I love my girls here in Honduras. Their personalities are very distinct and they are a blessing. However, living here 24/7 sometimes proves to be a challenge to your sanity. The thing they love to do is to to tell on each other. Some days it can be very draining. Even the little 2 year olds with their limited vocabulary, will point and try to say the name of the guilty party. No one gets away with anything around here. Someone always sees them doing the good, the bad and the ugly and reports it to headquarters, which is where I come in.
I am the Solomon or Moses around here. Everyone comes to me with their report. Today I got a new one, "She took my clothes off the line and folded them!". I thought maybe the girl was indignant because her clothes were still wet. That was not the case, the clothes were dry. I didn't know if she was disturbed because other people were handling her things, but the reality was the other girls needed space on the clothes line to put their things. So I got all three girls in here and told the "indignant one", to say "Thank you".
This goes on a lot at our mission. It used to make me unhappy, but after I prayed about it, it is the farm's version of accountability and it helps me know at all times, exactly what is going on at all times. There are no secrets here, or at least not for very long. The truth always comes riding through.
Yesterday, one of my helpers told me that one of the girls had a stache of snickers bars in her back pack. I knew where she had gotten them. I don't eat chocolate, but sometimes people give me chocolate and I just hide it and give it out for special times, like birthdays or special prizes. I had cleverly hid the chocolate bars so well that I had forgotten that I had them in the ice maker that we have never hooked up, in my freezer. I had them wrapped in two white plastic bags so that you couldn't see the contents. It was ingenious, but not smart enough to fool the curious of heart around here. Anyway, the girl had taken some of the candy bars and eaten them in the bathroom. Everyone just thought she had some tummy trouble. She had trouble, but of the spiritual variety.
In the course of the day, it just so happened, that someone needed an ink pen, while she was in the bathroom, feeding her heart's desire and her face with Snicker bars. The girl who needed the ink pen, discovered the three remaining bars of chocolate. Well, the girl reported the sighting of snickerbars to another adult, which that person, told me. I called the girl into my room and ask her how many Snickerbars had she taken. She confessed to taking 6 snickers. I asked how many she had left. She of course, had none left. She was looking at me like, "how do you always find out about this stuff?" I told her, that God sees everything she does. Thankfully He allowed me to find a scripture in Hebrews 4:13 , That nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes, and He is the one in whom we are accountable. I just love it when God rescues me with His Word. "So therefore", I told her God is a tattle-tale. He doesn't want you to think that you have gotten away with anything and regard sin in you heart, which keeps you separated from Him and the ones who love you. " She just feel across the bed as if she were dead. I thought to myself at first, "Well, that is pretty dramatic". but soon realized that she was sincerely struggling spiritually with this situation. She has been stealing things for a long time. I prayed for her, and she was better and free of her sin. I told her I personally am thankful that I know God will reveal those things that are hidden. I can repent and have fellowship with Him, when I have my heart clear. I am thankful He will shout it from the roof tops, or get someone else to do it if necessary to keep our the accounts clear so that we can be in continued fellowship with Him. I told her she could practice being alone with God and talking to The Lord, while she raked out the goat pen. She even seemed happy about that. She was free at last.
I thank you that you are praying for our girls. Please continue. They are all doing well in their studies, and passing into the next level. We have two graduating from the sixth grade next week and 4 girls who are moving into the 9th grade. They are all making wonderful grades and I am so proud of them. The new girls who haven't attended school are reading within just a few weeks time! This is a huge praise report. Our Honduran teachers are doing an amazing job, but there is more to do
I know in this time of cutbacks in the market place and the government, that it has been hard on so many families. I am praying for the country and hopefully they will get the mind of Christ and things will turn around.
I am thankful to all of you who have been sponsoring the children and our mission of Project Talitha Cumi. It has been life giving to have you sending what you could so that we could continue here in Honduras.
I wanted to submit an idea to you all. In my time at PTC, we just never asked for money. It wasn't a source of pride, it was just that we didn't want our children to have a mindset that many of them were raised with which was to beg people for money. Years ago we were explaining to our group of girls that instead of asking people for their needs, we told them that they needed to ask God for the things they need. When we shared that years ago, God immediately convicted us to do the same. I have found that to teach a principal, you have to walk in the same teaching. If I didn't want the girls asking, I didn't need to either. I have spoken in a few churches, but I have not spoken in churches asking for funds for the girls.
