My Honduran Home

100 Blogs !

2012-01-21T22:56:00.001-06:00

Well, I can't hardly believe I have written 100 blogs! I am thankful for everybody who made a comment or sent me an encouragement to continue to write about the life I have with the girls God has loaned me for this season in my life.

So many things are happening right now. I am so thankful for this new year and a chance to start fresh. I used to be one to make New Year's Resolutions, but as I would get into the year the memory of the resolutions I had made would grow strangely dim. So I am trying to do what the Word says and don't say what you will be doing in the next week. I realize there is sufficient evil for every day, but something I can do right away, every moment without waiting is to pray.

I have had so many things going on at the same time here. I have had two women who left our employ just because they needed the extra money they receive when they leave. They had been with us for two years. I found out that most of the Hondurans don't even follow these laws of unemployment tax. The law basically says to just pay an amount figured by the labor office when the employee leaves. While I was doing that, I found out in the last year the minimum wage has basically doubled, and they are looking for it to triple before this new year is out. So the employment tax I had to pay was doubled. Also one of the workers was pregnant. I didn't know and neither did her co-workers or my girls! . So I had to pay about $1000.00 over what I already owed her, plus the raise in the monthly minimum salary, because it is the law that she gets that much to recuperate from pregnancy. It is also against the law to fire a pregnant woman without paying huge fines. I wasn't firing her, she was quitting, so that was a help. Now it may not seem like a lot according to the States but if you look at it as being 6 months salary extra, it is a lot. WE are now looking only for older menopausal women. :) to help us here at night and our cook during the day.

With all that said, I was told by one Honduran employee that because I was a missionary that I need to just follow the rules of the country whether or not it made sense to me. I am of course going to comply, but I have asked God for wisdom and He has showed me how to handle it. I had to go to a lawyers office this week so that I could figure something out legally to have helpers here on the Farm. So that was one huge crisis out of the way.

Then we had a chicken pox breakout here at the farm. The worst was an older girl who is seventeen. She was covered up in them and the lesions were all over her face. My mom happened to send me with a fresh tube of pure Aloe vera gel and I am so thankful. While at home, my mom and I also bought lavender oil, and that seem to help with all the itching. But the last girl will go back her own house tomorrow. We have had some to have a secondary infection and had to go to the hospital for shots, and during all this, two have developed a bacteria in their stomach from something other than chicken pox. The doctors said the stomach bacteria was highly contagious and is spread by saliva and sharing food. Now we have a rule that no one can eat off each others plates etc, but they do some times. So I am giving the "talk" to the girls not to drink after or touch anybody's food or drink. Those two girls are on serious antibiotics. So the medical situations were another huge thing here at the farm

The second day of the outbreak, a the Public Defender of Children in neighboring town brought a girl that is 13, who has a two month old baby. The girl is tremendously shy and she veers away from any kind of a hug or contact of any sort. She just now has started talking a little. I had to try to keep them separate from the girls who were contagious. I couldn't send her to another house because she needed some help just learning not to stand next to a boiling kettle of water with her baby in her arms while making formula. I rarely have my TV going but it was full of videos just so the girls could get their minds off of being miserable. She hadn't seen TV at all and so she kept coming in with the baby. I reiterated "You don't need to be in here with the baby". She said, "It's okay, I have already had chicken pox." I said, "Well I don't think your baby has". Her eyes that are usually cast down, got really wide, and she said, "Ohhh!"and hurried out of the room. She is just a child herself, so that was a huge shift here at PTC.

While all of this was going on we had some girls decide they wanted to go on a holiday without permission. I have been working on this most of the week, having to make several trips into town to the various government agencies. The girls decision affected so much that is currently going on here. I had to report everything to the authorities, if not the ministry would be in trouble, but because of the infractions of some girls in the past, it has affected the decisions from the authorities made for the particular offense this time. Statements had to be made, and it just turned into something huge.

There were a host of other things happening along with the aforementioned, and I was trying to call people to explain what was going on and wasn't being able to connect with anybody. So then finally I did like Jonah when God sent a huge wind and a huge whale to swallow up Jonah and his huge problems. At that point in the belly of the whale, he didn't have anyone else to talk about his huge problems, and it says "then he prayed". I still don't understand why I have to get into that condition before I pray. I am glad I didn't get in contact with anyone. God is a HUGE God. He excels in "huge". He is an awesome God, and He reigns over a Huge Heaven and Huge EARTH. I just wish that when huge things start coming my way, that I would grab God and not the phone.

This year I want to stop, drop, and pray first, instead of my other alternatives. I didn't used to have these luxuries of cell phones and facebook and messaging on the mission field. I am still amazed at the things my Blackberry phone can do, but seriously how can I even compare a hand held phone to how amazingly awesome our God is and what He can do?

I have truly appreciated all the people who have made themselves available to me for counsel and encouragement, but sometimes I tend to lean to them instead of the One I am supposed to lean on. I am going to continue to call and update our status and look for counsel, but not until I pray first. I want to think of prayer first and prayer second, and then pray better. If I took all these huge problems that have come at me this past week and calculate the time I have rolled it around in my mind, I could have had time to do some huge praying. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make you request be known unto God and the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and minds through Christ Jesus. Instead of a V-8 I could have had peace! "Perfect prayer is only another name for love" Fenelon. Luther said, " If you pray better you live better and love better. Perfect love casts out all fear, I want to pray better this year. Thanks for all the prayers that have been sent our way, we have absolutely needed them and we are very grateful. Blessings, from the Huge Praying, Honduran MOM

Everyone Needs a Day of Rest

2012-01-08T07:31:00.000-06:00

I was determined to read a book that my daughter bought me for Christmas. I have been running hard since I got back from the graduation of my daughter from the University. We had Christmas, a team, New Years, labor union meetings etc and so I just felt like I needed some down time. The series is called "The Mitford Series" by Jan Karon. I have read the book series twice, but had loaned the girls the first book in the series and it went missing. I asked my daughter to replace my missing book when she asked me what I wanted for Christmas and looked forward to reading it again. I decided this Saturday was to be my "day off".

I woke up at my normal time at 5 a.m. Prayed and did my devotions. Then afterward, I got out my book and then the night workers came to the door at 6 a.m. to be paid. So I got on my scurfy white bedroom shoes and my fuzzy white housecoat, checkbook , receipt book, and black ink pen to take care our laborers who had work diligently this week and needed their pay.

I heated up some old coffee from the day before after the workers left, and when back to my bed a now I was freezing, so I put on my heating pad to get warmed back up. I got my book and read a chapter and the girls came to get the breakfast ingredients from my house. I would love to keep all of the groceries in the kitchen pantry, and not have to go through the ritual of "What do we cook for Breakfast routine" but in the 17 years here we have not been able to do that. Main ingredients to the next meal go missing and it is hard to keep a hold on what was in the bodega. So I got that attended to.

I got back to my room determined to grab up my book. Then I got up when the girls came in asking for lasagna and rolls and so I made showed the girls how to make each item and we made enough for 35 girls along with 2 apple cobblers. While I had gone into the kitchen to show them how to make rolls and lasagna, I saw a box of apples that a local store where I shop each week needed to be used quickly, so I cut up the apples and showed the girls how to make cobblers.

Then the new worker was refusing to make tortillas because she didn't have any wood for the outside cook stove. So I got into the flatbed and rounded up the girls who were not cooking in the kitchen, drove to the back of the farm, and loaded up to the very top of the cab a load of limbs and sticks and brought it back to the outside kitchen. I went back to my room and picked up my book. I told the girls they could come into my house and finish a movie they were watching the night before. The lights had gone off last night and so they were unable to finish their movie Matilda. I thought if they were busy, I might could get after reading my book.

Then a lady who needed a job came up and so I interviewed her for a position of housemom at night. She left and I went back in to my book. The girls came in after their movie and said the new day worker, who was pretty young, but I was trying it out because her sister works for us during the week and does a great job, had asked me to give her a chance as a weekend worker. Even after getting the wood she needed she didn't cook the tortillas. I cooked the lunch with the girls and so really all she did all morning was make a salad and cooked a pot of beans. She asked if I wanted her to come the next day, I told them to tell her "I thought not". Then the girls came in and said the Hardware Store Guy was here to deliver cement. I just grabbed the checkbook on my bed from where I left it from the morning payroll incident and gave them a check and a receipt to get him to sign. They brought back the receipt.

I went back to my book… Then the girls came and said one of the goats had her babies and they were premature. So I went out to the back field and checked on the goat and ended up with the girls cleaning up the goat pen and cutting and chopping some more johnson grass and sugar cane for the 12 goats that we now have. I had a goat earlier in the week, that birthed two baby goats and she lost them because she had no milk or colostrum. So I have lost 4 baby goats this week. I was going to make cornbread before the goat incident happened. I was frustrated with the loss of the goats and not getting the cornbread on, but we moved on. I got back to the kitchen and the girls were eating their tortilla-less soup, but the silver lining was that the apple cobbler was ready.

I put a new Shirley Temple movie on and went to my book, then I needed to counsel with one girl who came and sat on my bed. She had been taking things from the other girls and so we talked about what abuse was and how it can take different forms. She had been abused one way but her taking personal things from the girls was abuse too. She cried, we prayed and she went to go watch the movie. When she left another girl came to my bedside and shared about a serious situation she was going through, and then another comes and talks about her headaches she has been having and then I had to go to another girl who was struggling with so many things, and spent an hour in her room, with tears and hugs we resolved some of the issues she was dealing with. I confessed my feelings of inadequacy and she later came and brightly said that "I was the best mom ever" as she was telling me good night. I laid my neglected book to the side, turned out my light, laid my head on my pillow and thank the Lord for my day. It wasn't to restful but it was blessed. Blessings the Sporadic Book Reading/Resting Honduran MOM

A Tale About a Christmas Goat

2011-12-27T00:49:00.000-06:00

Christmas Dinner

Merry Christmas! Things were hopping around here for the 25th! We had invited our Pastor and his wife, and they invited some people. We invited some friends, and we invited the ministry up the road, and almost everybody came, but that gave us a grand total of about 70 people coming for lunch.

In preparation for all these folks, I decided it was time to kill the Christmas goat. So I gave the honors to the Botkin Boys and they were all over the idea. They had never eaten goat, and never killed one either so they seemed to like the thoughts of both. They Botkin's are a family of 6 persons, who have come to help us with all the 31 girls we now have at the ministry. So these guys performed the deed with the help of our night watchman, and some of our girls who have had more experience in butchering farm animals. They got everything done in record time. They wrapped the goat up in trash bags and put him in the freezer to cool.

Christmas Eve is like Christmas Day in the United States here in Honduras. We had to get all the girls something for Christmas Eve night. We had already done the shopping for each one of the girls secret friends, a few days prior. We would carry 10 excited girls to town with 5 dollars worth of limperas in their hot little hands. They bought a gift for their secret friend and then we would carry them all to the Kios Pizza place and they would watch the flat screen and fill up on Pizza and coke. Ben Heath was chauffeuring the girls around while Linda Botkin and I were buying groceries and paying bills before the holidays began. While we were out shopping I noticed a dog running with what looked like a plastic bag in his mouth. That is not unusual to see dogs in the community running with small trash bags that have been discarded. As I got closer, I realized he had a whole frozen chicken. He was having difficulty holding his treasure that he had pilfered out of the back of someone's truck that held the Christmas groceries because his teeth were freezing. He would run for a few steps, drop his chicken and try another way to get a good grip on the frozen mass.

We have 31 girls now. We received 3 before I came home for our daughters graduation, 3 were returned to our farm after a one year absence, and one returned when I got back. The 3 little ones that returned had been kidnapped by their mom from our farm almost a year ago exactly to the day. We are expecting one more girl this week, which will give us 32 girls altogether. We almost don't fit in my living room anymore for movie night. The girls and I had prayed for more girls and we received what we asked for.

Christmas Eve day was filled with pie baking and the organizing of the gifts. Throughout the year, people have sent down gifts that I put in a trunk called the "The Birthday Box". We have birthday and Christmas presents that people bring down or send with teams. We also have things that teams bring that I set aside for the girls for Christmas Eve's Party. This year a lot of Barbies were accumulated, sketch books, coloring books, markers, colored pencils, clothes of every type and every size. Some people sent costume jewelry and so I just put it in the pile. The "pile" was in my bedroom.

When I leave the country, my bedroom becomes a catch-all for everything that the staff doesn't know what to do with or doesn't want the girls to know that we have. When I walked into my bedroom with my luggage and what had been place in there after the last team left, I could barely get through. We had to make a chart and write down by each girls name exactly what they received so that everyone would get about the same amount of stuff. Ben Heath, our professional missionary intern, and Angela Serrit our newlywed, helped me with this 4 hour activity, while Brenda Hernandez, our other older girl, who has graduated out of the farm years ago, who has just been promoted in her job as financial administrator to a wonderful ministry here in country. It is such a blessing to have our older girls come home for the holidays. We wrapped up the girls gifts in plastic bags and tagged each one. We didn't have bows or ribbons, just the black plastic bag, but the girls couldn't have been more excited with each bag that was loaded into the truck that would transport them to the mission house.

When we finally got back to the mission house, with the cake, nacatamales, and guava juice, the girls did their secret friend first. Through all the transporting of stuff, I left my secret friends bag back at the house. One of the girls will start and give a brief description of her secret friend, and the other girls will guess who they have. It is a lot of fun. Afterwards, we eat, and then we open our bags. We take turns on opening gifts so it really takes a while, but we need to know what each girl got, not only to rejoice with them but so that in case it gets misplaced we will all know what belongs to whom. While everyone was eating I ran back to the house in the dark, eating my nacatamale to get my secret friend gift, tylenol for one of the little ones, field questions from the new watchman, close up the barn, and made a pot of decaf coffee so I could try my new thermos out. I ran back to the mission house just in time for the girls to start round two, of the gift giving. It was late by the time we all got back to our houses.

The next morning I told the older girls to wake me up at 5:00 a.m. so that we could get the goat started. I also told the girls staying with me to cover the kitchen counter with wax paper and take the goat out of the freezer and put it on the wax paper. The next morning, I was awakened by someone tapping on my wooden shutter. I jumped up because it was 5:30 and I was late. I ran outside with my two helpers to get the fire pit started. We had to chop some green oak limbs, and I had the foresight to buy some charcoal. We finally got the fire going and so I went to get the goat off the counter, except it wasn't on the counter. It was still in the freezer! I then grabbed the clorox and washed out the huge brown tub that they had used for killing the goat the day before. I threw the frozen goat blob into the water, and told Stephanie to bring some hot water from the main kitchen and prayed it would thaw out enough to lay on the coals.

We finally got the goat laid out on the rack and covered it with sheets of roofing metal, while were running back and forth from my house to put the turkey in the oven, green beans on the stove, and the potatoes in water to boil. We assembled the jello fruit salad, rolls were rising, turnips were washed and cooking. Every fifteen minutes during the cooking extravaganza, we ran out to uncover the goat and put some salt water and spices over the roasting carcass. It was beautiful! But then we had some people come in and I didn't get to the meat until 25 minutes later and when I came out the door I saw smoke. My beautifully golden brown grilled goat was on fire! Thankfully we rescued the meat, but I was sad that we couldn't serve it in one piece. I literally had too many irons in the fire. The older girls in the kitchen were cooking deviled eggs, rolls, and cornbread stuffing. Some of the mid sized girls were keeping all the dishes washed along the way and the little ones scrubbed the potatoes and picked up the trash in the yards, watched after the little ones, and prepared the kitchen for the guests to arrive. It was a huge team effort all the girls and the staff and that's how we do Christmas at Project Talitha Cumi.

I am writing this blog while laying on a heating pad in my bed, thankful that I can now see the floor to my bedroom. I am thankful for the generosity of all the teams who sent so many nice things so that we could make a wonderful Christmas for our girls. I am excited about this new year and with all these new girls. We have a lot of activity going on here at PTC. We have a team of 17 coming in 2 days, 3 new house moms are coming and a new teacher also. So please be praying for us that we will be prepared for the plans God has for us in 2012. Blessings, the Christmas Celebrating, Goat Cooking Honduran Mom

HIs Ways Are Perfect

2011-12-22T00:13:00.001-06:00

Family Photo

I am back home in Honduras as of yesterday. I was in the States for a couple of weeks to attend and celebrate my daughter's graduation. We also celebrated our Christmas together on the 18th, and I had to leave on the 20th to get back to the mission to get things ready for 31 little girls. I was looking forward to getting back. The 3 little sisters, who were kidnapped by their mom and aunt the year before had been found and returned to the farm. I was so excited about getting to see them again.

So I decided not to go to sleep because I was going to the airport by myself. Sarah loaned me her car to get there, but I was afraid that I would go to sleep and not wake up in time to be at the airport at 4:00 a.m. So I packed and cleaned the house, dyed my hair, and tried not to sit down lest I would fall completely asleep. My plan worked and I got to the airport.

I was surprised that Natalie Martinez showed up at the airport with last minute cards and gifts for me to carry to the girls. I had a horrible phone situation while in the States. I had two phones. I got the other phone because the first had the range of a gnat in a mason jar. I was forever trying to find a signal. So I got another brand of phone which had better coverage. It was so small that I had to use the pitiful phone to call my tiny phone that always sunk to the bottom of my oversized bag. The sad part to this phone story, is that I permanently relocated the phone unexpectedly.

I was babysitting my grandkids and I had to get back home to finish up last minute details before I left for Honduras. It was about midnight and I ran to the bathroom before I left for home which was about an hour away. I didn't want to make any stops that late at night. I was in a hurry. Earlier that evening, my sweet sister in law loaned me her creme colored, fleecy coat with slick satiny pockets when the weather turned cold that afternoon while I was visiting with her. My phone was in the satiny pockets. I washed my hands and then I flushed the toilet and made a quick turn to leave the bathroom and my tiny phone with good reception slipped from the satiny interior pocket of my nice warm borrowed jacket into the toilet in the middle of the flush cycle. It was a nano second and I barely saw it leave the building. My first thought was that I messed up my daughter's plumbing. After several flushes I realized it was okay, and then I realized, " All of my numbers were in that phone for Honduras and Stateside". Then I thought, " I have the cruddy phone with no reception and hardly any numbers to work with for the last two days that I am in country."

Natalie had texted me the night before I left and she asked for my address so that she could bring the cards to my house. I wrote back a text message on the cruddy coverage phone and pushed the send button. It didn't send and I wondered why Natalie didn't show up. I picked up the pitiful phone later and saw in red letters, "Message Failed". It was very late when I realized she didn't get the message so I didn't call her back. But then she showed up at the airport at 4 in the morning!!! What a great heart. She sent her secret friend gift and cards to the girls. I can't tell you how blessed I have been with the heart and actions of my entire staff in Honduras. They just have huge hearts and are always going the extra mile.

So I sat and talked with her for a while and she went home to go back to bed. I fly stand-by or what is called a buddy pass. There is a person on our board who knows someone who works with the airline and they receive so many passes that they can use of give away that are about half the price of a regular ticket. If there is extra seats available you fly, if not you wait until there is an available seat. I got the seat and I was thrilled.

When we landed in Atlanta, I was looking at my tickets to find what gate I needed to find to go to Honduras. I noticed at that point that I was going to San Pedro Sula instead of Tegucigalpa. Joe Reynolds, who is a board member, missionary and long time friend of the ministry, comes to the farm so that I can go to the States. He is such a blessing. Anyway, he was going home, and I was going to get the truck and Esmerelda. Esmerelda has been living at another center for a while, but she is returning to our farm. She is eighteen but she is going to be going to technical school here, and she will also be finishing up her high school. I was supposed to sign for her. Tegucigalpa and San Pedro are about 4 hours away from each other.

So I woke up Natalie to call the guy who made the tickets, because his number was in the flushed phone. She texted me the number, and I called him. He said go to the airline counter and change the ticket back to Tegucigalpa. I did as he said, but all the emergency phones were taken off of the wall! I had to wait for the agents to come on duty. They came about 40 minutes later. I talked to one of the agents, and she said that Tegucigalpa was over booked by 15 people that had already checked in and they were having to pay 9 people not to fly that day because there was no room. She told me the whole week looked like that because people were coming home for the holidays. She told me to go and wait and see if I could catch the San Pedro flight and that way I would at least be in the country, but she said hesitantly, that flight is overbooked by 5 people, but "who knows". I told her I was praying.

So I called Natalie to get some more numbers so that I could get in touch with Joe to find Esmerelda at the airport, and called other people to contact Ben Heath, who is an intern at the mission to come and get me. Neither Joe nor Ben could call the crummy phone, but we could text. Joe asked me if I wanted him to stay until I got back, but I told him he needed to go because the flights were full and he might not get out if he waited. Then the creepy phone's battery started dying. I repacked a bag in Valdosta and my charger cord was in my other checked bag somewhere in the Atlanta airport. I don't understand the technology of a touch screen phone, or how amazing it really is, but as wonderful as it is, why can't it hold a charge?

I was thinking "What am I going to do?" and I felt like I heard in my heart from the Lord, "Just see what I am going to do". The huge group people started filing onto the plane. I ask one attendant how it was looking for me to have a seat and she said, "You never know, maybe", but she didn't look to hopeful. Finally, an older gentlemen in a wheel chair and I were left, he had a buddy pass too. Now clearly an older man in a wheel chair trumps an ambulatory missionary lady. The attendant checked the records and said there was a couple who checked their luggage in and were in the airport but didn't show at the gate, so I literally got the last seat. She said, " You will have to sit in an exit lane". I told her that I didn't care, but I was thinking to myself," I didn't care if I sat in the bathroom", I was just happy to have a seat. Our plane was delayed because they had to search for the luggage of the people who didn't make it to the gate. I felt bad that the couple didn't catch their flight and that the plane was delayed but I was giving "high fives" to God for what He did for me.

Everything worked out fine. Esmerelda arrived home at the farm, Joe got home, I got home to the 31 girls, and I am glorifying God about how He looks out for me. If my flight information hadn't gotten confused, I wouldn't have gotten to fly out that day. If the couple hadn't have missed showing at the gate, I wouldn't have gotten home to the girls. Even when I thought everything was terribly wrong, it turned out totally right.

If you think about it, Mary was unmarried and pregnant, which seemed terribly wrong, but it turned out totally right. Jesus never sinned, yet was crucified by a crazy mob of people and that was terribly wrong, but it turned out totally right.

I hope this Christmas season, if you are experiencing anything that seems not fair, or terribly wrong, that you can trust God to do what He does, and make this time in your life, "totally right" for you. He is faithful and He is Emmanuel, God with Us. I am thankful this Christmas not only for all my many blessings, but because God is not only with us, but He is for us too. Blessings to you and your family, The Happy Holiday Honduran MOM

Roomies and BFF

Proud parent and grandparents

And Then There Were 28

2011-11-29T20:35:00.001-06:00

I carried Esmerelda back to Tegucigalpa where we met her counselor from the other center. She just went on about how great she looked and Esmerelda had a fantastic time. She went to birthday parties, bridal showers, out to eat, traveled to San Pedro Sula.
On her last night before I had to drop her off we were at Enlaces Ministries. They were having their Christmas end of the year which included raffles for Christmas trees, gifts of appliances and food. This ministry has a bi-lingual school, but also they have a youth center where they minister to the children and street children. They had performers there that did break dancing. I have seen this kind of dancing on TV but never in person. These young men were amazing. Spinning around like a top on their heads and holding their bodies perpendicular to the floor with their feet crossed. They dance for about an hour. I don't know how they held out. I would have perished after their first number.

The next morning, we got up and went to get some errands done before we met with the counselor. I called INFHA which is a Honduran DFAX office. They had one girl for me to pick up on last Monday, and then they had 3 and then they had 5. Background information changed with each phone call.

They were sisters
They would arrive on Thanksgiving
They would not arrive on Thanksgiving but the next week
They had a cousin who was a girl who needed a home.
They were not cousins
They were ages 10, 9, 6, and 3
They were 10, 10, 9, 6, and 2

So we had Thanksgiving and no children came because their car was broken and they couldn't come. Since I was coming to the States the following week for Charisa, my daughters graduation, I asked INFHA to just wait until I got back so the girls could get adjusted with everybody there and they said it was a good plan to wait.
So meantime I have a wonderful church from Texas of Ladies who wanted to make the girls some uniforms. Well long story short they could buy them at a better price than making them and they needed sizes quickly because of the end of the year sale that was going on.. I measured all the girls after Thanksgiving and sent them in the day we were traveling to Tegucigalpa with Esmerelda. I thought to go by INFHA and ask to to see the girls so I could get sizes. They said that it would be fine.

I got there to their center and they had the little kids dressed in their best and older sister dressed in a cut off sleeved basketball jersey and jeans. The staff was there but hardly any children. The girls all look like dark headed Cindi Lou Who, from the Grinch. Hair was cut short with a pony tail on the top of their heads that look like a celery top and huge hair tie that had large whales as a decoration. I knew without them saying this was the girls, but their was a boy with them. It was their brother. They wanted him to go but he couldn't because we are a girls home. He was so stoic and said he understood. I felt horrible and just wanted to take him anyway. He started crying and walked away.

I told them I was just there to measure them for sizes when I notice this huge black suitcase and a large black plastic bag. They were ready to go and put the bags in my truck. I told them I wasn't ready to receive them, so they took the bags out. Then another lady came and said I had to take them today, because vacations were coming up and the judges wouldn't be working, and they put the bags back in the truck. Then the middle girl went to the corner and had a break down. I asked what was going on and the older sister said that is how she does. I said "We need to wait till I get back". They were going to get the bags back out of the truck and then the oldest who was a little tough looking in her basketball jersey started tearing up, and I said "Okay get in the truck". "Yeah" they shouted. I know I have "Sucker" in neon on my forehead. They had two other children but they were napping and not ready.

Now I couldn't understand the insistence on the kids coming immediately until the next day when I called the local office, and they were on strike.. That is why their were no children except the one who would be going home with me. The staff was there but no kids.

We got home with the surprise packages of the new girls and the girls just had a fit over them. They are adorable. Be praying for the transition. I will try to send photos. They have a long way to go.. So now we have 29 with Esmerelda. I am thankful for the new ones. I wasn't prepared to take them home, but God was. I am thankful He has the plan even when I don't. Blessings, the Honduran MOM with her "sign"

The Wedding

2011-11-17T21:20:00.001-06:00

Bridemaids /daughters/and a friend

Charity and Brenda

Bridemaids and Flower girls

Charisa and Brenda Jr.

Angela and Kansas Serritt

The wedding was beautiful and the Bride was Blessed beyond measure.

I will try to write later about the events . I have more photos. I have to pick up a team in the morning so I need to get to bed but just wanted to get these photos posted.

Who caught it?

Well, it is a Sunday night and I decided it was quiet enough to finish my blog. Earlier this evening we had a smores roast with our 'mini team" of two of our board members and their one family member. They had spent the day playing soccer and I fell asleep here at the house. We just finished getting 40 people their smores, prayed and the rain started again. Perfect timing. Then our new girl started having some emotional issues and started hyper-ventalating. I prayed for her and she went back to bed. So now all is calm, everybody is in bed and the rain has finally stopped.

After the bridal Luncheon, Amanda had to get ready to go to the States to visit her family and to get her visa renewed. The day after that I left to go to Tegucigalpa with the Patrol paced to the hilt with foam mattresses and air mattresses. I had all the luggage and dresses for the girls so the only thing they would need on the bus was their pillows and toothbrushes.

We had the rehearsal to go to and get some of the bridesmaids dresses refitted and zippers redone. From what I could tell the seamstress used zippers for baby clothing. It was very tiny and had small teeth. These zipper weren't make to hold any tension that our lively bridesmaid could give out . I think altogether 4 of the zipper gave way and one held out until the end of the wedding and then started from the bottom to separate. The seamstress was a sweet little lady and was so sweet you couldn't say anything. The dresses were made well, except for those crazy zippers.

Esmerelda is visiting with us and in December she will move back to PTC. She will still be studying so she can go to college but meantime she will be taking a technical course in Beauty School. She drove down with me in the Patrol. We went to town looking for sweaters for the girls, which we didn't find at all. Except for some pink number that had huge pink felt flowers attached to the chest of the sweater. But while we were looking they had a 70% of sale. They had all of our 13 girls who were attending the wedding, sizes. They were party dresses. Before we left, we got some of my dresses and some of the girls church dresses, but they were not exactly what I wanted the girls to wear, but I thought it would be okay. Esmerelda and I found the dresses and they were like $5.00 a piece. We were so excited to have a surprise for the girls when they arrived in Tegucigalpa.

We went to the rehearsal on Friday night and had to come back to the city to get some of the bridesmaids last fittings. One of the zippers broke, so we couldn't pick up all the dresses. We had to check on the gown that arrived for the bride to make sure it was okay, and then we needed to go back up the mountain for the rehearsal dinner. We got stuck in Friday night traffic. The traffic lights were out and so you just had play chicken at all the intersections of a major city. We got back up to the mission house with the rest of the wedding party and played ping pong and drank tea until it was time to go back to the house.

The next day thirteen of our girls from the farm took our school bus with Natalie, Tim and Ana to La Esperanza, then loaded up into a commerical touring bus to Tegucigalpa. They took a cab from the bus stop in Tegucigalpa to Angela's house where we were going to be staying. I ordered in pizza and cokes. Then part of the bridal party showed up. We still had plenty of food, and we piled everything in the back room until it was time to sleep. We arranged a place for Tim and Ana to stay for the night and said good-bye to them, as they were going to be going to the airport in the morning. Meanwhile, after everybody changed into pajamas, my girls were teaching their Honduran sister how to dance the Cuban Shuffle for the wedding and The WALK or WOP. I could never really understand what the name was. After the dance rehearsal we spread out the mattresses, blew up some of the mattresses. Angela's house looked like a refugee house for flood victims. Thankfully everyone was tired and we all went to sleep.

