Greetings,
We are half way through our team marathon! It has really been wonderful. We have all met a lot of new people and we have renewed friendships with a lot of folks that have returned to help us out. We have been ministering to the local community schools, building on the duplex, reorganizing the school, building cabinets, planting and plowing, and so much more. These groups have gotten so much accomplished while they have been here. I want to thank all the teams who have been here so far this summer. Thanks for coming, thanks for serving.
I have been really seeking the Lord about some things. Sometimes when we get over tired we feel it is the reason we are not close to God. But He is always faithful to let us wear ourselves out through circumstances that are out of our control to show us that is not the case. We have had several hard things happen this year. I am kind of like Jonah. I wait until I get in the guts of the whale, and then I pray.
When I was home we had some girls to take a" jolly little holiday ", and when I got back we found them. I was hoping that this would be the end of it but it happened again the next time I left the farm overnight. We got these girls back too, but it happened again with yet the younger girls who were learning by example. Their main reasons for leaving were one or more of the following:
1. Didn't like a discipline, ie raking, doing their homework over, etc.
2. Boy problems
3. The others said it was a great adventure.
4. Seemed right at the moment
5. They were bored.
I of course, was alarmed because I knew of the dangers on the road and in the streets. What could they be thinking??? This happened too many times. The last 3 girls left almost at dark. They were the 12 year old group. They left on a spur of the moment decision. These girls always had their chores done, always obedient, always kind. I thought they had been kidnapped. It never entered my mind they would leave on their own accord. They did have a flashlight, but it started raining and it dropped, and the bulb broke and they couldn't find it, it was that dark, and raining. They wandered around the cemetery, and the woods that were close to the ravines and the waterfall. Praise God that someone recognized them and called us.
During the time all this was going on, I have been dealing with one of our girls, who is going through some physical problems. We have been to 5 doctors and two neurologists. She has been diagnosed with a type of epilepsy. The doctors said it was some kind of tramau to the head. Apparently, she was dancing around and as she was spinning she hit the side of the wall lost consciousness for a moment. We have been dealing with other physical ailment and the doctors were saying the headaches were side effects of the meds, but apparently it was from the hit on the head. She started with the small seizures this past month. The meds were making her act extremely different. So we have been dealing with this in between the runaway situation. I have been praying for her healing and her condition seemed to get worse instead of better.
I was praying, but just in my spare moments when I was sane. So things kept getting worse and so I set aside all the things I knew to do, and do those things we all do to forget about what I was going through, ie read books, watch a video, or listen to music. Things kept getting worse so I decided to get serious with God so Then I prayed. I decided to read the New Testament in a week. I got out a book by E M Bounds about prayer. I started fasting meals, even when the teams were here and they were expecting me in the kitchen to eat with them.
I have come to the conclusion that I do a lot like the girls were doing. If I don't get the answer that I get from God, I take a jolly little holiday from God. I don't like His discipline sometimes, so I cut on a video. I don't see any results in my prayers so I get frustrated or bored and just check out of the praying closet. I may not leave my physical location but I take off just the same just like Jonah. I end up in a bad circumstance but thankfully I came to my senses and prayed. All the books I picked up had to do with prayer, discipline. Believe or not I found some Mark Rutland cassettes when we were organizing the library. They were tapes that dealt with courage, the adventure of pain and dealing with prayer. I had some young people on the bus look at me and my little Sony cassette player with a puzzled look on their faces as if to say, "what kind of machine is that?"
Anyway, things have calmed down here. We had one girl move back in with her grandparents way back in the woods. She thought she was going to be with her mom in the capital, and so did her mom but the judges said "No". So instead of leaving our farm for the city as she had hoped, she left to go to a farm further away than what she was already. Please be praying for her.
