Samuel's Adventures: September 2015

Yes, rain! As in:

Rain might not seem like much of a blessing to you, but it quickly becomes one if you don't have it often! Thunderstorms here are spectacular with lots of lightning, thunder, sometimes wind, and, of course, torrents of rain. And afterwards, the grass perks up, flowers once again turn their heads heavenward, air becomes fresh, and we all thank God for once again providing us with a most precious resource and for cooler nights and days.

During the beginning of our "winter" months around May to July, we are accustomed to having rain regularly--sometimes every night of the week! But our rainy season this year was a bit of a disappointment, and farmers' fields were sometimes left with wilting crops.

This week, however, we have had rain every night except yesterday, and from the looks of it as I glance out my window, we might be having more tonight.

Today's post is dedicated thanking God for His faithfulness and care for us. Whereas most of my posts usually contain prayer requests for problems, concerns, and the like, I'd like instead to provide a list of praise notes. Of course, I'm not denying that there are problems or prayer requests (there definitely are!), but I thought it would be a help to me to list, instead, all the things He has done for me and all the rest of us here at CICS.

As Matthias shared in a recent devotional, we can look at life in two ways: at life and its problems first and let them shape how we relate to God, or we can look to God first, which will give us a better perspective of our lives.

So thank God with me for all the following ways and countless others in which He has shown His love and mercy towards us...

Carlos
We've always had a hard time with Carlos. His lack of respect towards others and honesty have been difficult to deal with. I've tried to befriend him and it helps sometimes, but then he regresses again.

Recently the government contacted us about potential family members of his (Carlos is an orphan who came to us with no real name, birthday, or any other documentation). We don't really know much of his story, but now we know his given name, his age, and maybe even some relatives! While this will probably bring about a bunch of changes I thank God and pray that He can use it to help Carlos.

In the last few weeks, I've noticed flashes of improvements in Carlos' life such as greater respectfulness and helpfulness towards others. He has a way to go yet, but it's a step in the right direction! This is his second-to-last year of school, so maybe him knowing that he might not be able to be around much longer will lead him to strive to learn as much as he can.

Carlos decided to bring ALL the chairs in all by himself. He is quite strong!

Silvia
A couple weeks ago, the board arrived one afternoon to make a decision about Silvia's future here at CICS. After talking with Melody, Nata & Becky, and among themselves, it was decided that she would be permitted to stay until the end of this year. It was good to see Silvia again and I was glad, for her sake, that she could come back to finish the year. I don't know what the future has in store for Silvia, but we'll take one day at a time and praise God for each little improvement she shows.

Silvia wanted to scare Beatriz, Paola, and Melody.
Unfortunately for Silvia she isn't very good at it. If you
can't see her outright, you can usually hear her
laughing a good 10 feet before you get there. :)

Miguel
This adorable youngster has the ability to render you speechless with his behavior one minute, and the next, melt your heart with his amazing giggles and smiles. Quite the enigma, this little fellow.

Soon after the start of the last trimester of school, due to some advice from Nata and some of what I was seeing as well, I decided I needed to be more consistent and/or stricter with Miguel's behavior and schoolwork. He likes to wait until the last minute to obey, and what I taught him usually went in one ear and out the other, with maybe a tiny bit of residue left in his brain.

I started studying with him pretty much every night, not for a set time like I had done before, but until he knew ALL his words and could finger-spell them without any mistakes. This meant sometimes spending over an hour studying just four additional words. Miguel gets frustrated quite easily and usually about half-way through he would get angry and quit responding. This then led to another issue to resolve (disrespect/disobedience) and *poof* there went the rest of the evening.

But he is learning! And that is what I want to praise God for! Miguel is learning that the sooner he applies himself and does the necessary work, the sooner he will be able to play. I usually go outside to play with him once we're done as a prize for a job well done, which he loves. Miguel is very capable of learning it's just that he doesn't want to, or thinks he can't.

Yesterday was test day and he did so well on his math test, I was flabbergasted! He also did very well on his spelling test. The rest of the day likewise went splendidly, until he flipped the bird to Joel just to, you know, sorta even out the day and not have it go TOO well. :) I praise God for my little sunshine that is Miguel and hope he can use his energy to serve God one day!

Miguel was grumpy for some reason. So I took a
picture with him. He was happy a few minutes later. :)

Mary's trip
For quite a while now, Mary had been wanting to go to Mexico to teach school there. She felt like it was God's will for her to go, but things kept coming up like needing more paperwork or having a visa denied.

Mary is the sister to the director's wife, Becky, and the daughter of Saúl and Carmen Pacheco, and had worked here with the deaf for around six years. She had planned to leave for Mexico at the beginning of this year, but then wasn't able to go and instead helped teach here at CICS. We were (a bit selfishly) glad to have her stay even if it meant not being able to go.

But finally about a month ago, as an answer to many prayers, the folks in Mexico were able to get a visa for her and she finally had the ok to go and teach there.

I really admired her patience through this last year, and I thank God that she was finally able to go and realize her dream. We will miss her here, but I am sure that God will be able to use her there as well.

Maria Eva (Mary for short) with her parents.

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That's not all of the things I'm thankful for--there's many more that should be mentioned, but you don't want to be reading for hours, so I'll stop there for now.

But I do have one more thing...

THANK YOU to each of you for your prayers and support. I thank God for my supporters and prayer warriors! May God bless you and give you a refreshing weekend!

Miguel is pretty good at "driving" moto, but his sounds are the best!

We've learned that fanning a fire means less waiting.

How many people can you put on a stack of chairs?

The "macho" men.

Teresa has been taking sewing lessons from the staff girls. I think she's
making a dress here.

We have some crazy times. We have this old dilapidated wagon sitting
around. Someone saw it and decided to start giving rides. That idea
ended with Elmer and I on the laying on the ground with some bruises. :)
It was still fun!