We had a great end of the school year. The students worked to help decorate the chapel and practice the handbells. Tuesday we completed final exams. Wednesday someone invited us to their pool for a relaxing fun day. And Thursday we CELEBRATED!
It was wonderful to present awards to the students for their hard work during the school year.
We had been trying to help Juan understand that doing wrong things brings consequences. We had the idea to write Juan’s misdeeds on little pieces of paper and put them into a jar. The goal was to torch the papers as an illustration of how God forgives our sins — tramples them (Micah 7:19), removes them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12), buries them in the deepest sea (again, Micah 7:19).
I looked at Juan as I pulled out the “sin jar” and his face was priceless – surprise, shame, wanting the jar to disappear. Brendan made sure to torch the papers and remove the fire from the chapel before something bad happened. And Juan was RELIEVED.
We ended our program with What a Friend We Have In Jesus (this link is not our video)signed by Carlos, played by guitars and violins, sung in harmony by Rosa and Hector.
And then we had lunch and time to chat and enjoy the students and their guests. It was a lovely relaxing time and I thank God for the peaceful end to this school year.
Pray for the students as they are at home and as we see them in the summer. Ask God to help them to remember His Word and draw closer to Him.
For so long, we have wanted to walk a piece of closed road at the beginning of road 983. This morning, after Favorite Song Friday chapel time, Betsy drove the students and three staff members to the road and dropped them off.
What a beautiful walk from one end to the other! The students and staff enjoyed the small adventure and returned to class to their spelling test of the week. They all passed with flying colors.
We have 3 weeks left in this school year. Pray for the students and their attention spans and their teachers also. Pray that no time would be wasted but that each of us will be good stewards of the time God gives us together.
A great week is ending. We started on Monday with a group of signing (hearing and Deaf) visitors from Camuy PR. The rest of the week, we enjoyed the company of David and Mary Chase who are repeat visitors. It has been a refreshing and learning experience all around as we have enjoyed new and old friends.
Pray with us for the remaining 19 days of classes and our closing of the school year activities on May 21.
The LAST bit of paint has been painted (I hope) and our buildings are as blue and white as they will ever be thanks to the last efforts of our recent work team. How nice to look out and see the soffits and edges are white.
A work team of two came up with the idea of re-painting our street sign sign and used our new logo. Our own Rosa finished off the signs by adding SIGNS 🙂 announcing DEAF SCHOOL.
And finally on March 26, 2015, our sign guy came and installed our new sign on the front of the building. His instructions include trimming the tree on the right more regularly so that the sign is more visible.
Additionally, we received the document declaring Christian School and Chapel for the Deaf Inc to be a tax-exempt/charitable institution by the Puerto Rican government. We had received this notification by the USA Internal Revenue service previously and are thankful that we have been granted this status by Puerto Rico as well.
This week (March 30 to April 3) is Holy Week in Puerto Rico. We are closed for Easter Break and some time to rest and regroup before the last 35 days of classes. We are looking forward to a visit by a group of ASL students from Highpoint Christian Academy Saturday April 4 through Thursday April 9.
Pray for our students. Pray for the needs of the Deaf in Puerto Rico.
Check out other web pages as additions and changes have been made today! Thanks for praying and thanks for stopping by our website.
Next week there is a Deaf Cruise going out of San Juan. We get the pre-cruise visitors 🙂 how cool is this!?
Just had a phone call from a super hero! Super Deafy is coming to our school on Friday at 10 a.m.! And we are collecting Deaf people from the island and other places to join us for lunch 🙂
If you are around, COME ALONG! But do call or text to let Betsy know. She has to buy enough food for everyone.
The students prepared short poems about God’s faithfulness. Enjoy this compilation.
Running with the dogs is a great after lunch exercise for the kids and Delilah.
Orocovis Outreach Continues
God’s Amazing Intervention – In 2010, we had a student named Selena from the mountain town of Orocovis for one semester. She was an amazing young learner and we were heart-broken to not have her return, though we were thankful she was returned to her family and removed from foster care.
A year passed without knowing anything about her whereabouts until David Mitchell of PRDM from the south side of Puerto Rico mentioned that the Orocovis family had been taken to their office. We were so excited to visit them and re-establish contact.
