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Tag Archives: Christian School and Chapel for the Deaf

2023 02 update

February 3rd, 2023

Four weeks of classes into the semester.  We have been BUSY.  Our director/webkeeper was called away at the end of 2022 due to a death in her family so we apologize for not updating the website as is our custom. In the end, the deceased is believed to be eternally content in Jesus’ presence while those still remaining on the planet are working through steps to keep moving ahead.

Natalia knows none of this of course.  She had her 6th birthday while we were on Winter Holidays and we celebrated with her when she returned to classes.  From these photos, you can see Delilah (the dog) continues to tolerate hugs and Betsy continues to “teach”.

Our fleet of volunteers has kicked up their gears and bring us monthly lunches as well as come once a week to teach a variety of skills with the boys.  Every young person should have the ability to make fried chicken, boil pasta and chop veggies. Who knows what the next lessons will be!?  Natalia’s volunteer driver is Lucy – she joined us for birthday cake and games that day.

We are always excited to have Jerry and Christina from WyldLife YounLife join us!  We are possibly the smallest group they ever have as far as numbers but we are always enthusiastic! SO THANKFUL to God to their willingness and the willing hands of our staff interpreter Amber.

Thank you each for your prayers as we continue to minister here at CSCD. Pray with us for these students and for those who will be coming in the next and future school years.

hearing the bells means Christmas is just around the corner!

October 28th, 2022

So many years, people have commented -IT’S NOT REALLY CHRISTMAS UNTIL I HEAR THE BELLS. We are well into our Christmas music practices and looking forward to presenting our bell choir offerings beginning December 2!  To me (Betsy) Christmas has already begun!

If you have opportunity, go to see this movie – I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY – it sounds like an awesome movie about a favorite carol of mine.

MidOctober Days’ work

October 15th, 2022

You can check out the newest newsletter here: WTH_Fall2022 (1)

The middle of October and we are still feeling the summer humidity. Someone thought playing outside on Friday was a good idea.  And it was.  But getting back into the school chapel was a better idea!

We always enjoy our friends from Young Life come for some fun and games and the challenge from God’s Word. Jerry and Christina are amazing and we love having them and our friends from the Palmas Community Church.

There are four of us on staff now – we welcomed Dave Markle (white shirt) as our maintenance and Go To Guy for all things dysfunctional. Valie is enjoying having another guy around who knows how to fix things.  Last week Dave installed a new hard drive on the school ZOOM CLASS laptop.  This week he fixed leaks in the east wall that allowed Hurricane Fiona waters to enter the preschool classroom and kitchen.  Imagine finding water in the breaker box! Only God knows what next week will bring to his plate!

Similarly in the classrooms – as teachers, we can know ourselves and prepare but we never know what will be behind the faces that enter. Our morning students are pretty settled into their studies and arrive knowing we will be doing SCHOOL work. Afternoons, we face ZOOM class with a teenaged girl and Tuesday Thursday with a Kindergartener girl.  Oh dear.  Pray in the afternoons if you think of it!

We love a weekend to do prep work and gardening but one Saturday each month we have Deaf Fellowship Day.  The ladies have taken an interest in Diamond Art which is very tiny work. They got a little competition going to see who can complete the Christmas pieces they are working on.  For me (Betsy), this project is too small and I took the paper sample to the printer and made an enlargement to help explain what we were doing.

There are already plans for more Christmas themed projects.

We also enjoy a night at the movies each month – coming up November 4 will be MOSES by Sight and Sound Theaters. Love their productions and the way the play shows us more of the character of the Bible person and times.

Pray with us for more opportunities and more hands to help with reaching out to the Adult Deaf community. Thanks for stopping by today!

 

Read the Fall 2022 newsletter at our webpage: https://cscdluquillo.com/with-these-hands/

 

Wonderful Work Team!

