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
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