For the Love of Books

I brought down some of my old favorite books to share with the girls. They are LOVING them! When I pulled them out for everyone to look at the got so excited!

I try read a book with the girls a least 3 evenings a week. Our first book to devoure was #1 of The Box Car Children. We moved on to #2 and are now reading some short Christmas stories.

Life on the "Homestead"

Just like the past couple years, in addition to the day to day school life we are still continuing on with Bible Classes, cooking class, and learning “homesteading” skills by caring for our small garden and chickens. This year we may be adding a few goats! Which will allow us to have fresh milk to drink, make ice cream and cheese. The homesteading projects has always been a things that only the girls and I did but the school principle Johnny, his wife Amber and I are hoping to get the boys involved and make it a Ranch wide project.

I think it is so important for the kids, especially the girls to learn things like gardening, baking, chickens and making cheese because they are viable ways for them to make money and start their own bussines when they leave our school. Mexico overall looks down on the Deaf making it hard for deaf men to find empolyment. It is even more difficuilt for women to find work. That is why being self imployed can have it’s benefits. 

Goodbye September

The first month of school has come to a close. It is so exciting to have all the students back.

What a year it has been! As many of you know I did not have an assistant this past year, so it was just the girls and I  most days. There were ladies on staff that helped on my day off or at other times here and there. In a way it was just what the girls and I needed. It was a blessing for it to be just with my girls.

This school year I have an assistant, Noemy. As much as I enjoyed our year alone I am very greatfull to have her with us. She is so enthusiastic to be in the dorm and is eagerly learning Mexican Sign Language.

I had two new girls this last year from Quertero, Mexico. They are sisters who came with their little brother. I was told that they weren’t going to be returning but they have! It was amazing to see Leticia (18), Isabel (13) and Alexis (7) learn to communicate in sign language! All three are doing amazing in school.

The greatest blessing of all was watching Lesly, one of my girls tell Isabel about Jesus! Lesly herself had just accepted Jesus into her heart the week before. Her enthusiaum was contagus! Two of my other girls Esmeralada and Sheley also decided that they wanted a relationship with Jesus. I could have asked for nothing better! 

A Job for Edith Marisol

A very exciting thing happened this summer, Edith Marisol one of my girl who graduated at age 18 in June was given a job and housing at an orphange in Provenir, just 10 minutes away. She has been with me from the beginning. It has been amazing to see her grow and mature from the shy 9 year old to a confident young woman with a gift for young children. The orphange, Ninos de Baja is connected to another orphange Rancho de los Ninos that I first visited as a teen when my youth pastor introduced me to the Ranch. I am so thirlled to have her near by! 

Changes

It's hard to believe that five weeks have gone by since I returned. The girls have been here for a month now. There are changes that I did not expect as usual, life is full of changes yes? I only have 2 new girls in the dorm, Letti and Isabel. They are sisters from southern Mexico. It was decided that their younger hearing sister would not come after all. As of now I only have 10 girls in the dorm. Not nearly as many as we had initially thought. Three of my girls that have been with me for years, Miriam, Ana Lidia and Celeste have not returned. Thankful they will be back "home" soon. Ana Lidia and Celeste will be here this weekend. As soon as he has time, one of our director's Eddie will be going to pick Miriam up. All the girls are excited for them to return. Milagros asks me multiple times a day, "Where is Celeste?". I explain each time that she is sick but will be better soon and come back to school. Even thought the past few weeks have been not quite what I expected it is still a time filled with joy and contentment.

Newletter Summer 2012

The school year will soon be getting underway. Over the next two weeks our staff will be returning. We are excited about what this new year will bring! As of now one new staff will be going us. Regina is from Stockton, California! She has experience in office management and will be assistaning in the office this year. It will be nice to have someone close to home down there this year.

This coming school year is bringing many changes to the girl’s dorm at RSM. I am currently without an assistant dorm mother. The current dorm mom is switching to a teaching position. I have heard of two women that are possibly interested in the helping in the dorm but nothing has been decided yet.

