🌞 Sun and Warm Breezes - March Update

 

Well, we’re back - back in the land where you need to plan an extra five minutes each time you go outside to do anything as you tug, zip, and snap into your warm duds. We have enjoyed the five seconds required to slip into sandals as we stepped out of our place in Roatan. And, we have used those extra four minutes and fifty-five seconds over and over in so many really great ways.

We planned our stay to coincide with back-to-school season. It is a priority for us to help kids succeed in school and develop confidence in their abilities to make choices for their future.  On day 1 of our stay, we met with two students and their mom for registration at Sandy Bay Adventist Bilingual school. (SABS). This was also an opportunity to meet with the school director to explore her goals for the upcoming year. Oh my! Director Leticia has big plans, and she would like to include us in her plans.   😉

As we wrapped up our stay, we had helped 10 public school students with their back-to-school needs, provided a special backpack for a little princess and had helped 7 students enroll in private schools. As always, we were able to participate in a few shopping trips. Vicarious shopping is better than no shopping! Private schools began mid-February. Public schools opened a week later with classes having what might be called a “soft start” - a few classes going back the first day, and others another day. The news today reports that the local public school is still short by 5 teachers. This will be year 4 of disruption for these students. You have to wonder if the goal is to create a generation of uneducated adults?

One of our goals had been to complete the computer lab needs for SABS. We were able to purchase 5 more desktop computers and chairs, bringing the total now to 10 computers. The class size in the school averages about 15 students per class. With students able to double up, there are sufficient computers for a functioning computer lab. Mason, a tech whiz from Son Rise Calvary Chapel (as well as a parent of two of our students) and Larry spent a day installing the wiring required for security cameras to provide extra protection for the school and the computer lab.  We had to leave before the cameras were programmed so we await promised pictures of the completed project. I wonder who we will see in the pictures?!

We have found we are always being drawn to Son Rise – Calvary Chapel. During the afternoon of day 1, Larry found himself helping with a plumbing project.  Success!  The new Men’s washroom – it works!

On our last Sunday we worshipped with the people at Son Rise. It is a holy experience to join with people worshipping in a language we don’t completely understand with our ears but understand in our hearts.

This time in Roatan confirmed more clearly where we want to stay when we are in Roatan. We spent two and a half weeks at the beautiful mission condos hosted by our friends Tish and Travis Morin. The final week was spent at a resort on the beach in West Bay. It was our chance to live outside of the community where we have lived since coming to Roatan. Despite the spectacular sunsets we experienced from the west end of the island every night, we found that each day we needed to find transportation to go back to Sandy Bay. We were too far from “our people” to invite anyone to come visit. Our conclusion? While the scenery and tourist opportunities were so delightful, next stay we will be back in Sandy Bay.

You might remember that in December we sent our update with an Opportunities List. This list included things we hoped to accomplish. With help from several donors, we were able to check, check, check through our list. We are so grateful to everyone who helped financially. We were also able to connect with friends we needed and wanted to see. We encouraged (and sometimes prodded) as we felt led. At all times we felt safe and guided into opportunities. Thank you to those who held us in prayer. Our Lord is so good and so faithful to His people, and we know it was His Hand that provided all that was shared.

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. …. For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.                               ~ Isaiah 25:1,4

Many thanks as always to those who kept everything going here while we were gone and prepared our little nest to be warm, with food, when we arrived home.