New address, same ol blog

Hey everybody,
Thanks for still reading.
The lady I wrote about in the last entry. Last time Beto went over to pray she was sitting up in her bed eating.
This past week has been really busy for us, and beto hasn´t even started the school year yet! Where he teaches Bible at the high school starts in Feb. and ends in Nov.
Beto has started to sell strawberries for a farmer friend here and is starting to grow his clientel. I´ve also been contracted to make bread for a business in town so we´re making a little extra money which all goes to my school loans. yeah!

Last WEd. was the last day of the 2nd period in my school, so thursday we just had a half day of activities and went home at 12 and Friday we didn´t have class, but most of the time i was grading notebooks, entering grades and putting them on report cards. I´m still not done since I left some notebooks at the school on accident. I have one child failing all my classes and those of the other teachers, and some other students failing one class, which means more work for me...I have to write a letter to the parents, make a study guide, make a test, give two days of tutoring after school and then give the test one day after school. Please pray for the one girl especially who´s failing all her classes. I see she has no home support, her mom is illiterate in spanish and her dad is gone a lot as a truck driver. It will take a miracle really for her to pass this year.

Today we´re having the new missionaries over for dinner. They have been here since 1990 really but were in the states for 2 years on furlough and getting their counseling degrees. the other missionaries that were here meatntime have moved to another part of honduras. When one of my apartment-complex-mates met the new ones she said, ¨Le´t´s invite them over for dinner. I´d like to get to know them!¨ We were very happy about that becuase she is not a Christian and pretty passionate about what she does believe. So tonight it´s potluck. please pray for our conversation and that through this new relationship she and the others in our complex will come to know Jesus this year before they go back to the states.

Finally, please pray for me in my job decision. In about a week my school will need an answer from me about whether i´m staying next school year or not. I am definately staying but an opportunity has opened up for me to teach only Bible classes at the same school next year. That is what I came to do initially and would really like to do that. pLease pray it works out and the school is open to letting me do that. Having taught English and seeing that English teachers are most difficult to get for first grade, they may not want to let me go.

Gracias y bendiciones!

Prayer

Lately I´ve been learning from God about the importance and power of prayer.
Where Beto was living before we got married and after he left Southwest, he made good friends with the landlady and her family. When her father got very sick and on the verge of death, they called Beto to go to pray with them for their father. God opened doors for him to preach to them about Jesus and His power. Their father passed away and they asked Beto to speak at the funeral. Even though he´s since moved out we don´t live very far from them. REcently they called him again to pray for a woman in their family who has stomach cancer and is getting ¨treated¨as best they can in her home just a few blocks from where we´re living. Beto has gone about 2 or 3 times a week the last few weeks and we´ve been praying for her in our apartment. A few days ago they traveled with her to the capital to do some tests in the hospital which showed she wasn´t improving. Her sister is a Christian and feels alone in her fight in prayer for her sister. We called her last night to tell her we were praying for her and to see how her sister was doing. She says she´s doing better but she herself feels lonely and a bit desperate to see God work a miracle to heal her sister. We told her we´d be praying at 11pm last night if she wanted to pray at the same time in her own home. Wewill be going later today to her house to read verses and pray over her. Please pray for us in this ministry.

Blessings!

First Field Trip

Here are some fotos of our first field trip this year. I went along to help. It was for their social studies class which is taught by another teacher. They were studying neighborhoods so we went up to a high point of the town and they drew a map of it, we visited the city hall and police station.
We took one class thursday and the other on Friday. On Thursday the other teacher was interviewed for our local TV station and on Friday it was my turn! I was so nervous I was afraid that all of a sudden i would forget all my spanish and that the interview would maybe go something like this:

Interviewer: So what places have you visited so far today?
Me: Yes!(with head nodding and goofy smile)

It went well. I never did see it on TV though. I watched for it that night but I think it had been on earlier that day, and seeing as I don't have Tivo for my one free station, i didn't get to tape it.

More wedding fotos back by popular demand

I'm going to put a bit more fotos here for your enjoyment.

Just married!

