May - June 2018

This past Holy Week I was able to accompany Jerry and Rachel on their trip to the mountains that they make every year. Our brothers and sisters in the mountains look forward to this visit all year long. Jerry preaches and teaches the Word of God and Rachel has her special time with the women, teaching them how to bake in the Dutch ovens she takes and giving them new recipes. I had the opportunity to greet and fellowship with some of the people that I have known since they were teenagers and now, as hard as it is to imagine, they’re grandparents!

My granddaughter, Rebekah, and Elena.

While in the mountains, I saw Elena, a young woman who lived with me for two years. I asked her how she was and what she was doing now. She told me that she finished high school and entered the government program that offers them to work one year as "community teachers" and after a year, the government gives them a grant to get a degree. Elena has already worked for two years as a community teacher in two very distant and very poor communities. She had to walk 8 hours to reach "Los Carrizales,” which is one of the communities. When it came time to come to the city to use her scholarship and continue on to university studies, she did not have the money to do so and lost her scholarship. I offered to come back to my house to live with the other students and she agreed. We are now looking into the possibility of her recovering her scholarship that will enable her to continue her education. This is an opportunity that was presented to her without thinking about it and we are all very excited about how the doors opened for her.