Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Linn's News July 2011

Linn’s News July 2011


Thank you for all your support this month. It has been a busy month for staff in school, but exams are now done, the reports are finished and they were given out to parents last Friday.

The country

Switching on the news these days is so depressing, rather like in Britain, so I do not want to dwell on it. Suffice to say that nothing much has changed and the government still comes under fire for not doing enough about law and order.

We are currently experiencing very cold temperatures. It was one degree Celsius this morning, with a ground frost. Many children are living on the streets and the television news was distressing tonight, seeing them trying to survive in flimsy clothes and bare feet or flip-flops.

The Church

This coming month will see the arrival of a Mission Paraguay team, who will be coming to work on projects in various communities in the Diocese. Claire Holmes and Murray Metcalfe are returning here with them. Claire will go to Concepcion with a group.

The School

This month the children celebrated Father’s Day. Their dads were invited in for breakfast and then each grade gave a presentation of poems, songs and things that they had written about their dads. There were a few tear-jerkers among them.

Now that the main Independence celebrations are over, our school assemblies are about Heroes of the Faith from the Bible. Staff are leading these and they are all proving to be lively and interesting. We are focussing on the character values that can be an example for us. It was my turn this week, with the story of Ruth.

The Primary staffroom was a manic hive of industry last week as reports were being finished and printed. Parents came to collect them on Friday morning.

On Wednesday there was a school dance competition. This was held in a Japanese cultural centre, in a lovely theatre, in another part of the city. It was a good evening, full of colour and great competition. Dance is considered to be a very important part of the curriculum in Paraguay and everything is choreographed and quite professional. They take it all very seriously.

On Thursday there was a Parents evening meeting to launch a new drive for the children to read more books. We need parental encouragement. It was interesting to hear that the average household in Paraguay reads  . 25 books per year. Books here are very expensive and most families simply cannot afford books, so they do not read. There is no reading culture. Our school library is steadily increasing the number of new books available, because we want the children to read more. It is also interesting that they read better in English than in Spanish. We are now pushing them to read more books in Spanish.

In the library the children are being travel agents, selling trips to European countries.. They are having a competition to see if they can persuade me to visit “their country” (the one that they are studying.) They are very competitive. It is interesting to see what they think will attract me to go there. (and it is very amusing at times.)

As the term ends we are saying farewell to our volunteers, Jo Miller and Zoe Eves. They will be returning to UK to take up places in university. Jo will be studying education to become a teacher so her time here has been good experience for her.

Beth Bridgewater who came to teach with us has also decided to move on. She is staying in Paraguay and she will be working with another organization that works with street kids, not an easy move.

Prayer points:-

1.    Please continue to pray for President Lugo and his government to have wisdom as to how to deal with the problems here.

2.    Pray for the poor children and families who are trying to survive in the intense cold that we are experiencing. Pray that the Lord will meet their needs for warm clothing and a roof over their heads.

3.    Please pray for all the staff and children of St. Andrew’s as we take our two week winter break. Everybody is very tired after a busy term. Pray for rest and refreshment for us all. Pray for safety for those who will be travelling.

Pray for Jo, Zoe and Beth who will be leaving us, that their futures will be secure in Christ.

Pray for the new science teacher and his family who will be joining us later this month from Ireland, that they will arrive safely and settle in quickly. They have two boys aged five and eight years. Pray that they will learn Spanish quickly and that they will be welcomed into school.

4.    Please pray for my health as the holiday comes. (no more broken arms or legs, Ha! Ha! and a chance to rest.) At the moment I feel too tired to go travelling in the cold weather.

Linn Tedman working for the Church Mission Society, Watlington Road, Oxford, OX4 6BZ