Jim and I’ve opted to go through this door. We made the commitment several years back to follow God wherever it is He wants to take us and to do whatever it is we believe He’s calling us to do. As a result, He’s taken us through plenty of doors that we wouldn’t have gone through otherwise. There’s no doubt that we’ve stepped way out of our comfort zone and there’s no doubt that it has cost us on so many levels. But, even at the few times I’ve felt like I was at my lowest here, I don’t think I could have ever walked away from the challenge He’s put before us. Rest assured, that has absolutely nothing to do with who we are…it has everything to do with who God is. We just happen to believe Him and trust Him and so we have been blessed to see Him work in ways I believe we would never have witnessed otherwise.
We know that His plans that include us are bigger than us. Reminding ourselves of that often helps us to walk through those adventurous doors. But don’t think for a minute that they still aren’t scary…they are. We question as much as anyone else… “Is this the right thing to do?” “Is this what God wants?” “What if we didn’t hear Him right?” “What if we fail?” I think the last question is often what it actually all boils down to…no one wants to fail. I guess that fear is what makes us ask all those questions. But really, when I think about it, the only way we can fail is to not be obedient to what God is calling us to do. What the world views as success or failure is no longer the measurement we want to use. God’s pleasure and displeasure are far more powerful motivators these days.
So, saying all that, I want to share with you that we have stepped through yet another door…another scary, adventurous door. We are going to build a school!!!! And the reason we are doing that is God has shut every other door and has flung this one wide open. We have done all the analyzing, the questioning and lots and lots of praying. They all led back to this door.
I’ve told you about Ministerio Rayitas de Luz…Danelia’s twice-weekly after-school school which she started in her home as a direct result of our being “evicted” from the church where we were holding English classes and Bible study. I’ve also told you how we’re busting at the seams in her little living room. (Forgive the poor grammar…it just fits here.) The door for renting another place wasn’t just shut, it was slammed shut and securely bolted! Every place we looked at or asked about, the answer was “no” or the price was ridiculously high.
We began to question if this was something God wanted us to continue with or not. Silly question. Of course God wants His Word shared, with adults and children. God really impressed on me that just because we were being met with opposition to find a place to teach His Word and to show His love did not mean His answer was “no”…it meant that the need was great. And it meant that He had something else planned.
About a year and a half ago, Jim and I first began going to Danelia’s house to visit Kenneth. This was when he was so terribly sick. At that time, Jim and I began discussing the possibility of adding an additional bedroom on the side of their little 2 room house but I have to admit that was me wanting to do that and not a leading from God. But I believe God used that desire of mine to start laying the groundwork for what was to come.
I am sure I’ve probably told you about Arturo and Danelia’s house before. They are blessed to live in a little block house with a concrete floor. The front room is their living room. It has one window and a wooden front door which leads out to a tiny little front yard. The living room is where they receive guests and it reveals they once experienced more prosperous days when they both worked before Kenneth became sick.
There is a television stand which holds a small television and some small knick knacks. There usually several plastic chairs in the living room plus they now also boast three rocking chairs which were gifts from some people in the church. The sewing machine bought for Danelia used to sit in front of the window but she has moved it to a corner to make better use of the space for the students. There is also a short wooden table which Kenneth would use as his bed during the day when he was too weak to sit upright for any length of time.
The house originally was one larger room but Arturo divided off the sleeping area with sheets of plywood. He left an entryway which is defined with a hanging curtain. The bedroom is a dark room. It has a window in it but it’s covered with material for privacy. This room has two beds in it, a matrimonial (which is a double bed) and what looks to be like a ¾ size bed. Lindsay and Kenneth share this bed except when Kenneth is sick and then all four are in Arturo and Danelia’s bed. The two beds but up each other. There is no closet…there’s no room for one. Most of the clothes seem to be neatly stacked on a box of some sort and If I remember right, there is a small shelf unit which holds food, pans and perhaps some other clothing. There is also a box which holds the few toys the kids have…most of which we have bought for them.
One corner of the bedroom also serves as an indoor kitchen. There is a two-burner propane stove top, similar to a camping type stove…again, a reminder of better days. Danelia uses this when the weather is ba
d or she is fixing something that doesn’t require a lengthy cooking time. Propane is a costly expense for them these days…but so is buying wood or charcoal.The wooden back door opens out to the covered “porch” area which is actually used as an extension to the house. Their pila (a concrete washstand pictured to the left) is there so that’s where dishes are washed and clothes are laundered. There is also a makeshift shower that Arturo made some years back. The porch contains an outdoor cooking area where Danelia cooks over an open fire. The back yard is fairly large by Nica standards. Their outhouse is out by the back fence.