The house was full of chaos the next morning. I had baleadas and fruit for the girls the next morning, and then we started doing the hair and showers and everything else we had to do to get ready for the wedding. Another zipper broke on the bridemaids dresses so we sent
Natalie to the dressmakers to get it fixed.

Final results

When we arrived for the ceremony one of the zippers of the younger bridesmaid's dress gave way when she put on the dress. I went to the bathroom where she was located and just sewed her up. I told the mom that she was going to have to cut her out of the dress but she would be the most confident of the entire group that her dress was not going to go anywhere. I ran out the door from the ladies room and got in line to march out and I forgot my camera, until I was seated.

The wedding included the civil service was so beautiful. I love Honduran weddings. The bride and groom and wedding party, sit more than they have to stand. The service was very sweet and then Kansas kissed the Bride and it was end of the wedding, but the beginning of a great life they will have together based on the Word.

We had a great reception, the girls looked wonderful and the Bride was beaming. But then we had to go home. The wedding planner let the man who chauffeured the girls, go for the evening. So we had to put all the girls in the Patrol and go down the hill and through the city and prayed that no police officer saw our driving condition. The girls laughed all the way down the mountain.

Te reception

The girls got up early at 4:30 the next morning. We sent two older girls to get us 4 taxis and they left to the bus station stuffed like sardines in a can. We were right behind them in the Patrol with all the stuff and the extra folks of the Bridal Party including Brenda and Any. We all arrived safely in La Esperanza, zoomed home and dropped of the girls and turned around and picked up the Botkin family who had arrived from the States to help us here at the mission for the next year.

Life is never dull here. We love it and are thankful that God has called us here. We are all thankful that everything went well with the wedding and transport. God is faithful and we are thankful for that. I pray you have a wonderful Thanksgiving Day Blessings, The Happy Thankful Mother of the Honduran Bride.

Here Comes the Bride and Here Comes the Others

2011-11-09T17:17:00.000-06:00

Wow what a week!!!

We have been cooking, sewing, repairing, buying, inviting, running, crying, picking people up and driving people to and fro and in general, celebrating here at PTC. I can truly say that apart from God we could have done none of this. God has been our helper through all this craziness.

WE took three different teams of girls to La Esperanza to buy everyone a pair of tennis shoes, school shoes, to get everyone ready for the festivities of the upcoming week. WE went grocery shopping, did banking, bought a stove for the central kitchen so that we could cook for the 90 people who showed up. Our ovens had become a little on the explosive side. Just when I thought my nerves couldn't take the explosions, anymore they both quit working. I am getting a technician to come to get one good stove made of both stoves that are non functioning. Meanwhile, I needed a stove that was operational to cook for everybody. We had been using my oven at the house, until the oven door broke while I was in the States. Mr. Nobody is alive and living rent free at my house. Of course the technician finally came and said he didn't have the parts, but if I would just push it a certain way it would stay closed to cook something. The problems was getting something out after it cooked. I burned my knuckles so many times during this cooking marathon I look like I have working out on a punching bag

Mom and Bride

Laughing it up

New Crop

The girls have been so excited, not just with the fact that they got new clothes or because my girls were coming to visit. It was because some of them were stepping out of there girlhood, into the life of being "one of the Big Girls of the Farm". Below is a picture of the younger girls of farm.

The younger girls with the bridal party

The Older girls of PTC

This good looking group is our older girls. Some are still at the farm

and some have left and are doing other things. As I looked around the

room I was so amazed at how the goodness of God towards us is huge.

His plans for the lives of these girls are being accomplished.

Here is Angela and Brenda. They came to Project Talitha Cumi at

about the same time frame. Angela is the Bride and Brenda is the

Maid of Honor. Hanging around these girls this week, I know they

are not sister by genetics, but they act so much like sisters, it is

hysterical.

Brenda and Angela

Roxana Cinthia Evelyn Doris

These are our girls who were celebrating their Quincenera. They all turned 15 this year. In about 4 months we are going to be doing this with 3 more girls. They had about 90 people in attendance. They invited about 30 people and they invited their family members and we had a huge crowd. We served baked chicken, Chinese green beans, rolls, beets, and chicken and dressing. These were the girls favorite foods. Well maybe not the beets, but they needed to be cooked. :)

Roxana and Cinthia's updo's

Roxana had a big day! Her aunts came to see her and brought her this bright orange dress, and a large orange hair bow to match. She had other gifts too. She had cake for the girls at 11:00 a.m. They were really wound up with all the cakes all over the place. I told her she could wear her orange dress but she wanted to stay with the original selection. My mom and I shopped for dresses while I was in the States. We couldn't find anything until finally at JC Penneys we found only 4 white dresses. I had to alter two of them the night before the Quincenera, but the other two dresses fit perfectly. God covered us on that one for sure.

After the girls party, I left with Brenda and David Aguilar, a long time family friend. He was going to drive my Patrol to pick up Charity and Charisa, my biological daughters, who had come in on a red-eye special to be here for the luncheon. I had carried the car in to get serviced and checked a few days before they arrived to make sure it was okay. I told the mechanic that a belt was skipping on the A/C and it was making a strange noise. Usually Rigo, the owner, does the work but this time a young apprentice worked on the car. We got to David's house and picked him up. We went through La Esperanza and almost to Jesus de Otoro in the valley when the car started jumping and then it started back firing, lights were dimming then going off. David asked what did I want to do. I said turn around. We were trying to get through before the fog got bad, but it was too late. WE were going back up in the fog with little to no lights. I was in the back praying that we would make it back to the mechanics house in La Esperanza. I prayed we wouldn't careen off a cliff and that sort of " emergency parachute prayers", and that I wouldn't lose my testimony when I talked to him. The car started acting worse because it was going uphill. I tried to call the mechanic to come get us, but we didn't have any signal on that side of the mountain. We arrived in front of the mechanics house and before David could cut it off the car died not to be cranked again that night. God did exactly what I asked Him to do! I was so excited about that I forgot that I was ticked at the mechanic apprentice.
WE borrowed the mechanics car and rode all the way back to Yamaraguila. I told David we could go to the farm and get our Nissan truck and he said, "I would prefer to get my Dad's truck". He said it with a tone of "that is what we were going to do", mixed with "I don't want to deal with anymore of your vehicles", or maybe I was being sensitive. I was in total agreement though, and so we got his Dad's Toyota Very NICE Truck, and took off again. We got to the airport with time to spare. Then we had to get home. WE arrived at 6:00 in the morning. David had to go to work and so did I. He has a dairy and I have 24 girls getting ready for a luncheon. Brenda, Charity, and Charisa went back to the mission house with Angela, and they slept until about 10:30 a.m. and got ready for the Bridal Luncheon.
I went in and got some things organized and then slept for 2 hours and got up and got the girls getting ready. I had to find a cartridge that Jean Brown, a resource person that everyone should know, had given me years ago to play my video tapes. Charity had brought two and I had one. I was going to play these on the television while we were eating lunch. If you knew how many VHS tapes we have, you would know I was looking for a needle in a haystack, but I found it after praying my "what was lost, may be found" prayer

WE got all the girls in the bus and went to crank the bus and it was dead. So everybody was dressed up and we did the drill of finding the jumper cables. Tim and Ana Carey brought us some to keep in the bus. Perfect timing. Tim connected the cables regaling all of us girls with tales of how he saw a man's finger blown off by connecting the wrong cables. You just got to love guys and their timing. I remember RED is positive for the blood of Jesus and Black is Negative for sin. It works. I will probably think of blown off fingers, though. Anyway, we got it connected and off we went.

Girls started to arrive at the restaurant that I hadn't seen in a while, and one that had recently left. I just got overwhelmed when they were trying to figure out who was who. One older girl came up to me and I hugged her and I said "You know who this is right?" She said "No, I don't know her." They had lived in the same house for years, but hadn't seen each other in about 5 years. The other girl, said "You don't know me?". She said, in a perturbed kind of way, "I am sorry but I don't know you and the girl's sister said increduously, "Mera"?, and Dunia's face hit the recognition button and they both fell on each others necks and hugged one another. I just stood there and cried.

The VHS tapes were a huge hit. I turned it on for the girls who wanted to watch could see the movies that I had taken years ago. They used to groan everytime I took out the video camera. But they were leaving their plates and crowding around the little portable tv screen to recapture a look at the years that had slipped by so quickly. Many of our girls were here at our farm from anywhere from 9 to 15 years.
There had been major changes in the lives of all the girls. Everyone spoke a blessing over the Bride to be and in turn, she blessed everyone back. It was an end and a beginning of a very special afternoon.

I think the reunion of the girls is what it will be like when we get to heaven. A fabulous guessing game of "Who is Who", and then just grabbing each other around the neck and blessing one another when we finally figure out what" loved one" is there to greet us. We will all walk together full and blessed. I am hoping that this year is just the beginning of the time of reunions with the girls from PTC.

As I looked around the room I realized that the vision was being fullfilled that God gave my family years ago. We wanted the girls that had fractured families or no families, to have a safe place they could call home, with a family they could call their own. In Pslams it says "He puts the solitary in families". WE had 43 girls there, not counting the babies that had been born the last few years. After we got home and counted the ones who had lived here, that weren't there. We came up with 63 girls who were placed in this huge family by God that carries the name of Project Talitha Cumi. God has a wonderful plan for us all to be united into the family of God. He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future. Girls from different walks of life learned and are learning to walk towards a Savior who laid His life down so that we could have a permanent family. God is Faithful to fulfill His plans in our lives and in the lives of those around us. As we come into holiday season of Thanksgiving, I want to be thankful for everyone of you who have prayed for us, sent us socks, underwear, toys, cards, shampoo, combs, tee-shirts, and sent your your families to be with us for a week, to build a building whose foundation has been from God. We have not labored in vain. I want to be thankful for the ones who helped us get the girls grown so that could be at Bridal Luncheon. I thank all of you who are praying for them to be at the Real Wedding Feast. We are all just practicing right now.

Be praying for us as we travel to Angela's wedding. Fifteen girls are going on a bus with Natalie and Tim and Anna Carey. I will pick them up a day before the wedding in the capital of Tegucigalpa....TO BE CONTINUED

A Continual Celebration

2011-11-02T11:55:00.000-05:00

Well, I was hoping to get some photos to you all for my last blog. I am having technical difficulties and if you knew my skills with the computer you are totally not surprised. Apparently I have used up my available space on my Blackberry Computer/Camera. I am working on the situation but nothing has been resolved yet. I think I am going to get another camer that has lots of memory and plenty of space.

This week is already so full of activities. It is really crazy to realize what kind of scheduling you get yourself into in a supposedly remote area in the mountains of Honduras. We have a 15th birthday party we are planning for the girls. We did get the invitations out in time thankfully. Here they have a large party to celebrate a young girl's birthday when she becomes 15 called a "quincenera". We have invited about 40 people, including the judges and officials who brought the girls here, teachers, friends and families of the 3 girls who will be celebrating their birthdays. We will decorate the church with pine needles on the floor and flowers on the walls.

The dresses the girls are to wear, are traditionally supposed to be white, pink, or a salmon color. I looked everywhere while I was home in the United States in October and couldn't find anything in those colors. It looked like I was going home empty handed, when finally I prayed. I found 4 dresses in one store. They tried them on yesterday and I am going to have to alter them but at least we have them. I am asking God to help me do this since I haven't sewn anything in quite some time.

This past Sunday our pastor asked us if we could help with a medical brigade from Ohio. There were going to be 15 people and he needed a few translators. We told him it would be no problem. We dropped the girls off at the church on Monday. They had a great time getting to know the new group of doctors and nurses and lay people who had been sent here by there church. I went back home to teach math and phonics to our other girls waiting at the school.

The water went out again, so I checked at the pump and it had no electricity going to it at all. The same thing happened a week prior and I had been reading a book on prayer and so I just prayed like one of the missionaries noted in the book. George Mueller never asked anybody for anything, but lifted every need he had to God. So with this example fresh on my mind, I came back to the house and prayed and when I got back to the pump house the well was up and running. This time I did the same thing, and it didn't come on. So I called the repairman to come see about that.

We picked the girls up at three and I had to take the Nissan Patrol to La Esperanza to get some mechanical things seen about on it. Amanda followed me into town in the white truck. She picked me up from the mechanics and we went by the bakery and bought a cake for Natalie's Bible Club graduation party for the Yasi group. She has been working with several schools and Yasi is the first group of 15 children who have finished the Mailbox Club material. We then stopped by the appliance store to see why the repairman hadn't come to repair the door on my stove. He was supposed to come last week, but he never showed up. I prayed that I wouldn't lose my testimony when I went inside to inquire why he hadn't been yet after they promised "Monday for sure".  I told them that we cook for 33 people everyday and I needed my stove more than most folks, but I have a quincenera for three girls and would be cooking for 80 to 100 and I needed my stove operational. It was late in the day and I had no expectation that they would keep their appointment to come, but they said they would be on their way.

We arrived at the farm about 5:30 pm and the repairman wasn't there so I continue to pray for the electricity to be restored to the well, and when I stuck my head in the door the well panel was lit up again. I hit the switch and called the repairman and told him we had water. He was already on the way and he said he would come by anyway. He did and found that our electrical lines to the box were oxidized and that he had to change the breakers out for new ones. At this point he was working with a flashlight because it was late. He would come tomorrow. Meanwhile the appliance repairman showed up!! It was about 7 o'clock but the two of them tore into my oven door and fixed it temporarily until they could get a part. We had devotions at house one, and when I got home I helped one of the older girls with polynomials and called it a day.

Tuesday, we dropped the girls again, but this time we had some of the girls who had to be seen by the doctors and dentists. So I stayed through the pulling of teeth and returned to the farm with the dental patients and we had lunch, and I realized I needed to get some things straight at the house and so I got the office cleaned out, moved furniture around and went back up to the school to teach math. The electrician and his crew came and the contractor working on the duplex showed up with his worker. The other girls arrived home about 1 o'clock and had their lunch and went up to the school. We had tutoring after school in math, finished cleaning two more rooms in my house, made guacamole, while Natalie wrapped bibles for her Bible Club Graduation Party. We had an early supper and went to Tuesday night church as the medical team invited all of us to the special services. I loaded everybody in the bus, including our school teacher, and 3 house mom's, Natalie and Amanda, and off we went.

It was an amazing service and some of our girls went forward to make first time commitments and some went forward for recommitments to the Lord. We all ended up getting prayed for. We were on our way out of town, and there was a police stop. Now Yamaranguila never has a police check point at night. I didn't have my wallet with me because I didn't want to keep up with my purse. We had Amanda's music on her iphone running through the speakers of the bus playing some kind of wild Christian rap music at full blast, with the interior lights so Maria Elena wouldn't get car sick. I roll down my window and tried to smile like this was all normal, when the officer asks where I was transporting this group of people. I told him that I was from the local mission and thankfully the other police officer knew about us and they waved us on. I didn't have my seatbelt on, no license( which would cost about $100.00 USD in fines) music blaring, and we got through anyway. We really were praising the Lord now going down the highway. I was so pumped I miss my road to turn into the farm.

I am trying to get everything straightened up at my house so that we can have company. We are having the birthday party on Sunday. Charity and Charisa (my daughters from the States) are coming for Angela's wedding. Angela was one of our first girls who came to the farm in 1997 and they all grew up together. She is getting married next weekend. My girls are going to be in the bridal party, and my 15 of my Honduran girls are going to be attending. So we are picking our girls up from the airport which is 3 1/2 hours away after we have the birthday party on Sunday.  Angela is attending the birthday party and she is going to pick up Tim and Ana Carey who are coming from Pennslyvania from Tegucigalpa. They come every year to the mission in November, usually with a team, but this time they are coming alone. To mix with all of this, I just got an email that we have a phsycologist coming to check out our facility this week end.

After the party on the 6th, I am changing clothes and going to pick up 2 of my girls from the Airport who are taking a red eye special. We will drive back that night so that we can attend a bridal tea for Angela that will be taking place on Monday with all the girls from the farm in La Esperanza at a local restaurant. Then Angela, Charity, and Charisa will leave to go to Tegucigalpa the next morning to go to the capital and get their bridesmaids dresses fitted. Amanda Parsons will be leaving the next day for the US and I will drop her and Natalie at the bus station. The next day I will go to Tegucigalpa and pick up Esmerelda so that she can be part of the festivities. She lives about an hour away on the other side of Tegucigalpa. She used to live at our mission and has gotten permission to come the wedding.

Our 15 Honduran girls will be getting on a travel bus with Natalie and Tim and Ana Carey and coming to Tegucigalpa on the 12th. I will pick them up and get them to Angela's house where we will be staying. The wedding party will be staying at a local mission. The 13th is the wedding, but we have to drop Ana and Tim at the Airport for their return flight home. The day after the wedding, we will put the girls back on the travel bus, and we will meet them in La Esperanza to pick them up.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Botkin family arrives in Honduras in San Pedro Sula on the other end of the country. They will be staying with us for a year. They are troopers and will get the farm by bus to stay with the other girls that we have left with house moms, and Rosa.

Today I am going to take the workers to the farm to clean up the coffee and when I drop them off I am taking one of our girls to have dental surgery with the team from Ohio. Natalie and Amanda, the Honduran school teacher and the rest of the girls are going to the Yasi Graduation Party, and then later that afternoon the team from Ohio is coming to the farm for a visit. Then we go back to La Esperanza to leave the white truck for a tune up and get the Nissan Patrol. Things are never dull around here and thanks be to Jesus I am still functioning. I am not even being sarcastic!

I want to thank all of you for your continued prayers. Without those prayers, our lives here would be full of stress because of all the daily things we have to do. Your prayers are vital to what we do here. Please pray for us in these upcoming events. God has brought us peace even though we are seemingly going in every direction. Pray for our safety while we travel around the country this week. I thank Him for the celebrations of birthdays, graduations and weddings. Blessings, The Multi-tasking Honduran Mother of the Bride.

PS  I wanted to mention that Brenda is in a beautician school. She is attending Monday- Friday 8- 1. It is something that she has wanted to do for a long time. She is so cute coming home everyday with her notes and her new hair do's and fingernails and stories of who she saw that day. She is still continuing with her classes here, but this is a technical training that she will be receiving for this next year. So be praying for her too. We appreciate the Sunday School Class that is making this possible.

2011-10-24T22:07:00.002-05:00

The Blue Tortilla

I am glad that I am a missionary who enjoys the food of the country that she has been called to. I have tried iguana, and modongo, nances , and something called atol arrigia. Those are not my favorites, and thankfully have not been offered much as an option. Everything else I have had to eat here has been great. I have to monitor myself so that I will not eat like a crazy person. The food here is so good. I don't care if I have beans and rice everyday. The have a lot of recipes for beans and rice which are outstanding, but just beans and rice are a great meal.

Yesterday, our new cook, who is a wonderful cook, asked me if I liked blue tortillas. Here they have a seed corn that is just blue. They have a certified seed in the store that I learned this year why nobody buys it. Certified seed doesn't work well here. It is a hybrid seed corn. The Lenca people plant a variety that has been here for hundreds of years. The stalks get about 10 ft tall and produce one ear of corn, maybe two a stalk but the one ear of corn produced is a whopper. I was told to plant certified seed. It was pitiful. It grew to about 4 ft, and had tiny ears of corn on the dwarfed stalk. I also had to plant about 3 times because the sanates, or black crows would come and steal away the corn seed. The way they steal the corn is that wait until the corn has sprouted and they snatch the plant out of the dirt and then eat the sprouted corn seed that was attached to the plant. In order to keep them away from your newly sprouted corn, you have to place a person out in the field and when the sanates land, the person that watches over the planted field whistles and the birds fly off. The birds who are a little more determined need a different technique. The watchman will toss a pebble in their direction and that is enough to scare them away. The watchman doesn't have to do much, just hang around and whistle. I got our workers to work in the coffee patch along the corn patch. Their presence kept the birds away. The corn finally came up.

Well, I told the cook I like any kind of tortilla. She brought me a small black plastic sack of blue tortillas. The tortillas aren't exactly blue. They are the color of a stormy rain cloud, black and blue and gray mixed together all at once. Can I say that her blue tortillas were divine? This afternoon before lunch, I had yet another blue tortilla. I put the last piece of ham out of the packet on blue tortilla and laughed at myself when I thought I wasn't eating green eggs and ham, but blue tortillas and ham. I think I will write my own Honduran version of that children's story.

When I arrived at the kitchen I found that Osiris, the young women who cooks for us, brought me yet another culinary delight hot off her outdoor cook stove, montucas. It is kind of like stiff cream corn/cornbread type concoction cooked in a corn shuck. You can eat it like a piece of cake, and it tastes better than anything you can think of. I need to get back to monitoring myself about all this eating and exercise restraint or just exercise.

The girls have been great lately. I find that if I pray consistently for the girls, they do better. I am a whistle blower of sorts myself. When I pray, I disturb those spiritual forces that would try to steal the seed that are trying to sprout in the hearts of our girls. I also have learned that the seed is important. It needs to be the right seed for the right time, and the right soil. You can't just plant any seed. It needs to be the seed that God has prepared for that person. Prayer is the key of accomplishing the will of God with the girls and in my life also. It doesn't seem like we are doing much, but we are really doing so much more than we will ever know to drive off the enemy. Pray that I will remain faithful to pray for the field that the Lord has given to me. Blessings, the Tortilla Lovin' Honduran Mom.

Day of the Child and Independence Day

2011-10-01T11:21:00.000-05:00

Bean Picking Monet

This month we have celebrated Day of the Child, September 10th and Independence Day, September 15th. The kids celebrated by making 12 pinatas for the local schools. They received pinatas from the Judges and the Mayor of La Esperanza. They have been so hyped on sugar we could do a medical paper on the effects of sugar during two back to back holidays. The Mayor sent a cake to our girls along with bags of chips, candies and boxed juices. It was an overwhelming sight for the girls. We realized that they had already had way too much sugar so we told them we would go to the llano to play soccer and invite the local children to participate. We had two pinatas and so we had one for the little ones and one for the older kids.

The children came out of the woodwork and it was a great time. We played soccer at first. The field was especially muddy and so we didn't get to play long because we were slipping and sliding like real professionals. So we opted for the other sport they have here in Honduras which is Pinata. Pinata is not for the faint at heart. We played the first game and no one got hurt. I am kind of a Pinata Nazi and so I make the kids play by my rules. Generally the rule here is when one piece of candy falls from the swinging orb, everyone dives in on top of the treat at the same time. However in doing this it does not take into account that the young child with the blindfold and the thick stick is still swinging away unaware

More Wildflowers

Mountain Stream

Wild flowers on our way to Yasi

of the group of children scrambling on the ground to retrieve the fallen confection. Normally, somebody gets clipped in the head. When I explained the my rules to the newcomers they looked at me like I had surely lost my mind. They still darted after the candy, but I would stop the process and repeat myself. At the end when all the candy was on the ground, everybody could dive in on top of it. I thought it was a secure plan to maintain fewer casualities. My plan was working until I was coming to the rescue of a rule breaker and one of the older girls who was blindfolded and swinging with all her might with the half sized broomstick swung one more time.

She clipped me on meaty part of my thigh. I stopped and thought to myself, "I am injured". All the kids of the community sucked in their breaths at one time. The girl with the professional baseball swing, realized something was amiss and she whipped off her blindfold. The whole community, my interns, were looking at me to see my response. Can I say it hurt like crazy? I told the girl I was okay, because she was looking very distraught. I repeated the rules once again, and blindfolded the next candidate and hobbled further away from the swinging ball of destruction. I thought we were through with injuries for the day, but one more girl stepped into the ring and she got clipped on the side of the head.
Thankfully all the candy was out of the pinata and we were through with Pinata until Christmas.

I left the farm a few days later to go to the United States. Joe Reynolds is overseeing our Professionals and our girls while I am away. I have had a great time being with my kids and grandkids. I was in the car with one of my grandsons, and he proceeded to tell me this story with his country drawl in full swing. "Well, Sarah and me went to the Mall". I quickly corrected him as I do all the time with the girls at the farm, and said "Sarah and I" He looked at me like I had lost my old persons mind, and said, "No, It was Sarah and Me. You weren't there." I am loving being with my family.

I was able to attend my care group and they were finishing Francis Chan's book CRAZY LOVE. I haven't read it but the whole group had been blessed by the book. Chan said on the end of the video that he used to pray different blessings on his children,( i.e. for protection) but was now praying for his children to love God more than they loved anything else. The group finished up by saying for us to look for opportunities to love God through ministry to others.

The next day, my mother and I were going to the 3 Dollar Book Store at the Outlet Mall. As I turned into the drive, I noticed my dad in the ditch with his truck and his power trimmers cutting limbs that were obstructing the view of oncoming traffic. I had fish to fry with my mom, so I didn't even stop to say, Hi to my Dad. On our way out we noticed that a young man about 20 years old and his pick-up truck was parked along the side of the highway. The young man was talking to my Dad. We were in a hurry and we were trying to decide who it was talking to my dad and my mom looked at me and said "I need to tell him where we are going". So she hopped out of the car to let him know and to check to make sure everything was okay. After a few moments my dad waves me out of the car to come and talk. I cut off the car with the air-conditioning working at full capacity and walked through the ditch with the tall snaky grass and sandy soil, in my nice sandals to see what my dad needed. He wanted to introduce me to the young man from Hahaira Baptist Church, who had seen Dad out in the heat and went right up the road to a Jiffy store and brought him back a nice cold Gatorade drink. He saw my 78 year old dad struggling in the heat and just decided to do a nice thing for him. After talking with the young man, I found out that he had been to Honduras a few times on mission trips with his church. He was such a blessing.

Well, after I got over my own guilt of not thinking of that very loving deed first, it hit me that if we would all seek opportunities to minister everyday, what a great world we would live in. I pray that I do like Francis Chan said and train myself to love God more than anything, and love my neighbor, my dad, my whoever, more than I do my plans to go to the bookstore, or whatever my plans happen to be. I pray that I seek HIS plan for my day, and when I find a way to bless someone, that I will be quick about it. Is it going to be inconvenient? Yes, probably, but He has done so many inconvenient things for me, I want to be open. I pray that we will all look for every opportunity to love God somehow through someone else. Blessings, the Seeking Honduran MOM

Goats and the Grinchmobile

2011-09-10T03:48:00.009-05:00

This is our Grinchmobile filled with pinatas, candy, rice from Children Against Hunger and clothes. Day of the Child is tomorrow, September 10. We have to st

art early to get everybody seen about. The girls made 12 pinatas for a community service project for school. Ben took pinatas to the different schools and the local feeding program. Amanda, me, and some of the other girls went down to Yasi carrying our pinata and candies. Both trips were physically taxing. The little girls who couldn't make the Yasi trip and some of the bigger girls went with Ben. The rest of the girls who weren't on the Trouble Train (Ben's

after-school program :) went to Yasi with us.

After the fires the weeds on the trail have been overwhelming. I was walking along and all of a sudden, I was looking skyward on my back. Amanda heard me say "Oops" and turned around but I had already hopped back up. We continued through new corn fields. It was sort of scratchy but we continued until we got to the school.

We sang songs, did little animated dances with our songs and then played Duck, Duck, Goose. The kids burst out laughing when I got chosen along with Amanda and their teacher to chase after the children. It takes a lot of doing to get this group to burst out laughing. After all that physical activity, I noticed a little twinge coming back up the mountainside. I think it was the last go round of the goose chase, but I almost had the little sucker tagged. Well, I was reminded of our ministry motto. "You gotta be tough if you are going to be stupid" as I was going back up the mountainside with young people who thought they were in the Honduran version of "Last of the Mohicans". The scene in the movie is where the heroes are walking/running, hot-foot up the Smokey Mountains, trying to rescue the damsels in distress. My entourage were not rescuing anybody, but they were on a mission to get to the farm before lunch started. NOTE TO SELF. Don't travel during the lunch hour up the mountains with 5 motivated, hungry young people . Bring sandwiches

So I am nursing my twinge and praying as I go upward. It was a good time to do so,

because the girls were so far ahead, I was alone, so I could pray aloud that God would get me back up the mountain without having someone having to retrieve me from below. Praying out loud hiking up the mountains is kind of liberating. I made it back to the farm ( to God be the Glory) and got home and got my shower, took my Motrin and Valerian Root capsules, rubbed down my back with "old lady muscle aspercreme" , whipped out the heating pad, laid down on my bed and prayed that I could be mobile for the next day. God is so good I was mobile by supper time.

The next day we had to run to town to get several errands done. I had been looking at some pitiful goats who needed rescuing from a lady that had them in a very small area in her back yard. She knew nothing about goats apparently and out of her 5 goats, three of them

were crippled in their feet because she had not trimmed their hooves. I only wanted two, possibly three of her females. She wanted out of the goat biz and said she wanted me to take them all or none. I had been trying to get in contact with her and I just ran into her store and she happened to finally be there. She agreed for me to come get the goats that day. So Amanda and I went back to the farm, and got "Ben the goat herder" from our last goat rescue. Ben is a great guy and a good sport, because he doesn't really have huge fondness for goats or bugs. I appreciated his adventuresome spirit to go with me on my goat deals.

Don Juan, our male goat

was purchased with an injured back leg last October. He had been hit by a car while he was crossing a newly developed 4 lane highway. Ben rode in the back with another farm helper for 2 1/2 hours watching to make sure this huge goat didn't fall from the truck. Don Juan recuperated and has thrived here at the farm and has been the father of many. I thought I would capitalize on Ben's prior knowledge of trucking goats and I grabbed Norma and a farm worker to go rescue the goats.

