News

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Salute to the flag (2).JPG 2009-09-15

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New Crop


Baby Calf March '09


Baby Chicks April '09


Tammy


Reed guitar lessons


Merethe teaching cosmetology class


Rennovation 3


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Estefani


Boys in line on 1st day of school


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First day of school


Reforzamiento Class


New Volunteer Plaque


Male Volunteer House


One Male Volunteer room


Male Volunteer Kitchen/part of living room


Male Volunteer Showers


Karelia crochet class

A Tennessee news channel has featured a report about Don Reynold's Team from Red Bank Baptist Church in Chattanooga, TN. His team has been serving faithfully at Emmanuel every year for more than 10 years. Dr. Reynolds also maintains a warehouse, enabling supporters to send donated supplies to Emmanuel. (Open the journal entry and click here to view the article).
  

    On Monday of this week the removed president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has returned to Honduras capital of Tegucigalpa. His return resulted in local unrest and demonstrations in the capital.

    Until now Emmanuel has only been slightly affected by a national curfew that had been imposed for 38 hours. By now the curfew has been lifted during the daytime, allowing teachers and employees from town to return to work at the orphanage. As of now, the town of Guaimaca hasn't seen unrest and volunteers and staff haven't encountered mayor problems or restrictions.

     However, if you are planning to visit Emmanuel within the next two weeks. please follow the news coverage closely, contact your airline or get in touch with the Emmanuel office to make sure travel arrangements are safe.

     Thank you for your prayers. We are grateful that the Lord has held his protecting hand over Emmanuel's children, volunteers, and staff. Please keep on praying for peaceful protests, safety for staff leaving the orphanage on daily business and wisdom for the politicians involved in solving problems.  

For almost a whole month children of the orphanage heard Emmanuel's proud marching band practicing for their grand event - the traditional Independence Day parade. The closer we got to the 15th of September, the Honduran Independence Day, the more children caught the spirit clapping or marching in the familiar rhythm.
Traditionally the Independence Day parade is being held by all of Guaimaca's elementary and high schools with Emmanuel participating outside the orphanage. This year's ban on public meetings imposed by the national government gave all of the orphanage's children the chance to see the parade. To celebrate Honduras' independence 50 of Emmanuel's most excellent students, grades 1 through 11, put on shiny uniforms and presented their performance passing all of the orphanage's yards. The week-long practice hadn't been in vain; for everywhere the parade passed it was celebrated by excited and applauding children.   
  

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At Emmanuel kids' laughter and smiles can be seen and heard every day. Nevertheless there are a few events each year when the shining smiles of Emmanuel's kids seem even brighter than the burning sun during dry season. One of these days is the "Children's Day" (Dia del niño) celebrated in many parts of the world as in Honduras.
During their special day children in primary school played games with their teachers, stuffed plenty of candy in their pockets and enjoyed the spaghetti and tortillas their teachers had prepared for them. The mayor of Guaimaca even donated 3 piñatas and 100 bags of chips! With this abundance of candy, delicious food and fun the primary children had an unforgettable day at school.

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Frequent visitors to Emmanuel often wonder how fast the orphanage is growing through new construction projects. Since August of this year people entering Emmanuel have a new sight to look at where the new and shiny main-office building has replaced an old pavilion. Contrary to the old crammed-in and usually overcrowded church office the new building features 4 spacious work spaces and a directors office. That way volunteers and staff alike can work more efficiently without stepping on each others feet.
The construction was mainly conducted by local contractors who received assistance by a team from Maryland.

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This weekend the team "Impacto Juvenil" which consists of members of a Tegucigalpa youth ministry have paid another visit to Emmanuel. Being from Nueva Suyapa, a very poor part of the capital, the team is striving to give the kids an impression of the "real" Honduras outside the orphanage gates. Through devotions and testimonies the young visitors want to show what it means to be a "disciple of Christ in the Honduran reality" says Carlos, one of the team members from Tegucigalpa.

