February 15th
English Camp
Last week we had a group here from Canada to help us accomplish a week-long English camp. Teaching English is important to the people here and we take it seriously, but when the camp is over the most important thing is identifying the students who have shown interest in: further English help, Bible studies, or maybe they just want to get to know us better. We make an effort to build a relationship with these “new contacts” after the camps are over by having each teacher make a brief visit to their students’ homes. This past Saturday, each teacher was given class pictures that were taken on “graduation day” and the addresses of the students in their class. With the addresses and a map, we managed to visit the homes of almost every English camp student in this enormous development. These visits allowed us to meet the other family members and get an idea if they are interested in any sort of follow-up. Most of the visits just involved dropping the class picture off with the family, and thanking them for coming. Other families, however, invited the teachers in for coffee, or just to talk for a little. Out of a camp of over 100 students, about 10 good contacts were made in a section of Los Heroes where we have never before held English camps.
Victor, is one of those new contacts. He is 14 years old, lives with his two brothers and his father in a single story, one bedroom home. (He is the shortest kid in the back row of the class picture) One of his brothers is severely handicapped, unable to talk or walk. He takes care of both his brothers in the mornings and evenings while attending school in the afternoons. His grades in school are terrible and he has started to hang out with some neighbor kids who are not a good influence. He has a compassionate heart (which shows in the loving way he treats his brothers, especially the handicapped one whom he feeds and bathes daily) and a desire to do better in school. Victor was my student in the English camp. I offered to help him with his English homework and have been working with him around 5pm each day this week. It’s an opportunity to step into the life of a young teenager who is struggling and needs guidance.
Victor’s situation reminds me a lot of Omar, who as you may recall is the 15 year old who is living alone in Puebla, while his parents are working in the U.S. It’s not the same situation, but I see a lot of similarities. Omar is doing very well spiritually. I invited him to stay at my house for a few days this week because he doesn’t have school this week. He was here from Monday through Wednesday. He is doing well in school, and is taking a Bible course at the Puebla seminary. He seems to take every opportunity he can to share Christ with others and has excellent Biblical questions for me every time he talks to me. Praise the Lord for how he continues to hold Omar up and grow him into a strong faithful servant.
The Home Stretch
We are planning on having a CEFC work team come down in the month of June, Lord willing, to begin working on a pastoral home for Pastor Juan. The plan for the team to come down is still up in the air because the elder board at Cristo Victorioso is in the process of deciding on purchasing land and working out the details that are involved with that process. Our desire is that Cristo Victorioso will be responsible for the land, and our group will help with the construction and material costs of the home.
Prayer
1. Praise God for the contacts we made in this latest English camp. Pray that He would use us in the lives of each person (especially Victor) in some way… great or small.
2. For the elders at Cristo Victorioso, that God would lead them to a wise decision, in faith, regarding purchasing land for a pastoral home in this next month.
3. Praise God for continued spiritual growth in Omar and Jose Manuel. They are truly becoming men of God. Jose Manuel has been very faithful in coming to the Wednesday night bible studies. The Lord recently provided him a job with an auto parts manufacturer after having been unemployed for the past year. The amazing thing is how God used Gary Lidstone, a fellow missionary here in Puebla, who knew the owner of the company years ago when he attended his church in Ontario, Canada, to link Jose Manuel up with the company to begin working. Gary and Jose Manuel are standing next to me in the picture above.
Blessings in Christ,
Jon