We were racing around trying to beat the rainstorm that was threatening to fall from the sky at any moment. When it started raining large drops I prayed fervently that God would hold the rain off until we got the goats loaded. We had to literally drag the 5 goats to the truck through a maze of homemade fencing, and two huge vicious dogs, who were trying to bite the goats through the fence. The owner was saying "the goats are afraid of the dogs". I guess so... I was terrified of them too while they were charging their fenced area trying to bite whosoever through their wooden enclosures. The rain held off until we left La Esperanza. When we

got closer to home we realized it had already had the daily downpour and we missed it. We felt victorious in our prayers over the elements. Well at least the folks who were riding in the back of the truck were feeling victorious.

We had to tie up the three crippled goats so they wouldn't hurt themselves in the back of our small truck. We knew going into it that putting 5 goats in the back of the truck was a little dicey. One of the goats even had a broken leg that had a cast on it. Anyway, we had to put him in the back seat of the truck with Norma. I was going to do it, but she volunteered, and I ended up riding in the back of the truck, with Snowbelle, and our Honduran worker, because Snowbelle, who is not white but the color of an mature woman's untreated hair, had gotten free from her ropes. Celbin, the Honduran worker, was guarding two of the tied up goats who kept getting their ropes to tight around their necks.

We all smelled like goat and were looking forward to getting a shower. We unloaded the goats and got back up to the house with a sense of accomplishment and a scent of goat that was stronger than our accomplishment. We get out of the truck on to find that the electricity was out, so that meant cold showers. I have taken a lot of cold showers, but because I was cold and had been wet, I heated up water in a tea kettle on the stove and carried another pot partially filled with water to take my shower/bath/rinse off. I still smell like goat, but I felt sanitized.

When I finally got some instant coffee and sat down, I realized that my back should have been screaming. I hauled goats, loaded goats, drug goats, rode in the back of a truck over a very

bumpy road with goats and I was fine. God is good to me, even when I forget I was supposed to be nursing my back.

God watches over me even when I don't watch out for myself. I am thankful for all the huge blessings He has sent our way. Blessings, the Goat Wrestling, Rescuing Honduran MOM

Birthday Party Part II: When you see the Armadillo Over the Post

2011-09-04T15:26:00.006-05:00

I have a front door that slams. I have a screen in my screen door which is very unique here at PTC . I like screens because I don't like flies or mosquitos in my house. I don't know what it is about kids and screens, but they have a natural aversion to each other. I have put screens in the girls homes and screen doors many times, as it is a requirement for the government agency INFHA.( It is there version of DEFAX) , but they last just a short period of time. I have screens on my windows, or I did on all of them until there was a hole that was punched in the screen by Mr. Nobody, or Sr. I Dunno, and then the bottom somehow mysteriously unraveled from the bottom. Once while sitting on the sofa, Natalie, one of our seasoned professional interns, saw a hand reach through the screen to touch her on the head. So I have a screen that needs repair. I seriously thought about duct taping the bottom but decided against that method of repair.

Anyway, back to my slamming door. I try to lay down on Sunday after lunch. Sometimes I am successful, but lately not so much. I didn't want to reduce myself to the level of hollering from my bedside, "Quit slamming the door, please", or "Who just slammed the door?" So I have decided to take my newly acquired birthday armadillo shell, complete with head and pointy ears to hang it on the porch post. I have told the girls, "When you see the armadillo on the post do not enter". I felt like Moses. It is pretty scary looking and you can't miss it. I bet seeing blood smeared all over the door posts was pretty gross looking too, come to think of it. I am about to lay down. So far no door-slamming intruders. Life is Good. Blessings from the Rested Honduran MOM

Birthday Party

2011-09-04T04:08:00.006-05:00

Because I was working on my birthday, I had planned with the girls to go eat pizza in La Esperanza the following Saturday, so we could all celebrate together. Our power was off all day Saturday. We had to get ready and I waited until the last minute because I didn't want to take a cold shower and was hoping that the power would miraculously come on. Our showers here are called "douches" or "widow makers". They are quite ingenious in that they are a small hot water heater in your shower head. The heating mechanism starts when you cut the shower on and the water circulates through the unit. Everyone was waiting for the electricity because no one wanted to take cold showers. Whenever I have to get a cold shower I encourage myself that millions of people all over the world take cold showers, and with that I jump in the shower, but don't linger long.

I leave the cold shower and am ready to go. The girls were waiting on the porch at the kitchen. I jump in the little bus, and it won't crank. Great.. So I go to the barn and get out the jumper cables. Amanda, our newest staff member helps me by making a quick "guy" call to make sure what cable connects to what post. For anyone out there who has not jumped off a car before, remember that you need to check under the dirt on the battery to find the positive and negative signs. Red goes to red and black to black. Red is positive like the blood of Jesus, and Black is negative like sin. ( Just a little memory helper) Also when connecting cables, it should spark when you clamp the last connection.

I found two sets jumper cables. One set was rusty on the clamp ends, and the other set had 3 clamps fastened securely and one end had no clamp at all, just wires. I went with the rusty one because it had 4 clamps. Well, we get it connected and nothing.... no spark. We were told to let it build up for 10 minutes. Nothing. We adjusted cables, nothing. An hour later, while the 23 girls are waiting patiently in the bus, I decided to try the 3 clamp model of jumper cables. I took a screwdriver and hooked the clampless end directly to the battery post. When I connected up the other end, behold ...sparks. 15 minutes later a cheer went up from the girls when the bus cranked and we went merrily up the road singing songs along the way.

We are riding along and I am pretty positive I have enough gas because I put 5 gallons in right before we left from a small container I found in the bodega. Long before our destination I notice we are extremely low on fuel. Before we get to La Esperanza the gas light comes on. Not good.. Amanda and I are praying. We coast into the gas station. The gas attendant fills it up. I asked how many gallons did he pump into the tank. He said exactly 30 gallons. We literally coasted in on a "wing and a prayer".

We ate our pizza and the girls gave me gifts they have crocheted. We were the only ones in the pizza parlor. We loved it. We ran some errands and came home. The girls had a pinata for me and Rosey . Rosey's birthday is a day before mine. I came to the porch and they said they had a present from our watchman, Don Pedro, for my birthday. Cinthia whips it out from behind her back and it is an armadillo shell, with the skinned part of the head still attached and it had a small rope attached to it so that I could display this attractive ornament anywhere. Well, my first reaction was to scream. I am not usuallly taken off guard, but I am expecting a plant. When I got through laughing at myself and the others laughing at me, I hung the birthday present on the porch.

Life here is very challenging and full of special surprises. Where else can you get an armadillo carcass for your birthday? I was so blessed by the girls and there 14 crocheted bags, in various colors and the ambitious Gabby who made me a sweater of many colors. Even though the day started off a little bizarre and frustrating, at the end of the day, I realize that I would not want to be in any other place than right here where God has called me to be. Signed the Armadillo Hanging Honduran Birthday MOM

Reality Living in 48 Hours in Project PTC

2011-09-02T22:51:00.006-05:00

Well, my birthday has come and gone. I had several things that I had to attend to on that day. Last week we were dealing with Anastacia. She had her baby and it weighed a little under six pounds. We got her and the baby home and they both had gotten settled and were doing well. So I decided to get several things accomplished in the Capital that I had not had the time to attend to because of teams and baby doings.

I got up at 4:00 on my birthday. I usually get up at 5:00 am, so it really shouldn't have been that bad, but when I got into bed the night before, one of the older girls was having a test in polynomials the next day. Her birthday was the 30th and she was in tears, saying she was going to fail the test. Now I don't know that much about algebra, but I do know a little about polynomials and I know that I can't stand to see a grown girl cry on her birthday. So I worked with her for a few hours. Working math problems apparently right before bed, made my brain start whirling like I have been on caffiene. So I couldn't fall right to sleep. I jumped up the next early a.m. and had to pack a bag for the overnight trip.

My itinerary was as follows:

4:30 a.m. Left for Tegucigalpa, the capital, with Sonia, which is a 4 hour trip

4:45 a.m. Picked up Ben Heath on the way in Yamranguila

5:00 a.m. Departed from Texaco after filling up

7:30 a.m. Arrived in Comayagua to drop Ben Heath off so he could study a Pace systems school at Enlaces the ministry of Sandy Miller.

9:30 a.m. Arrived at the US Embassy to pick up my renewed passport

10:30 a.m Paid the taxes on our new bus at the National bank.

11:00 a.m. Picked up Angela Flores.

11:30 a.m. Went to the eye doctors, so Sonia could get an eye exam and glasses.

12:30 p.m. Ate lunch with the girls while waiting for eye glasses

2:00 p.m. Still waited for glasses.

2:15 p.m. Ben caught a ride on a direct bus to La Esperanza after a very productive day at Enlaces Ministry

2:30 p.m. Went to Price Mart to buy groceries

3:30 p.m. Picked up Sonia's glasses

4:00 p.m. Left Tegucigalpa

5:30 p.m. Arrived in Comayagua to spend the night with Sandy Miller

6:15 p.m Sandy and Brenda had made a birthday cake, ordered pizza and added other missionaries for my birthday party. My girls called to sing Happy Birthday

7:00 p.m Sandy's Bible Study with her staff

8:30 p.m. Blessed Time with Sandy Miller

5:00 a.m. Sandy brought Hazelnut decaf coffee (huge treat) for my birthday breakfast

8:00 a.m. Attended Sandy's board meeting

10:00 a.m. Went to the tag/tax office with documents to transfer tags for the Patrol(you can only submit paperwork in the morning or it waits until the next day)

11:00 a.m Waited on paperwork to clear the bank

1:00 p.m. Paid taxes at the bank. Left Comayagua after lunch with Sonia

3:00 p.m. Arrived in Siguatepeque to pick up supplies and buy things that Amanda called and said we needed at the farm

5:30 p.m. Arrived in La Esperanza, picked up special paper for the girls to finish their 14 pinatas they are making for the community for Day of the Child

6:00 p.m. Arrived at the farm. Lights were out

7:00 p.m Devotions with girls. Light came back on

8:00 p.m. Saw Anastacia's baby and she had lost weight in the 36 hours that I had been gone.

9:00 p.m. Went to the hospital in La Esperanza to get the baby seen about.

10:00 p.m. Arrived back at the farm and went to take a shower, but realized the the the water tank was empty. I went and restarted the well pump and collapsed in the bed with no shower and wondered if this 36 hours would ever end.

Anastacia's baby had a low birth weight. Ruth Naomi, is the baby's name and Ruth was working so hard to nurse, she would get exhausted and not wake up for 3 or 4 hours. This started after I left. She even slept all night long on Wednesday night! She lost down to 3.5 lbs! The power was out when I arrived, but when the light came on and I saw the baby's condition I was alarmed at how dehydrated she looked and so I told Anastacia that we were loading up to go to the hospital. When we arrived at the hospital, the doctors told us to do some other things, but sent us home from the hospital. They said the baby was at a greater risk at the hospital than at home because of all the bacterial and viral problems at the hospital. They said she was nursing okay, and Anastacia has plenty of milk, but we would have to keep waking the baby every 2 hours. She is so tiny now. Please pray that she bounces back and gets better.

We delivered the farm workers and the seeds that they needed to plant the next morning. I am teaching Cruz how to drive a stick shift so she can get her license. While she parked the truck, I walked in with the workers to see how the farm was looking. Apparently, Cruz followed me, but twisted her ankle trying to get in the gate. She went back to the car on the driver's side. I didn't know she had gotten out of the car. She drove home, and then told me she twisted her foot!

So we got her ankle packed with ice. I was glad to have Amanda, who graduated with her college degree in sports related physical therapy . We got Cruz set up, gave the food to the cook with instructions. Ben went up top to teach the girls and we went to La Esperanza again to meet with the judge and go to the bank and get money cashed so that we could pay our workers in the afternoon.

Our days have been so incredibly full these days and we are thankful that He keeps us going. I told Ben and Amanda that we could be a reality TV show. We wouldn't need a script or anything. We would just do what we do here. Nothing is the same any day, and there is always something going on and always seasoned with a lot of drama.

On my birthday, we had an incredible thing happen. A gift that was sent to the ministry office in the States. Nancy Grantham has been our CPA for Such Is the Kingdom Ministries since the beginning. She wrote to ask me and the Board if we knew a specific name of a person who made a donation. I wrote her back and told her that we have had so many people come down this year, and I met so many new people, but that I didn't recognize the name. If I am struggling with a name, I usually ask my girls, who have wonderful recall about so many things, (except for things like who left the milk out or who left the book on the trampoline in the rain) I apologized that I couldn't help her, and didn't think anymore about it. Come to find out, we didn't know her at all. She saw us on line, God touched her heart and wanted to bless the girls. God is so wonderful to pull blessings our way, when we least expect it. So many times we look for a blessing from sources that we know or understand, then God sends someone or something our way that just blindsides us in a great way. He gets all the Glory for the blessing and that is how it should be. I am still overwhelmed at His goodness and His sweet surprises.

I wonder why I don't anticipate His goodness every moment of my life, because He is always blessing me and covering me. I don't know why I tend to get overwhelmed at the negative things that happen and not recognize the everyday miracles He performs on my behalf. I drove to Tegucigalpa and back and He protected me all the way and helped me to accomplish everything I set out to do. He sent me a special birthday surprise for the ministry and He has given me a life that is full of love from my family, friends, interns (our professionals) and 23 wonderful girls. I am blessed. Even after all that, I was talking to Nancy about the wonderful blessing and got side tracked talking about something negative. I got convicted about my negative comments and called her back and chalked it up to that I was sitting in the sun to long waiting on paperwork to clear, but really?... there is no excuse. I need to refocus my brain to dwell on the pure, the good, the wholesome, and lovely things God does for me. I want to focus on what the Lord has done for me and not on what the enemy is doing. When someone speaks of "living in reality" it usual speaks of the negative part of life. The Bible tells us: I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my Help come from? The psalmist answers his own question: My help come from the Lord, Maker of Heaven and Earth. I pray that this new year of my life, that I keep my eyes focused upward on my Helper, my Healer, my Deliverer, my Friend that sticks closer than a brother, He is my Reality. Signed the Upward Focused Honduran MOM

For Good Men to Do Nothing

2011-08-17T23:28:00.003-05:00

I went to Tegucigalpa the capital yesterday. I drove through Tegucigalpa to get to a little place known as Nuevo Esperanza, or New Hope. It is about an hour on the other side of Tegucigalpa. I left early so I could spend some time with Esmerelda, a girl who used to be in our center. It was great spending time with her. She has grown into such a beautiful girl, inside and out. Doris was my traveling companion this time and we had a wonderful lunch with Esmerelda. We started our feeding frenzy after that. I don't know why travel beckons you to eat continually without ceasing.

We spent the night with Angela Flores, one our first girls to graduate from PTC. She is now engaged and she is planning her wedding. It was good to get to be involved in some of the preparations for that great event. We were trying to plan how we are going to get the older girls to town and where they are going to stay while we are there. I know God is going to work it all out.

I also was in the Honduran capital because I needed to get my passport renewed. I had to make an appointment on line to get into the US embassy and bring photos and the exact change needed in one currency only. WEll my professional photographer in La Esperanza said he knew the correct size. He didn't. It is exactly 2 inches x 2 inches. I didn't have the exact change either, but our embassy here is wonderful and they helped me get through it all. I had never done this before. Brett always had done stuff like that before, so I was in new territory.

I had left really early from Angela's house, because I didn't know how traffic would be and I didn't want to miss my appointment. I left her and Doris sleeping. I didn't know if when I got there if I was going to have to stand in a huge line. Thankfully, traffic was good and I could go in when it was close to my appointment. Since I was so early, I went back to my car and sat and read the newspaper.

While I was reading the bad news, I heard a little boy crying and and older voice yelling at him to "walk!!!" I thought maybe the little boy was out to early, didn't get his nap out or something, but the dad was marching him up the hill as the little guy was crying all the way. The little boy had on a dark blue shirt and khaki shorts. The man was dressed in a white shirt and black pants. He looked like a successful businessman. He opened the back door of his sedan that was along the side walk. He took the little boy, who seemed to be about 3 or 4 years old and put him in the back seat. I thought he was putting him in the car seat and that they would drive off, but then I didn't see the man and I just heard the little boy crying more and the father continuing with his threatenings. Then I saw the car move like it was being shoved or pushed, and then it kept happening and I couldn't see the father but I know he was in the car beating that little boy. I was horrified when I realized what he was doing. I kept thinking it is going to stop, and it didn't. Finally, the man stood up and he saw me, with my horrified look. He immediately changed his voice tone and started cooing to his son in a syrupy sweet voice, "Okay now you are going to be a good boy, Right?" "You need to obey your Poppi". I know I did not school my next look at him, and I admit it was judgmental. I had to look away, because I know my look was screaming what I felt at that moment. The little boy got out trying to breath correctly and sniffling at the same time. The father gave him a pair of sunglasses to put on. Their side of the road was in the shade of the 30 ft wall of the Embassy. All the while the dad was talking sweetly to him that he needed to obey and be a good boy.

I just sat there. I couldn't believe I absolutely did nothing. I guess I was in shock. I thought about why I didn't take my tire iron and go over and do some damage to his very nice car. I wondered why I didn't go over and ask, "Is there a problem?" Is your son having a seizure??? ""Are you having a seizure?" You can think of so many "could have , should have, would have" solutions, but the bottom line is that I didn't do anything. I could have thought of tons of reasons, why I shouldn't have gone over to the car, but I know that I should have done something, anything, to alleviate this little boys suffering. Please be praying for that little boy, God knows who he is, and pray for his father to be a kind father and filled with the love of God, but pray for me too. There was a man who lived during the time of the Nazi take over and he said something like this. "All that it takes for evil to overcome the world is for good men to do nothing". I want to be courageous and not faint or shrink back or be fearful. Fear is a paralyzing quality to a walk with God because it is the opposite of faith. Faith says I can do all things, while fear says I can do nothing. I want to learn the secret of encouraging yourself in the Lord like David did and launch ahead with no fear of man or animals.

I know many of the children in our center had similar circumstances. I am thankful God put them here at the farm surrounded with folks that love them. But I want my legacy to the girls to be that of being strong and courageous and standing for right, and not sitting while wrong is overcoming even one of His little ones. Thanks for all the visitors that helped this month and all the work and words of encouragement to my girls and to me. BLESSINGS, the Overcoming Honduran Mom.

Beaches are Good, Spare Tires are Essential

2011-08-10T18:20:00.007-05:00

I decided to carry our Professional, Ana Williams to the beach a day before her plane whisks her off back to Valdosta, where she will be working like crazy to finish her college career and graduate in Dec. I hadn't had a lot of one on one time with her, so I thought it would be a good way to finish her trip. Plus I had tons of errands in San Pedro Sula and Comayagua and Ana is a Macbook expert and I wanted to glean from her all that I could before she left. I had not had a day off in quite sometime, and so I had the brillant thought to go to the beach.

We had a great trip down and it was full of talking about the future of the ministry and the girls at the farm. Ana lived in house #2 and she was already missing the girls. We got into the hotel at about 4 o'clock and went to the beach and then went to the pool that is on the roof of this tiny hotel. We had a great supper of coconut shrimp with a lime and club soda slushy and went to bed. Her flight didn't leave until Thursday morning. I was thinking two days at the beach, leave early for the airport, which is a little over an hour away, a that was my plan, but God kept nudging me to change the plan to go to San Pedro today. I didn't want to do that. I don't like San Pedro Sula that well, and I wanted to stay at the beach, but I decided that I would go ahead and make a reservation in SPS and just obey.

We have been talking to the girls in our nightly devotions about how obedience in God's economy and in His Word shows that you have "great faith". I am working on that myself. Most of the time, I am not focused on hearing from God because so much other stuff is going on, I just miss it. We have discovered that we need to not only to obey, but to obey quickly and not to murmur and complain as you are obeying. Well, I didn't murmur much, :) and I just called the San Pedro Sula hotel, where we normally stay and made a reservation. I canceled the second day at the beach and got ready to go.

While I was paying out at the front desk, one of the hotel employees at the little beach hotel, said "Did you know you have a problem with your tire?" I assured him I didn't know it and so he led me out to the parking lot waving his finger at me to continue to follow him. I looked and he was correct. The tire was as bald as an onion and I had just ridden from Yamaranguila down 3 mountain ranges and over temporary bridges and rough terrain, with a tire that you could see the air on the inside. Well upon further inspection, the bald tire was the spare tire and it was bigger than the other tires. So I looked up under the bed of the truck to see if the other tire was under there. No, it was not. So not only did we have a bad tire, but we had no spare tire either. Who knows where the spare went? I should have checked before we left, but we had just bought a spare not just a few weeks back. A tire went flat and a couple of interns went to town to get the spare fixed. They made a few stops before the tire shop. They stopped at one last place when a thief on a bicycle loaded it up on the handle bars and drove away never to be seen again. We bought one to replace the stolen spare tire right after that, so I know one was under the truck where it belonged. So after we established that there was no spare, we got instructions from the tire repairmen on how to find rims in junk yards.

We got a quote from the first tire guy and we checked out the other establishments. I had to make a decision go to the bank to get money to pay for the tires. I had to get two tires, because the other front tire had a place on it that looked ripped. I was going to put that tire on another rim and retire the spare. We checked with some really sketchy tire repair shops looking for rims, and I decided if we were going to get out of there before dark we would get the tires we needed and go up the road. It was amazing how many tire repair shops have owners/workers with gold teeth, no shirts and large tums, incorrect information /directions, and a ..... gleam. They seemed happy in their work.

I got to the bank and left Ana in the car to watch our belongings. She had her luggage for travel and I had my plastic carry tote for the beach stuffed with the essentials of beach living and a nice laptop. Did I mention that is was hotter than South GA in August? I went into the bank at about 11:45 and there was a line, but not as bad as I suspected there would be before lunch. The next moment, 50 or more people came in the door. I was thankful I got there when I did. It took about 30 minutes but I got the money and went back to the tire store to get the tires changed.

The older gentlemen, who worked on the car, looked like he was on his last leg. When I went to pay out, they were telling me how this old guy had nobody and he was sick with fever and infection. I don't know how anybody knows if one has a fever when it is so hot, but he was not doing well, and the store owner, just opened up about his elderly employee's medical problems and I hadn't even asked. I felt bad about it because he worked like a trojan on changing our tires to get us on our way. We gave the older worker a tip and continued up the road.

Now we didn't get to do everything we planned to do and we didn't even get to do the things we wanted to do, but through obeying, we arrived safely at our destination. If I had of not paid attention and stayed where I wanted to be, we would have found the tire problem the next morning, and we may have missed the plane. I like God. I love it better when I obey and see the reason. God says it is even better when we haven't seen the reason but just do it anyway, trusting that He has our good in mind all the time. My dad used to say, "Do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it". I used to hate it when he said that, but it was good practice on how to listen to authority and to obey quickly.

I have a girl at the farm that repeats all my questions. For example, I say, "Will take out the trash?" She counters with "You want me to take out the trash?" I respond, "Yes, take out the trash". She says, "Take the trash out"? I say incredulously, "Yes! the trash". She replies, "The trash right?" By that time I want to say "Do you need to go to an audiologists and get your hearing checked??" But I don't because I am a missionary, and I am sensitive and I am filled with the peace and fullness of God,:)( but I am thinking it )

Sometimes we have selective hearing, sometimes we are hard of hearing. We will whistle a tune and pretend no one is speaking and sometimes we just put our fingers in out ears and refuse to hear what God is saying to us. We need to be so ready to hear what God is saying. He will speak to us in a still small voice and He will say loudly for all to hear "This is my Son, hear Him!

Jesus says for those who have ears to hear let them hear. That must be an important principal because He repeats it a lot. I started underlining the word "hear" in the Bible . It is in there a lot. It is even mentioned a few times in the Old Testament. The letters in the word "hear" are the first part of the word "heart" There is a hearing with your ears and hearing with your heart. I am praying I will be practicing doing both.

I am glad I was listening today. I didn't move as quickly as I needed to, and I didn't do it as joyfully as I needed to, but I really rejoiced when I knew that I had heard from Him and that I didn't miss what He was trying to show me. I am thankful He kept us safe....again Blessings, the Hearing Honduran MOM

Telephone Blues

2011-08-03T06:22:00.002-05:00

This week has been kind of special with my telephone woes. I have a Tigo phone which is a privately owned phone company, and a Hondutel phone that is in my house which is my land-line. I am thankful for any phone service because I have lived here with no service and so I am thrilled to have a phone.

However, my Tigo phone service started calling and telling me to pay my bill. I had paid it on the 4th of every month. They started sending text message saying it was time to pay the bill on the 17th of last month. I would text back telling them that I had paid the bill, and that seem to be fine, for a day or two and then they would start again. So finally they cut my service on first of August. I went to the bank, where you pay your utilities and they said I owed 10 dollars. I was glad it wasn't more but I didn't understand why I owed 10 dollars because my bill wasn't due for 3 more days, but whatever.

I tried to use my Hondutel phone the other day, and the phone just cut off. I thought maybe something with their satellite. I waited and checked later still no service. After a week I week by the local phone office in Yamaranguila where Don Caesar has faithfully served for years. He used to walk to my house in Yamaranguila to tell me I had a call years ago. It is just a super small building, and the lines would always be down when it was about time for him to go to lunch. Anyway, I stopped by there and told him my service has been out for a week. He said wait a minute and I followed him to his little office and he plugged up a cord. He said, "It should work now". I stood there looking a little perplexed and he said, "I wasn't here last week and someone must have unplugged the cord. Sorry". I wanted to laugh out loud but I didn't. I now have phone service...

The Professionals

2011-08-01T22:44:00.003-05:00

We finished our teams for the summer season. Those are the teams we had that we back to back. I quit counting how many teams there have been this year so far. I just know that God has blessed us with so many wonderful people and the churches that helped send them out. All the Girls and the Staff would like to thank all of you that helped make these summer missions possible.

One of our interns, Ben Heath came back early and declared that he felt like God was calling him to missions on a full time basis. Ben returned early because he wanted to come down with his home church Locust Grove Baptist Church, who had back to back work teams this month. Normally, Ben was going home and working like crazy to make enough money to come back and stay the 3 month period before he had to leave again to get his visa renewed. Ben is a graduate of a college in Middle GA and he now is our school director. He is doing a fabulous job with the girls and with new Honduran teachers we have hired this week. When Ben got back, he shared that he didn't want to be an intern any more. He felt like the word "intern" had a negative conotation that meant that the intern didn't know exactly what he was doing. He said that while he was at home, the thought came to him that the interns at Project Talitha Cumi needed to be call was "The Professionals" At first it really sound like a TV mini series to me, but everybody agreed that they were professionals and graduates from universities and their chosen profession and confession is to be a full time missionary. Yesterday while I was at the Secretary of Education with Ben getting some books and documents, the head of the department we were in said we needed to be certified to give classes. She said our "professionals" all need to come to a continuing education class to get this certification. I looked at Ben and told him, "This must be catching on". Please pray for Ben, and all of our other full time missionaries and part time missionaries that they would have the funding they need to stay on the mission field where God has called them to be.

We just dropped the Botkin family off at the bus station. They threw us a big pizza party at the Kios Pizza and Car Wach (it means car wash) facility. The pizza was great and we had every table filled except one small booth. The Botkins are on their way home for a few months. They have been a tremendous source of support and encouragement to me personally, to the girls, and to the other members of the staff. Linda is a homemaker and homeschooler of their 4 children ranging in age of 15 to 3. She cooked the entire time while we had all the teams visit us for the summer. She did a tremendous job keeping everything in the kitchen going. Jeremiah kept repairs going, drove the bus for the team, tutored the girls in trigonometry, built bunk beds, cabinets and fixed toilets. He is a carpenter by trade and they are both missionaries by the calling of God. Please pray for us because we already miss them and their children. Their children pitched in and helped with the all the day to day chores that the girls had which included washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen, feeding hogs, keeping the grounds cleaned, sweeping the church, etc. The children's attitudes were great and reminded me of my girls on the mission field as they used to remind me that they were missionaries too. Pray for the Botkin family, that they will get all the necessary plans and paperwork ready for them to be able to stay here at PTC in the near future. Pray for them to raise the necessary support to be able to stay here long term.

Natalie, our other professional, is in charge of the evangelism here in our community and the other small aldeas that we live close to. She is using a program called the Mailbox Club that orginates in Valdosta, Ga. Natalie is a member of Crosspointe Church. She is bi-lingual and has been a huge asset in going to the different schools to minister to the children the foundations of salvation and about how to read their Bibles. Natalie has commited to be with us for a year and will be with us if the Lord permits until March! We are so thankful for the time she has been here helping us. Pray for her also as she is seeking direction for her life after her year' commitment is up.

Anna Williams, also a resident of Valdosta has been with us this past 6 weeks. She has been helping with the school. Anna is a student at VSU and goes to Northside Baptist church. She has been strong when the situation called for strength even though she is quiet soul. I have been amazed at how the Lord has used her here at our mission. She is kind of the quiet super hero that nobody knows is a super hero until the need arises. She is there with strength and faith to battle whatever comes. She has spent her summer break with us and has to go back to college, but we are praying that she will return to us.

Meanwhile, the girls are doing great. They are being successful at school and even though discipline is sometimes the order of the day their attitudes to that discipline has been wonderful. We have been doing our devotions on the book of John and 1st John. Love of course is the answer to everything that comes our way, because Jesus is Love and He is the answer. We have reviewed "teamwork", in loving others more than ourselves and the word "remain". Jesus repeats it a lot to remain in His love because really we are all a little slow in that arena. We all want to bolt when things don't go our way, but he repeats over and over and over again to remain in His love.

