourage the new children to obey, by word and deed.

Three of the teenage deaf students came to the deaf ministry at the church I attend last Sunday. The school kids have a weekly chapel service as well. Most don't have the opportunity to attend a church.

Please keep personnel on the top of your prayer list for us.

Toes and Chairs

We have a three month volunteer, Karen, a deaf woman from Florida, who is helping us by teaching math in several of the classrooms. On her second day, one of our little wild boys ;) threw a rock the size of a football, and it hit her foot. Ouch. She was limping around for a few days, but nothing was broken, just bruised.

This year we have about five kids that are new to school, and used to being on the street unsupervised most of the day. They fight each other constantly, and they don't fight gently. Fortunately they are still little guys, so they usually don't hurt anyone seriously. We have had kids like this before, just not so many at one time. They gradually calm down and adjust to having to obey a teacher. Pray for these kids. They need most of all to know the Lord. Right now they are learning a language for the first time, and will be able to understand the gospel before long.

One little boy in the first grade class likes to break things. He prefers to break crayons in small pieces then throw them at other students, but he will break pencils to throw if crayons aren't available. He also enjoys tearing things, like flashcards. He draws pictures of monsters and tells me that they like to come out at night. There is always a moon in the picture to indicate that. He is wonderfully creative, and he is intelligent, but probably has ADHD. The other kids lose patience with his throwing things at them, and then there are fights. These kids don't know how to talk anything out. Every little offense calls for revenge, preferably way out of proportion to the original offense.

The children were so happy when they came in and saw new desks and chairs this morning. And the teachers were happy to see new high quality blackboards. All of these were provided by the Secretary of Education (like the Dept. of Education in the States.) We are so happy to see the government taking responsibility for deaf education.

They are also committed to giving the kids bread and milk, for a morning snack each day.

We are up to 65 children right now, and more are still signing up. We know this means having some teachers start without a knowledge of Sign Language. That is upsetting, but the fact is, that there just aren't any teachers to hire that do know Sign. So we take them in and train them on the job. The older kids are good teachers for their teachers. But we would love to have more signing volunteers to come over and help out.

Here are some prayer requests: Pray for personnel, for those we have, and those we need. Pray for the new kids to be able to adjust. Thank God for his provision of much-needed school furniture.

Blessings!

Opening Ceremony

This morning we had the opening ceremony for the "new" deaf school. It is new, in the sense that for the first time, the government is providing classroom space for the deaf students. I suspect it is the first time in Dominican history that that has happened. At least I don't know of any other school that gets that kind of help. And we do want the government to help, because they have a responsibility toward their deaf citizens.

Some Dept. of Education officials were present, and spoke. Afterwards, one mom stood up and explained how she had tried other schools to get help for her multiply handicapped daughter (she's deaf and has CP), and our center was the first that was able to help. Now they have better communication at home, whereas before she and her daughter didn't understand each other.

Several moms who were there for the first day came up to me and told me of how their children always pray at home.

J.P., a deaf student, has started coming to the deaf ministry of the church I attend. He was telling me about all the girls who had asked him to be their boyfriend. He turned them all down. He told me, "I can't just make the commitment that easily. I have to pray about it first."

Someone asked me to post the "after" videos, when the school was ready to open, so I'm going to add those in here for any who would like to see them.