At that first visit in July 2011, we invited the family to Luquillo for a night. Teodoro, the Deaf father of the entirely Deaf family, recognized the school grounds from years when he came to summer camp. He motioned to our principal that he would love to have his daughters come to school here. And so for two years we visited them in the mountains and invited them to the school for events and tried to figure out how to get the girls into school.
In January, we issued a full scholarship to Maria (photo top left #1), the youngest of Teodoro’s daughters – complete with transportation. The family was excited to hear this news (photo on left below). The scholarship letter was submitted to her school and they accepted her transfer without question. Maria has been with us for 5 months now and she is as bright as her older sister. This scholarship was only possible because of people like you who have made contributions to our general fund.
There have been some ups and downs as with any 12 year old but Maria is generally content, cheerful and showing the possession of an amazing brain. In April during a Sunday evening church service in Aibonito, she mentioned that she had not yet accepted Christ as Saviour. As the pastor announced a time of personal prayer, a companion asked Maria if she would like to accept Christ as Saviour RIGHT THEN. Maria said, “I don’t know what to pray.” Her companion said, “Watch this“ and prayed a brief prayer including:
Thank you God for sending Jesus, Your Son, to die for my sins.
Thank you God that Jesus did not stay dead but rose from the dead.
Please wash away my sins with Jesus blood.
Please come and help me to live for you.
Maria took up the prayer herself and to those around her, her confession of sin, request for God’s forgiveness and victory over sin were clear and Biblically accurate. She has since, told others of her prayer and decision. Pray with us for this young lady. Pray for also for her older sister Yajaira (15) who is eligible to join us in August. Our present residence counselor, Rosa Soto, has plans to leave at the end of December 2014 and we are praying that God will provide a residential worker who would be able to take over of the dorm so that Maria (and Juan and Francis and Yajaira) can remain in school with us.
“I will sing to the LORD,
for He has triumphed gloriously!
Exodus 15:1
Pray that God will lead new students
through our gates and would lead us to
their homes. We know there are Deaf youth in the area –
pray that we would be able to locate them for education,
for discipling, to befriend and lead them to Christ and
into fellowship with other Believers.
‘Gather the people to me,
that I may let them hear my words,
so that they may learn
to fear me all the days
that they live on the earth,
and that they may teach
their children so.’
Deut. 4:10
Mizael and Joella still enjoy shooting off air rockets.
#4, on a Saturday, we visited Cueva Ventana in the Camuy area. Had fun trying to spell CAVE with our bodies.
We had a busy month in March with three work teams who came and gave us a fresh coat of BLUE paint. Our last paint job was 4 years ago and with the humidity and moisture of our rainy climate, we were growing lots mildew on the outside of the buildings. We also had several walls that had been retouched creating a patchwork of blues around our school.
Usually when we have THREE teen groups asking to come to work in the same month, we turn down two of the three. This year, we decided to have them all come to give their energies toward washing walls and painting them a brighter, cheerier shade of BLUE.
Tasks like these are normally expensive. The first trip to scout prices brought us back to the nearest store – Sherwin Williams Paints. There, the manager of the store gave us a 30% “quantity discount, and an additional 10% off (we suppose it was his employee discount) and THEN at the last moment an additional 10% off! Our final bill of just under $1500.00 was reduced to just a bit over $700. We had to return for a second purchase of paint and only got the 30% discount L but we are still praising God for the thousand dollars saved in the purchase of paint for the school. AND the team who came with 18 painters for 6 hours made a donation of $1000.00 to the Paint Our School fund.
Thanks to ALL who helped with the paint choice, the moving of pails and ladders, the power washing, the painting and the cleanup. Oh, and we are not quite done with this job so if you have a day or two… put on your paint clothes and come over to visit!
#6 – cute little owl baby FOUND on a coconut tree at dawn on Easter Sunday. We think his mama came back and showed him the way home that same evening. Nothing has been seen of him since.
God’s Amazing Intervention – In 2010, we had a student named Selena from the mountain town of Orocovis for one semester. She was an amazing young learner and we were heart-broken to not have her return, though we were thankful she was returned to her family and removed from foster care.