Giving Thanks

After Manuel's father died this spring it has fallen on Manuel and his brothers to earn the money to support the family.  At one point about two months ago, Manuel was burdened with paying for everything when his brother lost his job and his little brother was still in high school. His mother does not work outside of the home.  He felt the stress of trying to pay the bills and not having any money left over.   Then God blessed him.  He got a raise and the boss gave him overtime work to do.  His older brother got a job in a restaurant and his younger brother is washing dishes in a different restaurant.  Manuel attributes the change to God and thanks God for relieving his stress. 

Manuel had witnessed his boss taking everyone out to dinner for Christmas and thanking God for the success of his business.  Manuel decided to thank his friends and God by taking his friends out to eat.  So here we are at Nahil Mayab enjoying his generosity.

There was a part of me that wanted to say...hey save your money because you never know when you will need it.  But I said nothing because I was glad to see him be generous, and enjoy sharing. He's trusting that God will continue to provide...and He will.

Mangoes !

 It's mango season!  This tree is in the neighbor's yard.  One day last week when she was picking I asked if I could have the mangoes that are falling into my yard.  She said, "Please! There are too many." So I asked Manuel to knock them down for Edgar and Misael to take home.

Saturday was Mango Tree Day.  I invited the whole Deaf church to come pick mangoes from the tree.  Some climbed on the roof of my house and could reach some mangoes from there.  But "Juan the monkey" climbed to the top of the tree, filled a bucket and lowered them to us down below.  He took 2 one-hundred pound sacks of mangoes to sell and eat.  The tree still has hundreds more.  I wonder how many will be there when I come back from my two week vacation to Maine.  It's ok. Someone eating them is better than having them fall and rot on the ground.

Friday Fun Night

For Fun Night, we decided to play "Minute-to-Win-It" games.  We divided the multi-age group into two teams and chose numbers. When I called a number, one person from each team came up to the center table to play one of the games.  Below you see Jaheed and Selena trying to transfer the mints from one plate to the other with chopsticks.
 

Raheem doing "Face Cookie" while Juan swipes a clothespin.  The clothespin game was played simultaneously...everyone gets one clothespin.  If you cross your legs or your arms, anyone else can take you clothes pin.  The person with the most pins at the end of the night wins a Snicker's Bar.

Sulmi and Angelica playing "Nutstacker".

Rayan and Reinalda stacking cups as quickly as they can.

Elton and Alma sorting Skittles one-handed.

Manuel and Yaniry doing "A Bit Dicey".

Alva and Edgar stacking baby blocks on a plate on their heads, one-handed!

Morine's Graduation from Preschool

Here are some pictures from Morine's graduation.  Brittany interpreted but Morine had never used an interpreter before.  She gave it a good try. I'm looking forward to seeing how she does in Infant 1 with an interpreter.  I think it will be a challenge at first...but she will increase her vocabulary and catch on quickly. 

Adrienne (Morine's hearing, younger sister) is on the left.

The children are singing an ABC song.

Boyz Bible Study

I'm praying at the beginning of the Bible study.

That's me praying at the start of the Bible study.  The time that seems to work best for everybody is   Saturday noon...for now.  We'll evaluate in the fall and maybe go back to Saturday nights. What do we study?  On Sunday mornings I pass out a paper with the day of the week and the verse to read.  These verses are background for the topic that I will use for Sunday's sermon and form the basis for our Bible studies.

 

 When Jesus prayed "on earth as it is in Heaven", he was praying that we Christians would act like God would expect us to act in Heaven.   We sometimes choose to act the way everyone else does on earth.  This creates the conflict between earth culture and Heavenly culture.

 These past weeks the boys have discussed the first aspect of Kingdom culture.  FAITH.   Faith is the opposite of worry.  There are lots of verses where Jesus tells us to have faith and not to worry.  Last week was ENCOURAGEMENT vs. criticism.  The boys each read one of the verses for the week and tell what it means.   The others add their thoughts about what the verse means.

Misael is spelling one of the words in the text.

The cool thing about doing this with the boys is that the boys that come, can all read.  If they can read the verse they can think about it and try to understand it.  This becomes an interactive approach.   Only 2 of the 8 women in the Deaf Women's Bible Study on Wednesdays can read.  That group needs a different approach...It's a struggle for me because I don't want to do all the talking. I want them to "discover" what God is saying.  Hmmm.

Goodbye Beautiful Nopal

 When I first came to Belize, almost 8 years ago, Angelica gave me this little Nopal plant.  It looks like a "cactus".  I planted it in the front of the house.

 It grew to be a beautiful tree.  It had red flowers on it most of the year. But it had horrible prickers that seemed to fall into the grass and prick you if you walked near by,  Gabriel was developing sores on his feet and legs from trying to bite the prickers out.  Then the sores swelled up and got infected. I loved the tree but it was the tree or the dog and Gabriel won hands down.

 So I asked Juan to come chop it down.  He did it piece by piece with a machete.

 What hard work!  He started with protective clothing and shed it as the heat of the day made him too hot.

Now I get to plant something else!

Sulmi Cooked Dinner!

     Sulmi made our supper tonight.  She often helps me but this time she made the whole meal.  I had a hospital visit.  I came home to get a blanket for the patient (the hospital doesn't supply blankets ...ARGH!
Huh?) 
     So I came home to get the blanket and Sulmi asked, "Can I help with dinner?"
     I said, "Yes!"
 When I returned she had already peeled the potatoes, started them to boil,  and both cooked and seasoned the ground beef .

I was so impressed that I broke out the camera and watched her do the rest. She then proceeded to shred the cheese. 

 

Zapped the beans and corn in the microwave...

 ....and set the table.  It was potato bar night.   I praise God for guiding Sulmi to be a thoughtful, helpful person.  She's also a good cook!