Lights out!

Last school year we were blessed with an abundance of electricity. We only lost electricity maybe once a month or so, and then it usually was less than an hour. This year is proving to be quite different. Some days we do not have electricity at all. Other days we may not have it for one to two hours.

Not having electricity means we cannot use the computer or lights, but that isn't the worst of it. It means we can't use the fans and there is no cold water. When it is in the 90's outside, it is pretty hot in the classrooms. The good news is that elections are coming up in May. Electricity always improves around election time, because otherwise the incumbent hurts his chances for reelection.

This week's theme in our Bible study is prayer. We are telling the children that God cares, and hears the prayers of his children. We are praying specifically for more electricity. We would rather not have to wait until election time. As for me, I love this stage of early prayer, where the Lord begins to show the children his mighty hand. It is very faith-building.

Misc. news

Yesterday the children asked if they could have a "día de colores." Normally they wear a uniform to school, as do all school children here. Ours is a blue shirt and khaki pants. A "día de colores is a dress-up day, where no one has to wear a uniform. We agreed to have one next week. It's a good time to take some pictures, and I'll be sure to post some here. Stay tuned.

We have been offered two classrooms in an area local to about a third of our students. If we can get at least one teacher set up over there, we'll transfer the local students who want to go, and we can enter the students on our waiting list here.

There is a national strike for higher wages and lower prices set for Tuesday Oct. 2. We never know if the strike will actually happen until very close to the appointed time. Sometimes the government manages to avert a strike with last minute negotiations. Strike days are no-school days.

Full

The school is now full to capacity, and we are turning children away. We are all working hard with these full classrooms, but it is a work of joy. Pray with us that the children will receive much spiritual and intellectual benefit from their studies this year.

We had the first of our daily 15 minute Bible studies this week.

The children are all excited to see each other again. During the summer, many have no one with whom they may sign, so they are greatly isolated. As they get older, and have more freedom to leave their house/area alone, they become active in the Deaf community, and this isolation goes away.

Yesterday I did a simple exercise with my class, for distinguishing left and right. One hundred percent of them didn't know which was which. Considering that most are teens, this isn't good. There are so many absolute basics to teach them that it is very difficult to sandwich them all into the school year. The good news is that there is constant perceivable progress in our students.

Thinking skills, and creativity is high on my list, rather than just stuffing the children full of facts for them to parrot back. When you begin your first year of school at more than 12 years old, language and life skills take top positions.

"Lifelong learners" is cliché among teachers, or perhaps even passé these days, but it is critical to these children that they become such. A good part of their education will need to be continued on their own after they leave school to go to work. We teach them how to teach themselves.

Yesterday I told the story of the three pigs to my class. They spontaneously broke into applause at the end!

masterpieces

Lots of new children are signing up, as we expected. Several are looking forward to their first year of school, regardless of the fact that they may be 7, or 11, or 12 years old already.

Today, although it was the beginning of the third week of school, was really the first week for most of the country. Parents simply waited until they got paid to bring their children, because they couldn't afford the uniforms, books, crayons, pencils, etc. needed at schools all across the land.

All our children have not arrived yet, but by the end of the week, we will probably have all that are coming. We have about 40 signed up, and expect to see from 30-36 by the time everything settles down.

These children are to me like a great work of art. I see the big chunk of marble. I know that trapped inside is the masterpiece, wanting to escape. I look for ways to show them how to be free of that prison they are trapped inside. I am not the artist. I'm just cooperating with the Master Artist as best I can. But he opens my eyes to see their beauty and their potential, and keeps me going forward, while difficulties arise on every side.

On reflection, I'd have to say, this has been the most difficult year thus far. I've had more moments of discouragement than ever before. I see myself so inadequate to the enormity of the task. There is so much to be done, and so few to do it. Pray then, with me, to the Lord of the Harvest, that he'll send workers into these fields which are simply overflowing.

But what if it all falls apart? I am no stranger to failure. There was a time in my life that failure was what I feared, perhaps most of all. But that is no longer true. Instead, I learn what I can, and get up and try again when I fail. I have no need to protect my reputation. I don't have to look successful. I just have to obey God.

I look at this school, and see all of the glaring mistakes I have made, and think sometimes, that I should just quit and start all over again, with all I have learned from all the things I didn't do right the first time! It is only by God's mercy that we are still functioning at all.

Onward!