A Very Successful Game Night!

Family Night this month was an assortment of games

We had a record 45 adults and children.  The games included relays, speed and creative games.  One game ran the whole night.  It was a clothes pin game  Each person gets one clothes pin at the start of the night.   If you catch someone crossing their legs or their feet you can "steal" their clothes pin.  The person who has the most pins at the end of the night gets a Snickers bar.   So through out the pictures you will see people wearing colorful clothes pins :-)

We ate the usual: Belize cheese dip with chips and veggies and brownies for a sweet desert.  It was a blessing to have Carol Rhodes here for the game night.  Many of the children and adults remember her fondly.  I appreciated her help !!!

This is the shoestring licorice game. Without using your hands, you have to nibble on the licorice to be the first to gobble up the lifesaver in the middle.

Several people didn't play games...they just had fun hanging out and talking.

This is the large t-shirt relay.  

 A marshmallow construction where each participant is given 10 marshmallows and raw spaghetti.  The winner creates a tower that is the tallest and remains standing.

and more marshmallow construction

A potato relay (You have to carry the potato under your chin without using your hands.)

Ginelli and Kristel are posing for the picture.  (Note Juan and Angelica cleaning up in the background!!! Hooray for cleaner-uppers.  Kristel and Gineli probably helped before or after the "photo shoot" ;-)

Morine and her hearing sister Adrienne make me smile. 

God Is Blessing Our Bible Study!

Whoo-Hoo!  Go God!

Last night we had a full house!  For about a month now we have combined "Girl's Night" and "Boyz Bible Study" because no one was coming to the Boyz Bible Study.  I'd make an annoucement, I suggested other times to meet, and asked "why?" but the young men were not showing up...week after week for about a year.  Then Juan said, "Can I come to the Women's Night?"

Hmmmm.  I thought about that.  Do we really want men at our women's Bible study?  At least one woman is nursing.  I asked the women what they thought.  They said, "Sure."  I prayed about it and beginning with September 5, men and teen boys were invited.  At first only Juan came.  One time Manuel showed up. Then this week Kristel invited Jaheed, Raheem, and Misael!  We had a full house of 16 adults and six little children.  

Kristel and Lupita volunteer to help take care of the children in the apartment.  Because most (if not all) of them have not eaten the evening light meal at home, their time together begins with a sandwich and some apple slices and a cookie.  When they are done eating, they play.  The apartment provides a great setting for them.  I am so thankful for Lupita's and Kristel's help.

The verse we studied tonight was Jeremiah 29:11
"I know the plans I have for you," announces the Lord.
"I want you to enjoy success. I don't plan to harm you.
I will give you hope for the future."

When we trust God's plans for our lives, we know that God will take care of us and make His plans fruitful. God is faithful.

What Do I Do All Day?

I have at least three hats that I wear here: the pastor of our Deaf Church, Sulmi's mother, and Morine's teacher.

I wish I was running from 5;00-6:00 AM but I can't seem to get up.  (Someone can pray about that for me :-). By 6:00 I'm in the shower.  Sulmi is up and ironing her uniform then a shower and we eat breakfast. Sulmi leaves at the house at 7:15 on a bike for a little over a mile ride to school.  I do devotions until about 8:00 when I leave for school in the van.

My classroom is in the library,  It's great to be in the library.  It's airy and clean.  I like being surrounded by books.  Because I am in the library I open it about 8:05 and let the children come in to browse.  This year we are not loaning out books yet.  We lost about 200 books last year that were borrowed and never returned so we have to develop a policy that's stricter than "You can't borrow any more books until you bring back the last one" because that basically lets about 200 books disappear. I love having the socialization with the students first thing in the morning.  It means lots of hugs and smiles and I can take an interest in them and show them they are important.  Some drop in just to chat.  It's a good part of the day.

