Grateful Peace

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow! As I sit to write about our year so far, gratefulness arises within. God is Good. While I always know this, I don’t often stop to recognize and be aware of it. When I do stop to reflect, to think back, to remember, I cannot help but see His steadfast faithfulness. From this posture, I am able to look to the future and believe He will fulfill His promises, both written in His Word and spoken specifically to us. I pray you, too, see His Hand on your life, that thankfulness lead you to trust in His promises for you.

The blessing of our own home continues to stabilize our hearts and minds. A constant prayer for us is that His peace be upon us and our home. As His peace abides in our home, our home is an abode for His peace. Within the bonds of peace, we have begun to detox the hardships of the past few years. Like lactic acid built up in the body, we see the LORD touching the areas of spiritual, mental and emotional build up in our hearts and minds. As these areas are singled out, there is an initial sensation of pain before the release. We’ve been working through the pain to get to the release–the breakthrough–and I praise God for His steady Hand to encourage us and nudge us towards the release and the promised peace through the process. It’s easier to talk about this in general terms as I really see God working in all aspects of our lives. Perhaps the more pointed areas Jessenia and I see His restorative work are in our communication, in our ministry relationships, in our role in the local body, and in forgiving past offenses. We love to be in His peace in our home. Thank you for helping us get here.

The children are now 4 weeks into their school year. Bianca and Noel are excited for their “senior” year. Typical Nicaraguan education has one less year of high school and one more year of college. Bianca plans to become a dentist, while Noel hopes to be a veterinarian. Bianca is busy learning, training, and preparing for her trip to Colombia. It seems like will have the paperwork ready on time, but prayers for her Colombian Visa would be appreciated. More than 700 students from Latin America will participate in this mock Summit of the Americas in Cartagena, Colombia. She will be representing Chile as they debate with other American “nations” for her assigned country’s best interests. I asked you to pray about sponsoring her trip in the last post, which costs a total of $2500. While no one responded directly, we did use general ministry funds to make the payments. If you would like to sponsor her, or sent a donation for that purpose, please let me know. I’d love for her to be more aware of how God provides through His people. As a sort of default, I assume she thinks that I’m the one paying for everything. I actually want to all the children to be more aware of God’s provision through you all, so we’ll revisit that idea soon.

Margine’s attitude and countenance as this new year begun has been very encouraging. At the beginning of last year, she was a shell of herself and often looked empty inside. She struggled mightily, but finished the year much better than she started, proving to herself and her teachers that she could work hard. Towards the second half of last year we noticed a little more light in her eyes, and that has grown as she is clearly more motivated. We pray she continues to grow throughout this year, finding her strength and identity in the LORD, as He enables her to learn and understand and grasp difficult concepts.

Jeremy also struggled last year, both academically and getting in trouble at school. He is at a critical age–turning 14 in May–and we pray he chooses to be a son of God, accepting his place through Christ as His Father’s son. This year he has shown more responsibility, and hopefully summer school helped him as well. Ezekiel is in 4th grade and picked up where he left off, doing his work and happy to be at school. Fifth grade has also started well for Vanessa. It seems to be the year that boys and girls start liking each other, and we pray she maintains a healthy self-image as she and her classmates enter this pre-puberty phase.

Little Fredder has unfortunately had a complicated start to his school career as Tatiana, his mom, has not been at home. He absolutely loves school, but his baby brother Abraham (4 months) has been in the hospital for 3 weeks. He was initially treated for pneumonia, but they also found a large tumor on his liver. Tatiana has been living at the hospital taking care of him as he is still breastfeeding and the doctors insist he not drink formula. Apparently he was drinking formula, and that might even be part of the problem. Baby Abraham had surgery at the beginning of last week to remove the tumor, and we await the results of the biopsy. The doctors told Tatiana that he is a strong little boy because he recovered very quickly from the surgery. Jessenia was able to visit with Tatiana to give her some diapers and personal items while encouraging her for being a responsible mother. We pray the LORD be their strength and Healer.

I continue to enjoy teaching, as well. The school where I teach, Nicaragua Christian Academy (NCA), is one of the top 5 private schools in Nicaragua. It’s also probably one of the top 5 most expensive as well, with tuition being more than most households make in a year. Some families are very wealthy, while a few students are on scholarships. The students are primarily Nicaraguan, followed by North Americans, Koreans, and more than 20 other countries. International staff members raise funds to supplement the modest salary. However, there is a substantial discount for students whose parents are full-time teachers, which makes Jeruahel’s tuition very affordable. Unlike typical Nicaraguan schools, we use the North American school calendar and go through 12th grade. All classes are taught in English, with the exception of Spanish class, and 60% of students go on to a 4-year university in North America. The other 40% either carry on university studies in Nicaragua or some other country. For most Nicaraguans, the hope is for their children to go to college in the US, which is part of the reason NCA does everything they can to have native English speakers teaching in the school. Hopefully that helps paint a picture of the school for you.

One of my favorite things about teaching is the environment I am able to create in my classroom. I like talking to teenagers, and I am good at listening to them as well. I try to put the burden of learning on the students as much as I can. I want them to see me as one resource of many to use as they discover and learn and find that they can teach themselves. When a student asks me a question, I try to respond by asking them if they have asked their peers yet. In the beginning of the year, they find this odd as it is clearly not something to which they are accustomed. However, to their surprise, they are usually able to explain things and help each other, which builds their confidence and understanding. During instructional time, I love to see them figuring things out on their own after struggling through some steps. What I enjoy most are the relationships being built with students. I care deeply about my students, and they can tell. I see the LORD using me more in certain relationships, and I will continue to share more about what I see Him doing in future posts.

Thank you for reading this. Thank you for caring. Thank you for taking time to pray for, support, and encourage us. God is Good!