Here Comes the Bride and Here Comes the Others

Wow what a week!!!  

We have been cooking, sewing, repairing, buying, inviting, running, crying, picking people up and driving people to and fro and in general, celebrating here at PTC.  I can truly say that apart from God we could have done none of this.  God has been our helper through all this craziness.  

WE took three different teams of girls to La Esperanza to buy everyone a pair of tennis shoes, school shoes, to get everyone ready for the festivities of the upcoming week.  WE went grocery shopping, did banking, bought a stove for the central kitchen so that we could cook for the 90 people who showed up.  Our ovens had become a little on the explosive side.  Just when I thought my nerves couldn't take the explosions, anymore they both quit working.   I am getting a technician to come to get one good stove made of both stoves that are non functioning.  Meanwhile, I needed a stove that was operational to cook for everybody.  We had been using my oven at the house, until the oven door broke while I was in the States.  Mr. Nobody is alive and living rent free at my house.  Of course the technician finally came and said he didn't have the parts, but if I would just push it a certain way it would stay closed to cook something.  The problems was getting something out after it cooked.  I burned my knuckles so many times during this cooking marathon I look like I have working out on a punching bag

Mom and Bride

Laughing it up

New Crop

The girls have been so excited, not just with the fact that they got new clothes or because my girls were coming to visit.  It was because some of them were stepping out of there girlhood, into the life of being "one of the Big Girls of the Farm".  Below is a picture of the younger girls of farm.

The younger girls with the bridal party

The Older girls of PTC 

This good looking group is our older girls.  Some are still at the farm

and some have left and are doing other things.  As I looked around the 

room I was so amazed at how the goodness of God towards us is huge.  

His plans for the lives of these girls are being accomplished. 

Here is Angela and Brenda.  They came to Project Talitha Cumi at

about the same time frame.  Angela is the Bride and Brenda is the 

Maid of Honor.  Hanging around these girls this week, I know they 

are not sister by genetics, but they act so much like sisters, it is 

hysterical.   

Brenda and Angela

Roxana Cinthia Evelyn Doris

These are our girls who were celebrating their Quincenera.  They all turned 15 this year.  In about 4 months we are going to be doing this with 3 more girls.  They had about 90 people in attendance.  They invited about 30 people and they invited their family members and we had a huge crowd.  We served baked chicken, Chinese green beans, rolls, beets, and chicken and dressing.  These were the girls favorite foods.  Well maybe not the beets, but they needed to be cooked. :)

Roxana and Cinthia's updo's

Roxana had a big day!  Her aunts came to see her and brought her this bright orange dress, and a large orange hair bow to match.  She had other gifts too. She had cake for the girls at 11:00 a.m.  They were really wound up with all the cakes all over the place.  I told her she could wear her orange dress but she wanted to stay with the original selection.  My mom and I shopped for dresses while I was in the States.  We couldn't find anything until finally at JC Penneys we found only 4 white dresses.  I had to alter two of them the night before the Quincenera, but the other two dresses fit perfectly.  God covered us on that one for sure. 

After the girls party, I left with Brenda and David Aguilar, a long time family friend.  He was going to drive my Patrol to pick up Charity and Charisa, my biological daughters, who had come in on a red-eye special to be here for the luncheon.  I had carried the car in to get serviced and checked a few days before they arrived to make sure it was okay.  I told the mechanic that a belt was skipping on the A/C and it was making a strange noise.  Usually Rigo, the owner, does the work but this time a young apprentice worked on the car.  We got to David's house and picked him up. We went through La Esperanza and almost to Jesus de Otoro in the valley when the car started jumping and then it started back firing, lights were dimming then going off.  David asked what did I want to do.  I said turn around.  We were trying to get through before the fog got bad, but it was too late.  WE were going back up in the fog with little to no lights. I was in the back praying that we would make it back to the mechanics house in La Esperanza.  I prayed we wouldn't careen off a cliff and that sort of " emergency parachute prayers", and that I wouldn't lose my testimony when I talked to him.  The car started acting worse because it was going uphill.  I tried to call the mechanic to come get us, but we didn't have any signal on that side of the mountain.  We arrived in front of the mechanics house and before David could cut it off the car died not to be cranked again that night. God did exactly what I asked Him to do!  I was so excited about that I forgot that I was ticked at the mechanic apprentice.
 WE borrowed the mechanics car and rode all the way back to Yamaraguila.  I told David we could go to the farm and get our Nissan truck and he said, "I would prefer to get my Dad's truck".  He said it with a tone of "that is what we were going to do", mixed with "I don't want to deal with anymore of your vehicles",  or maybe I was being sensitive.  I was in total agreement though, and so we got his Dad's Toyota Very NICE Truck, and took off again.  We got to the airport with time to spare.  Then we had to get home.  WE arrived at 6:00 in the morning.  David had to go to work and so did I.  He has a dairy and I have 24 girls getting ready for a luncheon.  Brenda, Charity, and Charisa went back to the mission house with Angela, and they slept until about 10:30 a.m.  and got ready for the Bridal Luncheon.
I went in and got some things organized and then slept for 2 hours and got up and got the girls getting ready.  I had to find a cartridge that Jean Brown, a resource person that everyone should know, had given me years ago to play my video tapes.  Charity had brought two and I had one.  I was going to play these on the television while we were eating lunch.  If you knew how many VHS tapes we have, you would know I was looking for a needle in a haystack, but I found it after praying my "what was lost, may be found" prayer

