Living Life!

We've had lots of enjoyable events over the last couple weeks!

Ladies from Guadalajara
Last Thursday, the group of ladies from Guadalajara came to put on their monthly activities for our kids. This year, they have been doing a country theme, as they come from a variety of different countries and continents. They choose one representative from the group to organize a powerpoint, games, food, and crafts about their home country. This time, we learned all about Norway! What a fascinating country! The kids had a blast making a traditional dish (which involved lots of flour :). We had little friends covered from head to toe in flour, simply loving their life! I've attached pictures below.


New Students
As I mentioned in my previous blog, we recently had two new students join our school from the village. We walked them home last week to touch base with their family over homework and other details, as well as just to encourage them. However, we ended up being the ones encouraged as we left. The younger student has homework every night that involves reading stories out of a children's storybook Bible and answering some questions. As is typical in Mexican culture, multiple generations live in the same house. One of the members of their household is their elderly grandmother who is blind. As it turns out, their mother has been reading stories out of the Bible to their grandmother who is hungry to hear them! What started out as homework, has ended up being almost like a family devotion time for a family who does not know Christ (as far as we know)! Praise God for how he works!


Mission Team
We have a college team currently visiting from New York who have been extremely helpful in many ways! They've helped with childcare, painting, making a crib for one of our little ones, cooking, and various other projects.

Practice Test
We took our four oldest students into the city to take a practice test this week in preparation for the end of the year tests. It was a good experience for them and put them out of their comfort zone a little bit. However, they came out of it on a positive note. We enjoyed the opportunity to take them out to lunch afterward and spoil them a little bit :).

Kids Club
We had another kids club this week, with the help of the mission team. Basically, it functions like a VBS. We invite all the children from the village, play games with them, do crafts, sing, have a Bible lesson, and then feed them at the end. We had around 80 children again this time. Many of the members of the team speak Spanish, so they conducted all the activities and shared the gospel through skits and testimonies. It was very cool to see God using them to bless the kids!

Birthdays
This was one of our big birthday weeks! With so many people living and working under the same roof, birthdays are common occurrences. We had three this week. Our youngest turned one, another turned 10, and one of our new students turned 8. We enjoyed celebrating with them and seeing how God has worked in each of their lives.

That's all for now! Thanks again for all your prayers! Enjoy the pictures below. :)

Norway powerpoint and presentation

Covered in flour! Making an authentic Norwegian dish!

Taking the kids out to eat after the practice test!

Kids Club

80 plates of snacks!

Our 1 year old celebrity! So many cameras :)

Moving Along

We’ve enjoyed the company and help of several mission teams and individual volunteers over the past weeks and are anticipating another team this weekend. Here are a couple of the biggest pieces of news:

Testing

Due to our new accreditation, our students will have to take a government test at the end of the school year. A few weeks ago, we obtained the government curriculum and have been adding that to the curriculum we've already been teaching. We've had to extend the school day a bit and the kids have had really good attitudes so far. While this has added many hours of preparation work, I have absolutely LOVED having the excuse to study more Spanish. It is also extremely beneficial to our students to be forced to work with academic Spanish for an extended period of time as well! We would appreciate prayer as we continue to prepare the students well. 

New Students

Last week, we had two boys from the village show up at our doorstep unannounced and wanting to become a part of our school. After investigating the matter further, we found that they had just moved back to the village from the States and speak/read fluently in English. We prayed and felt the door opening, so we’ve accepted them into our school for the rest of the year. Although they are not a part of the shelter, we are extremely excited about the possibility of reaching them with the gospel. They know nothing of the Bible and we’ve already had the opportunity to teach them several stories and share the bridge illustration with them. We would greatly appreciate prayer for their hearts as they encounter Jesus for perhaps the first time!

Class photo with our two new students! 

Paperwork

The accreditation process has come with loads of paperwork and requirements. At this point, we may run into some trouble since Jenny and I are only certified in the United States. We are looking into different possibilities, one of which being the pursuit of Mexican teaching certification (if it’s within reach). As we search, we ask for prayer that God would uncover the best means possible to help the ministry with the paperwork needs.

The newest members of the family-5 little kittens!

A wonderful surprise picture from my niece and nephew! Nothing like pure encouragement :)!

Our Bible Timeline-major stories completed from the Old and New Testament! So exciting!

February So Far

Time has absolutely flown by these past couple of weeks! I have written some of the highlights below:

Mission Team
We enjoyed meeting a team of 18 people from Louisiana who came down to help us with construction and other projects this past week. They were incredibly hard workers and blessed us in many ways!

Flag Day
We drove the students in earlier this week for a little flag ceremony at our sister school in the city. Although the ceremony was short, we made the most of our trip by taking the kids out to Applebee's for breakfast afterward. The kids were all wearing their uniforms and speaking English to us, so I guess we brought on quite a bit of curiosity :). Jenny and I were both approached by a waitress who wanted to know what we do and why we do it. We had a chance to share a little bit of our mission and were excited to show the kids how we can share God's word through our actions!

Teaching and Kid's Club
We have been intentional about teaching the kids to be the "light of the world," and had a wonderful opportunity this week to help them practice! With the help of the mission team, we ran a Kid's Club this Tuesday (kind of like a VBS). We had about 80 kids show up! We played games, make little crafts, heard a short little message, and then fed them dinner. It was fun to watch our kid's mingle and take the risks of making new friends. We're hoping to have a Kid's Club once a month! I've posted pictures below!