At 8:30 the bell rings and I teach Morine Ayuso until 11:30.  She is a deaf 7 year old.  Last year she was in the class where Chelsea interpreted. Unfortunately she failed.  Her sister is in the same class and passed. Ouch!  That is a difficult situation.  I asked Mrs. Briceno, our principal, if I could teach Morine 1:1 and try to bring her up to the level of the other children who were promoted.  Also I want to teach her to read the deaf way through sight words and repetition vs. a phonetic approach. So Morine and I spend the morning reading High Frequency word books and practicing spelling, writing stories with the words she knows, learning to add, subtract and tell time (and other basic first -second grade math skills), and I read/sign lots of books to her, trying to increase her signed vocabulary.  She likes to take the books home and retell them (explaining the story but not reading the words) to her family.  By doing that her parents and her grandma and aunt also learn the ASL vocabulary that Morine is learning.  She also takes the High Frequency word books home and practices the words she is learning to read.  She's doing fabulously and it's so crucially helpful that her family is practicing ASL with her. 

In the afternoons Morine goes to the mainstream Infant 2 (Second grade) class with her sister.  There she learns PE, social studies and science.  She doesn't have an interpreter.  It would be nice to have one, but we don't have one.  So she tries to learn what the other children are learning and the teacher tries to explain and include her with visuals.  I will be giving Morine her Social Studies and Science tests so I will see what she needs to learn and try to fit that into our morning as needed.

My afternoons are free until 3:15 when Sulmi comes home from school.  I do lots of different things with the afternoon...catch up on paperwork, go food shopping, help someone from church.  Yesterday I helped Veronica work on her application for Belizean nationality and took her to the Social Security office to learn what she needs to do to get a Belizean social security card since she is a Guatemalan national but married to a Belizean (Mario).  I also do various tasks in order to satisfy what is needed to adopt Sulmi.  I think we are on the homestretch.  All of the court papers have been signed.  Now I am praying the court accepts our request. Thursday afternoons I spend preparing for Friday evening Bible study.

When Sulmi gets home from school we chat a bit and then start on her homework.  She continues working while I cook dinner.  Some nights she is done before dinner and some nights we work until 9 PM.  Why am I helping her with her homework?  Sometimes she did not understand the explanation in class.   Sometimes it's just nice for her to have the support.  Most of the time, reading the text book is very, very hard.  So I try to provide the vocabulary that she does not understand and then re-explain it in ASL until I see the lights in her eyes showing understanding.

In the evening we usually relax with TV or facebook or a book....sometimes doing our own thing.

We both are in bed by 9:00 and sometimes earlier to read and unwind.

God Does It Again!

     It's time to update you again regarding who is interpreting for Sulmi.  We had two interpreters lined up to come through VMM but God had other plans.  Both interpreters backed out in June.

     By Mid July, I still dd not know who would be interpreting but had a promise from the Ministry of Education that they would have someone for Sulmi.  Who?  They didn't know.  They knew all of the interpreters (all 2 of them) in Belize were assigned to a placement in Belize City.  In my desperate prayers I thought I heard God say, "I have someone for Sulmi."  That gave me some peace that I could not account for otherwise.

Kathy Miller interpreting for Sulmi at St Peter's.

     During that time Kathy Miller was interpreting for Sulmi while she attended the mandatory summer school for new Freshman.  The classes were three weeks long.  In the middle of the second week Kathy developed a problem with intestinal worms.  It's pretty uncomfortable: indigestion, vomiting, diarrhea. The easily available de-worming med was not working.  Afraid that Kathy would become dehydrated, I took her to the clinic and they diagnosed her with worms.   They kept her in the hospital for about 24 hours with an electrolyte drip and other meds.  Fortunately she recovered by the weekend.

    When Kathy first became sick, she still went to school to interpret, but on Tuesday night I told her to stay home.  Who would interpret for Sulmi?  My first thought was to call Miss Mesh.  She is the woman who used to interpret for Manuel.   We agreed to meet at the bus stop and then I would drive her to school.  The next morning as I waited at the bus stop I got a text. "Im sorry but my brother was in an accident I need to be with him,"

Sulmi in her Bishop Martin uniform on the first day of High School.

    Now what would I do?  School would start in 5 minutes and Sulmi did not have anyone to interpret for her,  The only other people I knew who could hear and sign were the Jehovah's Witnesses.  So I drove to a house where I knew some of the American JW missionaries lived. That woman said she could not sign well enough but suggested Cathlene Wallace, a Belizean, who happened to live near the school.  After calling Cathlene and getting a "yes", I drove to pick her up and drop her at school.  She interpreted for Sulmi the rest of the week.  Sulmi liked her and understood her signs.

