Summer of 2013

FINALLY ON VACATION... aaand BACK TO SCHOOL.

The first three weeks of July were a vacation period for us and our teachers. Regretfully, our teacher Pablo had to leave our ranks a week before school started -due to family related issues- and we embarked on the adventure of finding a replacement for him. It is difficult to find teachers who share our belief system and who are willing to commute to Anapra from Juarez proper. Two teachers joined us just on time for the start of the new year: Honey, who has an education degree and will be taking the first grade group; and Monica, who has experience with children but only a very recent technical educational diploma and is starting out her now professional career with us.

Teachers and their families celebrated the summer together at the home of Dina's brother Daniel Cruz. They had a wonderful pool day to celebrate the end of one school year and the beginning of another.

Back to School conferences with parents and staff.

THANK YOU CENTENARY UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

God is good and we will be counting again this year with the support of the congregation of Centenary UMC in Granville, OH. In the past they were one of the congregations that would visit our school each year during the month of February and during this time we truly missed your visits and your support too. But they are back and we hope that it will soon be possible for them to return to these lands; and we will be so glad to be able to see you again. Our deepest thanks to Pastor Steve Cramer and the entire congregation for the great joy that they have given us. If you can please pass this letter on to as many people as possible, we will be even more grateful, as we are going through a very critical time. More on that two headings down.

10 AND 15 YEARS OF SERVICE

This summer one of the great blessings was an official recognition from the government of the state of Chihuahua and the Secretaria de Educacion Publica in Mexico to three of our teachers in celebration of their 10 and 15 years of service as teachers without interruption. I mean the teachers Guadalupe Torres Perez and Alejandra Sarai Cruz Briones, who received plaques of recognition for 10 years of service; and teacher Dina Arely Cruz Peña (my wife) for her 15 years of service (although she was a teacher for at least 5 years more in the State of Nuevo Leon). But for all three teachers, their celebrated 10 and 15 years of service happened at Colegio Susana Wesley!! We are very proud of this achievement. 

Yes, we are very glad for them as well as for the school, since we know that having qualified teachers in the school has allowed us to continue to reap this kind of success and generate an excellent education for our students. The celebration took place with a simple breakfast for the three teachers. We think a financial gift would have been adequate, but given our economic situation, we celebrated in other ways. I made ​​mention of such a beautiful achievement in front of the parents at our school, and presented the teachers with a commemorative t-shirt. We also had a banner made to recognize their noble effort, and now we have only to say: Congratulations and thank you, teachers! Some day God will reward them for giving so much of themselves to such a noble cause as teaching our children.

A NEW BABY

Teacher Lupita (Guadalupe, also mentioned above) is expecting her third child! We wish her many blessings during this beautiful time in her life. The baby is due in December, and we will therefore have to do without her (for at least 92 days, according to Mexican law). I (pastor Briones) will probably be taking over her group- but we will let you know what happens.
We are also very glad to report that her father, who lives in Chicontla, Puebla and has been battling cancer for about a year now, is doing much better. We thank you for your prayers up to now and ask you to continue praying for their family.

THUS FAR, THE LORD HAS HELPED US.

Even from the very beginnings of our school, the financial aspect of suntanning our school's ministry has been a veritable challenge. Before the school opened its doors (under another school, Heroes de la Libertad) we had to build facilities and pay water and electricity bills. Soon after that begun the two year process of receiving official accreditation, and I was fatally ill- almost died from liver decease- the very year that we finally received our official status. But the Lord pulled us through.

Soon after that, we received a 2000 dllr fine from the water supply company, which my family and I were thankfully able to pay for. And now we are receiving a similar fine (though now from the electric company, but as before, as a result of a "review" of our "company" and a change of status to a "commercial" school facility, despite our work as a social action group which consistently faces financial extinction). The change was precipitated by my interest in bettering our electric services and will cost us almost 3000 dllrs, which we don't have, to be paid within the next 6 months.

Added to this financial burden are three more issues. The school needs to be painted (since this was necessary to do right away, I've already made use of a move that we call the "tarjetazo," which basically consists of handing out your personal credit card and hoping for the best) and the constant (and highly unusual!) rain is continuing to destroy our ceilings. I think that we have about 130 m2 of roofing to do, but we have so far only been able to patch the most urgent spots. Finally, we were recently informed of many new regulations for schools, including the need for insurance. We will have to pay an annual insurance for the children- about a grand for the year, for all of them. 

We owe thousands of dollars. 

For a few days, I was seriously worried --thinking of the thousands of dollars we need. I felt that everything and everyone was against us and that possibly this would not only be our 10th anniversary as a school, but also the most critical of all until today. But after the days of panic, we decided to apply the Word of God to our situation when God says to Joshua: "I will not leave or forsake you ..., as I was with Moses, so I will be with you", and rest. That night, I was finally able to sleep my 6 hours of normal sleep. God -not me- is in charge of Susana Wesley School. I'm just the least of all those He has called to this ministry. And praying so, I closed my eyes that night, and I slept.

You who read this chronicle, are invited to join with us in prayer, asking God to enable us to continue our dream of seeing our children succeed in school. THUS FAR, THE LORD HAS HELPED US.

OUR FAMILY

Perhaps the greatest personal challenge for me has been my mother's embolism. Her name is Velia Consar, and she is 80 years old; she has suffered a paralysis of the entire left side of her body, including her internal organs. Now a month later, she is recovering at home and receiving daily physical therapy. She is stable, but her body has been reacting very slowly. My sister Tereza is living with her, so she is not alone. I still wish I could visit this month! But we have accepted that prayer is also a manner of being with her. I am grateful to the Amigos de Anapra for being with her for at least 4 days. I ask and thank you for your prayers for her.

Misael and Abi are about to finish college, Abi in Kansas and Misael here in El Paso. Our gratitude to God and so many brothers and sister in Christ who have been praying for them and supporting our family in achieving this goal. Misael is torn between accepting the Intervarsity formal invitation to be part of its National Staff, go to a seminar or get to work as an engineer. He must make his decision soon, so we ask your prayers for him, while Abi will probably be returning to us to finish school with a doctorate from UTEP in Physiotherapy. These are her plans so far, unless a company there in Kansas offered her a job, in which case she could continue working and studying in KS.

Dina and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this past July 22 and we hope that God will give us many more years of good health to continue serving the Lord. We took four days this summer of vacation in Puerto Penasco, a beach near Juarez and those days were really a great blessing.
  
We wholeheartedly thank those who during this 2013 have supported our family ministry. Your support truly eases our financial pressures. We continue to pray to God that every offer we receive from you will be multiplied by the Lord- for us as well as you. As you know, we do not take a salary from the school, and every once in a while, as it happens to all, our finances weigh us down a bit. I just hope I have not grieved with this letter, but I prefer to tell you of our life and ministry as it is, so that we can rely on your prayers for our family. We trust in the Lord, and God is with us.

We feel all your prayers and support for our ministry (and 14 years of it by now!) and we bless God for your lives, THANK YOU!