Valentine's Day Party
The students have been working hard to earn what we call a "compliment party," so we chose to celebrate it on Valentine's Day! We spent the whole morning at school enjoying fun activities with them, decorating heart-shaped cookies, walking to the park for a game of baseball and volleyball, etc. I hope you enjoy some of our pictures below!

Accreditation
We are so incredibly blessed to have received accreditation for this school year! Thank you so much for all your prayers on that front! Praise the Lord! Now that we are accredited, we would appreciate prayer as we are currently pursuing some materials to help the students prepare for the big end of the year test. We are hoping to discover any gaps in our curriculum before the test comes!

Kids Club with 80 kids!

The kids with their Valentine's Day teddy bears, all ready for our compliment party! 

Decorating cookies!

Playdough with Miss Kylie! 

Volleyball at the park! 

Baseball at the park! 

5 new baby kittens born this week!

Building Electric Circuits in Science!

Family and Kylie!

Live worship during our morning song time, newly labeled library books, sifted corn, branded cows, cleared rubble, and playing with the kids were just some of the many ways our families were able to help out as they visited us last week! We had an absolutely WONDERFUL time sharing the ministry and the vision with them! We were able to treat them to a few Mexican dinners and a tour of Guadalajara as well. :)

Words cannot describe how much of a support they were last week, so I've attached millions of pictures below (ok...maybe not millions). I just couldn't choose!

We were also extremely excited to pick up Kylie on the same day that our parents left and she has been spending the last two days getting to know the kids and the general ministry. She got a chance to observe how school runs today and tomorrow will jump right in :) The kids have already fallen in love with her and ask Jenny and I where "Miss Kylie" is if they see us! We are so thankful for God's provision of her and her willing, sweet heart to serve!

As for school, we've been staying fairly on schedule. We're excited to use the new leveled library to help match reading levels to "Just Right" books (for all you teacher friends out there). God has really been showing me the power of prayer through multiple clear, and I mean CLEAR answers to prayer. I'm excited to increase my prayers for the ministry and would appreciate prayer from all of you as well. God is good!

Great quotes of the last few weeks:

*"Maestra Amber, I broke my muscle!"
*"Maestra Jenny, can you count me how many minutes it takes me to brush my teeth in one second?"
*After learning the song Bind Us Together Lord, one of the students was overheard this morning singing "Bang us together, Lord, Bang us together..."
*Student: "Maestra Jenny, do you know your brother Jeff?" Jenny: "Yes, yes I do." Student: "Oh, well he's over looking for the mens."
*Student: "Maestra Jenny, how can a baby come out of a mommy's tummy...even if she has a really fat shirt on?"
*Student: "I want be a baby someday. Then I won't ever cry!"
*Teacher's Question: "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Student response: "A barbie!"
*Adult Reminder: "When you get in your bed, you're not going to be..." Correct response would have been "talking." Student's actual response: "Peeing!" Well, I suppose that would be a correct response as well...


Enjoy the pics!

Our new leveled library! Thank you Mom!!

Empty dish sinks (with a lot of hard work)! 

Dixie rides all around! :) 

The Courters with Dixie! 

Live worship in the classroom! 

Our baby owl, not so small anymore...

Chris helping out with the little ones!

Hard at work sifting corn! 

The kids made a little sign to welcome "Miss Kylie!"  

Miss Kylie meets Dixie

An Overdue Update

It's been a long time since I've updated, so I will try to give a brief overview of all the main happenings!

Christmas Break

I enjoyed an absolutely wonderful three weeks with family and friends over the holiday season. Jenny and I have now been back for two weeks and are getting back into the swing of things. We had a wonderful time bringing back gifts, donations, and school materials for the kids. We were so touched by the amount of people who wanted to give and the kids were so appreciative! Apparently, three weeks was longer than I thought, as I was asked by one of our young students if I remembered her when we got back :).

Accreditation 

We are so thankful to the Lord for helping us in this process! We have been approved for the remainder of this school year! We are moving forward with the process of partnering with a school in the city to receive official documentation for the students' education, as well as to take the state test at the end of the year. We would appreciate continued prayers as we are asking the government to approve this partnership as a long term possibility.

Intern

Our intern from the first semester left in December, and we have been prayerfully asking the Lord to send us someone for this semester. Well, the Lord has answered our prayers in such an amazing way! We just found out this past week that Kylie, a wonderful young woman from my church, will be joining us until June! Kylie just recently graduated with a degree in both Early Childhood Education and Spanish. She will be a hand-in-glove fit in our classroom here and we are looking forward to receiving her on February 2nd. How lucky are we??! We can hardly contain our excitement to have her here, and are so thankful to the Lord for providing! We would appreciate prayer for her safe arrival! 

Upcoming Semester

As for other happenings, this is currently a busy season for the shelter. We have many mission teams coming down to help with construction and various other projects. School is back in full force, and our brains are packed full with new ideas and teaching strategies to put in place :). Both Jenny and I's family are coming down this coming week to visit and help out. We can't WAIT to see them and show them the ministry. We would also appreciate prayer for their safety and time here. 

I think that's all for now, but pictures are worth a thousand words, and I've attached many below to show what I couldn't explain. Enjoy! 

Thank you Chandler Woods for raising money for new clothes for the kids!
And thank you for donating some balls for our P.E. class as well! They loved their presents!

Thank you Grandma and family for donating so many wonderful books! 

Sewing class with one of the visitors! 

More book donations from a first grade teacher who came to visit! Thank you!

Building 3D atoms in Science! (above) 

Learning about capacity, recipes, and measurement in Math! Chocolate Chip Cookies anyone? Just don't ask how they turned out...