Happy Thanksgiving...

One of my favorite Thanksgiving traditions growing up was the annual Sanchez family (and friends) Turkey Bowl.  A fierce, intense, and at times painful football game at some random park.  Two teams battling it for ultimate victory bragging rights. Afterwards usually included a Starbucks run and then of course, ibuprofen to help with the pain settling in.

The last Turkey bowl we were apart of was in Nashville a few years ago.  What a wonderful time gathering with my 2 brothers, their spouses and our daughters.  No sons, just 8 beautiful, strong and wonderful daughters.

I love Thanksgiving and have definitely missed certain traditions since moving down to Mexico.  Of course, this evening we will feast on turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, etc.  But the day, was business as usual.  Woke up early to drive the school bus and pick up students.  I taught my 5 music classes, the girls were in school, Jackie taught her usual kindergarten students and then it was time to take students home at 2:40.

Today was definitely extra special though.  As I watched our students and teachers working, studying, laughing, learning and playing, I was overwhelmed with gratitude and thankfulness.  As I listened to my music students continue to practice and learn their Christmas Posada songs, my heart was blessed and encouraged.

What an amazing opportunity our team and staff of 14 have here to invest in the lives of these 95 students, their families and our community.  What a blessing it has been to have so many of you partner with us in prayer, financial contributions and visits.  Because of all the support we receive on a daily, monthly and yearly basis, we are able to continue are mission of caring for children, partnering with families and investing in our community.

So on this very special Thanksgiving Day, thank you to ALL OF YOU.  We love and appreciate you so very very much.  I pray and hope that your day has been special and filled with love, family, friends and gratitude.

Blessings to you all…

Jason

School, Golf, Music & Family...

This past Tuesday I returned from yet another wonderful, blessed and busy trip to the states.  It’s always challenging trying to catch up on all my work, meetings AND teaching my music class, after being gone.

Here at our school I oversee the jr high and high school music classes.  After a little bit of stress and anxiety in preparing for my four classes on Thursday, I was beautifully and emotionally reminded of why we do what we do, and really, why we started the school in the first place.  To see the lives of children and teens impacted, challenged and hopefully stirred to seek out their own faith and relationship with Jesus.

While I was away, my students had 2 assignments.  One was to read through 6 different passages in the bible and write about the theme, what they learned and how the verses spoke about worship.  The other assignment was watching a fantastic documentary (that I highly recommend) called the Jesus Music.  They then had to write a summary of what they learned on the evolution and history of Christian Music.

As I read through their papers and summaries, and reflected on the discussions we had in our coffee shop, I was absolutely blown away.  What a joy and pleasure to read through and listen to their thoughts, views, questions, and even vulnerability on what they learned.  I so appreciate these classes and continue to pray that God uses things like instruments, music, songs, creativity, bible stories, documentaries, etc to stir their hearts all the more.

Our school, wow, all I can say is wow.  I can’t believe we are a month and a half into the new year.  As many of you know this is our 2nd year since we started Centro Educativo Cristiano Bachiniva.  Our enrollment jumped from 53 students last year to an amazing 93 students AND we opened a high school.  That’s 93 kinder-high school students that we have the honor, privilege and responsibility to teach, train, encourage, love on and invest in.  We have an amazing team of teachers, cooks, drivers, cleaners and volunteers that help meet the needs of an ever growing school.

As our school continues to grow, so does the need and opportunity to travel to the states.  A big part of my job is to help spread the word, teach and share stories of all that is happening in Mexico.  That comes through a variety of ways like teaching at churches, speaking at schools, meetings with donors, helping run fundraisers, etc.   

Over the past 3 weeks I was in Seattle, Florida then back in Seattle (for 24 hours).  A huge part of those 2 trips were our annual House of Blessing Golf Tournaments.  We held one in Seattle on September 23rd, and another in Florida just this past weekend.  What a blessing it was to see the tremendous success that came as a result.  Between both tournaments, we had over 125 individuals that played, dozens of businesses and individuals that sponsored, volunteers that helped run smooth events, AND THEN…we raised over $24,000 for the school.  Absolutely Incredible!  A huge thank you to everyone that showed up, prayed for, donated or helped make these events so special. 

