Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

Teaching Makes Me Smile

2012-01-20T17:40:00.003-02:00

This is a picture of me teaching Glenford. He is 4 years old and deaf. He has a wonderful mother who continues to teach him during the rest of the day and rest of the week when I am not in his home. (He also has a terrific father who loves him and aunts and brothers and sisters and cousins who are quick to give him a hug.) Glenford likes to tease and laugh. He loves "hiding-can you find it?" games. Glenford started out in the preschool at St Peters but he could not follow the directions and was destructive, throwing things, breaking things and laughing about it. It was also hard for him to sit for the circle time like the other children. After giving it a try for about a month we decided that maybe I should teach him in his home and help him to learn the skills that are needed to be able to function in a classroom. We got him a table and some toys to help him learn to sit down to do an activity and to put it away when he is done with it. He still has destructive tendencies... and is easily distracted, scratching an "owie" or his head, or his leg or looking outside when we try to get his attention. But, he is showing improvement in signing words in imitation. Sometimes he shows he understands the sign when I sign a word like I am signing "One" in the photo. Then he finds the picture that I sign. He is just beginning to show this kind of "receptive" language. He also has a few signs he can make without a prompt (bird, fish, "gimme").

The steps and progress are slow, much slower than I expected from this very alert child. Yet, I think once we get him to focus on the teaching activity instead of a multitude of distractions (both real and made up), he will begin to learn more quickly. Please pray for him and his whole family.
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Just a note about God's hand on this family. One day in December I went to the house and saw the father was there. He was laid off from his job a few weeks before Christmas. Money was already tight and this meant the family was really stuck...with no food for several days. Literally, their cupboards were bare. The father had tried to find a job looking at the usual places but every place was full. The next week when I went to the house to teach Glenford, the father was there again and this time he was reading a Bible. I asked him what he was reading and he said he was looking for a verse to help him. I had just read Psalm 37 in my devotion and told him to look it up:

Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. (Psalm 37:5)

We prayed briefly and he left while I taught Glenford with the mother.
The next time I returned, he said that when he went out, he walked the street to find a road crew. When he happened on one, he asked if he could work with them. The foreman said, "Yes." and from that moment on he had a job. He has even been moved from "temporary" to "permanent"... which means he can keep his job even after the pre-election road clearing blitz. Praise God for his compassion, mercy and love on all of his children.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-19T17:58:00.003-02:00

What do YOU do when the electricity goes off?

2011-12-18T20:14:00.000-02:00

The electricity goes off in Belize quite often. Sometimes it is for a few minutes and other times it is for 6 to 8 hours. Last week the electricity went off at 7 PM just after we had finished eating. It was total darkness. Sulmi and I felt our way to the bathroom where I keep flashlights and candles on the shelf. While I got busy lighting candles... Sulmi did the dishes "by flashlight". The picture doesn't really portray the moment because the flash in my camera made it look bright. Imagine this with just the light of that little blue flashlight under her chin. I laughed thinking...who does dishes by flashlight?

Later we tried to sign in the darkness by the light of the candles. Sulmi liked the smell of this "Christmas Cookie" candle and held it up to her nose. It lit her face in the darkness. About ten minutes later the power came back on. I thought, ah shucks...this was fun :-) Sulmi thought I was weird and walked into the living room to watch TV. Hmmmm... I wish they would cut the power in the evening more often.

An-ti-ci-pa-tion It's making me wait!

2011-12-15T15:32:00.000-02:00

When the girls came home from school I had their Christmas presents wrapped and under the tree. They noticed them right away and sat down under the tree to look at them. They started shaking them and trying to guess what was inside. Because Gineli was leaving on Friday for the island with her sister, we decided to open presents on Friday morning. I made French Toast and we invited Kristel to come over to open hers at the same time.

Gineli and Sulmi sign, "What's this? What's inside?"

When I was a little girl my mother used to keep the presents in the attic, where my bedroom was. Once or twice I went into the storage room to see them...to gawk at the shopping bags and to wonder...but I never peeked. Surprising, huh? I like the anticipation, the guessing, the waiting and the surprise. It was fun to watch the girls guess... and to each guess I replied, "Hmmm could be."

Farewell Hipolito

2011-12-12T15:18:00.000-02:00

Today we prayed for Hipolito and said goodbye to him. He got a Visa stamp in his passport and will be going to the US to live with his father and older Deaf brother who are already there. We prayed that he will continue to seek God. I also pray that he will be able to attend the Texas School for the Deaf in San Antonio.

We will miss him terribly!

Just a side note, we can't figure out what the light is that is shining on him. It's in all of the pictures we took while he was sitting in the chair. We were under an overhang and the sun was directly overhead. Hmmm.

Angels!

2011-12-10T11:20:00.001-02:00

The Angels on TV do miraculous things and try to set people on the right path. They look like people until they speak God's words. At that point they glow. Then they walk off into the distance and disappear.

The angels in the Christmas story are a little different. Angel Gabriel is a messenger from God. He comes. He glows (with the glory of God, we imagine). And he tells a message from God. Then he leaves. A whole slew of angels appear to the shepherds. Only one tells a message from God while the others sing praises to God. In our imaginations and paintings...they also seem to glow. The thing that is different is these Christmas angels always look like angels...not like people who transform into angels at some opportune moment. For Girl's Night we talked about angels, our perceptions and the angels we encounter in the Christmas story. The we made these cute (simple) angels from coffee filters. *(see note)

*Just a little more info...There are also angels in the Bible who look like men and women. Abraham and Sarah were visited by three men (who didn't glow..smile). Abraham recognized them as angels. Hebrews 13:2 says, "Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by doing so you may be entertaining angels unaware."
Hmmm Angels... I think they come to share a message from God...something important...to grab our attention. Their purpose seems to be to make us know definitively something God wants us to know in a way that is much louder than the still, small voice in our heads.

Thank you Father for being a God who wants so much to communicate with us, to guide us, and redeem us that you send angel messengers and even your "son", your incarnate self.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

2011-12-08T16:21:00.001-02:00

On Monday night Gineli, Sulmi and I had fun decorating our Christmas tree. My old tree had been in my classroom for 6 years so it was showing a bit of wear and was kind of small. Impulsively we decided to use the money that my sister sent me to buy a new one on the way home from school.

Sorry this is fuzzy...but it captures exactly what the girls think of our old Christmas tree.

...and what they think of the new one they just decorated :-)

Misperceptions

2011-12-08T15:46:00.001-02:00

This is "Sweetie" our 6 year old cat. It makes us laugh when we see her try to circle around and get comfortable in this much too small basket. It's as if she doesn't know how big she really is.

I had a similar experience at the spelling bee. As we were all waiting for the bus to come and take us home, I sat on the bleachers. I was holding Sulmi's trophy and other stuff so she could talk "hands free" to the other students. A young boy entered the gym with his class to prepare for a holiday program practice. He came over to me and said, "Was there some kind of competition here?"

I said, "Yes, a Spelling Bee for the Deaf."

He thought a moment and looked at me with the trophy and said, "So did you win?"

I pointed to Sulmi and said, "That girl with the white shirt, signing with her friends, won."

He nodded a few times,but didn't dismiss the conversation. I could see another question was brewing and thought he was going to ask about deafness, but instead he said, "So, are you her grandmother?"

Ha! GRANDMOTHER, wow! I was not ready for that one :-) Do I look like a grandmother? My perception is that I am still more like a mother. Hmmmm. Maybe not.

The Newest Addition to Our Church Family

2011-12-07T03:30:00.001-02:00

Thank you, God for Alva's new, beautiful, baby boy. She named him Josue. ("Joshua" in Spanish).

And The Winner Is .......Sulmi!

2011-12-07T03:04:00.001-02:00

Sulmi is fourth form the left. There were about 300 people in the audience.

Hooray for Sulmi. She won the National Spelling Bee for the Deaf. Every year the Ministry of Special Education and Crystal Water team up to host a spelling bee for the deaf children around the country. There are two divisions: Juniors-ages 10 and under, and Seniors-ages 11-16. Sulmi is 12 and she beat out 8 other contestants most of whom were older than she.
I am so proud of her. We practiced a set of over 300 words for two months and she knew them all by the day of the event. Many of the deaf adults from our church came to cheer her on. At first she was nervous to see Mario, Edgar, Manuel, Angelica, Elton and Kelsey in the bleachers...but by the third word she was confident and on a roll.


Sulmi with her medal and trophy.

Boyz Night

2011-12-07T02:48:00.001-02:00

Manuel, Ry, Edgar, Alejandro, Mario, Sair, Sherwin

Boyz Night keeps growing. Most of these boys used to spend their Saturday nights drinking at the Akihito Hotel, and when they were kicked out at 11, they would mosey on down to one of the other bars in town. Now they are coming here to Bible study. Amazing, huh? God is doing a mighty work among them. There are still other Deaf young men in our community. Pray that they find learning about Jesus more interesting than drinking their paycheck.

Samnang's 21st Birthday Party

2011-12-07T01:55:00.001-02:00

Samnang wanted to have a birthday party to celebrate turning 21. She doesn't have any family (sorry I can't explain the background here), so she asked me to help her throw the party. She came early and helped cook all of the food and even bought some of it. It was fun to plan and anticipate the BIG day with her. She started out saying, "A small party...not many people." The next day she would come to my house or we would meet for our weekly "tea and chat" and she would give me a new list of who she wanted to invite. The list grew, but I didn't care. It was a great day for her.

Sam and Neldo

Angelica and Juan

Yaniry. It was great to see Yaniry come. She doesn't hang around the "church crowd" but came for the party. After the party she came to church the following two Sundays.

After we ate, we had nothing planned. As people started to leave Elton said, "Quick, think up a game!" He said, "How about charades?" So I divided the group of about 18 into two teams. I quickly wrote movies or books or people I thought they would know on paper. A few dramatized while the others tried to guess...It seemed no one wanted to play as teams and everyone wanted to guess. Quickly the game took on a personality of its own and people were popping up with their own ideas to dramatize and have people guess. It went on for 2 hours (!!) It was so much fun. People were talking about it the next day at church. Manuel was really good at thinking up ideas and dramatizing them.

Alva and me.

The whole gang (except the photographer)...everyone a little tired... at the end of the party.

Important Conversations

2011-11-19T14:27:00.001-02:00

Every day is filled with important conversations. Two conversations from this week keep re-playing in my mind... because I am humbled at the privilege to do this "work" and awed at the way God intervenes with the right words.

At my house after dinner Thursday night
Manuel: I've got a problem. Some people are gossiping about me. They say I am not fit to be a leader because they say..."We've seen you drink and get drunk" and "We've seen you with women." They are saying other bad things about me too that are not true.
Nancy: Are these things true?
Manuel: Yes, before, but not anymore. I've stopped.
Nancy: I believe you.
Manuel: I love God. I confessed these things. You know. It hurts that my "friends" are saying these things.
Nancy: Two things are going on. 1) Satan will encourage people to spread rumors about you to try and pull you down. You are a wonderful leader and Satan does not want you to lead. So we need to pray that away because as Jesus disciples we have the authority over these evil things. (We read Matthew 10 with emphasis on verse 26.) So when you are attacked, pray. Recognize it as evil and cast it out. (We prayed).
Nancy: The second thing is an important lesson that I keep struggling to learn.
You're not perfect.
God hasn't chosen you to lead because you are perfect. The people will expect you to be perfect because you are a teacher. Then when you are not perfect, you feel guilty and they feel angry, disappointed, and even betrayed. Don't try to maintain an image that you are somehow able to do everything God asks better than they and therefore are able to lead them. God always chose imperfect people. David ....with Bathsheba and killing her husband! Moses killed an Egyptian and got angry in the desert, Peter denied Jesus. As leaders we have to walk in God's grace. I have done things that are wrong. I am not fit to be God's servant, but...God has given me grace, his merciful forgiveness, and takes my hand and pulls me up saying, "Come my child, I have more work for you to do." Isn't that amazing?
When you show that you are weak and need God's grace, yes even you, the people will believe that maybe God's grace extends to them, too.
Manuel: And I can't keep sinning.
Nancy: We strive to be "holy" because God is holy. (1st Peter 1:16) Everyday I wake up and ask God please help me to do what is right, just and pure, to please guide my conversation to speak His words in love.
Manuel: Me too, I want to do this.

This is Alva's embroidery hoop.

Girl's Night Bible Study

We are continuing to read praise psalms and work on our small embroidery plaques.
Nancy: Let's read psalm 117 and say our own summaries of what it means. So as we go around the table and read it verse by verse, be ready to say the psalm in your own words.
(We did this...then we came to Alva.)
Alva: I guess it means God loves me and he always tells the truth...so... (she wasn't believing the words.)
Nancy: God loves you Alva
Alva: But I have so many bad sins not like you ...you wouldn't understand. I mean bad sins and I have confessed the sins to God in prayer in my home lying on my bed but I still sin and ...
Nancy: So God's a liar.
Alva: No...no God is truth. He never lies. The psalm says his truth is eternal....always truth.
Nancy: Alva, God LOVES you. God doesn't say uhhhh Alva, if you get your act together and stop sinning then I will love you.
Read the psalm again.
Alva (reads the psalm): But God can see in my heart and God knows that I have bad sin there.
Nancy: Yep. God can see in your heart and God still loves you.
Alva: My brothers were just baptized in Mom's church. I'm proud of them. They don't smoke weed anymore. But ...me... I have too much bad sin to be baptized.
Nancy: God loves you Alva. You think nobody could love you. But I love you and God loves you even more...a lot more.
Alva (cries a little): Yes, yes, but I can't believe that.

Please pray for these two.
Peace,
Nancy

Retreat in Paradise November 1 - 6

2011-11-12T19:27:00.001-02:00

What a blessing to be able to get together with other Mennonite missionaries living in Central America.

Henry and Millie Buckwalter came from Lancaster to lead us in a study about "Drawing Near to God." Sheila Yoder from Goshen Indiana came to be my interpreter. How God worked that out is nothing short of amazing. I was so glad to have her there with us and re-kindle our friendship.

The rest of the retreat participants included the Groffs who work with K'ekchi church leaders in Guatemala, the Horsts who created a half-way house for orphans trying to matriculate into jobs and independent living near Telgucigalpa, and Matt Keiser and his dog. (They work in Las Laureles...some pics of this place are below). Others included the Gingrichs who will help to host short-term mission teams, the Eby family who works in Las Laureles and in La Ceiba at an orphanage, Steve Shenk (not pictured) and Amos Stoltzfus who is our new EMM administrator. The 6 day retreat was bathed in prayer. The Lord gave us direction and encouraged us. We all walked away refreshed.


