Mar 8, 2005

Back from the United States

We have settled back into our routine after our whirlwind trip to the United States. Luz Maria brought back many good ideas, some of which she immediately put to use.

For example, at Christ Our Lutheran Church in Freeburg, Illinois, she saw on the wall a big cross composed of little personalized crosses that members of the church had made. So she had the children engage in this activity last Sunday.

She also shared many observations she had made at St. Michael's Preschool in Bloomington, Minnesota, with the public preschool teachers who instruct the children in our home on weekdays. They were impressed with how the staff of St. Michael's Preschool had organized so many activities into two and a half hours in the morning. They also liked the idea of teaching the children to memorize and write not only their names, but also their home addresses and telephone numbers.

I mentioned in my last newsletter that Luz Maria had never seen trees without leaves before visiting the United States. This is because in Venezuela, deciduous trees do not lose all their leaves at one time once a year. Rather they shed old leaves continuously as new leaves develop. That means raking the yard is a daily, yearround chore. In addition to this task, I also water the flowers every day. Luz Maria has planted circular plot that she hopes will one develop into a floral replica of the Lutheran seal: purple flowers forming a cross in the center of red flowers in the shape of a heart inside white flowers symbolizing a white rose.



Actually it doesn't look anything like that right now. But if you look at it in the right way, you can see that is what it might become. That is as good a metaphor for our project as I can think of.

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