August Newsletter

Can anyone tell me how to post a Microsoft Word document on here? My newsletter is a word document, but I can't figure out if there's a way to have it like an attachment in an email. I copy and pasted it onto here, but it messed up the format of it, so I had to change some things. If anyone can help, that would be awesome! :)

Hannah’s News from Honduras

August 2007 Volume 1, Issue 1
Teaching at Ebenezer Academy

“Texas. Do they have a lot of people who are waiting for rides on the street?” That’s what Julio, one of my students asked me on the first day of school when I told them where I was from. I guess he thought Texas sounded like “taxis.” It seems like every day I have many stories about my kids. Although some days are more challenging than others, I love the kids a lot! I’ve been teaching for 3 weeks now at Ebenezer Academy, and I love it! I am teaching with nine other North American teachers and five Honduran teachers. Our school has about 40 kids in preschool-Grade 12, including mainly Honduran kids that are involved with the ministry of World Gospel Outreach. The other students are children of the missionaries that work here at the ranch.
My class consists of two Honduran 3rd graders, Julio and Kevin,
and one North American 4th grader, Elliana, or Elli for short. I have them for most of the day, but when they go to classes like social studies, Spanish, PE, art or Music, I teach a couple of other classes. I teach ESL to Will and Obed, two 9th graders who are a part of the Spanish curriculum, two days a week, and beginning in January, I will teach Chemistry to the 11th graders. I’ve been going to the Chemistry class this semester to observe and re-learn some things that I learned in high school. The current teacher, Tammy, who is also our nurse, will be moving back home after being here for 4 years, so I will take over the teaching when the new semester starts up in January.
God continues to bless and challenge me in new ways every day. Needless to say, I’m learning a lot. I’m learning about how to rely on God for patience and strength on the tough days and thanking him for the good days (and the bad ones). I’m learning about what it means to really be a teacher and the individual needs of each of my students. I’m learning that the kids watch pretty much everything I do, so I’m praying that I am a light for Christ in everything I say and do.



Christmas in August

On August 15th, we had a “Christmas in August” celebration. This was a time to get all the kids at the ranch excited about making Christmas pictures to go on Christmas cards that WGO makes and sells as a fundraiser. The afternoon consisted of relay races, Christmas music, drawing the pictures, and watching a Christmas movie. It was a fun time to hang out with the kids and encourage them in their drawings.
I will let you know more details when I know them about how to order the Christmas cards. I think there will be 4 or 5 designs in each set. I was impressed with some of the drawings the kids made. They worked really hard!


Church in San Matias

One of the 1st weeks that I was here, I was able to go to a Honduran church in San Matias with a few of the new teachers and one of the medical brigades that was here. San Matias is the area of Honduras which we are closest to. It’s about a 5 minute drive down the mountain road in between Rancho Ebenezer and Tegucigalpa.
Being at the church reminded me of when I went to Mexico for a mission trip with my high school youth group. The church building was made of brick with no windows or doors. The floor is just dirt and a roof was just recently put on. The people at the church were very welcoming and friendly. They said we were always welcome there since we are all a part of God’s family. It was really neat to see how passionate they were in their worship and teaching. During the service, they had all of the North Americans come up and sing some songs in English. They joined us in Spanish if they knew the song. It was a tiny glimpse of what heaven will be like when people from all nations will be praising the same God.


A Weekend in the City

I spent the weekend of August 17-19th in Tegucigalpa at the Bridge House with my roommate, Jae. The Bridge House is a ministry of WGO where the kids that are around the ages of 18-22 are able to transition from life on the ranch to life in the city. While at the Bridge House, they learn about responsibility, finances, living independently, and safety in the city. In order to live there, the young adults must either be in school or working, displaying that they are learning how to live responsibly as independent adults.
I spent the weekend there to learn more about the ministry and to meet some of the kids so that when Robert and Jennifer Butts, the managers of the Bridge House, go on furlough, I and the other teachers can cover for them. The weekend was spent going to La Isla, a market downtown where things are sold very cheap, eating lunch at a little restaurant (only my second time to eat typical Honduran food), going to visitation (a time once a month where the kids in the WGO ministry are able to meet with any family members that come to visit), watching movies, and just hanging out with Robert and Jennifer and some of the kids living at the Bridge House. It was a fun weekend and a good opportunity to see some of the city that we probably wouldn’t have otherwise seen.

