Posts tagged with ‘Virgen de Guadalupe’

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After a rocky start (literally), Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe nearing completion

by John Nelson

After hewing a foundation from solid rock, the TLAU workforce has finally completed the classrooms

As the beginning of the Salvadoran school year approaches, craftsmen are putting the final touches on the two classrooms at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.  Walter uploaded upwards of 500 photos onto the photo site, and is sure to add more once the building is inaugurated and occupied.  I remember visiting this school on a particularly scorching afternoon about 3 years ago, and all that stood in that spot was a large rock.  It wasn’t a very useful rock, as it wasn’t appealing to the eye or good for climbing. Later, as I looked at the pictures of the workmen laboring to create a stable foundation for the new places of learning, a quote came to mind that you might recognize. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded on a rock.”

TLAU and the people of El Salvador thank you for being their rock.  The winter rains will fall again, the winds will rattle their tin roofs, and the earth may even shake as they have done before, but the children of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe are not alone.

guadalupe

A back-breaking ground-breaking at Guadalupe…

by John Nelson

A few young lads at Our Lady of Guadalupe take shelter from a summer storm while extending thanks to the students at JSerra who made the new classrooms possible.

Walter uploaded some photos of what looks like the ground-breaking for the new classrooms at Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.  Only this ground-breaking is without all the pomp and circumstance that usually accompanies such an event.  Nope, no flashing bulbs or gilded shovels…just three laborers (likely parents) breaking ground. I hope all the students at JSerra get to see these.  There are sure to be many to follow!

 

This school rocks: JSerra benefit dance pays for new classroom at OLG

by John Nelson

Benefit dance 013I’m not sure why, but this makes me feel like that little kid who spent all December wanting a certain toy, all the while knowing that he wasn’t going to get it.  Then come Christmas morning at 5 AM, he’s squinting at it through tired little eyes, still not really sure it’s there. Now that’s not to say that I didn’t expect the campus ministry students at JSerra to come through with enough money for a classroom: their jeans day event proved them to well versed in the art of fundraising, and from the beginning I noticed a focus and dedication that was sure to accomplish something great.  But the whole affair screams serendipity, or rather Providence: TLAU didn’t ask them to do anything.  One person (campus ministry leader Robyn Gibson) heard about our mission and the needs at Virgen de Guadalupe, and a month later we have enough money for a new classroom.

Benefit dance 008So check out the photos.  The only thing I would have done different: glowsticks. Lots of glowsticks.

JSerra students and the $1200 day of denim

by John Nelson

Campus Ministry 004Who knew that high school students wanted to dress down so badly? Oh…that’s right.  I knew.

But campus minstry leader Robyn Gibson says the outpouring of support wasn’t just a fortunate consequence of several hundred cases of senioritis. In fact, after a sluggish start to the jeans day effort, the students found that if they were more vocal about the cause behind their efforts, other students were much more likely to give. So after only the first event of JSerra Catholic High senior campus ministry’s partnership with The Least Among Us, Virgen de Guadalupe already has $1200 to put toward the construction of its classrooms.

I’m thinking about contacting the school administrators to see if we can’t start selling days off or field trips to the beach. Methinks we could build enough classrooms for every child in El Salvador.

Take a look at these photos!

Senior Campus Ministry at JSerra Catholic High School to raise $3K for classrooms at Virgen de Guadalupe

by John Nelson

JSerra_studentsMeet the senior campus ministry students at JSerra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano, CA.  At the request of their theology teacher Robyn Gibson, TLAU’s very own Leonard Nelson recently delivered them a presentation on our organization and the impact it is having on the poor of El Salvador.  Evidently what they gleamed wasn’t a sob story or guilt trip or a bunch of boring pictures but a clear challenge to get up and do something.  And that they will.

“The goal of the class is to form students to be strong Christian leaders,” says Robyn. “But real leaders are nothing but servants who understand themselves to be part of a larger human family.”

The class was especially impressed with TLAU’s strategy to improve conditions in El Salvador: helping people help themselves while avoiding the “Santa Claus” approach to charitable giving, thereby preserving the dignity of those who need help while simultaneously encouraging a sense of stewardship.

Their plan for Virgen de Guadalupe? A benefit dance (any theme suggestions?), a jeans day where JSerra students may donate to the cause in exchange for the privilege of dressing down for a day, and possibly a family dinner night at a local diner.

“We’re all very excited about this,” their fearless leader adds.  “I honestly think my students will gain more than they give.”

And that they will.