Saturday, September 21, 2013

September Newsletter

Well, we made it through Independence Day here in Guatemala and are finishing up the last few weeks of the school year. Thank you for being a part of this 2013 school year with us. It has been a fantastic year. Please follow this link to read what has been going lately at Nueva Vida and with my ministry as a speech therapist:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/169903286/September-2013?secret_password=1vg5qwlgm9wkg6fc2ozj

Thursday, August 15, 2013

 FACING NEW REALITIES

I have recently returned from a visit to the States, which was a wonderful time of rest and catching up with family and friends. However, this vacation was bookended by two tragic events in Santa Maria. I have blogged a little about these events on my Facebook page. The day before I left for the States, I received a call that one of my afternoon therapy students, Griselda, had passed away due to kidney failure. The week I returned, I called the father of a 9 month old baby with cerebral palsy I had recently evaluated. He said the baby was gravely ill. The next day, I heard that he had passed away. Working in the States, I had never dealt with the death of any student. Now, within a month’s time, I was dealing with 2 children’s deaths. This was a new reality I didn’t want to face. In a country where good healthcare is not available for the poor and superstitious beliefs about health run rampant, the
reality of children dying would become a new reality for me. So, what is my reaction as a Christian to this new reality? First and foremost, I seek to comfort and encourage the families who are grieving. I use it as an opportunity to share God’s love and tell them that God cares and grieves with them. I visited with both of these families, brought them pictures of their children that I had, and prayed with them. Second, I think we can encourage the parents when possible to seek medical help instead of going to a village healer or just ignoring the child’s illness. Finally, I have learned to leave it in the hands of the great Healer and pray that he watch over these children and bring healing whether in life or death. It is not a fun or easy reality to face but one that calls me to seek God’s will and His answers instead of my own. Please pray for these two families especially as they deal with the loss of their children.Below are pictures of the 2 children we recently lost, Pablo and Griselda.




Saturday, April 27, 2013

April Flowers bring May Showers

This quote is definitely true in Guatemala. Our summer, or dry season, is almost over, and we will begin our winter, or rainy season, at the beginning of May. Please catch up on the events as of late here in Guatemala by following this link to my April Newsletter!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/138266282/April-2013-Newsletter

Saturday, March 16, 2013

A Great Start to a New Year

Please follow this link to my March newsletter.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/130745303/March-2013-Newsletter?secret_password=2mn8m2q6d3smos428dm6
It has been a busy month of exciting things going on here in Guatemala! Please read the newsletter attached to find out all the details. It is the season of Cuaresma, or Lent, here in Antigua, and Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is quickly approaching. This is a very busy season for the city of Antigua. There are processions throughout the streets each Sunday leading up to Holy Week, and then there will be processions throughout Holy week. More than a million people will visit Antigua this week. Needless to say, this week we will not have classes as it is a huge holiday here in Guatemala! Here is a picture of the processions in Antigua. The carpets you see are handmade entirely of painted wood shavings, flowers, fruits and vegetables. Pretty amazing!

Saturday, February 2, 2013

A New Year

After a wonderful month of rest and relaxation with family and friends in the States, I have started off a brand new year at Nueva Vida. It has been a very busy but exciting start to the new year. For those of you who receive my newsletter, you know that I have been emailing it out through a PDF file. Since it is hard to keep up with the blog and the newsletter, I am trying out something new. I will be posting a link to my monthly newsletter though ScribD. I pray that this will work, but if not, I will work something else out. Thank you again for your prayers and following along with me in this journey. Here is the link below:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/123499229/Jan-Feb-Newsletter-2013?secret_password=c8ucns15iu8af8ilfm9

Monday, November 5, 2012

Learning Patience in a New Culture



One of the greatest and most challenging parts of being a missionary is learning a new culture. Although I have been around the Hispanic culture my entire life, every country has its own nuances and customs that you must learn. The Mayan culture of Santa Maria is even different from the Ladino, or non-Mayan, culture here in Guatemala. Many frustrations and even comical moments can come from not understanding the new culture.

One of the frustrations I have faced is what appears to be a lack of consistency and concern from the parents about their child’s education.  Now that school is over, the parents are responsible for sending or bringing their child to therapy. Many children have failed to attend lately, and it has become frustrating to see the seemingly lack of interest among the parents.  I am very grateful for the parents who do bring their children, but it is easy to become disheartened when so many parents do not seem to care.