There is a fence made of sheets of rusty tin that separate the side yard from the back yard. Their lot is long and narrow and as a result, the side yard is also very narrow although Danelia has made good use of the space filling it with flowers and shrubs. It is this place that Jim and I had once thought would be a good place to build another room.
It hasn’t taken long for us to realize that the Rayitas de Luz school is definitely filling a need in the neighborhood. Within just a few weeks, Danelia has had to say that she can’t take any more students. Her eighteen students more than fill up her living room twice a week. The kids are sitting on borrowed chairs and stools. That number is up to 22 on Saturdays for our English class. There absolutely is no more room in her living room and I’ve noticed the last few Saturdays, we’ve had children standing out in the yard, listening to our lesson.
We have discussed the various options available for having a larger space for both Danelia’s classes and for ours. Renting a building or house in the immediate neighborhood has not panned out. The answer has consistently been “no” which I have to say has been a bit discouraging. We were so sure that we were going to be able to find something.
A large ministry in Managua has a branch in Tipitapa and they have actually heard about what we’re doing in this little living room. They offered us the use of their very nice, large facility in Tipitapa and supposedly, at no cost. The problem is that they are located on the opposite end of the city. This makes it virtually impossible for the children to attend either Danelia’s classes or ours. They would have to take a bus or taxi to get there as it’s too far for them to walk. That’s an expense they can’t afford. Moving the school out of the neighborhood would set up a situation that would exclude the very children we are trying to reach.
We were all flattered that this ministry would offer their building to us even though we knew that it wasn’t a viable alternative. But the temptation was there. Danelia and I sat and talked about it that day. It obviously was a very attractive offer and the truth is that no matter where we established the school, there would be children who would come, but as I told Danelia that afternoon, I feel that it is important that we remember why she wanted to do the school in the first place and to remember who it was she wanted to minister to through it. I told her that I just didn’t believe that bigger was always better and that we needed to be faithful to do the work God put before us and let Him worry about growing it later on. We talked about being salt and light in her neighborhood. I told her I believed God would bless her for being faithful to His work. She told me she believed He already had…she still had Kenneth.
So, this is where we’re at. We’ll soon be tearing up Danelia’s side yard and begi
n construction of a 5 meter x 8 meter addition to her house which will serve as the new Rayitas de Luz school building! This equates to about a 16 ft. x 26 ft. space. The picture at the right shows the side yard now and this is where we will build the addition. Of course, usable floor space will be a little less as that’s the measurement from outer wall to outer wall. It will be a one-room classroom with three doors and two windows. We are attaching the school to the side of Arturo and Danelia’s house and so we are going to go ahead and put in a passageway door in their living room to connect to the classroom. That way, in the future, if the school grows to the point we need to expand again, and the opportunity opens up for us to move to a larger facility, the addition will become usable space for the family.We are most likely going to build a block construction addition. This will match the existing structure, is the cheapest type of permanent structure and is the one that will work best in this climate. We will probably also go with a concrete floor – again, the most cost effective. Our roof structure will be made of the corrugated zinc that is so popular here. Again, this is a cost effective decision and will also match the existing roof on Danelia and Arturo’s house...hopefully, minus the holes! Those roofs are so hot with the sun beating down on them but they are also much cheaper than the clay tile roofs. We will have iron bars installed on all the doors and the windows as the school will not only be a beacon of light in the barrio, it will also be a target for thieves.
We are setting the addition back a little bit from the front edge of Danelia’s house. This is to leave a small “green” area where she can still have a few bushes and flowers. We will put in a small walkway and a step that goes down to the front yard of Danelia’s and continue the walkway to the edge of her yard where the dirt road begins. This is really a very short distance. We are also discussing the possibility of replacing the rusty little strands of barbed wire that currently goes across the front of her property with a fence of some sort and a gate that can be locked.
We will need to put in a small septic system for the latrine. The city won’t let us use the existing outhouse for the school. This was not an expense we planned on but one we understand that we must have. We will also wire the building for electricity. That’s a decision we’re making based on our own comfort as well as hopeful thinking. I would love to have a fan going on Saturdays and who knows? Perhaps someday, the barrio will have electricity in the afternoons again! And of course, we’ll need paint for both inside and out. Danelia and I both want to make the school a welcoming place for the kids.
