David and Nancy Slinde Speaking at their "Sending Service"

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Walters letter

Our last photo album of El Salvador featured the public school of Alambre. A local West Bend family funded a new roof over the computer lab which was installed by community volunteers. However during a recent winter storm, the remaining old roof over a classroom and office was destroyed. The principal of this school Walter Gomez wrote to us last Saturday. We would like to share his letter with you so that you can share our El Salvador experiences and relationships. “Dear David and Nancy, I greet you wishing the Almighty to have you under the protection of his cloak and that you feel happy knowing that the Lord loves you very much. At the same time I apologize for not having communicated with you sooner but I want to tell you that once again the young men of the hardware store of Concepción Batres spoke of you. On this occasion also I want to thank you for the continuation of your aid for the Central School with lamina and materials. It is in a perfect manner and timing to cover us from the winter but we had another drawback with the section of preschool that was of the same nature (terra cotta tiles). Thanks to God, the mayor of Jucuarán is collaborating with us. Now David and Nancy I want to ask you to help me with the windows that had been proposed for the computer classroom. I tell you that today there are 24 new students in high school and we want these young people to come away with best knowledge in information technology. I also share with you the joy that I feel with the solidarity that you provide. I want to tell you that the Ministry of Education is going to visit us Thursday to evaluate the classroom of computers and if the classroom is well evaluated, possibly will give us more computers. David and Nancy, I am sure and I am not mistaken that all that you do God all-powerful acknowledges and for our part we tell you that never have we had a strength as what you give us.” Our goal is to ensure that the entire building has new lamina protecting not only the computer lab, but also the classroom and the office that contains school supplies and text books. We can say this in confidence as we have received funding from two families toward this effort. The computer lab is one of our favorite projects. It started as a Rotary project with 5 computers and computer desks. As a result, a teaching job was created. Now the ministry of education has a starting point to strengthen the technology experience for more students in this rural and remote area of the country. They will be visiting this school with an eye towards placing Alambre as the Center of the Computer Education in this zone, serving four schools (one high school) and possibility of future equipment purchases and funding from the government. The Alambre project that began with a relationship and a request for student desks in 2011 has grown into a larger blessing for the staff and students of this school. We will visit them again, take pictures and provide you with an update. David y Nancy