We had 62 kids in class this pm; those who are familiar with our room can imagine that it was packed. I gave Mirna the option of setting up tables in the carport and having class there; but she said it’s hard to control the class when they’re outside. All 62 got to eat and each one carried home their coloring paperwork the day. Part of the reason so many children are showing up is their anticipation of the Christmas gifts. Yesterday we finished handing out tickets in Nueva Campana. This registration process has been a tremendous amount of work. In the early years we encountered a lot of dishonesty and disorder when we handed the gifts out. This process we are using now helps to keep it honest. On Friday I’ll help Flor hand out her tickets back in the jungle area. Going house to house was a very fulfilling experience, especially to the ones by the railroad tracks. I hope I can find an excuse to do it again soon. The man elected president of Honduras is not a bad choice; there’s been no violence yet. We had to pay some scholarships today. I went through all the envelopes, my wallet, Nicolas went through his wallet. We scraped together all change we had. There was one lempira (5 cents) left over. God is good. -- Gary
We had 62 kids in class this pm; those who are familiar with our room can imagine that it was packed. I gave Mirna the option of setting up tables in the carport and having class there; but she said it’s hard to control the class when they’re outside. All 62 got to eat and each one carried home their coloring paperwork the day. Part of the reason so many children are showing up is their anticipation of the Christmas gifts. Yesterday we finished handing out tickets in Nueva Campana. This registration process has been a tremendous amount of work. In the early years we encountered a lot of dishonesty and disorder when we handed the gifts out. This process we are using now helps to keep it honest. On Friday I’ll help Flor hand out her tickets back in the jungle area. Going house to house was a very fulfilling experience, especially to the ones by the railroad tracks. I hope I can find an excuse to do it again soon. The man elected president of Honduras is not a bad choice; there’s been no violence yet. We had to pay some scholarships today. I went through all the envelopes, my wallet, Nicolas went through his wallet. We scraped together all change we had. There was one lempira (5 cents) left over. God is good. -- Gary On November 2 I blogged that I would like to see us start music classes someday. Two days later there was an article in La Prensa highlighting the great interest in music that is developing among children in our region of Honduras. Our daughter, Marisa, studied violin by the Suzuki method and was playing classical music at a very young age. It is not uncommon for children 3 to 5 years old to begin playing the classics. I know that there are children in our villages who perhaps don't even have shoes and sleep on a dirt floor who have a gift for music. There is one young man I heard about from San Pedro Sula who plays for the Chicago Symphony. I hope that in the not-too-distant future this will become a reality.
Junior didn't show up today so I translated for Helen. As the little kids went through their songs I noticed how talented some of them are. I know there are a number of little kids in these villages who are gifted in music. For years I've had in the back of my mind to have a Suzuki violin program. I know some of these kids could learn to play classical music at a very early age and possibly go on to a career in music. There is an excellent music school for children in San Pedro that was started years ago by a man from Canada. One of their graduates now plays with the Chicago Symphony. Here's another program that just needs someone to run it.
Junior didn't show up to translate today so Sonia took the English class and I went into the preschool with Helen while she told the story. I think she had 17 kids today. In any event she gave them a memory verse at the end of class, Luke 10:27, and as soon as she did they started reciting it from memory. As it turns out, that is a verse Myrna had given them some time back and every one of them knew it from memory. Interesting. It occurred to me last week to try to speak to Alfredo Orillana about our woodworking classes. We began working with Alfredo back in the year 2000. He is a good friend, a Christian, and an excellent woodworker. He is the one who made kneeling benches out of mahogany for Jennifer's wedding. Several years ago Alfredo went to the United States to try to earn a living for his family and has been there ever since. Tonight I spoke with him in North Carolina with regard to his future plans. He says he's planning to return early next year, as soon as he comes up with enough money for a plane ticket. However, the longer we talked, the more interested he got in possibly returning to work with us. He said he will call me back next Tuesday to discuss it further. With our plan to produce goods to be sold in the US market, he would be my first choice as one to help with that program. This might be something to put on your prayer list. I've spent a fair amount of time the last couple of days working through the issue of insurance for our building here. We have had coverage against earthquake, fire, and hurricane, which on the surface sounds pretty important. However, I did some research and found that as far as earthquake is concerned there have been no serious earthquakes in Honduras since they started keeping records back in the year 1530. There have been earthquakes in Central America, but they have been confined to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Of course we do have hurricanes, but in checking with some pretty well-informed local people, there is hardly ever much wind damage to buildings as a result. The damage is through heavy rains and flooding; but we are on high ground here so that doesn't seem to be a problem either. As for the thought of this building burning to the ground, it is made of concrete and rebar, that is not likely either. I had a conversation with Bill Hoff who has Bible Institute south of San Pedro and he is pretty much in agreement with what I am thinking. His thoughts were that our greatest exposure is with the contents of our building. We do have contents coverage through Clements International in Washington DC and my thinking right now is to use our money to increase that coverage and cancel the other. Over the weekend we received enough money to get the red van fixed. Therefore, we had a wrecker come out and pick it up today and take it to San Pedro. No word yet on what problems might be. When we were with Frank and Phoebe Harrison over the weekend, they offered to let certain of our employees attend their discipleship training seminar presenting a technique called"storying." I talked to Beto about it and he seems quite enthused. He and Joel would be the ones to participate . I also spoke with him and Nicholas about offering the diploma discipleship class first to our employees, just to get started. They both seemed quite enthused about that. They asked that we announce it at our next luncheon/staff meeting so it is clear that it is our idea and not theirs. We had further evidence today that Cheryl's foot is doing better. Joel walked into the office upstairs with a live, 6 foot long snake. When she saw it she did a dance that would challenge most anyone. Dr. Green and his team arrive on Saturday. Cheryl has spent a good bit of her time lately getting things ready for that.
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