Switch-er-roo

On December 30th we welcomed Kathy Miller to our team here in Belize. I am so glad she is willing to give 6 months of her life to interpreting at St. Peter's for Sulmi and helping with our Deaf Ministry.

Kathy is married to Marcus Miller (aka. Mark).  They have 3 college age children...

And she left them all, with the confidence of God's guiding, to come here to interpret for Sulmi.  What an amazing, courageous, faithful woman!  With her children all in college and enjoying various adventures (her oldest just spent several months in Japan), Kathy was encouraged by her church and her self-sacrificing husband to answer God's call to come to Belize.  You can follow her decision and her experiences on her blog "Signing for God".








Kathy is living in the apartment that we just finished building.   The apartment is on the same plot of land where I live.  So Kathy is our new next door neighbor.  It's a good set up as she enjoys being close yet having independence. Kathy brings with her experience as a special education teacher.  This is extremely beneficial to Sulmi who is thankful for a little 1:1 extra explanation beyond what the teacher explains.

So... what happened to Chelsea?   

Wonderful things!  

Chelsea is now finally able to interpret for Morine. This is what she had hoped to be doing when she "signed up" to come to Belize. She is a good fit for 6-year-old Morine who enjoys Chelsea's animated facial expressions.  It's good to have someone interpreting for Morine who can also interpret what the other children in the class are saying, something that I was not able to do.

Chelsea had been living in the apartment next to my house.  When we began to scour the neighborhood to look for an apartment nearby for soon-to-arrive Kathy, we looked at a host family option three houses up from me.  They are an older couple who's daughter (now living in the US) was home for the holiday and expressed an interest in having someone live with her parents just to make sure everything is ok. Chelsea immediately hit it off with the Toledano family and asked to move there and let Kathy have the apartment.  So we did.

So the new year brought a major switch-er-roo.
Kathy is interpreting for Sulmi and in the apartment.  Chelsea is interpreting for Morine and in the Toledano's house.   We have had many changes but through the grace of our loving God we are settling into the new pattern and it fits us all well.  I will close this post with a picture from Sunday night.   Although we are living separately, we get together weeknights for dinner (alternating who cooks) and Sunday nights for popcorn and a game or movie. This photo is from last Sunday's game of Bananagrams.

They are in deep concentration.  Maybe next time the photographer can call a "Time out" for an "all smiles" photo.

Thank you for your prayers for our ministry.  Thank God for sending a team so that we can minister more effectively.  Please continue to pray for our Deaf Church, for the people to be filled with a burning desire to serve our Lord.  Pray that God will raise up men and women as leaders.

Angels Watchin' Over Me.

Stacey Hall is one of the Angels watching over me.  About a year ago I saw a cute angel craft that she had made and posted on Facebook.  Every year at Christmas time our Deaf Women's Bible study makes a craft.  I thought, "Oh wouldn't those angels be cute to make." and asked Stacey if she could send me the pattern.

She not only sent the pattern and an example but also 12 complete "Angel craft kits" ...one for each woman.  What a blessing!

Thank You Stacey for being an Angel to us!

Alva, Kristel, and Sulmi with Yaniry in the background.

Yelitza and her daughter teamed up together.

The women and girls loved making this.  It took us three gatherings to finish it, but that just extended the fun.

Angelica and Martha could easily craft as a cottage industry if we could figure out something they could make that used materials found locally and which didn't cost too much to "create".

Reinalda was proud of how her angel was turning out.

Sulmi is a little like her adopted mother (smile).  She's very serious about trying to get it just right.

I think the women with small children look forward to the break that a "mom's night out" provides.





Bible Study and craft night would be a disaster if it were not for two other angels: Kathy Miller  and Chelsea Kobylarz.  They take care of and entertain the two toddlers, one 6 month old baby and two young children that belong to Yaniry, Alva and Selena.
It's zooey to try to teach a Bible study with the children being curious and playful in our midst.  But with Kathy and Chelsea keeping the children busy and giving them lots of attention, we have a peaceful study and a relaxing time crafting together.  I am soooo thankful for their help.

New Year's Eve Party

We had a packed house for our New Year's eve party this year.  Over 35 people came ages 1 to 58. We started at 8 PM with a snack of Belize cheese dip, tortilla chips, and vegetables (carrots, broccoli, sweet pepper, cucumber) and soft drinks.  Then we played Minute-to-Win-It games.  These are games that use common household items and take about a minute to play.  Instead of timing it, we set up competitions to see who finished first.  There were no prizes. I was hoping the fun of playing was enough...and it was. Sometimes we played each game a few times until everyone who wanted to play got a chance.

Here are some pictures of the games:

Face the cookie

Skittle sort (one handed)

 

Balance the Snickers

Going up!

Mummy (First team to wrap an entire toilet paper roll around their partner wins)

A Bit Dicey (Stack 5 dice on a tongue depressor.  Use one hand.)

