Come let us reason together

I was in the office trying to write my blog/newsletter that is 2 days late, and the girls have the "Frozen CD" on full blast.  The team is playing soccer with some of the girls, and the older group is making cinnamon rolls for the bakery tomorrow, while some of the team is skyping back home to hear from their loved ones back home.  A little one is crying because she missed her nap, another is crying because she collided on the trampoline.  It is the rule that they are not to jump on the trampoline with more than one on the mat, but now they see first hand with a bloody nose of their fellow rule breaker, why they should obey.  They didn't walk up to the house to get her seen about instead they all dived into the GAGA pit that is close to the trampoline,  because they thought I couldn't see them, but I knew where they were.  Some of the team had gotten the little one and brought to the house to care for her bloody nose.  After we got it stopped,  I just called, "Alright come up here to the house", and from the youngest to the oldest they came out of the pit when I called to them. They all walked up single file and put their nose on the wall.  They knew it was coming.  So I am back in the office, knowing that I always learn something from my little ones and something that I can share with them about later.  Disobedience always leads to someone getting a bloody nose.  It might not be us, but somebody will be affected by what someone else does who doesn't like to follow the rules.  None of us sin in a vaccum.  What we do or don't do, always affects others.  WE usually dive into the nearest pit, thinking God can't see us, but He knows where we are.  I was proud that the girls just came on up to the house instead of deciding to hug on the wall  of the GAGA pit until I found them.  I see such growth even in the little ones here.  They are different.  Everyone who has come for the last months have all said the same thing.  I know that the foundation Christ is putting in their hearts through so many is finally rising to the surface.  I am blessed to be here to watch their transformation

This is one of our first coffee bags 

 I love this coffee bag because of this photo.  Our girls are making a lot of transformations.  These girls are growing in stature and in the admonition of the Lord.  I am thankful to everyone who have helped these girls get to this point.  We have had so many teams, interns, churches, and different individuals, who have blessed us with their presence and their prayers.  So many of the teams who have returned are our girls aunt, uncles, grandmas and grandpas.  I thank you for being an extended family to our family here at PTC.  We deal with so many of these girls who have broken families, or no families.  Most don't even remember their parents, but they feel the loss just the same. We have had a few new girls who have arrived.  Their moms call or come on the weekend of for their birthdays.  It is hard on the ones who have no one to come see them or celebrate their birthdays.  That is one thing the team has fulfilled for them.  They fill in the gap, of that special person coming just to see them.  Our girls are growing so fast.  Miliedi just turned 9!  I am thankful to the Lord for these girls, He has sent our way, They were lonely and scared, but they are alone no longer.  God promises that he will put the solitary in families.  He has made a great big family here at our mission.

There have been other girls that have left recently. Two of the girls got to go home with their moms, which was the answer to their prayers.  One went back to a center, another went home to live with a legal attorney for child service. One girl came to us and but she didn't get to stay long.   When they brought her they didn't send one document except for me to be able to receive her.  We had no background on her except for the immediate need for housing.  The first day she was so sweet and humble, reading her Bible to the little ones.  The next day she was being extremely rude to the teachers, refusing to obey even the smallest requests.  She was doing things that were clear to all that she needed a lot of help.  I talked to her and we made a deal that she would do better.  Usually a girl who comes to the ministry has a time of about 3 weeks before you really start seeing the child act naturally, but with this girl she was acting badly within 24 hours.  So the next week, she was wonderful.  Her personality was tender and very humble with the teachers and the other staff members were encouraged that she was going to be okay.  The next week, she was acting like she was a 4 year old, literally.  She couldn't bathe herself, would brush her teeth, and wouldn't speak, to anybody except to her self and her secret friend.  I couldn't figure what was going on. I talked with her and prayed with her to no avail.  Her situation drove me to my knees trying to reach out to her.
I called a psychologist to ask her about the young girl's mental status.  The psychologist said that if she was doing fine for a whole week and was normal and now couldn't even go to school because she was acting like she had definite emotional challenges, was a little bizarre.  She said that she may have some severe spiritual problems.  I agreed with that.  I had been praying like crazy for this girl.  I didn't know how to help her.  Prayer was my only option for this situation to turn around because nothing else was working. I did what the doctor suggested, and had a meeting in my office with her to tell her some things the doctor told me to discuss with her that might help.  Then all of a sudden, she started speaking like she was a graduate from a university and seminary student all at the same time.  I was amazed!  Of course, she had all of theology extremely messed up, as well as her scriptures, but the way she was  delivering her thoughts was wonderful.   When I started speaking to her from how the scripture really reads, she grabbed the handles of her high back chair lifted it up with her in it, and turned around and continued to stare at the ceiling like she was looking for something important in the wood.  I talked to her about the love of God and how He cared for her and wanted her free.

 Her psychologist and a lawyer from the children services started relaying the history of this girl the next day. They said they suspected she needed intense psychiatric care, and that they thought she might even be dangerous to herself and others. Her life from 2 years of age until before she arrived at PTC was a nightmare!   I wanted to ask them why did they send her here with all the emotional damage she has suffered, but I didn't.  They admitted that she needed a lot of help, but that our ministry was their last hope.   We had a team member who was as burdened as I was for this girl, and we prayed with her.  I just knew that she would repent and stay, but she just stared at us with a strange smile on her face and didn't say a word.

 I wanted so badly for this to turn out differently.  I wanted her healed, saved and fitting in here and experiencing a better life.   It just didn't happen.  Sometimes the girls that come here don't stay to complete the program here.  They are pulled away for one reason or another.  Some are good reasons like being reunited with their parents, and then there are other situations they are drawn to that are not so good. But our ministry is not this girl's only hope, God is.

There is a scripture in Isaiah 1:18  It says "Come let us reason together, saith the Lord: "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they be as crimson they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient ye shall eat the fruit of the land: but if you refuse and rebel you will be devoured."  The end of that scripture is not a happy ending.  When this girl left, my friend told me this isn't the end.  God brought her here for a reason and we are continuing to pray for her.  Please pray for this girl and the many other girls who are in her situation.  Through no fault of their own they have been dragged though every type of evil that man can sink into.  She is just one of the many thousands of girls who are being abused and discarded.  She lives in a world of different personalities and that is how she copes day to day, not being able to live in freedom that Christ died for her to have.  I want to not just shake my head and say to myself what a sad story.  I want to be faithful to continue to pray for her.  Please join with me and pray for these girls and  the people who are committing these crimes against girls all over the world. I know God wants to reason with them, and make their sins as white as snow.  I know that God will move on their behalf if His people will humble themselves, and pray and seek His face that He will hear from heaven and heal our land.

The girls have recipes they have to follow to make desserts for the bakery.  They can't leave anything out or their wonderful confections will not turn out right.  God gives us a recipe for success for this situation.  Be humble, pray, seek His face, THEN He will hear from heaven and heal our land.  Please let us be reasonable, and pray.  Blessings, the Reasonable and Praying, Honduran MOM