Newsletter June,
Time has slipped away from us so fast. We are in the beginning of team season. People are coming every week for the next month. So far we have had the return of some great friends that have come every year to help us with the mission of ministering to the 40 girls we have here at PTC, and 22 extra girls from the community. Please pray for our teams and their leaders and for our community and the girls and staff of Project Talitha Cumi to have a great year. So far we have been super blessed.
WE are so thankful for the Team from GA. They have fixed cars and finished our church flooring situation. They have painted benches at the church and painted the walls, inside an out, at the intern house. WE have the electricity run on the other side of the duplex and the bathroom is installed. WE lack the flooring and painting the walls, installing cabinets, and the doors should arrived today. After the team leaves they are leaving behind their team leaders for 3 months. Wesley and Suzanne Jarrod, are going to stay with us for a while. They are our new long term interns. We are excited they are here and would like for you all to be praying for them.
We are going to make some new friends tomorrow. The girls and I are excited over a new group from the United States that are coming to serve by building a local private school that our girls attend called Abundant Life. Jake and Rachel, who are the directors of the new bi-lingual school, are collecting their home church tomorrow as we drop off our team from GA. Pray for them to have safe travels to the country and after they get here. WE will be picking up and dropping off folks for a while until August. WE are thankful for the love of so many who come here to participate in our loving controlled chaos. It just sort of works together for good and is powered by God, is my only explanation.
The girls are doing so well in their studies. I am amazed at the turn around of almost all of girls. Our new teachers are doing a great job. We are more than half way through the school season and the girls are still excited about going to school. We have 13 girls going to the private school, who are in grades 1-4. Then we have 10 kindergartners. WE rest of our girls along with the 16 older girls from the community are doing well in their classes and in their relationships with each other. I am very thankful to our girls who have reached out to minister to the girls of the community. We have chapel services every Monday through Thursday. WE have gone through the book of Mark and now we are on the book of John. Many of the girls and the teachers have never read a complete book of the Bible. WE are teaching them Bible verses and songs in English and Spanish. WE are all growing in the Word and in the relationships God is creating at our David Wilson School for Girls.
This week we were at the judges getting paperwork finished so that two of our girls can get passports to the United States. One girl has been invited to go to St. Louis and the other to GA to continue their studies after they graduate this November from High School. WE are so excited at the opportunities for these girls. They both have sponsors and that also is a huge blessing. We have been amazed at how God has worked all the details. Here in Honduras, you have to have the parents sign a document that they are giving permission to their child to go outside the country. The problem is most of the girls don't know their absentee fathers. Some do not know their mothers or fathers. We have no way of knowing if they are alive, or if they are alive, where they might be living. WE found the mom of one of the girls, though a neighbor, who knew the grandparents, and he got her phone number from them. WE had not heard from the mother for 5 years. The father had only been one time to our mission to visit and that was 11 years ago.
It seemed impossible, but God brought it altogether through a group in St Louis, who have been praying for both of the girls. I would get a message from the leader and tell her our problem, a door would open. WE would get another message and a totally closed door would open. Finally, we found the dad and he came and gave his permission for his daughter to go to the United States. I was torn about the two of them seeing each other. I didn't know what type of man he had become. I didn't know what he might say to hurt her. But, I didn't want fear to be our guide, so I carried him to her school. It was a bittersweet time for me to watch this dad, at a loss of words and a face full of regret as he saw his daughter the first time in 11 years. He was very awkward and they just made small talk. He was amazed at how much she had grown. Our girl looked shy and I thought her being a really sensitive girl that she would cry, but she absolutely had nothing going on. It was like meeting a stranger. I took a picture of them together, and she went back to class and he walked back to the truck crying. I asked him if he had other children and he said that he now has a 5 year old boy and a year old son also. I encouraged him to turn his life over to the Lord and that God would work out the details of a job and how he would provide for his new family. I told him that God had so loved his daughter that He has taken great care of her and now she is going to be studying in the States. I told him that he had a second chance to be a part of his daughter's life, and to do differently with his sons. WE got the paperwork today from the judges. It was a good week.
We are in the process of purchasing some land that joins ours. It is farm land and we are getting it planted right now. Even though we don't own it yet, we have a down payment on the property. Our community is growing like crazy and I felt to protect our boundaries as well as use the land to grow the corn we need for our girls and for our animals. Anyway, when I was in town the other day, I had been to our lawyer's office checking on the paperwork for the land, and I had gone to the bank. I was waiting for one of our girls to make copies at the store. I was standing in the door of my truck, talking on the phone as I waited for our college student to get her papers copied. I saw out of my peripheral
someone go behind me and beside the truck I was parked beside on my left. I didn't think anything about it. While I am still talking, I see a police man walking briskly around the front of my truck, and when I looked up a man wearing a huge pewter star about the size of a man's palm, hanging around his neck on a thick chain. My first thought was his jewelry was a little over the top, but turns out, he was the sheriff in plain clothes. They had captured one of the three guys, who were wanted for assault on bank customers in the past. One of the bank guards remembered them from a wanted poster and called the police. These particular criminals would stand around in the bank and watch who took out large sums of money. I always use checks or a check card and so I don't walk around with cash. I was oblivious to what was going on, talking away on the phone, until our college girl walked to the truck and said, "We need to leave because of the situation going on in the bank". I felt like a nut, but I just rejoiced at how God is so good to us. Even when we are not paying attention, He has us covered.
This next month we celebrate our 20th Anniversary in Honduras. We are getting everything prepared for our board from the United States and our board here to reunite, along with some very special people who have helped us over the years. Please be praying we get everything together and I will send updates.
Blessings from the Team Running, But Paying More Attention, Honduran Mom.
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