In the first week or so of my post-surgery, sit-in-a-chair-with-the-leg-elevated-and-iced time, I planned the girls' homeschool year.  That was fun, but it didn't keep my busy long enough.  

I took a few classes online, brushed up on my English teaching skills, had a trillion conversations with God in my head and on paper, completed some Bible studies, made new family menus and shopping lists, and watched a few movies.  And found spots on the ceiling and let my friend put my hair in dreadlocks and ate too much and twisted the dreadlocks and painted my toenails and kept twisting the dreadlocks.

Then I found a post on facebook that mentioned the need for some computer design.  Turns out that Letra Paraguay, which is an organization dedicated to teaching literacy and translating the Bible into the language of indigenous people groups, was in the process of self-publishing a compilation of stories of Latin American women in missions. Its official title is Women in Mission: Real Stories of Latin-American Missionaries Passionate for the Kingdom of God.

The book will not only raise awareness of mission work, but also help raise funds for their ministry.  They posted a photo of what they had (see below) and asked for volunteers to design a cover using that information.  Just what the doctor ordered!

I got right to work and decided to use a picture of Camille, since she wouldn't charge me a fee to use her image.  ;)  And here's the final product to the right, before the organization's seal was placed on the front.  If you're interested in reading it--it's in Spanish, I must warn you--you can find it on Amazon.

And then I sent another email to another ministry that I've come to appreciate, called More to Be.  Their official tagline is Equipping Moms, Engaging Teens, Encouraging Mentors. Have I mentioned how much I love folks who put free resources online, whether they be sermons or songs or handouts or studies or classes or printable worksheets or whatever?  My email was to ask if any of the free resources they offered for mentoring teen girls were available in Spanish, but truth is, I knew they weren't.  After all, surely they'd mention that on the site, right?

So I bit the bullet and decided that with all the time I'd wasted trying to dig up nonexistent Spanish-language freebies on various websites, I could have been translating these things myself.  I actually did that for a whole book a few years back, which served us for several study groups designed specifically for teen girls.  Time to get the typing fingers back in motion.

I worked on a few documents and graphics then sent them to the leader of the ministry, so that she could keep them on file in case anyone else should contact her in my position.  Surely there are other English-speaking mentors out there who would love to be able to share this material with Spanish-speaking girls in their world, right?  Next thing I knew, we were chatting back and forth via email, and she asked if I'd consider coming on-board their team as a translator.  With the disclaimer that my Spanish is really "street slang" and fairly ghetto, I accepted and got to work.

Digging around for which documents I wanted to start with, I found a video about how to view those "single" years before marriage or even a serious relationship, through the lens of what God may be wanting to do in you.  I figured I might as well try my hand at adding subtitles, since this is information girls all over the world need to here.  You can watch the video in English with Spanish words floating around over here.  You can find the links to the resources I've gotten translated so far over at moretobe.com, as well as many other "still in English" freebies to help you minister to tweens and teen girls, a section specific to moms, and material for the girls themselves.

Now that school is in full-swing here at Casa Hagerman and at the schools where we teach, and this leg is getting strong enough to be up on it longer, I think this I'm bored time has come to an end. I'm thankful to have found some things to keep me occupied this go-around.