This was the view from our lodge. On Friday, many of us walked to the top of that waterfall. Can you imagine?

I walked into the park, across the swinging bridge and found a nice bench to sit on to rest and pray while some of the gang did the arduous trek. This lizard came out of hiding after a while and played staring games with me. As I sat there I also finished reading the book: When Helping Hurts. It has formed and tested my thinking about mission work more than any other book I have read in the last 5 years.


This is the view from the "rope bridge". Gorgeous.

I love laying down and looking up at the trees.

This is Las Laureles. It is the garbage dump for the city of La Ceiba. The people who live here try to make a living off of recycling the junk that comes to the dump, plastics, zinc roofing, metals, whatever they can.

The dump site keeps growing higher and then is somewhat leveled and seeded. This is the current active pile.

Matt has been working here for 5 years or so. He relates to the children and families, started several football (soccer) squads that compete against the wealthier La Ceiba teams. He leads Bible studies from time to time and also does some tutoring. We spent Saturday afternoon here. You can read more about Matt's work at Matt's blog.

This is Luis. He is Deaf. He is making an "R" for his last name (?). Luis is 27 and lives next door to Matt. I was so happy to get a chance to meet him and talk with him a little. He works as a spray painter and lives with his mother. He said he is the only deaf person in Las Laureles but there are many deaf people in La Ceiba. He uses some formal Honduran signs mixed with gestures. I asked him if he went to church. He said, "Oh yes, when the Jehovahs come to Las Laureles, they pick me up for meetings in La Ceiba. But the Jehovahs are gone now. They won't be back until January." He also said, "I didn't know any signs until the Jehovahs taught me." He asked me if I would stay. "Will you come back tomorrow and talk to me?" "Can you come everyday?"
It's sad that the Jehovahs are making such inroads in the deaf community. Where are the Christian workers?
I wanted to tell him I will come back. I will be your friend. I can teach you about Jesus. Maybe then you can teach other deaf people...but I just hugged him and prayed God would take care of him as I walked away down the hill to catch up with our group. Belize is too far away to make a visit to him "every day".

On Sunday we worshipped at Amor Viviente. They asked us to come to the front and share (in Spanish) a little about our work. It was good to be there. The pastor and his wife are standing next to Amos. After church we went to see La Casa Feliz, an orphanage for about 18 children ages 5 to 25 that was started by the pastora.

Thank you EMM for arranging this retreat, and also thank you to Phyllis and Galen for all the work you put into the organization.

Beloved friends, there is so much work to do to prepare the harvest. Is God calling you? The rewards are much greater than the sacrifices.

Grace and Peace,
Nancy

Preachin' and Praisin'

2011-10-24T02:26:00.000-02:00

God is working overtime in this young man's life. Manuel and I met several times this week to pray and plan worship for this morning. He picked the story of Gideon. God called Gideon to lead the Israelites against the Midianites who had been stealing their crops for 7 years. All the Hebrew people were so terrified of the Midianites that they fled to the hills. Gideon was scared, too, but stuck around hiding some grain when he was confronted by an Angel of the Lord who said, "God is with you mighty warrior." Gideon wasn't a warrior or even brave and strong, but through several tests and miracles including winning the battle with only 300 men, God proved to Gideon that he was brave and strong because God was with him. This theme is resonating with Manuel as he finds his way and let's God lead him.

On Tuesday when Manuel came to pray and eat supper with me he said he had been thinking about our singing during worship. For 7 years we have been singing the same 50 songs. For several years it was comforting because during that time we learned the songs which made copying them in worship easier. I try to spice it up by adding some new ones from time to time..but it seems that the "Catch 22" is people like the songs they know, but they get bored singing the same songs. Manuel said that in his devotions he had been trying to sing the psalms. He wants to introduce some psalms as part of worship. Many of the songs we sing come from the psalms, but Manuel's idea was that he wanted to pick up the Bible and start singing it. We practiced the first few verses of Psalm 9. He sang it this morning for everyone, and then they joined in. It was a little stiff, but we'll catch on.

Precious

2011-10-21T00:41:00.000-02:00

This is Morine. She is the other deaf preschool child that I work with. She is 4 years old and loves to learn. She is picking up sign language so quickly.

Silly Girls and Smelly Markers

2011-10-20T21:03:00.000-02:00

Every year around the third week of October, our school has a Harvest celebration in the chapel. Each of the children are to decorate a box and bring canned goods that will be shared with "the poor". (I can't think of many people who are poorer than the children themselves, but nevertheless, it is good to share and celebrate what God has given us.) On Tuesday night before the Harvest worship, Sulmi and Gineli decorated shoe boxes for their offerings. I got out the smelly markers and they were using them to write on their boxes when Sulmi sniffed one, leaving a bright red mark on her nose. Then Gineli sniffed hers and left a blue mark.. We laughed at their funny noses and soon they were sniffing and dotting their noses with all the colors. I thank God for their laughter and joy. They make my world a happy place.

Using Our Assets

2011-10-08T14:34:00.005-02:00

Most of the people in Belize who don't have enough money to buy "anything they want" for supper, tend to eat flour tortilla and beans for la cena (the evening meal). Knowing how to make tortilla is a lesson taught from mothers to their daughters and sometimes their sons as well. You can make enough tortilla for a family of 6 with about $1.50 US and you don't even need a gas stove. A fire works great. Although I am a pretty good tortilla maker, it takes about an hour (or more) that i don't have. When we have Girl's Night and need about 30, I buy them from a woman up the street. They are delicious, fast, warm, ready to eat...and I feel good about helping the woman sustain her business.

BUT...

I am finally learning about this thing called the Kingdom. One of the ways we recognize the Kingdom is here is how the community loves and helps each other. I am also reading a book called When Helping Hurts How to Alleviate Poverty without Hurting the Poor. One of the concepts in the book is that we as missionaries are hurting the poor if we become their resource when there are assets in their community that they can use or develop.

So...I started thinking about the tortilla for Bible study. I know that Angelica makes tortilla EVERY night. She's good at it and could use the income. Then I thought about Alva. Alva was abandonned when she was 12 years old. Her mother never taught her how to make tortilla. She wants to learn.

Ah ha! Praise God for shining a light on our paths.
Last week at Girl's Night I asked Anegelica if she would be willing to make the tortilla for the following week. She said sure. Then I asked her to teach Alva how.

So the girls decided to meet at Angelica's house. When I picked them up, Alva was beeming.

At Girl's night we are learning about "worship". We read Psalm 145 and are making these embroidered plaques with a phrase from the psalm. Again I was tempted to be the resource. Kristel wanted to know how to make a stitch. I started to show her and Alva jumped in...so I backed off thinking, "Right. The older girls know. Let them be the resources." That's empowering. It builds self-esteem. I thank God for teaching me this lesson this week. It will change how I minister.

D Boys, D Girls, and Drama (the good kind)

2011-10-08T13:43:00.001-02:00

Praise God for the unity and cohesion we are feeling in our Jesus Deaf Church Community these days. These pics are from last Sunday. It was wonderful to have Fermin Cal visit. He used to attend CDI (Deaf Mennonite School in Cayo, Belize) and has a good heart and depth of Bible knowledge, but he lives 2 hours away. I would love to see God bring him to Orange Walk and work with our leadership team.

The boys range in age from 8 to 30.

The girls (ages 5 to 26)...are wonderful conflict resolvers. They also take part whole-heartedly in dramatizing the scripture.

100% Adorable

2011-10-02T03:13:00.004-02:00

This is Glenford, one of the deaf three-year-olds that I am teaching. Isn't he precious?

In the picture he is signing "eat".

Boyz Night

2011-10-02T01:00:00.000-02:00

Whoooo hoo. Go God!

Now that Manuel is coming to Boy's Night, he is inviting the other boys to come.

We had a good time studying Psalm 145...and some of the many reasons God is great that are listed there.

After our study, we created a choral reading based on the psalm that the boys will sign in worship tomorrow.

Alejandro turned 16 on Friday so we had a cake with candles to celebrate. He was happy and everyone used their phones to take pictures. When the evening was winding down, Juan, who has not been in church for about 2 months said, "Maybe I can work early tomorrow and be back in time to get to church." Hmmm... God is Great!

Update Sunday October 2: Juan DID work early, leaving home at 4 AM to fungicide sugar cane so he could come to church at 10. He particiaped in the choral reading AND gave encouragement to Alejandro. I am thrilled to see him walking in the Spirit again. He seems happy again, too.

Pics from the School Garden

2011-09-27T16:34:00.001-02:00

Sulmi took these photos while I was watering the garden on Monday. In addition to the plants in these pictures we have okra, calaloo, plantain, habenero peppers, carrots, oregano, red beans and black beans that are just starting to sprout .

Hibiscus

A white flowering bush that a fellow gardener gave us.

Yellow flowering bush in the garden near the school gate.

A hardy blue flowering plant

Little radishes...can you see them just starting to pop up?

Belize cilantro

cucumber

coco...it is a root vegetable like potato.

chaya...you cook it like spinich

our baby almond tree...it will eventually provide great shade.

George Cadle Price

2011-09-27T02:12:00.000-02:00

George Price is the "Father of the Nation". He is the first Prime Minister of Belize (and was also re-eleceted as the third Prime Minister.) He died last Monday from hitting his head when he fell in his own home. He was 92. Today was his funeral.

What a uniquly honorable man he was. He never married and wanted to be a priest but became consumed with Belize's struggle for independence and changed his focus to law, even though he kept his faith through all the years. Although there were others who helped to forge the peaceful independence that was won in 1981, everyone says that it would not have been won without this man. He was able to listen to opposing points of view, maintained a cool patient attitude, but was able to be decisive when they ran up against a wall. Prime Minister Musa said the British were trying to stall the process. They said Belize was not ready. Belize needed better infrastructure,(some paved roads), more experienced leaders. They said that if Belize went ahead with independence, it would be chaos. To the small group of Belizeans who were trying to negotiate with England at the same time they were trying to encourage the UN to support them in Guatemala's claim on the land, George Price was reported to have said, "Ever forward, never backward". They moved ahead and the result was a new nation.

I have been asking people if they ever met him, shook his hand or talked to him. Almost everyone has. It's amazing to me that this man got around the country not so much as a political effort, but from the people's point of view he humbly wanted to stand with the people and know them. He wanted to unite the people into ONE country with many different language groups and cultures. Angelica's mom remembers him going from house to house in what was then the village of Trial Farm. She said here was this powerful important man who was willing to sit down and eat beans and tortilla, just a little bit, with each family. He didn't have to have fancy things. People say he never had a TV or radio. Every person seems to summarze George Price's character in these words, "completely dedicated and consistently humble."

His vision for Belize was to raise up the common person and erradicate poverty.
I thank God for walking with this man, leading him and in turn leading Belize to freedom and self-determination. Almost everyone says it might not have happened as peacefully or quickly without him.

I'm So Proud of This Guy!

2011-09-26T21:00:00.000-02:00

This is Alejandro. He is Deaf and turns 16 next Friday. He has a job working with a plant propogator and landscaper. He says he "Kiss-Fist" his work. ("Kiss-Fist" is an ASL sign made by closing the right hand into a fist and bringing it up to your mouth and kissing it. It is the sign for really loving something).

Why is he giving the thumbs up sign? I have been trying to help him and Edgar save their money. When they get paid every Friday they give half to their mothers and then tend to blow the rest of the wad before the light of Saturday shines. Alejandro wanted to buy a phone. I offerred to be his bank. This gave him some accountability and also I am "open" Friday night after he gets his pay. Using the bank is hard because by the time he gets home from work, they are closed.

Every week for 5 weeks he brought me $25 from his Friday pay. We put it in an envelope and stored it in my safe. In the meantime we went to look at phones. They are so expensive here, especially if you want to have a QWERTY keyboard, which makes texting easier. When he had $125, we went to the Cellular Store and bought this phone. He is so proud that he bought it himself... the whole thing from his work money. Now he KISS-FISTs his phone (smile),

Some Pics From Church Last Sunday

2011-09-25T02:42:00.000-02:00

There should be more pictures of the boys. I wasn't focused on getting a snapshot of everyone this time. Next time I take church pics I'll try to get everyone.

Kristel and Misael

Elizanie, Yelitza and her daughter Kristen, and Delina

This is a picture of Manuel preaching for the first time.

Manuel was talking about making Godly choices...doing what God has called you to do and based the sermon on the Jonah and the Whale story. He did a great job. Everyone seems to watch when he teaches. Sometimes when he explains things I think, "Wow! Where did that come from?" because he adds things from his heart that we had not talked about at the prep session. He even surprised himself and said, 'God helped give me the words I needed."

Life In Our House on Holidays

2011-09-22T17:00:00.000-02:00

One of the nice things about living here in Orange Walk is that many of the Deaf children live fairly close to us. So when we have days off from school, it's easy to have friends come visit. Elizanie (far right) is a good buddy from the Deaf class. Gineli (in the middle) lives with us during the week because her sister lives too far away for her to commute to school. (Her mother died of diabetes about 3 years ago). Sometimes they crochet, cook, talk, or play games. UNO is one of their favorites right now.

Independence Day Parade

2011-09-21T14:30:00.000-02:00

Belize won independence from England in 1981. September 21 marked Belize's 30th birthday. Every year there are almost a week's worth of festivities to celebrate this freedom. My favorite is the school parade. All of the schools in Orange Walk, dress in uniform and carry flags, decorate a float, select a handful of students to be dancers, play rythmic music on drums, and march around the town. Here is a glimpse of our students getting ready and marching in the parade.

Yelitza braided Sulmi's hair.

Miss Mesh (The new deaf classroom teacher) put make-up on the girls.

Elizanie and Sulmi are all dolled up and ready to dance in the parade.

Jaheed will play the drum.

Cute!

The children from St. Peter's were dressed in their school uniforms and marched in front of the school float.

An "artsy shot" for Mateo.
This is the first year I watched the parade instead of walking in it. Angelica and I were on the second floor balcony of one of the stores in town. From up above as we looked down we saw a sea of umbrellas. Although there was a sprinkle of rain for a short time, people used the umbrellas to block the hot sun.

The St Peter's Anglican School float .

Our dancers walked behind the float. They had to dance and walk about a half mile. You can see Elizanie, Sulmi and Kristel in the middle of the pack. The other dancers are from our Special Ed. classes.

Lazy Livin'

2011-09-20T01:21:00.000-02:00

Solana likes to sleep with her chin on the water dish. She'll fall asleep, wake up, lap the water a little, and then close her eyes again. I don't know if she is lazy, diabetic, or trying to dominate the dog by keeping him from the water.

