Staying In Touch, June 2009

Dear friends of the CCCS,
This letter is to remind you again what your prayers and support are doing.
Jim and I leave in the morning for the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League (LWML) convention in Portland, Oregon where we will take a CCCS display. LWML is one of my favorite organizations as it was started with the goal of reaching others for Christ. The difference they have made is amazing. If it weren’t for the LWML perhaps the CCCS would not be in existence. In 1955 they gave $5,000 to build a 6 grade school in Zacapa, Guatemala. Because of the existence of this school, the possibility of a boarding school (which started the CCCS) would perhaps never have happened. The boarding school has served students now for 41 years, and the Lutheran School (Colegio Divino Salvador) is still serving almost 600 students. How exciting!
Gloria Canjura, one of the first students in the boarding school, will be at the convention along with her daughter Marcella who is one of the Young Women’s
Representatives from the Northern Illinois District. We are already seeing 2nd
generation students which is a blessing.
On July 26, a former student at the boarding school, Rev. Luis Jasinto, will
be dedicating the fifth Lutheran school in Gulan, Guatemala. It’s been a
work in progress and will finally begin January, 2010 as the school year in Guatemala is from January to October. The LWML has also been a help in building this school as well as many others who have played a part.
Mark Kempff, former missionary in Venezuela, forwarded a letter from Gustavo Arturo Maita who is a former CCCS scholarship student from Christ the King Lutheran School in Maturin, Venezuela. His letter gives thanks for his 9 years as a scholarship student which led him to study for the ministry. He now is studying in the Lutheran Seminary of Juan de Frias and is doing a practicum through serving in many different Lutheran churches. A quote from his thank you letter states, “I pray to Jesus that He continues blessing the CCCS in their ministry as so many children in our world cannot study and do not have the way to learn God’s Word to know Jesus as the only way to the Father.”
We still are amazed about our trip to Paraguay, South America. Victor Verruck, the Lutheran Hour Director in Ascuncion and also the coordinator of the CCCS projects, took us to nine different project sites to show what the CCCS funds are making possible. One is the 470 student Santa Cruz Lutheran School in Hohenhau where the CCCS provides 25 scholarships. Another most impressive site was the “Little Bible School”where 60 Guarani Indian children gather at the edge of the National Forest of Paraguay every Saturday. Mirta, a volunteer from “Christ Lives” Lutheran Church, speaks Guarani and coordinates volunteers who prepare Bible stories, crafts, snacks and games for these children who are learning of Jesus for the first time. Victor kept saying as we visited the projects, “We can do this because of the funds the CCCS is providing,”.
Again we feel humbled the Lord has given the CCCS these opportunities.
Edie Jorns, Project Director CCCS