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EARTHQUAKE UPDATE

 

Thank you to all who have been praying and inquiring as to how Emmanuel fared during the earthquake that took place this morning off the northern coast of Honduras.  We are happy to announce that everyone is safe and unharmed, and that we have had no structural damage to our knowledge.  In fact, very few of us actually felt the quake.  Please join us in praying for those who were affected by this event.  God bless you!

Another month, and another container. The container arrived safely on May fifth around 8:00 pm. Thank you to all who contributed to this months container.

The group Impacto based out of Tegucigalpa, Honduras visited again on the second and third of May. They are a group of young men and women who come and spend time with the children every fifth weekend. During this visit they played games with the children, had drama practice, and gave devotional studies. They came inspite of a big rain storm that hit the area. There visit was a blessing to the children and to the staff.

On May 1st, 2009 the Lord blessed Robert and Karelia Burrows (staff) with a new baby girl. The additions of Natalia to the Emmanuel family has been one of great joy. Congratulations Robert and Karelia and may the Lord bless this new addition to your beautiful family.

Our April newsletter is complete. Please click on the attachment below to view the newsletter.

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Wednesday, April 8th, more than 70 of Emmanuel's children were baptized. Staff, volunteers and members of a team from Peduka, Kentucky marveled at the long line of children excited to be baptized in front of God and their peers to symbolize that they are followers of Christ.

To everyone's great excitement, Emmanuel received their March container on Thursday, April 2nd around 5:30pm. Many of Emmanuel's staff and volunteers come together on the evening when a container is received. It is a very exciting experience to be involved with and unpacking of a container--it is much like opening gifts on Christmas morning. All of the containers received have some sort of stuffed animal that greets those who open the container; this container had a Christmas bear.

Containers generally are sent an average of 12 times a year from Chattanooga, Tennessee. Dr. Don Reynolds and Richard Williford--as well as Red Bank Baptist Church members and other people from various churches in Tennessee--volunteer their time to load and send off the containers every month. A few containers a year often come from various churches in Auburn, Alabama as well. The containers are usually packed with rice, beans, cereal, clothes, Moon Pies, construction materials, and care packages for the children, volunteers and staff.

If you would like to be involved with the packing of a container or if you would like to contribute to what is sent to Emmanuel, please visit Emmanuel's Facebook page for information. When sending a package, address it to the person to whom you are sending it to and add C/O Dr. Don Reynolds. Finally, sent it to the following address: 4611 Hixon Pike, Hixon, Tennessee 37343.

The farm is constantly evolving here at Emmanuel. With those changes usually come additional benefits to the children's quality of life. At the start of 2009, the farm began a corn crop project that exists in two different locations around Emmanuel. The whole corn ears will be used in the kitchens while the partial ears as well as the stocks will be used as feed for the cows. The corn field behind the chicken coup is just about ready for harvest. A third and new corn crop has been planted next to the horse pasture and the staff is excited to see it grow.

At the tail end of March one of our female cows gave birth to a calf. Because of this recent birth, we will now be able to milk it's mother and help supply the kitchens with milk in the morning. Currently, there are four cows that are being milked here at Emmanuel. By September 2009, we will be milking a total of six cows which will provide enough milk to supply each kitchen every morning.

At the beginning of April the farm purchased several hundred adorable, little one-day old chicks. The farm (with the help of volunteers, staff, children, and women from town) recently processed several hundred chickens which were put into the freezers in the processing facility. They will be used in Emmanue's kitchens as part of the children's dinner. The next group of chickens will be ready for processing in 6-8 weeks.

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With the start of a new school year has also come the implementation of some new ideas. After what started as "thinking out loud" on the part of David Martinez, there is now a new program in the school.  On Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons from 12:50-2:20pm, extra curricular classes are being offered to grades fourth through ninth. Classes started on Tuesday, March 3rd, and the students have responded positively to them thus far. The classes are being taught by none other than Emmanuel's very own staff members! The staff at Emmanuel are stretched fairly thin every week by different tasks that need to be completed in order to Emmanuel to run as well as it does. Thus, the staff enjoys spending one-on-one time with the children whenever the opportunity arises. This new program will give each and every staff member that opportunity and will also allow them to pass on their knowledge and experiences to the children. Each and every member of Emmanuel's staff has been given a special talent by God and now they have the opportunity to share it with others.