WE got all the girls in the bus and went to crank the bus and it was dead.  So everybody was dressed up and we did the drill of finding the jumper cables.  Tim and Ana Carey brought us some to keep in the bus.  Perfect timing.  Tim connected the cables regaling all of us girls with tales of how he saw a man's finger blown off by connecting the wrong cables. You just got to love guys and their timing.  I remember RED is positive for the blood of Jesus and Black is Negative for sin.  It works.  I will probably think of blown off fingers, though.   Anyway, we got it connected and off we went.

Girls started to arrive at the restaurant that I hadn't seen in a while, and one that had recently left.  I just got overwhelmed when they were trying to figure out who was who.  One older girl came up to me and I hugged her and I said "You know who this is right?"  She said "No, I don't know her." They had lived in the same house for years, but hadn't seen each other in about 5 years.  The other girl, said "You don't know me?".  She said, in a perturbed kind of way, "I am sorry but I don't know you and the girl's sister said increduously, "Mera"?,  and Dunia's  face hit the recognition button  and they both fell on each others necks and hugged one another.  I just stood there and cried.

The VHS tapes were a huge hit.  I turned it on for the girls who wanted to watch could see the movies that I had taken years ago.  They used to groan everytime I took out the video camera.  But they were leaving their plates and crowding around the little portable tv screen to recapture a look at the years that had slipped by so quickly.    Many of our girls were here at our farm from anywhere from 9 to 15 years.
There had been major changes in the lives of all the girls. Everyone spoke a blessing over the Bride to be and in turn, she blessed everyone back.  It was an end and a beginning of a very special afternoon.

I think the reunion of the girls is what it will be like when we get to heaven.  A fabulous guessing game of "Who is Who", and then just grabbing each other around the neck and blessing one another when we finally figure out what" loved one" is there to greet us.  We will all walk together full and blessed.  I am hoping that this year is just the beginning of the time of reunions with the girls from PTC.

 As I looked around the room I realized that the vision was being fullfilled that God gave my family years ago.  We wanted the girls that had fractured families or no families, to have a safe place they could call home, with a family they could call their own.  In Pslams it says "He puts the solitary in families".  WE had 43 girls there, not counting the babies that had been born the last few years.  After we got home and counted the ones who had lived here, that weren't there.  We came up with 63 girls who were placed in this huge family by God that carries the name of Project Talitha Cumi.    God has a wonderful plan for us all to be united into the family of God.  He knows the plans He has for us, plans to prosper and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.  Girls from different walks of life learned and are learning to walk towards a Savior who laid His life down so that we could have a permanent family.  God is Faithful to fulfill His plans in our lives and in the lives of those around us.  As we come into holiday season of Thanksgiving, I want to be thankful for everyone of you who have prayed for us, sent us socks, underwear, toys, cards, shampoo, combs, tee-shirts, and sent your your families to be with us for a week, to build a building whose foundation has been from God.  We have not labored in vain.  I want to be thankful for the ones who helped us get the girls grown so that could be at Bridal Luncheon.  I thank all of you who are praying for them to be at the Real Wedding Feast.  We are all just practicing right now.