The Prodigal Daughter Returns

2011-09-03T14:52:00.001-02:00

Ariel (not her real name) came to girl's Bible studylast night. She hasn't come for about 8 months. I was surprised to seeher standing at my gate about 15 minutes early. She had obviously showered anddressed in "out for the evening clothes". She was smiling.

I wish that I had just gushed with grace and love. It's the obvious response. Kristel did. She ran out and invited herin. I followed. Sigh.

Our history is a rough road. She has been part of our deaf community,family, gatherings, events, since the beginning, since our very first worshiptogether. During that 7 years I feltlike I had tried to help her, be a safe place for her, helped her reunite withher mother who had cut her off, baby shower, visited her, showedher love, forgave her...etc. but she kept rejecting me, said mean things, never smiled to me, said mean liesto other people about me. I thought, "Hey, look, I can'tgo any farther across this bridge without you making some kind of effort," though I never said that to her or anyone else. She was causing somuch chaos, too. Every time (yes EVERY time) she came to churchshe had a fight with the man she claims is the father of her first baby but isobviously not. Sometimes she would stand up and shout and thendramatically announce "I'm ignoring you"… and maybe storm off in tearsabout 15 minutes after church started. You would think you were watching a Mexicansoap opera. So when she stopped coming to church and my house and kind ofstayed away for 8 months, my first thought was relief. "Phew, lessdrama."

There are so many different kinds of psycho-babble theories about how to relateto people who are having trouble finding their way and very stubborn andrebellious in the effort. You know, "tough love", or let themlearn their lesson, or just love them anyway. As a teacher who jugglesthese strategies everyday...I try to figure out when do I discipline, when do I hug it out, when doI see this as needing a behavior management reward system, when do I ignoreit. Every behavior, every child, every situation is different and any oneof those responses is "right" from time to time in an educationalsetting. With Church family, it's different.

When Chuck Snyder was here, he was talking about grace vs. law. He said, “People have it all wrong. Theargument should not be grace vs. law. You can never have too much grace. It should be rephrased: law vs. lawlessness.”

Hmmmm. “You never ever can have too much grace”.

The phrase has been rolling around in my head ever since. I think he is right about that. How does that apply to school? I don’t know… but with church people…withAriel….it means I should run to her like the Father in the Prodigal son story. I didn’t. I don’t trust her. But so what? There wasn’t anything trustworthy about theson who returned home, yet the Father ran to meet him.

Grace, you can never have too much.

So last night when she came to Bible study, Kristel andAngelica were immediately "thrilled to see her after a long absence"and showered her with sentences like: "It's so good to have youhere." That’s grace. Father, show me how to extend the grace toAriel that you have already rained on her.

August Daze

2011-08-30T21:19:00.011-02:00

Here are some pictures from my "August" file. It is not a complete description of what we have done this month, but it gives you an idea of what our life is like during the summer... lots of visitors...every day...and lots of opportunities to try and encourage conflict resolution, spiritual growth, and retaining skills they learned in school.

Jaheed (12) comes to my house in the afternoon for an hour to practice reading. When he is done reading to me, he and his brother Raheem get to play multiplication games on the computer.

Limon! My tree, the little sprig I planted in 2005, is giving me about a dozen limon every day. Samnang and I made a lemon merangue pie. Sulmi and I made lemon bars and everyday we have fresh limeade in the fridge. Yummy!

When Elizanie came over to "play" the girls asked me if they could wash the van...hmmmmm...sure.

Yeah, they got a little wet, but it was a hot day and the van is sparkling clean.

Kristel and Sulmi like to play Twister...note the toe socks :-)

Girl's night every Friday. Kelsey, Angelica, Samnang, Kristel, Yelitza and her daughter Kristen. We have been learning about growing spiritually mature by spending time with God, trusting Him, and getting to know him. 2 Peter 1:3-4 says, "God's power has given us everything we need to lead a godly life. All of that power has come to us because we know the One who chose us. What a great and valuable promise!"

A group from our church decided to help with the school garden since it had grown into 3 foot high weeds over the summer.

Hard work and no one complained. Really. Hey, I was surprised, too.

Here we are cooling off after the work is done. Sulmi, Angelica, Alejandro, Edgar, and Samnang.

Where were you, Magoo?

2011-08-30T16:00:00.016-02:00

Wellll.....all over, really. This summer was a wonderful opportunity to visit and reconnect with many old friends and supporters and make some new friends. While Chuck and Nancy Snyder took care of my house, pets and lead Jesus' Deaf Church in Belize, I spent three weeks in the U.S. I wish I had used my camera more while in the states. I didn't take pictures of everyone or even carry my camera most of the time so please, please don't feel offended. ARGH! sorry.

FIRST STOP: Rutherford Island, Maine

It was wonderful to spend some time with my parents and my friend Tina. It was a short week but a a chance to be with the people who know me "through and through"...no pretending or trying or putting on my best face...just being in their graciousness. Ahhhhhh.

Sunday I got to share at North Woolwich Methodist Church. God led me to this church in 2005 just before I came to Belize. I fell in love with them and the way they embrace God's many "missional projects". They even found an interpreter for me. Not an easy feat in backwoods Maine!

SECOND STOP: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

I took the AMTRAK train from Boston to Lancaster, PA. Wow! What a wonderful, relaxing way to travel and at 1/4th the cost of making the same trip by air. In Lancaster I spent 3 days at Oasis. This is an annual retreat that EMM hosts for missionaries at Blackrock Retreat Center. It was an oasis for me. I loved meeting and renewing friendships with other missionaries. We have so much in common yet so much that makes us different. It was a wonderful group to be with and the conversation was stimulating. Thank you so much, Rose, for interpreting. I loved spending that time with you.

After Oasis I set up a booth at the annual Gloabl Fair. Thanks to Debra Hoffer, and Gloria & Galen Lehman for helping me with that. It's a little bit like "speed dating"... someone comes to my booth, says hello, and tells me a little bit about themselves. I share about my ministry and they move on while the person standing behind them now feels free to move to the front and introduce themseles...etc, etc. for 6 hours. I hope that I was able to promote what God is doing in that scenerio.

Sunday was a chance to connect with all of my old friends at First Deaf (where was my camera? !!!!!). It was great to be there and catch up a little. Sunday evening we went to the Barnstormer's Baseball Game....FUN.

Thanks Deb for chauffeuring me around and feeding me and being my friend. I love you.

THIRD STOP: Harrisonburg, Virginia

Thanks to Skip and Carol Tobin for your friendship, listening skills, wisdom and giving me a ride from Lancaster to Harrisonburg. They dropped me off at the Caribbean Gathering where we feasted on Mennonite potluck and shared a little bit about the work we do with God.

During my time in Harrisonburg I got to spend a day with Mary Beth Moore and her family. They came to Belize in 2010 to help with our VBS. I enjoyed catching up with them. She led VBS in the morning and they had a potluck in the evening, with a women's Bible study in between. It was so nice to meet the Deaf "brothers and sisters" of their fellowship "Signs of Life".

Carol and Dennis Rhodes let me stay with them the entire week. It was like being with family. They even let me use their car to come and go. Amazing hospitality and just so comfortable being with them. The majority of the week was spent at the Virginia Mennonite Conference annual assembly. It ended on Saturday with commissioning. Almost all of my MST Team from Lancaster drove down to Harrisonburg on Saturday night to surprise me and support me at the commissioning. Phyllis, Debbie, Gwen, Mike...You are amazing. Thank you for that expression of love.

On Sunday afternoon Carol & Dennis, Adam, Conrad, Joel and I hiked (they climbed, I crawled) to the top of Bear Fence in Shennandoah National Park. Whew that was a challenge for me...but so worth it. The view at the top was like those pictures of the Shennadoah Valley with mountains folding for miles all around, gradually fading from dark greens to grays. I don't know how high we were, but we were above them all. Thank you, Lord, for that challenge. Thank you Carol & Dennis, Mary Beth, Mynor, Mario, Chris, Galen, Gloria, Adam, Joel, Shirley all who made the week in Harrisonburg a full, but memorable one. You all are a blessing to me.

Courageous Faith

2011-07-02T12:55:00.002-02:00

She has the courage of Daniel and is only 16!

One of the girls in our Deaf Church has parents who are avid Jehovah's Witnesses. They go to all of the meetings and Bible studies. They require that their children attend these as well. Two weeks ago on Saturday Julie told her parents she did not want to be a JW. She said she is a Christian and wants to go to the Deaf Church. Her mother says that because she wants her daughter to learn about God, she will let her come to the Deaf Church when there is no conflict with the JW. BUT... she has to go

to the JW meetings, every one, without fighting or she will be punished. When she refused to attend a meeting on Satuday, they took away priveledges from her. Her punishment, not permitting her to attend Deaf Church. It did not deter her. Last night when the mother let her go to our Deaf Bible study for women, this young girl spoke out about her faith. She signed to her father until he could understand her explaining that she does not believe in the JW testimony and wants to be free to be a Christian. The father said, "No." Finally after her persistance the father said that when she reaches her 18th birthday she can choose. (She will be 17 this August). I am sure she will stand tall in one year on her 18th birthday and proclaim, "I want to be a Christian." It will be a great day: cake, ice cream, and baptism. Lord, thank you for her courage as a model and inspiration for us. Preserve her until that day.

Church This Morning

2011-06-26T20:40:00.007-02:00

Praise God for a wonderful church gathering this morning. It started with about 35 minutes of Spirit led singing. Manuel led "I want to be a Christian in My Heart" closed his eyes and made us all want to take the words seriously. There were maybe 12 songs before we stopped.

I led a sermon/teaching moment about lying. Four people read Bible verses and explained what they meant. Then we did dramas with various scenerios about choosing to lie or choosing to not lie. Everyone was in one of the dramas.

Tien Lee who is new to Orange Walk, wanted me to take pictures so she could label them and get to know the names. I thought that was a good idea but I only had my phone camera. ...so they are a little fuzzy...

The Band of Brothers: Sherwin, Alejandro, Edgar, and Mario

Jaheed, Rayan, Misael, and Jaheed's hearing brother Raheem with Manuel in the back.

Senaida (with her daughter Olinda in front of her), Juan, Angelica, and Nicole

Delina, Yelitza (with her daughter Kristen in front of her), Kelsey, Sulmi, Elizanie, and Kristel

I just realized that because the pictures were "for Tien Lee" she is not in any of them....bummer. Next time we will get the whole gang.

Continue to pray for Luis, Hipolito, Sair and Alva who were absent today. Thanks for your prayers. Our Deaf Church is growing, maturing and becoming "family". God is good.

Awwwww

2011-06-22T00:04:00.000-02:00

During the last week of school the children had some free time while we organized, cleaned, sorted and packed boxes. The girls decided to make friendship notes to give to each other. Inside each card they wrote about five sentences about the person similar to the front "You are my friend." "I like you." "You are fun." etc.

When I saw they had thought up this free time activity all on their own, I thought... oh how nice!

Lamanai High

2011-06-21T13:29:00.005-02:00

Woooo hoo! Lamanai. We love this place!

Our class joined the Standard 2 regular ed. class on a field trip to Lamanai. Some of the Maya ruins date back to the 16th century BC (!), but the period when Lamanai was at its height was the 600 years between 100 BC and 500 AD. This is OLD stuff. It's fascinating and beautiful...set on a lake and surrounded by jungle (rainforest).

There we are in yellow shirts climbing the stairs to the top of the "High Temple".

The view from the top.

Going dowwwwwnnnnn.

... a sweaty picture of me.

... an old sugar mill built by the Brittish, hence the imported brick. It looks so out of place here.

Woooo hoo! Lamanai. We love this place!

A Drippy Trip

2011-06-17T12:13:00.009-02:00

I am not too fond of zoos, generally speaking. I know they help to breed animals that are endangered but I hate to see caged (well-fed but pacing) animals. BUT the Belize zoo is a beautiful environment. It is designed like the jungle that the animals call their home. The shaded pathways have natural plantings along the sides and occassionally you will see an agoti (rabbit rodent) running around. They also have spider monkeys that swing through the trees and sit on the branches, jaguars, and the National Animal of Belize called a Tapir. You won't find an elephant or giraffe here because all of the animals in the zoo are "rescued" animals native to Belize.

Atlantic Bank wanted to make a donation of a field trip to the zoo, all expenses paid and lunch catered. They chose our special educaiton unit as the recipient. Lucky us!!!

The day started out perfectly with everyone in the bus excited and chomping on their snacks, but 30 minutes on down the road it started to rain. When we got to the zoo, we took shelter and tried to figure out what to do. We decided to eat lunch first and see if the weather changed by the time we were done. Lunch was yummy, but the rain continued.

The children in my class brainstormed ideas of what we could do. Misael said. "Let's just run and see the zoo really fast." Rayan said to pass out garbage bags and everyone could wear one. We looked around and counted umbrellas. There were 40 people and 4 umbrellas. Finally the rain became a drizzle and the 7 foot guide....whoooooosh took off at a clip. We followed trying to keep up. He took us to see the jaguars and feed the macaw. We got a dashing peak at the crocodiles and some birds as the rain started to come down harder again.

All in all the children would say it was a fun trip. I think the rain and what we actually saw didn't matter. It was an "adventure".

Rayan checks out the Boa Constrictor.

This place is so pretty, even in the rain.

Ok. Mystery picture game time: Can you find the sleeping jaguar? He is off the ground and hidden by a large log.

Our girls got a turn to feed the macaws.

A pretty hibiscus that hung over the path.

Taking cover in the picnic area.

A Garden Dinner after Peacemaking

2011-06-16T03:39:00.010-02:00

Kristel, Sulmi, Gineli, and Kelsey

Sometimes the girls get into arguments. Today at school Kristel, Sulmi, and Gineli were fighting about something. I honestly still don't know what it was about. But the beautiful thing is that they resolved it. They took the initiative to work it out. I didn't have to say anything. On the way home from school Sulmi said she wanted to go see Kristel and "Discuss". There are several conflict resolution strategies that I have tried to teach the children but "Discuss" is the one that works the best. "Let it go" never works at this age... and "Flip a coin" seems to leave everyone still angry.

"Discuss" means one person talks at a time. You say what the first person just said and then say your story. It goes back and forth for a while until someone puts their right index finger in the middle and the other person hooks their index finger around it...making the sign for friends. Sometimes they hug. That's nice, too.

With a slightly skipping gait, and big smiles on their faces, they all came back to my house after they had resolved the issue. I think they knew that they had done something significant all on their own. I was proud of them.

