Jon found it!

You know that stolen car of ours . . . . . our son and his friend just found it parked on a street in Santa Cruz. Police came and collected evidence and Jon is free to take the car. Right now the problem is that the gas tank is empty. Unbelievable miracle!

More on the formerly stolen car . . . . it had been gone 27 days. Missouri plates were switched for California plates; bike rack that was in the trunk was on the car (police said they did it because it blocked the back license plate.) Jon and his friend noticed the gray accord with the bike rack and so they stopped to take a closer look. The Lee's Summit Honda license plate mount was still on i

t. That sealed the deal for Jon; well, that and the fact that he had his keys with him and they unlocked it. The police removed 3-4 backpacks containing drug paraphernalia, as well as some receipts with names. The spare tire was gone (go figure,) and, as I mentioned earlier, there was absolutely no gas. The police speculate that "they" ran out of gas and abandoned it. We left a message for our insurance claim adjuster--guess they will just drop the offer they made us and we'll all get on down the road. We are pressing charges, so please pray that the police find them. Jon and his friend bought gas and he was able to drive it to his apartment--no problems with the engine! As of now he doesn't have any license plates at all, but the police gave him something to show any cop who may pull him over. Can't tell you how happy we are . . . . Jon has been riding his bike while we were all searching for a new vehicle. Everything we found was more expensive than the amount the insurance offered. Thank you, Lord, for caring about everything that happens in our lives--we love the way you worked everything out!

Working Hard in Lourdes

Jeff and Stephen are going to our church site in Lourdes every day and helping with the remodeling project.  Of course, it's more than just a little project and it definitely qualifies as hard labor.  Over the last two or three weeks they have been tearing down (by hand) the old nursery building to make way for a parking lot.  Last week they began construction of the concrete posts for the new entrance.  They are discovering new issues as they are working; for example, yesterday they realized that the poor drainage is, in part, due to the fact that the drain does not run "down hill" at all.  Instead, it maintains the same position for its entire length; therefore, when it rains, the water fills up the drain pipe, but has no impetus to move along.  All of this to say, that there are new items added to the list of things to do on a frequent basis.

Please pray for this work--as I mentioned, new needs keep cropping up and the project resources are already less than the projected cost.  Also, please pray for the safety of the workers, including Jeff and Stephen.

Here are some pictures of the progress so far.

Another "first" day of school

Unbelievably, I finished another "first" day of school.  If you just count the years I was teaching and/or working for the school district and not the years that I went to school myself, this was my 36th "first" day of school.  There's always a lot of last minute things to do and this year was no different.  I wasn't able to pick up my new books until last Friday and we had a very busy first weekend back in El Salvador.  Unfortunately, I wanted until Sunday evening to get started on my planning.  We had a giant storm and our power went out around 9:30 p.m. so that was it for the night.  I planned to get up early and print some handouts; I woke up at 4:30 a.m. and the power was back on so I thought I was in good shape.  However, the power went back off at 6:30 a.m. and was still off when I left for school at 8:45!

Instead of handouts, we had the typical "what did you do on your summer vacation" question and answer time.  This takes quite awhile because the kids have to try to answer the question in English.  They were happy to see pictures of what I did on my vacation, including shots from our time in Antigua and California.

Tonight . . . printing handouts!