Here we are at our reception. It was beautiful and fun, everything we wanted! Thanks to all who came. We are so blessed by all our family and friends.
We enjoyed a two night honeymoon in Laguna Beach and then headed back to Long Beach to spend time with Mary's family before they left again for Africa. With all the family, 20 of us, in my parent's house, it was quite possibly the best Christmas yet!
We are safely and happily back in La esperanza fixing up the apt. to be more homey and I enjoyed giving a devotional and time of prayer each day to my students last week. We are really excited about the ministry God has for us here this year.
Happy new year to you all1
Blessings in 2008!
Love
Beto and Laura Perez Speaks Monterroso

My first shower ever!

I was so excited! The girls got into teams and had to make a wedding dress out of one roll of toilet paper, and then I chose my favorite..the one on the right. As I´m opening presents you can see i´m so happy. MUSTARD! YOU SHOULDN´T HAVE! Here it´s tradition to give ¨silly gifts¨before getting the ¨real gifts¨, which will be next Tuesday at the shower given by my friends and colleagues at school. But at this shower I got things like a box of matches and one stick of margarine. Thanks girls! Then they dressed me up in a wedding dress made of plastic shopping bags. Randomly put it turned out to fit perfectly the Goodwill bag. It was a lot of fun. And my friend Dani who I live with too made the delicious cake. God is good!

Thanksgiving...a little late

These are some pictures from our Thanksgiving Day celebration that went really well. Some classes performed some songs/skits,etc and the children that came as our guests also performed some acts. We had good food and a lot of fun. Enjoy the photos!

crazy honduran roadways

Last Sunday Beto and I were given a ride by some friends who were also in Tegucigalpa. Our driver/friend is a crazy driver, like most people who live here, and was passing everyone. After passing one vehicle and swerving back on the right side between two cars, the car he just passsed passed us again, rolled down their windows, and pointed their machine guns at us. Turns out the car was transporting the supreme court justice of the nation and you don't cut her off! Luckily I was asleep through all this. But it reminds me of driving in LA. Ironically, when we stopped for breakfast, so did she and out got her driver and the 3 camouflaged dressed national policemen, heavily armed and not afraid to show it. They sat at the table next to us as it was a small place and there wasn't anyone else there. I don't remember any cheery holiday greetings passed between us.
Merry Christmas everybody!

Glory to God!

Hey everybody! For those who knew, we, Beto and I, went to Tegucigalpa, the capital, last Thursday because Beto had his VISA appointment at the U.S. Embassy early Friday morning. We were both so nervous, but I think me more than beto. We stayed with Awesome Amber, who drove us around everywhere and is such a great friend! beto had already met with a lawyer, whom God provided (he's a cousin of a friend) to help him get his residency here in Honduras which would help with the VISA. We drove around for about 30 minutes trying to find him and finally got the needed document. We arrived just in time and then proceeded to wait in line for about 4 hours. It was all very orderly and organized. At first Beto was denied, but God opened many doors and we were allowed to go back in that same hour after his appointment and I was allowed to explain our situation to the same man who interviewed him the first time. After listening he changed his mind and granted Beto a temporary VISA! We are both so very excited. It really is a miracle of God. All along we had prayed more for the person who'd be giving the interview, that he/she would understand our story, listen to our situation, and have a heart of compassion, and that's exactly what happened!
Thank you to all who prayed. We fly in to LA Dec. 20 and will be married the 29th. We get to stay 3 weeks, my Christmas break. Praise the Lord!

Merry Christmas!

Smell my armpit

I want to start by telling something that happened to me on the bus on the way to school last Thursday. It was a special day, we were going to celebrate Thanksgiving and go home early. One of my students gets on the bus and sits next to me, talking to his friends across the aisle. All of a suddent he turns to me, lifts up his arm closest to me, pulls back his shirt sleeve and tells me to smell. I understood but I thought, no, surely he´s not telling me to smell his armpit. So I kind of just stared at him. Then he repeated it. ¨Miss, smell here!¨ oh boy, well. i leaned just close enough to satisfy him but didn´t really smell anything. He then told me that he had put on his dad´s deodarant that day(a first grader) and he was so proud. I still smile about it whenever it comes to mind.