June 6th, 2022

An amazing team from Elmhurst IL has come to bless us with energy and work ethics! First Congregational UCC, Elmhurst – 235 S Kenilworth Ave, Elmhurst IL 60126 (630) 832-2580 (elmhurstucc.org)

They are power washing, painting, cleaning, and replacing some rain spouts and roof tiles that were in need of attention.  WOOHOO!  Thank YOU!

 

 

2021-22 school year has ENDED!

June 1st, 2022

To end the school year, we had THREE year end events as pictured above – the all school party, a small games and pool party, and a bowling outing for the handbell choir members.

After the fun and games and lunch time on May 23, we entered the school chapel and had a dessert and a bell recital.  The students signed some songs and were given their certificates and we said ADIOS and HASTA AGOSTO!

While we all love summer and a change of pace, the students actually said, “Can’t we just come and hang out.” SERIOUSLY?  Yea – play DUTCH BLITZ and SKYJO and SCRABBLE and DUOLINGO [yep they think that is play] and do crafts and maybe sing in the chapel and watch movies together. Well, that is fun but the staff have other chores.

BETSY has been working on plans for the NEXT school term.  AMBER just took off to visit family and friends.  VALIE is repairing the deck stairs.

There is a mission/work team coming on Saturday and as we were touring the grounds with the group leader, we noticed the stair supports were splitting.  OOPS – safety FIRST. So before the group comes to do maintenance, Valie is maintenancing this issue. We just didn’t want 12 healthy young men stomping UP and crashing through! Does mission work team insurance cover that or would it be the school insurance? Let’s not find out.

Valie has found a nice shady place to do this job. Thankfully there is no rain in the sky today. We have a leak in the office and a few in the chapel roof that the group next week will be repairing – PLEASE PRAY for sunny days for those roof repairs!  If there are other work teams interested, we have the list of maintenance needs – a fence that came down with Hurricane Season 2017 that is droopier every year, some windows that need to be removed and replaced (cement work required), power washing and painting, a roof seal job on the girls dorm building, general upkeep on the basketball court. Get in touch and maybe YOUR missions work team can lend a hand!

Thanksgiving Week 2021

November 22nd, 2021

During the month of November, we have been writing our THANKFULNESS on leaves and hanging them in the school chapel. The challenge was to NOT REPEAT but to write something new everyday.  Today, Monday November 22, the leaves are being removed by a work team from Arrowhead Bible Camp and replaced with Christmas lights and decorations because SCHOOL IS CLOSED for the week of American Thanksgiving and we have a work team to do this job for us.

We celebrated THANKSGIVING on Thursday November 18 when friends from the Palmas Community Church brought us turkey and the WORKS! We are still respecting Covid19 restrictions but allowed those who felt comfortable to sit together indoors. Some of our Deaf ladies have found the stash of perler beads and are enjoying making crafts with them – they took time to eat but then returned to the craft table in a classroom.

Our workteam visitors are WORKING – and we are THANKFUL for the sound of pressure washers and trimmers and mowers and the scent of paint on the gate and the laughter coming from the ladies. Jack, the team leader, is working solo and so far, not laughing.

I pray that YOUR weeks are always filled with giving thanks and that as you take time this week (for our USA friends) to Give Thanks with your families, you will remember to THANK GOD for everything – because even pandemics, natural disasters and unplanned events can be used by God to bring about blessings above and beyond all that we could dream of.

 

How is it possible that we are in the last full week of September already?

September 22nd, 2021

Our NEWEST NEWS as of September 22, 2021:

Roxy is no longer with us.  She lost her vision in July and was suffering loss of mobility, weakening due to internal issues, and was taken to the vet for a peaceful euthanisation on 21 September.

Flowers continue to bloom and bring us peace.

We got an air fryer and the students made french fries from real potatoes.  We need to practice and try again to get the setting just right but ketchup was a good cover for our attempt.

