February Update

February is a delightful time on our island. The sun is out in all its glory, yet tempered by the cool breezes from the sea. Flowers abound--billy-goats, hibiscus, bouganvilla, and red lilies, to name a few. Just as the island is emerging in all its beauty after a turbulent hurricane season and the accompanyingt rains, so we are seeing all kinds of new life here.

COLEGIO

This year for the first time in Helene's history, we will have a "college," or colegio, on our island. Colegio is the term used for a secondary school, which includes Grades 7 - 9, or as they term it, "First Course," "Second Course," and "Third Course." Thanks to the efforts of Miss Dola, one of our teachers in the Helene Christian Bilingual School, and Brother Martel who is a principal in a school in Roatan, school should start next month.

Some prominent people on the island are one the board for the new colegio, and several students are "matriculating," or registering. Tania Dilbert, one of our teachers, will teach part-time in this new school.

HELENE CHRISTIAN BILINGUAL SCHOOL

Our school started this past week too. Emily Benson, our head teacher, is planning for nearly 100 students this year with the opening of Classroom II. There are still more children on the waiting list.

Emily spent last month with the four island women teachers, two interns who are working in the clinic for three months, and 3 island teachers assistants in a teacher training program. Sheila, Emily's mother and an elementary school teacher, assisted Emily in the training. These teachers are enthusiastic, and ready to step out to tr their new skills to help the island children learn.

Shanna, one of the new teachers, when she heard about setting firm limits, said, "I can't do that! They might call me "sickenin'!" But when she realized that, though the children might grumble, they would come to respect her and the discipline they would be learning, she stepped up to the task.

Watching these young women walking home from school aned seeing their professional appearance, one knows the lives of our children are in good hands.

NEW MEDICAL CLINIC STAFF

Deirdre Greer, a home health nurse, has arrived to pick up the baton that Scott Malone will pass when he and his family return to Oklahoma so he can attend physician assistant's school with the idea of returning to the mission field. Deirdre spent seven weeks here last year, fell in love with the island, and has returned to serve the people of Helene in a medical capacity.

Alisa Kearney, another nurse, will be coming to assist Deirdre in the clinic. She has a background in telemetry, and has been to Helene on a Medical Missions Practicum in the past, and spent two weeks here last year in the clinic.

We are looking forward to an exciting year, in every way. Spring is truly a time of new beginnings!

May you experience new beginnings in your life as well.

Marjie Thompson, RN
Helene Clinic
Roatan, Honduras, C. A.

Helene School is Growing

Helene School is Growing - 1/30/2006

Teacher TrainingGearing up for our fourth year, Helene Christian English School is offering a four to six week Teacher Training School to all returning teachers, interns, and new local workers who might have a love for children and the desire to pursue leadership in teaching. We are excited about having the time, opportunity, and staff to provide a training session prior to a full academic school year. Yes, we are going all the way from February to November! Pray for us as we each continue to build on the foundation laid before us…and learn from it (1 Cor. 3:6-13).

Student Progress

We are proud to say we are witnessing some great progress in student performance. There are reports throughout staff and returning Short Term Mission teams that attitudes and behaviors among our students and their siblings are at an all-time low–both inside and outside of class. We work hard to address appropriate behaviors and practice respect in class and at every turn. Our staff is focused on showing love through learning, encourage responsibility, and instill accountability among our student body. For all the rest, we trust God’s Word to be useful for correction (2 Tim. 3:16-17). Every year we see new progress in students in the areas of reading and writing. Students who couldn’t show they knew their alphabet sounds a year ago are now beginning to read. Focus and attention span is our biggest challenge, which means our teachers go to great lengths to be creative and include music and movement in their lessons. Needless to say, we have found consistency to be the key to all of our success.

New Classroom!

Our student body is growing by leaps and bounds–literally. Our standing waiting list of three years was almost resolved in 2005 as ten new students were registered. Thanks to the blood, sweat, and tears of staff and STMers throughout summer 2005, we predict to completely resolve the remaining list this year with the addition of our second free-standing classroom. Thanks to donations, it will be equipped with twenty-four new student desks which can stand alone or easily slide into groupings four. Although we value teamwork and promote group learning most of the time, we are choosing to revert back to the traditional classroom setting in order to bridge cultural gaps to invest responsibility, ownership, and accountability to our students. Our ultimate desire is to see every child come to Christ, nurtured and cultivated through love and learning, to serve the Kingdom of God through integrity, excellence, and leadership as is in line with our mission statement to Reach, Teach, and Send.Vision for 2006

We continue to pursue relationships with the local Spanish school teachers, with whom we are partners to provide the children of Helene a bilingual education. During 2005, we met almost once a month to provide classroom supplies and futbols. The school was also secured tightly when we braced the windows with iron bars and installed new locks on the outside doors so that supplies would not be stolen and the facility vandalized. We hope to one day meet regularly to offer computer training and share teaching ideas and resources with these Spanish-speaking teachers to help students better bridge the bilingual gap. Other working relationships between the school and our community involve weekly visits by educators with Coral Cay Conservation to teach reef safety and appreciation. Also teaming with Coral Cay, the workers of Clean Sweep visit with lessons to instill the value and power of each student in keeping our island clean.