Well last night we were talking about the calling of God. It was our pastor's sermon this week and so we review what the Pastor spoke on the next time we have devotions. During our church services we have a little old lady that always wear a typical hand woven kerchief in her hair and everytime the pastor makes a good point, she says "Santos", which just means "Holy, Holy". Well we had come to the point in the review of the pastor's sermon to ask how do we receive the call God has for our lives. We started talking about how we pray. I told them that most of the time I pray on my bed laying down, and sometimes I stand and sometimes I sit, but I told them that God has shown me that if I am really serious with God I get on my knees because it is not a comfortable position and I take care of business rapidly in that position. I also don't do it lest anyone come through and call me a fanatic. They all agreed that they would be embarrassed if someone saw them on their knees praying. So I told everybody in the room "Let's get on our knees and see if that is true". Well on of our 13 year olds got on her knees along with the rest of us, and she called out "Santos". Not because the Lord touched her spiritutally but because her knees felt the pressure immediately. It was hysterical, and we all broke out laughing because we were feeling the same pressure, but we closed out our devotions by all of us getting on our knees and praying for the needs of our farm and the girls and the families they represent.

It is strange how we let opinion of others affect our devotion to our God in how we pray, in the things we say and do. We have learned this week that perfect love casts out all fear. I pray that He will help us to overcome whatever hinders us from Him.

Thanks for all the wonderful he that we have had this summer! My girls and I have met some of the strongest Christian people. They have been a wonderful example of living for Christ. We have had some of our children baptized, some of them have recieved their salvation and some did both all because of the people who heard the Lord say "Go". They really didn't know what they were going to be doing, they just knew they were supposed to go. I am thankful that they heard from God and obeyed. Some shopped till they dropped for our 23 girls, some taught them songs, dances, dramas. The girls are better people because you came.

Thanks for all of you that have heard from God and supported us whatever way God has shown you to do. I pray that God multiply all the help you have sent our way, back to you . I thank the ones of you who are supporting our missionaries on the field. They are making a huge difference in the lives of the girls, the community and to the lives of the teams that come and see their dedication. Thank you all so much. Blessings, the Knee-Praying Honduran MOM

2011-07-03T22:09:00.003-05:00

Greetings,
We are half way through our team marathon! It has really been wonderful. We have all met a lot of new people and we have renewed friendships with a lot of folks that have returned to help us out. We have been ministering to the local community schools, building on the duplex, reorganizing the school, building cabinets, planting and plowing, and so much more. These groups have gotten so much accomplished while they have been here. I want to thank all the teams who have been here so far this summer. Thanks for coming, thanks for serving.
I have been really seeking the Lord about some things. Sometimes when we get over tired we feel it is the reason we are not close to God. But He is always faithful to let us wear ourselves out through circumstances that are out of our control to show us that is not the case. We have had several hard things happen this year. I am kind of like Jonah. I wait until I get in the guts of the whale, and then I pray.
When I was home we had some girls to take a" jolly little holiday ", and when I got back we found them. I was hoping that this would be the end of it but it happened again the next time I left the farm overnight. We got these girls back too, but it happened again with yet the younger girls who were learning by example. Their main reasons for leaving were one or more of the following:
1. Didn't like a discipline, ie raking, doing their homework over, etc.
2. Boy problems
3. The others said it was a great adventure.
4. Seemed right at the moment
5. They were bored.
I of course, was alarmed because I knew of the dangers on the road and in the streets. What could they be thinking??? This happened too many times. The last 3 girls left almost at dark. They were the 12 year old group. They left on a spur of the moment decision. These girls always had their chores done, always obedient, always kind. I thought they had been kidnapped. It never entered my mind they would leave on their own accord. They did have a flashlight, but it started raining and it dropped, and the bulb broke and they couldn't find it, it was that dark, and raining. They wandered around the cemetery, and the woods that were close to the ravines and the waterfall. Praise God that someone recognized them and called us.
During the time all this was going on, I have been dealing with one of our girls, who is going through some physical problems. We have been to 5 doctors and two neurologists. She has been diagnosed with a type of epilepsy. The doctors said it was some kind of tramau to the head. Apparently, she was dancing around and as she was spinning she hit the side of the wall lost consciousness for a moment. We have been dealing with other physical ailment and the doctors were saying the headaches were side effects of the meds, but apparently it was from the hit on the head. She started with the small seizures this past month. The meds were making her act extremely different. So we have been dealing with this in between the runaway situation. I have been praying for her healing and her condition seemed to get worse instead of better.
I was praying, but just in my spare moments when I was sane. So things kept getting worse and so I set aside all the things I knew to do, and do those things we all do to forget about what I was going through, ie read books, watch a video, or listen to music. Things kept getting worse so I decided to get serious with God so Then I prayed. I decided to read the New Testament in a week. I got out a book by E M Bounds about prayer. I started fasting meals, even when the teams were here and they were expecting me in the kitchen to eat with them.
I have come to the conclusion that I do a lot like the girls were doing. If I don't get the answer that I get from God, I take a jolly little holiday from God. I don't like His discipline sometimes, so I cut on a video. I don't see any results in my prayers so I get frustrated or bored and just check out of the praying closet. I may not leave my physical location but I take off just the same just like Jonah. I end up in a bad circumstance but thankfully I came to my senses and prayed. All the books I picked up had to do with prayer, discipline. Believe or not I found some Mark Rutland cassettes when we were organizing the library. They were tapes that dealt with courage, the adventure of pain and dealing with prayer. I had some young people on the bus look at me and my little Sony cassette player with a puzzled look on their faces as if to say, "what kind of machine is that?"
Anyway, things have calmed down here. We had one girl move back in with her grandparents way back in the woods. She thought she was going to be with her mom in the capital, and so did her mom but the judges said "No". So instead of leaving our farm for the city as she had hoped, she left to go to a farm further away than what she was already. Please be praying for her.
During all the things God was showing me, one of the things He has impressed on me was to love others more than I love myself. Everybody in ministry think they do that and feel as we are covered. But the other day I was on a bus. I had a seat right to myself and my back pack, where I had planned to stretch out for a long ride. Well this little bubbly girl who could talk faster than I could, sat beside me and told me her whole family history and the reason for her trip. Well because Natalie and I had made a quick change from one bus to this one, we didn't have time to eat. I thought to myself, "Well, I have some crackers and my water, I will be okay", but Bubbles didn't have any crackers, and I thought, "I have two packs, I will give her one". There were two packs but one looked like something you do to crackers right before you put them on top of a casserole. I took those crackers, and tried to eat them but just ended up crumbling them all over my black dress. I finally gave up and threw them out the window. Bubbles throughly enjoyed her crackers. Then Bubbles saw a young girl get on the bus that didn't have a seat. Bubbles invited her to sit with us in our two seat/backpack area. We drove like that for about an hour wih Bubbles sharing her family history with the young woman. She wasn't satisfied to share just her story but through my half coma-induced state, she wanted me to share my history with the young girl too. I dozed off somewhere in their excited conversation. When I came too my legs were asleep. It was like that the rest of the way home, some part of my body was going to sleep. When Bubbles friend left she started trying to call her Uncle. He wasn't answering. She was almost crying and saying, "What shall I do??" I don't know anybody in La Esperanza except for you. When the bus stops I will just be thrown off". I said "We need to pray." I sincerely prayed that we would find her uncle otherwise it looked like Bubbles was coming home with me. Every 15 minutes she was checking her uncle's phone to see if he left a message. Afterward she just kept lamenting, "What shall I do? Can I go home with you? Can we pray again? " I assured her not to worry, that I wouldn't leave her all alone on the streets. Well before we got off the bus at the chinese restaurant, I gave her a number to call if he wasn't there and reminded her that we were only a block away. So we got off at the Chinese restaurant to get something to eat. I supposed I should have asked Bubbles to eat with us but I didn't want her to miss her uncle.
Meantime, while we were waiting on our food and on a call from Bubbles, Tony and Phylis called. Tony is on our board and they were our ride home to the farm.. They had a flat tire and they had just used the jack on the flatbed earlier that day while working on the clutch. He asked if I could see if anything was open. Everything was closed at this point and so I left the restaurant on foot and Natalie our intern watched the stuff. It was threatening rain. I saw that the tire place was lit up. So I kept walking. It was the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship Meeting" They let us interupt their meeting and use` their floor jack. When we put on the spare, we found that it had no air either. So while walking back to the restaurant and talking to an elated Bubbles, who had jus found her uncle. When I got to the restaurant, Natalie and I traded places, She went to stand with Phyliss at the car and Tony rolled a tire all the way to the Texaco station to get it aired up. We got the tire and the rest of the chinese food and took off for home. God is very good.
So all is right with the world, except for while I writing this letter, I had a disgruntled girl come in and say that she wants me to talk to the judges because she needs to leave the farm because she
has one thing she doesn't like and it was when everybody has problems, when just a few want to be disobedient. I asked her if there was anything she was thankful for and if there was, carry the list and add the things she was grateful for. She sent the list back and she had listed that God has given her a nice house to live in, clothes, shoes, and a good life, health and friends. He has given me a lot of families that love me and a best friend forever. God has given me good friends like Morgan, Miss Beth Clayton, Miss Natalie, and a lot of them are my best friends. But in the last paragraph she reiterated that she didn't like it when just a few do wrong and others suffer for it. When she comes back, I will tell her I don't like that either, but such is the nature of sin.
I want to thank the Lizella team for all the great help they were to us while they were here. Thanks to Tony, Phyliss and Meagan for hanging out with us a little longer. Thanks to my home church, Crosspointe, Valdosta, GA Thanks to our interns, Natalie and the Botkin family who have been life savers these past weeks. Thanks to the board for all of your hard work. Thanks to all of you who love and have supported our girls and this ministry. God is doing so much here, and He is faithful to begin with me.:)

The New Bus, The Port, and Agent DeMonio

2011-06-05T23:03:00.005-05:00

This blog is taken from my newsletter for the month of June.

I am running a little late with this newsletter. We have been full throttle for a while now. We had a team from South Carolina come down. When they left Honduras, they left part of their team here with us. The Botkin family is living with us and will be with us for a few months. They have been such a blessing and with everything going on, we have needed their help.
Haley is back, Natalie is back and Ben is back (albeit temporarily). Ben came back to help us find some girls that decided to go on a jolly little holiday while I was in the US. He was super sleuth and found one of the girls by waiting at a school for the mother to pass by. When he got to the police station the police officer we were dealing with about this case said, "Hey, you are doing my job". We had tried using the police system, but they were too overwhelmed with cases that were more crucial than a couple of run aways. The girls are with back with us now, but we don't know for how long. Paperwork has begun to move them to a different center. Two of the girls have been with us for over 11 years. It seems surreal right now because they are still living here, but it looks like they will be relocated soon.
We have three new girls here at the center. Nelly 15, Maria 9, Paola 9. They have been through some tramatic times recently and we are glad they are here with us. The two younger girls are settling in nicely, but Nelly is struggling. She wants to be with her mom but her mom cannot protect her from her home situation and so she is staying with us. She tells me everyday how she wants to be with her mom and wants to talk to the judge. Pray for her to get peace about being here.
When the team from SC was here, I was informed that the bus that we had been waiting for was at the port and had been for a few days. This was on a Friday, so we took off to avoid any port fees. When we arrived we found out that the bus had been there for 28 days! They give you the first 4 and then after that you pay for the next 10 days 8 dollars a day and then after that the price goes up. We have a tax free dispensa, but we couldn't use it after 20 days of the arrival of the vehicle, so we had to pay the taxes. We contacted a port agent, and he was very animated and said that he could get it out with a few phone calls and he said we will make some adjustments on the original documents and title and it will be fine. We got the paperwork and a new agent.
We went in the port on Monday, and we were thinking about doing it ourselves, but this agent, who we found out later was nicknamed "demonio", or Demon, came to help us. He looked like his skin was gray but spoke English and that was helpful because we had Jimmy Potts a board member and Ben Heath who was trying to help get the bus out of the port. We had taken Lina, Carina and Mary because they were ahead in their studies. They were hanging out in the restuarant, Mr. Baleada, across the street. It had air conditioning and a TV, and food, so the girls were fine while we were talking to the port authorities.
Mr. Demonio's assistant was named "Dog". He told me he had 3 kids and 3 wives. He was a young man about 28. He told me he had been into drugs but he was better now. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said that he was. I told him how Jesus helps us with addictions and lifts us out of pits we have fallen into. He said " Well I know He does, but I got out of pit of drug addiction on my own. I used marijuana until I didn't need the other stuff". All I could think to say was "Interesting".
So now I had Mr. Demonio and Marijuana Man working on our behalf. They were telling us that we were going to pay taxes on the value of the bus which they established was $11,000 US . You pay 10% duty fees and then 15% taxes on top of that. We were looking at some serious money to be paid. I was wondering what we could possilby do when another man came up to me. He asked if I was the wife of Brett because Brett always used this agent when he went to the port. I looked for his old office but they had moved. I told him that I was but Brett had died a year ago. I still react by bursting into tears when I meet people who knew Brett and ask how he is. When I told him that he had died a little over a year ago. He said he recognized me and wanted to help. He took the me and my paperwork and talked to the chief of the port. He told the Chief that he knew us before and asked him to help us. The Chief told him if we could find a lower market value on a vehicle like this he would use that. Randy Cox sent us the value of the bus. They lowered the bus to $3500 US. The agent that knew Brett didn't charge us anything for all his help. He said that he did it for his friendship for Brett and to the glory of God.
That took the entire day just to establish a price. So we had to go spend the night at a place Mr. Demonio knew. We were cautious. He said, "It is right on the beach and I will get you a good price". I was skeptical. Well, the sun was setting and I knew we needed to get in somewhere so we followed Mr. Demonio to the hotel. The pool was green but we brought no clothes with us. The beach had a oil-spill look to it, and so it just worked out that we had no suits. It was so incredibly hot there at the port, we were sweating like malaria victims.
We got all that arranged and now we had to do the paperwork. They said, "You will be out by today". Jimmy felt safe about leaving it with us because he had already delayed his flight by two days.
They came up with an amount for taxes and fees and I had to go to the bank at the port. I had to walk through a scanner, put on a hard had and a vest that a very sweaty assistant had used a few minutes before he loaned it to me. I walked about 20 feet, and took off the hard hat and paid the bill. I walked back the way I came, gave the sweaty hard hat and vest to the assistant and went to get the bus. Then they said I had to pay taxes on the contents of the bus. So we had to do all the paperwork on that too which took hours of review of exactly what was on the bus. Demonio said he went on the bus and they had robbed everything. I was heart sick but I thought, "Well, that lowers the taxes." I put on another hard hat to go see the contents, and though it had been rifled through and things were out of their boxes, everything looked like it was there. So I went back to the agents office donned my borrowed sweaty hardhat and vest, went through the scanner and paid the bill and returned. They said, "Let's get your bus". We got to the port and they said that they forgot that the bus hadn't gone through the scanner for drugs. It was now too late because the port closed in a few minutes, so we had another night at Port of Cortes. Mr. DeMonio and Marijuana Man, said they needed money to put gas in the bus to drive it first thing in the morning through the scanner. I only had 40 dollars US at the time and I gave that to them. They drove off happy as clams.
We found another hotel on the other side of the port. We used to go there when the kids were little when Brett had to get a container out of port. I remembered how to get there thankfully. They had made a lot of changes and we were the only people in this huge hotel. We walked out to the beach, and just enjoyed sitting there letting the breeze hit us and cool us off. The girls were collecting shells and wading on the beach. We were at peace.
They had made a lot of changes at the hotel. They said they had a new kiddie pool. I thought the girls could walk around in it. The 20 little colorful plastic chairs for small children sat around the pool and a giant green and blue mushroom was in the center of the pool that acted like a fountain. It was really pretty. When we got the edge of the pool we realized that the kiddie pool was 5 ft deep all the way around! I wondered about the unsuspecting parents telling their children to go to the kiddie pool, not knowing they could be sending them there to drown.

The room was very nice but we were on day three of hot days and no change of clothes. I would have gotten some clothes but they said we were leaving. We showered and put on the same clothes. When I went into the bathroom I noticed a bee on the bright white towel and so I killed it in case the girls didn't see it, I didn't want them stung. I woke early in the AM and went into the bathroom. When I opened the door there was over 50 bees. Not just honey bees but killer bees and they were mad. I immediately thought about the bee I had murdered the night before. I wondered if they sent out the hit squad. I went downstairs and left everyone sleeping.
I found a watchman that was about 4 ft 2 in tall and told him my problem. I asked for another room. He wasn't authorized to do that. I asked to just be able to used another bathroom, again he was not authorized. I asked for an insect spray. He said they had some but it was in the bodega and he didn't have the key. I eyed the small fan and I asked if I could borrow it run the bees out and return it, he said it wasn't his to loan. The phone rang and I sat down to wait, trying to think of any other petitions he might could authorize, when I noticed a movement out of the dry fountain that was in the lobby. It was a huge crab and it walk right under the opposite sofa. I got up off of my sofa. Thankfully the phone call was from the owner asking if any customers had come in. The watchman told him about my problem and the boss gave the go ahead to give us another room. I could tell he wasn't happy about the bees or the lack of response on the part of the night watchman.
We got to the port early and they ask me for gas money. I told them I gave them money for that. They said, "Oh that was for my car". "Sweet," I thought, but I must of had a look on my face at this point and Mr. Demonio said, "I will take it off my fee". They went and put deisel in the engine, however, it was a gas engine, so then they had to pay a mechanic to drain the tank and lines and put in gas. Ben was in his hard hat trying to help push all this through, but they finally got everything done and it was time for the port to close for lunch! We waited an hour more under the shelter with our hard hats. When they finally gave us the out, we were first in line, and we bolted through the gate. Ben, the girls and I were euphoric.
The bus is wonderful and we can get all the girls in there, not to mention we don't need a CDL license which none of us have. We went back to our forsaken, abandoned, patiently waiting South Carolina team. They were great and had been so busy while we were away. God had taken care of everything. All I had left to do is get the tags for the bus, but that story will have to wait for another day. :)
Blessings to all who have been so helpful to our ministry. Thanks to Randy, Rich, The South Carolina team, The Botkin family, our wonderful interns, the board, and everyone of you who pray for us. We are blessed and I pray He bless you exceedingly abundantly more than you can think or ask. Blessings, Pam and the girls from Talita Cumi.

A Trip to the Beach

2011-05-28T10:47:00.004-05:00

I had a great time with my family while I was Stateside. I was there three weeks. I got to visit with my family and friends. I almost finished painting my barn. I just lack a small area and I ran out of paint. I got some paperwork finished that was pending. So for the most part it was a successful trip.

One part of the trip that I was looking forward to was a week at the beach. My long time friend/almost family, Robin, asked me and my girls and my mom to come stay at the beach with her for a week. It was Mother's Day weekend and so it just all worked out. I bought some books from Books a Million and loaded up my sunscreen, snacks, and etc and headed out.

We had a few mishaps before we got to the beach. I have long time friends that always let me borrow a car when I come home. For a missionary this is a huge blessing. I parked my borrowed car behind my friend's car and we were so excited about going, we all loaded up the car and hopped in. I should have moved the car. Because the car was so loaded we couldn't see behind us . We were mortified but we were determined to not let this ruin our trip. So we unloaded the back of the car so we could have a better view the rest of the trip, and put the extra stuff in a car that was coming later that night with one of my daughters. We picked up Robin's mom and off we went.

Our first stop was to get something to eat. The food was great we were all laughing and having a great time. We paid our bill and walked out. I was looking for my sunglasses in my bag and didn't see the cement ramp for wheelchairs and I struck the side of it with my newly painted pink toenails that were residing in my open toed sandals and I think I broke the third toe on my left foot. I was determined not to say anything. If it had of been my big toe, it might have been a little obivious, but I could handle throbs from that tiny member..

We got to the beach apartments and they were so gorgeous. The pool was right outside of the townhouse apartments we were staying in. We got unpacked and waited for the second wave of folks that were coming with the rest of our stuff. Thankfully we had a third wave, my daughter Sarah brought all the stuff down that we thought we had packed. Going to the beach is hard work. Robin is a caterer. She had so many fancy meals prepared for us. It was like having our own chef. She was amazing and had literally packed all that stuff just so that we all could be blessed.

We sat down for a moment after we got everything in its place and then I get this phone call from Honduras. Apparently the 15 year old mom that we took in in January that had the 5 month old baby decided to go AWOL over the fence and told the little girls that she was going to abandon the baby and was giving the baby to the mission for us to raise. She felt like Haley would take good care of her. It was night and the girls ran to tell Haley but it was not quick enough. She was gone. Haley called the police and did everything by the book. I thought the girl was doing great, but apparently the call of the world was stronger. The baby is now with defax waiting adoption.

I went out the first full day and it was amazing. The water in Destin was so clear and cold and the weather was mild. I came in after a few hours, and got in the pool when I get this phone call from Honduras. The judges are holding me responsible for the girl's disappearance. So I have to start making phone calls. Haley is running around in Honduras to different official offices so that I can talk to them. Finally, it is decided that though I am the responsible party, I am not responsible. It took a couple of days, but everything was fine.

Tuesday I am at the pool, and I get this phone call. Two more of our girls have run away. A 16 year old and a 14 year old. They acted like they were going up to the school, but just kept walking.
Haley is losing it at this point, (and rightly so)because she has no idea where they are. They took a short cut through the woods we found out later and walked to La Esperanza. One of the girls had been introduced to this family a couple of years prior as her family. It was not her family but the family of her deceased stepfather. Not the best choice. At the time we didn't know any of this. We just knew they were gone. I am trying to talk to officials and my GO phone got up and went. I had but 60 dollars on the account for one month, but they charged me data, and so I had no minutes, and so I was borrowing phones, and people were calling my girls who were sleeping in at their beach vacation time, and asking to speak to me. Even though the wanted to be helpful, they were not happy campers. I finally just prayed and asked the Lord to keep the girls safe and work this whole mess out. I was going to be in HOnduras in a few days. I was so frustrated and mortified that all this was going on with my girls.

I am a early riser by habit and not by choice. So I would go to the beach early and walk and read and swim. About the time I have had enough of the sun and am ready to go in, the other folks in the world are ready to come to the beach. Then late in the day I would go back out and stay until the sun set. The water was freezing, and I was wondering about the truth of reports of melting polar ice caps. Anyway, the weather was perfect. I would just leave my chairs out there for the day and bring them back in the evening because there are tons of signs that tell you that all items left on the beach are discarded without exception.

One night we all went to the movie and when we got home. Our kids are night owls and they were going back to the beach. It was late and so I asked them to grab my chairs. They said "No Problem". They forgot. The next morning I went out to the beach and peeked around the first beach condo and I thought I saw my where I left my chairs but at a distance they seemed to have a lime green color on them so I figured they weren't mine. As I got closer, I realized that they were lime green tags with hot yellow zip ties that declared to the world, "You messed up". Well I don't know why I was so embarrassed but I was. My mom and I reclaimed the chairs by plopping down in them. I tried to take the tags off but they were not budging. Mom and I laughed about it and just figured "Oh well", and started our reading fest.

A tanned guy with a huge scar about 2 inches wide that ran from one of his hips to his shoulder came to speak with us. He was the beach patroller that issues lime green tags. Normally the beach at that hour was empty, but today of course, it was full. He begins by telling us that we shouldn't have left the chairs, and if we left them again we will lose the chairs forever. Now if the lime green tags with shocking yellow zip ties weren't enough to get attention from folks strolling the beach the attendant with a huge scar drew the rest of the eyes on us. I wanted to ask, "What in the world happened to you?", but I was being nicely scolded. It was kind of a speech that you would here in a chapter of Beach Eitiquette for Dummies. Anyway, we said "Sorry, Sir it will never happen again". Folks lost interest in what was happening as he walked away. I pulled with everything and got the lime green tags off, but the hot yellow zip ties remain even now.

As I was sitting there thinking about the girls that had left the mission, I thought about my lime green tags. So many of us have stuff that happens in our life with our families and kids. It is kind of like the lime green tag that everybody for miles can see and say "They messed up". When really it isn't our fault. I thought that I had made all the arrangements for the girls and the chairs to be cared for and safely tucked away. Then you have the second wave where you get the lecture from the attention attracting scarred guy and everybody is all ears, and all you can do it say "I am sorry it happened". All the while you are thinking, "What could I have done differently?". Thankfully we have an advocate and He has the power to pull of the tag, but sometimes the hot yellow zip tag remains as a reminder of His grace in every situation. God knows what the problem is and everybody has a free choice with him. He says that no one can pluck you out of His hand, but he doesn't say you can't jump.

My girls jumped. All of them had left before but we allowed them back. We found the girls a few days after I got home.. Ben the school director came back from his vacation to help find the girls. One came back on her own and through a little investigative work from Ben Heath, (which sounds like a detective sort of name) he found the other girl. Even after they got home, they insisted they were going to leave to extended family, refusing all thoughts of being at the place they have called home for eleven years. During their interviews, they didn't have problems with the farm, except they didn't like to rake and do homework some other adolescent notions. The head of defax here just looked at them and gave them a tongue lashing about how blessed they were to have an home to rake and care for and a school to go to. She said that because of the problems they have made for themselves in the past and the poor example to the smaller girls, they would have to leave. She told them that this is not a game where you can come and go as you wish.

Three of the girls made the plan, two left, but unfortunately all three insisted that they still wanted to leave. All three have been tremendous during their time with us. They are the girls that all the teams remember because they are so "dynamic". That word comes from the word that is associated with dynamite and like the explosive you never really knew when they would go off. We have been with the officials this week and they say because their "families are not blood related or too young, they are not going there. Because the three insisted about leaving they will not be able to stay here. Please be praying. I know that God has a plan for them. I still hope that where ever they end up. I want to continue to be part of their lives. I thank you all for the prayers you have had over our girls. They are living at my house right now and they seemed resigned to what is going to happen. Pray that God will use this to help grow them up in the right direction. Pray that I will be able to accept what I don't understand.

Blessings, the Yellow Zip Tied Honduran MOM

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way Back From the Mechanics

2011-03-25T00:21:00.006-05:00

I was in la Esperanza at the mechanics with the Nissan little truck, when I get this call. My workers decided to move some dirt with the truck without permission. I wouldn't have given permission since they don't know how to drive and because none of them have a car or license. They drove to the back of the farm where I had filled in an adobe pit with pine straw last year to keep my baby goats from falling in a 10 ft x 20 ft hole of water. The crew was getting dirt for a back fill for the foundational floor of the duplex.

They backed up to the pit and shovel the back end full of dirt and proceeded to tell the youngest in the group to pull up. Unfortunately, it was left in reverse and not first gear and what he thought was a brake was the clutch he started rolling and then gunned the accelerator to make it go forward but drove it backwards so hard that it buried the trailer hitch (which is 2ft x 3 ft metal plate where the ball joints fit) into the dirt on the other side of the hole.

Clayton one of our new interns, got the tractor and I got into the truck after we literally dug out the flatbed from pressurized pine straw, and pulled it out. I remembered Brett's terragator days and we laid limbs under the wheels and used a heavy chain that we tied in a knot on back of the tractor and around the main frame of the Isuzu. We had all the hondurans stand on the tractor which made the tractor look like a mama possum while the men were hanging on to each other around the body of the tractor. I prayed aloud before we started that those things that were bound would be loosed in Jesus name and voila' it came right out .

I was ready to tell the crew that they were fired. One was saying the youngest boy did the driving, but I knew that wasn't right. So I talked to him first, and he said he drove it into the hole but the other worker, who is about 24 he drove it back to the hole and was the one who left it in reverse. But he was so brave when he was talking to me. He took the credit for any wrong doing. He said " I have learned a hard but important lesson today, not to touch things of importance without getting permission from the owner". He was so sincere all my thoughts of firing the lot of them melted. The 24 year old when confronted with the truth, wanted to say it wasn't so, but just hung his head and said "I did it. It was me". So in front of them all, I just thanked God and told them it could have been worse. The very dry dry pine straw didn't catch on fire when they where spinning the back tires so fast desperate to remove the truck before I got back from town. It should have caught on fire because it was sitting in a pile of very dry straw. I told them we were all going to work on this problem until we got it solved. When the truck finally pulled out, I was driving the flatbed, I watched the faces of the men when the truck finally started to move. They all cheered and slapped each other on the back. I just wish I had an extra hand to snap my camera at that moment. God helped me to see that the men, and how they felt about themselves, were more important than the truck. I am here ultimately for the people, and the stuff that is here to help us, is just that "stuff". "Stuff" is not eternal, people are. God is good to us all the time. Signed Down in the Dumps, But Not For Long, Honduran MOM

Bloom where your planted? How about bloom in a Rock!

2011-03-13T09:13:00.018-05:00

We were on a hike down to the village of Yasi in Honduras when I saw these flowers blooming away in a rock! The rest of my group had continued to hike to the school which was our destination. But something about these flowers just captured me, and before I realized it I had been left behind. It wasn't a tremendous problem because I knew how to get to the school. I am the local missionary after all. I have been visiting this area for 15 years. This year, we have been coming about every 15 days bringing school supplies and teams from the United States who wanted to come and meet the children of this very remote area. We were excited that this year we are starting a Bible Club ministry for the schools in our area. Yasi is our first assignment. The material comes from the Valdosta based Mailbox Club. They donated the materials, and this was our first meeting with the 5th and 6th graders.

Yasi is a beautiful place that is virutally unspoiled by human hands. It has orchids growing up the walls of the mountains, rivers that are rushing through unhindered by man made structures except for isolated swing bridges. It is a Garden of Eden, only with 400 people. These people have survived in this location for hundreds of years. They are known as the Lenca people, and indigenous tribe that have lived here for centuries. They don't have many visitors because it is so hard to get to them. It is so steep, cars, or trucks cannot reach it. They lived in adobe houses, and get their water from the river and their food is what they grow. It is a very hard life here, but the people have bloomed in a place that appears to be a hard place, but to them it is the best place in the world. Is their world view limited without radio, tv, and communications? Maybe, but they seemed to be content and happy where they are.

