Loving Gifts for Lori

March 11,2010
I feel so special and blessed!

Several little gifts have come my way during this week's sewing classes. One of my students, Alvina arrived early one morning, 8am, to bless me with homemade hot chocolate, another, Ana, gave me an orange and yet another, Hermidelia, crocheted a headband. Martha, even gave my hair a much needed trim. It's nice to see how creative the ladies have become in extending their gratitude even though they have few resources.

How the world could be changed, if through the power of the Holy Spirit we tried to out bless each other.
Lori

Sewing Kitchen Treasures

This week's class focused on sewing kitchen treasures. The ladies pictured were thrilled to show off their hanging towels and to sew tortilla warmers, aprons and potholders.

Two of my students, Reina and Adriana, are engaged to be married later this year and made the extra effort to attend even though they had major tests in their high school classes. They were excited to be able to create items to help them set-up house.

I continue to encourage the ladies to invite family and friends especially if they are not Christians or do not have a home church. During sewing class, it was nice to hear students inviting newbies to the upcoming ladies' night at the church. Also, two students from my class attended the church for the first time while I was in San Vicente. (First-timers are asked to stand and be welcomed by those around them) It's rewarding to see the sewing class introducing new people to the kingdom.

Seeing to read. Feb. 2010

Okay, so you can see that I'm a bit behind on the whole blog thing. What I really need is to be able to dictate to someone while I'm multi-tasking and then have them post these. In the meantime, please have patience as I try and get the knack of this. I don't take a computer with me while I'm in Mexico, so it mean blogging once I return and while I'm trying to catch up on lots of other things.

Anyways, the week of health outreaches into the schools finished on a strong note with the teachings and "Carnival of Health" being presented to over 750 children at 6 different school. There are invitations to 3 more schools for the 2011 calendar.

In conjunction with the school outreaches, we were able to troubleshoot reading problems students were having by checking the vision of those that teachers pointed out. Using gospels of John, we had students read John chapter three. Dozens of children received new reading glasses that will surely help with their school work. It's exciting to hear the children reading scripture and seeing the difference in their vision once they are fitted with the correct strength of glasses. I did some translating and also explained to the kids the importance of light while reading (which usually means sitting close to a window during daylight hours) and also how to care for their new glasses. The whole "enough light" issue is complicated by the fact that most classrooms have just two florescent light illuminating the whole room. Not exactly what would be considered enough to ready by.

20 Mar dancing on jello

20 Mar Chris in Chula Vista

SO...
^^^^^Lori is back from San Vicente, awesome stuff going on down there
^^^^^I'm doing all the prelim stuff for Urban Health Ministry in City Heights... meetings, meetings, site visits...
^^^^^Prelim meet-ups to plan the 2010 HealthCare conference, which looks like it may morph into multiple meetings at multiple locations (including Fuller, UC Irvine, etc)
^^^^^Trip back down to San Vicente in a few days, BOTH of us going down, more a relational thing... but relationships ARE the Kingdom of God and all good ministry comes from relationships FIRST...
^^^^^working on the launch of a multi-layered health-care ministry in our local church here in San Diego
^^^^^lastly, Lori and I are running away for a few days to recoup and reconnect.

SO... what is Dancing on Jello? The nature of ministry, of course...

'nuff said. Thanks for following

Chris

Lori south again 6 Mar

6 Mar Chris in Chula Vista, keepin the home fire burning...

Lori went south again yesterday, 10-day trip.

Getting alot of questions on why she trips south so much, I don't, and we're apart alot.
Answer: we don't have a home office or sending agency that takes care of our affairs, so somebody has to stay back to do that. There is not enough mission income for both of us to be in-country 'most time', the support amount has dropped to where one of us needs to work and supplement the finances.

Missions is like a fighter-pilot team: to do the forward deployment of one fighter jet, there is one pilot... and 122 crew behind that pilot that fixes the jet, refuels, loads the payloads, etc... one lone pilot won't survive long in combat without the 'DO' team.

So, I'm more the 'DO' team these days... Lori the fighter pilot...

Chris

Schools Show Appreciation

about Feb. 24th, 2010
Today the "Carnival of Health" was taught at San Vicente's largest schools. Over 350 students enjoyed the lessons and games. This is the fifth year that we've been invited to share the health program with the SV elementary schools. Dave and Lynne Johnson, missionaries to SV first introduced the carnival to the school and I've been privileged to assist them for the previous 4 years and to help them to expand to program to more schools in the area.

I love all the hugs that come my way when we arrive on the school grounds. Many of the students know me from church or the sewing class while others remember me from past school outreaches. I just soak up all their love!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This year, I received a certificate from the school. It's a gesture they use to extend gratitude to those who serve their school. It reads "The Claudio Sarabia elementary school grants this recognition to Lori Bajkiewicz for her valuable help for the benefit of our school with the Health Fair." Something to treasure.

Training Bible Students in Ministering to Children

about Feb. 23rd, 2010
This week's energy will be focused on doing "Carnivals of Health" in 7 elementary schools in the San Vicente area. Well, we are now down to 6 schools as rainy weather prevented us from traversing 5 miles of muddy, dirt roads to get out to one community. The team is made up of 3 Bible school students, 1 of the angels, 5 people from Oregon, 3 missionaries with Mexican Medical Ministries and myself. With 7 Spanish speakers among us, we should be able to communicate well the health teachings. This year's focuses will include, dental hygiene, nutrition, and healthy drinks. After four 15 minute lessons inside the classrooms, the teaching will move outside where fun and games will reinforce the lessons.

The most exciting part of the week was exposing the three Bible School Students to Children's Ministry. They assisted by taking on parts in the "Good Nutrition Train" skit and hands-on activity. They were rather timid at first, but as they gained confidence they became more comfortable with the children. The Bible Students expressed how all they had learned in Bible School was theory about working with children, but now they were getting real experience and learning effective means of teaching "Little Ones". Their wheels were turning as they began to discuss how to use the train to teach biblical themes. I can't wait to work with them again.