A year later

Running on the cistern - the yard visible behind her

Well, not quite a year.  We moved onto this property Oct. 2, 2017.  We ended up staying in Six´s house until December, when our house was sufficiently finished for us to move into it.  What a lot of progress has been made in this year!  Six´s house is complete, except for the flooring which has been bought but not installed.  Our house is done, except for the second story bars on the windows and perhaps flooring on the second level.  Don Ezekiel put the finishing touches on the front building where we will have classes for our neighbors once the electricity and plumbing are complete.

What lacks in our house is furniture and railings on the stairs.  When my dad visited in July, he helped us buy some items, but we will need to make shelves and other storage spaces, in addition to closets and kitchen cupboards.  At present, the top part of the stairs is protected by boxes of mostly books.  We plan to install bookshelves there.

Since starting school in February, Abish has almost learned how to read in both English and Spanish.  He is also comfortable counting in both languages from 1 - 100 and can do single digit addition and subtraction.  He and Lani are both fascinated by learning about famous landmarks, and are thrilled when they recognize one outside of school.  We have chosen the Sonlight curriculum for Abish´s first grade year, which he will start early 2019.

A few days ago, Abraham and I talked over our plans to start home churches in Huejotzingo.  Although we have lived in this area for a little more than 8 years, there has not been progress in raising up new leaders.  People we have done Bible studies with have not grown as we hoped.  Some have moved and stopped having Bible study.  Therefore we will be trying a new idea.  We hope to have a church-type service in the house where we continue to teach English, do crafts or cooking with the girls, have kids´ club on Sundays, and do math tutoring.  We plan to model the church service on the kids´ club, but invite adults for a monthly Saturday afternoon service and then have a time of talking and playing games afterward.

Please pray for us as we try this new service.  Pray also for those we do Bible study with, that they
would grow and learn and that those who have moved would once again want studies.  Pray for us as we go about finishing the details in our home.

Huejotzingo vbs

Vacation Bible School 2018 has come and gone, and quite frankly, it is a relief to have it over.  We decided on the theme of the life of Barnabas in the New Testament.  Normally we begin preparing for Huejotzingo´s vbs in January, but with home schooling Abish and all the details of our new home, we didn´t begin any work on the vbs until late March.  All the planning and preparation takes lots of time, but is completely consuming during the actual week of the school. 

Our two registration ladies

My dad and Joyce arrived a few days before the event.  Abish and Lani were ready to pop waiting for them and were so excited when they actually came in the door.  Waiting is difficult for little people.

Monday, as per the usual, was quite hectic as we set up the craft and worksheet for the day, enrolled the arriving children, and sorted out last minute details.  Just like last year, my dad drove over to pick up some children who live too far away to walk to the house.

the schedule we more or less followed

The other days went more smoothly, and each day saw four or five more children arrive than the day before.  On the last day, we had 45, and on the enrollment, we had 54.  Friends from Dios es Amor and two mothers from another church, along with other friends helped us teach the children, do the crafts and worksheets, serve snack and clean dishes, and run games.

Each volunteer was a great blessing.  We certainly cannot run vbs without help.

Although our own kids mostly enjoy the week, it is also quite hard on them.  Abish, a veteran of several vbs´ and the more outgoing of our kids, laments the end of the week´s activities.  Lani becomes increasingly clingy and crabby as the days pass.  On Friday I let her hang out in the living room for about an hour rather than participate outside with the other kids.  The week is, without a doubt, very tiring.

On Monday Abraham dressed up as Peter to tell about Barnabas selling his field and donating the money to the disciples.  A friend memorized the monologue of Paul who was first accepted by Barnabas after Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus.  I told Wednesday´s story from the point of view of a woman of Antioch where Paul and Barnabas stayed and taught for a year.  Thursday was another friend telling John Mark´s story of how Barnabas accepted him again even after he had abandoned Paul and Barnabas in a previous missionary journey.  On the last day, my brother-in-law spoke as Barrnabas about how following Jesus hadn´t always been easy.