     The next week I asked Cathlene if she would be interested in applying for the job through Ministry of Ed.  So we did all of the paperwork and got the necessary documents copied and sent off to Belmopan and they said "a definite maybe".   Throughout August we waited for a yes. A few days before school started they called Cathlene and asked her what pay she wanted?  She replied but then they did not respond.  School started.  When the orientation began, there was no interpreter.  I called Cathlene and asked her to please come.  She said she didn't have a contract yet.  I assured her that I would pay for her to interpret if the Ministry of Ed did not come through. (!!!???)  She came right away.  Two weeks into school she still did not have a contract.  Finally someone from NaRCIE (special ed. office) kindly made a trip up to Orange Walk with the contract in hand and Cathlene was employed.

Praise God!  

Cathllene is 27 and has been signing for eleven years.  I love her big smile.

    Now a month into school, she hasn't been paid, but, this whole experience has taught us to trust God and know that somehow He will work it all out.  God's plans are always better than our own.  Hiring a Belizean is better than my plan to bring in an American for 10 months. Why?
     * I want to help Belizean signers improve their skills
     * It's never a good idea to have an American take the job of someone who can do it here.
     * More experienced Belizean interpreters means people who are here for the long haul who will help train the future interpreters here.
     *Sulmi is confident enough in her faith so that neither the Catholicism that she is learning in school or the influence of a JW will shake her,  But it is good to be in dialog with both...rather than project fear or hate.

It's a good thing, a God thing.

    This was clearly a lesson in learning to trust Him.  We got confirmation not at the last minute but two weeks into the school year!  God wanted to know if I would trust his promise that he had someone.  If God considers that we passed this test, I wonder with a bit of fear and trembling what the next challenge will be.

   

Women's Bible Study Update

In the picture Reinalda and Angelica are writing the verse in their books.  Alma is reading and signing it.  Miralia is asking Martha (not pictured) how to sign one of the words.  No one ever thought that Alma would learn to read, but she is :-)  Amazing!  She is so proud of herself.

Trolling through the internet I came across 30 Bible verses every Christian should know. It was a good list: "I am the Lord, your God, you must have no other God besides me." (Exodus 20:3) and "Do to others what you would have them do to you." (Luke 6:31) and of course, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Phil 4:13).  What verses would you include in the list?   I started thinking of verses that I would have included because of the encouragement they have given me. My list plus the website's list came to about 50 verses.  That's about a year's worth if you memorized one each week.  So I started thinking about using this list to be the basis for our Women's Bible Study for a while.  We would study, record, and memorize one of these significant verses each week.  I gave each woman an exercise book. (What's an exercise book? Because the classrooms do not supply paper for the children to use in school, each child must buy a small, 75 cent, lined blank book.  These exercise books are available everywhere and used for everything throughout the Caribbean.)

I bought 14 of these exercise books and gave one to each of our women. The first verse would go on the cover: "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path" (Psalm 119:105).   Not all of our women can read. (Yikes!  i wondered if this was actually a good idea.)  But the grace of God is good. They all rose to the challenge of learning to read the verse and decorating the cover with a picture to help them remember the concept.  We had a great discussion about why God's word is important. Everyone took their books home and practiced reading/memorizing the verse.  When they returned the next Friday night, Martha brought a friend.  Miralia had seen Martha practicing and said she wanted to do it too.  So sometime last week Martha met with Miralia and taught her how to read the verse and they practiced memorizing it together.  When Miralia came on Friday she asked for an exercise book so she can write down the verses, too.  It inspires me to see how God lead me to this idea and how it is going to help us to learn together.

CODA VBS 2014

Coda VBS 

     This VBS was designed to provide a Summer Bible School for the children of our Deaf church members.  We also included young siblings of Deaf members and two young Deaf children. All of the children were under 8 years old except the boy on the far left is a neighbor of Selena (standing with the baby).  He doesn't fit the equation but when I pulled up, he jumped in the van.  Hmmm.  How could I say "You can't come to church." (??!)   It worked out.  This photo from the first day is when we had 10 children.  By Friday we had 16.

