Club Esperanza: Our Awesome Staff and their free time!

If you have ever visited Club Esperanza in person or spent time looking over our blog, you will see the faces of our group of teachers, tutors, kitchen and maintenance crew and administration.  They are always there in the background or popping into a photo.  We make great efforts to fundraise because that is the only way we have to pay the salaries of all the wonderful people who work at the Club.  We are so thankful for your support!

Certainly, the most beautiful thing for us is knowing the heart of our staff and seeing the efforts they make.  The truth is, the pay is better elsewhere.  The conditions are certainly safer and better elsewhere.  The kids in other middle and upper class communities are certainly much more well behaved.  But this group is dedicated to serving the Lord at Club Esperanza.  I want to take this blog space to share about some of the things that happen at the Club done by our staff in their free time.

“C.E.L.A:  Club Embarazada y Lactante” – Yaraseth lives in the community surrounding Club Esperanza.  She has been a teacher with us ever since we had the school Colegio Esperanza in the dump community of La Chureca.  She is a young mother herself and when the opportunity to start a special group for pregnant and nursing mothers arose, Yara volunteered.  She now organizes and runs this group on Fridays with the assistance of the mother of one of her preschool students.  Pregnancy, nursing and mothering a newborn can be a very difficult time in one’s life.  Those difficulties are multiplied in the circumstances of poverty in our community.  Yara uses the time to provide not just the support of friendship, but also teaching and education to help the mothers with some basic ideas and tips to make life easier.  They have fun together too in the midst of the excitement of having dozens of babies in the same meeting (when they all start crying at once it gets really exciting!).  We also distribute donations of clothing, baby supplies, etc to help our mothers materially as well.  There are nearly 30 mothers who participate…pretty stinkin’ awesome!

“Teaching on Baptism” – Professor Roberto has also been a teacher since we had the school in La Chureca.  He has the added bonus of being married to Sheyla, our director!  Roberto has been receiving Seminary training this past year, hoping to grow deeper with the Lord personally.  He also has the desire to be able to reach his students spiritual needs on a deeper level.  So, when some of them started asking about Baptism and what it meant, Roberto took the opportunity to organize a Friday class where he could teach students about Baptism and what it means to be a Christian.  He had a group of young men join him and they dove in together.  They finished their first group of teaching last Friday.  Some of them are now really wanting to be baptized.  Please pray for God to give each one the perfect moment for their baptism!  Again…this is awesome!

“Grupos Matrimonial” – If you have been to Nicaragua recently and prayed with us at Miss Ruby’s house you would have met Marisol.  Marisol is a powerful woman of God and a friend of ours from church.  She has been helping at Club Esperanza this past year, and has been an awesome influence.  She and Sheyla recently had the idea to put together a Marriage Seminar for families from Club Esperanza.  One of the biggest battles for many of our students is that they come from homes where their parents’ relationships are broken or on the verge of collapse.  This seminar is an effort to do something about it!  This past Saturday Juan and Marisol, Roberto and Sheyla and another wonderful couple from our church put together the first “Grupos Matrimonial Seminar”.  Ten couples signed up and came on Saturday to find our cafeteria turned into a dining hall awaiting their arrival.  There was a time of teaching, a dinner together, and then a time of prayer for each couple.  The fruit of this seminar will be long lasting in the lives of each couple and it is going to make an impact on the entire community.  It was very special that afterwards several of the couples expressed their desire to get married, so we are going to work on having some weddings in the near future at Club Esperanza!  Again, so Awesome!

We hope you are encouraged to read about some of these incredible things going on in the “free time” at Club Cristiana La Esperanza.  Encouraged that your continued prayers are sewing into the lives of many here in Nicaragua!

Club Esperanza is always full of life.  When you show up randomly you might find a kid flying around on his little bicycle or someone hiding in the garden!  Praise Jesus for this safe refuge and place where His love, truth and joy can be a constant!