The Future of El Rosario will be led by a loving, living God through the lives of 15 young boys
The El Rosario Christian Academy For Boys is on its way to becoming a reality. With a green light from Sr. Rosales, the school principal, we asked for a meeting with the “municipality”. We wanted to present our project to those who could make a decision on using the land and abandoned school.
Last Saturday, a special meeting was called with eight town board members including el lĂder, (man in charge). When he walked into the meeting we all immediately knew that this was the right person. Sr. Leonardo Coz had everyone’s immediate attention. I have heard stories about alcalde’s (mayors) in other villages that made it very hard to move forward on projects. Many times, they wanted to exploit the situation and get something for themselves or their family in return. I was a little cautious.
After introductions were made, David and I laid out our intentions piece by piece. The board and Sr. Coz never made any kind of facial expression. They were all very stoic. The other members of the board did not say a thing until they heard from Sr. Coz.
As David and I finished talking, everyone’s attention turned to El LĂder. Honestly, at this point, I’m thinking, flip of a coin. How would I feel about a group of strangers coming into my community to propose changes? How would I feel about strangers telling me that the boys in my community have no role models and need only to look to THE role model of Jesus Christ?
“Sr. Coz, we don’t have a single Quetzal for this project,” we could literally hear the gasp from some of the men in the room. “but we believe this is God’s will and will provide the money we need.”
He nodded in agreement.
“We already have people interested in helping us, and one of their concerns is what will happen if we re-build the abandoned school and then the municipality decides we can’t use it any more. Would you sign an agreement that would allow us to teach boys about the bible for the next 25 or 50 years?”
Sr. Coz said that the board would sign that document. He asked if we would prepare it and as long as it describes what we have talked about, it would become a binding agreement.
Do you see what happened there? That is our almighty God opening doors again. Wide open.
The Christian Academy begins on JULY 19th! We will be meeting with the boys at the elementary school until the lower school is remodeled. Right now, we will be meeting with them on Fridays after school. We will feed them a healthy lunch and then spend the next 3 months getting to know them, encouraging them and tutoring them to get their grades up. To be a part of the Christian Academy, the boys will be required to have passing grades of 70 percent or above in all of their classes.