I am looking forward to having up to seven new girls in the dorm.  For the first time since I’ve been at the Ranch I may have a full dorm of eighteen girls.  This is what I have been praying to happen for over seven years! I’m excited and a bit nervous.

 We may have a hearing girl in the dorm this fall. She has three older siblings who are deaf. The children come from a single mom home and are part of a small native tribe in southern Mexico. It was decided that it would be in the best interest of the family for the youngest to come to school as well even though she is hearing.  She will go to school and take classes in Mexican Sign Language along with the rest of the students. She will be able to keep up her Spanish as well.

I was blessed with the opportunity to buy a used car this month that is still in good condition for a fair price. It is going to be wonderful to have reliable transportation this year!

It has been wonderful to reconnect with many of you this summer. As well as meet many new people. I am heading back to Rancho Sordo Mudo on Tuesday, August 21. I want to thank you all for your prayers, notes and financial support. You make it possible for me to continue ministering here. You are all such a blessing!

My current need for the year (June 2012-May 2013) is,

 $15, 000. This covers rent, medical and car insurance, dental care and girls’ dorm needs. If you are interested in helping, please send checks made out to Berea Baptist Missions Inc, noting that it is for Katie Stanley and send them to my support address.

Hello From California!

Hola from California! It’s good to be back in the valley for a while. I arrived in Lodi two weeks ago. It has been good to catch up with family and friends and supporters from church.  I’m excited to see many of you and bring you up to date about everything that has been happening at the Ranch this past school year. I’m going to be in Lodi until August 1^st. After that most of the month of August is going to be taken up by weddings and reunions in Missouri before heading to back to the Ranch on August 22.

This coming school year is bringing many changes to the girl’s dorm at RSM. I am currently without an assistant dorm mother. The current dorm mom is switching to a teaching position. I am also looking forward to having up to seven new girls in the dorm.  For the first time since I’ve been at the Ranch I may have a full dorm of eighteen girls.  This is what I have been praying to happen for over seven years! I’m excited and a bit nervous. I may have a hearing girl and a mute girl in the dorm. The hearing girl has three older siblings who are deaf. The children come from a single mom home and are part of a small native tribe in southern Mexico. It was decided that it would be in the best interest of the family for the youngest to come to school as well even though she is hearing. The little mute girl’s name is Sofia. She is four years old and lives in orphanage in a near by town.  She can say a few words but that is all. This past year we had a young boy named Mario came to live with us. He, like Sofia has a very limited vocabulary, consisting of about five words. In his year with us he was able to pick up on sign language very quickly. Mario can now express all the thoughts that he has had for nine years. It is amazing to see how alive he has become. I would like the same thing to be possible for Sofia. Even if at some point Mario and Sofia’s vocabularies expand and no longer need to be at our home and school it will have been such a blessing for that period of time that they were with us.  A time for them to communicate, learn about Christ, be loved and introduced to the great need the Deaf have.

I’ll be sure to keep you updated about what is happening this fall. In the next few weeks I’ll be sending out a newsletter with some pictures of the year.  I would love to have the opportunity to see more of you. If you would like to hear more about the school year and watch a video of our Christmas Drama please let me know. I will be sharing with the Encourager’s Class that meet at Faith Community (Lodi) and the Word and Deed Sunday School (First Baptist Lodi).

Thank you all as always for your prayers, notes and support. You are all such a blessing and encouragement to my girls and I.