This is Grace Spell's team from St. Louis Missouri. Grace Spell is a missionary, who works with World Indigenous Missions. She literally goes all over the world bringing first time missionaries to the ends of the earth to bring the Gospel of Jesus. This team was a high school Spanish Class that wanted to bring the love of Jesus to Honduras. They had dramas, and skits, to share with the children as well as a lot of practical school supplies. The children loved the skits and the loved the Spanish Class and welcomed them .

The school is so remote that they have to take precautions of making sure that the school's property is protected. These children look like they are in prison but the parents put bars and barbed wire in the windows to protect the contents. The children were on the desks peeping through the windows at the 6' 6 tall sixteen year olds that were visiting. A Honduran man from this area is usually about 5 ft. Some of these young people appeared to be giants and it set the kids scrambling for cover, but their curiousity won out in the end.

The Spanish Class were a great group of young people. They didn't complain about the bus trips, the schools that were closed because of teacher strikes, change of schedules or the rice that was burned one time. They moved rocks, planted coffee, and worked on the new duplex floor moving dirt to the foundation. They just rolled with the different circumstances, and had a wonderful adventure. They were a blessing and a great witness to my girls about not complaining. They bloomed where they were planted.

I am blessed to be able to learn from the children on our farm and from the young people who come to visit. The Spanish Class had a skit to about praising God in all circumstances. It was pantomine about a boy who was praising the Lord and while lifting his hands to the sky in praise a bird dropped a delivery on his face. Next he bought an ice cream and stumbled and dropped it and then he buys a balloon and it flies away and then pets a dog and it bites him, but throughout the skit, he is praising the Lord.

The last day of their trip we needed to leave early and take them to La Esperanza to catch a bus. We had to carry our flatbed truck because our bus is in the shop. It was very cold and we were running a little behind schedule to catch the bus. The team was wrapped in blankets setting amongst their luggage. Ben Heath was helping drive the flatbed and I was driving the small truck. He drew me aside and told me the front tire was a little low. So we looked for our air compressor but the connection to the tank was missing. So we decided to go ahead because we were running late. He also told me that the fuel was lower than the tire. It was my fault for not checking after our last run. Anyway, I thought no problem I will get a gallon in Yamaranguila, the town right up the road. There is a guy there that isn't fond of North Americans but he occasionally has diesel and gasoline by the gallon.

We stopped and got a gallon and I asked the man "How much?". He told me 85 limps, and then in the next breath said "Well 90 because the prices have just gone up". It was in the early morning and I don't think he checked with the oil futures that morning but I was in a hurry and decided to let it slide. Then the metal cap wouldn't come off the fuel tank. We worked and worked, but still it wouldn't come off. So there was a small screw in the top of it and so we took it off and crammed the funnel into the small opening and poured in a gallon of fuel, (which was really 3/4 of a gallon from oil futures guy) We paid the oil baron and took off because now we were late. I was telling Natalie our new intern, that I was going to praise the Lord anyway, while I was reaching for a large wrench that we used trying to get the cap off and I had put it on the dash. Before I could get it, we hit a bump and it fell on my knee cap. It hurt, but I told Natalie, "I will praise the Lord anyway".

We got to the bus station and there were thankfully available seats, and we hugged everybody and they got on board. Ben leans over to me while we are waving good-bye and says "Guess from 1-10 how flat the tire is?" I guessed 4. I was wrong it was 10. So there is a tire place that fixes tires right at the bus stop. I was praising God. I got there and it was closed. So I called the number that was on the door. A little girl answered and said her dad just left. I asked if he had another cell phone and she said that he had accidently left his and that was the one she was using. So I decided to praise the Lord anyway.

The lugnuts, wouldn't move, wouldn't budge. A guy passing by told us to pour coke on them to loosen the rust and mud away from the bolt. So I bought a coke and pour on it. There was a definite reaction to the metal. A guy selling household items under a blue tarp said "You think that something that eats rust off of lugnuts shouldn't really be going into our bodies". I agreed. He came over and started helping us. The flatbed is a big truck and we were at a weird angle. We drove the flat wheel up on a 2x4 to help the jack position. Then our metal bar that we use to turn the key for the lugnuts bent, so now it was of no use. So I decided to go get a professional. Natalie and I left in the small truck, got the guy up the road at a local Firestone dealership and he brought his tools. He moved us all out of the way so he could show us how it is done, and he proceeded to bend his bar and said sheepishly, "Sorry you will have to drive the truck to the Firestone store so we can use our hydraulic wrench on the lugnuts." He told us it would probably destroy the tire and maybe bend the axle but it was the only way. We carried him back and decided to try one more time.

Ben found another metal bar, and so we prayed that those things that were bound would be loosed in Jesus name. The guy helping us was named Daniel. He took a metal pole and put it inside of another pole and pulled and it loosened the first lug with a hard cracking sound. I was praising the Lord. He moved to the second one an the pole within the pole slipped and caught Daniels palm and ripped the skin open about an inch in diameter. Natalie was there with her triple antibiotic bandages and I went to get hand wash and bought a bag of water. We doctored Daniels hand. Daniel was determined now and the other lugnuts cracked loose also. We put on the spare, thanked Daniel (he was a Christian man and he refused the tip just said he was glad he could help) and tipped the other young bus attendant, and went to the Firestone store to get the tire fixed.

While they were fixing the tire, I notice that one tire was bigger than the other on the dual tires in the back causing the outside tire to be completely bald and very worn. I went to the other side and the outside tire on that side looked like a large cat had been using it to sharpen its claws down the center of the tire. It was coming apart! We had been driving the team in this flatbed all week! I started praising the Lord that no harm had come to anyone. One of the team members had given us some money when she left and so we used that to get two tires to replace the bad tires in the back. I was praising the Lord that I had the money.

We went to do other errands but the lights had gone out in the city, and so we couldn't finish up our errands because they required electricity. We got a call from Haley and she said because the electricity was out they were out of water. I told her to just crank the generator. The battery was dead. So when we got home we were going to charge the battery, and turn on the well pump. The battery wouldn't charge and just as we were thinking would be without water the electircity came on. I started praising the Lord.

The young people's skit was really effective and hopefully for me will be life changing. I neglected to mention that I was getting irritated in between the times I was praising the Lord, but my goal eventually will be to be praising the Lord in good and bad times. I want to be like that plant and have the fortitude and faith to bloom in a rock. I think God just wants us communicating at all times with Him either way. The Word says, "and a little child shall lead them", and so it was this week for me. Blessings, the Older but Wiser Praising Honduran MOM.

The Bus Ride

2011-02-27T22:11:00.011-06:00

The medical brigade

Duplex and Sweaters

Yesterday Haley and I went to pick up the team. We loaded up into the local bus line and went public. Public is when you stop every so often and get new passengers while others disembark. Sometimes people selling fried fish or portable toothbrushes, or a wonder pharmacutical miracle, get on the bus to hawk their wares. There were so many people on the bus one time, that when I woke up from my slumber, there was a woman's rear area in my face. That has never happened before. It was a tall but large Honduran woman.

We got to the airport my administrative assistant went on a fast food blitz. She ate Dunkin Donuts first, then Wendy's Spicy Chicken and to top it off a Expresso Americana chocolate concoction that includes oreo's and the equivalent of whipped cream from 12 dairy cows. She had been waiting for quite some time for this gastrinomic delight to present itself .

Our team arrived and they too, had found Wendy's Spicy Chicken. This time we took a bus direct. On the way back home I am chatting with the new team members and I get this phone call from the farm. It was Ben the director of the school at our mission. He said that the last of our three mama pigs, was having her babies and handed the phone to Angela, our twelve year old. She was so excited, speaking in Spanish in three octaves than normal. I couldn't understand her except that she was saying something about the baby pig's leg. In my calmist voice I asked her to give the phone back to Ben. He was in the pen with the sow. He was talking odd and I found out later that he couldn't hold the phone because he had certain material on his hands from working in the pig pen. He finally told me that one of the baby pig's leg was delivered and that was all, so I told him to pull it out, thinking it would be dead, but it wasn't. We were all excited about pig delivery by phone.

Then I get another call from another missionary whose bus had a flat front tire. So I asked our direct bus drivers if they could look out for him and help him out. They found the bus, and had all the right equipment to help him change the tire. We were running a little late but we were back on track.

We got to La Esperanza and it was raining again. Rainy season usually starts at the end of March or the first of April. This year it started in February! People here including myself, had adobe buildings going up, coffee drying in the sun and other projects. When the rains started all of that came to a halt. Fortuanately for us a team from Pennslyvania came the first of February and got our adobe walls to our duplex up in record time. We are now trying to finish the walls out with stucco. This duplex will be used for interns who are coming to help us with the girls and with this mission. There is good news about the rain. A team came in December and planted corn and beans. I didn't think that they would live because we were in the drought season of year and it hadn't rained since October. Two months later now at the end of February the corn and the beans are cracking the dirt and thriving. They have had no rain since January and they still came on up out of the dirt. I am amazed and thankful.

We unloaded the team's luggage into the yellow school bus I had hired, and after they got the luggage loaded they said they wouldn't be able to carry me to the farm. I asked why not and they said because it had been raining all day. Well, I just looked at the driver and his assisitant like "Oh well, perhaps I won't pay you the full price if you just get me half way home in the dark on a rainy night." It is amazing what your eyes can communicate when necessary.

The bus drivers got us to the entrance and Ben met us with the flatbed and the Nissan. It was just drizzling rain at this point. I got the ladies from the team in the truck and took off down the road. I get to our gate and our watchman, who I call "Barney Fife"because he carries the shotgun shells in a plastic sandwich bag in his shirt pocket. He was not there to open the gates for us. We are all sort of damp, and needing to use the facilities and very exhausted and now there was no watchmen to let us in. I had left my keys at the farm. I knew Barney was in the area because he had just let Ben out the gate to come get us in the flatbed. I was on the phone with Ben and heard him tell the watchman that they would be right back.... It didn't register with Barney. So I am yelling out the door and finally one of the girls comes and unlocks the gate. I drop those ladies off and go and get some more team members. As I pass by the small gate up top, Barney was patroling up above by the small entrance. Nobody was going to use that gate because it was raining, the roads were full of water and they couldn't get out of the vehicles, but he was on the job.

When I got to the top they were still unloading the suitcases from the bus to the flatbed. Everybody piled in and we got back to the main gate. The team met the girls and ate supper and then we loaded back up in the vehicles and drove to the mission house to unload the luggage into the weary team members hands. I am thankful for the safe journey and for team members who were prepared for the long trip. They had been up since 3 o'clock in the morning the day before and finally arrived at their destination at 8:30 the next evening. God has been faithful to us.

I wanted to thank Currie and Sandi Burgess for sending their medical team to help us in our area of El Obispo. They brought 14 doctors and assistants and they all did a wonderful job helping the people here in the mountains. Also I wanted to thank Jeff and Nancy Evans and their team for their hurculean efforts in getting those adobe walls up for the duplex, building two fish ponds, and assisting in making a bathroom for the church. I would also like to thank Jim and Linda Rowan for leading a great team to minister to the school children in our area, as well as the children here at PTC.

Continue to pray for us in this season of teams. The girls have been so helpful with the teams, serving in the kitchen, loading rocks, and helping out with the cooking. The girls and I are feeling how blessed we really are. Thanks to the grandmother who made all those sweaters for the mountain children. I can't tell you how fuln it was to be able to give those away to children who had nothing on their arms and the temperature was falling.

Thanks to our interns, Haley, Ben, Morgan and Clayton, and Natali, who are blessing our children everyday, showing them how to be called of God.

Finally thanks to everyone who prays, helps and supports this ministry. Pray that God continue to bless and keeps us, be gracious unto us and give us peace. Blessings the Bus-traveling Honduran MOM.

The New Kid

2011-02-01T21:58:00.011-06:00

We got Karen and her daughter about 2 weeks ago. Karen had just turned 15 when I went to the court house They phoned me and said they had a special case. Karen was holding her baby and was looking angry, bewildered, and scared at the same time when I arrived. It is that look all new mothers have when they understand clearly that this baby is totally their responsiblity. It can be an overwhelming realization. She had just gotten her baby back from someone who had said that she wanted to help Karen. The woman made her leave the house without her baby at Chistmas time. Thankfully she got her child back.

Our house is filled with diapers, bottles, pacifiers, milk spots on the red cement tile and the like. Karen and the baby are living with me right now. She is receiving instructions on everything that I can think to tell her about how to be a good mom. I have girls who figure out a ways to get in to see the baby. My girls are very creative. They would totally take over the baby if I

would let them but Karen needs to rebond with her baby because she wasn't able to be with her for the past month. The girls do help Karen, when she needs to get a bath or do something personal They are eager babysitters for sure.

Mainly though, I feel like I am watching this 15 year old grow into a responsible young woman. She is taking her time getting there but I do see some progress. She told me that her mom told her that she needed to go to the city to get work at twelve years of age. Her family had a lot of issues and she basically lived and slept out side of her house in a remote village hours away from here. She left home at 12 and got work keeping other people's houses. She got pregnant at the end of her 13 year, and had her baby at 14 years of age. She never attended school, so she doesn't know her alphabet or anything else having to do with education.

We got her a baby carrier so that she can take her baby with her to school. She straps on the baby and gets her used book bag and hikes up to the school with her baby bottle thermos tote and her new pencils and notebook paper. She came home so excited the first day. She was writing her letters and had spelled her name for the first time. She ran in like the first grader she is. "Look, I wrote my letters and my name", she exclaimed. "I have homework, so I need to get busy copying my letters". So she got her baby ready for bed, boiled the water to wash the bottles and filled the bottles with formula. She sat down at the table and was working away, head down engrossed in what she was doing. I got up from the sofa and noticed she had the baby in her lap facing me. The infant had a look of "whatever" on her face. Karen, the mom, was so busy working I walked over to see what she was doing. She was coloring a coloring book with her baby sitting on her lap. I wanted to weep.

She has come a long way. She doesn't give her baby plastic bags to play with anymore. She doesn't leave her alone anymore with her bottle propped. She doesn't leave her on the bed alone, as she almost rolled off a few times. The baby is very strong and is moving everywhere. Karen is very helpful and wants to do everything the other girls are doing. Right now the girls are picking coffee, gathering firewood and picking up rock for the adobe duplex we are building. She got pretty maudilin the other day because she can't just set the baby down and go off to be with the girls. Haley has been great to watch the baby so she can interact with the other girls. Both mother and baby seemed to be settling in very well. She and the baby are doing well.

We are almost though with the adobe foundation. It has been three times the work than we anticipated but we can finally see how it is coming together. Meanwhile, we have some young men making adobe to make sure we have enough to build the duplex. Our team will be here Monday. The locals say that you can lay 3 courses of adobe and then you have to wait a day or two dependant to lay the next round. I have learned a lot about adobe. It is a great medium and has been used forever in homebuilding. Block was very populare in these last years but for the money adobe is the way to go. One block cost a dollar usd or 18 limperas. One adobe block cost 4 to 5 limps. As my watchman pointed out, "If someone is shooting at you, adobe is safer because the bullets can penetrate the block." Good to know.

WE were supposed to get rocks yesterday from the farm, but the Isuzu was making a noise like airbrakes, but we don't have airbrakes on the big truck. So I was going to get the rocks in the truck so our guys could get finished with the foundation. But my truck had a flat, which is bad because it had a flat Sunday with no tire store open, and so now I had two flat tires. So I had to take the big Isuzu to town with the two flat tires. We came into town and I scraped the wall to the stadium on my first major turn, with my outside mirror meeting a large bus. Haley and Rosa, my passengers were getting nervous over my big rig truck driving methods. Rosa, said she would rather ride in the back because she wouldn't see what was coming up with my driving. She and Haley were brutal. I didn't break the mirror so I felt fine. In fact the previous drivers of the truck had the mirror welded on to the frame. I feel that this has happened before.

I dropped the punctured tires, dropped Rosa for her appointment, dropped the truck off with the mechanic and then Haley and I went shopping for groceries for the girls and the team and dropped a bunch of money there too. After shopping we went to pick up the girl's Honduran school curriculum. The school they go to has gone up 400 limperas from last year. So we wrestled with that but they had to get started on time so we got it. Then we went back to town, got gas, and went to get Cruz s stuff from the family she was living with while she was going to nursing school.
She had been so excited about going to school last year. She got sick about half way through with an intestinal problem that she just couldn t shake. She did not do her best on two subjects and so the director had an appointment for her to come in and talk to her. The day of the appointment her paternal grandfather died and she had to go to the frontera to the funeral. Then after she got back from her family obligations, she found out that most of the other alumunos had gotten notice of graduation, so she just went home. I was in the States and she didn´t tell me anything about it when I got home. She said there might be a test she could take, but she was depressed that the others had moved on and so she decided not to go back without telling me. Well, I didn´t put the dots together until her landlady Zeyda told me yesterday what the director told her. When Zeyda told director why she didn´t keep the appointment beacause of a death in the family, the director told her there is a possibility for her to return without taking the whole year again. So please be in prayer for Cruz. She has lost another grandfather a month after the first grandfather died. She has been a little down and is praying about what she needs to do. Please pray for the whole famiy

After we got all those errands done we went to Anastacia´s where she is starting her beauty shop back up. She is also making pizza, and cinnamon rolls to sell. Cruz and Lina are launching out a bit and are going to live with her. Next year if all goes well, Lina will go to college. She is taking high school courses right now and a computer class. I want them to have a time where they are living on their own and going to their own church and buying their own groceries, before they are of and gone to college. Pray it all works out.

We left from there and unloaded all the groceries for the farm and team, Cruz´s bed and everything that she had accumulated at school. Then immediately I loaded the girls up to go pick up 10 meters of rocks and get them unloaded at the building site. The girls have made a herculean effort in helping get this project ready for the team from Pennsylvania. We have several teams that are coming back to back. Please pray that everything go smoothly. I am finalizing bus schedules, and activities while they are here. Teams are great in that they get so much done that I can not do with repair and building, evangelizing or whatever they have come to do. Mostly though they are wonderful with the girls and the girls have established great friendships with so many wonderful Christian people.

Be praying for everything to go smoothly. Thanks to all of you who send letters, and call, and support us in so many ways. Blessings, The Super Busy Honduran MOM.

Mail Call and His Call

2011-01-19T22:52:00.019-06:00

Haley is back and with her were manila envelopes filled with letters and notes from folks from the US. We had one Spanish Class who sent hand written cards to the girls. They were so excited to receive mail! There is a scripture in Proverbs about how wonderful it is to receive news from home. Haley has returned bringing wonderful blessings with her. We are so glad she is back!

As I was driving back from San Pedro Sula with Haley, who was asleep in the front seat in a semi-catatonic state because she had been up for almost 24 hours straight. Zulmin, Sonia, and Lizzie were in the back. It was their turn to come to town with me. It was quiet and I began to think about how hard it was for me when I had to start picking up team members on my own. I have gone to SPS hundreds of times, and was very difficult when it was just me attending to the teams.

I know in times past, I was the one who was sitting on the passenger side snoozing away. Or if I was awake I know I heard a hundred times where to turn and what landmark to look for, only I was doing something else, like knitting hats for the kids, or reading a book, crocheting a blanket or listening to a tape. So many times landmarks of "where to turn" were pointed out to me, but clearly my focus was else where. I was doing good things, but I wasn't paying attention.

My devotional for the day had been in Matt. 13:14 . (I had to go look it up when I got home) While I was driving up the winding mountaneous roads, the scripture that I read for the day came back to my mind. It is really a quote from Isaiah. You will hear my words but you will not understand, you will see what I do,but will not perceive the meaning. For the hearts of these people are hardened and their ears cannot hear and they have closed eyes so that the eyes cannot see and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.
I always thought that scripture in the Old and New Testament was like a riddle, that I couldn't figure out, until I was driving down the road, alone, with 4 people in my car. I had seen my husband drive over the years and sort of knew where to turn, and sort of knew the landmarks, and sort of knew where the car rental places were, and sort of knew what times the flights came in. However when I had to do it myself, I was really unsure about what I was doing. The bottom line was I wasn't really paying attention. It really wasn't my job to get us to the airport before and so my heart wasn't in it.

I think God is trying to tell me at least, to start pay attention because it is important. I don't want to live a passenger life when I am supposed to be driving. There are a lot of things we can be doing, even good things, that will pull our attention away from the direction God is trying to show us. Oswald Chambers says that the good is the enemy of the best. It is good to read the Word, listen to sermons, and read anointed Christian literature, but we need to really focus on the best. That way whenever it is time to do whatever, I will be prepared and not so unsure of myself. I want my heart to be into whatever He is trying to show me. I want to understand and perceive His meaning. I want to realize that the call of God is not a one time thing, it is a continual conversation. So I need to start this year differently. I don't want to walk through my spiritual life with my eyes closed and my heart hardened. Please pray for me that I will "pay attention". The Missionary motto is: See it, Do it, Teach it. I think if we really see what the word says and perceive what God wants us to do in any given moment and then teach others to do the same, we will be healed as individuals and as the body of Christ. I want that for my life and for the lives of the girls He has entrusted me with. Blessings, the Alert Honduran MOM

The girls have been super this month. We have loaded rocks, boulders, firewood by the flatbed trailer full. They have cooked and cleaned and cut coffee beans. We have managed the animals, kept the vegetable garden hoed and watered. During their spare time after school and these activities they have started a dance team and coreograph their own moves with the songs they pick out. I am amazed at how much talent and energy these girls have. They are amazing.

These are a few projects we need to get finished. One is the foundation on an adobe duplex for our interns who are coming to help us and the other is we need to get our bus fixed. Please be praying we get it all done.

The Week in the Life at Talitha Cumi

2011-01-14T21:50:00.019-06:00

We are planning our team in February right now. Since our workers wanted to leave after the first of the year, the girls and I are here with 2 ladies and a watchman. I hired two young mountain boys and and older gentlemen to help us get some rocks we need for the adobe duplex we are building for the interns that are coming to help us work here at Talitha Cumi. We needed eight loads of rock. I don't mean little rocks, we are talking small boulder size rocks. The men we hired literally dug the rocks out of the side of the ravine at out farm. The girls did a bucket brigade line and loaded the rocks from the steep incline to the flat bed Isuzu truck that I have just discovered I can legally drive. I am heady with power. :) We made eight loads in two days, which is amazing! We got a bunch of bizarre stares as the road crew were taking measurements for the 100th time, and they looked up to see a woman driving a flatbed loaded with a bunch of girls. Then they notice on the return trip that was 20 minutes later, that we had a huge load of rocks.

During all this I have 5 of my girls who had lice. One of the jobs of the house moms is to keep a check on this every day. One of the house moms said she was checking, but she was not, but I didn't find out until too late. At night I was combing through the thickest hair in the world with the tiniest of combs. When you deal with lice you learn a lot. Lice always move up and hide in areas you can't see. One lice is a louse. If you have a lousey attitude, well it is not good. A louse egg is called a nit. A nit-wit is someone with a wit as small as a nit. Just a bit of lousey trivia.

Well then yesterday, I woke up early and realized that if I didn't carry Mariela to the orthopedic doctor, I wouldn't have anybody here to watch the girls while I went to the doctor. Anastacia and Ezequela have been spending the holidays with us. Ezequela announced she was leaving so I got ready to go. The older girls go to class in La Esperanza on Thursdays. So instead of taking the bus, they went with me in the white Nissan. I had gotten up early and the girls got Mariela ready to go. I had several question and answer sessions from the girls before I left. I had to get a container to get diesel to put in the flatbed truck and then I needed to get some boots that needed fixed and I needed to get to the internet store to download a video. I had to go back to the house to get keys. When I got back I noticed Anastacia in the car too. I thought she was going to be with the girls, so I had to make a whole new plan. I finally got everything ready and was ready to go.

We finally got out the gate and headed to town. It would be close but we would make it. We got stuck behind a cattle drive. These cows needed to be driven somewhere like a cemetery. They looked so bad. It is dry season now and there isn't a lot of grass for them to graze on. Unfortunately for us and unfortunately for the cows they were running and we were really running late.

I dropped Lina off with Mariela because the doctor doesn't come into work unless they call him. I dropped the girls off at their school with bus fare to get back home. I went back to the doctor's office and we waited for an hour watching a very cheesy Latin soap opera. Lina went to help me with Mariela and so we decided to watch Mariela, who was entertaining us also with her new antics and just grinning at each one of her new accomplishments, saying "Look".

The doctor met with us and told us that she has definitely improved but not as much as he had hoped. He said that there is a Orthopedic Pediatrician in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. He told us that he will want to do surgery, "but don't do it." "He likes to do surgeries". With that kind of recommendation, I decided not to go to him at all. God remind me that there is a medical team that usually comes to La Esperanza led by Seth and Linda Berl from Moultrie, GA in March, and they typically have an orthopedic doctor coming with them, so I called them to get Mariela's name on the list. Linda said she would write me on email to let me know when to come. So that was done for now. Mariela is still doing her physical therapy with our girls. They take turns with her every morning, noon, and night.

We left from there to talk to the Public Defender's Office. I wanted to know if they had heard anything about the children that were taken from our center by their mom. In order to get a child to live here we go to three governmental agencies. I sign a document stating that I am the legal guardian of the child. The parents have to agree if it is a situation where the parents are petitioning the courts for their child to come into Project Talitha Cumi. In the case of the 3 sisters, their mom had no rights to the children except for a visit once a month. The mom has a warrant out for her arrest. When I was waiting to talk to the officials another man who is a nurse came up to greet me. I have known him for a few years and he works with children with aids. He came and started talking and saying he was sorry for the three girls. I asked him how did he know about my girls and apparently he is a relative of the two women who took the children. He started telling me about the situation since these girls were young. It made me review how I felt about them. They have had the worst life you can think of. Even right now the sister who helped with the abduction of the children, is in the physc ward at the local hospital, in shock over something else that has recently happened. Even though I was sick at heart at the horror those two women have lived I was even more concerned about the three girls. Please continue to pray that the Lord will convict the mother's heart and bring her children back to a safe place, so they won't have a story like their mom.

I got home after I finished tons of other errands in town. I still had to finish lunch, but I had time. When I got out of the car, the girls told me that the water storage tank by the kitchen had blown over and we had no water. I checked and the water tank had not been hooked up for quite sometime. I went to the tanks on the hill that were hooked up. They were stone dry. So I went back down the hill, drained the line, took the pressure valve off and drained the air. Then I tried to start it and nothing. We have been having brown outs here. I decided if the electricity was that low we could use the generator. It wouldn't crank. So I decided to wait until the electricity would get stronger. I was praying it would be soon because the girls and I are feeding up the animals and they would need water. During lunch I remembered years ago Brett telling me about a button on the bottom of the electrical box. I went out there and prayed that I would not get electricuted, because since that time the well pump had been re-worked by many different people. I pushed the button and the pump clicked on. I was so thankful to God for jogging my memory

The new guys have literally transformed the farm. We have had several employees for years, and they had just gotten disanimated about working. I know that happens, in the States, but here if you need to tap into your savings account which is your employer. If you get fired it is like in the US your employer needs to pay you until you get a new job. Here you pay a flat fee for the years they have worked for you. I am thankful the people who were working with us for these past 4 years. I pray that they are blessed beyond measure. But the new guys had chopped so much wood from felled trees from over the years. Our truck was running over with firewood, and our girls loaded it all. I asked them if they were tired, and they said, " Yes, but it was easier than rocks. "

Because we were all tired, I wasn't going anywhere the next day, except to get Anastacia moved to her house. Before I could leave the Public Defense folks called. I just knew they had an answer about Milady Jennifer and Darlin. They did not have any news. They did have another case. It was a girl who had just turned 15 on` the 8th of January. Instead of celebrating her 15th birthday party with friends and family she had just gotten her baby back from another woman. The 15 year old had come to La Esperanza at 12 years old from a troubled home life in the mountains far away. She told me that she would spend the night in the grass just so she could escape what was going on in their family. Her mother told her it would be better if she left and found work.

She got a job as a housekeeper for the next two years she was working as a maid. She was taken advantage of by a married policeman. She had the baby at 14 years old last September. Her new employer said she could stay. When the baby was born the employer took over. The young mother wasn't allowed to do anything with the baby. Right before Christmas the young woman was asked to leave and she wasn't allowed to take the baby. Her next employer told her to check with the legal authorities. She did and a month later, yesterday she finally got her baby back.

Now she knows nothing of how to care for a baby. She didn't know how to change a diaper, or burp the baby, make a bottle of formula, or how to feed her child or how to hold her. I heard some noise in her room and I went in to check on them and she had given the infant a piece of a plastic bag to play with. When I got in the room the baby had the bag in her mouth. I was a little freaked out, but patiently explained to her the dangers of playing with plastic bags. The baby was crying all the time,so she was giving it a bottle all the time. I finally told her she couldn't give the baby the bottle until every 3 hours. The baby is resting at last. It was a long night. Please be praying for this little girl raising a little girl. Pray for me that I have the patient to walk her through this time in her life.

Thanks to all of you who continue to pray for us, and help support the work here. Thank all of you who have written so many notes of encouragement. They really do mean a lot. Blessings, the Truck Driving, Baby Instructing , Rock Toting, Honduran MOM

A New Year

2011-01-06T21:55:00.006-06:00

This year started with a team leaving. They rode on the back of the flatbed all the way to San Pedro Sula to make their flight. Normally, I call the bus company and plan the trip the day before, at the owners request. This time they told me that they didn't drive on January 1st until that afternoon. It is a 4 hour trip to San Pedro Sula and their flight left at 1:00 pm So we had to get the flatbed ready to ride to San Pedro Sula. While the men were doing that, we got everything ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. We planned to shoot of fireworks, eat tres leches(which is a wonderful cake that has coconut milk, whipped cream and sweetened condensed milk ) made a campfire with a guitar playing worship leader from team 2's church. (We had another team almost the same time. The came a day after the first team and left a day after team one. ) We bobbed for apples and watched grown men have too much fun with their fireworks.