Last week while in Florida, I also had the opportunity to share at a few Christian Schoolsl.  I must admit I was pretty nervous as each school had over 350 students at their chapels services.  One of our desires here at our school is for our students to learn about things outside of Mexico. to expand their worldview, etc.  For example, before I left, I shared at our chapel service about my trip and speaking at schools.  Some of our students were amazed to hear that there are other Christian schools, like ours, in the United States and other parts of the word.  I recorded a video of our students saying hello to the schools in the Florida and then, recorded the schools saying hello back to our students.  So thankful for technology and ways to build relationships and friendships that transcend borders and countries. It was so great to share the videos this morning with our students at our chapel service.

Finally, I did briefly mention a 24 hour visit to Seattle.  This was something my siblings and I had been planning for our mom’s 70th birthday.  When you have siblings that live all over the US, and another country, it takes a lot of work to try to gather.  Well we did it, and it was literally for 24 hours.  I took a direct flight from Florida early Sunday morning, got picked up by my brothers and then we drove to meet our sisters and surprise our mom.  What an incredible time that was filled with stories, memories, laughter, tears, italian food and celebrating a most wonderful and beautiful woman!

Well, I think that is enough for now.  Next week, I look forward to sharing more about our school’s building project, mission trips and special ways for you and others to get more involved.

Until next time,

HOB Summer Update...

Classes for our 2023-2024 school year will begin in less than 6 weeks.  That’s hard to imagine since it was just last month that classes wrapped up.  What an incredible first year we had with our brand new school, Christian Education Center of Bachiniva (CECB).  It definitely exceeded our initial expectations.  Actually, i’m not really sure what we expected exactly since it was our first year and we had never done anything like this before.  No doubt it was full of highs and lows, challenges, difficulties and lots of learning.  But overall, it was a blessed year and God was very gracious to us.

What a blessing it was to see the lives of our 54 students (kinder-jr high) impacted and changed.  The stories we heard from parents, family members and the local community were incredibly encouraging and a further confirmation that this is the direction God wanted us to move in.

We had open enrollment this past May for the upcoming school year and were absolutely amazed to see over 85 students enrolled, and the number keeps growing.

This was a huge step of faith for us, logistically as well as financially.  But we saw God provide, as He ALWAYS does, in tremendous and incredible ways.  We were able to keep the tuition for our students at just $50 a month because of all your generous financial support.  On behalf of our school board, staff, teachers, students and families, THANK YOU.  Thank you to those who have come down and will come down this year on a mission trip to help serve, build and bless.  Thank you for those who have fervently prayed for us.  Thank you to those who have supported financially.  Thank you to those who have sent emails, texts and kind words.

Please continue to pray for us as the need is even greater.  With 85+ students enrolled and starting a high school, we are in need of more teachers, vans for transportation, our building project to be finished and lots of supplies.

We are focusing on 3 areas right now that are our biggest need.

1. SPONSORSHIP - We are looking for individuals, families or churches that might want to sponsor a students monthly tuition. Please let me know if you are interested in more information and I can get you all the details or you can check them out on our website www.thehouseofblessing.org/sponsorship.

2. BUILDING PROJECT - Because of the number of students and our enrollment growing, we are in need of more classrooms.  We have started a new building project for our jr. high students and are hoping it will be finished by September. Please let me know if you are interested in donating to this project.

1. GOLF TOURNAMENT - We are VERY EXCITED to our House of Blessing Golf Tournaments coming up this fall. Once again we will be having a tournament in WA and FL to raise funds for the school. Last year we were able to donate over $21,000 to the school. We are hoping for more this year as the need is evern greater. Please check out our golf website for ways to get involved, www.hobgolf.org.

Here are a few more pictures from the end of the school year and summer activities!