We had a fun dinner. It was a "mostly from the garden" meal. All of the children helped...Sulmi cleaned the lettuce, picked limes and made the cucumber salad. Kristel peeled the cucumbers (yeah the kids don't like the skin), Kelsey pealed the mango and Gineli set the table. Meanwhile I fried the green plantain (which becomes something like french fries. We salt it and eat it with ketchup). Yum!

In the middle of the meal Kelsey said that "Discuss" is cool. She has friends from her previous school who never talk to each other. She gave examples of how they hate each other. She thinks they need to learn about "Discuss". Hmmm...maybe. I wonder how the girl's could be the "teachers". Something to think about.

Growing Rice in Belize

2011-06-14T01:37:00.019-02:00

This is a rice field. Although the camera is not level... the field is. On Thursday we took a trip to Blue Creek to see how rice is grown and processed. The farm we visited has 2000 acres planted in rice. The fields are rectangular and "small" so they can be level plots. This helps the water irrigate the field evenly. How do you plant 2000 acres of rice?

With planes! Interesting.

Where are the weeds? When they drop the rice seed from the planes they let it sit on the 3 inches of water in the field for about two days. The seeds slowly float down to the soil. Then they drain the water off and let the roots find their way into the dirt. After about 10 days they flood the field again to keep the weeds and bugs out.

This field has been cut. They plant in January and cut the rice from May through June. After the rice is cut, they level the field again and then flood it. The water keeps most weeds and bugs out.

This is Mr. John Peters. He is one of the co-owners of this 2000 acre rice farm. Here he is showing us two different kinds of rice. One has a very rough hull and the other has a smooth hull.

This is the pump that draws water from a drainage ditch and pushes it out into the fields. The concept is: if you bring the water up to a level that is higher than the field, by gravity it will spread across a level field. When you turn off this flow of water that is raised up, the excess water from the field will drain back into the ditch.

What beautiful fruit. Has anyone tasted this? Or know the name?

This combine is HUGE!

Everyone got to sit inside.

A pose in the shade of the combine.

A pose in the sun...(Jaheed and Rayan missed this trip and Alejandro was at his gardening internship.)

Mr. Peters explains how the rollers take the hulls off of the rice. A side note about the T-shirts: Aren't they nice? :-) We will muck them up on the last day of school signing our names and writing good luck phrases on them.

At the end of the tour Mr. Peters gave us 40 pounds of rice. When we got back to school we split it up into 4 pound bags and each child got one. I cooked it up Saturday night to feed to the boys for Boys Bible Study. It was wonderful! This brand called "Uncle John's Rice" is not pastey and it is super clean. Rice in Belize is sifted for rocks and hulls. The small pieces of broken rice also fall through the sifter. Some rice processing plants sell the crummy rice plus pebbles plus hulls for 25 cents a pound. (The good rice is about $1.50 a pound.) So the shop keepers buy a bag of each and mix them and then sell the mix for $1.30. They make a huge profit...but the result is most of us in Orange Walk rarely see clean rice. When you buy the rice in the shop you have to spend about 30 minutes sorting it by hand to remove the pebbles, hulls, bugs and other pieces of crud. This rice is completely free of "crud". It's delicious. All the parents commented on how clean the rice is. I'm glad we got such a big sample. What a generous gift.

After lunch we played a short while on this neat swing at the Blue Creek School playground. The whole contraption reminds me of a horse walker.

You pretty much just sit and hang on.....

while someone runs around in circles pulling everyone. Sulmi laughed the whole time whether she was in the swing or doing the running. It was a good break before heading back to the van and our hour drive back to school.

Friendship Bracelets

2011-06-08T15:00:00.000-02:00

I love a half day at school. This past Wednesday we had a half day and Sulmi, Gineli and I invited Kristel and Elizanie to come over and make friendship bracelets. The bracelets were challenging but it was fun.

It was easier to work with two kids at a time than to help everyone at once...so two watched TV or played with their phones while the other two made the bracelets.

Sunday Afternoon Swim

2011-06-03T03:41:00.009-02:00

My Sunday morning routine begins about 7:30 when Kristel and I drive the van all over OW picking up the Deaf people who come to church. This last Sunday she invited Kelsey to come and they were both at my gate about 7:15. It was already hot. The sun was getting an early start on it's climb to 95 degrees (in the shade). As I peeled my legs off the seat and got out of the van to greet Sulmi's parents at her house, I told Sulmi...when church is over, let's go swimming. Sulmi, Kristel and Kelsey chimed in with a few arm pumps and broad smiles, "Yeah!!!"

A little later in the morning drive we arrived at Elizanie's house. Kristel said, "Can Elizanie come swimming, too?" (We now had about 12 people in the car who all looked at me saying "swimming???!!") I had a feeling this after church swim was going to get bigger.

By the time we arrived at church I had invited all of the girls to come to my house for lunch and then a swim...we would take the boys June 11th.

The whole afternoon swim was full of smiles, no fighting, no drama, just laughter. It was a wonderful day. Ahhhh. How refreshing.

Sometimes They Surpise Me

2011-06-03T03:23:00.006-02:00

This is Alejandro and his mom.

Alejandro started his internship at the landscaping business. He is in "propogating" (he weeds and waters). He likes gardening and maybe this will turn into a full time job for him after he graduates June 22. It depends on his work ethic and if he can figure out how to communicate with his hearing boss. One of his biggest hurdles is he does not like to eat meat. Who would have thought that figured into the equation???!!

He's not a vegetarian..but he has had some bad experiences with beef and pork that has not been refrigerated. He is scared of getting sick form eating "meat". The men he works with noticed he only eats beans and chicken. Tomorrow they are going to buy some cooked beef and make him eat it at lunch. I asked him what he was going to do. He said, "Tough it out."

I'm proud of him.

Last Friday at Bible study he said he needed a cap to wear to block the sun. After everyone left we headed to town and hit the "Guatemalan stores". They have a good supply of mens caps with all kinds of logos from US baseball teams, to marijuana leaves, to solid colors, and lots of "HIP HOP" money, gold, "I'm rich" messages. There was one that was black and had a cross on it. It had a heart and the word "Jesus". He picked it up and said, "Hey here's a Christian hat". "It says love and it's got a cross. I like that."

Hmmm... Most of his buddies go for the "hip hop" variety. I was surprised to see him pick the cap with "Jesus" on it. He loves it.

Hmmm.

Me? I would have picked something solid. Now how boring is that! Good for you Alejandro!

Drama at Church

2011-06-03T02:48:00.004-02:00

This is the good kind. We have enough of the other stuff... but this is "good drama".

We often dramatize an application of the story... or parts of the Bible story. It gets everyone involved and helps me to see what they understand and what needs more clarification. Dramatizing also gets everyone working together. Each person selects a poker chip from a basket. They work together with the other people who picked the same color poker chip. The groups are small and random. It always ends up giving us a good feeling of comraderie...teamwork...and helping each other.

I tried to take pictures but it was too dark or I flubbed the camera setting...but you get the idea.

A New Friend

2011-06-03T02:35:00.005-02:00

Kristel has her priorities straight. She loves to socialize... she loves to chat... and she really gives her friends 100%. Last week while Kristel and Sulmi were waiting for me to finish watering the garden, they sat at the picnic tables on the school grounds and talked. Then Kelsey walked by. Kelsey is a 16 year old Deaf girl who used to live in Belize City but recently moved up to OW. Nobody knew that. Evidently she had been riding the bus back and forth to attend school in Belize City and she passes our school on her walk home. Kristel and Sulmi were ecstatic. They knew her from the annual spelling bee and from Mennonite gatherings. Kelsey is a nice girl...not into "drama"...she smiles alot and was happy to have a local friend. Kristel immediately asked her to church.

Today after school they walked around the corner to her house to visit. We are so glad that Kelsey moved into our neighborhood.

Our Community Service Project

2011-05-16T14:05:00.004-02:00

Carl and Laisha plant some flower seeds.

For our "service project" for Education Week, all of the special education students went to the Ministry of Education to plant a garden and paint a mural on the wall.

While I supervised the planting, Elodia, Helena, and Angelica helped the children to put their hands on the wall to make the mural and still other teachers watched and entertained the children who were not planting or painting. It also helped that the night watchman for the building, Domacio, has such a big heart that he borrowed a pick and completely dug up and watered the garden space a couple of days before we came. Now he waters it every night and I bet he will even weed it, eventually. Thank you God for the opportunity to "serve" and for all who made it a successful day.

Here's most of the gang in front of our rainbow of hands mural. On Monday, Commonwealth Day, I will have time to paint the words from the Education Week theme above the hands.

Education Empowers: creating change, nurturing minds, embracing the future

The Tree That Played Dead

2011-05-06T21:30:00.001-02:00

Have you ever seen a dog do a trick called "playing dead"? It rolls over on it's back with four legs straight up in the air and its tongue drooping out of it's mouth. The dog tries not to move until the master claps his hands to signal the trick is over.

We have a tree that did that, sort of.

We had this pretty orchida tree that blooms with white flowers in June. Our dear friend Pandora Canton gave us this tree (and the one behind it) for the school garden last June. Although it flourished for several months, in December all of a sudden it dropped all of its leaves. I emailed Pandora asking her if it was deciduous. (Most trees in Belize keep their leaves all year long.) She said, "No, it should not be losing it's leaves." Within about a week the leaves were all brown and blowing to the ground. A barren gray stick-like object was where the tree used to be.

Hmmmm... Another teacher pointed out that a tree on the other side of the school grounds was also dead. He said maybe it was some kind of blight. Others told me to scrape a few branches and if it was green underneath it was still alive. Knife in hand I scratched a few branches to find brown dead, dried, twigs. They said cut it back until you hit green. I chopped and chopped...everthing seemed brown or grey. I started looking around for a new tree to plant in the space.

Meanwhile Kristel's dad came to cut down the other dead tree. By this time it was leaning on the school fence and becoming a problem. I asked him to haul away the ochida tree, too, so I could put something else in the hole. He didn't have time that day...so I put it off. And the dead orchida tree remained. Sometimes when we watered the other bushes and trees in the school yard, Sulmi or Alejandro asked me if they should water the dead orchida tree. In fact one time Sulmi was cracking up laughing as she held the hose on the barren gray stick in the ground.

Then one day about a month ago, I was watering the garden and mentally preparing a devotion that I was going to lead at our teachers' workshop on "Renewal". I was thinking about hope, about not giving up. I was singing in my head "Prescious Lord, Take my Hand" and then I noticed the tree, that orchida tree that I really needed to dig up and throw in the garbage...was blooming. (??!) At the very top, a new, soft, light green leaf was blowing in the breeze, like a little green flame on the end of a long grey stick. As I held the hose on the trunk I could see that there were a few other tiny 1/4 inch buds of green trying to come out of the ends of two other branches.

I was SURE it was dead! But it wasn't. I had given up on it. It was worthless, I thought. It was never going to grow. What a fabulous metaphor for our workshop....to never give up on that difficult child in your class, or yourself, or that co-worker, but to hope. When YOU can't.....doesn't mean God can't. So grab a hold of God's hand and cling to that Hope that God is in control and God can do ANYTHING. He is able.

Yesterday when we were watering the garden Sulmi said the tree looked like it came out of a Dr. Seuss book with its long branches and leaves popping out in bunches at the tips. Ok... honestly, it is not yet the most beautiful tree on the block, but every time I look at it, the tree speaks to me a message of Hope, which is pretty impressive for a "dead" tree.

Friday Night Bible Study Update

2011-04-30T13:37:00.000-02:00

Praise God for his wisdom and leadership! Tonight we talked about what we want to do with the hour after we eat. It was great to see the group brainstorm ideas. Then we talked about leadership and who would lead. I tossed out the idea of rotating the planning and leadership. Alejandro said, "Nancy needs to rest." I wanted to clarify why we were sharing leadership and chimed in, "No, no the reason we would share leadership is because it's time that everyone take a turn and learn how to plan and lead an evening." They were excited about the idea. We drew names for the next Friday and Alejandro's name came up. He says he wants to do something artisitic. Sounds like fun. I'm looking forward to seeing where this leads... I think our Bible Study had hit a humdrum slump so this will certainly pick it up and give everyone a chance to "be in charge". The plan is that Alejandro will meet with me someday this week after school and we will talk about his plan or idea.

Juan, the oldest one in the group at age 30 is the most nervous about leading, but he and I will practice when it is his turn until he feels confident. I think it is going to go well. I'll keep you posted.

Taking a Big Gulp of Modern Civilization

2011-04-28T20:06:00.000-02:00

When Sulmi and Kristel got their passports I promised them we would celebrate by going to Mexico for the day. Both of the girls wanted to see a 3-D movie. They had heard about this kind of special effect but hadn't seen one. There's nothing like that here in Belize. We decided to see "Rio". It was wonderful!

Before the movie we walked around the mall and chowed down at McDonald's (also a treat since there are no US chain restaurants in Belize). I grabbed a Mocha Frappuchino...ahhhhh..Heaven.

We stayed til about 4:00 then stopped on the way back to visit with a 14 year old deaf friend, Evelyn, who had lived with us briefly a couple of years ago.

At the preview for the movie there was a trailer for "Kung Fu Panda 2" which opens here June 10. They said, almost in unison, "Can we come back to see Kung Fu Panda in June? :-) Hmmmm. Definitely maybe.

Celebrating the Last Supper

2011-04-18T02:18:00.009-02:00

Last Sunday we celebrated Jesus' Last Supper. We distributed the bread and "wine" (grape juice) and then washed each others' feet.

What a wonderful image, so clear and specific..."Now I your Lord and teacher have washed your feet. So also you should wash one anothers feet." (John 13:14). It feels humbling just to perform the task, on your knees, on the hard ground, with someone else's dirty feet in your hands, looking up into their eyes and praying for them with love.

Actually, I find it easier to be the servant, the washer, than the one who is served. Maybe I like being the helper more than the helpee. Yet, this, too, is a lesson for me in humility. To humbly accept service.

When you read the Gospel of John and you come to the part where Jesus ate his last supper with his disciples, you find that John’s “take away” from that last meal together was Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet. In fact, John doesn’t mention anything about the Passover meal or the symbolism in the bread and wine. His memory from that meal was that the Lord humbled himself and washed the disciples’ feet saying, “I have given you an example. You should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:15)

Please pray that we can learn to be servants to each other, in humility and and love. My heart sings:

Will you let me be your servant?
Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the Grace to
Let you be my servant, too.

(words and music by Richard Gillard 1977)

What's in the Future for our Bible Study?