Prayers for the summer:

·      A new dorm mom for the fall, that we will be likeminded in raising the girls

·      All the students to return and for the prospective new students

·      For our students to stay safe over the summer

·      That I will be energized and full of passion for the new year

·      To raise the support I need for the year

Thankfull for God's Protection

100 Days of Thankfulness

I am thankful for the Lord's protection. This last week I went up to San Diego to get my car smogged, run some errands and meet up with a friend. Finding a smog station that was open took me forever so it put all my errands behind. (My car failed smog on three accounts.) It's not a smart idea to drive on Mexican highways at night, especially when you are a single white American girl with only so-so Spanish. I consolidated my shopping lists and tried to get accomplished as much as I could. As I picked up my co-op order I knew I was pushing the limits but I couldn't leave my things at the drop off house. I briefly thought about calling one of my directors and asking permission to stay the night at a friend's house. I decided against it and headed for the boarder. I crossed the boarder noticed I was low on gas, added some to my tank and went on my way. By this time twilight was creeping in and I had an hour more to still drive on highway that is under construction. A few miles past the city I look down at my dash board and was that my car was overheated. The dial (or whatever you call it) was within a milometer from the hot line. I pulled over to the shoulder and turned on my emergency flashers. I called another director, Eddie and he told me to stay where I was and that he would be there is 45 minutes. Then he called back and told me one of his friends who lived near by was going to come and find me but needed to know where I was. I haven't made this drive in such a long time that I didn't know where I really was. By now it was DARK. I called a couple friends to pray for me and to keep my mind distracted. Pray and chattering out of fear and nerves.

About an hour later I called my dad because I realized "What if?". What if something happened to me I would at least like to least like to hear his voice and let him know that I loved him, and say high to my mom and sister as well. Right as I was calling him Eddie's friends showed up. By this point I already had my dad freaked out, then I tell him I have to go because I'm being rescued by some Mexican men that I don't know. I thought I hung up with him but I didn't so Dad heard me talking to some men in broken Spanish trying to explain what was wrong. Then I realized he was still on the line so I let him know that I was following then back to their house to wait for Eddie. Which was one minute from where I had been waiting. The rest of the story to follow.....

Estoy en Mexico

Hello All, it's been awhile. After a summer of traversing the world, (the east coast and Israel) I am glad be be back in Mexico. It's been a week of meetings, cleaning and spending time with friends old and new. All our kids start coming back on September 1st. We are excited for them to come! This year we are going to have 25 boys and 12 girls! Be praying that the Lord will bring more girls to the Ranch, we still have room for 6 more. I would love to see those beds filled so that we can reach more girls for Christ and give them a language. At the same time I am looking forward to forming deeper relationships with the ones that we have now. Be praying for the two dorm dads, Mark and Ray as well. Caring for 25 boys is no easy task. With God's strength we will all press on. I can looking forward to see what he will do in the lives of our children and staff this year. 

LSM Creation to Church RSM

This year at our school we started a training center. Some of our older students are have been learning how to have a deeper with Jesus and how to teach other Deaf about Him. We are in the process of making videos that will teach through the Bible and share who Christ is. We hope for them to be a way for Mexican Deaf to learn about Jesus and teach other Deaf about him. This is Jose Antonio giving a breif summery of the Bible from Creation to the start of the church. The video is in MSL (Mexican Sign Language. Sorry, right now there are no subtitiles, we hope to add Spaninsh and English ones soon.

Kimchi

I couple months ago two of my girls, Yahaira and Lesly and I made kimchi. I love that stuff. We had alot of fun using the Chow Hall kitchen instead of my tiny makeshift  kitchen in our dorm room where all 18 of us, yes you got that right, 18 live. Making a large amount of lacto-ferments is just more than our  dorm can handle. Some of my girls loved the kimchi, others wouldn't even go near it. I think it's amazing. My goal is to make a differnet lacto-ferment to go with every type of meal. So I guess that means I will be sharing a lot of lacto-fermetnts in the near future. My recipe is based off of Nourishing Traditions veriation of kimchi. 

Kimchi

1 large head of cabbage, shredded

1 bunch green onions, chopped

1 cup carrots, grated

1/2 cup white radishes (I can't remember what kind I grew this year), grated

2 TBS freshly grated ginger

4 cloves of garlic, minced

1 tsp dried chilie flakes

1 TBS of sea salt (Real Salt or Celtic Salt are prefered)

4 TBS of whey (if you don't have whey use an additional 1 TBS of salt)

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl. Pound with a wooden pounder or whatever you can find, I used a rolling pin for about 10 minutes to release the juices. The mixture will fill two quart size jars. Be sure that the mixture is at least one inch below the top of the jars. Cover tightly and leave at room temperature. After three days transfer the kimchi to cool storage normally the top shelf of the fridge unless you are luck enough to have a root cellar. 

