Safe in Guatemala

Quick update...
Josue and I are in Guatemala with a group of friends from Nashville until the problems in Honduras are resolved. Please pray for us, our friends and family in Honduras, and the leaders of the country.

Pray also for the work that is being done here in Guatemala to honor our Lord. Pray for Josue and I to have clear minds and to focus on this opportunity to serve another group of Christians.

I´ll post another update as soon as possible.

Con amor,
Jennifer

FeMorZa IS OPEN FOR SERVICE

Day one in the daycare (or as we are technically called ¨center¨ according to the Honduran government) has finally come and finished without any major catastraphes as we all had feared.

Friday morning Evelyn and I visited IHNFA (the agency in charge of daycares and orphanages) to find out that we could open the daycare. So, we immediately began to do those last minute things you always wonder why in the world you put off doing. We informed all of the registered parents of the opening who also had waited the last minute to get their paperwork together (some which couldn´t have their kids come today because of the lack of paperwork). And all the workers gathered at the daycare to do dry runs of the schedule and refresh their memories of the do´s and don´ts that Melissa taught them. We were all so nervous but in a good way, because we were also so excited to see this day come.

Evelyn (the Honduran director) was there at 7 am as we opened. The workers are on a staggered schedule that is based on when the most amount of children are in the daycare. So, as the hours continued, all the workers nervously and anxiously showed up as the children came bounding in all excited. Every worker realized that they were well beyond prepared and the day went smoother than anyone could have imagined. (Thanks for all you that knew about the opening that were praying for us.)

We only had 8 children out of our registered 19 because the others did not have their paperwork (birth certificate, health certificate, etc.) ready to give us. We expect a slow trickle through the week to reach our starting 19. Melissa was correct in deciding that we needed to start with a low number so that the teachers gain experience and confidence before meeting the challenges that come in larger numbers.

Nancy´s class of babies had Tatiana and Angi. Lupe had one two-year-old, Ivet while Bryan had only one three-year-old, Soani. Wendy´s class of fours and fives was Adonis, Bella, Walter, and Cristian.

Soani gets the credit for our first funny story of ¨kids being kids¨. During Bryan´s class time, he taught about greetings for different times of the day – good morning, good afternoon, and goodnight. He went through them all many times and finally came to the point to where he could quiz his student. She did great with good morning and stumbled through good afternoon. But the classic was when Bryan asked, ¨what do you say to your daddy before you go to sleep?¨ … ¨Give me money, daddy.¨

Thanks again to all who have been praying for all of the leaders, workers, and children. Thank you to all of our financial supporters who have been so patient through this long process. And thank you especially to the Claypoole family for providing the building as a place to protect, teach, and love these little ones.

Daycare update

Here are some more pictures of the daycare in its four main sections. These pictures are already below in another blog, but these pictures are a little clearer with more light.

Construction Changes

This is a picture after finishing the last set of jobs before starting on the new work.

To help protect the property, and as a requirement to prevent the children from crawling out of the windows, these bars and screening material were designed especially for the daycare and then installed.

The front of the building with its new windows.

The sides of the building have this design. The name of the daycare is only on the two windows on the front of the building.

Josue and Jacob (who came to help during Spring Break) working on putting the razor wire on top of the new chainlink fence and metal gate.

The front of the property has the outside boundary of the chainlink fence on blocks.

Then, there is a smaller fence of chainlink and wood that was built to keep the kids corraled in the front area so that they don't wander to the other side of the property.

A Lot of Fun Unpacking

When the job of unpacking the boxes came, it was like getting to have Christmas in February. We didn't know exactly all that was sent from the States, so it was a lot of fun to see what we have for the kids.

The majority of the materials were at the kitchen daycare next to the church, so we made many trips of items and boxes with helpers.

What a mess to start off!

Adult product testing.

We labeled and numbered as many things as we could.

Bottles were flowing out our ears, but we will need them all.

And, of course, we had to have product testing by the kids themselves.

Junior, 6 years old, son of Xiomara

Walter, 4 years old, son of Nancy

Ivet, 2 years old, daughter of Sonia

Ivet, Junior, and 2-year-old daughter of Xiomara

Angi, daughter of Nancy

Training the Workers

Group time activities with Melissa.

Book learning about the development of children with Melissa.

Handwriting practice with Kristin who helped out during Spring Break.

Lesson planning for the teachers with Jen.

Filing, filing, and more filing to get organized by Evelyn.

Back row: Sonia, Bryan, Wendy, Xiomara, Evelyn, Lupe, Nancy, Walter

Front row: Alexander, Melissa, Johana with Fernando, Katrina with Angi, Soani

FeMorZa Parent Meeting Day & the preparations

Evelyn writing a message of welcome to the parents.

Wendy writing a welcome message to her future students.

Nancy helping out with some of the bulletin boards.

Play section for the children ages 3, 4, 5.

Separation barrier for two play areas where mats and carpet squares are located.

Play area for the children in the 2-year-old class.

Baby cribs and a cute bulletin board saying that ¨Children are a gift from God¨.

Play area for the infants and toddlers just under 2 years old.

Our lovely kitchen area.

Outside toys stored by the door.

Classroom area for 4 and 5 year olds´class.

Each child has his/her own basket for storing personal items and projects from class time.

Notes home board for the parents.

Main entrance information center.

Thanks to the family of Phyllis and Calvin Claypoole, we were able to construct the building.

For those of you who didn´t understand the meaning of the name of the daycare, it is a combination of the Spanish words for ¨faith, hope, and love¨ from 1 Corinthians 13.

Mothers talking with Lupe about signing up their children for the daycare.

Evelyn and Lupe leading the informational meeting for parents who will be receiving the services of the daycare.

*Once again, many photos were borrowed from the talented skills of Melissa and Katrina Kluge.

Valentine Celebrations in Sunday Outreach

*Most (if not all) of the pictures here are gratefully borrowed from Melissa´s camera. :)