Elvis Update:

Update: Elvis came to class this morning and stood outside, too embarrassed to say anything. He just waited thinking I couldn't see him. I told him I was really glad that he came back and I needed to talk to him. When all of the guys came in I asked them what we should do... As a group. They agreed that our first consequence wasn't really fair so we'd let him back in but only if we made a contract that we could all follow. I re-explained the benefits of living in community and being "on a team." and then we listed some specific things that would hurt our team in the shop then we came up with consequences. I think we took a huge step forward as a group! They are really understanding why we need to be together! thank you all for your prayers! I was so glad that I slept all through the night without being worried about the whole situation. And although Elvis never said anything I could tell that he was very repentant and wanted to make things right.



So after that we skipped the lesson on the router and talked about "us" and then I taught them the standard measuring system (inches/feet) which led to fractions... It was a really great day.They are all at least 14 yrs old and haven't learned how to add or subtract fractions but after today I think they might get it! Oh and Elvis broke three rules today and had to do 30 sit-ups =)

Discipline

I guess it's all part of the deal. When working in a place that doesn't have much structure, where the teachers in public school just don't show up, where kids get most everything that they want if they whine, I'm gonna have to be the one to put some sort of structure in place. I mean who's going to teach these kids about the real world? Who's gonna help them to understand the value of punctuality, or respecting the property of others? Who's going to give them second chances? To say sorry and help them understand the tough love? I mean, there's no love coming from your boss when he fires you, right? Well today I had to discipline one of my students who hasn't really ever done anything wrong. Here's the situation:

I now have three classes in the shop, A, B, and C. A is open to everyone so it's just basic following the rules. B is a set group so I am trying to teach them about the effects that one persons misbehaving can have on the entire group. For example; Rule #1 is to arrive on time. I give them five minutes after class starts to arrive. At five minutes I lock the gate. Well this last week a kid came 45 minutes late and wanted to come in. I asked the class if they wanted to let him in and they said yes. I then explained to them that his punishment was to be shut out and if they wanted to let him in we all had to "pay" something. We decided that everyone would do 20 push-ups and he would do 30. It turned out to be a good experience and now we are beginning to work and think as a group. For the first time I had someone say they didn't want to pay for someone else's mistakes... That's huge in a culture that doesn't say anything against anyone else to their face! Anyways it gave me an idea. I decided to make the same kind of "deal" in group C as well!

Group C is full of my older kids who mostly have decided to drop out of high school. Their friends and mothers call them lazy and good for nothing.... They might not be too far off of the lazy part. They do something until it's hard and then go back to sleep. Anyways, in my class C we have a problem. They always throw the tools on the ground. I think you can understand why that's bad so I wont go into it. So just yesterday I confronted them, told them that we needed to come up with a consequence for leaving the tools on the floor that we would all pay, including me. I explained to them the concept of being a team and how we look out for each other. I told them to pick up after each other because they're invested in the team. I told them that they needed to learn what it is to help each other out in order to help themselves and how we can't do everything on our own in life. It went well and they seemed to respond well. I told them about the other class' push-ups and they said that was a good idea. Then I said, " well what happens if someone wont do it?" they responded by saying that they couldn't be a part of the team... Seemed reasonable to me. After all, they're all friends, they can pressure each other into doing the right things. Right?

Well today as I was walking around I found 2 clamps on the floor... at first it was funny. I was kinda laughing and telling them I needed to see them do the push-ups etc. None of them moved!! I reminded them of the consequence for not doing the punishment and they all started to move... You need to understand that To be kicked off the team is to be kicked out of the shop until January ... Well Daniel did his but the other two couldn't do more than 2!! It was crazy! Ella can do more than that!! They whined and cried fro about ten minutes until the end of the class... So I said," you have two minutes and if you don't do it... See ya in January!" At this point I was still thinking they'd do it... Well Bryan decided he would.. It took him another ten minutes to do it but one-by-one he got them done... Then there was Elvis... He whined and cried, said he couldn't do them, said he'd do sit-ups, but he never moved... I reminded him that it wasn't my rule... They made the rule together and now we couldn't break it... It's a contract! The end of class came and went and Elvis just sat there... The guys started poking at him verbally and I told him I'd count to 5 and if he just started we'd wait for him to finish (it's the softy in me i guess) So I counted... really slow.... Then at three I said he'd have to leave when I got to five if he hadn't started... Well I got to five and told him to leave until January.... Oh crud!! This is one of my kids that probably needed this the most. He isn't a bad kid! He's probably the poorest in every way you could think of! And I just kicked him out! I still feel really bad about the entire situation. I never thought we'd have to kick someone out!

I guess this blog is a prayer request for Elvis and me. For Elvis (or Mono as we call him) That he wouldn't be bitter and he'd get rid of the stubbornness that he showed today. For me that I can let it all go and actually sleep tonight. I don't know how I could have avoided it. Would it be acceptable to let him break the rules knowing that now they'd never take my rules serious and they'd never learn about the team concept? I don't know. I keep thinking it over in my head and I can't make it go any other way...

The only saving grace will be the other guys.... I told them about how the other class chose to pay the price with their friend in order to let him back in... True, in class B it was just a day, this is the entire trimester, but I told them if they each did another 20 and he did 40 he could come back.... I just hope that overnight he'll change his stubborn heart and come back repentant... What an opportunity for me to tell about how Christ took our place and how we are to be to each other!!

Thanks for reading! Sorry, I just needed to vent and ask people to pray. Please comment if you read this and pray. I just feel so sad for Elvis and want Jesus to touch him through what I'm doing. Have a good evening =)

This Thing Called Parenting

HE never told us it'd be easy. HE never told us we'd get enough sleep or never cry. HE also never told us we'd do it alone. PHEW! Such a good reassurance that when raising children, it's by the grace of the almighty God. Every day is an adventure in our house. Sometimes it's a roller coaster of emotions with the kids, sometimes it's care free and kicked back. We are in the midst of raising a 5 yr. old and a 3 yr. I love my kids. They make me laugh till my belly hurts and I'm on the floor. They say the craziest things, sing the best songs, and dance to any tune they hear. I love to climb into their beds at night and re-tuck them in and give them one last kiss. I love their innocence and faith when they ask questions about God and how He lives in our hearts (or to Judah, our belly buttons). I'm so blessed that they are ours and that God has entrusted them to us. That aside, it's not all the fun that zaps most of my energy, but the training and consistency that does. Our 3 year old Judah is ALL boy. He loves soccer anytime he can get his hands on it, superheroes and bad guys, jumping in the mud, launching cars off of anything, and just being rough (which most of the time includes Ella). He's the most tender hearted boy whose teachers always would tell us how compassionate and caring he was for others. He loves hugs and kisses and just loving on people. Saying all of this, you'd wonder why this same boy, at times, makes me want to pull my hair out! I choose to say that I have been blessed with the opportunities to fall back, time and time again, into the gracious arms of Christ. I know that God gave this precious little boy to me, and for a mom, I'm what he's got! I also have priceless things to teach him and love to give. I know it's in the moment of a tantrum when my head could begin to spin and I don't think so clearly, that God reminds me of his amazing love for us, for Judah. How privileged we are to have children, and raise them in the ways of the Lord. How powerful is our prayer when we've run into a wall and don't know what else to do. That is where I keep finding myself. Everything I need is in me to raise these children. At times I feel lacking, but it's because I've forgotten where my source comes from, and to tap in. We've been living lives of amazing transition here and can't expect our children to always "go with the flow". With not as many resources around, friends and family to help out, we've got to get creative. They've done remarkably well considering. It's on days when crankiness begins at 6am and doesn't end till 8pm that I'm learning it's not about me, it never will be, and the sun will go down and come up again : ) Ahhhh, lean on Him.

Life after teams...

Wow! How did it get to be september? I'll give you a rundown of what has happened in the last few months.Since July and the robbery, we had classes as usual in the shop. Thanks to some great supporters of SI and our team personally we had enough money to buy new tools. Because of our hiccup with the robbery, and the time we had without tools, we also expanded a little bit into playing soccer which is a blast!! The kids love to do whatever they can with the students and me which is a great sign for me. I now know that they're not in it just for the projects or to learn woodworking, they're in it to make friends=) (check out the new slideshow on the right side of the blog to see all of the pictures from this summer in the shop)In July We had the Janzen/Frederick clan down for two weeks to visit... Wow!! While it was a great time, 11 people in a 3 bedroom house is pretty tight! We made the best of our time here and, while I still had to work during the week, we were able to share some of the sights here in Costa Rica. They went zip lining, white water rafting, to the beach, and to La Paz waterfall gardens. It was really a blessing to have our family here after being away for so long.

August was full of milestones for al of us here with SI Costa Rica. On August 2nd we officially welcomed our first "Tico Staff," Luis Diego and Cindy. Diego has been a draftsman for several years but has left his job to serve the communities that we work in. He is currently on the community board and is opening a sports site in several different places that we work.

Later in August we added our first Nicaraguan staff member Maria. She and Cindy will be working together in micro finance with some of the ladies in our communities. (sorry no picture of Maria yet=()

August 8th completed our first full summer with teams from the states. Oh man! It's busy with so many people around. Over all it was a great success. (To all of you who are reading this, the kids talk about you all of the time. They say to tell you all that they want you to come back next year!! They continually read the names on the wall, and look at the armpit picture[Nathan Pace] And talk about you all) We'll incorporate some new things next year like a hike into the coffee fields to look for wild fruit as well as some new types of classes=) August 8th was also the day we left for Panama to renew our visas... Some would call this a vacation... But it's not! Think stress times two and that's what these short trips are... We made the best of it and saw a little bit more of the world while sweating profusely and getting eaten by fleas or bed bugs =/ This picture is when Erin lost her flip-flop in the water and then had to fish it out form the back porch.

On August 20th we completed two years of living here in Costa Rica! Hard to believe it's been that long. Needles to say, we're NOT fluent in spanish yet but we are getting acclimated to life here... It's not nearly as scary as it once was to live or just to be in certain places. We are finally getting into a groove and figuring out what we need to do to make life work here. One "life" thing to pray about is for a better living situation. Erin, being at home a lot with the kids, is realizing that without any space for the kids to play they really have a hard time. Plus our master bath is leaking through the celling and has created a huge mold spot in the garage, the celling of our back patio collapsed from the huge leak in the roof, the water goes out daily which is hard to work with because we can't do laundry or dishes when it's out. Also when the water is out we have to pump the water from the tank to the house which is very expensive!... So, while we don't want to move again, we are currently asking God to drop the perfect situation in our lap! A decent sized house with a yard to either rent or buy SUPER SUPER cheap=) How's that for a request!?

Well September has brought us more life... We shut the shop for 3 weeks for improvements. We'll start with classes again on tuesday. Ella danced in the independence day parade on the 15th and is about to lose her first tooth. Judah is continuing to learn more spanish and is super funny with all of his language questions. We had my mother-in-law here for 2 weeks, which was wonderful, especially for the kids, and now... life continues!

Again thank you all for your support! Thanks for reading! I'll leave you with this... God has called us to be happy! To be joyful! Not stressed. I have found that it's my own pressures... My own lists that rob me of my joy... Live each day without being worried about the next. Jesus said it in Matt 6 and I think he means it. Don't worry about tomorrow!! Do you remember that Jesus said,"I only do whet I see the father doing."? Well I don't think we have to be any different. I think that if; 1 we saw what he was doing and 2 we did ONLY that we would have a lot more joy and a lot less stress! He says, "come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

May Jesus, himself, give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so you may KNOW HIM BETTER!

The robbery and the war

Well I wish it had just been a great move of God that caused me to write today. Erin and I have been trying to find time to tell you all about the great things that we've been doing in the last few months, such as the classes at the shop, my parents and Fredericks that are currently here now, having interns, etc. Unfortunately what has driven me to the computer is to ask you all to pray! Last night the shop was robbed. It could have been a lot worse but I believe that God was watching out for us. They cut one lock on the front roll-up gate and then broke the metal that held the other. When they got inside the gate there's another gate that swings like a door. they cut out a bar and squeezed in. They took all of my clamps and the new ones that had been donated to the shop, they took all of the hand saws and hammers, my orbital sander, the shops jitter bug sander, and two hand planes that were just donated a few months ago. The good part was that they didn't take any of the machinery or the scroll saw that was left on the table over night. They must have been in a hurry because they didn't even take my ipod that was on the wall! I don't know a lot about the spirituality of events like this but I am convinced that whether the enemy was responsible or not he will try to use it to scare us or attack us in some other way.

When I drove up this morning the kids were all waiting outside. As soon as they saw that my window was down they were saying, "sorry Jeremy, bad news." After we got inside and found out what was taken I had to tell the kids that we couldn't have class today. Obviously they were bummed but a few of them asked to learn english instead. I didn't know how the day would go so I told them we'd see but they should come back after lunch. (2 points here, I was glad they were there and concerned and I was really glad that they just wanted to be with us, not just make things:) ) Most of them left after a while but there were four or five who hung around. Jeff and I were busy figuring out what to do and making a list of what was taken and while I was walking by the door one of the kids got my attention. I went over to the door and he said, "so now what? are you going back to the united states tomorrow?" The thought hadn't even crossed my mind! I found it very interesting though that it would cross theirs. I told them no and said that we'd just have to figure out what to do next. I assured them that we'd be here doing something for a long time. I got to thinking about that one statement though. How many times has that happened? A missionary comes and because of something that infringes on their own property they leave. I never expected God to protect all of my stuff. I don't even know if I expect him to protect my life. If loosing my stuff or my life will show these kids that they're valued and loved that's ok. Take it. God uses all things for the good of those who love him. I am convinced of that. And if he wants to protect my stuff and life, all the better. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

So because of all of this, I believe that we are at war. We are at war with the enemy in his territory for the lives of these kids. We are at war with the enemy over the community of Los Guido. I know that the enemy is trying to use this already to cause fear and insecurity in me and the students. Will you stand with me in prayer to take back what the enemy has stollen? Will you right now pray for Los Guido? For our shop and the kids that come? The enemy struck first but I believe that through prayer we can push him back and claim more of the community for Christ. Pray with me for all of these things and for the future of the shop and our family. We want to see Jesus proclaimed to these people who live in fear everyday of having their stuff or their lives taken.

I will write more soon. I promise! I have a bunch of pictures to show too.

May the Lord give you a spirit of wisdom and understanding so that you would know him better.

The newest developments.

Well it's finally open! After many months of theorizing and speculating, looking and listening, cleaning and preparing, we finally opened the wood-shop in Los Guido!! Many of you saw the pictures of the shop that we rented on February first, and the amazing transformation that was started with the JMU (James Madison University) and Jupiter Christian groups in March. Since they left I have been frantically working to build sturdy shop tables, stools, and lots of other things to prepare the shop. Normally it wouldn't have taken me a month and a half to build, but I had to build everything out of pallet wood.

We have a company that throws them away and has agreed to call us whenever they have enough for us to take. It's been quite the experience trying to utilize this scrap wood and turn it into something usable. This is also the wood that we use for all of our class projects! I have really enjoyed the process of experimenting knowing that I will be able to teach these boys to use "trash" to make something beautiful and possibly make money with it.

On May 17th our first group of the summer arrived and while they were in orientation on the 18th, we officially opened for our first day! I had approximately 25 people come and ask about the classes the previous 3 days and so I had no idea how many kids to prepare for. I only have tools and space for 12 kids per class session and right now we have two classes per day. In the very first class we had four boys which was absolutely perfect. The class in the afternoon had four more. The next day it expanded to 14 over all and by thursday I had to turn kids away. I believe that after two weeks we have had 38 kids come and finnish at least one project! Our first project was a very simple shelf that required the boys to use hand saws, screwdrivers, hammers and a lot of sand paper. They also got a crash course in staining. Over all it was a big hit! Check out some of the pictures below.

These boys all returned to do project #2 which was a very small step stool. For this one they had to cut some curves and learn to use the coping saw. The younger boys just want to get on with the projects so they don't look all that great, but the older boys really excel and make some really nice projects! It's amazing already to see the boys opening up to me. I have already been able to share with a few of them the reason that we're here doing what we're doing. I shared with some of them, just this last Thursday, about how God has been faithful to me and loves us all so much. I know that in the future we will be able to get so much more in depth and really be able to share the love of Christ in different ways. Please pray that God will continue opening doors for me to speak into their lives. Pray also that God would bring those that really need to be there in and the rest would fall away. With only 12 spots in the class we really need God to be choosing who is there. It is always so hard to turn them away, especially when I can see the disappointment on their faces. Pray also for wisdom about how and when to expand. There are so many kids and so many more adults that would like to come and learn that I could literally have full classes 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This could get really draining on me and the family. Pray for me that God would show me exactly what my responsibility is and how to guard my time with my family.

Thank you to everyone who has come to help and all of you that support us financially. This is really an extension of your gifts! I pray that God would bless you all as you live your life and give so that we can see Him work through us here. Finances are a big thing for us but we know that God is bigger. If you'd like to give towards our need here or towards the shop you can contact Students International through the "contact us" button at www Stint.com. As a family we are still about %15 short of our goal and we are also needing to find people who'd like to support the shop in the future. Right now the shop is funded through August, but has a monthly expense of $700 for rent, utilities and supplies. Again thank you for your support of what God is doing!

Quick trip to Nicaragua

Can't believe it's really been over a month since our last post! For some reason to me, time seems to go ever so quickly here and doesn't give me fair warning of it happening. We've had a busy month of things like pajama parties, staff meetings, getting things ready for the wood shop to open, staff retreats, school field trips, and the normal every day happenings around here. When do things slow down?? And do they ever?!? My guess is not. The beautiful month of May brings Mother's Day, our anniversary, Erin's birthday, and 3 more birthdays of teammates! Whew!

We have also hit that lovely 3 month mark of having to leave the country again. Tomorrow we head to Nicaragua with the family and our friend Cailah. We're due for visa renewal once again. On one hand we look forward to these adventures, not too much is ever foreseen, but on the other hand, can we just get done with it already!! The logistics of these trips are time consuming and money consuming and sometimes come at inopportune times. At least now we'll make it through summer and teams before we have to leave again. Hopefully this will be one of the last times and that we'll have a more permanent status in the country soon.

Please pray for safe and fun travels for us. Crossing the border and coming back can be a timely process and at times stressful. Pray that we have smooth sailing through customs. Our son Judah as well has been battling some sort of a cold. Yesterday complained of a sore throat, today he broke out with a fever and has a swollen right eye. As I write, he is with Jeremy at the doctor (yes, at 10:20pm someone's open!) and being diagnosed. The doctor said he has a throat infection and is having some trouble breathing apparently because of that. They're checking him as well with a breathing device to help him. We'll see soon what needs to be done. Either way, we're headed out of town for 3 days tomorrow : ( We we're recalling the last time Judah was sick was 6 months ago when we were headed to Panama for a visa renewal as well. Please pray for our little guy that he recovers quickly and sleeps a lot in the car while we travel. God bless these little ones for putting up with the things we have to do sometimes. Our kids are amazing travelers and are always excited for an adventure. Let's hope that is the case early tomorrow morning! Blessings and thanks for praying!