It has been a special joy and privilege to work with the children of
the "Life and Peace Children´s Home." It is a small home sponsored by a
local church that reaches out to children who have been abused or
mistreated and have been temporarily removed from their homes.
For
over a year I have been working with them once a week to teach a Bible
study and also give them English cases. Early this fall we finished the
book,
How to Study the Bible for Kids, by Kay Arthur and Janna
Arndt. This study gave the children excellent tools for digging into
Scripture to understand what it says, see how it applies to their daily
lives and improve overall study skills. It was also a fun study because
the book has puzzles, charts and clip art to make the lessons
interesting and challenging. After finishing the book, I presented each
child with a diploma and a New Testament in an easy to read version (in
Spanish of course!)
We are now working on a book called
Lord, Teach me to Pray for kids, by
the same authors. This study starts by examining the Lord´s prayer,
phrase by phrase, and using it as a model for our own prayers. In last
week´s lesson we talked about the importance of reverencing God´s name
by not taking it in vain, using it in a carelessly, without respect or
in a godless manner. It´s an in depth study and challenging for the
children to understand as well as a challenge for me to translate.
Pray the Lord will touch the heart´s of these youngsters that they will apply these truths to their everyday life.
.
Recently
the home was moved to a new location. The house they were living in was
large and run down and the monthly rent was a burden. The new
apartment is the second floor of a house in a quiet neighborhood with a
basketball court, soccer field and swings at the end of the block. A
Christian couple live downstairs who love children and are happy to rent
at a reasonable price. The move also meant a change in schools which
turned out to be difficult at this stage of the school year. Although
there is a school in the new neighborhood, it´s saturated and could not
take in any new students. Eventually they settled into one in a nearby
community and they are doing well.
My schedule has slowed down
recently and I was wondering how I could use my time more wisely. At
the suggestion of a co-worker, I asked permission to visit the children
three times a week to concentrate on their academic skills. Permission
was gladly granted and on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I travel to
the new location, about a 30 minute drive from where I live. One
session a week we continue work on the Bible study as well as focus on
Math skills, another day we work on Spanish and reading and Fridays are
for a variety of activities such as learning games, geography or extra
reading time. Each time I visit I also read to them a chapter form
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by C.S.Lewis, which they are really enjoying.
Seek God´s provision for the needs of the children,
emotional, spiritual, material and academic. Pray God will give me wisdom and insight as I work with them.
Last
Friday was a national holiday and the children had no school. One of
the ladies from the church invited us all to a small ranch she and her
husband own about an hour outside of Tuxpan. It was a beautiful day and
very hot, for which we were all glad to get out of the city. We ladies
sat around under the shade of a large tree and enjoyed chatting and
getting to know one another better. The kids had a blast running,
playing hide and seek, swinging in a hammock and chasing the dog. The
two men, house father Miguel, and Jorge, the man who owns the ranch,
were busy firing up the cement oven to make bread, roasting corn on the
cob and heating up the chicken with spicy mole sauce, yum! We all
watched, and several participate, in the mixing and kneading of the
bread dough. However, cooking in a large, outdoor cement oven turned
out to be harder than we thought. The bread ended up being black on the
inside and doughy on the inside, oh well, we ate some of it anyway with
hot chocolate that Jorge had made.
It
was starting to get dark so we reluctantly packed up our things, piled
the kids into the vehicles and headed back into town. It was a lovely
and exhausting day. I´m sure the kids slept well that night, I know I
did!
Praise God for His many blessings and the generosity of our friends who invited us to their ranch.
I
look forward to my continued visits with the children, at least until I
leave for the States in early December. We´ll see what next year
brings but I know as long as I am in Tuxpan, I will continue to be
involved in these children´s lives.
