Before every class I give my students ten minutes of reading time. I love seeing when they grab the illustrated bibles and read the stories to themselves! The other day a little boy, Jonathan, was reading a story about Jesus and he asked me, "Miss Alyssa, why is Jesus praying to Jesus?" I went over to see what story he was reading about, and saw that Jesus was praying to his Father. I took the opportunity to explain to him a little bit about the Holy Trinity, and how Jesus was actually praying to God in heaven. Praise God for curious children and the opportunities to introduce Him to them!
October 2022
Saludos amigos!
Big update coming your way! These past fews months have flown by and have brought lots of changes. I spent the month of August in Ohio for my home assignment and came back to a very different CDI! I'm so excited to share about both with you.
Home Assignment
This time in Ohio was much needed and extremely refreshing. I was blessed to share ministry updates at Freedom Bible Church and Gathering Community Church in my hometown and spent time in sweet fellowship with friends, family, and supporters. I spent a weekend in Nashville with my brother and sister-in-law, visited my old bible study group, saw many new friends and old in Columbus, took a girls weekend trip with my oldest friends, led worship with my dad at church, and shared many meals and drank a lot of coffee with you all! Since it was a short trip I wasn't able to see everyone I would have liked, and I'm hopeful that soon I'll be back to see each and every one of you. I'm eternally grateful for the way the Lord continues to use you both in words and deeds. Your prayers and words of encouragement have been vital to me this past year; thank you for allowing the Lord to use you in this way!
CDI
The last two months have brought big changes to the CDI! I've been working with Marielos, the director, on bringing in up to 15-20 new kids over the course of a few months. We recently brought in 7 new kids to the program and this next month with will be bringing in 5-10 more. A big part of my job is organizing and tracking the information of each child in the CDI and managing the sponsorships. Over the past year this has looked like sitting down with each child and getting to know them, filing each of their birth certificates and making sure every child is matched with a sponsor. Thanks to your faithful partnership in support of my ministry role we are able to take this next step in increasing the number of kids in the CDI!
Another big change we've seen is the addition of a third classroom. We used to teach in two classrooms, which we split up between "big" kids (kids who can read and write), and the "little" kids (kids who can't). While this worked fine for a while, we found it very challenging with our younger kids because of the broad age range, between 4-11 years old. Some kids could read and write decently but maybe weren't at the maturity level where we could pass them over to the "big" kids room, and some of the littlest ones were barely learning their alphabet. In light of this, and with the blessing of a third classroom, we are now able to separate our youngest kids (usually between 4-9 yrs) and have them go to the third classroom where they work with a volunteer on learning the basics of reading.
The age and ability ranges in the different classrooms are a bit startling to be honest- I have a 9 year old who is still learning her alphabet and a couple 13-year-olds who are learning how to read, and on the other end I have a 7 year old who reads fluently and writes in cursive. Like most of the world, during the pandemic the educational system here took a big hit when everything went virtual. The kids in our CDI are coming off of essentially two years old no schooling. With this in mind we are focusing this year on making sure the kids learn how to read well.
Take a tour of the updated CDI space!
I want to give a special THANK YOU to my bible study group Compass for donating over $500 towards Bibles and goods for the CDI!! With their generous donation we were able to buy 10 new NIV bibles (you can see the state of the old bibles in the picture on the left😅) 5 illustrated children's bibles, 3 math and science workbooks, a variety of bible story booklets for all ages, 90 bible-based curriculum workbooks and lots of games and learning activities for the kids. What an incredible blessing!
Pray with Me
- Praise for a fruitful and safe home assignment!
- CDI- that the process of bringing new kids into the CDI would go smoothly and that the kids would feel at home and loved
I am so grateful for each and every one of you and your generous dedication which allows me to continue serving here in La Libertad. I hope you are as encouraged as I am hearing all the the Lord is doing here! For the Word of God never returns void (Is 55:11). May the Lord bless you richly!
Bendiciones,
Alyssa
1 Kings 8:58
May he turn our hearts to him, to walk in obedience to him and keep
the commands, decrees, and laws he gave our ancestors.
Hola friends, Is it just me, or is 2025 going waaaaaay faster than any year before? I can't believe it's April already! We've got lots of big updates, so grab a cup of coffee and get cozy!
Hola familia,
Hola familia, I'm excited to catch you up on everything that's been going on here over the last few months!
Hola Familia,
