April 2011

April 2011

Things have been very busy lately. We enjoyed our visit with Sam's mom for two weeks. Last Tuesday we brought her to Tuxtla so she could fly home again. While in Tuxtla, we cheered on Carmelo (one of the El Faro boys) in a 500 m state race. He was competing to go onto a national race in Mexico City. He ran well, but came in second in his heat and will not go on to the national race.

 

  Carmello (barefeet) preparing to race.

Two weeks ago Maylin was brought to El Faro.  She is about seven years old and had been living in a state run orphanage for the last year.  Before that she was taken from a woman (mother?) who was severely beating her and her siblings.  So far things are going well for Maylin, but we ask that you pray that she will feel part of the family at El Faro and continue her emotional healing.  When she first came she called all the women and older girls mommy because that was the practice in the orphanage.  She was surprised to learn there was only one mommy at El Faro.
Dale and Teresa Barnes (Bill Wood's pastor from the Oklahoma) and their secretary were here for the last week. Dale “doesn't like to be bored” so there he was preaching on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and twice on Sunday. We enjoyed getting to know them and listening to sermons in English. Tuesday afternoon we all headed out to the ranch for a picnic and bonfire before the Barnes headed home.
It was so nice at the ranch – the breeze was refreshing and when the sun went down we actually felt cold. The boys painted themselves with charcoal, made spears, bows and arrows, and had a great time running around the ranch. The girls preferred walking and looking at the animals. The children love going to the ranch as it is a chance to run about freely.
Another couple came along with the Barnes and will be staying an extra two weeks to help at El Faro. Wayne is a welder and mechanic. Sam is looking forward to learning how to weld. Together they hope to complete the framing of the bunk house roof. Nancy loves babies and children. Jude and Hannah are already playing games with her and the staff at El Faro are appreciating her help.
We've been having some “Mexican experiences” lately. Regularly the temperature is above 40 Celsius. We have to be careful to remember our hats when going out. Without them we quickly get a headache in the bright sunshine. Thankfully we've also had some rain at night to cool things off and make it greener. Perhaps you heard about southern Mexico in the news last week, when there was a 6.5 earthquake. We were just waking up when it happened and it rattled things pretty well, but there was no damage. We also had a flood in our home last week when a pipe broke upstairs. Only two rooms did not have wall to wall water. This would be a huge problem in Canada, but here the houses are made of cement and tile. Within an hour it was swept out the front door and mopped up (thanks to help from three ladies from the church). I had some extra laundry and there is a wall to be whitewashed, but there wasn't any other damage. Often Mexican homes are built with drains in the middle of each room “just in case”. Finally, this week we found a large scorpion in our outdoor storage room. They tend to show themselves when the weather gets hotter. Time to fumigate the house.
 

  Scorpion found by Sam

 

    Playing in the rain

The previous paragraph may sound “foreign” to many of you, but I want to reassure you that we are doing fine. It is not as terrible as it might sound. God has given us grace not just to be here, but to like being here. Driving to Tuxtla, watching the landscape pass by, I realized that I like this part of Chiapas. We are also making friends in the church and getting to know everyone at El Faro. We are building relationships that are dear. Our children are no longer telling us they want to go home. Jude now likes it here and Hannah wants to go home at the end of the year, but she feels much better about living here.
 

   "Swimming" at a friend's house (in the laundry tub!)

 

Thank you for all your prayers and support. We like hearing from you.

Love from the Dielemans: Sam, Wendy, Hannah, Jude and Jeremiah.

Specific prayer requests: El Faro needs more Mexican staff to work with the children.
Maylin will begin to feel at home at El Faro.
We will learn to communicate in Spanish.
We are considering buying a vehicle because a specific car we were waiting on is still unavailable.
There a number of projects which need to be completed on the Ranch before the rainy season begins.

Prayer update:
Last update, we asked you to pray for our home phone.  The morning after sending that e-mail, the phone company called and wanted to install our phone line.  This was after telling us for 1.5 months that it could not be done!