WE had a lot of activity in December between three teams and Christmas for the girls. They did so many things around the farm, including getting the farm planted. Some worked on the duck pond's dam where we have a source of water that helps water our plants through the dry season, made cabinets, had acrylic art painting lessons for the girls, dance classes for worship on Thursday night, lots of cooking and baking. They repaired my sad sofa, cracked glass on the kitchen door, worked on the electrical problems at my house, put bulbs in very tall light poles and made a covering for Mariela's day bed. Everyday was so full, and we got so many things done that I hadn't been able to get too.

After the teams left we had a meeting with the labor officials. We have had many employees who have worked with us over the last 4 years. Some we have known for as long as I have lived in Honduras. Here with the labor laws, if you quit your job you get hardly any severence pay. So many workers stay when they really want to be doing something else, but the longer they stay, they get kind of a savings account that continues to build at the employer's expense. Without a contract a worker can get up to half of what he had ever been paid by the employer. We had done everything legally about having contracts and everything, but no matter how much you might care about your employer, I guess sometimes you just want a change. After watching the group, I knew that the time had come to let them go do what they needed to get done. This time of year they have their own farms and are harvesting their own coffee. It is very hard for them to work here and on their own places.

So we made the arrangements. Something like this can go either way. People can get offended if you discerned the situation incorrectly. Thankfully, they were all relieved, and the extra separation pay will help them get their New Year started off in a great way. Even though I knew that it needed to happen, you get used to seeing the folks you work with everyday. I am going to miss them all terribly. It was an extremely emotional day for me. We have walked with each other through so many things, sickness and in health, good times and not so good times. I am thankful they have been here, and pray blessings on them and their families. Tonight, one of the workers came to church at the mission. I am thankful.

Pray for me and the girls. This New Year is starting out all new, but we all know that if we work together and God is guiding us, everything will be okay. We are getting back to the roots of the ministry. Initially it was out vision for the girls to develop a good work ethic through doing chores around the farm and learning how to cook and keep house. So that when they leave from here they will be totally educated in the areas of life that they need to have to be successful. We had two weeks to practice while the workers were on Christmas holiday.

The girls are feeding and watering the pigs, rabbits, goats, cow, chickens, ducks, and dogs. They helped me get a flatbed loaded with wood for their cook fires. We would stop at one house and they threw the wood off and then went back and put them under the shelter that is located behind each house. They have helped me with the watering of all the newly planted fields, and we have teams that are doing the cooking. They have helped me with the laundry from all the teams and have been such a blessing.

Because they started back to school this week, they get up at 5 am and feed up the animals, the team for the day cooks while the others are feeding the animals. They eat at 6:30 am, clean up breakfast, (another team) and then we have devotions, followed by jumping jacks (we are up to 50) and then the food team, comes and we get lunch started at my house before they go to school. The girl's attitudes have been wonderful, and they have worked very hard.

Even though the girls attitude have been great our cow has a little bit of a "tude". We call her Prissy because she thinks she is "all that". I was even a little nervous of her the way she would bow up at seemingly just women. We just let the workers handle her before because she seemed to like the men better. But when we had to do it, it was a learning experience. She would come towards us jumping, popping and swinging her head like she was going to charge. At first I would get her busy with her food and then move her rope to another tree so that she could have a different place to graze. I was hiding behind trees, and stealthly moving about while she was otherwise occupied . That lasted a day. The next day she had caught on and started up with her nasty attitude. I had the rope in my hand and I just popped her on the nose with the end of the rope like you would if you had a wet towel. She stopped, looked at me really hard, and I looked back at her like, "I will do that again" and I tell you she looked like she shrugged her shoulders, and behaved herself. Stephania is a little cowgirl. She is maybe 4 ft tall, and we buy her capris and they just fit for her pant length. She decided she wasn't going to wait for me and she took the rope and wrapped it around her fingers. The cow snatched her head back and put a rope burn on Stephania's knuckles. Steph didn't like that so she did as she saw me do. We got her doctored up and I felt so badly for her, but I saw her today while I was staining the cabinets. She literally had the cow by the horns, and walking her a pretty long distance to get her to a good place to graze. The cow was being very obedient. All the other girls were admiring her courage and were saying "Wow, Stehphania, how brave you are." She seemed to get a little taller.

Please continue to pray for us in this new season of a New Year. We have appreciated all the teams who came to help and all the ones who are coming to help us this year. We are looking forward to all that God has planned for us. Blessings, the Cow Punching, Honduran MOM

Merry Christmas to Everyone

2011-01-02T21:27:00.017-06:00

Merry Christmas/Happy New Year

We have had such a hectic time here at the farm this month. December is usually busy because we pick coffee and have to create Christmas for 24 girls. This year however, we had a team from Crosspointe Church come down and minister to our community a few days before Christmas.

The team brought all these book bags filled with useful things for the school children and also other things that maybe are not so useful, like candy. The kids loved the back packs and we all enjoyed handing them out to so many children.

It was so cold on our first trip out with the team to Sacate Blanco. It is 7500 ft about sea level. Many people believe that because we are in Central America it must be hot. Not true. The Project Talitha Cumi girls live at 6000 ft and it stays pretty chilly here. The children met us there and we sangs songs and just enjoyed celebrating Christmas with one another. We ministered to a lot of children, but not all of the children were able to come. School is out this time of year, and it was hard to get the message out to all of the children who live in this remote mountain village.

The Crosspointe team had some great travel experiences while they were here. They got off the plane and got loaded onto a public bus line. It was a little slow going because of all the holiday traffic this time of year. They stop at many stops along the way to pick up waiting passengers. They finally arrived in La Esperanza, our nearest town and capital of the department (state). It was so cold the night they arrived. Then they unloaded their supplies from the public bus and put it on our bus. Don Chilo was driving and is in charge of keeping the vehicles of the farm operational. However, this time he forgot to put diesel in the bus. They ran out of diesel about half way to our farm. Chilo siphoned the gas from our little Nissan that was there as a support vehicle. It got the team to our farm.

We thought we were going to Yasi the next day, which involves an extensive hike from the back of our farm down into the valley below. Somehow wires were crossed and we weren't going to Yasi. We needed to take the bus up the mountain to Sacate Blanco where children and their parents were patiently waiting for an hour. If I had known we needed to use the bus, I would have gotten Chilo to take the small truck and get some diesel when he first got to work, but now it was two hours later and I needed to change plans with the team, and I need to get to town. I told Chilo to go ahead and I would meet them at the crossroad.

I drove back to La Esperanza to get diesel. They were having a annual Christmas fair in Yamaraguila and there was a traffic jam!! I turned up a road I thought would get me out of the jam, but it was filled with mountain people trying to sell their wares. I just had to wait it out. You can't drive fast over these roads because they are so rocky and have tons of potholes. So I thought I will just listen to my Ipod with my praise music. Well, I had it in my coat and I must have had the earbuds dangling out of the pocket and I had crushed one of the earphones when I had closed my truck door. I was determined to praise the Lord through these circumstances and stuck the one good earphone in my ear. I listened about 5 minutes and then my Ipod died.

My first stop was the Texaco station and then I had to get a few things for the trip and went by the store that is right across the road. I ran in the store and got water bottles and some other requested items. When I got out of the store, the clerk motioned towards my back tire. It was making a hissing sound. It was not flat yet but it was definitely on its way to "flatland". I jumped in the car and drove to the local tire repair hut. I got there fine, and they charge me double, and got me on my way.I got to the crossroads and met the team. We dumped the fuel in the bus and took off. The scenery is fantasic in this area.

When we arrived at the top of the mountain on an empty soccer field, steam began erupting from the hood of the bus. I don't know much about cars, trucks and busses but I do know that this is not a good sign. Chilo not only didn't check the water, he didn't check the water either. So we had what is known in the auto mechanic world as a blown head gasket.

So now we had a team, that needed to get from point A to point B and I didn't have our bus. So I was going to rent a 4x4 but the guy who rents his truck out was drinking that day. The reason he rents his truck out is because his license had been revoked. I did have a flatbed trailer. It worked out fine the next day in the trip to Inguanis. We put old pew cushions on the floor of the flat bed and the team had a rocky time of it, but the scenery was incredible. The team hiked down this mountain road, while I took the option of going with the borrowed 4x4 sent by the mayor of Yamaranguila with a driver. We are trying to colaborate with the mayor to reach the people of Inguanis and Picacho with much needed assistance in almost every area. We passed out clothes and rice and a book of John to all the people who were waiting below. I had brought seeds from the USA that were donated by local farmers in Doerun, GA .

The people were thrilled to get all the goodies that we brought to them. We tried to sing songs with the children but they didn't even know the simpliest songs. They are wide open to hear the gospel message. They loved the songs, and I told them I would be back to bring others to help them. We had a great week with the Crosspointe team but when it came to leave there was a problem. they had a lot of people and we only had the flatbed and the little truck. They had to be at the bus stop at 4:30.

They got ready very quickly that morning, after they discerned that nobody's alarm went off. They piled into the flat bed with their coats and the blankets from the mission house. I had made them some banana bread "to go" and followed behind in the Nissan pick up with some of the other team members. Chilo was driving so fast down the road that we noticed things falling of the truck, i.e. mirrors, that we did stop and pick up . Haley and I left the Nissan at the bus station and rode with team who took the next bus, and they made their flight.

I have learned a lot of things when teams come. One of those things is that I have found out that y9u can not get a bus fixed during the Christmas /New Year's Holiday.. The days after Christmas we had or next team. Again, we picked them up with the flatbed at the bus stop. Dust was so thick here because of dry season, we had to turn on our lights during the day just so that people would be able to see our car. The team arrived coated in dust, and wrapped again in covers because of the cold. Once in our riding back and forth this week from here to town, I saw a dead man in the road. He was face up, mouth opened and looking straight into the sun. Normally if it was a person who was drunk, they typically fall in a fetal position for hours. I don't know if the man fell off a overcrowded back end of a pick up truck, or if he fell walking and some on ran him over because the dust was so thick no one could see him on the road.. It was a horrible site.

When it was time for this team from South Carolina to leave, I called to get the times for the bus departure, and the owner said, " I am sorry, we don't drive on New Year"s Day. So we needed a way to get the team from our farm to San Pedro Sula three hours away. Jimmy Potts took the iniative and russeled up two bus seats that he welded together and placed them against the outside wall of the cab. The men worked furiously New Year's Eve. We all called them the A-Team. Then they got some roofing metal and made a covering to set over the bus seats as well as to have side panels that were welded on to the new roof. They bolted and nailed everything in place, put the old donated green pew pad on top the old bus seats, and voila' "create-a-ride". The structure took on a "Beverly Hillbillies" tone, but it was very serviceable. Our Christmas holidays were so great. I thank everyone who sent cards or gifts to the children. The girls were tremendously blessed this Christmas. Thanks to Crosspointe Church for the back packs that were distributed to the many Honduran children here, Thanks to Randy Cox and Rich Foster for getting the Container with all the goodies on it down here to Honduras. Thanks to the Moore family and their ministry to our girls this month with their team. Thanks also to Tom Osborne and his team who came and revamped our farm as well as made wonderful relationships with our girls. But most of all thanks to Jesus for all He has done for us.

Please continue to pray for the 3 missing girls. I go again tomorrow to see if there is any news.Blessings, Pam DeMott the Thankful, Hopeful, Hillbilly truck driving Honduran Mom and all the girls from PTC

Please go to our blog http://www.myhonduranhome.blogspot.com/ to see some of the photos!

Pray for Our Three Missing Girls

2010-12-08T10:38:00.010-06:00

Yesterday a Mom and her grown sister came to visit 3 of the Mom's children. She is supposed to come on Saturday or Sunday, but she hadn't been in a while and so I let her come in. She arrived about 10:00. She said she had not visited because she had moved to another town, gotten a new job and it was hard to get to our farm. She ate lunch with the girls at the central kitchen with all of our girls.

I was at the house. Apparently I did something to my back before I came to Honduras. I rested up for my trip back, but standing in line at the airport for an hour and sitting from 3 oclock in the afternoon to 3:00 am was not a good thing because it tends to aggravate a siatica problem. When I got home the next day we had ridden 4 more hours to reach the farm. I just had to lie down.

The next day we had to go to town to pay bills and I needed to sign checks and get groceries. The roads are still terrible and not so good for my back either.

We dropped one girl at the doctor's office to get her checked out. She had lost a lot of weight while I was gone. We went to the bank, and then we went to the supermarket and got all of the week's grocery shopping done. However, we went downstairs where you check out we encountered a huge line. Apparently the scanner for the check out counter had a virus. So we had to stand in line for 1 hour while the owner used a small gray hand held calculator to figure everyone's bill. We had a buggy and a half full of groceries for 27 girls for a week. It took thirty minutes to unload and calculate the purchase. By the time I got to the truck I was hurting like crazy. I went to the pharmacy and they gave me an anti -inflamatory/anti spasmotic drug . I bought a bottle of water at the pharmacy and took the medication. We didn't finish our errands because it was late and I needed to get home and find the Ben-gay and lay down.

So yesterday I was laid out trying to behave and give my back a rest, when the sisters arrived. After lunch the Mom sent one of the girls over here to ask if she could have a picture of her girls to take with her. I sent the graduation picture of Miledy and told her I didn't have one printed of the other two but I would try to get her one the next time. She and the sister started walking towards house number two which is in the opposite direction of the gate. One of our older girls followed and when they entered the house the older girl told them they couldn't go in because people from outside the farm don't have permission to go into the houses. They pretended not to hear and the older girls gently told them again that they had to leave. They left and went up the hill towards the gate with the children and were visiting with them at the church.

Normally the girls go to school a little earlier, but because lunch was late and the lady wasn't in a hurry to leave, the girls kept putting off going up to school. Finally, the mom sent one of the girls to ask me if she could walk with the smallest girl to the school. I said no because she is 3 and doesn't go to school yet. Dina our worker who looks after the little ones in the morning, took the baby and started to go back down to the kitchen when the older girl arrived with my message. The mom snatched the 3 year old and her sister grabbed the other two girls and ran out the gate and across a field with the children. A bus just happened to be passing by and she boarded the bus with the girls and left the area. When the girls came to tell us, Haley took off running.

Normally I would have gotten in the truck and chased the bus until it stopped, but Chilo had taken Mr. Joe who had been helping us while I was gone, to the bus stop so he could catch his flight in San Pedro Sula. I only had the large school bus to drive and I have only navigated it through our very narrow road once and I didn't know where Chilo kept the keys in the bodega.

So I started calling the officials. I called Chilo to ask him where he was with the car. I tried to get him to "follow that bus", but he said he would go to the police station since they weren't answering the phone. I had called the Yamaraguila police department, they were closed because they had a seminar in a neighboring town. I called the judges and they told me to call the children's defense office. They said they would stop them. However they didn't stop at the entrance of the town, they went back toward Yamaranguila and the bus passed them by.

The girls were so wired up. The older girl who delivered my message, but didn't help Dina detain the mom, felt badly because she didn't do anything. One of the middle schoolers was told by the mom that she was taking the little girls however, she then threatened our girls and told her that if she told, they both would be back to take care of her. She had heard what they were planning at the church. She felt bad because if she had of told and not been scared the girls wouldn't have been kidnapped. While at devotions, two of the girls burst into tears. One of those wanted to pray but could only cry. I told them that it was okay. I told them they are children and that fear is a normal response to something like this. I also told them not to fear when someone threatened them in the future, just come tell me and I will handle it.

When I started asking them about what happened in the kitchen apparently the ladies were very talkative and told my girls where they lived and what they did for a living. I called the officials and gave them the information. The officials checked at the sisters house and they weren't there. They found the sister today and she said she didn't know the moms' where abouts or plans. When I heard that I asked, "Why don't you arrest her until she can remember". Officials don't like suggestions from the plebians. When the police officers showed up last night for my statement, they said "Too much time has passed. Why didn't you call". I told them I went to their office and it was padlocked. "Oh yea "they said, " we were in a meeting in another town". So I suggested that they leave an officer at the police office for emergencies and not everybody leave at the same time. Again officials don't like suggestions from the stands. Later I was convicted about my tone, because it wasn't very "missionary like". I told them I appreciated their help.

Everything went wrong for me, and everything went right for the person who was doing wrong. I couldn't even pray. Haley and I have been grieving for the girls. They left with no coats or clothes. The mom is pregnant again and has a job that only pays her 1/4 of the minimum wage here which is not even close to what she will have to spend just on food for the 3 girls. She will not be able to work soon, so clearly the mother was not thinking things through.

I know it is a sin to worry because it says 365 times in scriptures not to fret, not to worry, fear not (somebody else counted, not me). Fear absolutely does have the power to torment you. So I am trying not to worry, cast all my cares over on Him, because He cares for me and cares for the 3 missing girls, but meanwhile I have a miriad of emotions jetting around. It is not that I don't trust in the Lord, I do. I know He can do whatever he pleases. I just am heart broken and sad that this has happened and confused as to why the Lord will let it happen even though I know the scripture about "all things working for good for those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. But bottom line, the girls are not here and I am, and I feel such loss and helpless. I know prayer is the best thing I can do, but it has been difficult. I don't know what or how to pray. I know I should pray in the spirit as the Word says, but it is hard to wade through the emotions.

When Jesus was in the garden, I know He knew the plan of resurrection, and He knew the outcome of everything, but he still wrestled with His emotions to the point that he sweated drops of blood over the impending arrest and crucifixcian. I have come to the conclusion then that it is okay to have emotions when situations call for it. Not to spiral out of control of course, but to feel is okay. It is not a lack of faith or weakness if you have emotions. God created us in His image and the Bible tells us that He has emotions. Please pray for us here at the farm. This situation has affected every child, every worker, and the leadership here. I know God is able to do exceedingly abundantly more that we could ever think or hope, and my thought and my hope right now is that they will find the children and bring them home. I want to thank everyone for their prayers and outpouring of concern over the girls who are missing and the ones who are here at the farm. It has helped all of us to know that we are not standing alone in this situation. Blessings, the Emotional Honduran MOM

Our Graduates !

2010-12-05T19:31:00.009-06:00

Graduation Time!!

Well I had a great time in the United States with all of my family. We had a Thanksgiving Day together and a Thanksgiving/Christmas the following Saturday. I got so much accomplished and got to spend a lot of quality time with my Mom and Dad too. I want to say a special thanks to our other missisonaries, Joe Reynolds, Haley Harris, Ben Heath, and Clayton and Morgan Kendricks. If it hadn't been for them coming and caring for the girls, I wouldn't have been able to go home at all. The girls were in great hands.

I left Tuesday and I got home to Honduras on Friday. Graduation Day for my 4 of our girls, was on Saturday at nine o'clock in the morning. Two girls Ana, and Roxanna graduated from 6th grade and Milady and Frances graduated from Kindergarten. I had been to other graduations, but I forgot that as the MOM I was supposed to give each of the Padrines a cake and a liter of coke as well as a flower to pin on their labels designating them as Padrines. Haley contends that I was supposed to give each Padrino a chicken, but I had not heard that custom before.

Each of the girls picked a Padrina and Madrina which is like a godparent/friend. The Padrines buy a gift for the girl and walk them down the aisle to receive their diploma. They have to sign a legal document as witnesses to the graduation. The government of Honduras guarantee 6 grades of education, but after that the girls need to have funds for a private school education. So when a child graduates from the 6th grade it is equal to a high school graduation in the States.

The girls were so excited about their new dresses and nervous about the program that they had to perform for the community. When the last of the diplomas were given out, the Father of the community went outside and lit rockets to announce to everyone that the graduation was completed. I am including a video of Frances dancing a jig right before the ceremony. I was just taking candid shots and the music started and I was flabbergasted at her spontaneous little dance. It looks like she is trying out to be a flaminco dancer. I also have shots of them saluting the flag and of their Padrinos.

We have three groups coming this December to help us celebrate Christmas with the Children of PTC and with our community. Pray that all transport and events that are planned will go through without a hitch. Thanks for your continued prayers and support of our ministery. Blessings, the Jet Lagged Honduran MOM

Home from the Hills

2010-11-10T12:32:00.001-06:00

Well as many of you know, I am in the United States. I have had a great time visiting with my family and many friends who I haven't seen in a while. I had a great time with my care group, have got to spend quality time with my mom and with my grandchildren when I can catch them between activities. I have gotten my mail and all the end of the year stuff organized. I have felt pretty good about everything that I have been able to accomplish, until today.

When I got home from Honduras, I found out that my refrigerator that had been on its last coil for quite sometime, finally went to a cooler land. Unfortunately it took it's sister appliance. the washing machine, when it died. So last week I was looking at appliances. I found some great deals at Lowe's and the people were really helpful. They brought my washer right away, but there was to be a delay in the refrigerator as it had to come from the warehouse. It was a good deal so I decided to delay buying groceries, and eat at Mom's until it came in. Still a wonderful deal of homecooked meals was in my future and no grocery shopping.

Also when I arrived home from the hills, I found out that my insulation around my duct work for the heating and air system was exposed, causing a condensation process that affected my flooring and one of my walls. My girls who are attending college closed my room up when I am gone, so the moisture kind of steamed my room, flooring and walls. One part of the flooring in the hall is so bad that I am thankful I have strong carpet. I called a repairman and the first one said $80.00 just to look at it. Then the second guy was kind and came in and told me what was going on. The heating and air guy said that animals in the neighborhood tend to destroy the insulation when it becomes old, because they can either stay cooler or warmer. He said the insurance company might pay for it. So today I was waiting for the insurance adjuster and the refrigerator guy.

I unloaded the refrigerator and had been defrosting the coils for days. The fan was not circulating the cool air and so the freezer would freezer and the bottom would not be cool, but with the cool weather I decided to leave the condiments in the fridge. I got all that cleaned out and on the counter. Then the insurance adjuster said that he was coming to check out the damage. I thought great, I still have time to go and work on a project in Moultrie and Mom and I could still see the grandkids and get back home to have the weekily eat out with my younger brother and his wife. It was a great plan.

The refrigerator folks called and said they couldn't come today. So I said "Okay" and I loaded up the frig with the stuff I had set on the counter. Then the insurance adjuster came and said there might be a slight chance that I would get a settlement but because it wasn't a leak and it was condensation, I probably wouldn't get a settlement. I know I had already spent money on my appliances, and I had no idea what all of this damage was going to cost. I was discouraged but after he left I just prayed that God would take care of me and show me what to do.

So I decided to call my Mom for some sympathy. Since I am a multi tasker at heart, I decided while I was milking sympathy from my mom I would fix my sofa. I was going to replace a strut that had fallen out. So while I was on the phone and adjusting a coil, a coil that I was not touching dislodge from the sofa snapped around without touching the side of my head and the point of it hit me in the lip. It was like I had been shot. I told my mom, "Hold on I think I have a problem". At first it looked like a superficial wound and a scrape and then it start bleeding...a lot.

Because I was waiting to go to the grocery store I was out of napkins, tissue, etc. Because I had defrosted my refrigerator, I had no ice. So my mom calls me back and tells me to put a damp teabag on it, which I did. It was hygenic and felt good. I was trying to thank the Lord that renegade spring didn't stick me in the eye or didn't break my tooth off, but discouragement began creeping up on me. I was considering a butterfly bandage and some triple antibiotic cream in lieu of going to the doctor, but I finally just called the doctor and got an appointment.

I was glad they could work me in, but while I was there they had an office full of folks. Because I didn't have an appointment I had to wait, which was okay with me. People started talking to me about why they were there. I told them why I was there so they wouldn't think I was a victim in a abusive family situation. I probably should have kept quiet and let them feel sorry for me, because in telling my story, I just looked stupid.

The women started sharing and most of them had a problem with cancer. They had been in multiple surgeries, chemo therapy, taking meds that cost them $7000.00 a shot. All of them sitting and nodding in unison about having the same "journey", they called it. They had lost hair, weight,money, husbands, and jobs. They have basically used all of their money on trying to cure the cells that were taking charge over their bodies.

The other things I noticed that they had in common were their smiles. They laughed when they talked about how large their arms swelled, and when they passed out from the side effects of the chemo, scaring the liver out of all who were around, the joys and trials of wigs, and hair coming back in with color and curl. They smiled and laughed as they shared their journeys.

Now I tell you I had been pretty disheartened when I got there. I went in for my procedure and four stitches later, my lip now looks like botox gone bad. I have a bandage the size of a tab that marks important documents. I asked about scarring and she said, It will look bad for a couple of months and then it will begin to fade. This is not what I wanted to hear. I paid my co-pay and walked to my car, telling myself not to cry about this. As I sat down in my car, I remembered those heroic women with whom I had been seated. I know they were in His Hall of Fame. They were praising God for keeping them safe, helping them through the pain, trials, and the bills. I had my bills covered, pain was covered, my lip also has a cover. I might not can smile right now because of swelling, but I can praise Him. He has been good to me today.

I read a scripture that spoke to me and so I shared it with my Mom yesterday. God is pretty savvy to send you a message of hope before you need one. We always think it is for someone else when He knows we will need to claim it for our own. Psalms 107 1: Give thanks to the Lord for he is good. He faithful love endures forever. 4: some wandered in the desert lost and homeless, hungry and thirsty ,they nearly died, "Lord help!" they cried in their trouble and he rescued them from their distress. He led them straight to safety to a city where they could live. He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.

10 Some sat in darkness and deepest gloom, But they cried "Lord help" and he saved them from distress 14 He led them out of darkness and deepest gloom.

The list goes on and on and covers health, wealth, rebellion, and in that pslams they call for help and God shows up and leads them out or saves them from every stressful situation when they cry unto Him, and each time it repeats, telling us to praise the Lord for his great love and for all his wonderful deeds. At the end of the psalm it says : Those who are wise will take all this to heart; they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord.

I want to be wise and take it to heart and remember my history of what God has done for me. According to this pslam He will lead me out of whatever circumstance in life I find myself . Please continue to pray for me and my healing in every area of my life. Blessings, the Punctured but Praising Honduran MOM

From One End to the Other

2010-10-24T18:02:00.016-05:00

Well we finally found a billy goat for our goats. We had gotten some regular scrub goats last year hoping to get a good quality billy and upgrade our herd. Our hope has been for a long time to supplement our milk needs and to help the community with goat milk. Last month a young mother came asking for help for her new infant. She had been in the hospital for 15 days to get her milk to come in. It never did and the hospital sent her home with no milk. I gave her some money and told her to come back with the receipt then I would give her more. Then I went to the store and found out that one can of formula cost about 15 dollars a can! I didn't give her near enough. She never came back I hated that I didn't her enough money. I had milk goats in the States and knew that goat milk is very good to give a new infant. So we went looking for a billy goat for our does.

I couldn't find a billy to buy and so at the first of the year we borrowed a goat. During the dry season we put all them up at the clinic because the pasture was so much better. Well someone discarded a potato chip bag and the borrowed billy ate the bag and he got strangled on it. So I had to pay for a dead goat. He had been here long enough for one of the 3 females to get pregnant. She had two kids. They were beautiful. One was solid white billy with black socks, and the female was black with uneven waddles on her throat. After 2 weeks someone had come by and cut through the fence and got the little billy goat. So I still had to find a billy. I have been looking for a while.

On my way to Tegucigalpa last week, I stopped at a house that had some goats out front wandering around. I met Don Juan and his wife. He was an elderly gentleman who was hard of hearing and has developed some problems with diabetes and was very sick, and he couldn't care for his herd. There has been extensive road construction and because of the road crews and equipment it has shrunk his already sparse pasture land into a cement carpet. They were moving their herd across the 4 lane highway and a car almost clipped his billy goat and the goat stumbled in the ditch and broke his hind leg at the hoof. The goat healed, but Don Juan had given out of heart to continue to try to keep his goats, so he was selling his herd. I asked if I could see the billy goat. He was huge and a little scary. The pictures don't do him justice. He looked like a water buffalo's b aby. They said his dad was two hands higher than him and was golden, which I am thinking because of his shaggy mane, may have been a Toggenburg. He is a mix between a Toggenburg and an Alpine variety with a splash of "Who Knows?" and is twice the size of my little scrub goats. He wasn't limping and so I ask a price. It was kind of high for around here, so I told Don Juan that I would have to think about it. I didn't want to buy a gimpy goat for more than I should and it was a two hour drive back down the mountain to get him.

Two days later, we had visitors from the States. Sandy and Currie Burgess, who run Enlaces here in Honduras, brought a couple who come by every year just to encourage us. I was telling them about the goat that looked like a water buffalo. They just handed me a donation and said, "Go get your goat".

We loaded up the next day. I had to bribe Haley with a Spicy Chicken Sandwich from Wendy's, Ben thought it would be a great adventure, and so Don Rafael one of our workers went with me along with Rafael.

After I had fortified my crew with chicken sandwiches, we drove to get the goat. We decided his name needed to be Don Juan. When we got to the house and the young boys came ar0und the house with the goat on a rope, Haley backed up a little. He was twice the size of the little ones walking around in the front yard. and she had the same reaction as I did when I first saw him. Ben and Rafael loaded the billygoat onto the truck and tied his horns to the rack that runs along the cab of the truck. Don Rafael and Ben sat in the back to make sure Don Juan didn't try to jump. They also kept giving him water to keep him hydrated. It was a job. When we stopped at the Texaco station to fill up the tanks before we went back up our mountain, the men from the Texaco station abandoned their posts and motorist got out of their cars to make comment on our large goat. Rafael , our worker, was giving all the details while he munched away on his second ice cream of the day.

We arrived home and the girls were just exclaiming over how big the goat was. Most were too scared of him to go to the back pasture where we unloaded him. When he got into the pen we all felt a feeling of accomplishment. We were worn out but "mission accomplished".