Today I volunteered at the last minute to teach the 4th grade sunday school class at church. The teacher didn´t come. I had to ¨wing¨it but i really enjoyed it and volunteered to teach the rest of this quarter as the teacher will be moving in january anyway. I am really excited. I gave the kids a memory verse for the week, which they havnt had awhile.

The women´s REcovery group is also going really well. Last Thursday was a night of testimonies and two women tearfully reconciled after a tense time they´d been having between each other. It was powerful to see forgiveness and repentance between them.
It is always exciting to experience what God is doing.
May you have a blessed week.

a Day at "the beach", in the mountains

Last sunday was also a beautiful day. There I am with my new wonderful friend Daneille after church. Beto and I were by some friends to a water park located just about 20 minutes. We ate whole fried fish and some of them went swimming. Even though it ws sunny at church it was cold, but when we got to the "beach"it was so warm, hence the boots with the tank top. The little girl is the daughter of our friends and the older boy their son, who i had in first grade last year, and the little boy the son of our pastor and his wife. Praise God for wonderful friends! and sun!

The last two days here have been absolutely beautiful, after having thought that the sun had died! I went for a long 2 hour walk in the afternoon up into the mountains and took some pictures.
This week we will have all of the kids come to our school Thursday from the local social work house, where they stay if they've been abandoned, orphaned or just cannot live in their families'house for whatever reason. They will put on a little program and our classes in turn will perform songs/poems for them, and then we will share a 'traditional"thanksgiving dinner /lunch together. All our kids are asked to bring donations of toys, clothes,shoes to give away to them.

Friday night all of us in our apartment complex will have a even more Traditional Thanksgiving dinner. I was going to be the one to bake the turkey but lucky for me we didn't go to the big city to get one. Two of the girls are vegetarians and turkey's are very expensive. We will have at least two other dinners elsewhere anyways. So I will be making something else.

I have been praying a lot lately for the other two girls in our apt. complex that are new to the school this year. One comes from a traditional Jewish background but now is practicing the religion of self. She is a lot of fun though, outspoken, easy to talk to. Today I passed her apt. on my way up to study for my theology class. She stopped me to ask what I was goig to study and it was a God appointment, for sure. We ended up talking for about 40 minutes and I got to share what I believe and why. I pray for more and more chances like that and I ask you to pray with me that she will open her heart to Christ this year.
The öther vegetarian"is having a really hard time. I am afraid she won't come back after Christmas. She teaches English in 3rd through 6th grade. Please pray for her also.
Thank you always for your prayers for the ministry here, and may it grow more and more.

P.S.

Beto has an appointment for his VISA at the US Embassy in Tegucigalpa November 30th. Please be in prayer that his request will be approved so he can come visit the States with me over the Christmas holidays.
Thank you!

Ministry

Sometimes, well, a lot of times, I feel like I'm not doing ministry, at least not not like I thought I'd be doing when I moved down here. I "just"teach first graders, math and English. It's a lot of work, paper work, grades, lesson plans, a lot of things that don't involve other people, which is where the majority of ministry takes place.
I've learned lately, however, that ministry is a loaded word, and God is showing me so many different ways to minister not only to my students but to all those around me.
First and foremost, prayer. I've noticed that the days I pray for my classes are more difficult days. Just more evidence of our real enemy out to destroy us. But the more I pray the more I love my students as well and see my job as a people job and not just teaching the lessons.
Ministry is listening to them, hugging them when they hurt, and being gentle and patient with them. I've recently taught them the song "This is the day, This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it." They sing it so well without me now, and sometimes one of them will start singing it quietly during class and it makes me smile and gives me a peace.
Ministry is how I react when I'm frustrated (which usually only happens in a meeting), how I treat the other teachers, and how I live among the non-Christians in my apt. complex. God has given us opportunities to share our faith in conversations and we are praying for their salvation this year.
It is preparation as Beto and I are preparing to recieve our theology degrees. and making friends in the businesses we frequent.
these are all reasons I love living here in La Esperanza and growing in my faith as God leads. Being in ministry requires me to look at myself too and where I need to change. That's the most difficult part!
Thanks for your prayers. God bless you!

