Welcome back! I promise you
I was not just taking a break during our newsletter hiatus. During
the last 2 months I have been translating for Now is the Time (the
mission team which I used to come with in the summer), preparing my
house for my guest, Madeline, who will be spending a month with me
and working at a malnutrition center, and taking multiple trips out
to Solola preparing for the program I'll be starting this fall. With
the help of local leaders, I have visited 45 families in the area,
and I still have 6 to visit. Of those 45 families, 21 have been
approved for full-inclusion in the program. Others may receive
partial assistance.
The main focus of the
program is to break the cycle of poverty. The best way to do this is
through education. The idea is to either get the children in school,
keep them in school, or get them back in school. However, if their
bodies aren't receiving the necessary nutrition or if the children
are always sick from their living conditions, the education received
won't be as effective. So, there is also an interest in improving
their nutrition and hygiene standards.
The majority of this work
will be done through the help of donors who feel a desire to help
these people; this includes the money that you as a church donate
through the mission fund each month. Additionally, if you have
friends or family members which might be interested in sponsoring a
family, please get them in contact with me!
Finally, I want to share a
few stories from my visits, one funny one and one a little more
difficult. First I'd like to share with you the story of David.
David is only a year and a half old. He is the youngest of four
children. The oldest, Carlos, is 16, finished 7th grade,
and works during the harvest (and at other odd jobs when they can be
found). Wendy, age 12, also finished 7th grade and now
works full-time making crafts to sell. Floricelda, age 8, is in
second grade but helps her older sister make crafts in the afternoons
when she gets home from school. This is just some of the information
I collect about each child.
When I arrived at their
home, Wendy and Floricelda were busy with their work. Carlos and his
father were away, and their mother was cooking some beans for lunch.
David was toddling around grabbing onto the yarn which his sisters
were trying to weave into their baskets. However, they all sat down
to chat when I showed up with my small group of translators and
community leaders. As I worked my way down the sheet filling in
information, we shared a nice camaraderie. David was pleasant and
cheerful. However, when I said, “And David doesn't do anything yet
because he's too little” (in Spanish, of course) and put a line
through the space where I note if they work or study, he let out a
howl which made most of us jump. “Okay, okay,” I said (in
Spanish), “David works in artisan work as well with his sisters”
and wrote through my crossed out line. He instantly burst into a
smile which made us all laugh. As we got ready to leave, Floricelda
gifted me a little basket; she said, “David wants you to have this
to remember what good work he does.” We still call it “David's
basket.”
The
other story is much more sobering. While trying to find one of the
houses—there aren't really addresses—we ended up visiting the
next-door neighbor of the house we wanted. It was not hard to get
confused. The house we visited was made of metal. It had metal
walls and a metal roof. Outside we met Maria and Elena. Maria is a
widow with two children: Juan and Elena. Her husband committed
suicide a few years back. Maria couldn't support the family; so she
sent her children—now ages 10 and 11—to work. She tried to get
Elena a job making tortillas, but the people at the tortilleria said
that she was too little and couldn't make tortillas good enough to
sell. (I believe I was told that Elena was 8 at that time.) Juan
sells gum on buses. They have no electricity or water at their home.
Their “bed” is a few wooden planks on cement blocks; it has no
mattress. They cook over an open fire on the other side of their
room; the only way for smoke to escape is through the door or at the
corners of the room where the metal sheets don't come together
completely. Fortunately, they own their land, and they are able to
rent some of it to a potato farmer just to have a regular income.
The Care and Keeping of a
Missionary
As I
enter the next phase of the ministry which God brought me down here
for, I'd like to take the time to thank each and every one of you for
the support you have given me. Without your prayers and financial
support, I might have given up a long time ago. As we enter this
next phase, I ask that you keep me and these 21 families in your
prayers. Please share this ministry with others who you encounter as
we'll need 21 sponsors. The full program outline is available upon
request. I'm still working out a few final details; so any thoughts
and suggestions (as well as questions!) are more than welcome. Keep
me in your prayers as well for my health and that God removes any
roadblocks which may show up.
Remember
that
I
update
my
blog
as
well
at
http://GringaOnTheGround.blogspot.com
for
additional
stories
and
updates
which
don't
always
make
it
into
the
newsletter,
and
also
I
love
to
hear
from
you;
so
feel
free
to
write
to
me
at
asimmer@gmail.com.
I
hope
you
are
all
having
a
safe
and
wonderful
summer!
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