"I think you need to say Thank you!"

Delia and Greici received full scholarships to become certified Montessori teachers!  They have been traveling four hours round trip each Saturday over the last year to participate in the program and we are delighted at the prospect of offering this quality education to our girls.  They are in their final month now and we are feeling both relieved and overwhelmed.  Relieved that the pressure of homework, study and travel will be lifted, but overwhelmed by all that is required to implement their training because we have so far to go.

As we traveled this week to visit highly functioning Montessori schools, we began to share our mixed feelings with the director of the certification program, Marta Vicente.  She knows New Hope Girls Academy well and introduced Montessori methods to our girls and staff in our first year of classes.

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She was not empathetic to our fears and concerns, but instead challenged us in our lack of faith and gratitude.

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“You haven’t even been open three years!  God is in this work.  You began with two girls and now you have eight in the safe house.  You began with no training and now your teachers are finishing their first year of certification.  God sent you Amanda, the best teacher Santiago has to offer.   There are many reasons to say THANK YOU.  I think you need to say THANK YOU.”

Most everyone looking in from the outside can see God’s hand all over New Hope, guiding protecting, providing.  So much grace. So much love.  Those of us on the front lines sometimes focus on the how long the road ahead is and forget to be grateful in the journey and for all that has brought us this far.  Truth be told, Marta is right; we just need to say Thank You, everyday and out loud so the world can hear.  So we can hear…just how good our God has been to us!

May we become, “The brave who focus on all things good and all things beautiful and all things true, even in the small, who give thanks for it and discover joy even in the here and now, they are the change agents who bring fullest Light to all the world. 

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When we lay the soil of our hard lives open to the rain of grace and let joy penetrate our cracked and dry places, let joy soak into our broken skin and deep crevices, life grows.  How can this not be the best thing for the world?  For us?  The clouds open when we mouth thanks.”—Ann Voskamp