2011-04-09T21:01:00.005-02:00

Peace,

This is a picture from our Friday Night Bible Study. Everyone is Deaf and they range in age from Kristel (13) to Juan (29). We eat dinner (last night was beans, pulled chicken, canned corn, lettuce and flour tortilla. Some people make burritos, some just eat it the Belize way, tearing off some tortilla with each bite.) Then we pray for each other and Bible study. In the past the Bible study was good because it was a chance to teach the new believers about Jesus and what discipleship means. Now we've added Nicole, who moved to Orange Walk after her grandmother (and caretaker) died and Tien Lee who moved here form Corozal. Reading the Bible is hard for everyone in the group except Kristel, Edgar and Alejandro. With the new additions, the non-readers out number the readers. Using the ASL Bible video tapes doesn't work because the ASL vocabulary is over their heads. It goes too fast, and at least two people in the group are just beginning to learn ASL.

Recently our Bible study was sometimes awkward and other times it felt like I was pushing them. So... I have been praying and asking God what he wants us to do with the group. It is growing in size...they are eager to meet and everyone comes faithfully EVERY Friday night. What do we do besides eat? I have also been praying a lot about leadership training... about developing leaders in our fellowship. I thought maybe it would happen with Bible study but because we have so many non-readers that isn't really happening as part of the Bible study. I always end up leading.

Hmmm... so what's God doing? I've been thinking maybe we should just be a youth group.... a group that meets to enjoy Christian fellowship and pray for each other. Maybe we play a game. Maybe we sing. I think we can rotate the leadership with that kind of idea. In other words... I think next week I can toss the idea on the table, brainstorm with them some things they might like to do with the evening, and create a schedule for rotating the leadership. The leader's job would be to plan what we "do" and bring the necessary materials. If they are stuck, they can come to me and I will help them choose an idea. Is this where God is leading? I think so.

Maybe this is the place and the way they begin to take some responsibility. Isn't it amazing how God leads us to go in a new direction?

Please pray with us that no matter what we "DO" they obtain the ultimate goal: to grow closer to God and want to serve him more and more.

Pancakes and Visitors

2011-03-26T16:38:00.005-02:00

Both Sulmi and Gineli like to cook. Sulmi is the pancake flipper and Gineli likes to cook meat. Gineli is the carnivore in our "family".

When we have a day off from school, many of our deaf friends go "visiting". Angelica and Juan came to visit just as the pancakes and sausage were ready. It was perfect timing. We had enough to feed all of us and then some.

Connections Alternative Giving Catalog

2011-03-26T16:26:00.005-02:00

This is Yelitza and her daughter Kristen. Kristen is in 1st grade. Yelitza's husband works sporadically selling tacos in Belize City. The money he earns pays the water and electric bills and buys food. There is little left over to pay for school or transportation to school from their village. Thank you to the kind, anonymous person who donated "school fees" to the alternative giving catalog this year!

Shrove Tuesday Party

2011-03-08T17:21:00.000-02:00

This year Shrove Tuesday fell on March 8. It's the day that other countries celebrate Fasnacht Day, Pancake Day and Mardi Gras. The 16th Centruy Catholic Church created the day as a day of fasting and humility for our sins. In the 1500's the people would all go to their village churches on Shrove Tuesday where the priest would "shrive" or absolve them from all of their sins. Then the people would spend the next 40 days (Lent) doing penance for their mistakes (fasting from meat, eggs, cheese, fats and other things as well to show their contrite hearts). Somehow in the 5 centuries that have passed, the day before lent has instead become a day for parties and "last hurrahs" before the somber Lenten church season.

The Anglican Diocese always celebrates the day before Ash Wednesday with a party for the children in special education classes.

This year we got to take a train ride tour of the city. It was nice and a gentle cool breeze blew through the train and we saw our familiar old capitol.
They also provided two live characters from "Dora the Explorer". The characters danced with the children. Our St. Peter's children are in blue uniforms. The children enjoyed the dancing and live music.
Most of my class would say they enjoyed visiting with the other deaf children from Stella Maris School. They are good deaf friends and so happy to see each other four or five times a year when we get together for different events. This is a picture of the children on the bus ride home. The whole days was full of smiles.

Discipling and Teaching Believers

2011-03-07T02:59:00.005-02:00

Diego is 25. He biked all the way from San Roman Village (on muddy roads ...25 miles?) in the rain to ask me to give him a Bible. We spent some time reading and praying together. He likes to use a sign language dictionary (Signing Illustrated) to identify the words he does not know. I watched him find the sign for b-e-c-a-u-s-e. When he saw it he had an "ah HA!" expression and then went back to the Bible passage and kept reading. I had never thought of using the sign language dictionary to help Deaf people read the Bible. He is so hungry for the Word. It's clear that the Spirit is leading him and counseling him. He lights up when he talks about following Jesus and learning about God.

Juan (center) is also eager to learn how to read the Bible. He never went to school so it's a challenge. He gets a lot of help from Angelica and Alejandro at our Friday night Bible Study. Two weeks ago he read a passage for worship.

A New Housemate

2011-03-07T01:38:00.008-02:00

You might remember Gineli. She has been in my class since I came here to Belize. She also lived with me while her mother was getting dialysis in Mexico. Her mother died last year. Recently her sister Maria has spent increasingly more time on the island of Caye Caulker where she lived before her mother's illness and where she has a shop. Gineli was missing a lot of school because Maria has become her primary caregiver. Gineli loves to go to Caye Caulker with her sister but there is no classroom on the island for deaf children and no teacher who knows signs. So, Gineli is going to spend the school week with me and then take the boat to Caye Caulker on the weekends. We'll see how it goes. Pray that Gineli and Maria both can deal with the separation. Pray that the threesome of Kristel, Sulmi and Gineli works out with understanding and kindness, not jealousy.

Here is another picture from our first night.

We were uncontrollably cracking up. There are lizards that come out every night and climb the walls. Sulmi suggested I get a yellow sticky strip (like the kind that we used to hang in the cow barn to catch flies). What had us rolling on the floor was her dramatization of a lizard getting stuck...first a front foot, then a back foot, then the tongue one body part at a time until all he could do was wiggle and roll his eyes. with his tongue stuck on the strip. It sounds a little gruesome as I read it now, but it as hilarious to see her facial expressions.

Some Pics From Deaf Church Last Sunday

2011-02-23T01:10:00.003-02:00

Kristel and Elizanie...best buds.

Mario (24) was one of the first people to be baptized in our church. He is faithful, not a leader, but an encourager.

Manuel and Mario. Manuel told the story of David and Goliath last Sunday. He preaches/shares a story a couple of times a month. We are meeting on Satuday mornings to rehearse, pray, and recognize how the Holy Spirit is enabling him. Please continue to pray for him. He struggles with the same temptations all 20 year old "boys" face.

Juan (29) and Angelica (24). They were just baptized this past December. Juan is hungry to learn about God and so patient. He sees his ministry as being a model and an encourager to younger boys who are dealing with temptations with alcohol. They both are faithful members of our Friday Night Bible Study.

Luis is clowning around and trying to get Edgar to smile. Praise God that Luis has a sponsor and has been able to continue with school. Thank God that Edgar has a job at New River Wood Products. He started there during his senior year as a vocational training opportunity. They hired him at the end of the school year. He is so lucky (blessed) to have that job.

Thanks for supporting the Feeding Program!

2011-02-23T00:22:00.003-02:00

Thank you for supporting our Lunchtime Feeding Program. Ours is the only school in Orange Walk that serves lunch to some of poorer children and those who live too far to walk home for lunch. The money for this lunch is almost totally supported by donations. Thank you for putting a warm meal in about 52 tummies every day.

Rice mixed with beans and a piece of chicken which has stewed in a local spice called recado, is a staple of the Belizean diet. We all eat this at least once a week, and usually more often. We also eat other foods that are influenced by Mexican cuisine like salbuttes, panades, tacos, and burritos. One of my favorite Belizean foods is soup made with marinated onions and baked chicken. It's called escabeche. We eat that with corn tortillas. When they serve it to the children in the kitchen they make fresh homemade corn tortillas...oh YUMMMM there is nothing better. Last night a friend asked me what I was going to cook for Sulmi and me for dinner. I said, "Blackbeans, corn, and an egg with leftover rice. " It's common to eat stewed beans and ...something (flour tortilla, rice, corn tortilla, nacho chips, eggs, or bread) in the evening.

BUT... tonight we ate BLT's. Sulmi had never had bacon, and wrinkled her nose when I tried to describe a BLT. Evenso, it was yummy with fresh lettuce and tomatoes from the garden :-)

More than all this talk about food, I wanted you all to know how thankful I am for the people who came through for us by supporting the feeding program. You are angels. Thanks!

Building Fences

2011-02-19T04:47:00.007-02:00

Some children standing by their classroom near one of the new fences.

We were having some problems with the garden. Just as the rose was in beautiful bloom, and before the tomatoes were even ripe, and as the habenero's were hanging from the bush, children from our school would steal them. They wandered into the garden at break time or after school. It was disappointing to the special education children who worked hard to grow the vegetables. It was disappointing to me. The principal and I made some general announcements about not stealing the things that are growing in the garden. We also talked to the children who were caught. But it didn't seem to make a difference.

I'm not really fond of fences. I love the old stone walls that separate property in Maine, but tall fences are barriers and seem unfriendly. Yet, we had to do something or all our work was in vain. I'd like to think that we could have just left the garden open and brushed off the stealing with the thought, "Well at least they are getting their daily vegetables." But the children who were taking things were probably not eating what they took. They just liked the thrill of picking the vegetables and getting something that someone might think had some value. I've come to think that without the fence we are "enabling" children who like to steal. It's kind of like leaving your front door open. So we now have a fence.

My Favorite Lunch Spot

2011-02-16T03:22:00.004-02:00

Sometimes I get a chance to walk down to the this little park that is behind the center of town and eat lunch while watching the birds and the river.

Team Belize

2011-02-16T03:07:00.005-02:00

Special Eduction Belize is headed to Greece in June for the 2011 Special Olympics Games. We will send a team of 8 football players, (three coaches, and one Special Olympics Board Member.) There are only 8 players on our team because in Special Olympics they play 5 on a side on a reduced field that is about 1/4 of a normal football field. Special Education students from all over the country have been training for about a year and some longer to earn a position on the Belize Team. On Saturday the children from the north (Orange Walk and Corozal Districts) and coaches traveled in my van to Belmopan (the capital city) for the final tryout for the team. I am delighted that Sydney Rhaburn (tall, smiling, center, back row) from St. Peter's made the team and will get to be part of the awesome experience of traveling to Greece and being part of the Olympic events.

Hooray for the Lord of the Harvest

2011-02-05T05:03:00.006-02:00

The children were thrilled to harvest 10 heads of Romaine and leaf lettuce, four tomatoes and all of the radishes from the garden this week. The children are so proud of their garden. They mention it almost every day in morning classroom prayers. They think it looks pretty and feel a sense of accomplishment. I thank God for this wonderful project we get to be part of...hand in hand with him. I also am thankful for the people who helped to contribute to this project by making the beds, or paying for seeds, or donating the fertilizer.

And the growing season here just "keeps on goin". There are lots of tomatoes ripening on the vine, 15 - 20 more heads of lettuce and soon there will be carrots and cucumbers to pick. Fun! (Sure beats shoveling snow... smile)

Our Field Trip to the Sugar Factory

2011-02-05T02:52:00.011-02:00

Only the older children were allowed to go on this trip for safety reasons. Here we are at the front gate of the BSI plant waiting for our tour guide to meet us.

The first thing they did was to suit us up with protective eye-wear and hard hats. Kristel got a giggle out of the fashion statement we made.

Sometimes the sugar trucks arrive attached together like train cars. The clever farmer who sent his sugar to the factory this way only has to pay one driver to send three loads of cane. I forgot the exact number but the tour guide today said that the sugar factory processes something like 100,000 tons of cane each day during sugaring season. It was an unimaginable number.

This is "washed" cane that is going into the shredder.

We had a terrific guide, who explained things simply and clearly. He had lots of patience for our questions. Francelia interpreted for us. She was wonderful!

In the middle of the process, a sugary water is squeezed out of the crushed cane. We got to taste it here. It tasted sweet like a thin Kayro syrup.

Toward the end of the tour we got to taste the molasses. Angelica thought the molasses tasted a little bitter.

This is pretty cool. In the past 3-4 years a new company has formed. They use the dried, crushed, leftover cane from processing to make a fuel that is turned into electricity to run the sugar plant. They are proud to say they make enough extra electricity to sell it to BEL (the national electric company).

When I came to Belize there was a 17 story high mountain of the "begasse" (shredded leftover cane). I kept asking around, "What can they do with that? Can it become a fuel? Turned into soil? Is is a possible food source for some animal?" Evidently some other people were asking the same question: How can this waste product be recycled into something marketable?...long before I did.

By March 2007 the Belcogen concept was ready to go... they had secured funding from 4 international organizations with large sums from the US and the Netherlands. They contracted a Chinese company to bring the vision to reality. By 2009 they needed some tweaking but the new Belcogen facility that turned the begasse waste product into energy was built and running. It actually worked. There was an almost audible collective sigh of relief heard thoughout Orange Walk. At first it didn't burn hot enough but they figured it out and it's working now. Hooray for the risk-takers who supported this project. It's a thrill to see the mountain of begasse being reduced, more people being employed, and engery being created from what was considered "garbage".

Introducing Luis and Jaheed

2011-02-02T03:40:00.009-02:00

Here's a picture of my two new students. Luis (13) was in our class before but had not come to school this year. His family pulled him out to work and earn money for the family. The job didn't work out so thankfully, he is now back in school. I also thank God for a special donor who is paying his school fees and bought him uniforms.

The other student is Jaheed. He is 11 and hard-of-hearing. Using hearing aids, he tried to make it in the mainstream, but his speech is not clear and he was not making progress with reading. Being in our class is the right placement and we are glad to have him. He has a little bit of CP and that makes signing a little difficult. He smiles all the time and is trying hard to learn to communicate. Angelica gives him one-on-one attention most of the day.

Now I have 10 students ages 9 to 15....4 girls and 6 boys.

This is what I get for bringing the camera out during recess. As soon as the hearing kids saw me taking pictures of Jaheed and Luis, they all wanted to be in the shot. Some of these children are in the sign language class I teach on Fridays. The boy on Jaheed's left is Alejandro, Edgar's little brother.

In Style

2011-02-02T03:32:00.004-02:00

Sportin' the high top sneaker look.

