A new student
Her mother actually heard about the school from someone in the States. Some of her cousins worked with Loncho Ramos in the States and happened to mention their deaf cousin and how she doesn’t have a school to attend as she was kicked out from the government school for bad behavior. So Silvia’s mom came one weekend to visit and immediately wanted to send her daughter. We awaited Silvia’s arrival with some trepidation but also excitement because as Becky says it’s a wonderful thing to see the students change and grow as they learn how to communicate and behave! Silvia is 10 years old but quite big for her age. She is strong willed and used to getting her own way, but she is learning that there are limits here! She can learn fast if she wants to and her behavior is slowly improving, though sometimes it seems for every step forward she takes two backwards. Pray for Silvia and for the workers who take care of her and teach her.

 

Work
Butchering day – Studentswere a little surprised when they came to school in the morning only to find out that they would helpwith butchering a steer instead. It was a nice diversion and in the evening we invited the committee of the CICS over for a BBQ.

Excitement
We have a new van! One morning we all went outside and received instructions from Nata about how to take care of the van. Now it’s not necessary to slam the door shut and we no longer need to push the van to get it started.
Vacation
We have off a whole week for Semana Santa (Holy Week/Easter). On Friday, everyone was acting rather hyper. By 2 pm, all the students and most of the staff were gone. There was so little activity with only Nata’s family here that some bees were able to start building a nest on the front porch.
Visitors
Some former staff visited for a few days – Naoma Lee and Liliana. Wesley’s cousin, Hosea Miller, also came for a visit during Semana Santa and stayed till April 28th.

We’ve been enjoying some change in our routine!
May 10th, the children all piled into the van with their teachers and off they went to Texistepeque to pick mangos at Joseph and Connie Miller’s house. The children and staff filled 16 feed sacks full of mangos. The van was so full of people there was no room for mangos so Mark Yoder had to bring the seven big sacks over in the truck and also gave nine sacks to the children’s home.
May 16th we had a big mango canning day. I was kind of excited about the day and wondered why all the others were kind of groaning at the thought of all the work, but I soon found out that making mango sauce takes a lot of time!! The children helped wash, peel, and cut up the mangos. We cooked them in huge kettles, put them through the Victoria strainer, and then added sugar. We then poured the sauce in jars and canned them over the fires outside. After we all worked many hours and five of us cut our fingers, we ended up with 73 quarts ofmango sauce on our shelves and 30 bags of mangos in the freezer.

May 10th was also Mother’s day. Ester Pacheco came for a few days to help the children with art projects so they would have something to give to their mother.
May 16th we welcomed Ruth Schlabach from Shipshewana, IN to the finca. A few days later, Yamilet Lima joined her. They are staying in the Casa Twila for a few weeks as they are helping start a bakery in Aguilares. Ruth is teaching a few native ladies how to bake whoopee pies, donuts, and cookies.
One week Jose didn’t come to school as he had fallen from a tree and hurt his legs. His parents thought maybe they were broken. One day most of the children walked over to his house to visit. As his parents weren’t taking him to the doctor, Nata took him one Saturday and here his ankles were just sprained. Jose is back now and at first hobbled around with a cane but now seems to be doing pretty well.
We can tell rainy season is just around the corner. There were a few afternoons when it rained and the bug population has already soared.
Thank you to everyone who helped pay for the van! Thank you for your prayers! A few of the older children have recently been thinking a lot about accepting Jesus into their hearts. Pray for us as staff, that we would remember why we are here and could also be good examples. Thank you for your interest in the mission here! God is GOOD!
~Margretta Beachy