Be praying for us as we travel to Angela's wedding.  Fifteen girls are going on a bus with Natalie and Tim and Anna Carey.  I will pick them up a day before the wedding in the capital of Tegucigalpa....TO BE CONTINUED

A Continual Celebration

Well, I was hoping to get some photos to you all for my last blog.  I am having technical difficulties and if you knew my skills with the computer you are totally not surprised.  Apparently I have used up my available space on my Blackberry Computer/Camera.  I am working on the situation but nothing has been resolved yet.  I think I am going to get another camer that has lots of memory and plenty of space.

This week is already so full of activities.  It is really crazy to realize what kind of scheduling you get yourself into in a supposedly remote area in the mountains of Honduras.  We have a 15th birthday party we are planning for the girls.  We did get the invitations out in time thankfully.  Here they have a large party to celebrate a young girl's birthday when she becomes 15 called a "quincenera".  We have invited about 40 people, including the judges and officials who brought the girls here, teachers, friends and families of the 3 girls who will be celebrating their birthdays. We will decorate the church with pine needles on the floor and flowers on the walls.

  The dresses the girls are to wear, are traditionally supposed to be white, pink, or a salmon color.  I looked everywhere while I was home in the United States in October and couldn't find anything in those colors. It looked like I was going home empty handed, when finally I prayed.  I  found 4 dresses in one store. They tried them on yesterday and I am going to have to alter them but at least we have them.  I am asking God to help me do this since I haven't sewn anything in quite some time.

This past Sunday our pastor asked us if we could help with a medical brigade from Ohio.  There were going to be 15 people and he needed a few translators.  We told him it would be no problem. We dropped the girls off at the church on Monday.  They had a great time getting to know the new group of doctors and nurses and lay people who had been sent here by there church.  I went back home to teach math and phonics to our other girls waiting at the school.

The water went out again, so I checked at the pump and it had no electricity going to it at all.  The same thing happened a week prior and I had been reading a book on prayer and so I just prayed like one of the missionaries noted in the book.  George Mueller never asked anybody for anything, but lifted every need he had to God.  So with this example fresh on my mind, I came back to the house and prayed and when I got back to the pump house the well was up and running.  This time I did the same thing, and it didn't come on.  So I called the repairman to come see about that.

We picked the girls up at three and I had to take the Nissan Patrol to La Esperanza to get some mechanical things seen about on it. Amanda followed me into town in the white truck.  She picked me up from the mechanics and we went by the bakery and bought a cake for Natalie's Bible Club graduation party for the Yasi group.  She has been working with several schools and Yasi is the first group of 15 children who have finished the Mailbox Club material.  We then stopped by the appliance store to see why the repairman hadn't come to repair the door on my stove. He was supposed to come last week, but he never showed up.  I prayed that I wouldn't lose my testimony when I went inside to inquire why he hadn't been yet after they promised "Monday for sure".  I told them that we cook for 33 people everyday and I needed my stove more than most folks, but I have a quincenera for three girls and would be cooking for 80 to 100 and I needed my stove operational.   It was late in the day and I had no expectation that they would keep their appointment to come, but they said they would be on their way.

We arrived at the farm about 5:30 pm  and the repairman wasn't there so I continue to pray for the electricity to be restored to the well, and when I stuck my head in the door the well panel was lit up again.  I hit the switch and called the repairman and told him we had water.  He was already on the way and he said he would come by anyway.  He did and found that our electrical lines to the box were oxidized and that he had to change the breakers out for new ones.  At this point he was working with a flashlight because it was late.  He would come tomorrow.  Meanwhile the appliance repairman showed up!!  It was about 7 o'clock but the two of them tore into my oven door and fixed it temporarily until they could get a part.  We had devotions at house one,  and when I got home I helped one of the older girls with polynomials and called it a day.

 Tuesday, we dropped the girls again, but this time we had some of the girls who had to be seen by the doctors and dentists.  So I stayed through the pulling of teeth and returned to the farm with the dental patients and we had lunch, and I realized I needed to get some things straight at the house and so I got the office cleaned out, moved furniture around and went back up to the school to teach math. The electrician and his crew came and the contractor working on the duplex showed up with his worker.  The other girls arrived home about 1 o'clock and had their lunch and went up to the school.  We had tutoring after school in math, finished cleaning two more rooms in my house, made guacamole, while Natalie wrapped bibles for her  Bible Club Graduation Party.  We had an early supper and went to Tuesday night church as the medical team invited all of us to the special services.  I loaded everybody in the bus, including our school teacher, and 3 house mom's, Natalie and Amanda, and off we went.