Contact Information

I have enjoyed getting emails and a few cards from people! Please continue to send them my way! They are good reminders that I have people praying for me at home and I love hearing about what’s going on while I’m gone. I promise I’ll reply to emails and return letters…it just may take awhile. It takes about 3-4 weeks at least for me to get letters and cards and I have to wait until there is a team here to send them back with. There’s not a reliable mail service here, so when we want to mail things to the states, we ask a team to mail them for us when they get back.
The best address to mail things (letters and cards only please) to is in Miami:

Hannah Dakel
World Gospel Outreach
TGU 144
P.O. Box 02-5387
Miami, FL 33102-5387

(If you would like to send a package, please contact me for the best place to send it.)
My email address is Hannah.dakel@gmail.com.
Please also don’t forget to check my blog every week or so for more updates: http://www.hannahhonduras.blogspot.com/.
You can also read WGO’s most current newsletter online at http://www.wgoreach.org/. I will be in the September newsletter along with the other new teachers!


Prayer Requests and Praises:
· Please pray for a continued strength, patience, and joy as I teach every day.
· Pray for the kids, that they would have a great attitude about school and be ready to learn new academic and spiritual things each day.
· Pray that I would be sensitive to what God is leading me to do next year. It’s still a long way off, but I need to decide by the end of November whether or not I am going to stay here longer than my 1 year commitment.
· Praise for a great start to the school year!
· Praise that all the teachers have now arrived and that we are starting to get to know each other better.


Thanks for all your prayers and support!






Jae, Abby, and I on the way to church

Week 6 or so....i've lost count :)

Sorry I haven’t posted in a little while. I’ve been busy with school and everything. I won’t put too many details here because I have a newsletter just about ready to send out. I have some more details in it. I’ll try to send it out sometime this weekend.
Here’s a little bit about what’s been going on…
Jason, the last new teacher arrived last weekend! It’s fun to have all the teachers here now and I’ve enjoyed getting to know all of them. Right now, though a lot of the teachers are sick…or getting sick, so that’s not fun for us or for the kids. I feel like I’m starting to get what everyone else has…a cold with a cough. Please pray for good health for everyone here.
On Tuesday night, we had a wonderful evening at the Schultz’s house. Kymm and Eric are going to have a bible study at their house on Tuesday nights. This week was the first gathering. They invited us over for dinner and we were going to take a DISC personality profile test, but the tests haven’t arrived yet, so that will come later. It was more than just dinner at their house, though. We arrived at 6:15 to a “hostess” waiting for us in front of their house. She led us around to the back where they had turned their back porch into a little Italian restaurant! Along the steps on the way back were little paper lanterns with tea lights. On the porch, there were tables set nicely with table cloths and everything. We had “waitresses” who were 2 of the Schultz girls, Audrey and Emily, and Nadetie, one of the girls with the ministry. Our meal was complete with sparkling grape juice, choice of a salad or soup, bread with oil to dip it in, homemade lasagna, and our choice between this chocolate rum flavored 8 layer torte cake and a peach-pecan tart. It was all very delicious. It was the best meal I’ve had in a long time. After dinner, we went inside for some praise and worship time along with watching a promotional video for the Bible study we’ll be doing. We’re going to go through Tommy Nelson’s Song of Solomon video series. I’ve been through it before with CRU a few years ago, but I’m looking forward to going through it again. The whole evening was a huge blessing to just get away from thinking about school and everything and to have fun with the other teachers and people here at the ranch.
School is still going well! It seems like everyday, I learn more about what works and what doesn’t. Each day…well most days…I love it more and can’t imagine leaving. I’m considering staying another year. I know that would make it even harder to leave, but I think next year’s teaching would go a lot smoother and I love the kids so much!
That’s about all I have for now.
Here are some prayer requests:
Like I mentioned before, pray for good health for everyone here.
Please continue to pray for patience and love toward all my students and kids here, but particularly one.
Pray for the safety of many of the house parents that are out this week. They get a week off every month or so. They usually go to be with their families or just on vacation some where. The house parents of my boys are gone this week along with one or two other sets of parents.
Pray for healing and comfort for the kids here. Some have been through and remember more than others, but they are all here for some reason.