However, God has truly been teaching me patience and compassion towards these families lately. I have seen how difficult work at home is for the mothers. Their days are spent doing hard labor just to meet their basic needs. Recently, I had the chance to visit some of the parents in their homes. It was definitely a humbling experience to see the conditions that my students live in and to find out that some parents are actually interested in their child’s education. Although it is important to instill in these parents the importance of education for their children, it is also vital to remember the challenges they face on a daily basis. I am grateful for the lessons of patience that God is continually teaching me here in Santa Maria.


 The Daily Grind


The month of October is always a busy month as it is the end of the school year. The children officially finished classes the 12th of October, but there was still much work to be done. Teachers work until the end of November here. Many children continue to come during the break for extra help with their studies.



The 6th and 9th grade graduates at Nueva Vida

During this break, I have set up a schedule to see many of the students for speech therapy during the week. 
Many of the parents who have brought their children have been able to sit in and watch the therapy sessions. This has been a great opportunity to show the parents what I am working on with their children and give them strategies to use at home. One of the mothers who has been coming has a 10 year old daughter, Limni, who is deaf. She has been attending the sign language class for parents and is also coming with Limni for speech therapy. We are reviewing the signs in therapy and working on putting sentences together with the signs. It is so encouraging to see the mother’s interest and excitement in learning sign language for her daughter. What a blessing for Limni to now be able to communicate with her loved ones!

As I mentioned in last month’s newsletter, we have begun sign language classes for parents and for all the teachers. These classes are going very well, and the teachers seem very enthusiastic to learn the new signs. The teachers and I are also meeting one more time each week to review the signs and role play different classroom situations.
At the end of October, I had my first visitor to Guatemala from the States. My long-time friend Devon came for about 5 days, and we enjoyed touring around Antigua and its vicinities together. Devon was also able to visit the school and even sit in on a sign language class. That was quite an experience for a person who doesn’t even know Spanish! Thank you Devon for your visit!

 
The teachers learning Guatemalan sign language

Sunday, October 7, 2012

Happy Fall!! Excerpt from October Newsletter

Although there is no such thing as Fall here in Guatemala, I do hope all of you are enjoying this beautiful season. I hope you also enjoy this small excerpt from my October newsletter. As always for a full copy, please sign up for my e-newsletter by clicking the link above. Thank you and God bless! Jennifer


Happy Independence Day Guatemala!



September is an important month in Guatemala as the 15th is their Independence Day. Guatemalans celebrate their Independence Day in many different ways, somewhat similar to the way Americans do. They have parades, fireworks, spend time with their families, and eat their typical dishes. I spent the day by participating with the school in a parade in Santa Maria. All of the schools from Santa Maria get together for a community-wide parade. The children are dressed up and all march together around the town while everyone looks on. All of our students did an excellent job dressing up and even had signs advocating for disabilities.

As I reflect upon the mission of Nueva Vida, I realize how God has used this school to set so many children free from shame, loneliness, and hopelessness and has given them honor, a place to belong, and hope for a brighter future. Lately, I have had this portion of scripture from Isaiah 61 on my heart. So, I wanted to share it with you so that you may pray this promise for these children.

“The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners….. To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor.” Isaiah 61: 1, 3

May the Lord lift up many oaks of righteousness from Nueva Vida to display his splendor throughout Santa Maria. 



                               School’s Out for the Summer




October 12 is the official last day of classes for the school year. So, what will you be doing now that school is out?, you may ask. Well, I will be continuing my therapy sessions with some of the students throughout the week. I will also be preparing for the upcoming school year by creating materials and working on goals, schedules, etc.

Another project I will be involved in concerns sign language classes. There have been 3 sign language teachers coming this year to work with our 3 deaf students. During the break, our teachers will be taking classes once a week with the sign language teachers to learn basic signs. This will help them to be able to communicate better with our deaf students. I will also be leading another session once a week to review the signs and facilitate role-playing situations. This is something that I think will be very beneficial to the entire school, not only to the deaf students.

During the week of Thanksgiving, I am hoping to attend a camp for children with disabilities with several of our students and teachers. This camp is a great opportunity for our students who would otherwise never have the opportunity to participate in so many fun activities! What a great way to spend Thanksgiving!!