Toshiba

OCTOBER, 2012 NEWSLETTER

O r g a n i z a t i o n

It’s hard to believe but school has been out for one week and graduation is scheduled for November 9th. I keep wondering where the time has gone. I have not been faithful to send out newsletter’s regularly this year but hope to be better at this in the future. I will try to give you some of the high-lights of my year in this publication. In my first month here: I was asked to make the suits for the career girls for graduation, to be the coordinator over the Angelitos dorm on the weekends; and to make curtains for the dialy-sis kids rooms. Mike requested something bright and cheerful for them. Making the suits for the girls took precedence over all other sewing tasks. This saved Casa a lot of mon-ey since they usually get a tailor to do them every year. A lot of people were involved in this project. The deadline could not have been met had it not been for the ladies who came to visit with mission teams this sum-mer. There were women from Texas, Tennessee, Michigan, Illinois, Ala-bama, Florida and Georgia who helped with this. (If I left someone out, please forgive me) Thank you all so much!

2012 Career Girls Graduation Class

So between working on the suits through the week and working in Angeli-tos on the week-end, I was very busy my first few months here. The graduates use their suits for their practicum and they will also wear them to graduation. The school system is different here. Gradua-tion in a cap and gown is after the Basico program (Junior High in the states). Then they have a three year career program (this is like our trade school programs) where they focus on one particular subject such as accounting, computers, etc. When they finish the Career program, they will do their practicum. This is where they work for a business doing their specific career for about 6 weeks without pay (like an in-ternship). There are 14 girls and boys in all who will be graduating this year. I was given a room to use for my classes and sewing projects and it took some work to get it ready. It had previously been used for a storage room. A group of young women from the University of Alabama in Tusca-loosa painted it for me. I have included pictures of the new room. Mr. Wyatt, dad to one of our missionaries here, built me a cabinet where I can store many of my sewing supplies as well as my jewelry making sup-plies. He is a very gifted man in wood working with a servant’s heart.

FROM THIS... TO THIS!

TRANSLATION FOR THE WORDS ON THE WALL:

‘SEW MUCH FUN!’

My cross stitch classes have been working on flowers to use on a special project for next year. The girls have done exceptionally well in learn-ing to make stitches and in following a cross stitch pattern. I am very proud of all of them. Recently, I started a sewing class for the older girls who are in ele-mentary school as well as a jewelry class for the university girls. The older girls in elementary school are the group of girls that Mike wanted me to work with when I came here. This class didn’t get started until late August due to the big project I was working on. However, the Lord’s timing is always perfect. There are currently 3 girls in this class and they absolutely love to sew – as much as I love teaching them! One of my students went home with her mother last month and it was a tearful parting. It happened unexpectedly on visitation day. Since the time she arrived here, we did not have a birth certificate. Unfortu-nately, this is common among the children who live here. In fact for years, we did not even know where her mother was. Walter, our director, found out where the mother was through some other missionaries living in Guatemala and she came to visit her daughter just 3 months ago. The mother was able to produce a birth certificate and we found out that she is 23 instead of 18 like we originally thought. When a child who is placed here by the court turns 18, they can leave. There are policies in place to insure that they are going to a good situation. One of the things that I did not anticipate when coming to Guatemala was that I might have to say ‘good-bye’ to some of the kids here. There are many children here who have no one to go home too but some are placed here by the courts for their protection and safety. If the home situa-tion improves or the judge decides to send them back home, they leave. Sometimes, it is not to an improved situation and there isn’t much we can do. That is when I have to remember that God is Sovereign and in control always and that I just need to trust Him. He is teaching me to accept circumstances out of my control and to pray without ceasing. I have attached a few photos of my sewing students hard at work.

REINA MARY

The boys’ room Jose’s bed (Luis got the

same quilt for his bed)

Sindy, our princess, got Cinderella curtains!

Tom was kind enough to help us hang these!

At the end of July as I was finishing up with the suits, we had a team from the Huntsville, Alabama area visiting here. Susan Tidwell, from their team, helped me finish the suits and then said, “What else can I help you with?” I showed her my ‘to-do list’ and she began helping me with the projects. She helped me make the curtains for the dialysis kid’s rooms and we had enough material left over to make tack quilts for their beds. She even made each of them a small pillow with the scrap fabric. The kids were thrilled with the new look for their rooms. Su-san is a quilter and showed me how to make these quick and easy quilts. Since she is now retired, I am trying to figure out how we can get her back down here. Maybe she can come and stay awhile the next time. To-gether we made 7 sets of curtains and 4 tack quilts in 3 days!

We have also been working very hard to re-model the Angelitos dorm (also known as the Baby dorm). We completed the kitchen with help from the Arkansas team this summer. During September and this month, we worked on painting the girls and boys dorm. The team from Mt. Nebo Baptist church in Cullman, Alabama, completely re-painted the nursery. To see the excitement on the kids faces made all the hard work worthwhile. Katie James, from Mt. Nebo, has been here for one month and helped out with the painting as well. She will go home with her team on Monday and I personally will miss her greatly! Every day while we painted on the girls’ dorm, we were asked at least a dozen times by the girls when we were going to paint Mickey Mouse. I would always tell them that Miss Sharron was just painting the walls and someone else would paint the ‘mouse’. One day while walking to the girls’ dorm with a paint container in one hand, Elfrein, took my other hand and led me to the boys’ room. He was ready for me to get started on their dorm. We based the color scheme of the rooms on the material for the curtains. We have Mickey and Minnie Mouse in the girls’ room and Cars 2 for the boys’ room. The nursery was painted green, pink and blue to match the curtain fabric that Katie picked out. It has been a lot of work but great fun to make a brand new room for all of the children. I have been told ‘thank you’ hundreds of times even after the work was finished. We have many older kids here who are extremely talented in art and they have been doing the art work on the walls. They have been drawing Mickey, Minnie, Lightning McQueen from Cars 2, and the art work for the dining room. Here are a few pictures of the rooms:

KITCHEN AREA IN

ANGELITOS

DINING ROOM IN ANGELITOS

(DOOR WAS REPLACED AFTER THIS

PICTURE WAS TAKEN)

KATIE PAINTING THE

GIRLS’ DORM! The Girls’ dorm room—all of the Mickey

and Minnie’s haven’t been painted yet.

The Girls’ dorm room—a bible verse

will go on this wall.

The Girls’ dorm room curtains

The front door to the girls’ dorm room

The front door to the boys’ dorm The curtains for the boys’ room—walls

are sky blue and the wood trim is red.

A view of the boys closet and doorway.

The doors to the closet are in the process

of being painted—red of course!

The door to the nursery where our young-

est residents reside in Angelitos!

The curtains for the nursery

A view of the inside of our nursery—the

yellow cribs haven’t been painted yet.

A view of our other windows in the room.

Little Diana is holding on because she is

learning to walk!

Another view of the cabinets in the room

and our changing table (anyone recognize

what it was formerly used for?)

As you can see, we have been very busy transforming the dorms. I hope you have enjoyed viewing the pictures of our home. I will be in the states for an extended visit on November 29th and will return to Casa Aleluya after the first of the year. I am excited to come home to vis-it family and friends and to also share with you what the Lord has been doing here this year. Please let me know as soon as possible, if you want me to speak to your church or small group so that I can schedule a time for you. I will be available to go anywhere I am asked. Thank you for your prayer support and financial support. The Lord is doing great things at Casa and I am excited to see what next year holds! Blessings always, Sharron