Extreme Opposites

Well, maybe not extreme, but there are definately many differences between SoCal and La Esperanza in October. I am saddened to read about the fire tragedies in SoCal while here we are full swing into Winter. It´s been overcast and FREEZING (well, it´s probably like, 70 degrees, but I am a SoCal native! What can I say?) here for the last week. For a few days it looked like it was going to rain cats and dogs but it never did. I was so disappointed! I prefer the rain to the BITING cold! One day last week I awoke to no electricity, which meant no hot shower since my hot water is powered by electric wires. The next day half the city was without water, and guess which half I live in? So that was two days without a hot shower, but at least the first day I could use water.

Life is going really well here. The alcolic center is progressing well and last weekend they had a bonfire well into the wee hours of the morning with over 70 men present. The Holy Spirit was there and worked on many of their hearts. A couple of weekends before that the men´s recovery group had a one night retreat where 12 brothers were baptized into Christ.

Last week was the inaugural meeting of the women´s recovery group based on Rick Warren´s ¨Celebrating Recovery¨ Please pray that both these groups continue to thrive and bring many more souls into the kingdom of our loving Heavenly Father.

I Peter 1. 3,4,5

love fall

Well, it´s starting to turn cold again. Today I wore my 3 layers all day, with a beanie. We only had morning activities today because yesterday was the last day of teh first period. Tomorrow...no school! but i´ll be working much on my grades!
This year is going a lot better than at first. My kids seemed to have calmed down, a little, having gotten used to me and me to them. We are still having some problems with discipline so come Monday at the beginning of the new term we will be switching 4 kids between the two classes to see if that balances it out a bit.
The other day I had a free period and was in my classroom working while the social studies teacher was giving class in spanish. They were discussing community, how to live together, the Golden Rule, and what we need to successfully and happily live togther. One student called out ¨REspect!¨ ¨Yes!¨, the teacher said, änd what would happen if we didn´t have respect?¨
¨We´d DIE!¨,SHOUTED one boy. I looked up at Ms. Iris and she at me and we both smiled. He was so adament it was hilarious.
The new teachers in the apartments and I we all get along really well. It´s a great year so far. THanks for all your prayers and be sure I am remembering all my Californian friends and family at this time.

Rainy Season

Today it´s been raining literally all day, and supposedly it´s going to be raining for the next 72 hours straight. I had about 7 kids missing in each class today and I´m in an internet cafe with a generator because the electricity has gone out.

Lately things in school are going well, better. My difficult class isn´t so difficult anymore, they are all pretty smart, and they are a lot of fun.


REcently i had a surprise visit from two friends from LA, Laura and Allan Heida. they and I spent about 4 days together and Allan made a video for me which was shown at my church in Long Beach. It turned out really well.

The next weekend my roomate from Tegucigalpa came up to visit me with one of the teen boys she´s raising right now. We three had a lot of fun and it was great to talk and laugh with them.

Thanks for all your prayers.

Independence Day!

My pictures are a little mixed up, but here goes. Beverly's face pretty much says it all, how we felt at the end of the parade. There I am marching with my students. Some kinder and preporatoria students on their float protecting themselves from the hot sun. And with the busses in the background, we are practicing. this parade took up our lives the first month of school. The last two weeks we had half days so everyone could practice in the afternoons. But the kinder, prepas, and first graders didnt march so we didnt practice, which meant we tried to give class with the band practicing outside. Let's just say that I'm glad it's over. We have tomorrow and tuesday off. I'm so glad! We all need a break!

Then there's a picture of a spider taking a nap on my bed! He didn't get much rest once I got home and saw him.

There were actually three days of parades. Thursday the kinder schools marched, Friday the high schools, and Saturday the schools of mixed students, like ours. Theres some more pictures of us practicing, marching through mud, and of the parade crowd in front of the police station Friday. There's one picture of a Linca woman dressed in their typical bright colors and the hallmark of thier culture, the brightly colored checkered head scarf.