Thanks again so much for all of your prayers and support! I wouldn’t be here without them, and it’s encouraging to know people are at home praying for me!

Another great week!

Well, another week has passed. I’m going to start with prayer requests so if you don’t have time to read the whole thing, you can still pray for these things.

-There’s a Honduran teacher at our school who has been to the doctor for some tests. Through these tests, they have found that she has a cancerous tumor in her uterus AND that she is 2 months pregnant. The doctors want her to abort the baby so they can treat the tumor, but she, of course, doesn’t want to do that. Pray for the situation and protection for her and the baby.
-The last 2 teachers arrive this week! Shelly has taught here before and will teach 7th and 8th grade. Jason is a new teacher and will be teaching 5th and 6th grade. Pray for safe travels and a smooth transition time for them.
-Pray for patience with one of my students. He requires lots of attention and I feel like I’m always getting on to him for something. The other day he said, “Miss Hannah, you just need to have patience with me!”
-Pray for health for people on the ranch. There has been something going around. One of my students was out on Monday and my roommate has it now.

So, please pray for these things. Thanks for all the prayers and support! I have loved getting emails and messages from people. They are encouraging. Please keep sending them! I apologize if I am slow to respond to them. I don’t have a lot of time to do things on the internet.

I had another great week! I’m enjoying getting to know my students and learning the best way to teach them. One of the things I like the most is praying with them in the mornings before we start our day. Each morning we also say pledges to the American and Honduran flags and the Bible. Julio and Kevin, my Honduran students were teaching me their Honduran pledge the other day, having me repeat several words at a time after them. I apparently said something wrong because they both started laughing and said “Miss Hannah, you aren’t kicking something, you’re supposed to be pledging to our flag!” It was funny. The first week of teaching was kind of challenging trying to figure out how to balance teaching both 3rd and 4th grade at the same time. It was still challenging this week, but I’m starting to get used to it and so are the kids. Another highlight this week was going to Spanish class. Another teacher, Abby, and I decided to sacrifice one of our planning period on Tuesdays and Thursdays to go with the MKs we teach to their SSL (Spanish as a Second Language) class. It was a lot of fun! The kids seem to think it’s funny we are in there and that we have homework too. So, I’m slowly learning things…as much as a 2nd and 4th grader learn anyways. We just started on Thursday, but I’m looking forward to it in the future. The other new teachers and I have also considered making Saturday nights our “Spanish Class” where we get together and go through some learning Spanish CDs or getting someone that knows Spanish to teach us. We haven’t found a teacher yet, though.

This weekend, my roommate, Jae, and I are going to the bridge house in the city to see what it’s like. All of us went on Sunday to have lunch with Robert and Jennifer Butts, the managers of the Bridge House, to hear more about their ministry and sign up for times to come stay there while they are on furlough in October. This weekend we are going to spend the weekend there to see more what it’s like and to get to know some of the kids that are there. The bridge house is a ministry of WGO. It’s the place the kids from the ranch have the opportunity to go to transition from life on the ranch to life on the city after they graduate from high school here at the ranch. It’s a place where they learn responsibility for themselves, their finances, and basic lifestyles. I’m looking forward to spending this weekend there.

It’s amazing to be up here on the ranch in the mountains in the midst of God’s beautiful creation, teaching these great kids. Some of them require more attention than others, but they are all good kids. I’m thankful that they are able to be here at the ranch and that I am able to be here as well. Thanks for allowing me to be here!