After the games we had pizza and a devotion.  They shared their "highlight" from 2013 and we claimed the verse from Jeremiah 29:11 "I know what I am planning for you,” says the Lord. “I have good plans for you, not plans to hurt you. I will give you hope and a good future." for 2014. We closed with prayer.

At 11:15 Marc and Kathy graciously offered to stay home and clean up while I took everyone to Orange Walk Town to watch the count down and see fireworks.  It was a nice, starlit night....until 11:55 when the sky opened up with little warning and poured down rain.  Everyone dashed for cover.  Surprisingly there were still fireworks around the edges of town that we could see from the overhang of a shop.  Many families had bought 2 or 3 professional type fireworks that blast into the sky in bright colors.  We could see them all around us.

it was a wonderful testimony to God at work that the young adults spent the evening alcohol free.  It was good to see everyone happy and getting along.  There were no cat fights or angry eruptions.   It gave me some hope that maybe we are making progress.  I was thankful for Marc and Kathy's help, holding toddlers and baking pizza. 

O, Come Let Us Adore Him!

Edgar's Homegoing

On December 4, 2013 Edgar went home to be with the Lord. He was only 19.  We miss him.  

Edgar had cancer that started in his lymph nodes in his pelvis.  He noticed some pain a year ago, but like people here in Belize, he just dealt with the pain.  It wasn't too bad.  Then he dropped 50 pounds in only two months.  That got our attention.

We took Edgar for an ultrasound and found he had enlarged lymphnodes.  The doctor told us to get a bone marrow aspirate to determine if it was Leukemia.

That was impossible to do.  The doctor he referred us to said he does not do the procedure.  There was no one in Belize who could do it.  Edgar would have to go to Mexico to a doctor there.  Neither he or his mother had a valid passport.  We applied for a passport for him...it never came. (It got lost?  I don't know.  We waited the three months it takes to get the passport and it never came.)  By that time he was worse. He had no energy and was urinating blood.  I took him to an internist to find a way to diagnose the problem without the bone marrow aspirate.  He ordered lots of tests and suspected Hodgkin's lymphoma.  He wanted to do a biopsy of the lump to make sure.  November 19 we admitted him for the biopsy.  By that time every day seemed to add to his complications...lumps grew in his throat (lymphnodes) which blocked his breathing.  He couldn't swallow food and had trouble swallowing water.  All of his bones ached.  He couldn't sit up or walk to the bathroom. He was spitting up mucus.... then spitting up bile.   This cancer was torturing his body.  It's a cruel disease.  Finally he somehow sat himself up, pulled out his IV, and demanded that he go home.  The doctor released him. He died at home 6 days later.

This is Edgar 2 years ago.  We used to go out to lunch now and then.  I liked to treat him and talk to him to try to guide him to make good decisions.

 This is Edgar praying in our church in September.  He was the person who opened our worship with prayer.  He always prayed a long prayer.  Some of the children Sulmi's age laughed and looked at their watches, but I told them "Watch!  He is speaking words from God.  We need to hear what God is saying through him."   Edgar, who was a young man of few words, prayed powerfully. He always told the people to live in peace with each other, to love and forgive each other.  He always told the boys to avoid temptations, he told them to come to church and to obey God.

This is Edgar at Boyz Bible Study.  He never missed it.

Edgar was a good friend.  We miss him terribly.  On Friday December 6, his birthday,  we had a funeral at Jesus' Deaf Church.  The church was full.  Over half of the people were Edgar's Deaf friends, some who came from as far as 3 hours away to remember him.  Now our dear brother lives joyfully in peace with Jesus...sitting at the feet of the Lord and praying for us all to make righteous choices.

Bringing in the Sheaves

 On Thursday our school celebrated "Harvest".   Every year at about this time we have a worship service at the St. Peter's Anglican Church to thank God for his bountiful gifts.  The children come to school with a decorated shoebox.  Inside they put food that the priest will distribute to the poor. All of the primary schools in Belize follow this tradition but not necessarily on the same day.  As the children file into the church we always sing "Bringing in the Sheaves".  They place their boxes behind the kneeling rail in the front.

The harvest baskets.

This is the lower school and middle school worship.

 The priest leads the children in a special liturgy.  Then each class comes forward and does a presentation.  Some classes say a poem and others sing a song.  This year the Infant 1 class where I "interpret", sang and signed the song: "Praise Him, Praise Him All Ye Little Children, God is Love."  in ASL.   It was precious.  Unfortunately Morine and her sister did not come that day, but you can see all of the hearing children signing the song by clicking on this link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dmwfi4h1s5lqdew/MAH02107.MP4

Infant 2 (6 and 7 year olds) sang a song.

The upper school followed a liturgy for worship.

Standard 5 said a clever poem with the letters in the word "HARVEST".

Standard 6 said Psalm 100 from memory.  This is Sulmi signing it.