If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. James 1:5

Today marked the 2nd week of English classes at the church in our community. I wish I could say the idea to start a class was ours, but we can't take the credit. The people from the church have been coming up to us for months and telling us they are coming over to our house to learn English and this afternoon, in fact. So we began the process of tutoring English in our home and it has been a lot of fun and it has given us the chance to get to know our neighbors better. It has also left us in awe of the desire of the people here to pursue education. Nicaraguans know that they can get a better job and earn more money for their families if they can speak English well.

The primary class

We proposed the idea of a large English class at the church. The number of people requesting tutoring just became too great to do individually anymore and there weren't enough hours in the day to fit them all in. We thought perhaps we would get 10 or so in a class together on Saturday mornings. Well, word got out about the class and we had over 50 respond that they were coming! We soon realized that we would need more than just one class. 

Stacy took the primary class because it was the largest and had a lot of little people in it. Gavin took the intermediate class because it consisted of students his own age. He teaches alongside Michael, his friend, whom he has been teaching English to since last fall. I don't know if Gavin's Spanish or Michael's English has progressed faster, but they have been very beneficial to each other. Who knew watching You Tube videos every night could lead to all that? Cory took the advanced class where he holds discussions and encourages the students to use the English they already know in real conversation.

                                                                                                               

The intermediate class with Michael and Gavin on the left.

We may sound like we are overly excited about this new class, but things are just so difficult to coordinate and organize down here in Nicaragua. We were suppose to have the first class 3 weeks ago, but we had to cancel because half of the family had the flu and pneumonia. We had no way to let all the people know and  felt terrible that they had to walk all the way to the church only to find out it had been postponed. It's not only only hard to pull something together here, but it actually feels like forces are working against when we try to intentionally do something good. It can be so frustrating, but we try to persevere.

Of course, Gavin's class would need to involve weapons. No one lost an eye from the blow dart gun, so it was a success.

No problem though, we just planned to make the class even better the next week. Cory found a great ESL curriculum on line for his class and purchased it. Then our printer broke and he couldn't print any of these great new lessons. So, we decided to both go high tech and put it into a powerpoint and use the laptops. Except that one of them got a terrible virus and wouldn't work now either. Cory began to worry a bit, but he still had his white board and markers and I reminded him that he shouldn't put all his faith in technology since we are in a 3rd world country. 

I said all of that smugly as I put together a great powerpoint presentation on the other lap top for my class and thought to myself that my class would be so organized and interesting. I planned to use the projector the church had been given by a team last spring. I figured I wouldn't need print outs if they students could copy the notes for themselves. The morning arrived and the students poured in ready to learn. Then the projector quit working 5 minutes into class. 

Seriously?! How do this many things break in one week? I didn't even have a white board to use in this class! After sweating profusely, I improvised and talked about new words aloud and played some games. The students were great sports through it all and even more came back the next week. Incidentally, Cory's class was brilliant despite his lack of technology and all the worrying. He reminded me that I shouldn't put all my faith in technology since we live in Nicaragua and all.

Cory in the advanced class, which meets in the preschool room.

No matter how frustrated we feel with circumstances out of our control, we know there are so many stories out there to help us put our little problems into perspective.

One student shared her story with us of how she struggled to finish secondary school. Her family needed her to work at the market when she was 14-15 years old because they did not have money to  buy enough food for all the children. This market is in another city, so she had to wake up at 3am to catch a bus at 4am and arrive at the mercado by 5am. There she helped her family sell goods until 12pm. Then she caught the same bus and rode it for another hour home so she could rush to school after lunch. (Primary school meets in the mornings and secondary in the afternoons so they can share buildings and teachers.) She would finish school at 5:30pm, help with family chores, do homework, and try to catch a couple of hours of sleep before repeating the cycle again the next day. (I can barely get my 14 year old to take out the trash or do the dishes!) Her hard work payed off and now she is a successful business woman and able to support her children, who are attending private school.

• Please pray for our English students. We know all too well how hard it is to learn a new language.
• Please pray for funding for a trip back to the states to visit family and churches this winter. 
• Please pray for Nancy, a 16 year old girl from the safe home, who has decided to return to living on the streets.
• Thank you for your prayers for Cory's classes at the vocational school. The students still have all their fingers and are learning a lot.
• Thanks to those of you who prayed for us when we were so sick last month!