Greetings,
This past week, I went to Tegucigalpa with Mirian, my dear friend and board member of our Honduran side of our ministry. She is a great lawyer with a huge heart. I am so thankful for all of her knowledge and kindness towards the girls and me. It was a long drive and we were both very tired from getting up so early to travel. I was reading and she was napping. I finished a book on the trip and began to start another, when I realized that we were supposed to get off at this stop!!! I woke up Mirian and we literally ran off the bus, and got into a cab. I had to get my residency card renewed at the immigration office, a title for a car, and some hard to find welding wire for Wesley to finish gates and fences we are building around the boy's home and around the mission house
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Everything went quickly for me and my residency card and Mirian was getting the new residency cards of Wesley and Suzanne. We left there quickly and went to our next destination, which was basically to the tag office. I had lost a title to a vehicle we owned. We spent two weeks getting everything checked in our police station which includes statements. Then we had to go to the capital to get the other part of the process completed. There were tons of people there!!! We would have been the last out of about 75 people. However, I am what they call the "3rd age". It sounds softer than "elderly". I love this country! So because of that "3rd age" status, I was able to go to the front of the line of three very long lines! I got the paperwork to get the new title, and we were off to the remote small store that carried limited, hard to find items of hardware which included a special kind of welding wire. Driving around Tegucigalpa is really complicated these days. The capital city is getting a new transit system and new roads. However, all the old road signs are down. Our taxi driver was even a little confused. We got to our destination and the owner of the store told us that the wire had just gotten there that morning. We were able to get all of our errands done and return to our home at the mission before dark. God prepared the way and every step we took for us to get everything we needed.
We are in a rainy season!!! Our area needed a lot of water. We are so thankful for the rains that have been coming every day. We are planning to transplant 3000 coffee trees! Last year we had to cut down a lot of our trees on our farm because they were infected with tiny beetles. I cried when I saw those trees come down, but today is a new day. Now we are planting new coffee trees in this area of former destruction. It is looking really great.
The girls are finishing up the school year. They have been running in some 5K runs this year. Jake and Rachael, the directors of the school that my girls attend, and some of the other teachers from Abundant Life School have been coaching the girls on how to compete in these marathons. It has been a wonderful opportunity for the girls to be participating in these activities. It has helped them in their confidence as well as their physical stamina. Before, in our school here at the mission, the girls were somewhat isolated. It was hard for our girls to interact with the children of the community being a part of a community of English speakers. But now they are going on excursions with Honduran and North American groups to further their education on every level. It is a new day.
I have settled into the former mission house and all the teams have been doing great staying at my house. I guess it is my version of the game "Fruit Basket Turn Over". I have enlarged the kitchen area by extending the back porch. The sink at the former mission house was way to high for the girls to help wash dishes. Wesley Jarrard, director of our boy's home, Casa de Nain, made us some beautiful new cabinets and sink area. The girls take turns by houses every day helping me cook in the morning for breakfast. They come very early in the morning at 4:15 a.m. back to "Mom's" house. Then, at lunch, we have a smaller group to prepare food for, because the girls eat lunch at school. The girls and I, who work at breakfast, prepare a lunch for the girls to take to school. We make a snack as well as breakfast for the girls. There have been some new changes in the way we operate the farm, but they are good changes.
Wesley and Suzanne Jarrard, have 4 boys at Casa de Nain. They have worked like slaves getting the place fixed up to be ready for the boys. Wesley set up a workshop to work on beds and cabinets for the boys. They both have done a tremendous job. They have been doing a lot of farming and they are now planting more coffee too. They are putting up new fences around the farm where the live. Their boys are sponsored to go to the Abundant Life Bi-lingual School. The four boys are there Monday-Friday and then they go home to their families on the week-ends. They also spend time at family's home during school holidays. We are so excited by this new development of how we attend to children of Honduras. We had a baptismal service the other day at the river, and one of the first boys from Casa de Nain was baptized. A new beginning.
We are thankful for our new house, number 5, that my church in Valdosta helped to build. Other teams worked on the painting and installing the electricity. Kelsey McHugh is in charge of house five and has the "Littles". She will have a new position here and at the Abundant Life School. She will be teaching math classes for half days and then working with our mission for the other part of the day. She has been a great resource for me and a tremendous help with the little girls. Also, Kelsey has been helping motivate me to finish two books, I have been writing forever. One is a children's book, that I wrote in a few hours. Years ago I was going to post it to my blog, but felt like it wasn't the time to do so. The other is an on going book about how the ministry got started. Kelsey has been my cheerleader to continue writing, along with Mary Langston and Rachael Compaan. All of them are editing along the way with my constant rewrites. They are very kind. :)
I guess we all love new things. Sometimes we all like to learn new things, if we can get beyond the old things in our lives. Even though the mission house is 20 years old, it is new to me. Our fences are new, House five is new, we have a new greenhouse, new coffee plants, three new girls and 4 new boys. I heard one time that new changes in life are meant for us to grow. If that is the case, we are all growing like crazy around here. We are thankful that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Everyday here brings something new to us. I am constantly amazed at all the newI am thankful for the new growth that I am seeing in our mission in the girls and in me. I am thankful for the new teams that are coming this year, and for our regulars, who have become part of our Such is the Kingdom family for so many years. So many have prayed to get us this far.
Thanks to Ken and Katrina, who took breakfast detail Monday-Thursday, in the 3rd watch of the night. They were here and cooked, painted, picked-up and dropped off people and things. I appreciate all the work they did for the 7 weeks they were here. Everything looks so much better with a new coat of paint.
Thanks to all of you who continue to pray and support our Such in the Kingdom mission of Project Talitha Cumi and Project Casa de Nain. We are all so blessed. We have another baby in the house. Her name is Irma, and her mom is extremely young. Please be praying for both mom and baby. Blessings from All the girls of SIKM and the New Every Morning, Honduran MOM