The next day we had a meeting with the people of Inguanis. We drove about an hour to get to their neck of the woods. It was so beautiful there. They don't get much company because the roads are almost impassable and the mayor brought us down to see if we could help them some how. Because they are so inaccessible they don't get many missionaries down in that area to bring medical teams, or evangelistic teams. My group was Me, Don Chilo, our foreman, Pastor Flavio, the new youth pastor that is meeting at our church with about 70 young people, and some boys from the youth group that are combing the mountains to reach people for Christ. The people are sweet humble people who live truly at the end of the road.

We have been receiving a rice supplement from Kids Against Hunger sponsored by Heritage Church, Moultrie GA, to help the little rural schools in our area. I thought they wanted us to help with that program for the schools. When we got down there they said that they needed to have a project to introduce new crops to the area. It is too late to plant corn, and they wanted to know if I had any ideas. The Mayor suggested soy, and I told them that the farmers in GA grow soy but their main crop was peanuts and cotton and produce. I told them I was coming home to the States this upcoming week and I would ask around and see what suggestions, I could get from other farmers. They have had a crop failure this year because of all the rain. The are willing to re educated their children to eat different type foods.

They need a vegetable crop that they could grow at the school and at their homes. I suggested, collards plants and turnips, which would be a great source of iron. Butterbeans, which don't die off at frost because there is no frost here. They just keep growing. So I will be looking for ideas, from anybody who knows about small row crop farming.

Please be prayin for our mission. I will be home in the States for a month. Pray for the girls and Haley, Ben and Mr. Joe, who will be here in my absence. Blessings, the Goat Buying Honduran MOM, who has Gone where not many missionaries have gone before. It was so cool! (I have tons of photos of this area, it was so gorgeous, but I couldn't get them out of my camera. When I get home hopefully one of my "techy" friends can show me and I will post more at a later date. )

Busy Week ...wait a sec it was only 2 days

2010-10-17T00:49:00.020-05:00

Thursday started out with a bang. Haley knocked on my door and said that something was wrong with the baby pig. We had a new mama pig that decided she didn't like the littlest one and started puncturing her runt with her teeth. We took it away from her and have been feeding it a bottle. The runt was living in the chicken brooder so it could keep warm but somehow in the night it found a way out and that night our temperature dropped. He was freezing. So I got the girls to get some warm water mixed with sugar and then massaged the little one until he showed some signs of life. He is on formula and is doing fine now.

After that, we walked to Yasi with our older girls and some of the youth group, to bring more rice from Children Against Hunger. We have been trying to serve the children in the neighboring aldeas that need a supplemental lunch to help them overcome some nutricional problems in our area. The last hurricane combined with months of non stop rain has severely damaged the corn and beans here. The Mayor stated that over 90 percent of the areas crop is gone. He said they would not feel it now but about Christmas time people will be running out of food. The Mayor wants our ministry to collaborate with his office to help deliver food when it gets here. We are going to continue to give the supplement, but the government of Honduras is requesting help from other nations and they are buying food preparing for the end of the year. They have a work for food program where people work in their communities and the government clocks their hours and pays them with basic grains. We commited to help them once a week to attend to this need. Our older girls, youth pastor with some of his young adults and some of our staff will go into the aldeas we have already been visiting along with going to some other remote areas that have no resources at all.

When we got back from Yasi we had to take a shower and go to La Esperanza and see about a 2 year old little girl that we are going to receive. When we told the girls that we were getting a new girl they all screamed with excitement. They love it when we get a new girl. The paperwork wasn't quite through so we came home to a bunch of sad faced girls who wanted our new girl to be in tow. It will be next week before the little one arrives. Her name is Tania, so please be praying for her that she will acclamate to our center rapidly.

The next morning early, I left to go to Tegucigalpa and get my residency renewed. I was hoping to get a 5 year residency, but found out last week that was not economically feasible. It was going to cost 500 dollars for a 5-year as opposed to paying 20 dollars a year for an annual fee . Even though I strongly dislike driving over the roads that are full of road crews and all their equipment right now, I opted to take a trip to Tegucigalpa the capital.

The roads going through Tegucigalpa are still messed up because of the rain, so I went around Tegucigalpa on their new by pass called the Ring. It worked out great. I went into the immigration office and usually it is a long ordeal. They told me to go to the first window to get a receipt, and I got behind this man who had about 60 passports that needed receipts also. I was trying to be positive. I had been sitting for quite some driving so now I had an opportunity to stand for a long period of time. Surprisingly it went by rapidly and I got my receipt. I went to the bank window and paid the fee, and returned to the immigration lady. She looked at my documents and said wait 20 minutes and your card will be ready. I asked, "No photo" "Not necessary", she replied and in 5 minutes I had my card renewed and left the halls of immigration.

I had several other errands in town. I was to visit one of our girls, who lived with us for years. She is at another center right now and I wanted to see her before I leave for the US. She hadn't completed some of her studies and so I wasn't given permission to visit. I had everything packed to bring her a goody bag . I was disappointed that I wasn't able to see her. One of the other errands was to locate a turkey for Thanksgiving before I left to go to the States. We came up empty on that particular errand, also but I still have a few weeks before I leave to get that done. I visited cell phone headquarters to get some things worked out with them.

I went by Brenda's and had a birthday supper with her and her cousin and Sandy Miller who has a ministry in Comayguela. Sandy and her husband Currie have a Youth Ministry and one of the largest bi-lingual schools in the country called Enlaces. Brenda, a graduate from college and one of our former PTC girl works with their ministry.

Sandy was supposed to be monitoring a competition that her school was involved in. We chose a restaurant nearby and ordered. While we were eating, the folkloric dance competetion was going on. We had to keep a check so that we wouldn't miss her school. We kept popping outside to see what was going on. After we ordered, Sandy ran out and prayed for her kids and ran back in and we ate. The meal was wonderful and and just as we finished the Enlaces dancers were called to perform. We loved all the dancers, and children did a wonderful job. The children of Enlaces won 2nd prize in the competition. Normally in Comayaguela the weather is stifling and it has lots of mosquitos. It was a cool evening, limited bugs and the scenary of the large Catholic Church was the back drop for the dancers was truly beautiful. The crowd filled the town square and it turned out to be a great night

I needed to get back to La Esperanza in the morning. Evelyn, one of our girls who was traveling with me, needed to attend a class. On our way we needed to check out some goats in that area. We have 4 females and we need a boyfriend. We found one. He is the only male in the area, he is the size of a small cow and he has horns like a waterbuffalo. He scared me, but they said he was very sweet. I knew he would have scared Evelyn and neither she or I were prepared to load him up in my truck, so we came on home.

All in all I got about 50 percent of what I hope to accomplish done. That is the way it works here sometimes. I don't get as stressed out when things don't go as I had planned like I used to do. The culture here uses a wonderful word... manana. You just get peace, and wait for another day.

Blessings, The Manana Honduran MOM

What's Under Your Refrigerator?

2010-10-07T14:07:00.004-05:00

We had a team from GA this past July. They had lots of people and we got so much done. While they were here they noticed we needed a few things for our central kitchen and my house, which as much traffic as I get through my kitchen, it is the same thing. They recently sent a donation for us to get a refrigerator, stove, washer and dryer.

I took the money and I bought a big shiny, silver looking refrigerator. This particular refrigerator had a promotional and it came with a new TV. We needed something for the little ones to watch Baby Einstein, and other educational videos in the kitchen, while the big girls are schooling up top. I just hope our two lady workers, don't get hypnotized by Baby Einstein.
I also bought a microwave for the central kitchen, a electric can opener, a rice cooker, a waffle iron.

For my house I bought a stove, and washer and dryer. We have to keep the laundry room behind the kitchen locked because sometimes the older girls wanted to do all their laundry in the same load. It caused our machines to break down and they stayed in a constant state of "broken". All the girls that are 12 and older must do their own laundry at the pila, which is like a cement washboard. They hang it on the line and if the weather is bad and raining they get to put them in the dryer. Unfortunately, one of the new house moms put clothes that were still dripping from rain water into the dryer. It has not been the same. With the new machines at my house we can keep a better handle on the condition of the clothes and the clothes handler before we wash or dry them. Thankfully we got the ones in the laundry room repaired last week and Sylvia our worker is still using them.

While we were getting ready for this huge blessing, We decided to go ahead and move the refrigerator. Our refrigerator came from I know not where. It was a used refrigerator when it was purchase with a little rust on the door. After its service to our kitchen with the airy moist nights the little rust grew into a lot. It looked like a refrigerator that had been on the deck of a fish bait store on the gulf coast after a few hurricane seasons. When we moved it away from the wall, we saw a frightened rodent scurry away, and a whole lot of stuff that had accumulated under the refrigerator. The floors get swept and mopped at least 4 times a day. I have no idea how that quantity of dirt and debris got under our fridge. I was so thankful that we moved it before the appliance store delivered the items.

We got busy cleaning that up and when we did it looked so much better that it drew our attention to the wall that was behind the refrigerator. It was a mess. The stove is close by and so all the steam and grease apparently blew behind the fridge and dust and other things that had been spilled down the back was attached to the stone wall. So we jumped on cleaning that. We mixed laundry soap, hot water and who know what else Sylvia put in there but when I got back with the ajax from my house, she had a broom and a bucket scubbing the hound out of the walls and Dina was scooping up the rinse water with a dust pan and another broom. I was thinking the delivery guys will be here any minute. While I was doing some cleaning on the stove, because it started to look bad against the cleaness of the washed walls, Dina started scrubbing the walls of the other side of the bar. We know had everything in a royal upheaval. I was mortified at how much stuff we were having to scrub. How did we not see this before?

Well, while scrubbing away, I got to thinking about how that refrigerator was like life in general. You have this body and because of the elements of life you begin to show some cosmetic problems. No matter how much cream and special cleanser you put on the exterior, it is the "elements" are always working against you. but thankfully you are still working pretty well inside. You are doing what you are supposed to be doing. Then things inside where people can't see start being affected and breaking down and you are not keeping things as cool as you used to, not working at your full potential.
Then right in the middle of waxing philosophically eloquent, God started working on my thought process. I don't know about you but I try to pray and read my Word and maintain my spiritual life , and even though I am attending to it on a daily basis I am not checking for the crud that blows my direction and gets stuck underneath where I don't bother to check, and before you know it, rats are trying to build a home and eventually will get in the motor and shut you down.

This week I had a revelation that I needed to get over myself. The next revelation was, who cares what is in my wallet, I need to find out what is under my fridge! The third revelation is that I don't get on my knees anymore unless it is something huge I need to pray about.

God brings something new in and you move the old out, but when you move it out, you start noticing other things that are just not up to snuff either. You start cleaning on one area and are feeling pretty good about it and that just makes another part look even more needy. All the while you are frantically wondering who is going to come in and see what trying to scoop up off the floor! Which brings me to my first revelation which was to get over myself . Who really cares but God. I want to have the courage and the time to look underneath and bring in The Health Inspector to keep a check on my condition. The only One who really cares, is the Lord, and He does not condemn me or shake His head in disgust. He knows my name and my frame.

I know that the Word says that in Him things are new every morning. If we can focus on the new things, it would shine a light on the things that really need to go. That being the case, if we really took time, He would probably mention that we needed to check under the fridge, for those things hidden even from ourselves. Sometimes when I know He is trying to get me to take a "look see", I am so busy getting things cooked up that are really good things and will bless other people and by the time I finally get out of the kitchen, that I don't bother to look because I am too tired. But you know if I would do that third revelation about kneeling before Him from time to time, I would get a glimpse of what is building up under my fridge.

Anyway, I thank the folks who donated all the lovely appliances to us. They are wonderful. The girls were so thrilled and excited over every item. Everybody including the men and lady workers felt like it was an early Christmas. I thank the Lord that He still working on me. Blessings, the Honduran Mom with a New Look.

Water Does What Water Will Do.

2010-10-02T17:08:00.005-05:00

As many of you know we have had so much rain these past months. I think altogether there has not been 7 days without rain in a 3 month time period. You know when it has been raining a lot when everywhere you go the mud covers everything up. So much of the very nice grass that we had is now a big mudhole. Finally, we have had 36 hours with no rain! It has been overcast today and occasionally the sun will peek through to look at all the mud below, and then it jets back behind the clouds once again.

I noticed the middle of this week that water was pouring out from under the corner of the outside wall of the kitchen. I thought it was a broken pipe but it was a spring that had decided to come up right in that area. I could put my fist in the hole that the spring had made. The workers we nonchalant about it. They said, "It is a spring". So I got to looking around and there are many of these springs over our farm right now! That is the reason for the areas of saturated muddy/grassy blotched up places all over our farm. It looks like the beginning of a bog. It happens to be in a high traffic area, the kitchen and the barn the others are close to the animal shelters. So we sludge through the mud getting from point to point and the water from the spring is pouring out like a opened spigot. The water table from beneath has met the water table from all the rain and so now we have these springs. I am told they will eventually disappear when it get dryer. It is supposed to rain tomorrow.

Now our circumstances are not desireable, but there is a neighboring aldea in the next mountain that have a problem that is more severe. They have lost their homes because these springs have come up in the middle of their dirt floor houses. They melted the adobe and their houses fell in. Fourteen families in all have this situation going on. I have been told that 2 of the 14 homes are totaled. The others will be able to move back in a make repairs, but it will be a while. Meantime, they are living at a local school. School has been closed because the children couldn't get to class.
Please pray for these 70 people who are homeless. We are hoping to carry some supplies into them this week.

One of our girls that had graduated out of the farm about 4 years ago had her baby this past week. She had the baby within 3 hours of arriving at the hospital. She called me early that morning and said that she had been visiting her family in a remote area close to the El Salvadorian border. Her pains began and she asked her dad to find a 4x4. He finally found a friend who had a 4x4, but he would only carry her half way. She called me to please bring her papers to the hospital so that they would admit her.

I caught a ride with Chilo in the bus . He was going to take the girls to school. Normally the girls walk to school, but it was raining and the entrance was covered in extremely soft mud. The bus bogged down in the entrance into our farm. We couldn't open the bus doors, so the girls had to bail out the back. I felt like I was directing paratrooper operation, telling them to "Jump".

Chilo did get the bus out of the mud. Before that happened, we got out and started walking towards the school. The school teachers drove up and I asked if there was school today. They said that there was but the only students that came were ours. so they were going to cancel classes. We loaded the girls back onto the bus. I asked them if they knew if the buses were running and they said the local mayor has suspended buses from traveling the roads for now. The roads are destroyed. The ruts are 2 to 3 ft deep in some places and the buses are scraping the bottom as well as some of the smaller cars and trucks. The teachers had just come from La Esperanza where I was headed, and they told me the horror stories about the roads. Chilo drove me into Yamaranguila and dropped me off, and I got my umbrella out to wait for a 4x4 to pass by. The teachers came by thankfully and let me get inside. What a blessing! I told them what was going on and so they said they wanted to help and they would carry us directly to the hospital. It was raining hard at this point.

We found her standing where the father's friend had left her in the middle of the road, in a light weight black car coat holding a borrowed umbrella and she was crying. As she got into the cab of the truck. I was sitting in the back and I wanted to just hold her. I remembered back to an earlier time when she came to live with us at Project Talitha Cumi. Her mother had died and her 3 sisters who still live here came to the farm first . She came later because she had been living with her grandmother for years. She told me yesterday, that she had been told that when North Americans get Honduran children they strip their skin off and cook them and eat them. When we picked her up years ago she had her face hidden in the crook of her arm and crying like a crazy person. She cried for about 3 days. I guess because we didn't break out the big stew pot to cook her in she finally calmed down.

She left our farm about 3 1/2 years ago. We tried different technical training schools, but she just didn't have it on her mind to study. So we had gotten her an apartment and a job and she was busting to be on her own which is a normal thing for an eighteen year old girl. She had found herself a boyfriend this past year , and a respectable job and it seemed like it was going to work out for her. Sadly though, there was a problem like so many young people experience, and she was alone. She has been working part time these last two months at the farm to be able to provide for some of the things she wanted to buy for her baby.

We got her to the hospital at 9 am and she had the baby at 11:48 They made her take a freezing cold shower afterward and was going to do the same for the newborn baby and she said she would take care of it when she got home. We had to wait until 4 pm to be able to see her and the baby. I waited most the day with the dad. I read a book, sent facebook messages from my Blackberry, hoping we could get in sooner to see the baby.

After we saw the Mom and baby I grabbed a taxi to get us to the exit of the town hoping to catch a ride. A red pick up truck stopped at the corner where people who have missed the bus usually stand hoping to catch a ride in the back of a pickup truck. I was about to ask where was he going when he got out of the truck. His head was shaved and had a squint in one eye when he talked. He was seriously spooky looking. Seeing a shaved head around here is very "sketchy". So I didn't pursue my hitch hiking ways. I decided to go get some french fries and called a friend to come and help me to get home.

I hired a truck the next day to take me over the bad roads to get me to the bank, grocery store, the feed store, and the last stop was the hospital. We got her and the baby checked out and loaded into the truck. We slipped and slided all the way out of La Esperanza until we got to a point in the road where traffic had stopped. A large blue bus had bottomed out. None of the passengers wanted to get out of the bus because it could mean that they would be walking in the mud that was the consistency of chocolate pudding. So they refused to lighten the load. The line behind us kept getting longer. About 40 men got out of their vehicles and started scavaging rocks to place under the wheels of the bus. It was wonderful to see how much could be done when everyone worked together.
They were almost finished getting the bus in a position to get it out of the mud when a red 4x4 truck broke through the line of patient motorists and drove over to the right side of the bus. As it was passing by everybody couldn't believe he was going to complicate an already strained situation. He cruised by and then slowly slid off into the ditch. All the men who had been working through their arms up in frustration and set up a cheer of sarcasm "Uh huh good job" to the impatient truck driver. They were almost giddy about what happened.

I will have to confess that Corinthians 13 was not on my mind at that moment. I was in agreement with the others. We were all trying to get home for one reason or another and this guy hindered the work that was going on. Ben , the new intern, gave a devotion the other day about Corinthians 13. I told the girls when ever anyone was acting unloving manner unlike Cor. 13 tells us to do, we were allowed to say "Corinthians 13" to that person to remind them that they are not abiding in love. Well, I found I had to say it to myself.

I felt really good about going to pick up the mother and baby and doing all the good works of getting her to hospital and all that entailed. I was really feeling kind of good about myself and then, boom, I get convicted once again. I should have had some compassion on the guy in the red truck when the other people refused to help him, but I confess I did not. I have so far to go.

So after an hour the bus finally cleared the ruts, and was out. The new mom and I were freezing because Don Chilo and the owner of the car were in the front with the windows down because they didn't want to miss any of the carnival type atmosphere that began to take place around the bus.

We finally got home and unloaded the truck. The owner was a different kind of guy who wore a gold plated chain and big medallion with a big gold tone looking watch. He didn't talk much at all. I asked him where he went to Church and Chilo answered for him, "He doesn't go anywhere, but he is a canidate". I found out later that he has a problem with alcohol and the reason he was letting Chilo drive his truck is because he legally could not. I thought that was pretty nice. He was different but he needs God and he knew it. The most reaction that he had the total day with everything going on was that he was amazed at the groceries we buy per week. I told him that because we have 27 girls and some staff that eat with us it ends up being about 34 people at each meal. While we were loading up he kept saying incredously "More?" So it took us a while to unload because there were a lot of supplies and it was raining.

I was thankful for the man who lets us rent his truck for the day, and that mother and the baby are doing well ,and for the girls who have been really helpful and trying to be quiet. They are not used to babies being around. Mother and baby will be here for 2 weeks and then she moves to Teg. to be with her aunt who is going to help her with the baby while she gets a job. Pray for her plans to come together. Pray that I will not think more highly of myself and really walk with everyone, not just the folks I know, in a Corinthians 13 kind of way. Blessings, the Hitchhiking No Longer, Honduran MOM

Storms

2010-09-26T09:36:00.014-05:00

Haley needed to go to the United States to renew her visa. Like a great Adminstrative Assistant, she told me that I needed to get away for a while just to get rested spiritually and physically. We have been incredibly busy, and though I thought of a zillion things I could be doing, but since I needed to carry her to the San Pedro Sula Airport anyway, I said "Sure" We planned to go to the beach which is just an hour away from the airport.

I had time to plan so I got my stuff packed, brought some board games for us to play called Clayton and Morgan, another missionary couple to come and stay with the kids, and then I was kind of getting excited about it. The day before we were to go we get a report that there is a hurricane coming. It never developed into a hurricane, Matthew was just a tropical storm, but it was coming to shore at ....you guessed it, Tela the beachtown we were going to. Tela has some very nice hotels that are 5 star, but they are very pricey, then they have some hotels that are not that expensive at all and there food is so much better, and they have some that you wouldn't want to leave your pet that someone gave to you and you didn't ask for. We chose the mid range plan.

We heard that there was a possiblity of a hurricane, but we decided we would pray that it would dissipate.. Haley thought it had the possibility of being a huge adventure because she had never been in a hurricane before. I had been in a hurricane and given that our hotel was 20 yards away from the beach I thought maybe we needed to review our options. It has been raining almost day and night for over a month and our thinking was a little scued that how you could tell we needed a break. When you think that you can have a peaceful time in a hurricane then it is time for a rest.

I knew I had to take Haley to get to her plane, so I thought in lieu of the beach, we will go to Lake Yajoa. When we got there, the roads were already showing signs of flooding. By the time we got to the main portion of the Lake so much of the water was to the road! So we took off for San Pedro because I realized at that point, we just needed to get somewhere and hunker down until this thing blew over. Trying to keep a positive mode, I thought even though we don't like San Pedro Sula because it so incredibly hot, we could go to our favorite restaurant. We decided to go there before the storm really got started and then we planned to checked into our room. We got to the restaurant and they were closed. By that time I was not resting in my spirit.

We got to the hotel, which is nice and we always bring teams there, but it is not for a holiday. It is kind of like a stopping place for the night so you can get somewhere else that you want to be. We went to check in and the lady at the desk told us how many limperas it would be. Haley said "we will pay for three nights" and the lady at the desk quoted a price. I was brain dead at this point and she told me it would be per night and just to pay for the first night. I thought I have never in my life heard a desk clerk say it is better to just pay for one night when people were offering to pay for 3 nights. I was thinking about how my weekend was not going the way I planned while I handed the money over to the clerk who had her hair pinned a little too tight. Haley did some rapid calculations on her cell phone and then showed it the clerk. She was wrong by about 40 USD. The clerk said "No that is the number I quoted" while she was looking at Haley's cell phone calculator. Actually she said two different prices and neither was the one we were quoted on the phone when we made the reservation. So I have learned to be quiet and said that I was sorry that I heard her wrong. We went outside and we both were comparing what was said and we didn't hear incorrectly. Now the clouds were getting heavier.

I got to my room and was feeling very sorry for myself. Haley was being all sun-shiney and saying that regardless I would be forced to get some much needed rest. I am thinking there will be a problem with the electricity during the storm. She said I could read all the books I brought and we could eat at the hotel and play boards games. I am thinking I didn't pray hard enough about this trip. Since she wanted to pay for the room she made the rules to restrict any activity that resembled work, i.e. emails, blogging, phone calls etc. we were just going to have fun anyway.

As I lay there reflecting on what a wreck my great weekend get away was becoming, I poured myself a cup of water and remembered I had a Crystal Light packet that someone from one of the teams had left and it had been in my purse for awhile. I mixed it up and had just drank it down when that song we had been listening to on the way down came back to my remembrance. The the beginning of the verse is "Life gave me lemonade and I can't imagine why....thanks for the lemonade" Then I thought, I was in a dry place, my kids were safe at the farm with Clayton, Morgan and Ben, so why was I in a frump? Lemonade is good.

We started listening to the weather reports, when the TV came on it had a national announcement about the storm. They were warning everyone that the storm would bring more rain and that the country was in a state of emergency. People were sending us text messages to get to higher ground. It started to rain and rained all night. The prediction was for 10 to 12 inches of rain. I knew what the bridges looked like when I came over them, so I knew with that much rain the bridges would be out by Monday. We heard that they were considering closing the airport Monday-Wednesday. Well, I knew I was not to leave Haley in a national weather crisis , even though she offered to do be there alone so I could get home to the girls before the bridges went out. Instead we called and texted people to pray..

We both woke early because the power kept going off and their generator keep shutting down. So while we were up, Haley made some phone calls and got her flight changed to that day. The storm hit early that morning, but just ran along the coast line and left. It wasn't as bad as they had anticipated. Because of the change of direction of the storm, the plane could get out and I went home to the hills. It had stopped raining that morning. It didn't start raining until I got to Yamaranguila. It has rained pretty much solidly since then. I imagine we have gotten our ten inches. It is supposed to be like this until Tuesday. If it keeps raining they will close the schools for shelters for the people who are homeless. I pray that they don't close the airport, but it was nice that Haley got safely out. God was in control of everything....again

I am thankful for those who prayed for us and for Honduras. I am thankful that I don't always have to have my way and everything still turns out nicely. I am thankful for storms, because it helps you realize how off the mark you can be and how to get back centered on Him. Also after a storm things are always so much clearer. Please continue to pray for Honduras. Blessings, The Soggy, no longer Foggy, Lemonade Drinking, Honduran MOM

PS the road in the picture is the entrance to our farm, and I will post other pictures of the trip of landslides, new waterfalls, and flooded areas, I made while driving home. Haley was right, it was an adventure.

Independence Day

2010-09-16T10:02:00.020-05:00

A car full of girls All our girls

Off we go!

The Honduran folkloric Dresses

Ben and girls waiting on the parade

September the 15th is Independence Day here in Central America. Our bus wasn't working and so we all piled into the truck, 27 girls and 3 adults. I didn't think we could do it but we did. We didn't go to La Esperanza this year to watch the parades and the band competitions because it was to far to go with that many in our car.

We were blessed anyway by going to the local parade in Yamaranguila and watched their high school band perform. The kindergarteners through the 12th grade had a part in the parade. The Lenca High School Band performed for the crowds and they were so dynamic. They had a Carribean sound with a African flavor. They had the crowd fully entertained. It was so good, I found myself getting choked up a time or too. I hope to be able to upload a video. If you would like to see all the photos that I took, they are on facebook.

I was glad we went and supported our local community. It was good to see everybody that I hadn't seen in a while. I hope it gives our girls a sense of community also. Maybe next year we will work on a program that the girls from our school can do in the parade.

Blessings, the Civic Minded Honduran MOM

Day of the Child Part Two

2010-09-12T09:30:00.011-05:00

We have been doing Day of the Child for 3 days! Just wanted to show you some of the photos. These two boys we saw as we were coming off the swing bridge. They were going the opposite direction of the school, so we invited them to come along. They just kind of shrugged and looked at each other as if to say "Why not?".

It had rained the night before we went down to the valley. It was very slippery going down the mountainside, but because of all the rain it was so incredibly beautiful. There were tropical plants growning besides the engorged river side. We took so many pictures of everything that we laid our eyes on. The flowers, the plants, trees, waterfalls, mini landslides

When we arrived, the whole village was there. They had a program and a large welcome for our little group. We had brought rice and a pinata and some candies. They wanted to welcome us in a grand fashion. They had prayers from the Catholic and Evangelical groups. The children did dramas, songs and poems. They had lunch prepared for us but we had to get back up the mountain before the rains came once again.

It was such a blessing to see so many of the young children that we knew so many years ago that now are grown adults with families of their own.

Day of the Child

2010-09-09T23:39:00.019-05:00

Day of the Child is September 10th. We have been getting ready for this event for the last couple of weeks. Many teachers start coming by in August to see if we could contribute something to their special day. Because of this we started shopping for candy. We have become candy officianatos. We have poured over the candy aisle to make sure we had the right stuff for this day of festivities that is totally focused on the kids.

We bought 7 pinatas. Some looked like Cifford the Big Red Dog, while others were soccer balls, doll heads and a donkey. We have bought chickens for their afternoon meal to be mixed with the donated rice from CHILDREN AGAINST HUNGER So far we have dropped of supplies to 9 schools for them to have a lunch for their children. Our 2 man team from Texas brought those toys that make noises like whistling lips, kazoos, as well as glow in the dark lizards and small rubber balls. Great kids stuff.

Today we loaded up our little Nissan with the boxes of rice, 9 grown girls, 2 gringos, Haley, and a new volunteer, Ben, me, Don Chilo, pinatas, snacks for the girls and gospel tracks to boot. That means we had 14 people and supplies in our little car. We left at 8 am so that we could get to all the schools before 1:00 pm when school is dismissed. We went to a local school first. The roads were so bad because of the wild rainy season we have had that we had to get out of the truck just to get it through the mud and up the road to our destination.

Most of the schools we deal with are schools and have licensed teachers, but they are not public schools, they are Proyeco schools. A Proyeco schools means that they get partial pay from the government and partial pay from the community. The community finds a house or builds a school for the children to attend. Their teachers do not have pensions and other benefits like normal public school teachers. The first group of teachers we talked to haven't been paid in 5 months!! They still come to teach the children with their limited school supplies, super muddy roads, and rain soaked classrooms.

We visted 5 schools today. The next to the last one was Sacate Blanco, they are 7500 ft above sea level, an is the highest mountain in our area with a scenic view that is fantastic. We have been bringing supplies up to this school for the last few months. We love the children and the community. When you step off the bus ,the little ones greet you extending both of their hands, fingertips pressed together and they bow their heads and say "Good Morning". They are precious kids.

While our girls from PTC were doing the program for the school, my phone rang. The inspector of the Ministry of Finances was arriving in La Esperanza to inspect our farm! They decide whether we can maintain our tax-exempt status. Thankfully we had already delivered the supplies to the director and had ministered to the other classrooms when the call came through. The girls were singing to the last group of children. We sang through our last song rapidly, and basically rushed out the door and hopped in the truck. How was I going to get to her in La Esperanza when we had no room to put anybody else in our car? I couldn't drive back to El Obispo to drop off the girls because we would be very late and we had one more school to distribute our supplies.

