School has started!
This has been a very busy month for everyone at La Providencia! School started on August 19th, and most of what we've been working on has been related to that.
Heath and Ethan and Jesse worked with the other men to finish the new administrative offices (which our very own Mountain View youth team worked on this summer!) They also painted the new walls and repainted several old walls. They also tore out the wall separating the library from the old administrative office. (The ladies from our Mountain View team last spring spent many hours in the small library working on organizing it. You would all be very excited about the expansion!!) Now that the school building projects are finished, Heath and Ethan are spending most of the time working on building the new family home. It is very hard physical work! But even Ethan is working all day out there and enjoying his job. He's going to be disappointed when we start our homeschool year and he has to take time out of his work day for that!
I (Erin) have spent my time mainly in the school. We had a couple of weeks to prepare . . . organizing the classrooms and planning lessons. We've now had a week and a half of school. I start teaching at 7:30 in the morning, and am finished at 11:45. I'm teaching 2nd grade English every day, 2nd grade art once per week, and one music class per week for each of the 6 grades. During the hours I'm not teaching, I work on organizing the library. There are still hundreds of books to be cataloged! The teaching load is more than I was expecting because there is so much lesson planning involved. It's also overwhelming to try to manage a classroom full of children, especially the young ones who don't know much English yet! But the second week has been better than the first, so I'm hopeful that it will get easier.
We've figured out a schedule that works for our family. Erin and Ethan ride to La Providencia with a friend at 7:00 every morning. Heath brings the other kids over around 9:30. They entertain themselves for about two hours. Then, after we eat lunch, Erin takes the kids home, and the afternoons will be our homeschooling time. Heath, and sometimes Ethan, finish the work day around 4:30 or 5 and ride home with the same friend that takes Erin in the morning. It's a bit complicated, but seems to be working ok.
We are making friends with many new people, and the La Providencia staff are all very welcoming and supportive as we get adjusted to this new culture. We started Spanish lessons this week, and it's very exciting to be learning and understanding more and more of what's going on around us.
One huge blessing for La Providencia is that all the money has been raised for building the 3rd home, which means the 4th home will be funded as well (because of a very generous donor)! It is very exciting to see how God has provided, and to be a part of this exciting next step at La Providencia!
It has been a trying month in many ways though. In addition to all the differences we shared in the last newsletter, we have also had financial challenges, a minor car accident, frustrations with getting our shipment, and other things. But we are thankful that God is faithful no matter what and that we have good friends (old and new, near and far) who are carrying us through. We appreciate your prayer and encouragement so much!
One immediate prayer request we have is for our shipment. We sent a large amount of personal items, all our homeschool curriculum and supplies for the year, clothing and all the kids' toys, many of Heath's tools, as well as books and electric pianos for La Providencia by ship. Our shipping costs were covered by those of you who have been financially supporting us. We were told there would probably be no customs fees because it was personal items. However, we have now been charged $1300 in customs, and our shipment has been "red stamped," which means they are going to open it and go through everything on Monday. This will not be done in our presence, and we were told nonchalantly by our friend who's helping us through the process, that some of our things might not be there when we go to pick it up. Theft is expected; bribery is not uncommon. And it appears that there isn't really anyone to appeal to about it. Please, please, please pray that a person of integrity inspects our shipment, and that all of our things make it. Yes, it is just "stuff." But it is "stuff" that people have donated for La Providencia, "stuff" that we need in order to educate our children, "stuff" that will enable Heath and the men to work more efficiently, "stuff" that we can't afford to replace and will make our time here much more manageable. Please pray with us that it makes it! Thank you!
Thank you all for joining with us in this ministry!
~Heath, Erin, Ethan, Jesse, Tabitha, & Rayanna~ |
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