Fabian's Testimony

This past week, a couple of our kids were learning the importance of history. The world's history, Mexico's history, their personal history. For homework, they had to write their testimony. How their life was before God, how they came to know the Lord, and how their life is now that they are living for Him. I took up their papers the next day and was so touched when I read Fabian's testimony. He comes from a very very poor family. His parents do not serve God, but his grandma faithfully brings him to church several times a week. She cannot read or write, but loves God! Fabian is the only boy in the school whose parents do not come to church. Thankfully, his grandma has a burden for him and has made the sacrifice to put him in the school. This means walking about two miles every morning to drop Fabian off here at school.

Fabian and his grandma, Hermana Francis

Here is Fabian's testimony that he wrote:

"Ever since I was very little, my grandma began taking me to church. For a while my parents didn't let me attend church, but my grandma, seeing that what my parents were teaching me was not good, had to have a tough talk with them. Ever since then, I have not stopped going to church. We struggle because my parents don't want to go to the church. I wish they would go, but if they don't, my grandma and I will keep seeking God. I thank God that I was able to meet a God that is able to save and I am happy walking in the way of God. This is my testimony."

Our Little Protectors

Last week, while walking to P.E. the were boys coversing among themselves. I love listening to them talk--they always teach us some new word. The road we were walking on was very rocky and torn up from all the rain. As we were walking, Austin piped up with some instructions for the boys. "If anyone comes and tries to kidnap Beth or Nicole, all of you grab a rock and throw it at them!" All of the boys then began searching in the road for their perfect rock. These boys can pack quite a punch so in the event of an emergency, I am glad to know someone will fight for us! :)

Our fierce little warriors

Week #2, Gone with the Wind!

Week #2 of Centro Educativo La Victoria!
Life has become very very busy... But we are loving the challenges that this new school brings.
Here are a few pictures of the past few school days!

Pastor comes down every morning and prays with the kids and teaches a little Bible lesson, or helps the kids memorize a verse.

Ay ay, Mondays are tough!;P

After each school day, Bethany and I go over the work the kids did, plan for the next school days, and tell each other the funny things that happened in the day... these times end up with us crying from laughter... Well at least we think the crying is from laughing! It might be from exhaustion. 

We really do love our new job, and it's very fulfilling, but it sure is tiring.

Pastor has been building a special box to hold all of our laptops and keyboards for when we have to pack up everything. It's turning out really nice!

How Beth feels after a day of school haha.

Judah comes with his mom to pick up his cousins.

I can't wait till my little monkey is one of our students!

Bethany helping our little spacer, Eddy. :))

^^Such a good little teacher ;P^^

Constant supervision is required for our 2 littlest chillens :)

All of the kiddos studying!

My little prodigy, crunching numbers...

Muahahaa :))) My prodigy... I make myself laugh!

When I say prodigy, I call him that with totally blind faith. This little guy is the toughest cookie in the bunch!

Thanks to the wonderful Mexican public school system, he has gone through 3 years of kindergarten and still does not know how to count to 10. Neither can he say his whole alphabet correctly. He is a hyper little boy and has a very hard time concentrating on his work. When a kid in a classroom of 50 students acts up constantly and has a hard time learning, the teacher places that kid in the very back of the classroom to do whatever he pleases. The few children that are blessed with longer attention spans are placed at the front of the classroom.

I'm hoping and praying that with time, one on one teaching, and bucketloads of patience, he'll become one of our brightest students. :)

Playing during break!

Bright Beth ;)

 

Don't you just love her skirt?? Too bad for all you girls, you won't be able to find it in any stores...

 It's a one-of-a-kind Bethany design... and created by our seamstress down the street!

Pastor so graciously :) agreed to help teach our 2 oldest boys how to make their Power Point presentations!

Little Fabian!

(aka, "Fabis". LOL... cracks me up when I hear the other kids call him that...) 

 Workin' away...

Bethany playing deer in the headlights haha. 

And that mysterious white blob with legs is a chapulin (grasshopper) that Austin caught, and with some help, put a "collar"on it! The kids had a pet grasshopper for a while... Until we fried it up with some chilis and ate it... Kidding!