We have prices now on enough tables ($30 each for tables that seat 8 children) and chairs ($5 each) for twenty-four children and I’ve been scouring the city, looking for teaching materials and school supply bargains. I have even had dreams about bulletin boards! I do think I better understand now why most schools don’t have the very things I would think would be standard items. What is available is costly, so we are keeping our eyes open for used items that could be utilized in the classroom.
Last week, we had a guy come and measure and is supposed to give us an estimate this coming weekend on the cost of materials and labor. We thought his preliminary bid of $3000 to be awfully high, especially since the extra $400 latrine cost was not included in that number. We made it clear that we thought that was out of line and asked for him to look at it again, get some actual prices and get back to us this coming weekend with some tighter numbers. Unfortunately, that’s what happens when someone finds out that Americans are involved…their greed overtakes their good sense. Hopefully, we’ll get a much better figure from him this weekend.
As a precaution, we’re taking a Nicaraguan friend of ours to Tipitapa with us this weekend. He has years of construction experience and has built numerous churches and schools in conjunction with American teams. He is a good Christian man and volunteered to go with us as a favor to us. He is going to look at the sight and then give us an itemized list of current realistic costs for each step so that we can be both better prepared and better educated in this process. We do believe God will provide for this school but we also believe that we need to be both wise and good stewards of His resources.
I have to tell you we are so excited about this. Of course the planning stage is always the “fun” part but honestly, I think we’re all really excited to see how God’s going to make this all come together and we’re already seeing Him work. We have been trying to come up with ideas of fund-raisers that would be practical for the neighborhood. Just one look around is enough to make one discouraged. It would be so easy to think that there just is no way that anyone there would ever be able to contribute to the building fund. But God has already opened the door for us with several ways to get the community involved.
There was recently a group from South Carolina who left enough shoes to fill several totes. Some are used and some are new. Most are children’s sizes but there are a few adult sizes. They had wanted them to go to a poor community in…of all places…Tipitapa!!! We had the shoes donated to us from someone who knows we are working in this area and told we could do whatever we wanted to do with them. We took them to Danelia’s house and I explained what I wanted to do with them. Danelia became so excited and could hardly wait to get going on this project.
We decided to sell the shoes at an extremely reasonable price with all the proceeds to go to the building fund. She is selling the shoes for 10 to 20 cord a pair which equates to about 50 cents to a dollar a pair. I know that is ridiculously cheap for a brand new pair of shoes…but being able to buy a new pair of shoes for a child for less than a dollar will be such a blessing in that barrio! Plus, we know that God can make that dollar go further than we could if it were 20 times that amount
Our other fundraiser is going to be our Money Plant project. There is a group that we will be working with that is coming from Ohio this Thursday. They had asked what they could bring us and we asked for vegetable seeds. We told the pastor that we would reimburse the team for the seeds they buy as we asked for quite a few. We are going to have the kids plant the seeds in paper cups and after the veggies germinate and begin to grow, the kids will go out and try to sell the veggie cups. Again, we are hoping this to be a win-win situation…the families will be able to grow veggies and we will grow our building fund. We’re going to be investing in this particular project as we’ll be buying the seeds, the cups and the dirt but we’re just considering it a ministry expense…we want the kids and their families to have some ownership in raising the funds for the school.
So, that’s pretty much where we are right now. I’m sure we’re in over our heads. In some respects, I’m a little scared about taking this step. I am sure this won’t materialize unless God makes it happen but I’m also sure that this is something God has called us to undertake.
Of course, for every person who thinks this is God’s leading, I am quite sure there is one (or possibly more!) wh
o thinks that it’s a bad idea. We have heard it said that this type of thing is an “ambitious project” and that usually, it’s bigger ministries who undertake such things. It would be easy to buy in to that if our God wasn’t so big. Our ministry doesn’t have to be mega-sized… our God is. The picture on the left is some of the children praying as we finished up our English class last week. The fact they are so precious makes this project even more dear to our hearts.Maybe our view sounds simplistic but honestly, we’re approaching this in much the same way that we approached moving here. It’s scary but it would be scarier to not be obedient. If this is what God wants, He’ll make it happen with us or without us. We just happen to want to be part of it! I remember Henry Blackaby said in Experiencing God that we are to see where God is at work and join Him in it. There’s no doubt in our minds that God’s at work in this little barrio and we definitely want to be a part of it. I’ll keep you posted on what we find on the other side of the door!
