In the depressed Chilean economy, here in the poorest region of the country with one of the highest jobless rates, mothers and caretakers are stretched to the limits both physically and emotionally... 

Abel's Sunday School class is exclusively boys. When all are present there are 15. They spend much of the class scrambling for his attention, pushing to be first in whatever learning activities and handicrafts he has planned. He recruited one of the youth to work with him and has an adult church member who volunteers. The boys can hardly believe their good fortune of having three adults, two of them male, giving them attention for an hour. Abel is becoming quite a baker as he makes certain to have a cake for each boy's birthday. For most, this is the only event that marks the days as special.  

Abel sees the boys calming down each week and is encouraged that some learning is taking place. One of the boys, who has been clinically diagnosed and treated for hyperactivity, decided that he wishes to be baptized. However, he doesn't wish to just be sprinkled, thank you-- he wants to be baptized in the river "just like Jesus!"  

The girl's group at the Agricultural School is also a humbling and gratifying experience. Fifty of the seventy girls who stay in the dorms enrolled to participate. We divided them into two groups and solicited their input for activities. They said they wanted to learn a bit of everything including what God has to do with them and their lives as teens in an agricultural boarding school...I have enlisted help from 3 Sociedades Femeninas (United Methodist Women equivalent) in the area to help teach cooking and crafts, and to plan spiritual and emotional enrichment activities.  

It is surprising to see how receptive the girls are to various activities, and at the gusto with which they sing and throw themselves into the Sunday School songs we teach. They also bask in the attention of different women working with them women who are able to take some of the pressure off the one housemother as they offer encouragement, advice and a shoulder to cry on. 

May the Lord bless and keep you all!