December 2025
- Ruth Perez
- Dec 1, 2025
- 3 min read
Hello friends,
I am in the midst of the chaos that is Holiday Season, but I wanted to make sure I updated everyone on said chaos.
I cannot believe it, but this is my 10th year in Oaxaca! This year at school, I've been asked to take on some admin roles, since we do not have a principal. I got to lead the teacher trainings, help with parent meetings, and am working on a few projects for the school. I've also been asked to teach Algebra 2, which I find to be way more daunting! I am continuing with my regular classes as well, 9/10 English and AP Literature, this year. We partnered with a school in Mexico City that is also short-staffed, so I have my in-person students as well as 4 online students from their school. Teaching hybrid has been a bit hectic, but we're making it work. Even though I've been teaching some of these classes for many years, I am still constantly learning, adjusting, changing, and working to make the class fit this particular group. Since I am in charge of leading Staff events, I am prepping for our Christmas Party! I am hoping to get some gifts for our staff- if that is something you would like to donate towards, please let me know.
I am also heading up the MK Youth Group again, with the help of my dear friend, Emma. We had our annual Weekend Retreat to launch our year. I was deathly ill the whole time, which was incredibly unfortunate, since I was the speaker... but we made it! We've been focusing on Jesus' parables. I'm very excited about it! Our Christmas party is in a few weeks, and in the blink of an eye, we will be done with our first semester and YG season.
As for Girasol and Amanecer: the lady we had fundraised for and prayed for when she had knee surgery is now enrolled in beauty school! We are helping her set up a small business, and she is studying daily. She's very excited and nervous, and she keeps messaging me, saying that God has not abandoned her, as she learns to rely on Him in this new chapter of her life. We are so proud of her and excited for her. She joined my church's Women's Retreat in the fall- what a life change! We have a couple of big changes happening overall- specifically, we are working to get our US nonprofit status going. We've been fundraising for that, and are waiting on God's guidance moving forward. We also have a couple of possible new girls joining Amanecer, and we are considering again the rental of a house to expand the work. We're in a season of change and prayer, for sure. We're gearing up for our Christmas Party downtown- we're hoping to hand out 150 gifts and provide 200 meals this year! Links to donate towards that can be found on our Girasol website here:
This is the year of hosting groups. I hosted my very first big group in June- 21 youth from Highland Church in Wisconsin. They worked so hard and have truly set the standard for all future groups. I loved having them visit. I also hosted a group of leaders from my sending church in October. It was so cool! I was able to show them around Oaxaca, introduce them to ministries I'm involved with or adjacent to, and really connect them to what is happening here. Please come visit more!
Lastly, I DO write more blogs than these (semi-annual?) ones... I write them for our Girasol website. If you haven't see them, you can read the latest one here:
I'll be posting another one this week, and my team-members write blogs for our page often as well. You can subscribe to our website and receive emails when we post a new blog.
Thank you for your prayers and support and encouraging messages.
Happy Holidays and Gracias,
-Ruth
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