School? Yes? No?

We started school with four students last Tuesday, using the curriculum on www.educazion.net.  Three of the students are from one family, and the fourth from another.  Three of them we figured were in third grade, and the fourth in kindergarten.  For two days, the kids came at 10 and studied until 12:30 when they took a break.  They returned to study until 3, when they went home.  Our school week was Tuesday - Friday.  On Thursday and Friday, only one student came, the girl from the other family.

Abraham went to visit the family of the three students to find out what had happened.  The oldest girl cannot come to school anymore, because she helps her mom at home.  She is also attending classes to become a beautician.  The boy will probably not come anymore, because he is discouraged.  He took his pages of work home, and his family criticized the way he wrote and formed his letters and then gave him a page of math to do that he couldn´t do.  They concluded that he didn´t learn anything with us (in the two days!).  The youngest girl, the one in kindergarten, probably won´t come anymore, because she told her mom she doesn´t want to.

That left us with one student, an eleven-year-old girl who has not been to school for years.  She struggles with reading and math, but is very motivated to learn.  When I asked if she wanted to take a stretch break during the hours of class, she stood up, stretched, and immediately sat down.  On Tuesday at 3 o´clock, after studying various different subjects throughout the day, she asked me if she could also read a lesson of Mas Luz with me.

Then on Wednesday, she didn´t come.  Abraham went to visit her family, and her mom said the girl had to accompany her sister to deliver tortillas.  Up until that day, her sister had delivered tortillas alone, but on Wednesday her mother said the girl had to go too.  She promised that the girl would return on Thursday.  She did not.  Please pray that, if the school will be of help to the kids, they can continue.  Pray that they will not be discouraged and that they will put in the effort it takes to learn, even after years of being out of school.

pizza-dough hands

A couple weeks ago, we started an activity time at our home for the teen girls.  On Tuesdays at 5, the girls can come to make crafts or food - a different activity each week.  We also read and discuss some verses.

The first week we made no-bake cookies (which never hardened...), and the girls requested to make pizza the following week.  They didn´t come the following week, but a neighbor couple, also Christians, came, so we made pizza with them, and then had dinner with them.
 
Originally, we set the age for the Tuesday night activities at 12, but we decided to lower it to 10, and on the next Tuesday night when we made soap, three girls, ages 10 and 11 came.  They enjoyed the process of soap making, although one girl was rather uncertain about stirring the mix after I told them that the glycerin could catch fire if it boiled over (this I know from personal experience).  No fires broke out, and the girls took home their heart-shaped rosemary-honey-lavendar soap bars that evening. 

We plan to make cards next week.

Please pray that the older girls will also attend, since they are the ones we specifically planned for.  They have difficult home lives and are very vulnerable to abuse as they look for love.  We hope to offer them love and a safe environment here.