The students were given a list of the classes offered and asked to choose their top three preferences. The classes were then filled primarily according to preference, but also in order to create classes with an equal number of students. There are currently 14 classes offered in the program and the class list is as follows:

Classes last for approximately 8 weeks and change every school quarter. Students should be able to spend one quarter in each of their top three preferred classes. Depending on how well the classes go and the amount of interest shown in each of them, some classes may be dropped while other are added as the year goes on.

The staff at Emmanuel hope to continue to add programs such as this one to improve the quality of life for the children here. They know that they have been entrusted with taking care of God's children and they strive to provide them with the very best education they can. Programs like the extra-curricular school program will help the students to become more diverse in the depth of their overall knowledge. As they learn more at Emmanuel, they will have a greater chance at being successful when they return to life outside of Emmanuel.

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The newest addition to Orphanage Emmanuel reached its completion on Thursday, February 26th 2009! It has been under construction since September of last year and now has the potential to be the home to six male volunteers. The house has a living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room, bathroom (with three stalls, three separate showers, and three sinks), as well as three bedrooms - each sleeping two volunteers.

The volunteer house is fully equipped with a completely functioning kitchen (stove/oven, refrigerator, and microwave). They also have the luxury of television to watch movies on, as well as very comfortable couches to lounge on.

Currently, there are two male volunteers that are staying in the volunteer house--John Perez from California and Bjarne Dideriksen from Denmark. There is plenty more room for male volunteers to come and visit Emmanuel for any length of time. Male volunteers are important to Emmanuel because they often can be used on the farm, the school, the blockeria or doing many other jobs around the orphanage depending on their skill set. It is important for the children of Emmanuel to not only see female volunteers, but to also see male volunteers that love God. The young men of Emmanuel need to see Christ-like male role models that are willing to serve.

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During the last week of April, students in the Elementry School where able to participate in an exciting event. In order to encourage civil duty among students and the desire to vote, students vote for a new student body president every year. This year, the 6th grade class and their panel of students were selected to lead the school in this new year. The new president is Karen Suyapa. Congratulations Karen and may you have a great year!

School has begun at Emmanuel, serving children in pre-k through high school. Even a new special education class has been introduced. School began on Monday, February 16th with a large number of anxious and excited children ready to learn. The teachers don't consist of merely hired citizens of Guaimaca, but also consist of some of the junior staff members and volunteers at Emmanuel, who enthusiastically began their roles as teachers within the school. In the elementary school, there are two classes for many of the grades due to the large number of students attending. Each teacher hired was interviewed and hand selected by the adminstrators of the school, Merethe and Robert. All of the teachers had to have a solid foundation in their belief in Jesus Christ before they would even be considered further for hiring at Emmanuel. Next, they had to demonstrate their competence with the subject matter that they would be teaching the students.

After being hired, the teachers spent a week in training so that they would be fully prepared to work with the students here at Emmanuel. They also spent another week preparing their classroom and going through seminars put on by teachers from the United States that were visiting Emmanuel with a team from Red Bank Baptist Church. They were given information as well as supplies to help them succeed with their students throughout the year.

The first day of school went as well as can expected! The students were very anxious to return to school after being on summer vacation since November of 2008. With a new sense of structure in their lives, many of them forged their way through the first day of a new grade. In the primary grades, the halls echoed with the sound of students saying their vowels in Spanish and later in English. Felipe, a junior staff member, began his first year teaching English to grades 1-3. Students in Honduras are not required to learn English in these grades, but Emmanuel is always trying to give their students the best education they can. An early start on English will help them to do better when they get into the upper grades.

One of our volunteer couples, Terrez and Candice, are also teachers within the school. Terrez is teaching English and math in the high school while Candice is overseeing the preschool, kindergarten, and special education classes while also teaching English in 4th-6th grades. Our preschool is being taught by Jenny, a junior staff member at Emmanuel. We look forward to a successful year of school for the students at Emmanuel.

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