All Saints Episcopal Church

Summer 2009 program at the Centro

Dear Friends:

Today we celebrated the end of the reading program at the Centro.  A lot of the success of this effort is actually measurable.  As a whole, the group of children increased their length of concentration tenfold.  One of the pictures in the collage this week captures a real miracle:  C had only been able to rifle through a book at the beginning of the program.  By the end of last week, she was able to tell the story of a book by looking at the pictures of the book, doing it so well that she was able to keep the attention of one of her peers.  Another boy could only write very simple words and it was very hard getting him to do even that.  Today, he wrote three whole sentences.  We’ve seen improvements in socialization/peer to peer behavior, we’ve watched a child who would not speak at the beginning of the program end up being one of our chatter boxes—she is particularly amusing because she is tiny yet has a deep voice and a Bronx accent. Some of what was accomplished is less tangible but just as real:  as soon as our kids come into the Centro in the morning they make a bee line for the books.  There is a love of reading getting nurtured here that blows me away.  Deb Greene and her crew have been amazing, instilling such a love for stories with our young ones.
 

Last week we had a transportation adventure, riding on a Pullman bus, a train and finally a shuttle to the airport.  At the airport, we practiced math skills by counting the number of suitcases that came out on the conveyor belt at luggage pickup.  Upstairs in the terminal, the children looked at the arrival/departure monitor and we asked a few people where they were going.  When we got back to the Centro, the teachers helped the kids  find the different cities they’d identified on the monitor and in the interviews with passengers.  But the all time best part of the day was when we parked next to the runway to watch planes take off.  Chris Kain helped us go to where there is a loudspeaker that broadcasts the conversations between the flight crews and the control tower as planes prepare for take off.  We thought that was pretty cool, and then it got even cooler:  a large Delta jet stopped really close to where we were all standing and the captain opened his window and waved at us. 

This week has flown by so we could hardly believe that this afternoon it was time to hand out participation certificates.  We had an impromptu graduation ceremony with the adults humming “Pomp and Circumstance”.  Each child came up for a certificate, shook all the teachers hands and then got his or her picture taken.  Tomorrow we head for the water park and next week we will do Vacation Bible School.  Lee and I have continued to be amazed by the ripple effect of each day.  Soon we’re going to have a wedding here at the Centro:  the mom of one of our eight-year-olds who is new to the Centro asked me if I would marry this young boy’s dad and her.  It is tempting to go on and on with all the stories but I hope this gives you some more of a sense of what this time has been like.  Holy doesn’t even come near to describing how deeply I have felt the presence of grace moving in our midst.

God is good…

rosa