Gifts for Mommy

2011-02-01T11:11:00.007-02:00

My prescious little cat, who looks more like a kitten, is always bringing me "gifts". Once she brought a snake inside. This is a poor toad that she tossed around until it stopped moving (smart toad). We have received lovely foot long snakes, many huge crickets, and even a hummingbird...(poor thing). Some of the toads are poisonous. Dora Taylor wrote in one of her books about a dog who bit a poisonous toad and died. Hmmmm. So far she uses a soft mouth just to carry the critter into the house and drop it. When she brought the snake, it snapped at her and she recoiled...backing away from it. I quickly swept it outside. A neighbor said I should have taken the machete and killed it. (Blecch!) I guess that makes sense but I am hoping it learned to stay away from my predator cat.

Thanks for the pigs!

2011-02-01T10:53:00.005-02:00

I want to extend a big Thank You from the Chan family. The Virginia Mennonite Missionas Alternative Giving Catalog suggested a number of items to give to other people. Two people selected pigs. Back in September we were trying to get the school garden set up. There was a huge mess left from some men who laid the beds. The banana trees were tossed in the back, and side, not dug into the ground and there were other problems that required some heavy lifting. Kenny Chan said, "I can help you." He dug about 12 holes for the banana trees and lifted them. He also helped with another tree. I was so thankful for his kindness. He was such a hard worker and smiled the whole time he was drenched in sweat. I thought, gee, anyone who hires you would be lucky to have such a hard-working employee. He said he wanted to farm. He has land and wants to raise pigs. He's researched it and took me to the training site where there are several pigs in different stages of development. Soon after that Gloria asked if there was anything that I wanted to add to the Alternative Giving Catalog and I thought: "Wouldn't it be nice to give Kenny Chan and his family a jump start on raising pigs." So thank you for helping him. He says a good ratio is to have three females and one male. I wish him the best of luck with this project. He is already talking about how he wants to "pay it forward". When a pig is born and it grows some, he wants to donate it to the school for a Bar-B-Q for a school fundraiser. Terrific. May God bless his efforts.

Chess Anyone?

2011-01-21T02:31:00.004-02:00

Sulmi and Kristel are learning how to play chess. They are in our school's Chess Club. They were pretty frustrated because we don't have anyone to interpret for them during the club. (I have to teach a sign language club that meets at the same time, so I can't help them.) Last Friday they said they didn't understand and wanted to quit. I talked with Molly, the club leader, and tried to figure out how to make this work. I thought, gee, if they could just learn how to play the game with each other, they would not really need to have someone interpret. They could spend the club period playing together. That would relieve some stress on Molly. She has 29 children all trying to learn at the same time.

So we brought a mat and bag of game pieces home, learned the signs for the pieces and how they move...and then we played a game. It was fun. I was impressed how both Sulmi and Kristel were able to plan and think ahead sometimes, but it was hard to get them to understand the objective. No matter what I said they were focused on trying to get as many of their opponent's pieces as they could. Finally when I captured Sulmi's King and said, "Game over", they had an "aha!" moment. Immediately they wanted to play again and told me to go away and let them give it a go. This is a picture from their unsupervised game.

Special OlympicsFootball

2011-01-21T02:21:00.003-02:00

We are training a team for the International Special Olympics event which will be held in Greece this summer. It is inspiring how far these kids have come from the first days we had a Special Olympics Football training. This practice was at a beautiful field in Belmopan, Belize's capital city. We will practice together once a month until the team of 8 children is selected. Christen, a Peace Corps worker and Elodia, a teacher in our program, do most of the day to day coaching. My role? (as little as possible...smile... ) . I try to be an encouraging fan, and drive them to the practice.

Jesus Is the Way

2011-01-09T19:08:00.004-02:00

It's been a long time since I have shown pictures from church so here are some from this morning to give you an idea of how God is maturing our little group and leading us on the Way. The theme this morning was John 14:6. This is Yelitza (She is deaf and the mother of a 5 year old who attends St. Peter's. Yelitza used to come to our Girl's Night Friday Night Bible Study but when she and her husband moved to Carmelita, it was too far for her to travel at night.) In the picture above she is leading a song during worship.
Here Edgar is leading the song"Where He Leads Me I Will Follow". Edgar is now 17. He works full time at a lumberyard, primarily sweeping up the saw dust and loading the lumber onto trucks. He also does some sanding. I am so thankful that the Lord gave him this job. He has moments when he has strayed from the Way that Jesus showed him to walk but so far he has always made a confession and come home. It's hard. There are lots of temptations out there for independent 17 year old boys. Edgar is one of our 7 baptized members. He faithfully attends the Friday Night Bible Study.

Here we are...the whole gang for a group shot. We're missing Misael and Hipolito...but this is most of us. Pray that God continues to raise up leaders from our group. Thank God that we continue to mature in faith and courage to witness to the Gospel. Pray that we all can resist the temptations that are everywhere. Pray that we grow in grace and tolerance ...extending love and mercy to everyone in our fellowship, a reflection of the LOVE and mercy God has so generously extended to us through Jesus. Praise God that the two women who had worked as prostitutes for 12 years are now working at day jobs and back home living with their mothers. (The two remind me to "never give up" on anyone). Pray that they can continue to fend off this addiction even if it means a loss of income. Thank God for Juan's 27 weeks of perfect sobriety, new love for his wife, and the way he is helping the teenage boys to avoid alcohol. Pray that the Holy Spirit will burn within us and guide us with God's wisdom.

Thanks for caring about Jesus' Deaf Church.

Nancy

Don't You Paint Your Garbage Can?

2011-01-05T01:10:00.005-02:00

In Orange Walk some of the garbage cans have words on them that advertise a store or political candidate. Sulmi, Kristel and I took advantage of our vacation from school to paint mine. I painted the Bible verse and the girls painted all of the flowers.

Doing a Vanna Pose.

2011-01-05T00:35:00.005-02:00

Praise God for taking care of our garden! It is growing so nicely. In these pictures Sulmi and Kristel are striking a Vanna (Wheel of Fortune) pose...to show off the tomatoes and lettuce.

The radishes are HUGE. Last year they were too close together and never got larger than a gumball. They weren't very tasty either. This year I thinned them out more and transplanted some of them. When the girls and I picked a few we thought , Oh no! They are too big. I used to think that all radishes are better when they are small. But this variety is so yummy and crunchy, even though they are big.

Gardening is so rewarding. In this tropical climate my students can watch things grow year round. Cool, huh?

The Classroom Christmas Party

2010-12-18T10:00:00.000-02:00

Our classroom tree was covered with the ornaments the kids made...and a popcorn chain. The youngest children enjoy arranging and re-arranging the figures of the Mary, Joseph, Jesus, the shepherds and animals under the tree.

During December we studied Christmas traditions in other countries. One of the things we learned was that in Germany each family has a creche (a nativity scene). This was surprising to the children since none of them had one at their home and the only one they said they had ever seeing was the one at school. (Although I did see one in the Catholic Credit Union today.) I thought it would be fun to challenge the children to make one out of modeling clay. I gave the 4 boys a set of colorful clay bars and a base. I gave the same to the four girls. They had 45 minutes to work together as a team to mold the clay into the figures. When the time was up, we would take a picture of what they had created.

Well the boys made their nativity scene in about 15 minutes while the girls were working meticulously on details. One glance at the boy's work showed a manger, and a baby, several "people" and a couple animals. It looked pretty good actually. They wondered what they should do for the remaining 30 minutes and I said,"Why don't you use the remaining clay to refine what you have, add some details, maybe make another animal... what do you think? They all said ok...cool.

I went over to the girls to see if I could help to move it along...when I heard loud laughing from the boys. Evidently one of the boys had picked up a sheep, turned it into a "marble" and shot it at the tree, which feel over. Then another boy grabbed the top of the tree and turned it into a "marble" and shot it at Mary and Joseph knocking them over (thus the laughing). Within about 3 minutes their scene was turned into several large colorful marbles. Hmmmm. Well, I told them that the girl's were moving right along... they now had about 25 minutes to re-create their nativity. They Hrrrrumphed for a minute but the thing about clay is ...not so much the final product but the way it feels in your hands. They picked up their "marbles" and before the time was up, had recreated the scene below. Nice.

Below is the girls' team effort. They also made a roof (stable) over the whole scene but I didn't choose that picture because the roof blocked the view of the figures.

Our Christmas party was really a lot of fun this year. Five of the local stores donated gifts for the children. We were so blessed. One store said go and pick out $150 dollars worth of merchandise from the shelves and it would be free. (!!!) Other stores gave goodie bags of candy, apples, chips, small treats.

After the three special ed classes had activities for the children in three 30 minute rotations,
Santa arrived and passed out the gifts to the children. He was great. He did a little punta (a Belize dance), danced with a few of the children and had us all laughing. The children loved their gifts. The little ones gushed and gushed saying "Look what Santa gave me!" They were so happy. After Santa left we had lunch, played some Christmas Bingo and exchanged gifts in our own classes.

This is a picture of Victor and his mom. When their rotation came to my class I told the story Reindeer Christmas and they made reindeer paper bag puppets. It's wonderful to see the parents of the children in Victor's class come to the parties and be involved in the school.

This is Abner. He is so funny. When Santa called him up to get his gift, Abner changed his voice to sound deep (like Santa's). Abner's imitation was so cute, that we all clapped and laughed. In this picture he is giggling because he feels the pen running against his fingers.

Merry Christmas everybody!

May the peace of God guide you and sustain you in the new year.

Maturing in Christ

2010-12-18T00:59:00.005-02:00

Here is the gang who came to Bible study tonight. Nicole, Edgar, Sherwin, Angelica, Juan and Kristel.

Their walk with the Lord magnifies for me, how gracious God is. They face so many temptations. They struggle. They win some of the battles, and they lose some. It's a long and winding road with few positive role models and examples, especially for the boys.

I read chapters 9 -11 of Romans where Paul is deeply concerned that his Jewish brothers and sisters are missing the Savior through their disobedience. Sometimes his words in those verses speak what's on my heart for my deaf brothers and sisters.

But God has worked a miracle in Juan. Such a transformation he's experienced. Now he wants to help the younger boys not make the same mistakes he did. On Sunday afternoons he invited them to play football in the school field near his house. On Saturday he took Edgar fishing. I asked him to build a wall and create a flower bed...moving dirt and cement blocks. Instead of doing it alone and taking all of the pay, he asked Alejandro to help him. In the process he taught Alejandro how to build the wall.

Please join me in praying for all of the people in our Bible Study, but especially for Edgar, Nicole and Sherwin.

Expanding the Family

2010-12-05T15:30:00.005-02:00

On Sunday we gathered at St. Lucia's Hotel to baptise Juan (29) and Angelica (24). We had a large number of people there including both Angelica's and Juan's family.

After giving his testimony, Juan stepped into the pool, put his hand over his heart, and joined our church family.

Angelica put her past behind her and said, "From this day forward I will walk with the Lord."

After Juan and Angelica were baptized, all of the previously baptized members of Jesus' Deaf Church came forward and made a confession of faith recommitting their lives to God. This is Manuel. Behind him is Alejandro. Edgar also gave a testimony and re-dedicated his life to trying to follow the Way. I gave them crosses as a reminder for them of their commitment.

My dear buddy Luis and I shared the meal together. I love him so.
Angelica is standing behind us. She was so happy. She said she felt "free". Praise God for the freedom that comes from redemption and forgiveness.

The School Garden Project

2010-12-03T03:08:00.001-02:00

Rayan looks a little lonely standing there at the end of these empty garden beds. Our school garden used to be one large single plot. This past summer some men built these much mroe attractive beds for us but they filled it with scrap dirt that was full of glass from broken bottles! ARGH! Juan, Angelica and students from my class dug in the dirt and found two 5 gallon buckets worth of glass, metal, parts of shoes, plastic, food wrappers, and nails. Finally it was clean enough to let the other special education children come help plant. Just before we planted, our faithful forever friend, Pandora Canton, donated 10 bags of organic compost. (Hooray!). That made our soil much richer.

Each of the special ed. classes planted one of the three beds. This is SPED3 planting beans. Everyone had a hand in it. They are super planters...not so great at weeding (smile) but they enjoy feeling the soil, digging and being a part of the project.

SPED 2 planted two kinds of tomatoes. My class turned the last bed into a "salad garden" with various kinds of lettuce, peppers, radishes, carrots, cilantro, and a little bit of parsley.

We water the garden almost everyday when the sun is starting to set and making long shadows. Here are Hipolito, Rayan, Sulmi, and Kristel clowning around after watering. The beans are flowering now, some of the tomatoes are also. We transplanted the lettuce to give it room to grow into nice sized heads. God seeded some calaloo from a plant we had last year that seems to keep speading seeds even though the plant has been gone since September.

We also found space to grow a papaya, about 8 plantains, some cucumber, thyme, oregano and chaya.

Alejandro looks tough but he is really a nice boy. He works very hard. Anytime I ask him to work in the garden he is happy to do it. One day he and Misael and I were moving some boulders and other things left over from the men who made the new beds, and all three of us were sweating buckets. We were making great progress and we could see how the space behind the tree looked much better, but the fence started to fall over. The thin tree is basically the fence post on the end and it is not straight. Alejandro took some of the tomato stakes and made a brace. He was so proud of himself for thinking of that solution.
This confidence carried him as he did some more heavy work all the while saying, "I love work. I love working in the garden." Wonderful! If learning to love working hard and feeling proud of what he did is a lesson Alejandro learns from our garden project, it is worth every bead of sweat.

Some Classroom Clips

2010-12-02T14:45:00.000-02:00

In the background you can see Gineli sweeping. The children take turns doing various classroom maintenance jobs because the schools don't hire janitors like they do in the US. I think it's good to have the children take responsibility in this way.

Rayan and I are in an "editors conference" about his Birth of Jesus story. You can see what they wrote on our classroom blog: Deaf and Smart

Misael and Rayan (both 9) compare math calculations.

Gineli, Elizanie, and Angelica practice sight vocabulary. They are signing "quiet". We do a lot of small group work because the children are better engaged in learning when they are practicing with or teaching someone else.

Alejandro is at the teaching table with me. That handsome smile manages to get him out of a lot of sticky situations.

National Spelling Bee

2010-11-27T14:05:00.003-02:00

Hooray for our hardworking students! On November 25th we took four children (Sulmi, Kristel, Rayan and Misael) from my class to the National Spelling Bee for the Deaf and brought home a 1st and 3rd place trophy :-).

The children compete in two age groups: Juniors ages 9 and under, and Seniors ages 10-14. The Junior words are predominantly Dolch words with some tougher words like "difficult" and "weather". The Senior words are all monsters such as "advertisement" and "communication". We had a little over two months to practice the 300 words. It boiled down to about 30 words per week plus review of the words fromt he rpevious weeks. Whew! I am glad to be done practicing and to be able to go back to focusing on reading and reading comprehension.

