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This past weekend, Pan de Vida celebrated another successful school year with graduations and promotions. On Friday, the classes ranging from preschool and going through Junior High had their ceremony. The theme was "Our Education in the Hands of Jesus Christ."
Each class did some sort of a presentation focused on the how Jesus transforms lives. The preschoolers were "God's Creation" and did a dance dressed as chickens, cows, lions, the sun and the moon.
Kindergarten and Primary classes followed with some dance routines to Christian songs. I can't describe the feeling you get when you see them beam with smiles as they perform with complete joy. Then the Junior and Senior high students and the youth group blew us all away with powerful dramas of Jesus having victory over sin.
This year 3 students graduated from preschool, 8 from primary to Jr High and 15 are now promoted to High School. This is such an achievement for them having come from uneducated backgrounds and abusive situations. A true testimony that God does have a plan and purpose in their lives.
On Saturday Pan de Vida hosted another graduation to celebrate the achievements of those receiving their High school diploma and others becoming licensed to teach through the ILMES Bachelor of Pedagogy/ Christian Education. This year, Karen, Violeta and Lupita graduated high School while Cecelia, Monica, Rocio and Erika received certificates of Pedagogy.
Guest Speaker Master Rafael Rodriguez de León gave the Biblical Message focusing on three phases from being young and care free, then studying and working hard to reach graduation and now obtaining the degree to go out and serve God through whatever course He directs. He also gave them sound advice on the obstacles they will face in the journey and the difficulties within the government. He encouraged them to continue doing what they seek with guidance from the true counselor, Jesus Christ.
We continue to pray for the lives of all the children and hope the joy through events like these will encourage each one to claim the victory Jesus has for each of their lives and for them to strive to live that life for Him in whatever they choose to do.
Ira and I are celebrating our 4 year anniversary in ministry at Pan de Vida. It has been quite the journey and God continues to teach us new things. While Ira's ministry through maintenance, work projects and teams has basically been consistent, I have bounced around in various activities within the Orphanage but mostly I am referred to as "The Reporter", due to the updates and photos I share. This last year we really felt God challenging us to grow more in the ministry and that has led us to finally take the in depth Spanish courses to improve our language.
I was helping the younger boys with homework and while I could help in some of the basics of math, I was struggling with certainty of grammar, spelling, pronunciation etc. Also, several of the other boys were wanting help with their assignments and I quickly found out that I wasn't much good to them in my current level of Spanish. Ira had his own set of obstacles in working with the kids to do various projects.
One of the boys, Luis, loves to work with Ira. Everyday after school he is immediately at the workshop. He is the boy who does not learn well academically but is very eager to help in any way he can. Ira realized that this was an opportunity to teach Luis some basics in math and other subjects through vocational training. He has already learned how to solder and this has boosted his self confidence as well. So Luis, who is 15 and has a grade 1-2 education and felt defeated in learning, will now become Ira's apprentice in the fall when Ira finishes his Spanish school. We are also hoping to become more involved with devotional time and being spiritual mentors.
We are attending Harvest Language Center in Guadalajara. It is Christian Language school created by and for missionaries. So in addition to the Spanish language, we are also learning Biblical vocabulary, doing devotions and Bible studies in Spanish. We both feel very blessed by the directors, teachers and fellow missionaries in the school. Next week we will wrap up our 1st session and take our exams, then have a break and start our next semester. We have wanted to do this the whole time we have been here but until now, the timing just didn't work out. Now looking back, we can see how God used the past 3+ years to prepare us. We look forward to how God is going to use this to grow us in His service.
