So back in late April, when I was on the brink of a paperwork and mental meltdown, the Lord blessed me (and Refugio) with a helper for the Deaf students! Her name is Maggi!

I have taken over evaluating the students, interpreting for them, working with the teachers that have the deaf students in their classrooms to adapt their teaching styles a bit to allow the deaf students to learn more, etc. Its more administrative, but it will ultimately help the deaf students in the long run to excel in their studies quicker. When all of this started transpiring, Maggi showed up!

Maggi has hearing loss, but has learned to read lips, speak, and knows Peruvian Sign Language. She came as a volunteer, but has pretty much taken over my teaching responsibilities in the elementary school. She is very proactive and involved with making sure the students are learning and that the parents get more involved. It’s awesome and such a blessing!

She has also started teaching in the high school in the afternoons for the days I don’t teach – Wed and Thu. I’m currently teaching a sign language class to other teachers Wed afternoons, and I have Bible study Thu afternoons, so Maggi teaching frees me up to be able to do other things such as teaching teachers, etc.

I cannot express the gratitude I have for the Lord bringing Maggi to us! But could ya’ll pray for her? She is teaching completely on a voluntary basis right now, but really needs paid work. She doesn’t want to leave Refugio, and I don’t want her to leave either, but she needs to make a living. She is currently receiving a little bit of help from the school for her transportation here and back when she teaches in the afternoons, but I would love if she could completely take over teaching the high school students in the afternoons with a salary! That would free me up to do other things like teach sign language classes to the regional police stations (2 different police stations have asked me to teach classes already), join the worship team again, etc. As it stands right now, teaching/working from 7:30 am – 5 pm doesn’t leave me much time nor energy to do much else…

So please keep Maggi in your prayers for a paying, teaching opportunity here! A teaching salary here for someone without their degree is not much compared to U.S. salaries - about $250-$300/month, but that is a lot for the school to come up with. Please pray that the Lord give us wisdom for how else to help her cause she is an amazing help to us! :-)

#peru #missions #spanish #deafministry #provision