Well, another week is over, and here Beth and I are, working away so we can be ready for week #3! 

It really is amazing how quickly the days pass! 

Time flies when you're having a good time ;)

*Nicole*



Grocery Day!

Saturday is market/grocery day! Beth and I decided to go along with Lolita to see what we could see :D

We bought some cheese from the cheese lady...

:)) Mmm...

Then we bought some tomatos and some chiles...

Then we walked over to the meat section of the market to buy a big pig...

Just kidding.

Oh and it may look like this guy is hugging the little piggy, but actually what he is doing is skinning it. Yum. :))

Bethy loves the little cherkerns

Here's our little meat guy slicing our chuletas and flechas... Sorry,

I have no idea how to say that in English... the words escape me haha.

Poor little chickens, just waiting to be bought and cooked up...

Here's a guy serving up one of my most favorite things in the market... Our local honey! It's amazing.

And outside, they sometimes sell parrots and birds! I had my camara out and ready, because I was totally expecting this lady to get bit! The bird was vicious and the lady was, well, being not so smart. :D

Then we started on buying our fruit!

Here's one of the fruit guys... I think he needs to eat more of his own produce...

He looks a tad malnourished.

We have every fruit imaginable in our market! Mangos, pomegranites, kiwis, jicama, peaches, papaya, apples, guayaba, pears, pineapple, canteloupe, strawberries... You name it, we got it.

This right here is a rare find though... Deep dark purple grapes! I'm still kicking myself for not stopping and checking them out. :( We were in a hurry to our next stop.

And our next stop? Chedraui!

We are not so brave as to buy our fish from our lovely market, so we go to our grocery store instead.

No, we didn't buy these, but they look way more interesting than the fish that we bought haha.

Evil gluten :))

Done with our grocery shopping, we went outside to catch a bus!

Stay tuned for an update on our school! :)

*Nicole*



New Chairs!

In these first 4 days of school we've noticed something that has been bothering us-- the chairs that the kids are using are too short and too big for them. We wanted to buy hydraulic computer chairs for each kid so that they could adjust it the proper height, but with the budget we're working with, there was no way we could do that-- in the stores here, the hydraulic computer chairs that we wanted are upwards of a hundred dollars!

Here are some pictures to illustrate the situation we were dealing with:

 The little ones can barely see their keyboards to type-- the chairs swallow them up!

Note: If your chin is touching the table as you write, you need a shorter table or a taller chair...

...the older ones are slouching horribly!

Bethany and I have also been sitting in the same chairs as the kids and at the end of the day we are ready for a trip to the masseuse! That may sound funny, but I am not kidding. 

5-6 hours of sitting in these chairs is a recipe for extreme pain.

(Even as I am typing this post while sitting in one of the dreaded plastic chairs, I keep catching myself reaching to massage my neck. LOL! Ouch.)

So how can I say that the above problem was what we were dealing with?

Well...

Today Bro. Dad was driving around town running errands and while driving he happened to look over to the side of the road, and what did he see???

Hydraulic computer chairs!

A quote from Bro. Dad on the occurence: "I almost had a heart attack!" :))

So of course, he whipped over to the side of the road to check out the chairs...

They were used, but in okay condition!

It turns out that an office had just remodeled their offices, so they were trying to sell a ton of these chairs.

 He asked the lady there how much the chairs were, and she told him 300 pesos each- (about 25 dollars). Bro. Dad said that we would want several and was there a discount for buying more than one? 

The lady thought about it for a while... and then said "Yes. You can have them for 150 pesos."

With our current exchange rate, that means we got each chair for 11 dollars! Wow!! Now, of course these chairs are not brand new and some may be dinged up a little, but we are so thankful to God for taking care of our need. They are perfect for us!

Just yesterday we had been discussing our desperate need for proper computer chairs and today Bro. Dad just happens to run across some on the side of the road! Thank you Jesus!

The boys went crazy when Bro. Dad dropped off the chairs after school during their P.E. class.

This was another "first" for them-- spinning, rolling chairs!

They immediately got into the chairs and began yelling and laughing and playing "carritos"-- bumper cars!

