Out of Nowhere

How is it possible to gather a team of volunteer staff for the new school year in two-weeks time when you have been unable to get anyone during the last four months? Well, when God tells us that with Him all things are possible, He is not joking around! Is He ever amazing! He has provided teachers at the very last minute seemingly out of nowhere. What a spectacular answer to prayer! Thank-you, all of you who have been praying with us for this need! ALL of our classes our covered, only one teacher has not arrived yet because of the severe flooding in her part of the country, but she is on her way (by boat) and should arrive this week! Let me quickly tell you how it all happened.

Despite multiple contacts with promising prospective staff families during the vacation, up until two weeks ago, we had only eight teachers confirmed for this school year. At minimum, we need double that in order to fully operate. When Lyli and I arrived only Scott and Min were here. We started working on the paperwork that the district office of education requires to begin the school year and kept praying for teachers.

One day, Ximena, one of our former students who graduated two years ago stopped by.

“I want to volunteer this year.” She told us. She is going to change majors and schools, but she decided to take the year off as a student missionary during the transition! Praise the Lord! Meanwhile, Cornelio and Susie had just arrived in Santa Cruz when a young man showed up at the TV station wanting to know how he could become a volunteer. His name is David Flores, and he has previous experience in educational work. He later told us how he happened to come by the TV station looking for work. Turns out he was riding one of the hundreds of city buses when a pastor that he had met a long time ago got on board. They recognized each other and struck up a conversation. David expressed his interest in missions and the pastor suggested that he go to the TV station and talk to David Gates. He decided to do so the very next day. After a brief interview, David Gates recommended that he work at the school and told him to talk to Cornelio.

Right about the same time, Cornelio was talking with a volunteer family at the TV station from Argentina. When they heard we were looking for teachers, they recommended some teacher friends of theirs back in Argentina. Cornelio spoke with them by phone, and after a brief interview, they decided to come immediately. Fabian is a primary school teacher and his wife Eliana teaches high-school math, science and history! Best of all, they have read many of the same books on educational reform and have a good understanding of the unique program that we operate here! What a blessing! One more teacher appeared when Cornelio and Susie went to visit the missionary training institute in Quebrada Leon in the mountains a couple hours out of Santa Cruz. The directors’ son, Benjamin Kim had previously expressed interest in volunteering at our school, and he decided to come for at least the first half of the year. He is teaching health, biology and bible classes.

Well, that was all good news, but we still had some big holes to fill. Would God provide for those too, or would he choose to let us start short-handed? We kept praying. Right before school started, the local churches asked if they could use our facilities for a four-day campout March 1-4. We weren't too excited about it, but Cornelio had already said yes back in December, before he knew that we would have to move up the date for the first day of school to the 5^th of March! Well, all the extra company to wait on (We had around 100 people there) and all the noise and such was not our idea of nice or what we had hoped for during the last few days before the students arrived. There is always extra trash to pick up and buildings to clean after a crowd like that comes through! Also, common decency demands that we would take some time to visit and socialize, something that seemed rather low on the priority list when there was so much to do to be ready for classes on Wednesday. I had to ask God to give me an extra measure of grace, change my attitude, and somehow use me to be a blessing during the weekend. Praise God, He answered, and helped me make good on that several times over the weekend.

But the biggest surprise of the long weekend was the dialogue that sprung up between Cornelio and one family of campers. Jose Luis and his wife Nadia are faithful leaders in their local congregation here in Guayaramerin. We got to know them a little bit last year, but we never dreamed they could be potential volunteer teachers!

“All this disorder must be hard for you” Nadia commented to Cornelio as a passel of noisy children went rushing by. Cornelio smiled and admitted that it is not his favorite.

“I like things to be in order too” she said. “I don’t let my kids just run wild!” As they continued chatting, Cornelio mentioned our need for more staff this year. Later on Nadia and her husband Jose Luis approached Cornelio and said they were interested and wanted to know more. We had an interview, and they said they would pray about it and let us know by Sunday. Classes were scheduled to start on Wednesday. Despite some recent financial setbacks including several debts and having their motorcycle stolen, they decided to come work with us as fulltime volunteers along with their four children! God honored that step of faith and all their debts were paid the same Sunday that they came to the school. In addition, Jose’s mother, who has been opposed to him, his marriage, and his faith, gave him a motorcycle! Nor does the story end there. The floodwaters have now arrived here to Guayara, and the house where Nadia and Jose lived was completely inundated and has collapsed! God in His infinite wisdom knew just who needed to be here this year, not only so we would have the help we need, but also so a family of his faithful servants would have the help they needed before they even knew they would need it! Oh, one other blessing that came out of our camp meeting: we met a man who knows the mayor and helped us get approval to have several dump-truck loads of "gravel" donated to fix our driveway that has fallen into rather sorry disrepair!

I find myself asking: What would have happened if we had told the churches that they couldn’t come for their campout? How many blessings do we daily lose because of our selfishness?