1st Project-Fall Session

Last month, I talked about the issue of commitment among the students or shall I say lack of commitment. In the first month of school, we lost 3 students. They happened to be brothers and as one brother chose to not continue with the school, the others soon followed behind him. The remaining two students were puzzled and frustrated by the departure of the boys they came to know. One of the students, after another week of classes, made a decision to leave the country and move to Costa Rica with the hopes of making money working for a relative in a small store.  Like any 18 year old, having money to buy the things that are "meaningful" to someone his age was more important than educating himself for his future. Our final student, William, was beginning to have problems with his addiction again. We tried for a couple of weeks to talk with him and encourage him, but to no avail. He spent time in jail and once released would show up at our doorstep in the middle of the night, drunk, hungry and soaking wet on a nightly basis. We have learned that he is back into a rehab program and we are praying for his recovery.  He was an excellent student with a lot of potential and we hope to have him back with us again.  It was discouraging for us to lose all the students so quickly. We anticipated that one or two would not finish the program, but we were not prepared for all of them to depart. We can't begin to describe to you the mindset of the people here in regards to commitment and responsibility. It is very easy for them to walk away from any and everything because no one ever puts requirements, demands, or expectations on them.

This all proved a great teaching lesson and caused us to change our method of choosing students. Once we made our selection of students, we invited the pastors of their churches to attend the school orientation meeting with them. We sensed that if we could get the pastors to feel a connection to the school, they will be able to encourage their guys to continue the program to completion. Currently we have 9 young men ages 15 to 19 enrolled for the fall session along with one pastor. Yes, Pastor Oscar asked if he could be a part of the class.

The day's session begins with prayer and either a small biblical teaching or a question for the guys to ponder for discussion later. We've spent a lot of time teaching math and fractions in order for to accurately measure. It's exciting to see the light bulbs go on when one of the guys grasps the concept of fractions. They are so enthusiastic, that they begged for homework. The highlight of their morning is when they get to actually learn and handle the tools for working with the wood. We have introduced them to hand tools and the importance of mastering them. They can begin a business of their own or work for someone else without the expense of electrical tools. We wrap the morning up with discussion about the question that they were asked to ponder. They all pitch in to clean up the shop before departing for the day, we are talking about sweeping and mopping of the floor also.

In the first week of class, they have mastered fractions, reading a tape measure, cutting wood with a hand saw and planing the wood to make it smooth. They will begin to assemble cut pieces in order to make stools to sit on during class. The school needs additional saw horses and work bench which will be projects for them to work on. This should give them a good grasp of fundamental techniques in order to begin work on some case-goods projects. There are no closets or dressers in our home, we live out of trunks. The guys can make a couple of dressers and armoir for us in order to sharpen their skills before turning them loose on other furnishings and cabinets to be made for retail. They are really excited at the prospect of making furniture pieces.

The youngest of the guys, Nelson, is 15 and comes the farthest distance. He missed the second day of school because of the dread of having to walk due to he has no means of transportation or money for the bus. However, he did walk many miles the next day because of his desire to be in school. He is small and frail, it had to be difficult for him.One of the older students took it upon himself to spend extra time alone with Nelson in order to bring him up-to-date on the math work that he missedThey are all truly working together as a team. We talked to the students who have been "blessed" with the use of bicycles and asked them to be understanding of our desire to bless Nelson with the money in order to take the bus everyday to get to school. He was not being singled out for favortism but to be blessed so that he could have the same opportunity to learn. The others seemed to agree that it was good to do so.

Our hearts are full and overflowing with love for these young men. There is so much potential in them and they are seizing the dream of a future loaded with lots of prospect.