His Banner Over Me

We opened our Bakery, Cumi CAFE. The morning before it started as a horrible day for me, that I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and say, "No Way". I was sick and dizzy with vertigo and I just started praying. One of our girls studies once a week in La Esperanza. I was going to bail and let Angie take the helm, when she wrote and said she was to sick to come in. Angie has been helping us for months and she has been living with us waiting on her spousal visa. Angie was raised here at PTC and married a North American. There has been many new developments with visas from the US that she is still awaiting her appointment. She has been such a huge blessing having her here. Anyway, I got my shower, and kept praying. I took an allergy pill, and a tylenol. Don't do that when you need to drive. I don't know what I was thinking. I was so incredibly sleepy The whole trip to La Esperanza, I just kept on the edge of slipping out to dreamland. I finally got to the school, let our girl out and said "Have a nice day, and study hard" and put the car in park, and slept for 40 minutes. I woke up and when I was headed out to do a ton of errands. I saw one of our girls, who had left two years ago. I stopped the car and asked if she needed a ride. She said "No", but it was so good seeing her. She looked great I was thankful, that I got to see her and speak with her. I started running errands, bank, groceries, and then I started finding the things for Cumi Cafe's grand opening, that I didn't think I could find here in La Esperanza. I bought some plastic white round tables, some red stools, and I got some typical plaid table covers, an espresso machine, and a coffee grinder. I was still not feeling well, but I continued to pray and drink my water. Mary got through with school and we left to get home, so we could start baking. We cooked cupcakes, and banana bread, tres leches, cinnamon rolls, decorated a cake, and made loaves of breads and rolls, and I went to bed and slept like a stone. We got the job done and we were ready to open the next day at 12:00. WE brought all the girls down to the bakery on the big yellow school bus and gave them some banana bread, and took pictures of our grand opening. Pastor Bery prayed for our Cumi Cafe' and the ministry that will take place there. We plan to give away rice from children against hunger. We play Christian music and we give away Bible tracts and our cupcakes to folks by the bus stop that look like they need a hug or something to eat. The other motive for this bakery is that it will be a technical school training for the older girls that have come to us as young adults and have had no formal schooling or girls who are not leaning towards college. It is also going to be a place where our girls can be away from the farm and learn how to deal with the public and learn to become good employees. The farm is such a protected environment that they needed a jumping off place too help them learn to interact with their own Honduran society, before it waa time for them to leave the mission.

I had to leave early that first day of instruction of "how to run a bakery", with the older girls to take our "11 and under", crowd to a birthday party. Our cook, invited our girls to come to her home. Because we have so many girls, we don't get a lot of social invitations. Our cook was our first cake sale actually, and she wanted the girls to be there. I loaded up the girls and I headed out in the general direction. She said to call when I got to the school at Tablon. There was an older gentlemen, who was waiting at the school. It was the cook's father. He said you can't get in there without a 4x4. I told him that this was a 4x4, and he said "Well it is a little wide, but you probably can make it, but I don't know". The cook's 11 year old nephew met us and got in the car to direct us in. WE started driving down a red clay road that was as slippery as any wet clay road in Georgia. Then we turned into the woods, and turned around at a "W" in the road. I asked the nephew, "Which way". He said, "straight". When I started to take the middle road he said "No", the other road. I was getting a little anxious about his directions. We came upon a lagoon in the road, and he said "Straight". I didn't know if there were fish in that pond across the road, but I went straight through. This continued with the twists and turns, and the ponds across the roads and we were going higher. I was wondering how I was going to turn around and how was I going to find my way back. It was now 5:00. We arrived and my cook, Raquel, was walking in pretty black sandals through the wet wooded area. The girls and I had on our rain boots and we were stomping through like paratroopers who had just landed.. She was walking like a wood nymph through the underbrush just chatting away, and I was looking for snakes in the vines that we were crushing with our small team of girls. We were way back in the woods. When we arrived we heard singing. Our hostess, told us it was her religion's youth group. They had the meeting first, and then the party. We arrived at the house, and poor Roxanna was toting our little one who is not walking yet. She is now six and weighs a lot. She is walking with her walker at the farm, and we are delighted with her progress, but she was not able to walk this forest hike. I was so thankful for Roxanna. When we enter with our little entourage of about 9 girls. The first thing I noticed, when I walked through their adobe house, was all the photos of Jesus, Mother Mary and all the graduation pictures, framed and posted on the walls hung near the ceiling. There were benches full of young people and children, as well as older adults guiding the program. I remembered years ago, that these were the homes we ministered in when we first came to Honduras. I loved it. The people are so sweet and humble and we enjoyed ourselves being in their group, but it was getting darker.

The service concluded about after 40 minutes and then the food was served, which consisted of the best nacatamales in the world, and cake and candy bags, were passed out. It was dark thirty and time to go home. Our cook walked us up the hill and back to the path our car was located. She pointed below at what looked to be the abyss and said, "You can turn around down there". Did I mention that the fog had rolled in? She also told the girls not to get in the car, but wait until I could turn around. I wasn't to confident when she didn't want the girls to go with me. Two people ran down the hill to guide me down and I got turned around and gave them a ride back up to the top, got my girls and two young people from the youth group. The young people were going to be my guides, but when I came back through, I kind of knew where I was going, without asking. I had some landmarks on the way up and so it was okay. We got back to the farm and the electricity was out. It was so black you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The little girls were animated about being invited to the party and that they were able to go without all the big girls that it didn't even bother them. They were lighted up about their excursion that they didn't need lights. They were happy.

Now after my day was done, and I lay there in the dark, I was reflecting, that I didn't want to cook for the bakery because I felt terrible, and I didn't want to drive to La Esperanza to drop our student at the school, because I was feeling so tired, and I didn't want to go to the birthday party because it was rainy and nasty and I didn't know where I was but God enabled me to do everything, in every activity, because I was forced to rely on Him. I received such a huge blessing of a mission accomplished, because I know that I couldn't have done it on my own power. I find I don't do everything without murmuring and complaining, but I want to and I am trying to let my words be few. The fewer the words the bigger the blessing, mainly because the more words I say that are negative, I don't see the blessing because I am focused on the negative and not on Him. My Daddy used to sing crazy little ditties to us when I was a child from when he was a kid. One of the songs went like this: "Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the Negative, Latch on to the affirmative, look out for Mr. In Between". Godly words if there ever were. I pray HIs Banner that would shine over me, would be of love, and that my words and my motives would be loving first, and not last. I pray for myself and for all my girls that we will do everything without murmuring or complaining, that we may become blameless and pure children of God, that in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, that we would shine like lights. I pray that for you and yours that we would let our lights shine. Blessings, the Banner Flying High, Honduran MOM