Crazy rain storm

A few weeks ago we had a crazy storm that flooded barrios all over Jarabacoa. Fortunately, our house is raised up and no water entered our house, but our yard of grass was flooded with about 5 inches deep of water.


Our dirt road turned into a rushing river (which was nice cause it smoothed out all the potholes)

Our dogs enjoyed playing in all the water!

update on women's group

As I think I mentioned in the past, Daisy, who is the site leader for Social Work in one of the other communities here with SIDR, has started coming out to Mata Gorda once a week to help start up a women's group which we hope and pray will some day turn into a full time women's social work site. We have had several meetings with varying attendance, so 2 weeks ago, one of the ladies suggested we walk around the community and personally invite the women to come to the next meeting.

Here is Daisy, left, and Kathy, right, inviting Judy, center, to come to the group:

Here is a pic of our latest meeting, where we had 12 women come and do a craft and hear a small message:

Please continue to pray for the women of Mata Gorda that the group would start up strong and that many women would hear the gospel. Also pray that God would raise up someone to come work with the women full time.

Women's group

I am happy to announce that we have officially begun a women's group in Mata Gorda. This has been a dream of mine for some time now when I began the women's bible study last year. Now Daisy, the SI staff member who has a women's social work site in another community, is coming to Mata Gorda on tuesday afternoons to start a group here. Our ultimate goal is to have a full time women's social work site in Mata Gorda, but that plan may still be a year or so in the future. But the women are excited to have a group even if it is just one day a week.

Please pray for Daisy and I as we work on making relationships with the women and reaching out to them through crafts, activities and Bible studies.

Sala de Tarea

This year we have changed the structure a little bit at the school and now have preschool from 9:30 to 1:00 everyday and in the afternoons 3 days a week we have opened a homework room for older kids aged 5-8. It has been great getting to continue working with some of the kids who have graduated from our program and see them succeed in the public school. Here is a picture of me helping Kisleidy, who graduated last year, with her homework.

First week of school

The first week of school went surprisingly well. I have 9 new 3 year olds in my class and I was fully expecting a lot of tears and a hard week of adjustment. But, praise the Lord, the first week of school was wonderful! All the kids adapted quickly and are doing so well at school.







I am so thankful to be starting my fourth school year here at the preschool in Mata Gorda. I feel so privileged to be working in this wonderful community again and loving on these beautiful children of God.

Please continue to pray for Alberto and I as we begin this new school year with many new children and families.

Graduation 2011

The wonderful work team ladies who made the beautiful graduation sign:


All the kids came dressed to the nines as usual:








This year I had to say good-bye to a few of my students, since next year we are only able to have 3 and 4 year olds at our school. (more info to come in a later post) So any student that was 5 years old had to be "promoted" from the school even if they hadn't finished the program.

Here are my "graduates":

Angel:


Isaias:


Enmanuel:


Yocaira:


This year we also had a piñata for the kids. The only problem was it burst after only two hits!





Of course the cake was delicious!

last week of school

The last week of school we had a lot of fun! Since we had finished all of the curriculum for the year we decided to have a fun week full of art projects.

Here are the kids doing golf ball/marble painting.






Beading necklaces: