School Beginnings

Newsletter from from Sis. Karen Caballero

On February 10^th 2003 we started out our first day of school with 41 students. We were praying for more and we need more in order to pay the teachers and others what they deserve. We now have 57 students in school! God is working in so many hearts and He’s boosting our faith in Him.

Two weeks ago a supervisor from the Board of Education came and looked over our school. She gave us the final “OK” on our project and signed the legal paperwork that makes our school recognized by the government. She actually gave us permission to open up to 9^th grade. This is a miracle in itself since usually they only let new schools open to 3^rd grade. Since we don’t have a lot of rooms yet we have some grades in the morning and some in the afternoon. Here, in Paraguay the kids can go to school in the morning or in the afternoon. We have 1^st - 3^rd – and 5^th grades in the morning and Kindergarten – 2^nd – 4^th – 6^th in the afternoon. That way we are only using 4 classrooms for 7 grades. We have projects to continue the construction on the older building in order to make more classrooms for 7^th grade next year. Please pray with us!

All the kids come in uniforms every day and on Friday’s they come in shorts for Gym class. Our school colors are dark green and white. We have English Monday through Friday. Amy Shurance, from Medina, is teaching the younger kids; Kindergarten to 3^rd grade, and I am teaching the older kids; 4^th to 6^th grades. We have music classes once a week and we are working with one of the student’s mom’s who is helping us with singing. She is also teaching us music in the native Guarani language. All the grades also have Guarani twice a week.

All of our teachers are Christians. Each morning we meet at 6:45 am at church to have devotions and prayer time. School starts at 7:00 am. Afternoon classes start at 1:00 pm. As soon as the bell rings, we also have devotions and prayer time in our classes. Bibles have been donated to the kids who don’t have one so everyone in class can read God’s word at the same time with their teachers. Because we have a private, Christian school, we can teach God’s word and pray at any time of the day. Thursdays we have special services with the kids, which is similar to our church services. There is singing, memorizing Bible verses, prayer and exciting Bible stories. Some of the parents sat in the first week and we have heard good comments about almost everything.

We have eight children in the scholarship program. In earlier letters we wrote asking for help for neighborhood families from non Christian homes. We pray that through this program, new families can come to know the Lord. These kids are coming to our school through offerings that people from the U.S. have sent us. If you are interested in sponsoring a child, please let us know

There are about 15 students coming through scholarships paid by donations. Sadly to say, some come from extremely, needy families. Gaby told me that his new friend, Ramon, had a used notebook all sewn together with string. He didn’t have school shoes so he’s been coming in sandals and his pencil was only about 2 ½ inches long. All night long Gaby was walking around the house looking for things he could give Ramon the next day. He found pencils, white shirts, notebooks, etc. I quietly watched as Gaby took an interest in his new buddy and made sure that his friend had everything he needed, even when it was giving up his own stuff.