Rodney and Bertha Fink go down to Mexico for many months of the year. (They do also come back to Macomb for many months ;-)

We asked Rodney to write up a description of what they do in Progreso Mexico. Here is what he wrote: (There are a few pictures at the bottom.)

1. We spend most of our time in Mexico working with two churches —an Apostolic Christian Church and  Mexican Methodist Church, both in Progreso, MX.  We fill in with supplies in other churches where we learn of a need.  In these two churches, we had ministers who were computer literate but who had “dark age” computing equipment” and updated their computers and bought and helped install motorized screens and LED projectors for their sanctuaries.  These have been a very good investment as they have used the technology to provide words for music in their services (they have few songbooks) a good platform for kid’s programs and in one of the two communities, they show movies to community members on occasion.  Along with the projectors and related equipment, we have helped with speakers, and cable to install speakers, in the church which helps with the music program (Mexicans are very musical).

2. The Mexican Methodist church has a kid’s lunch program during the school year and we have helped by providing freezers, cooking equipment and we keep them stocked with chicken leg quarters throughout the year.  The chicken leg quarters are about the least expensive meat source we can find so this has been a popular deal.

3. Good educational resources are hard to come by in Mexico so we spend a good deal of time helping in this area.  We find Concordia Press (Mo Synod Lutheran) in St. Louis has a great deal of SS and VBS material in Spanish so this has been a great resource for us.  We purchased VBS (in Spanish) materials for programs in two churches and they were very well received.  The complete package for about 60 kids cost around $500.00 and was an excellent investment.  We were able to help 3 churches with these materials and attended one of the VBS programs this July and concluded that this investment was a great “enabling investment” for kids in these poor communities.

4. On a regular basis from November to May, we do women’s programs (about one per week, alternating between churches) where Bertha works with women of each church with craft and sewing projects.  They of course have many kids with them so my job is to keep the kids occupied and we do this with some videos (I have an app and small projector for the i-phone which lets me do a bible story and then I follow this with some coloring sheets related to the chosen story.  We also do lots of  puzzles and general coloring sessions.   My neighbor has a machine for making rope (braids twine) and once each year, we set up for making “jump ropes” for each youngster who is there and this has been a very popular event (generally we make 50 to 60 jump ropes).

5. The apostolic Christian Church has two pastors (husband and wife) and we set up a little library reading program for pre-school kids that worked pretty well.  Our theory was that if youngsters were read to at an early age, they might perform better in school later on.  Lots of data shows that such kids are less likely to get pregnant, get in trouble with parents/law and do better in school.  The program basically consisted of having a session for pre-school children and their Mothers on a regular basis and read a story to the kids.  At the end of the sessions, each child could check out one book and take it home for a Mother (not all are literate) or family member to read back to them.  When finished with the book, they could bring it back and check out another book.  We bought about 150 Spanish children’s (2/3s religious, other general) books and this program is still operating on a phased down basis.

6.  We try to be available with resources to help any children’s programs either church wants to try.

I don’t know where you draw the line, age wise, for children but in Mexico, the public schools, for the most part, end at the 9th grade.  when working with some of the women’s programs, Bertha asked a Mother why so many 14 to 16 year old kids were hanging around (nice kids).  the answer was that they had no jobs and couldn’t afford to attend the state run professional and technical education school in the community ( it only provides training in a program called INFORMATICA).  The school is for grades 10, 11 and 12 and offers some general ed training plus some basic computer use programs (for example database, spread sheet and word processing).  The school only takes 60 students per year and probably 200 to 300 or so students finish grade level 9 in Progreso each year.  we started taking applications for scholarships which would pay tuition for the students which runs around $150 to $200 per semester (6 semester course).  Currently we provide full tuition payments for 40 of these kids and also fund tuition for two of the best graduates  to attend the University of Rio Bravo.  We look at this as a sustainable part of what we do but we need the other programs to gain access to kids able to succeed in school.  We were recognized at graduation at the school’s graduation this year which was fun.  We have received some help for this program from the Searcher’s class and Wesley’s mission committee which has helped us as well.  Also, some family members have helped and this plus a devalued peso has helped us cover more students.

 

Blessings,

Rodney

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