The highlight for the children and all of the Deaf fans who come to watch is seeing Deaf friends from all over the country.

This is the auditorium at the Belize Elementary School where the Spelling Bee was held.

Rayan got first place for the juniors. He didn't miss a single word. Amazing. A lot of credit goes to his mother who practiced the words at home with him almost every night. He is standing with the Spelling Bee sponsor and all of the things he won for first place...chief among them a dvd player. Go Rayan!

Sulmi won third place for the Senior division. She, at 11, was competing against boys who were 14. The two second place finishers had a run off to determine who would be third. She spelled 5 words in a row correctly and then stumbled. I was very proud of her.

When we came back from the event, our whole school was lined up cheering for our deaf spellers. I hope that feeling of success and support stays with Sulmi and Rayan for a long time.

Go Orange!

2010-11-22T23:32:00.000-02:00

One of the many events on a Saturday this November took us to Belize City for the Special Olympics. Although it poured in Orange Walk, we had a nice, slightly cool, overcast day in the old capitol. Perfect! I was so thankful we didn't have blazing sun or pouring rain.

Belize doesn't have a Deaf Olympics Team. Our deaf children are encouraged to participate in the Special Olympics events. They hate to practice for the Olympics, but love to spend a weekend cathing up with deaf friends from other far away places in Belize. In this picture are Kristel and Sulmi with their friend from Stella Maris School for the Deaf in Belize City. We took four deaf children from our class.

Kristel watches as two of the other people in her relay try to pass the baton to each other. She is looking up the field and gesturing to help them figure it out.

Sulmi is ready to race.

The other student who is standing behind her is Sarina. She is from St Peter's too.

Miguel, Misael and a child from Corozal all in orange and representing the north end of the country. I was really impressed with this boy from Corozal. He has one leg that is longer than the other by several inches and he still manages to race with a lot of dignity and confidence.

A lot of Peace Corps volunteers helped to make this day run smoothly. I left thinking that it would be fun to have a deaf-only event...gathering all of the deaf children from north to south... who race to earn a place to compete in Deaf Olympics with other countries...hmmm... Anyone want to come and organize that?

Retreat

2010-11-01T14:07:00.003-02:00

I really look forward to this annual gathering of EMM missionaries in Central America. It's a humbling group of people to hang around. One of the men has started a ministry with the boys who live in and around a garbage dump in Honduras. Their families try to make a living by recycling the trash. Matt listens to them, oraganized a soccer team that is beating the richer, taller boys, has school tutoring sessions, a Bible study and he makes each of them feel special by celebrating their birthdays. I am so excited to see how God channeled him to do this work all thorugh "God-coincidences". Read more at http://www.honduraskeiser.blogspot.com/

Then there is Andrea who works at an orphanage. She and 5 other people (I think have it right) are responsible for the programing for 93 children! Can you imagine? Her heart goes out to the girls and has a Bible study, teaches English and tries to think of fun things for them to do. It's an on campus 24-7 kind of job. Whew! You can follow her blog at http://www.andreazimmy.blogspot.com./ Another couple has been in mission work for about 20 years. The support and encouragement they give me is so wise and valuable. I cherish them. They blog too: http://www.groff-guatemala-missions.blogspot.com/ It's an oasis for me to spend some time with these English speaking Lancaster Mennos. It doesn't matter to me where we hold the event... just being together, catching up with these fellow missionaries that I only see once a year, worshipping, receiving support and encouragement, praying for each other. It's a "The Kingdom of God is here and now" kind of event.

This year Gloria Myers from Lancaster came to interpret for me. It was so nice of her to come. It was great to be with her. After spending time at the retreat she came to Orange Walk and spent 2 days with me, visiting my class and even riding the bus up to Corozal and checking it out.

Thanks Glo for coming.

"Don't Even THINK of Throwing That at Me!"

2010-10-03T02:04:00.004-02:00

On Friday after Bible study, Juan noticed my cats pawing at something on the screen. We all went over to see. It was a GIANT grasshopper. Enormous! Juan (ick!) picked it up (awghhh!)and brought it towards me. I'm not usually afraid of bugs, but this thing was Gigantic...Yikes!

Yea, I panicked a little bit while everyone laughed...then I buckled under and got the camera.

Bible study is going well with 5 regulars. Juan and Angelica want to be baptized. We're looking at early December (when the rainy season is ending and it is not yet too cold to take a swim). Praise God that he has worked a miracle in Juan's life. Juan comes from a family that drinks rum or beer everyday until they pass out. His brother was killed 6 months ago after a fight with a drunk neighbor. Juan has lived his 27 years surrounded by alcohol. This week he is celebrating his third month of sobriety. Total abstinance. He gets teased. They try to get him to drink. They leave beer and rum around his house, but he is a new man. Praise God.

Independence Day Parade

2010-10-02T23:13:00.010-02:00

A little history lesson:

Belize celebrated it's 29th birthday on Tuesday September 21. The fight to control the "Jewel of the Caribbean" began with the Maya City States. The Cuello Maya ruin here in Orange Walk is said to be the oldest Maya site on record with carbon dating to 2600 BC. Amazing.

The Maya City State Government had pretty much fizzled out by the time the Europeans arrived to plunder the resources here. So the Spanish found it an easy "win" to claim the land as theirs. They didn't like Belize too much, though. In fact, they did not ever have a settlement here. The coral reef damaged their large ships. They were happy in the Yucatan and Guatemala and Honduras which were easier to access by sea. When English speaking pirates (yep..the ruddy sort with hooks and patches and skull and crossbone flags) were searching the Caribbean for Spanish ships to ransack, they ran aground on an island near what would become Belize City. These pirates, that Belizeans affectionately call "the Baymen", eventually got into the lumbering business... and married local women. They needed more permanent settlements and forts to protect themsleves from the infrequent Maya Indian attacks. So they built them.

About this time Spain was trying to enforce their claim on the land and the argument between the British and Spanish governments blew up. France intervened with an agreement (The Treaty of Paris). This allowed the British to log but NOT to settle, farm, or set up "government". The Baymen, loggers, and slave labor acquired from Jamaica (another Crown Colony), totally ignored this Treaty.

In 1798 the number of Brits in the "jewel" was climbing. Spanish ships from the Yucatan, Mexico, came down to Belizean waters and intended to roust the "Buccaneers" in what they thought would be an easy enforcement of the Treaty and claim Spanish rights. But the Baymen got word of the attack and begged Jamaica for ships and guns. Jamaica gave them some but the Baymen were still outnumbered about 4 to 1. However the Spanish didn't have the grit, swash or buckle, and were trounced, literally blown out of the water, in a surprise attack as they rounded St George's Caye in 1798. From then on England claimed the jewel as one of her own and later named it British Honduras.

Colonization had it's perks I guess but Belizeans have a strong independent streak. They formed a self-governing body and negotiated with the king of England for independence for over 20 years. Finally on September 21, 1981...Belize was born.

We celebrate every year with a parade. I saw a video of the first parade. How awesome to see the founding of the country and the first time the national flag was flown! It's a goose bumps kind of thing knowing it was won peacefully through years of patient negotiation. But the parades today (2010) are more like mardi gras... lots of drinking, passing out beer from the floats, exotic dress and dancers. It's lost the thrill and pride that the history represents.

Fortunately there is a parade for the schools called the Children's Rally the day before the "wild" Independence Day parade. Below are pictures of our school and my class marching in the Rally.

Kristel and Elizanie in our patriotic visors before the parade.

Sulmi was wondering if the parade would be cancelled. We had thunder and lightening 45 minutes before it was supposed to start...but it cleared up and was great weather.

Almost all of the schools particiapted...each wearing their school uniforms. Our uniform is blue.

The minstry of education spoke, the Mayor's office, someone prayed, someone else spoke, and another, and another... it went on and on as we stood in the sun. Finally the parade began.

These are the girls from our school who danced on our school float.

Here you see the front of the float with a National symbols and rainforest theme.

Most schools have a school queen. Sulmi was queen last year. This is the new queen. Each school is very proud of their queen. It's an honor.

Best friends... The umbrella is to block the sun... not rain in this case.

Marching and waving Belize flags. It was a lot of fun...hot... and a lot of work to make the float, but great camraderie.

A New School Year

2010-10-01T03:20:00.003-02:00

It's time put up some pictures of the new school year.

I have 8 students. They are all Deaf and range in age from 9 to 15. Angelica has also returned to be the teacher assistant. I was holding the camera so I am not in the picture this time.
Yes, that is an Orea cookie on Misael's eye. We were playing one of the "Minute to Win it" games called "Bite the Bickie". In this picture Misael is trying to jiggle the cookie from his forhead down into his mouth without using his hands...at all.

It's a major giggle-fest as Rayan and Elizanie give it a try.

Hipolito and Alejandro look through some of the books we made in years past.

Misael reading a book.

Kristel

Sulmi and Gineli

Please pray for us, particularly that the children will learn to be tolerant and patient with each other. Thanks, Nancy

VBS

2010-08-21T19:33:00.017-02:00

Here we all are except for Mary Beth who was taking the picture. We had 13 deaf children for VBS this year. Mary Beth, Chris Moore and their deaf sons Mynor and Mario from Staunton, Virginia came to help. Maggie, Angelica's mom, cooked all of our mid-day meals. The theme was practical Christianity based on the book of James. The curriculum we used was the Jeff and Toby Parable Theater from Deaf Missions. It came with lots of well thought out ideas for planning as well as a funny video-taped skit for introducing each lesson.

We dramatized Bible stories and creative spin-offs.

We worshipped in song. Here Mary Beth is singing "Need You".

Bible memory was easier for some than for others, but everyone learned at least one of the verses from the week. Misael is holding his Bible memory book.

We ate all of our meals together and shared in the clean up.

There was lots of time just to chat and be with friends.

One of the highlights of VBS was making tie-dyed T-shirts. Mary Beth found a way to print a Jesus' Deaf Church logo on the front at the "name tag" area and big cross on the back with an ILY handshape. She brought the printed white shirts and dye from the US. We had a wonderful, messy afternoon making them into bright tie-dye'd shirts.

Cooling off with a swim in a nearby pool was an ideal way to spend hot, sunny afternoons.

On the third day of VBS we studied James 2: 14-26. It is the passage where James says if you have "faith" but do nothing, your faith is worth nothing. "If you say to a person 'God be with you. I hope you stay warm and get plenty to eat,' but do not give the person what they need, your words are worth nothing." Our group had never DONE something for someone else. As Deaf people and poor people in Belize we tend to be on the receiving end most of the time. So I thought it would be good for the children to have an opportunity to do something for someone else. We went to Liberty Children's Home one afternoon. Liberty Children's Home is an orphanage for children who are HIV positive. We planned games for the children and gave them ice cream.

It's interesting that the deaf child who I thought was having the hardest time trying to put the Liberty children's needs ahead of his own, that VBS'er who I thought was acting like he was bored and not really helping much, was the one who on the last day when we were summing up said his favorite part of VBS was going to Liberty Children's Home. (Not swimming, or dramas or ice cream but this service project.) Hmmmm. Some of the seeds we are planting are taking root even when it seems like they aren't.

Here we are at the gate to Liberty Children's Home wearing our snazzy Jesus' Deaf Church VBS T-shirts.

Edgar helped the children make bead necklaces and bracelets.

Angelica and Sulmi did face painting.

We gave everyone some ice cream with sprinkles.

Elizanie and Rayan helped the children to play a ping pong toss game.

The Moore Family gave us new Bibles.

The children helped each other try to find the verses we were studying.

And we played games.

All in all it was a wonderful VBS. I thank the Moore Family for coming and helping us, for donating T-shirts, Bibles and other things, and mostly for bring their sons Mynor and Mario who were delightful. I thank God for keeping everyone safe, particularly while swimming and while we were driving. God's hand was on each of us working many little miracles that helped our days go smoothly and helped the children to grow as disciples of Jesus.

Hi ho Hi Ho It's Visiting We Go

2010-08-10T21:27:00.005-02:00

One of the things I wish I had more time for is visiting with the Deaf people in the more remote villages. Today I had a free day so Angelica and I headed out to San Roman Village to see Leidy and Diego. Leidy is 19. Diego is about 25. They are brother and sister and both are deaf. Leidy has a common-law husband who is hearing. The last time Angelica or I saw her was when she was in the hospital after having the baby last December. We miss them. It was wonderful to talk with them. Leidy wants so badly to come to church. Pray that she can find someone from their small village who regularly comes to Orange Walk on Sunday mornings... or that Mario or someone who lives north will go out of their way to pick her up.

Update August 22, 2010: Yea! Mario went to San Roman this Sunday to pick up Leidy. Hooray for God giving him a license. Hooray for God giving him the vehicle. Hooray for Mario wanting to do something for someone else even though it cost him gas money! It was wonderful to see her. I think Leidy was glad to be around deaf people...she must be loney with only the hearing people in her village and her brother

Home Again

2010-08-07T18:48:00.006-02:00

After I returned from Maine, Sulmi and I had about 5 days to get ready for VBS. Maggie came over to help and brought her daughter Arecelia. It was fun to watch Sulmi and Kristel play "Pretty Pretty Princess" with Celi. She loved it!

Ahhhhhhh

2010-08-07T17:47:00.006-02:00

Being with family at our house on Rutherford Island is something I need, something my whole body seems to yearn for all year. I love sitting on the porch and talking as the sun goes down. I love walking the island roads with my dad and his dog. I love talking with Mom as she cooks in the old kitchen. I love the salty Maine air and the view from my bedroom window.

I love walking in the woods with Tina, a friend from childhood. Our old souls seem to communicate with each other without words.

Ahhhhhhhhhh. What a blessing this place is to my family and me. Thank you, God.

Fotos From the Field Trip

2010-06-22T23:56:00.007-02:00

Today we had our annual school field trip. We only get ONE...so we packed it full of things to see. Too full? I don' t think so. It was fun.

First stop was Belmopan, our nation's capitol, to see the House of Parliament. We were given a great guided tour. In the picture above we are standing on the steps of the House of Parliament. In the picture below we are in the chamber where the House of Representatives meets.

This is the chamber where the Representatives meet. It's a small country. There are only 35 seats on one side and 6 on the other. The UDP (red party) currently has the majority. The PUP (blue party) is called the "opposition".

This is the committee meeting room.

