Another visit from Mario...

Professor Mario just stopped by with some news for us. The superintendent of the schools was visiting out in El Melonar yesterday and this morning and will return again tomorrow morning. After he heard from Prof. Mario that the students were going to have their school supplies provided for them this year, he wanted to come out and visit the community and talk to the families himself. Evidently, there is now a sense of excitement and hope that wasn't there before and two families who had not enrolled their children have now agreed to send them to school!

Prof. Mario said that God is touching El Melonar in so many ways and I assured him that the Lord sees everything that is happening in his community and that He cares about every single person there. We have had that conversation before.

He told me that God is giving them "other blessings" now through others...and his excitement level went up incrementally. Five of the students who will be going to the high school here in Somoto this year have received new school shoes from someone else here locally. And there was a young lady who started working with the older children and teaching them the basics of how to use a computer. She was doing that the last few months before school was out and would carry her laptop out to the community and here's the best part...she was not getting paid but volunteering her time. Now, she has a friend who is going to join her in doing the same thing in the coming school year and again, volunteering their time! So the children will have an opportunity to learn computer skills and that is going to be such a benefit to them.  

He was so excited as he talked about how we made the circle and prayed the last time he was here and how he can now see God working through us and through others. I didn't think he could get any more hyper than we've seen him in the past, but he can! :) 

I asked him again if he didn't want the school supplies ahead of time and he told me no, that he wanted us to come on the first day of school to hand them out. He then said that the community had a meeting and that they are planning a time of celebration and thanksgiving on that day. He said that in talking with the parents, that they have decided they also want to have refreshments - "something simple and small". :) He asked if we would speak and share with the families our story...why we are here and why we chose the community of El Melonar. He said that the superintendent told him that he is planning on coming and that the regional director of the Dept. of Education has even said he would like to come for this. 

Now, I'm getting nervous...we just wanted to make sure these kids have an opportunity to go to school...and this seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. Not sure what the Lord has planned but it seems to be a lot bigger than what we had!