The reason I haven't posted many pictures at all is b/c we don't have much bandwidth with the internet connection we have here at the ranch. i'm not exactly sure what that means. They just explained that we have a limited amount each month and if we exceed the amount we are given each month b/c of lots of downloads/uploads or whatever, it costs more money and/or we don't get any internet access. Maybe one of these weekends when I go to the city I can post some.

Bye for now!

1st Week of School!

I can add to the list of critters I’ve found in my apartment: a mouse, and a couple of bees. The other night, my roommate Jae woke up to what she described as something scratching at the canvas of her shoes. A couple of days ago, I woke up at 5am to something in my trashcan. I sat on my bed for a little while, trying to figure out what to do. I realized that we had a spare laundry basket that I could put on top of my trashcan to trap the creature. At this point, I still didn’t know it was a mouse. In my attempt to put the laundry basket on top, I knocked over the trashcan and the mouse ran under my bed. At this point I screamed, waking Jae up. I told her what had happened and so she helped me look for him…and by “helped me look for him” I mean she investigated while I sat on my bed and watched. I didn’t realize that I was scared of mice until this incident. After figuring out that he was under my big chair in my room, I convinced her I would be ok since I knew where he was. We both rested the 30 minutes or so until it was time to get up. During the day, we decided that we didn’t want to get a trap b/c he was cute and we couldn’t picture him dead. That night, I saw him again while I was working on stuff while sitting on my bed. He ran under my desk and so we decided to try to catch him. We blocked all potential exits for him but one by placing my shoes around the base of my desk. We alternated rattling the shoes so that the mouse would turn around so Jae could grab him by the tail and put him in the trashcan. After about an hour of this, we finally succeeded! We put him in a trashcan and gave him some Trix cereal to eat and a little capful of water. We named him Mr. Trix since he liked the cereal. We went to the pet store and bought a cage for him and some food. He’s going to alternate being the pet of the 9th grade class (Jae’s class) and my 3rd/4th grade class. The principal said it was fine as long as we didn’t let the kids touch him. He’s really cute and now he has a nice little cage! [update: Mr. Trix escaped the first night in his new home. We haven't found him yet.]

This was the first week of school with the kids! I’ve had a lot of fun! My class is great. Sometimes my students may not make the best choices, but I can tell that they are really good kids. It’s fun having only 3 students. Everything can be more relaxed and informal and I we can get to know each other really well. This first week has been a little challenging just trying to figure out how to manage everything and what needs my kids have, but overall, it’s been a good week! I don’t know if I mentioned this in a previous blog, but in addition to my 3rd and 4th grade class, I’m an ESL teacher to two 9th grade boys who are in the Spanish curriculum part of the school, and am helping another teacher teach a chemistry class to two 11th graders. The teacher of the chemistry class is moving back to the states after Christmas, so I will be the main teacher in the spring.

It’s been about 3 weeks now since I got here. There have been some days when I’ve missed home and all that a comfortable life back in the states involves, but after being in school the past week, God has given me a peace and joy about being here. I’m here to teach these kids, and I’m finally able to do what I came here for and it’s an amazing feeling. On the way back from the city on Wednesday, it was dark and so I was looking at all the beautiful lights in the valley of the mountains and then up at the stars in the sky and the pretty moon. It was during this time that I felt a real sense of calm and excitement about being here. It’s not that I haven’t enjoyed being here before now, I’ve loved it! I would just feel a little nervous or homesick if I thought about staying here for a while. It was during this time at night that when thinking about the future here that I felt peace and joy instead of the nervousness/homesickness.

Some highs and lows:
Lows:
Lack of sleep.
more critters J

Highs:
School has started
I went to this yummy gelato place in Tegus on Wednesday.

Prayer Requests/Praises
Praise that the first week of school has gone relatively well and I love it!
Pray that I would continue to develop healthy relationships with the kids here at the ranch, especially with the girls.
Pray that I would keep spending daily time with God a priority in spite of my busy schedule.
Pray for the new family that’s coming this week and the teachers that will arrive in the next month! We’re excited that they are coming!!