Roughing It

Well, we are half-way through our ABC communities with the sex education material (twelve total).  Whew!  It is getting easier as we go, and we really have to give a shout out to our health promoters for translating during the class.  This past Saturday we went to Las Cuevas and gave the classes to the kids from there and La Palma (about 35 total between the 3 age groups). It was a spectacular drive as the trees there are in autumn mode, which helped the 2 hour ride pass quickly.   The church building was certainly big enough for two simultaneous presentations (boys and girls), but they only had ten chairs and a dirt floor and no electricity.  The kids and parents were very accomodating and stood most of the time, sharing the chair space between kids.  We didn't get to use the projectors, but thankfully our computers had enough battery life to last, and we had the kids sit up close to us to see the screen.  The parents were very attentive and thankful for the presentation, which is always encouraging.  One of the men even spent some time after with the guys teaching and encouraging.  When we give this talk in some of the remote communities, we always wonder if it is going to well-received or even necessary.  But it seems like they are the most thankful and tell us of the concerns they have for their kids.   So, on we go.  We should be done by the end of March.

Week in Review

It's been a busy week of clinics and education and church activities.  Here are some highlights.

Our week got interesting when a group from the Mactzul 6 church came by to meet with Kemmel and brought us a chicken/alarm clock!  This guy is headed for the chicken-and-dumplings pots soon! 

 

Guess who???  Everybody loves Kemmel!

We were in Paxot II this week for Sex Ed classes--Lisa with the girls and Kemmel with the guys.

Kemmel and Cesar with the boys' class.



The older girls introducing themselves and their moms before class.

Mactzul I invited us out to their promotion ceremony for their church.  It was a mass Bar Mitzvah of sorts for the kids moving up to the youth group.  Here are the younger kids looking on.

This was a fired up bunch of kids!

Mactzul I's newly painted class room.  "Welcome to the house of learning"

The proud new members of the youth group with their new Bibles gifted by the Church.  In front are Tomas and Nicolas who are two of the Bible class teachers. 

We were invited to the first birthday party of the daughter of some friends of ours.  She got cake presents and a pinata to celebrate.

Our sister-in-Christ, Josefa went to be with the Lord this weekend.  Pray for her family as they remember her and miss her.

Classwork

As part of our education program for our ABC families and their churches, we are launching some new materials for teaching sex education at the different age groups.  This last week we presented the material to our ABC coordinators and volunteer promoters.  We started out the time asking how many of their parents talked to them about puberty or sex when they were growing up.  A whopping zero raised their hands, which confirmed our suspiciones.  They were a little squirmish talking about it at first, but began to open up and especially the older ones spoke up about needing these classes in the churches and parents not knowing how to talk to their kids. 
Unfortunately, these classes are already too late for two of our ABC girls who have dropped out due to pregnancy/marriage--both are 14 years old.  Sometimes we think we have made great strides in promoting education, when all of a sudden we are hit with the reality that in this country, education is still a luxury and that teen marriages (and to some extent, premarital sex) are just part of life even in the Christian community. 
We appreciate your prayers as we begin taking the classes to the churches.  There are still some concerns over whether all the churches will be receptive to the material, but we are eager to work on convincing them!  We pray that God uses us to help strenghen families and churches in the area.