Our school year started on Monday, February 2nd, and the school year ends the first week of November for the majority of the students. What an exciting time at the Finca every single year!!! Seeing all of our students and their pure joy to simply be back in the classroom with their friends and playing soccer or tag at recess is one of the things that fills me with joy and peace at the Finca. We are so blessed to have an incredible group of 11 Honduran teachers, and we even have 5 missionary teachers helping out in the school this year in a variety of ministries.
Our Finca school, despite being FAR from perfect, is truly one of the better schools in the area and continuingly impacts so many students’ lives every single day. Many people have said that education is the best way out of poverty, and I 100% agree with this claim! The Finca school has given hope and a future to SO, SO many kids over the last 30 years and has given them a way out of their current situations that simply would not have been possible otherwise. Our elementary school and middle school are the roots of some of the biggest impacts that our ministry has made on the nearby communities over the last 30 years, but it has also given a hope and a future to so many Finca kids that have dealt with unbelievably unfair childhoods. It has given them an environment where they can simply be themselves and make progress at their own rate and comfort.
However, the start of the school year is also a time when I realize just how far behind some of our Finca kids really are simply because of their past trauma while growing up. Some of our Finca kids are in grades WAY younger than their age would suggest for a variety of reasons. Maybe they were in families that didn’t send their kids to school. Maybe they just didn’t have the economic resources to be able to pay for the uniforms and classroom materials that an education requires in Honduras. Maybe they have gone to school since they were 5 but learning comes EXTREMELY hard to them because of how their past traumas have impacted brain development. There are likely a billion different factors that go into the struggles that some of our Finca kids face in the classroom, but it also leads me to another realization that I make every year…
Our Finca kids are SO, SO, SO resilient! One of our girls, “M”, for example, had never gone to school before when she arrived at the Finca when she was 12 years old. Despite being 12 years old and the continual help from missionaries after school and on weekends, M started her educational career at the Finca in second grade. I remember thinking how bitter and angry that I would have been if I was double the age of some of the kids in my grade, but watching M throughout that year and every year that has followed has never ceased to amaze me. M, while certainly having some frustrations with her situation, decided that she would simply make the most of the opportunity to be in school and has become best friends with several kids in her class. She has decided that she simply can’t change the past, but she can control her present and her attitude when she shows up to class every day. M, now 17, can often be found playing soccer with the boys at recess or talking with her friends while eating their snack, and that sense of normalcy in her life brings her a lot of joy.
One of our 13-year-old boys, “W”, is now in 5th grade and is still learning how to read. Learning comes extremely difficult to him, and he likely has some sort of learning disability, especially when it comes to reading. Despite the occasional frustrations of not being able to read like his 5th grade peers, including his older brother in the same class, he has such a strong desire to improve his reading skills and continue to improve each day in the classroom. He will gracefully admit that his reading ability is not where it should be (again, for a variety of factors largely beyond his control), but he shows up every single day with a big smile on his face, ready to get better in whatever way that he can that day, and especially ready to play soccer at recess with his best friends in the world. Seeing W’s joy when he notices the slow progress that he is making never fails to bring a smile to my face and joy to my heart.
There are endless examples of the daily struggles that some (but certainly not all!) of our Finca kids endure on a daily basis in the classroom, but their examples of picking themselves back up and trying again has taught me SO, SO much about my own life and how I need to improve at responding to adversity. Our Finca kids have taught me that some things and circumstances are beyond my control, but I can always control my attitude when I show up every single day and how I treat others around me. They have taught me that there will undoubtedly be frustrations in this process called life, but all you can do is pick yourself back up and try again the next day!
Please pray for all of our students and teachers at our elementary school and middle school at the Finca, as well as the 2 Finca kids that go to high school in Trujillo!
Please let me know how I can pray for you!
God bless!