This post is part of Hearth and Soul

Saying Goodbye

Marisol, my girl that just turned 20 left last week after recently finishing secondary school to serve at Colegio Christiano Magdalena Rincon, a school for  Deaf, disabled and at risk children. I am so proud of her and happy for her! Currently she is helping in the class room and the dorm. I had to tease her about helping in the dorm since I took care of her in our dorm for six years. :) I told her, "now you know how I feel sometimes" when we were skyping the other day. I am so thrilled to see how God is going use her to minister to the Deaf!

Please be Praying:

Her health, right now she is sick
To have quality time with God
Love and wisdom as she cares for the girls and helps in the class
Support, she is currently in need of more supporters
Homesickness, for the Ranch and her own family

Mission Minded

This song is very dear to my heart. It is a powerful reminder of what we are called to do, declare  Jesus Christ to the nations. I went to a small Christian high school, with a class of 45. "You Said" was one of our favorite songs. When the year was almost over and the seniors led one of the last chapels we picked this song. Ministry, going out and sharing about how Jesus has changed our lives is what many now are doing. We are mission minded, we've gone to to seminary,  are actively involved in our churches and serve as missionaries in Uganda and Mexico. 

Rain Boots!

We had an early Christmas present arrive for the girls a couple weeks ago. Some of my wonderful supporters sent rain boots for every girl. They were so excited to open up their gift bags. What a blessing these will be as the rains continue. We had fun jumping in puddles right after we opened them.

  

First Day of School

The first day of school is finally here! Now "Mama" can breath a sigh of relief for a short while. I love all my girls dearly but this weekend has been quite long. Time to spend with God, blog, exercise and do dishes is much needed. Only eight of my sixteen girls are here so far. So today embarks the first semi normal day. I love routine, it makes everything else go so much more smoothly! Of course with only half me girls here everything takes twice as long. Go figure, who would say that life is easier with sixteen instead of eight? Almost all my little girls are here and only two of my older girls are here. So that means a lot more work for, Serafina (the new dorm mom assistant), our two older girls (Edith Marisol and Wendy) and I. All the same chores need to be done to keep our school and dorm clean.  All the little girls still need help with hair and learning to do their chores. And I just plain miss them. A few I know why they are late but others, I have no idea why they aren't here. There's always that fear that their parents won't bring them back and we won't know how to contact them or see them again. That's when I need to remember that God is in control. He knows where each of my girls are and what he has planned for their lives. I need to pray more and worry less. We are blessed to have a new ten year old girl in the dorm, Shelly. She is from Ensenada which is about 35 minutes away from us. She knows some sign and is getting along wonderfully with the other little girls. They all became fast friends while playing with the doll house. Let's just hope they stay that way. :) Please be praying that Shelly continues to adjust well and that all our other children arrive safely. Pictures will be soon to follow!

Heading Back To Mexico

Well, my car's all pack up and ready to head back to Mexico. It's a bitter sweet moment, it's my last day with my parents and sister but tomorrow night I will be back with my "Ranch Family". By Sunday all of our staff will have returned. After a week of meetings all our students will start returning on the 1st of September. I will finally be reunited with all my girls!!!! Please be praying for safe travels in the morning and afternoon. I should be able to get to the Ranch by 5:00pm. I'll be back on in a few days to let you know what's happening!

Rancho Sordo Mudo Mexican National Anthem Graduation 2010

Rancho Sordo Mudo Graduation 2010

Geography Lesson Part 3

Celeste could have used a chair when it was her turn, you get the idea. She still did a good job at knowing where the countries are.

Geography Lesson Part 2

Now here is Lesly signing and pointing out different countries on the map.