It's been a month!!!

Sorry everyone, work has picked up! This week we began our tutoring program and our young people group. We invited 15 students to participate; half from inside the church and half from the community. Wednesdays from 3-5 is when we host a tutoring program to help single parent families within the church and to reach out tofamilies with children in the community struggling in school. Carlos, a teenager, and I waited while Mauro went to remind the kids. Each came with their homework or tests so that we could see where they were in their studies. The first thing that demonstrates the difference in the education here is that the students learned to read and write cursive first! I helped two kids mainly though answered a few questions in between. Carlos is in third grade- he had his reading book with him so I asked him to read. What he read me was close to what was actually written but not exactly...so I knew 2 things: he had read or heard this page in class a number of times so he could remember it and he knew one reading technique to help himself. I asked him to write his alphabet and had to help him every few letters in attention and with what came next. I also looked over Alejandro's math test and saw that he had almost every problem wrong so I was not sure where to start- Iasked him to say his numbers and he had trouble every time he started a new ten. We made a number line and then marked dots over the numbers he had to put in order. He also was very interested in what was happening around him. We got two problems corrected in our two hours! Then I gave the devotional about the fruits of the Spirit and brought the fruits along that we had at the house- an orange, pineapple, mango and apple. They almost all said mango was their favorite. Another (maybe) cultural difference! Please pray for the ministry that we would be able to help the kids in some way before the end of the school year. Pray te kids would learn their value in God whether they pass tis year or not. We hope to visit their homes to understand them better and help their parents help their children grow their whole selves (Luke 2:52). Pray mostly for the salvation of these kids and their parents.