During the month of December, I was able to spend most of my time in South Carolina. I was able to squeeze in visits to a few churches, but I mainly tried to spend Christmas at my home church and with my family.
In January, we kicked off our new year with a teen camp. We had over 200 teens! Four of those teens were from my route, and four of my students attended. This was my second year participating in the camp, and my first year as a team captain. While my team didn’t win, my team had a great attitude about their captain getting a pie in the face for last place. There were many teens who made decisions for the Lord that week. It was a blessing to be a part of that! By the end of August, we finally knew what we would be able to do for classes. Each grade will be able to come to school for two days a week from 8:00 am – 12:30 pm. Even though it’s not back to full time, I’ll take it! It’s much better than doing everything online like we were required to do last year. I teach seventh through ninth grade this year. I have eighth and ninth grade on Monday and Wednesday, and seventh grade on Tuesday and Thursday. We have high hopes of being able to have all grades three days a week in October.
I am also excited that we finally extended our school day until 2:40, which is our regular dismissal time. We even have a few grades that are able to attend school every day now. However, my grades are still only three days a week because we don’t have any extra teachers. But I am ecstatic about the extra class time. It has been very difficult trying to squeeze in as much material as possible in such a short amount of time. However, I feel like I actually have time to slow down and take my time teaching the material instead of rushing through everything. The students’ grades have improved as a result of the extra time as well! We still have a long way to go before things are completely back to normal, but this was definitely a step in the right direction.
Celebrating sandwich day at church
Our church has also been growing. We recently began having evangelism twice a week, and we have seen many people saved and have had many visitors over the past few months. However, the public schools finally started classes again in the middle of February after having been online for the past two years. Many of the children who had been faithful on my route over the past few months are no longer coming because they say they must work on homework. Honestly, it’s made for a discouraging few weeks. But my bus route partner and I have determined that we are going to pray and work even harder in our little community trying to reach more people. Please be in prayer that God will help open the doors and hearts of the people!
My other prayer request is pretty urgent. After living in Honduras for five years as a resident, I had to apply for a different type of residency and do a different sort of paperwork. In October of 2019, I gave all of my paperwork over to a lawyer in order to apply for the new residency. However, after many problems, many stressful conversations, and a lot of money, I still do not have the paperwork that I need to get my residency. I have found a new lawyer who is with an organization that specializes in helping missionaries get their paperwork done. After investigating, she says that according to the government system, the first lawyer submitted absolutely nothing under my name. I’m back to square one. The first lawyer seems to have disappeared, and no one can get ahold of him or find him. Now I’m having to redo and repay all the government paperwork and the fees. Plus, I only have until March 31 to get most of the paperwork finished because my visa expires. Please pray that we can get all the paperwork done on both ends as quickly as possible, and that I can get an extension on my visa so that I don’t have to leave the country. Please also pray that I can manage my finances well. This is not a cheap process to have to repeat.
My bus route girls at camp
Even with the craziness of what is happening with my residency, I’m excited to see God at work in our ministry. Please pray that God gives me wisdom to guide the young people that He has given into my care.
Ericka Wright