Instituto El Rey is a school up the road from the library. They are doing great work in the River Valley, and they need two English teachers to come and help them next year. If you are at all interested, please contact them or me for details.
Their latest letter is below.
-Joe
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Dear Amigos en Instituto El Rey,
! Saludos en el Nombre de Jesús!
Earl has given over the writing of this letter to me (but only for this month!). First, I think I need to go get a bit of chocolate from my jelly bean and chocolate stash. As I said, Earl always writes the letters and you can probably already tell why. *_*
Oh, my, so much happens in the space of one to two months that it is not difficult to write about what God is doing here!
But first, there has been something I have had in my mind to write for a long time. --- We live in a beautiful place. The mountainous valley is threaded with a river that has a beautiful clear green color at times and other times it is a chocolate milk color. The river bed is strewn with rocks and boulders of all sizes. It is very dramatic and never ceases to attract my attention. There is one dirt road that connects us from La Ceiba on the north coast and it continues up this river valley for 21 miles to the last town of Urraco . Now, that road is not as pretty as the river and most of the time it feels like we are driving directly down the center of the riverbed. We jerk and bounce along for about an hour to arrive to town in our truck. During these rides (which one of us or both make 2 or 3 times a week) I look at the variety of trees and flowers that abound on the sides the road ---along with the pigs and chickens and cows! I am never bored. *_*
Some of the flowers on the hillsides are hibiscus, acacias, bougainvilleas, bird of paradise and many others, of which I do not know the names of, are blooming at their appointed times of the year. There is never a lack of color here. It is wonderful. Now…, there is one plant called the poinsettia that grows here. I know that you are familiar with this plant, especially at Christmas time, but what I was surprised to find out is that the poinsettia blooms twice a year—once at Easter time and the other at Christmas time. A simple fact; nevertheless, it brings humbled pleasure to me to recall the birth, the death and resurrection of Jesus when I see the red flowers. I have often wanted to have a specie of each flower growing at the school---someday in my spare time!!
Well, I had better get back to the task at hand and report about the school.
In September Larry Smoak, missionary in another village, led about a five-day, two hours per day, seminar with the students called “Amar es Esperar”, or Love is to Wait. It addresses something that strikes at one of the strongholds of the enemy, particularly in this culture! During this series of meetings, God was moving in great power reaching into the very hearts of the young people to bring liberty to the captives! at the end of this series of meetings, the young people were challenged to make a decision TO WAIT!! They were asked to sign a card testifying to their desire and to the intent of their hearts, if they were indeed serious about waiting! And about 130 out of 169 who were in attendance, signed the card!!!! Halelujeh! After this final meeting, while the students were waiting for the bus, a very powerful wind came roaring down the valley and struck the school, sending the students running for cover! It was the most powerful burst of wind I have experienced in the eight years we have been here!! It tore branches off trees, and IT BUCKLED THE ROOF ON THE HALF-FINISHED MINISTRY HOUSE!! the Bible says (Satan) is “the prince of the power of the air”—Eph.2:2. Earlier in the year, Ester, our Director, was talking to the students during one of our chapel services about the family, and as she was praying, a huge gust of wind knocked the free-standing blackboard over on top of her! Fortunately she was not hurt!
We give praise to God for His protection each day as we minister to these young people whom God is going to use in a mighty and powerful way to be world changers, changing the world around us!
This past week-end, beginning at 3pm Friday, and going until Sunday at 11am, our two students, Heydy Celenia Banegas and Lesbia Ibania Reyes (Lesbia is just 11 years old!) gathered with 139 other students from 16 of the 18 states of Honduras along with 50 teachers (Liliana Galindo Buck, one of our math teachers, was invited to go, also!) to compete in the national math competition!! It was an excellent time and experience for all-- though Heydy and Lesbia did not win any medals, they still were winners!! We were one of the few private institutions to participate. I have to also add that they stayed at a very fancy hotel in La Ceiba—a very rare experience for our students!
Just today, I delivered the last piece of paper to our legal assistant to get final approval for the school to operate!! It has been a huge undertaking that has taken literally hours upon hours of work (to say 100’s of hours might not be that much of an exaggeration!)!! About 6,000 official size pages were delivered to Toribio!!! Sharon Struna did an enormous amount of work—we praise and thank the Lord for her help!! Please pray for favor with the Ministry of Education, that Instituto El Rey will receive speedy approval, which by the way, is needed BEFORE the graduation ceremonies of 17 November, which is exactly one month away!!
Next week the students take their final exams, then there will be no more classes!! There is excitement in the air!!! Some of our students have had a wonderfully successful yearl! It looks like we will end the year with 179 students! What a blessing Instituto El Rey has been to the students, and it is made possible because of your faithfulness to pray; to give financially; to visit and to work; to write letters; to form relationships!!
WE NEED TWO ENGLISH TEACHERS!!!!! Please pray for English teachers!! God has always provided a North American to teach our English classes, and I believe He will do so again next year! If you think you could possibly come to teach English, please let us know soon!! Or maybe you know of someone who might like to teach for a year, let us know, give us their e-mail address and we will contact them!!
There was one bigger item that happened. Earl and I received an invitation to go to an educational forum in La Ceiba hosted by the District Board of Education. Our school made a large “county fair grange” type of exhibit showing the products of the valley in which we live. (They were interviewed by 3 TV stations!!) We found out that the meeting was to “give honor to whom honor is due”. The Board of Education recognized about 10 people for their contribution to education in Honduras . Honor was given to various people from the Governor of the state of Atlántida and to a faithful custodian of an elementary school. Somewhere in between were Earl and Sharon. Indeed, we felt honored to be with and stand with the other Hondurans who believe education changes lives. *_*
We praise and thank the Lord for blessing us with Chris and Sharon Struna, who have made a decision after much prayer to stay until at least June of 2009! Chris has been teaching computers at IER for 4 years now, and it was he who set up the computer lab.; Sharon, his wife, has helped us tremendously in many ways also, one being the student support program here in Honduras . She makes sure we all do our jobs of writing letters in a timely fashion.
Again, we invite any one of you to come for a visit and see what God is doing here through Instituto El Rey to impact the lives of young people here in La Cuenca del Cangrejal!
God bless you and keep you in His care. And now, ”To Gain for the Lamb the Reward of His Sacrifice”, Earl and Sharon Washburn, Administrators, Instituto El Rey