They got a little too into crashing them into each other...

And the hilarity came to a screeching halt when two of the chairs toppled over... The kids may have been having the time of their little lives on those chairs, but we were not ready to sacrifice our "new" chairs for the sake of them having a little fun. :))

We had each kid scoot his chair to the wall and told them play time with the chairs was over, and to continue with P.E. They all did as they were told and went back to playing basketball.

One of the last kids to push his chair to the wall was Eddy. He didn't notice as I watched as he went to leave his chair and what I saw him do next was so stinkin' cute--

He looked lovingly at his chair, and patted the seat as he said in his baby voice, "Adios", and then ran off to join the other boys in their game.

Ahhhh!!! So precious!

Here he is with his chair... :)

^^This is the first time that I have seen this little boy smile like this!^^

He is always so serious. It was so nice to see him laughing and smiling about his chair :)

Thank you Jesus for our new chairs!!

*Nicole*



First Day of School! Our Dreams Coming True...

Yesterday was our first day of school! This is a dream come true for us. In the past, homeschooling has been against the law. It has also been against the law for a church to have a school. The only option for the kids has been the public school.

As it is in the US a lot of the time, the public schools are not a place one would prefer to put their child in. Here in Mexico, the public school system is saturated in Catholicism. On Day of the Dead, the children are required to bring food sacrifices for the altars in each classroom. It is a huge battle every year, trying to get out of it. But, last year we discovered a homeschooling curriculum that complies with the law and gives parents an added option in their children's education. It is also based on the Bible!  

The teachers here are like dictators. Whatever they say is taken as a commandment written in stone. Every so often, the teachers check their students to see if they are practicing proper hygiene. This includes looking at their nails, hair, and underclothes. They tell the parents what food they can and can't bring. If a parent misses a meeting or doesn't come to school work days, they are fined or their child's grade is lowered.

When Nicole and I were younger we attended the Mexican public schools. We have seen things happen in the classroom that would make you gasp! The teachers routinely leave the classroom for hours on end, leaving no adult supervision. It is not uncommon for a teacher to smoke in class. Mine did, and would throw her cigarette butts on the classroom floor. Nicole was given a shot without parental consent. Crazy, crazy!!

Besides all of this, the immorality of the schools shameful. The kids are taught that homosexuality is normal, and that there are three genders. The teachers curse at the kids and do not show any kind of respect. I once saw my teacher twist a kids ear so hard, I'm sure his feet come off the ground!

Through this new project, we are trying to increase the odds that our kids will be saved. Not only do we want to make good students, but we also want to develop them into true disciples of Jesus.

For our first year, we have 6 students...all boys!!

We start out each day with prayer and devotions.

Pastor prays with the kids then gives a small lesson on a certain theme. This month's theme is "One God"!

Every week they will have verses to memorize, chosen by Pastor.

After devotions, each child logs onto their computer and starts their schoolwork! They will study Math, Spanish, History, Geography, Science and Penmanship. At the end of the day, there is P.E.

This week, the kids are learning how to use the computer, mouse, and keyboard. 

...Except for Nansito. He is learning to read and write.

Eddy learning to type :)

Bryan is the kid in gray. Monday was his first time to ever use a computer!

Nicole at her desk...

...me at my desk!

Dansito and Eddy with their watches that they made

Yesterday we memorized "a s d f, j k l ñ"

Each kid has their own computer, and at any time, we can log onto our computers and see what they have accomplished.

Lunch time!

Taking a nap...lol! Nicole is SO worried everyone is going to actually think she is sleeping in this picture...so for Nicole's sake...she is only playing!

Yesterday was a day of learning and experiencing things they've never experienced before. Yesterday the boys had their first opportunity to use an electric pencil sharpener! They were fascinated!

So now you know what our latest adventures are! We are so excited to be starting this new chapter of the work down here in Mexico. This is going to change lives and destinies! Now...it has yet to be seen WHOSE lives will be changed...ours or the kids? Haha! Yesterday I learned the technical words for each finger in Spanish (pointer, middle finger, ring finger, pinky!) So along with the kids, we are also being educated!

~Bethany~