So here we are. We have 30 girls. Twenty-nine live here and one girl is off campus studying in college. I am asking God to help us everyday in every area and in this area of finance. The girls are praying with me everyday. I have cut back here at the farm. We are collecting wood and our pine cones, so that we can use our outside stoves and not our expensive gas stove tops. WE are monitoring long showers and we are keeping our lights off, just like so many of your families. We are growing and eating our own corn, and the girls are shelling the corn and making our daily tortillas, and we have other food sources that we are growing here on the farm. We are growing snow peas and beans and green beans, tomatoes, peppers. WE are raising fish now thanks to a project that was brought here and we have 3 pregnant cows and goats, rabbits and ducks and chickens. We are making our own silage for these animals. Our girls bought one cow with their coffee monies. We have our technical school working as a Bakery, called CUMI CAFE' to help the girls learn to work at a business and learn how to have a skill useful for the rest of their lives. It helps them to be able to interact with the community and not just with the teams that come to visit with us here at the mission. We have goal is to be self sufficient and we are getting so close.
God has blessed our ministry. I am thankful to God and I am thankful for the ones that God has touched their hearts to help us be here. WE are growing. But because we are growing, we need to look to the future. We have our boys/male intern home almost ready to go. A team from Pennsylvania is coming to paint the interior. We are moving forward with this. It will be called the House of NAIN. WE are also inviting girls in our community to join our school. We have wonderful teachers who have inspired our girls so much in their studies. The girls are doing 3 courses of studies, English, Spanish and Educar Todos for their credits for college. We want the same for those parents who can't afford to send their children to school. They are all around us. WE Can not just ignore them. What we do unto the least of these, we have done it unto God. I don't want to ignore what God is calling me to do. He says to love our neighbor as ourselves and I wanted my children to go to school and then college, so I need to want my neighbor to do the same. WE can't pretend they will prosper later with no education whatsoever, because we know unless someone CAN do something to help them, that will not happen. Our neighbor has 8 children, and one goes to school because the father can't afford to send the others. WE CAN be callous and say he and his wife needed to be more responsible and not have all those kids and that is fine, except for one thing, the kids are here. WE CAN not ignore them because Jesus tells us not to ignore them. It is in the Bible. We CAN not take that page out. The Bible says the poor we will have with us always, but I don't think as Christians we need to be okay about that. WE can't help them all but we could help ONE. That may mean we have missed some folks, but I don't want the atmosphere that is overcoming facebook and the other social media's like there is nothing we CAN do about it. WE CAN do something about this and not wait for the Honduran government or our government to send aid money that we all know they just don't have. Governments have not been able to bring the change they have wanted to make in the world. All nations are in debt, many of our children and elderly are suffering and I believe the church CAN help with this, because it lines up with the Word of God to do so. Complaining about all these situations is not helping make a change, so we need to move forward on a positive note.
So want I am proposing is for each one of us to make a change. I want your family, your Sunday School group, your mission group, your book club, your store or whatever to have an Ican and put their CHANGE in the ICAN Project. Even in Honduras, people know the Iphone and Ipad. I believe they will understand what the I CAN Project wants to accomplish. At an exchange rate of 20 limpera to one dollar, it adds up quickly. We are going to decorate an I CAN for people to put their small change. I believe I CAN make a difference. The teachers and my other staff are going to decorate their Icans with our girls. We will ask businesses here in Honduras and churches to pick from a list of needs that we have in our community. Their Ican will go to that need. Whether is is a child that needs to be schooled in Honduras, a family, a widow, or whatever we CAN all do something.
We are trying to get all of our students sponsored for a year of school. We are canvassing our area to find out what girls possibly CAN continue their education. The Honduran government offers six grades, but after that if the child has no money, he or she does not go to school. We feel like they CAN. We have wonderful teachers in place that can receive more students, because we have very small classes. Because we only have 5 teachers, we are going to accept 10 girls into this program which starts in January. Please pray for these 10 girls. They will be with us Mon-Fri. 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. They will have a uniform, shoes, and school materials and a nutritious meal and healthy snacks.
The Bible says "I CAN do all things through Christ who strengthens me. " We don't have to do everything, but we are responsible to do what we CAN. I am thankful that the girls in our mission have so much, but I want them to see outside of this mission to our neighbors and I want them to know that they CAN be a part of the change. We will donate a percentage from the coffee sales and Bakery to the ICAN Project. Please help us and help your community and our communities and know that I CAN make a difference in this world.
Blessings, from the ICAN Honduran MOM