The Mace is the symbol of authority in parliamentary government. Every time the house is in sessions it is brought in ceremoniously and returned to its box at the end of the session. it symbolizes the authority of the process and of the speaker who functions like a judge when the two parties discuss (argue).

This is the filing system for the proceedings of the House of Representatives. Hmmm.

From Belmopan we went to the Guanacaste National Park. It is one of nine Audobon Society administerred parks in Belize. It was very clean and well managed. The trails led us through dense jungle on an easily traveled path to the Belize River. Beautiful! It was a hot day but the trees kept the jungle cool. One of the park managers gave us a guided tour, pointing out significant trees and making sure we did not miss things. We ate our picnic lunch here in the shade. It was the perfect combination of rest and walking and learning something new.

Next stop was the Belize Zoo. They raised this orphaned jaguar from a baby. He looks so comfortable straddling the log.

... even though he is just few feet away from Angelica!

This is a tapir. It's the national animal of Belize.
It was a great day!

Cool Technology

2010-06-22T00:39:00.004-02:00

We took a field trip to the Toucan School at the British Army Base and saw technology that I never even imagined. It was so cool. It also blew me away to think that it is probably "old" to everyone at home...have I been away that long?

A friend of ours, Pandora Cantun, paired our school with the Toucan School because we both have garden projects. Back in December we invited them to visit our garden. Now they invited us to come see theirs and see their school. We were so impressed! What a wonderful trip!

They have computer touch screens on the walls of the classrooms. They showed us a story that had a sign language interpreter in the corner. Very cool, but the interpreter was using British Sign Language (of course!), but that was interesting, too. The children were a little confused at first but I think they enjoyed seeing the British signs and were awed that the technology could show a story and signs at the same time.

They gave us a snack and showed us their garden. They have a water aspect to their garden. Hmmmm I wonder how we can do that. Something to think about....

In the picture I am teaching the sign "turtle".

Then they invited us to learn about a computer program that lets the children invent their own computer game complete with aliens and falling fruit. Each of our children was paired with one from the older class at the Toucan School. Talk about a "hands on field trip" smile. Our children loved it!

Hair Stylistas

2010-06-22T00:14:00.004-02:00

Sunday I was working on report cards and Kristel and Sulmi were bored. They weren't just bored because they had nothing to do, but they were iritated that I wouldn't let them watch TV, (I have a "no daytime TV" rule), and wouldn't let them play with the computer I was using to type the reports. I suggested they play Beauty Parlor and fix up each other's hair. After about 5 minutes of brushing and applying clips and scrunchies,with giggles and clandestine winks and nods, they came after me with their combs. How do you like the cat ears? or are they alien antenae?

Friday Night Believer's Bible Study

2010-06-12T12:24:00.004-02:00

Mario had been straying, but I praise God that he gave up his Friday night and walked a mile to my house to join us. I felt compelled to share that we all stray...and are "lost sheep". I shared personal examples and then we read Luke 15: 4-7. God was speaking to my heart to emphasize that God does not give up on us no matter what we do. It would be nice if baptism imposed a magic on us that made us immediately righteous with no future struggles with temptation, but the reality is that every day is an opportunity to reconfirm our faith and choose the path we will walk. The blessing is that if we goof up, a million times, God is still the shepherd who is searching and seaching until he finds us. When he does, all of Heaven rejoices that we have come home.

When we were done with the study, Mario looked at his watch and said, "8:00? Already?!"
Edgar nodded, "I told you, church time always goes fast." (Smile.) PTL

Just Goofing Around...

2010-06-12T01:14:00.005-02:00

Here are some cute pictures of Kristel and Sulmi playing with Photobooth.

Gangstaz

2010-06-03T19:56:00.002-02:00

There's a house down the street that has "Gangstaz" "Home-ez" and "Welcome to the Ghetto" spray painted on it. There's actually a nice family who lives in that house now, but it looks like the "Gangstaz" have moved into mine!

Elizanie came to play one Sunday afternoon. She and Kristel put together about 6 puzzles.

This would have been a nice picture if I wasn't being obnoxious with the rabbit ears...Some of us never grow up!

Life in our house is busy, but fun. I like it when both girls are here. They get along well, they help with dishes, iron their own uniform blouses and keep each other company. Kristel is only here Tuesday evening through Friday morning. And now that her mom's college is out for the summer, that will stop. We have school until June 25. (ARGH!!!!! no, there aren't extra days added to the calendar... it's just when they finally let school out here.) Sulmi will be with me until the end of the month and then go home to spend the summer with her family.

Wild Weekends

2010-06-03T02:33:00.004-02:00

Whew! It's been a bit busy. Every weekend from the end of April to the end of May was filled with a "must be there" event. June will be quieter and easier, thankfully. Evenso I'm glad to have been part of these things and help as I was able.

It started with a Special Olympics Football (Soccer) training weekend for the children. Many of the Orange Walk children who participated packed into my van with all their gear for an overnight stay at the British Army base next to the airport. We moved into the barracks and ate in the mess hall. It was the perfect location for us and had a flat field that could fit 4 "pitches". Children in special education from all over Belize attended and there were about 130 children in all, I think. In addition there were volunteers who agreed to be coaches.

It was well organized, too. Andy Aspinall planned the event in conjunction with Special Olympics Belize. We had several rotations where the children did a drill at a station for a few minutes and then rotated to the next one. Everyone was "on the ball" much of the time.

The weather cooperated and we had sun the whole weekend. It was a blessing because the following weekend rained...in fact, it has rained almost everyday since that time.

I welcome the rainy season because the clouds and wind that accompany the rain cools things off a little and helps the garden grow. Fortunately we have not experienced the flooding and mudslides that are nagging our neighbor Guatemala.

The annual Festival of Arts is a nationwide event. St Peters Anglican School sent a dance troupe to the competition. Our Luis was one of the dancers. He loves to dance and he is so good at it. The first part of the competition carried over two nights. We made the first cut so the dancers were asked back for the second night. We got "gold" for our effort. Then on Saturday night we, along with two other Anglican schools, were asked to dance for a conference of Anglican visitors from the US at the Princess Hotel in Belize City. It was an honor and the children did very well.

NaRCIE (Special Education Office in Belize City) hosted an HIV/AIDS awareness workshop for three consecutive Saturdays. They asked me to help with the second two Saturdays. Andre McCool and I acted as "relay interpreters". The woman who led the workshop only knew a few signs so we worked together to figure out what she said and relay it in ASL. We were a good team and it was wonderful to work with Dre. He's a Deaf teacher at the Stella Maris School for the Deaf inBelize City.

Twelve deaf youth and young adults from the Orange Walk area attended. There were about the same number from Belize City and some from Corozal and Stann Creek. The best part of this kind of event is seeing old friends and making new ones. I think we also got the message across. Belize has the highest rate of HIV/AIDS in central America and the third highest in the Caribbean, so we need to grab this bull by the horns and get the word out.

Update on Jesus' Deaf Church

2010-06-03T01:39:00.009-02:00

Manuel preached for the first time two weeks ago. He took his topic from a picture tract that Joel Reed had given him when he worked in the woodshop last summer. The nice thing about the tract is the pictures help the words make sense. When you are not a great reader that helps a lot. Manuel drew pictures on his own to share with the sermon. Intuitively he knew that he needed some kind of visual aid. I was planing to show the D.O.O.R. Video about having a relationship with God ("God Connect"). I didn't know that Manuel had a sermon planned. So when he told me I said... "Hey, Go ahead!" I wish I had a better picture of him. This isn't very flattering but it shows him using expression and he's moving around taking on the role of the people in the story. It's amazing to me how the Holy Spirit is teaching him. As I sat in the pew watching him share a story about being connected to God I thought I might have a glimpse of the future... and it felt so comfortable.

Our numbers are up and down...sometimes we have about 9 and sometimes we have 19. Most of the time it is somewhere between those two.

I'm looking forward to the day that the others take more responsibility...offer to clean the church, close the windows without asking, bring a snack to share. I can hint and nudge but when they do it without asking, I will feel that there is some transformation taking place in terms of ownership and taking responsibility for "OUR" church (not Nancy's church).

The boys who were baptized in November continue to meet with me on Friday nights. I wish I could testify to the marvelous changes in their lives, but it's a tough slow struggle. There is a deaf woman who is a prostitute who lives right around the corner from Alejandro. She gives them condoms and invites them to her house. (I've talked to them repeatedly about the dangers of HIV/AIDS and other STD's. So have their mothers.) When they are with me or near me they swear up and down that they are walking the straight and narrow... and say the right things and read their Bibles and pray. BUT... there's other evidence that finds its way into my lap that bears otherwise. So I pray for them and hope they can get through this stage and develop enough maturity to resist the temptations around them and choose "life".

I'll close with a "happy" story: Last Sunday when we were cleaning up Kristel went up to the pulpit and started "preaching". Almost everyone was outside. I think I was the only one that saw. I asked her if she wanted a turn to preach, next week when Manuel was finished....shy, quiet, Kristel who doesn't like to stand in front of the class to talk, said "Yes". I told her that after she's baptized and makes a commitment to walk with the Lord,I would love to let her preach. She smiled and said, "Ok". I was chewing on that for a while. I had not pictured Kristel in that role. Hmmmm.... still chewing on it. The Lord gives power to whom he chooses! I have been praying for other leaders in the church to emerge. I hadn't thought of Kristel in that role. Hmmmm. I think the Lord is nudging me to open my mind up a little.

Chicken Pox!

2010-06-03T01:25:00.004-02:00

We have been playing chicken pox tag since Easter. First it was Angelica...then 14 days later Kristel broke out in spots...then two weeks later Sulmi complained of a sore throat (?). The next day she had spots all over her stomach and back, some on her arms and legs. She stayed home to recooperate, but now two of her sisters have it.

School Update

2010-06-02T20:31:00.006-02:00

After Easter break, Miss Olive returned to our school and was placed in our class. It's been great to work with her. She runs on an even keel and is so helpful with the new student, Edimir, that we received at the same time. In fact, if she had not come, it would have been really difficult to manage the exisiting 11 students at various levels plus Edimir who is 13 but did not know the abc's, or how to count past 4. So it's been a blessing that she can focus on him and his needs since they are so much different than the levels of the rest of the class. Edimir was in school for a while 6 years ago, but for some reason was pulled out and has just been sitting at home or working on their farm land. He's learning quickly under Olive's guidance...writes all of the letters of the alphabet, and reads some dolch words so he is able to read his pre-primer leveled readers. He is counting to 20 and adding and subtracting. With guidance he can write his own patterned sentences following the model in his reader. That's a lot of learning for about 5 weeks!

The other interesting thing about God's timing with this, is Olive used to sign but because she was away for 4 years, she had forgotten a lot of it. Edimir did not know how to sign either. It was a great opportunity to teach Olive who then was able to teach Edimir. Olive picked up many more signs than she taught, but it is pretty awesome that God brought her just when we needed her and gave her the opportunity to teach someone who did not know signs rather than have her jump right in and try to understand the deaf children who sign fast and are not so patient.

I don't have a picture...but another blessing that amazes me is we now have a new Peace Corps volunteer. who is a speech therapist! How amazing is that? I am so thrilled. Four of our children talk even without hearing aids, but I've never really felt comfortable teaching them speech. Miss Colleen will teach them twice a week in 1:1 therapy sessions. Wonderful!!!! She uses the reading passage that they are supposed to read for the week (as well as other things). I can already see an improvement. Those four children are making connections between what they hear and what they read. Yes!!

This is a picture of Angelica. She is such a wonderful asset to our program. She's so patient with the youngest children. I'm hoping and praying that there is a way that she can be employed by the Anglican Diocese to work in our school. Mrs. Briceno says it can't be done unless she has a high school degree or teacher training. Hmmmm. That's not really possible because she can't read. Hmmmmm again. Yet, I think God will make something happen. Somehow. I'd love to see her employed legitimately.

Hooray for all the programs on the internet that help children with math. Our kids' current favorite is called Multiplication Grand Prix. It never gets old...it's always a real race in real time. Children all over the world sign in and pick a race from a list on the sidebar. They race against anyone else who chose that heat. Each child has a different car which moves ahead if they get the multiplication fact question correct. Sometimes the competition is easy but most of the time the other players are FAST!

Some "Random" Pics and Thoughts

2010-06-02T19:24:00.005-02:00

We saw this boa constrictor one Sunday on the way to church. The man found it in the jungle and calls it a pet. Yikes! It was big!

Juan and Angelica getting up close and personal with a baby crocodile.

Just some random thoughts:

We had village council elections two weeks ago. Angelica was sitting in her yard and was approached by the blue party. They offered a handshake and $100 (equal to a half-week's pay). A few hours later the red party council seat defender came to her house and gave her $15. Smile. The red party won that election. I don't care about the politics but I think it is interesting that the bribe did not affect the outcome.

There are some magnetic words on my refrigerator. Hilary Mayhew gave them to us a long time ago. The children can now read well enough to enjoy rearranging them to make sentences and poems. Here's an example: I know my love, name who? come when?

After asking around, I found out Alejandro was the author.

Good Friday

2010-04-03T19:54:00.004-02:00

Good Friday is a MAJOR holiday here. All the stores are closed, except for a few Chinese shops. No store is allowed to sell alcohol...all day. The streets are almost empty. People seem to stay inside and rest until 4:30. At that time they come out, dressed in funeral clothes and walk the procession with the Catholic Church. There were over 2000 (maybe even 3000) people walking the 2.5 miles of city roads.

In the front of the precession is a priest and some altar boys. Behind them are the adult actors who are portraying Jesus, Roman guards, Mary and the disciples.

The rest is two columns of families... the lines of people went on for several blocks. I wish the picture could show all of the people. They initially walked as if they were in a funeral procession... talking minimally and looking very somber. Some of the women were saying the prayers that were being read by the leaders. If I managed to walk with these women it was a deeply spiritual procession. In other places there were families with young children and people who were talking.

The procession stops at 15 different platforms set up in peoples front yards. Teenage actors stand frozen in the scene that was just acted out in the street by the adult actors. At the same time 4 or 5 women read something into a microphone. I couldn't hear what they said... later someone told me it was prayers they were reading. I'm kind of glad I could not hear the readings. This area is very "Mary" adoring and it would have disrupted my sense of the moment. Silence was nice, even preferable. I could pray and just listen to the quiet.

Tomorrow at our Deaf Church we will see the end of the Jesus movie and sing Easter songs. I'm looking forward to leaving Good Friday behind and moving on to triumph and victory. Praise the Lord that he overcame the evil and oppression with passion and patience. That he was true to his word and rose on the third day. Praise God that he was obedient even in the face of the cross.

I wish you all Easter joy.

Nancy