During our Lockdown, termites moved into our book cupboards in the science and math classroom. Our handyman, Valie, took on the challenge of repairing the classroom.  A summer work team painted it and now we have new shelves (made in PVC board) and are preparing to set up the classroom for use again!

A close up of the wood from the door frame shows how horrible the situation was.  New we have a new aluminum door frame, new door and less concern about the termites.  Also we can SEE them coming now – we hope.

The grounds are looking good also thanks to our handyman who is enjoying a new lawn tractor. So much grass and so few hands to work at keeping it trimmed led us to purchase a new lawn tractor in June.  As one who has been responsible for the grass work, Betsy is SO thankful for the men who come to help out and the new lawn mower.

THANK YOU for your prayers and if you want to come to work on any of our projects – get in touch!

 

2021-22 school year Week Four

August 30th, 2021

 

We have completed three weeks of classes and are happy to say that our students have been attending IN PERSON consistently!

This year, we have only THREE students – the two boys pictured above are 17 and 18 years old and attend full time (8 a.m. to 2 and 3:30 respectively) and our little girl comes Tuesday and Thursdays from 2:30 to 4:30 for ASL/language development instruction.

From these photos, you can see we are working to maintain safe distances while still being able to talk easily without masks.  For our students, it is SO important that they SEE our facial expressions and read lips.  While working with them, we are maintaining air flow and safe distance protocols, using clear face shields and desk shields are necessary. We are thankful for our outside spaces and the free flow of air through the classrooms plus an amazing supply of alcohol to spray the desks and floors and keep things as Covid-Free as possible.

We continue to have our Deaf Fellowship time on the Second Saturday of each month. (third photo above). Our next event is scheduled for Sept 11. Pray that our deaf friends will be able to come – many are aging and find it difficult to drive at night so we have changed our meeting time to afternoon.  We are so glad that our friends in the area have been coming and we are glad to be able to sit and talk with them.

Thank you for praying for our students, our staff and our ministry here in Luquillo.  Times are weird but God is FAITHFUL.  Praise Him!

God’s blessings are abundant

April 19th, 2021

In February, a random person stopped by the school and said he wanted to make our school the recipient of the proceeds of a local 5K run. As long as I was not expected to run 5K,  SURE  why not!?

In addition to the blessing of financial proceeds, he is recruiting volunteers to PAINT and  help with our outdoor upkeep.  WOW!  Seriously, the SOUND of 4 power washers running for 2 days was unbearable (that is why they make noise-cancelling ear plugs – which my little student Diego thinks are super cool!)

we are feeling very BLUE as the painting continues

In this case feeling BLUE is a good thing…. it’s our color!

While all of that is happening OUTSIDE we are still learning INSIDE.  The day I broke out the origami paper and started cutting it into fraction lessons was joyful for me and actually made one student cry.  Not because I was destroying origami paper but because he really wanted to do anything but think about parts of a whole.  I mean, who knew that turning that page in the math book would cause deep grief?

We are taking advantage of nice weather to sit outside when possible – reading class, art class, and we hung up some rings to begin to develop some gym class moments. Maybe CSCD will see a gymnast arise from the carport!

Thank you my praying friends for your prayers, your letters, your emails of encouragement.  May you too have a lovely BLUE SKY and know the joy of God’s great blessings today.

Ministry Continues

January 23rd, 2021

Our 2021 year began with offering a community ASL class.  We are excited to have several families and mothers attending the class and look forward to God working through this to reach more with His love.  Mizael appears above – as our model for the activities we are planning for the class.   You can play the game here! (only through Feb 192021)

We have left our First Friday evening activity time in 2020 and moved to a Second Saturday activity for our Deaf Adult Fellowship.  As our population ages, we have to accommodate.  Night vision problems were inhibiting some attendees. So now, on the Second Saturday of each month at 1 p.m., we hope to gather in small numbers for indoor or outdoor games – horseshoes?  frisbee? dominos in the pergola? Come join us for an afternoon of fellowship in safe numbers and a safe setting.