It was an amazing service and some of our girls went forward to make first time commitments and some went forward for recommitments to the Lord.  We all ended up getting prayed for.  We were on our way out of town, and there was a police stop.  Now Yamaranguila never has a police check point at night.  I didn't have my wallet with me because I didn't want to keep up with my purse.  We had Amanda's music on her iphone running through the speakers of the bus playing some kind of wild Christian rap music at full blast, with the interior lights so Maria Elena wouldn't get car sick.  I roll down my window and tried to smile like this was all normal, when the officer asks where I was transporting this group of people.  I told him that I was from the local mission and thankfully the other police officer knew about us and they waved us on.  I didn't have my seatbelt on, no license( which would cost about $100.00 USD in fines) music blaring, and we got through anyway.  We really were praising the Lord now going down the highway. I was so pumped I miss my road to turn into the farm.

I am trying to get everything straightened up at my house so that we can have company.  We are having the birthday party on Sunday.  Charity and Charisa (my daughters from the States) are coming for Angela's wedding.  Angela was one of our first girls who came to the farm in 1997 and they all grew up together.  She is getting married next weekend.  My girls are going to be in the bridal party, and my 15 of my Honduran girls are going to be attending.  So we are picking our girls up from the airport which is 3 1/2 hours away after we have the birthday party on Sunday.  Angela is attending the birthday party and she is going to pick up Tim and Ana Carey who are coming from Pennslyvania from Tegucigalpa.  They come every year to the mission in November, usually with a team, but this time they are coming alone.  To mix with all of this, I just got an email that we have a phsycologist coming to  check out our facility this week end.

After the party on the 6th, I am changing clothes and going to pick up 2 of my girls from the Airport who are taking a red eye special.  We will drive back that night so that we can attend a bridal tea for Angela that will be taking place on Monday with all the girls from the farm in La Esperanza at a local restaurant.  Then Angela, Charity, and Charisa will leave to go to Tegucigalpa the next morning to go to the capital and get their bridesmaids dresses fitted.  Amanda Parsons will be leaving the next day for the US and I will drop her and Natalie at the bus station.  The next day I will go to Tegucigalpa and pick up Esmerelda so that she can be part of the festivities.  She lives about an hour away on the other side of Tegucigalpa. She used to live at our mission and has gotten permission to come the wedding.

Our 15 Honduran girls will be getting on a travel bus with Natalie and Tim and Ana Carey and coming to Tegucigalpa on the 12th.  I will pick them up and get them to Angela's house where we will be staying.  The wedding party will be staying at a local mission.  The 13th is the wedding, but we have to drop Ana and Tim at the Airport for their return flight home.  The day after the wedding, we will put the girls back on the travel bus, and we will meet them in La Esperanza to pick them up.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the Botkin family arrives in Honduras in San Pedro Sula on the other end of the country.  They will be staying with us for a year.  They are troopers and will get the farm by bus to stay with the other girls that we have left with house moms, and Rosa.

Today I am going to take the workers to the farm to clean up the coffee and when I drop them off I am taking one of our girls to have dental surgery with the team from Ohio. Natalie and Amanda, the Honduran school teacher and the rest of the girls are going to the Yasi Graduation Party, and then later that afternoon the team from Ohio is coming to the farm for a visit. Then we go back to La Esperanza to leave the white truck for a tune up and get the Nissan Patrol.  Things are never dull around here and thanks be to Jesus I am still functioning.  I am not even being sarcastic!

I want to thank all of you for your continued prayers.  Without those prayers, our lives here would be full of stress because of all the daily things we have to do.  Your prayers are vital to what we do here. Please pray for us in these upcoming events.  God has brought us peace even though we are seemingly going in every direction.  Pray for our safety while we travel around the country this week. I thank Him for the celebrations of birthdays, graduations and weddings.   Blessings, The Multi-tasking Honduran Mother of the Bride.

PS  I wanted to mention that Brenda is in a beautician school. She is attending Monday- Friday 8- 1.  It is something that she has wanted to do for a long time.  She is so cute coming home everyday with her notes and her new hair do's and fingernails and stories of who she saw that day.  She is still continuing with her classes here, but this is a technical training that she will be receiving for this next year.  So be praying for her too. We appreciate the Sunday School Class that is making this possible.