As I was going down the hill, I was formulating a plan. I think I changed it several times before we finally hit upon a workable solution. We dropped the girls off at a restaurant with Ben. Haley and the 2 man team needed to change money and Chilo and I set off to pick up the lady. When we accomplished all that we went to eat a typical Honduran restaurant with the Lady from the Ministry of Finances and our girls and Ben. She interview me all through lunch. After lunch we carried her with us to the last school, Lodos Negros and then sent Haley and the gringos on the bus to our farm, and it all just turned out right. She enjoyed seeing our farm, the girls and the ministry. After the inspection was over, I drove her back to La Esperanza.

When I arrived home at the farm at 6 pm, Don Chilo called and asked, "Are you coming for the care group at my house?" I had forgotten! I jumped back in the car with our team and we watch the sweetest service with a youth group who attended church our church years ago. They are on fire for the Lord and are evangelizing the area. We returned to the farm to have devotions with the girls and a late supper.

It has been a super busy day, but we were able to minister to so many children. We probably saw about 400 children altogether. We have two schools left tomorrow, two on Saturday in Yasi and then we minister to our children here at the farm on Sunday. Our kids will have their pinata and special meal on that day. They are all excited about the activities. Our girls blessed the children today with a song that they taught to each of the schools. I am really proud of them! It was a good day.

Our thanks to Jean Brown for blessing us with the rice supplement that we were able to donate to these children to make their day a special one. Thanks to our guys from Texas Jim Rowan and Jared Mitchell, who brought the toys to bless all those children. They also made it a special day for our older girls. They love getting to go out to eat at a nice restaurant! We are thankful for our safety up and down the mountains and to be able to minister the gospel all over this area. Thanks to all of you that continue to pray for our girls and for this mission.

Car Mechanics and Bathroom Assistants

2010-09-08T22:52:00.005-05:00

Today Haley and I got up and out to go to San Pedro Sula to pick up a small team in our little Nissan truck. I got the truck checked the day before to see if the oil was okay and to make sure that everything under the body was still holding together. We have had horrible road conditions and those things that could be shaken have been shaken. The day before I went to Tegucigalpa the car made a strange noise and I was determined to get it seen about, but it started raining and there are no indoor garage's here and so I didn't get it checked that day. I promised myself that I would get it checked when I got back.

Well it did need the oil changed and about 5 other major problems, having to do with something called the differential and something about gaskets that held the wheels in place, the shocks of course were gone, and the brake pads looked like large toasted frito chips. I don't know everything that was wrong, but by the serious looks on the mechanics faces, and total strangers that were passing by listening to the tale of my car's woes, they looked suitably shocked that I had been driving it all over the creation. One of my friends told her grown son how brave I was to drive to Tegucigalpa in my truck. I am thankful God has been watching over me and my ignorance of cars.

So we got up early to pick up our team. We got about half way down the mountain and we got stopped because they were working on the roads. High above was a bulldozer on the top of the mountain pushing loose rocks to the roads below. I saw the others go when they were flagged. When it came to my turn the guy with the red flag looked like he was having a low blood sugar day. I could't tell if he was waving the flag for me to go on or just couldn't hold the flag up anymore. Anyway, I cautiously went ahead. Haley was helping me watch when the dozer was going to send some more rocks down. Two Honduran men came up to the truck and told me to take off like a bullet and the rocks wouldn't get me. I thought to myself, "Then why aren't you in your trucks right behind me?". They said , "Go ahead and go". I hesitated and I am thankful that I did because rocks the size of basketball came down the mountain side and kept going across the highway on to the other side. I would have been nailed and had a large dent in the car. I finally took off like a bullet and went down the road.

We arrived early even with our delays. We went to the bathroom and it was crowded. There was this tiny little bathroom monitor. She had on a little red uniform and she wore large framed glasses She was wiping down the bathroom sinks. At first I thought she was a child, but she was a grown woman.

I was patiently waiting my turn. Haley came out of the restroom simulaneously with someone at the next stall. Haley told me that there was no more toilet paper in the stall that she had just departed from. I don't know how but the little bathroom assistant knew what we talking about use. The lady who had entered the adjoining stall seemed to be in a hurry, but this little 4 ft lady walked into the stall with her and told her she needed some tissue. The larger lady was in a hurry and so she rolled off some tissue and went to hand it to the clerk. The littler woman said "No that is not enough ". So the lady, who now was in a great hurry, was just snatching the roll with great fervor just to get this small fiesty attendant out of her stall. Tissue was all in her hand and splilling all over the floor. The little attendant took on a military type voice and said "Okay that is good" and she turned around to me with a big smile on her face and handed over this wad of toliet tissue for me to use.

I appreciated her work ethic and the fact that she was trying to be helpful, but I would have preferred to handle my own tissue instead of two other folks handling it prior to me touching it, and I didn't care to use the part that went sprawlng all over the tile floor. I told her thank you and took the tissue that was offered. I made sure I noted where the lady held the tissue and the longer draping tissue that was on the floor to make sure that I didn't use that part of the tissue offering.

One of the first lessons in mission work is that you carry your own tissue, black ink pen and a bottle of water. I guess I have been on the field too long and I am getting sloppy about remembering the simple things about mission life. I need to be thankful for an attendant that wanted to come to my aide and to be able to use a clean bathroom. I need to be thankful that there was a bathroom!

I am thankful for trucks that are repaired, safe trips and energetic bathroom attendants. I want to remember to give thanks in all things. Blessings from the Thankful Honduran Mom

A Road Trip

2010-09-05T11:51:00.005-05:00

I had a few errands to run in Tegucigalpa. I had finally got my telephone after almost 2 months. In the States you walk in and walk out with your new phone and your plan. Here you have several steps to prove that you are a good risk to give you a new phone. It is a long and involved process of getting a statement from your bank that you have an account, and then you need to put down a deposit and then you need to send copies of your identity numbers and other important papers to the cell company. I finally went to Siguatepeque, which is an hour and 1/2 away. They had the phone at one of their offices and they gave it to me, and told me to go pay my 1st months pay at a local bank, and come back to get your computer configured to be able to make my phone a modem for my laptop. I came back a week later and then they said I need to go to Tegucigalpa to get my computer configured because they couldn't do it there.

So a week later, I was driving towards Tegucigalpa. I also had some legal documents that I had to carry to Tegucigalpa too. I decided while we were in Tegucigalpa, to go see one of our girls that is located an hour the other side of Teg. I got two of our girls to travel with me.

Our roads are so incredibly terrible. When we left at 6:30 am I was praying that we would be able to get through. Hundreds of tons of rock have been put on our roads. Not gravel but rocks! They disappear in the mud within a week. We bounce and slopped our way through the first leg of our journey. Our white truck was brown from the mud that covered it from bumper to bumber. We kept the windsheild wipers going to be able to see through the splatters.

We got through the fog that hung over the mountains. We were amazed at all the landslides and rockslides that had fallen in the night. Many of the huge boulders that had been cleared from the roads, but the new boulders were peppered along the highway. We got to Siguatepeque our which was next leg of the journey. Because of all the large boulders that had fallen, there were broken places in the road and pot holes. I was driving all over the road trying to avoid the holes and the other traffic trying to avoid the pits in the road. We had seen about 50 places, large and small, in the road where trees, rocks and dirt had fallen in along the road.

After leaving Siguatepeque, the road construction crews were working full force. I don't know that because of all the landslides, they decided to widen the road, or while things were in such a mess , but they were clearing the landslides and cutting through the mountains dislodging potential rocks threatening to fall below. A little further up the road they were laying down new blacktop. So you had crews with their yellow and red flags stopping and directing traffic.

When you would stop, some very industrious entrepenuers would run to your windows selling everything from coconut juice to friend plantano chips. The total activity of all the people that were detained from their driving, the road crews on the machines, dumptrucks, huge drills, and all the other folks racing around on foot to sell their wares, was like watching a magnified version of ants on a mound.

Even though you didn't get to far before you were stopped again, you had to drive with all diligence. There were several accidents along the way. I drive a stick shift and I think that I had a full exercise program driving the truck that day, working the clutch and brake and stick shift. The ministry bought this little truck with a standard shift and it has performed wonderfully through all this mess on the roads, dirt and otherwise. I have given thanks so much for my little miracle truck. It has been a great truck on good roads and bad.

When we finally got to the capital, we saw a danger sign and pointed us to a detour up the side of a large hill and a sketchy looking subdivision. It looked so bad the girls started getting nervous, and I finally said, "Lock the doors".

We looked for another detour sign but finally realized that there wasn't going to be one. We were all praying. I called Angela, a young woman now, who had graduated from the PTC farm years ago, who resides in Tegucigalpa. I was hoping she could tell me where I was. I tried to explain where we were but she had never been on that side of town. I finally came to the bypass road which is called, " The RING", a circle that goes all around the city. When I got there I called Angela back and then she could instruct us how to get our next destination, which was her house.

That night because of our other errands to the phone companpy and the goverment offices, we didn't have time to cook. We decided to order take out from a reputable internationally known chicken place. We were so hungry. When I took my first bite, I realized immediately that my chicken had been refried. I went ahead and ate it, thinking, "Well at least frying it killed all the bacteria." Then you realize with a statement like that you have been on the mission field a long time. The next piece of chicken, tasted like what you would imagine a buzzard with infected glands that had been battered and fried with special seasonings would taste like. The juice or grease or both exploded in your mouth with an awful flavor and then erupted into a film that coated the inside of your mouth. I don't drink coke but I rinse my mouth out with the coke like you would mouth wash, just to have the film gone from my mouth. I was thankful that we prayed for our meal and wondered about the craziness of people who don't pray. I prayed we wouldn't get sick and we didn't. I still get queasy thinking about it, but I didn't get sick.

I thank the Lord that He kept us safe through our trip with all kind of obstacles in front of us and behind us and on a plate before us. We started that trip with prayer and prayed the whole time and on the return trip because of all the situations. He does that for all of us. Unfornately, we have to get in a time of trial before we are praying without ceasing. I am praying that I will be in that continuous prayer mode that the Lord encourages us to be in, without having a trial I need to be in that continual prayer season, knowing that if I don't have an obstacle with 27 girls and a large staff of workers at that moment, that one might be on the way, I want to be ready and not get into all the drama of "Why is this happening to me?" before I realize to pray. That interium time from the trial and the prayer for help, I get into all sorts of problems of self pity and unthankfulness. I think a successful walk is to not have the interium times, just go from Glory to Glory. Nice.. I am not there but that is where I desire to be. Blessings, from the Thankfully Praying But Not Hungry for Chicken, Honduran MOM

Tale about a Dog

2010-08-30T23:45:00.003-05:00

We have a new watchman. His name is Pedro, and he came highly recommended.

He has to move our dogs to different parts of the property so that they can help him monitor what is going on during the night.

DON is old and he is a Wymeran (not sure of the spelling). He has been with us for a long time. He is a large, tan dog with the same color eyes He has a bobbed tail and a little arthritis so he walks a little different. His tail is kind of tucked under like he is always thinking about sitting down. He is getting wrinkly like the old guy he is. He kind of putzes around the farm, barks occasionally, but is totally safe around little girls.

Lobo is new. He is not very old but he can bark. He is borrowed because his owners have deer on their property and Lobo likes the deer too. So he has to stayed tied because we have

goats. He is what they call here an "agucaterrier" which means a mutt. (or avocado terrier)

Then we have Sniper who we keep in a pen because he can get an attitude, but that turned

into a reputation, and he is a lot bigger than his dad DON . He is kind of a big, dark gray dog and is about 8 years old.

Sniper escaped from the new watchman to go visit some friends up the road. The watchman

figured he would come back on his own. Unfortunately, he got into a dog fight. But because He is one of the biggest and strongest dogs in our area, the owners of the other dogs decided to even things up a little and they beat Sniper with split pieces of firewood all over his body but mostly around his head. When Rafael our day worker finally found him the next morning, he was down, lying in a corn patch unable to walk. Rafael got a wheelbarrow and gently lifted the dog in the wheelbarrow and tied him in with a rope so he wouldn´t fall out and pushed him home. Not that he offered to go anywhere, he was like a 75 lb hairy washrag.

We got him home and dressed his wounds and tried to get him to eat but he wouldn't. We thought a couple of times he was dead. We had to move him off the front porch to a dry place because the rain was pouring in on him and he just laid there shivering. He has been so patiently with all of our ministrations, until we went to move him and he clipped Don Raphael on the chin. Don Raphael looked like he cut himself shaving. So Raphael said for me to pick up his back legs and he would get his head. Rafael pick him up by his ears and head and I was shocked how he was handling Sniper, but by that time there was no turning back. Sniper was coming back to life. We waltzed through the house and through the kitchen to the back porch. I think I was talking about 2 octaves higher than normal about him not biting us. We got him on his dry rags that we had found for a bed and he was docile once again.

A friend of ours came by tonight to check on him

and told us there were no broken bones. That was good news but we had to hold him down to give him a shot for pain. Don David said just put your hand firmly on his mouth with one hand and tie up his snout with the lasso. So I tied the lasso around the mouth first and then leaned hard on his mouth with my other hand while he administered the shot. Haley was in there somewhere too. She was laying across the center. Then our friend said ¨Make sure he doesn´t bite you.¨ Great... I just checked on him and he has eaten his food and is bouncing back. His head is up and is looking good once again.

The next night was Saturday night. We had our first church service in in about four years at our church here at our mission. Don Chilo, a worker we have had since the beginning, started a small group in his house. I told if his group got to big to use the church. He said "How about next week? I have 35 people right now and we can´t move"? Most of the 40 folks were young people from El Obispo and Yasi, who years ago attended our church as children. Our girls attended that night and they said with tears afterward that it was just like they remembered church services in the past. I was in my room suffering with vertigo, but had Haley open my window and I just cried when I heard them praising and worshipping God. The music was loud and the kids were excited to have returned to worship in a familiar place.

Our church and mission during the 15 years of existence has had many victories and some trials too and like Sniper, had gotten beaten up by the enemy and seemingly knocked out. But I am thankful that God restores the foundations, repairs, heals, and then starts once more. God is helping us bounce back. Chilo said the young people were the remanant of what had been sown years before. He and the pastor are so excited about he enthusiasm of these young people and their heart for God.

Please pray that God continue to bless the work of Don Chilo and Pastor Moncho. Blessings the Harried Dog Helping Honduran MOM

PS The girls are doing great and are in their new uniforms. The jogging suits were made by a local guy and he just lacks doing their jumpers. They knew they looked good today. Thanks to all of you that help support their studies and their lives. The pictures are on facebook, but I will post them soon here on the blog.

Backbiting Is a Nasty Habit

2010-08-26T16:03:00.003-05:00

Our elementary and kindergarten school age children go to the public school down the road. Dina our helper, is a grown woman and walks them to school everyday. Well yesterday she came to the house and said that I had an appointment with the kindergarten teacher. I asked, ¨What about¨? She said there was an incident at the school and that I had to go and talk to the teacher and another mother. Again I asked ¨What was it about¨?. Dina said she was there when another kindergarten mom came up to one of our little ones and was just giving her ¨up country¨. For you northerners, that means she was telling my 5 year old off. I asked again, ¨What about¨.
Apparently our little angel, was hit by the other little girl. So our little blessing bit her on the back!!! Well, I ask our little sweetness, who was sitting quietly on my front porch step, ¨What did the other mom tell you?¨ She hung her head and then looked at me. ¨She said that if I ever did that again she would ...she hung her head and started to cry...¨she would pull out all my teeth¨ With that she threw her hands up to her face and just wept. It was horrible that a grown woman would tell that to a child. Dina confirmed that what the little one was saying was not exaggerated. The woman also started fussing at Dina about my child. My first thought is that (She and Dina) would have nightmares about the mad woman dentist. But with all her drama Dina and I had a hard time not to laugh. So I counseled her not to do that again and that I would talk to the teacher and the ¨lady¨.

I talked to the other mom today. She is about 28. She was telling me this and that and so I just told her that I shared her concern and it really wasn´t important who started it but that this kind of conduct is unacceptable for either child. I did mention that I had heard that someone said something about pulling all of her teeth out. Oh no!¨¨ she claimed I just said very calmly that if she didn´t quit biting people her teeth would fall out.¨ I said, Umm I thought there was probably a big difference.¨ I know I will hear from God about my sarcasm. I asked the two little ones to hug and tell each other they were sorry, and I hugged the young mom and told her I was sorry. Everyone inside the school laughed, as they were listening to all of the conversation.

My main concern now, is when she does in reality start losing her teeth soon. I need to talk the process over very carefully that she will understand that it is a part of growing up and getting new teeth and not because she was a back biter.

I wonder if I would keep that phrase about my teeth falling out¨, in the back of my mind when I am tempted to backbite others . God says, He hates it. Not just mildly dislikes,,, but Hates It. I wear a mouth guard at night so my teeth won´t shift and go back to their ¨ post braces¨ position. I need to get a guard for my mouth for the daylight hours. I have learned a big lesson today from my kindergartener' s school episode. I hope we have both learned something today.. Tame the tongue and the teeth¨¨. Blessings, The Guarded Honduran MOM

Toy Watches Don't Play but Neither Does God!

2010-08-14T19:37:00.008-05:00

Yesterday was Friday 13th. I don't pay attention to that kind of stuff, but the two missionaries that we pick up had had a very bad day. They were taking a bus and it started when a little boy who was on the bus, threw up on them, and it went downhill from there. Not knowing anything about that I knew the one missionary, Jose, for years and just stopped to say hello. He is a missionary in South Asia. They needed a ride home to Yamranguila and we were through with our errands so we said okay.

Haley and I had come into La Esperanza and had hit a rough spot in the road. I think from all the rain a sink hole had developed in the road. When we got up to the sink hole, many cars were waiting in line to cross over the hole. Fifty people or more were standing on both sides of the road and traffic was backed up on the other side too. People had unloaded from the buses and were waiting to see if their vehicle would be able to pass. We watched as every car slowly went over. The truck that went over before our truck, was like mine in that it wasn't a 4x4. It got stuck. They ended up unloading and pushing the truck out of the hole, which by this time looked like pudding in a large bowl. When the crowd noticed that 2 gringas were about to attempt what others could not. they slapped each others chest and pointed towards us and just laughed and laughed as if to say "Fat Chance". I watched how the others had approached and how they crossed the hole. I saw that everyone was pausing after they got into the hole. So they were getting stuck everytime and they weren't staying in the ruts. I just decided to gun it when I crossed over to the hole. The little truck went in and out like nothing. All the bystanders, were now slapping each others on the chest and pointing with their mouths open. It was a highlight in my missionary life. The road crew was on the way and so I wasn't concerned that we couldn't get back to the farm.

However, when we had our two guest loaded up to return the way we had come, we got to the line of cars going in the direction of the sink hole. Jose the missionary walked down the lane and came back with photos of a road scraper that was on a semi and all of the aforementioned was bogged down in the sink hole.

Jose said we could take another country road. I was vaguely familiar with the road, and it was a rocky road to say the least. I asked him if we got stuck did he have someone to come nd help us get out. He said, "Sure". It was almost dark.

It was getting hard to see and it was raining softly and I asked "When does the road come up?" and he said, "I am not sure". I said, "I am going to kill you". The other missionary I just met mumbles something about not not killing him.

We both saw the road at the same time. It is dark now. I went through the first bad patch of mud, then the next. We landed right in the middle of a large mudhole. I said, "Okay ladies and gentlemen we are here."

I thankfully had my red plaid rubber boots. I bought them in the States at Ross as a joke with Haley and her designer plaid pink boots, but they have come in so handy. I walked outside of the truck and it was like I was sitting in a shallow lake. I was talking on the phone when I slipped and fell, like I was playing a game of twister. My hands went down and my legs were crossed, my head down but not emersed. I dropped my cell phone, and submerged my Toy Watch in the muddy waters.

I sat on my haunches,(but not high enough) searching frantically for my phone with all my Honduran numbers in it. , and I kept my hands submerged looking for it. Thankfully Brian come over with his now saturated work boots, and just put his hand right on it. The phone at this point was in the water about 5 minutes. I had given up hope of finding it. I felt like I looked like a prospector finding gold, and wanting to shreik Eureka!!!. The phone still worked and so I called Chilo our foreman so he could bring the tractor. He was not answering. Then it started to rain again.

We started breaking branches off and gathering trash to throw under the tires. Haley and I were laughing, because it was dark by now. She decided for a photo shoot. Did you know that you cant see anything on a digital photo in the dark unless you snap the picture? Meanwhile, two campasinos, came up to us wanting to help. They were a drunk as could be, but wanted to be helpful. They decided to help push us out of the mud. They could barely stand on firm ground, and I was concerned that they would fall flat in the water, and we would have to resucitate them. They finally decided we were stuck and they smiled really big, shook our hands and said that they were sorry they could not be of more help.

I called another friend who has a Land Cruiser, and it had a wench. I hated to call because he has gotten me out of more ditches, it was humilating to call him again to help me out again. He said he would come.

It was very dark now and another vehicle came up. We thought it was David Aguilar with the Land Cruiser, but it was another man and his family. He had a 4x4 and he said he would help. I told him we had someone coming but he insisted. He got out his ropes and connected the two cars, and finally pulled me out. David arrived and I didnt know but I was still stuck. He turned around and said that the road he had come up, the one we would now go down was horrible and he didnt think we could make it. My kids were at home waiting on Movie NIght and I had scheduled a time with some of the girls that had graduated out of the farm and another one of our girls who had been moved to another center a couple of years ago. So I had promised. So I decided to try. I prayed that God would make all the crooked places straight, and He did. The guys in the back were raising their hands like they were on a ride at Six Flags it was so slippery and holes everywhere. But we made it through.

God is so good, the Toy watch works, the phones works, and" the little truck that could"" keeps on working. Thanks to all of you who pray for us. Be praying for Honduras because they have massive flooding and mudslides, and Tegucigalpa's roads are splitting into. We need a lot of prayer. Blessings, the Mud Boggin Honduran MOM

2010-08-11T18:03:00.007-05:00

Jean Brown sent some food for Kids Against Hunger. Jean is the Home mIssions Director for Heritage Church. The girls and I had a great time giving out the food. We have about 20 boxes left to give out. The girls got some of the stuff teams have brought this summer and we gave it away along with the food. It was a great time of ministry without a team. Clayton and Morgan and Haley were our Helpers.

Helpless in Honduras, but not hopeless

2010-08-03T19:07:00.003-05:00

Helpless in Honduras,

　Some days you feel like you should have stayed home and prayed. Everything seem to tick me off. We had a break-in at the school Saturday night. Nothing was taken just the fence had been cut and dismantled for someone to crawl through. It was still early in the evening when our watchman Rafael discovered what was going on. His vigilence probably startled the intruder. We went to our small town, Yamaraguila and got the police. After his investigation,he told our watchmen to shoot and asked questions later. They asked if they would get in trouble and the police officer said no. I told our guys to hold off on that.

Because the girls were scared because of the intrusion, one of the older girls asked a mid- sized girl to come sleep with her. The rule is everyone has their own bed, period. Because when the girls come into our project, sometimes they have problems with their skin and hair and we try to keep everyone from sharing microscopic friends with others. Also single bunk beds are not conducive to more than one person, hence the name "single beds". Well about two oclock in the morning I get a knock on my window. They said the mid sized girl fell out of the bed and they think her arm was broken. The other rule is all the big girls are on the top bunks. Of course when I asked why was the mid-sized girl on the top bunk, the information fell like dominoes from the lips of the girls.

So Sunday morning I went to the hospital to get an x-ray for the mid sized girl. I went to admissions they sent me to emergency to get a paper. I waited sometime and finally flagged down a nurse. She said someone would be with me in a minute. Well it was a super huge long minute, and I finally stood in the door jam, trying to look happy. I got the paper and went to the admissions, and I went to sit in the chair in front of the pharmacy as I was directed and sat in something wet. I didn't want to know. I read about 1/3 of a Tracie Peterson novel when the doctor called. We were directed to the x-ray room. We got the x-ray and went back to wait on the doctor. She saw us finally and there was no breaks, just severely bruised. This morning when she got up, her had was extemely swollen. WE are praying.

We had our Monday morning meeting with the staff. We were going straight to town to accomplish several things. Unfortunately, I lost the keys. I went right to the house, with my tote bag and no key to be found anywhere. Chilo finally found an extra one in the barn??

I went to the Public Defense office to report the break in and to check on the "shoot first ask questions later", instructions. They told me "That the policeman was giving bad counsel, and to tell our watchmen Not to shoot and they would be in really big trouble. They said that the intruders would have to be aggresive towards the watchmen or have thoughts of violence. I asked "How were we to know that if someone is inside of a cyclone fence at night that wasn't invited what their intentions are? " She didn't have an answer, but she did smile.

Chilo had dropped me off at the DA's office and so I was on foot and was going to take a bus home. He had several errands to run and he went back home to seal off the small windows at the school with blocks and cement, and secure the rest of the school by putting latches and bolts on the doors. We have our flat screen tv in the school room with the vcr/dvd player, which is what the break in was about. We put Sniper our black dog down at the school. He will have a new home for right now. If anyone does try to break in they will have a surprise. We call him Sniper for a reason.

So, after that I went to the Electric Company. I told them that on our monthly bill for the last 5 years were charges for street lights, but for 4 years we have had no street lights. I mentioned that if we had street lights it would deter people from entering other people's houses. We have had several break in at the local school and around the community. I told them that I have been in here before asking for our street light service and we still are yet to have any. She said "How many lights could be out?" I told her around twenty. She couldn't believe it. Right above the ruined fence was a light post that had no light for years. The lady from the electric company told me that there was emergencies at the border to resolve and that is why they haven't fixed them. Then I remembered the last time I was in their office, over a year ago, they said the same thing. I held off on saying anything about my total recall of the prior conversation. I told them there was an emergency now at El Obisbo. I told her I had 27 nervous little girls at the farm and they need to provide the service that everyone in the community is paying for.

I went from there to buy a big flashlight. The night of the break in, Rafael our watchman wanted me to hold his flashlight. I thought his flashlight was automatically doing Morris Code as I held it. It keep blinking wildly, and then shut off. During the investigation I was glad for at least a little light because I realized that our watchman need a hunter safety course. The barrel of the gun seemed to be pointed at all the good guys in the room. We used to have a rechargeable flashlight that would light up half of the farm. It had such an amazing light. We got it when an ambulance was donated through our ministry to the Red Cross. It was inside the ambulance. We had the best time playing hide and seek and to ward off people who liked to take a stroll at midnight. We didn't donate the flashlight to the Red Cross. I don't know if it was a halagen light or not, but it had a beam that was incredible. Unfortunately, we don't have it anymore. I had some flashlights that had 6 volts batteries that were all dead. When I went to buy some more six volt batteries today, I couldn't find that size in the stores.

On a whim, I walked to a department store to look for a flashlight. I thought it very unlikely to be able to find one, but I did find one. I asked if they had a flashlight and the clerk said," No." As I was walking out the store the doorman said, "We have these though."It was a white looking egg-shaped container with a large bulbous eyeball located in the center, with a handle, a radio, and it had a strap too. I thought that way the watchman could stay alert listening to the music, and the strap could be used so he could have handsfree shotgun and have a flashlight. I paid for wild looking flashlight and 5 bottles of shampoo and conditioner for the girls. There weren't that many people in the store, just me and 2 lady clerks and the doorman. They all watched me as the attendant rang me up and the receipt was hand written as they stood around and watched. One lady wrote, the other bagged it up and the door man was just there. They watched me get my change, and watched while I put the receipt and the change in my wallet and back into my bag and dropped all that into my big yellow Honduran tote bag. I went about 10 ft to the doorway to leave and the doorman, said, "Excuse me, I need to see your receipt". I know I looked incredulously at him. I had a large bag that was already full of paperwork, and not to mention shampoo and conditioner was now in the tote, and he wanted to see my receipt. As the ciruculation in my arm was being cut off by the weight of my purchase, I finally got into my bag and into my wallet, pulled out the receipt, and he took out his yellow highlighter and put a small dot on my receipt and said "Have a nice day".

I got home to find that one of the girls had caught the virus and she was on my sofa. My front porch was wet from a water hose and so I guessed correctly why it was wet, when there was no rain. Rosa, the teacher, came in and shared some things about the alumni that they had done Saturday and were not doing today. It has to be pretty serious if Rosa mentions something. So I had to have a talk and discipline scheduled for them later that afternoon.

I decided to paint the back porch. Don't ask me why. I found some extra white paint from a previous paint job. I could find brushes no rollers, but decided I was committed to do it so I brush it on the awful looking walls. During my time in the States a few years back, someone built a cookstove on the backporch, and then they decided not to use it because it caught the rooftop on fire. Anyway, I had it dismantled because it was a safe haven for scorpions and large spiders. I was almost through with one of the walls when the paint wouldn't stick to the wall. I don't know if it was because of the humidity or what, so I had to stop my almost finished paint project.

I decided to put on a short video for our sick guest. I had just started writing this blog and I get a phone call with some unpleasant news. I said all the right things, "I will be praying", "I hope it all works out" "God knows". I thought I need to read my Bible and get some peace about this day, but I didn't. I started ticked off this morning and I am still in a ticked off state of mind. I had been praying and fasting this week to try to get an understanding about everything that was going on and my clearly ticky mood. In Pslams 119:165 it says "Great peace have those who love your law and they will not be offended, (Or stumble) (or ticked off). I don't know why sometimes when things start dumping all around you and on you that the Word is not my first thought, and not my last resort. The opposite of 119:165 is No peace have those who don't love your law and they will be offended, stumble or just be ticked. I want to love His Word a little more and my words and thoughts a little less. Please pray for the trials that have been coming our way and that we will stand secure in the light of His Word, which is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path. Blessings, The Helpless without Him Honduran Mom