     We had tremendous helpers!  Kristel and Lupita assisted the children with all the activities.  They were invaluable.  Kristel is so patient with some of the children who have behavioral issues.  She doesn't seem to get frustrated.  Lupita helped to show the children how to make the craft or play the game.  She and Kristel added laughter and goofiness to a lot of what we did. Sulmi is the most introverted of the three and preferred to take the pictures.  All of the pictures, except for group shots, were taken by her.  

     We started at 9:00 and ended at 11:30 AM.  The general schedule was:

• Worship (prayer and singing)
• memory verses and prizes
• the new Bible story and drama
• the new memory verse
• active play (games outside)
• a drink and snack
• Centers (The children needed some time to play but not do it in unison with the group, so I set up 4 stations where they could be creative and work at their own pace....blocks/cars and trucks, playdoh with some cookie cutters related to the theme of the day, a craft, and something else that fit the theme.)
• Prayer and dismissal

Here are the pictures :-)

GAMES

Clothes relay.

Can you jump the river? (The ropes spread father apart after each round.)

BIBLE STORY and DRAMA

Selwayne playing Jesus and calling the disciples to "Come follow me".

This was the story of the lost sheep and the good shepherd who cares about us.

Jesus to Peter, "Do you love me?"

BIBLE MEMORY and BIBLE MEMORY GAMES

Marshmallow treats for those who remembered their verses.

We "fished" for the words from our verse and then glued them in order.

CRAFTS, SNACKS, and CENTERS

 

 Marble painting....This was a blast!

Thank You, Kathy

 Last Sunday, July 27th, we said goodbye to Kathy Miller.  She came in January to interpret for Sulmi at St. Peter's.  Sulmi was struggling because she needed an interpreter/tutor.  Kathy brought the right combination of interpreting and helping to the task.  Her competence with that job allowed Sulmi to learn and excel in her Standard 6 (8th grade) classroom.  Kathy was a Godsend.  I don't know what we would have done if she did not come.  I am so grateful God called her to be a missionary with us for 7 months.

In addition to interpreting at St. Peter's, Kathy also started a children's Sunday School/nursery care program for our church.  When she arrived the parents and I were having some trouble keeping the toddlers in the pews during worship and the sermon.  They liked to get up and move around and were hard to ignore.  Kathy and Chelsea took turns taking care of the children under the age of 8 during the testimony and preaching part of our church service.   It was wonderful!  The young children looked forward to joining in free play and activities in the Sunday School room.  The adults were able to focus on the sermon and not be distracted by children running between the pews.  Ahhhh.  We were blessed by this service that Kathy and Chelsea provided.  

When Kathy's term was nearing the end, our church talked about "What are we going to do when Kathy leaves ???!!"  Sometimes the question was posed rhetorically, sometimes in panic.  Once or twice I answered the question by saying, we as a church are going to have to take turns watching the children. That was usually met with quizzical faces and unspoken replies, "I hope you don't mean ALL of us.  Will I have to do it?  Maybe only the women?  Maybe only the mothers?"  Following my organized mind set, I said I would set up a nursery sign-up. But I thought about it later and that doesn't really work with this culture.  Most people plan only a few hours in advance.  The school doesn't even send home a notice about meetings until the day before it happens.  Only the few super Type A professionals carry a day book . Rarely, if ever does anyone in our church write something on a calendar... if they have a calendar.  It's very relaxed here. That's nice to be in a place that is not as ultra-scheduled as I remember from my American experience. It's nice to be free to pick up and go at the last minute, but that means a "nursery schedule" would not carry much weight if the person got an inkling to go visit friends in a neighboring village instead of coming to church that Sunday. Hmmm.  I was still wondering what we will do when we arrived this morning.  I brought a bucket full of books, chalkboards, construction toys and coloring books and put them in the front of the church.
Within minutes Lupita picked up the bucket and took it to the table I had set up for children in the back.  She said she would take care of the children today.  Just like that.  I thank God for Lupita.  I thank God that she answered this call.  And she even listened to the sermon while she was back there... because when I asked a question, there she was in the back of the room waving her hand waiting for me to call on her.  

We didn't have toddlers today, but when we do, I am confident God will have a solution for that, too.