Budgeting Time

Finally got my schedule arranged today. It's a busy one!

Monday is office day. We have the 8 a.m. devotional and then organize for the week to come. In the afternoon I normally have time to do grocery shopping but today it is finally raining! It started last night and then rained again this afternoon when Fany and I were ready to leave for the market. We decided we can go without fresh fruit this week. In the future I will do home visits with one of my coworkers. It's a rule that we can't go alone, so I will accompany her to her home visits and she will accompany me to mine.

Tuesday is my free day. I can attend an English speaking bible study in the morning, and go to the bank (a two hour process twice/month but it's the only way to pay bills), or run errands, wash clothes and clean my house. I'll also have to prepare for the class I lead Wednesday morning, the kids' group Wednesday afternoon, and the women's class on Thursday. Tuesday will be one of my busiest days, now that I think about it.

Wednesday is a twelve hour day. I'll leave the house at 7 a.m. and get home at 8 pm. First I'll fight traffic to get to the class I am leading for kids with Conduct Disorder and Asperger's. That is the highlight of my week right now. (The class, not the fighting traffic.) I knew teaching social skills and impulse control would be challenging, but I never expect it to be so fun! I love it.

After that class I drive to my office where security will take me to my club of kids in one of the communities we serve. I've never done this before. Wednesday will be my first day, but it is a weekly activity from now on. We arrive at 1 p.m. and prepare the classroom. The kids come at two and the club lasts until four. We have already prepared lesson plans, so it will be a matter of reviewing and implementing them each week.

After the club ends at 4, security will pick me up by 4:30 and I will try to get to prayer group at the church by five. When prayer group ends at 7 pm, I will be tired, but happy.

Thursdays I am giving classes to women who want to learn to read and write. One of my coworkers has to accompany me in this because it is not safe for me to walk up to the classroom alone.

Friday I will do my own home visits for the families of my club. There are 25 families, so we are hoping to do at least 6 visits each Friday.

Saturdays will be set aside for church meetings and visits with Erika, Ana and her family, or Karla in Los Pinos.

Sundays we have discipleship and church.

I am going to have to be more diligent about how I spend my time. Maybe I'll take Erika with me on some of the errands I have to run on Tuesdays. At least that would give us some time together.

This week on Saturday Erika wants me to take pictures of her new baby and print them out. She already has photos I took of Marjory as a baby. She wants to frame them side by side because she says they look just alike. So that is how we will spend this Saturday.

I used to keep things programed into my phone, but this week I started using a planner again.

Next week on Monday we sign up the ladies for writing class. We are going to walk door to door and see who is really interested and committed to attend, Tuesday I will start my own training to learn how to teach the class. Thursday is my first day of teaching women how to read.

It sounds like a lot, all written down here, but I feel comfortable. I have a feeling my boss is going to ask me to start a second class for reading and writing in a different community. I will have to say no to that. There is simply not enough time in the week. But for now this seems manageable.

I am excited that God is using me in lots of ways these days. It will be interesting to see what comes out of all of these projects. I feel blessed to work in a place that offers me so many opportunities to serve, and even trains me in the areas where I need additional strength.

The sun just came out! Maybe I'll have time to buy some veggies for the week after all.