training...

CAIMAS training has been going so great so far!

**For those of you who don't know, CAIMAS is a center for handicapped and disabled persons. We have been training every Friday evening from 7-9pm since November.**


This past Friday (the 21st of January), Josue, our director, invited 2 blind people to come in and be taught. We had planned to teach them how to spell their names. (We haven't covered Braille, yet, so we're working on teaching them the normal handwritten letters)

It was such an amazing night! We only had 2 hours worth of time with them, but I'm sure we could have been there all night if they had let us. The great part about last night was that we finished our section over teaching the blind, and Josue is talking about opening the doors of CAIMAS to the visually disabled.

I am so honored to be a part of this team. Even before I came down here, I just knew that something amazing was going to happen down here. It feels so right to be here at this moment. I can only pray that with continued financial support, I can stay here to be a vital part of this ministry.

Rachel

Tomorrow

My parents and Roman are coming in tomorrow to spend New Years with me. I passed the Christmas celebrations (or lack thereof) and am so blessed that my family is willing to come in for the New Year celebrations.

Wednesday Night:
Youth New Years Party from 8-10:30pm

Thursday Night:
Church New Years Service from 6-9pm

Friday (All-Day):
Host Family End-of-the-Year Party
Buying Fireworks
Carne Asada
Loteria (Mexican Bingo)
Fellowship

Saturday:
Steak Dinner


Looking forward to having Roman in my arms again!!!

I just can't wait!!
Happy New Year!


Be Strong in the Lord,
Rachel (Raquel)

Updates

Mini Updates:

**We finished our section on the blind in our CAIMAS training on Friday nights. We had some actual disabled people come in and we got the chance to asses them. It was great.

**We have been working hard to cross tons of materials that the MRCC church donated to us. We're having trouble at the border... But what else is new??

**The church here doesn't celebrate Christmas. We do, however have a big end of the year celebration at Church. I am very much looking forward to it!

--side note: my host family has daily get-togethers during the school's holiday breaks, so our lack of Christmas festivities doesn't affect me that much.

**Newsletters for December won't be sent until the first week of January. There is just too much going on right now that I don't have the time to write one out. I'll be sure to include our NYE photos and info.

Happy Holidays!


Be strong in the Lord,
Rachel

Now that I've got some time to sit and write, I'll update you all on our CAIMAS staff training. On November 19th, we hosted our inauguration dinner and the following Friday, November 26th, we had our first training session.

I'm not really sure what to call these sessions. These sessions remind me of a few of my college courses. Thankfully we don't have exams (so glad to be done with school) but we are learning and preparing ourselves to become special education teachers. Josue leads the class, since he is a specialist in special needs teaching. We've been covering how to work with and evaluate the blind.

We will meet every Friday evening from 7pm-9pm until November 20th, 2011. Lord-willing we'll open the doors for those who are in need of the services we'll provide.

The group is a good size - about 30/35 - and we had an increase of 10 people the second week so here's to hoping more people who are interested will join us!




Be strong in the Lord,
Rachel

It has been a busy weekend and is so busy that it's overblown into Monday. Today I'm driving across the border to meet the driver of the 50ft. long trailer filled to the max with more furniture donated to CAIMAS from Memorial Road Church of Christ. We are so excited!!

Please be checking your emails soon for Novembers newsletter. It will be FULL of the happenings down here and you don't want to miss out!!



Josue, Steve, John, Me, Greg, and Kenny (at our inauguration celebration for CAIMAS this past Friday)

Be strong in the Lord,
Rachel

It's Time

No school for any of the kids today. We've managed to convince most all of them to head up to CAIMAS today to do some much needed clean-up. We're only 4 days away from the big 19th of November celebration..... and we've just GOT to clean things up over there.

Prayers this week for everything to run smoothly. We want to make this a professional deal since we're asking people to give of their time and money to this cause.

Be Strong in the Lord,

Rachel

R&R

I've had a nice couple weeks off from the craziness of the past few months. I had gotten up every morning last week asking Josue if there's anything I need to do -- and he kindly tells me, "Get some rest, Rachel." (Well, except they pronounce my name 'Rah-shel' instead of 'Rei-chel") It is a struggle for me to have quiet time. I, thankfully, set aside my alone and spiritual quiet time every day -- but there's something different about spending an entire on my own. I know that these two weeks will be needed because once next week starts it'll be along time before I'll have some time to relax and rest up like I am doing now.

Next week we'll be making the CAIMAS school all nice and pretty for the following week's "inauguration" evening. Tile is being finished up at the school, and next week we'll start painting the rooms and accommodating all of the furniture we've received. I AM JUST SO EXCITED!!

Pray that our plans will continue to be blessed and that everything will run smoothly. There is a lot of work to be done between now and the 19th -- and so we'll need all the prayers we can get! I hope all of these prayers I'm asking for aren't too much for you. Thank you for giving your time and money to this cause. I look forward to sharing more with you in the coming days and weeks.

Be Strong in the Lord,

Rachel