Rachel as a lady from Antioch

Thank you for your support and prayers for us.  Please pray that the lessons from the life of Barnabas would stay with each person who participated in the vbs week.  The majority of the children who attended do not do any other activity with us but have been to at least two or three vbs´.

Abraham as Peter, telling about Barnabas

lots to do

Our house is pretty much done.  There are a few details that will be added over time, like interior doors and security bars on the second floor, but the construction, plumbing, electricity, and windows are all finished.  We also still need to install railings on the stairs and perhaps put in flooring.

What remains is the rather overwhelming task of completely moving in.  We still have lots of stuff in boxes (some people in this family really love books...).  There is a bit of a catch-22, though.  In order to unpack, we need some more furniture to be able to put away the contents of the boxes.  We would like to make the majority of the furniture, but to do that, we need the tools and space to do it.  The tools are, you guessed it, in boxes, and many boxes are stored in the workshop where we will make furniture.  So which to do first?  Unpack so there is space to make the furniture, or make the furniture so there is a place to put the unpacked stuff?  The likely solution is to buy some of the items already made.

tetanus mountain

And there is the yard - a large area of potential where we can design any sort of garden we want.  And we will.  There is, however, a great deal of work to be done before we can properly start gardening.  For one thing, the yard is littered with bits of wire and rusty nails.  Every time I go out, I make sure to pick up any metal I see, and the mountain of discarded bits continues to grow, but it seems there is an unending supply.  There are also rocks, rubble, buried slabs of cement, and miscelaneous trash scattered about.  The soil, too, is quite poor, being composed mostly of sand.

Still, we do have some plants already set out.  The climbing roses are flowering, and we have harvested some radishes the kids planted in a small plot near the house.  A friend of ours gave us lots of small fruit trees and some avocado trees to add to the various fruit trees we already brought with us from our other house.  The trees from the other house are enjoying their new place, and we look forward to future harvests of peaches, figs,
chirimoyas and more.

It is exciting to consider all we can do with this new property and house.  It is also daunting.  I have to remember the moral of one of Abish's favorite fables, "Slow and steady wins the race."  Bit by bit, it will all get done.  Please pray for us as we continue our regular ministry, homeschool Abish, and do all that we need to completely move in to our house.

Kindergarten

Even before we were married, Abraham and I agreed that however many children we had, we would educate at home.  When we talked about it after Abish was born, and then Lani, we continued to think that home school was the best idea for our kids.  With homeschool, we can decide on the curriculum and also make sure both kids stayed truly bilingual by teaching in both Spanish and English.

Now Abish has been five for more than six months.  We had first thought of starting kindergarten when the school, Puebla Christian School, began their classes in August.  However, that was not a good option, because by then we were getting ready to move into my mother-in-law's almost completed house.  While staying with her, we didn't have an adequate space, or the resources (almost all our stuff was packed), to do school with Abish.  Then we thought we would start school in January.  By then we had moved ourselves, and lots of packed items, into our mostly finished house.

However January didn't really work, because we were in the States for the first two weeks for my brother's wedding.  We settled on starting in February.  We couldn't quite get everything ready for starting on the first week of February, so it was the second week when I sat down with Abish at his little table, and we began with a prayer.

Eiffel Tower with straws

Abraham teaches Caminata Biblica, PE, a reading progam called Mas Luz, and also counting from 1 - 20 in Spanish.  I am the lesson planner in general and also teach Walk Through the Bible, reading from the book Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, geography, and math.  He does not, of course, do everything
every day.  Lani sometimes likes to join the classes.

proud of her work

For the most part, although he complains about the intrusion on his play time, he likes school.  When I read the California standards for kindergarten before we began school, I was pleased to see that he already knew most of what was listed.

As we do classes, the sound of the workers finishing the second story can sometimes be rather loud.  However, they have made excellent progress, and we should be able to use the whole, finished house in about a month.

Please join us in praying that Abish will learn well in school and that the work on the house will continue with no accidents.