The school year is going well. I am looking forward to it. We have a full staff this year, better than last year in that we aren't short any teachers.

Mr. Ken is doing a lot better. Please continue to pray for him and beverly.

I am fighting a cold. please pray for me that it won't turn into bronchitis for the third time this year.

Blessings! Ephesians 6:10-17

September

September has been deemed ¨The Crazy Month¨just like that, straight from the mouth of the Principal herself. It´s Independence month, not just a day, here, so the whole town and country is all about that right now. Every afternoon from 3 till 4 the band practices, and Thur.and friday from 1.30 until 3 the whole school practices, except Preporatoria and First grades. this year we get to be on a float! This is new! So this coming thursday and friday we will mostly be practicing,not in classes, because the town parade is Saturday morning.
Yesterday was the Celebration for Dia del Nino, or Children´s Day, which is actually Sept. 10, but to celebrate on a Monday and then come back the next day is too difficult, so we had it Friday and went home at 12.30. The kids brought food, candy, coke, and played games after having a program where each class put on a skit, or sang a song. It was great this year because the high schoolers come and take over each class, having already planned activities and games, and brought candy-prizes. There was also a pinata for each class. That was crazy, for sure.
Each classroom has to put up a mural front and center, mandated by the government exactly how it has to be. A picture of a certain important male figure, like the equivelant of George Washington, in a certain place, and others like the country´s bird, flower, plant, etc. Each class can write the mandated phrase in whatever style they want, but that´s about the only variation. White and blue is everywhere!
My first grade class of challenges is getting better. the other teachers of first grade that teach the other classes are really great and have really good discipline, so that helps me a lot.

I am really excited for this year. I have already gotten the nod to start a saturday Bible study with the families that come to visit in the Alcoholic Rehab center, and also coming soon will be a woman´s group based on Rick Warren´s ¨Celebrating REcovery¨. The men already have started and it is going really well. Beto is in it and he has really grown spiritually and emotionally. It´s kind of like Promise Keepers, is my closest analogy, but they meet twice a week. So us ladies are going to start one soon for us, too.
God is so good and is showing me His love everyday. The other day on the school buss ride home I got the opportunity to talk some to a fellow teacher. She unexpectedly began to pour out some of her heart to me, her struggles with depression and the financial and family problems she´s having. She began to cry and I felt God using me to comfort her if jsut a little bit. I was able, the next day, to loan her Barbara johnson´s ¨Finding Joy in the Cesspools of Life.¨ I pray God will speak to her through it and that she will be drawn to Him. Please pray for her and for more opportunities like this one with her and others.

May you feel God´s immense love for you today!

The Felix

Here in La Esperanza we´ve had a lot of rain, but if I didn´t know about Felix I would think it´s normal. Supposedly the hurricane is heading our way tonight and tomorrow. We havn´t cancelled school yet but they said today that if it rains all day tomorrow then the busses probably won´t be able to get up the hill on thursday. So far we are all right. We are at a high elevation, bout 5,400 feet or so. Please pray for the rest of Central America.

School is getting better. Getting in to a routine. My students in First grade A are challenging in their behavior but are getting a little better, or I´m just gettting used to it.

Mr. Ken is still very sick with horrible back pain. He and Beverly havn´t slept much in the last 2 weeks. His Hep. A is pretty much gone but he´s got lower back pain they don´t know what to do with. The treatment is unknown, as is the root problem, and they aren´t sure how they would pay for whatever he may need. He can´t take meds for about one month because of the Hep. A. Please pray for them. Beto and I went up 2 times and prayed, read scripture, and laid hands on him. Another day our pastor and Beto went up to pray for about 20 minutes, and after the pastor left, Beto stayed another hour or so and prayed. That night and the next day, yesterday, he did really well. He slept good and didn´t have as much pain, but today Dr. Troy took him back to the hospital in the bigger city about an hour away. Please pray for them and for wisdom in this situation.