During all the things God was showing me, one of the things He has impressed on me was to love others more than I love myself. Everybody in ministry think they do that and feel as we are covered. But the other day I was on a bus. I had a seat right to myself and my back pack, where I had planned to stretch out for a long ride. Well this little bubbly girl who could talk faster than I could, sat beside me and told me her whole family history and the reason for her trip. Well because Natalie and I had made a quick change from one bus to this one, we didn't have time to eat. I thought to myself, "Well, I have some crackers and my water, I will be okay", but Bubbles didn't have any crackers, and I thought, "I have two packs, I will give her one". There were two packs but one looked like something you do to crackers right before you put them on top of a casserole. I took those crackers, and tried to eat them but just ended up crumbling them all over my black dress. I finally gave up and threw them out the window. Bubbles throughly enjoyed her crackers. Then Bubbles saw a young girl get on the bus that didn't have a seat. Bubbles invited her to sit with us in our two seat/backpack area. We drove like that for about an hour wih Bubbles sharing her family history with the young woman. She wasn't satisfied to share just her story but through my half coma-induced state, she wanted me to share my history with the young girl too. I dozed off somewhere in their excited conversation. When I came too my legs were asleep. It was like that the rest of the way home, some part of my body was going to sleep. When Bubbles friend left she started trying to call her Uncle. He wasn't answering. She was almost crying and saying, "What shall I do??" I don't know anybody in La Esperanza except for you. When the bus stops I will just be thrown off". I said "We need to pray." I sincerely prayed that we would find her uncle otherwise it looked like Bubbles was coming home with me. Every 15 minutes she was checking her uncle's phone to see if he left a message. Afterward she just kept lamenting, "What shall I do? Can I go home with you? Can we pray again? " I assured her not to worry, that I wouldn't leave her all alone on the streets. Well before we got off the bus at the chinese restaurant, I gave her a number to call if he wasn't there and reminded her that we were only a block away. So we got off at the Chinese restaurant to get something to eat. I supposed I should have asked Bubbles to eat with us but I didn't want her to miss her uncle.
Meantime, while we were waiting on our food and on a call from Bubbles, Tony and Phylis called. Tony is on our board and they were our ride home to the farm.. They had a flat tire and they had just used the jack on the flatbed earlier that day while working on the clutch. He asked if I could see if anything was open. Everything was closed at this point and so I left the restaurant on foot and Natalie our intern watched the stuff. It was threatening rain. I saw that the tire place was lit up. So I kept walking. It was the Full Gospel Businessmen's Fellowship Meeting" They let us interupt their meeting and use` their floor jack. When we put on the spare, we found that it had no air either. So while walking back to the restaurant and talking to an elated Bubbles, who had jus found her uncle. When I got to the restaurant, Natalie and I traded places, She went to stand with Phyliss at the car and Tony rolled a tire all the way to the Texaco station to get it aired up. We got the tire and the rest of the chinese food and took off for home. God is very good.
So all is right with the world, except for while I writing this letter, I had a disgruntled girl come in and say that she wants me to talk to the judges because she needs to leave the farm because she
has one thing she doesn't like and it was when everybody has problems, when just a few want to be disobedient. I asked her if there was anything she was thankful for and if there was, carry the list and add the things she was grateful for. She sent the list back and she had listed that God has given her a nice house to live in, clothes, shoes, and a good life, health and friends. He has given me a lot of families that love me and a best friend forever. God has given me good friends like Morgan, Miss Beth Clayton, Miss Natalie, and a lot of them are my best friends. But in the last paragraph she reiterated that she didn't like it when just a few do wrong and others suffer for it. When she comes back, I will tell her I don't like that either, but such is the nature of sin.
I want to thank the Lizella team for all the great help they were to us while they were here. Thanks to Tony, Phyliss and Meagan for hanging out with us a little longer. Thanks to my home church, Crosspointe, Valdosta, GA Thanks to our interns, Natalie and the Botkin family who have been life savers these past weeks. Thanks to the board for all of your hard work. Thanks to all of you who love and have supported our girls and this ministry. God is doing so much here, and He is faithful to begin with me.:)
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Sunday, June 5, 2011
The New Bus, The Port, and Agent DeMonio
This blog is taken from my newsletter for the month of June.
I am running a little late with this newsletter. We have been full throttle for a while now. We had a team from South Carolina come down. When they left Honduras, they left part of their team here with us. The Botkin family is living with us and will be with us for a few months. They have been such a blessing and with everything going on, we have needed their help.
Haley is back, Natalie is back and Ben is back (albeit temporarily). Ben came back to help us find some girls that decided to go on a jolly little holiday while I was in the US. He was super sleuth and found one of the girls by waiting at a school for the mother to pass by. When he got to the police station the police officer we were dealing with about this case said, "Hey, you are doing my job". We had tried using the police system, but they were too overwhelmed with cases that were more crucial than a couple of run aways. The girls are with back with us now, but we don't know for how long. Paperwork has begun to move them to a different center. Two of the girls have been with us for over 11 years. It seems surreal right now because they are still living here, but it looks like they will be relocated soon.
We have three new girls here at the center. Nelly 15, Maria 9, Paola 9. They have been through some tramatic times recently and we are glad they are here with us. The two younger girls are settling in nicely, but Nelly is struggling. She wants to be with her mom but her mom cannot protect her from her home situation and so she is staying with us. She tells me everyday how she wants to be with her mom and wants to talk to the judge. Pray for her to get peace about being here.
When the team from SC was here, I was informed that the bus that we had been waiting for was at the port and had been for a few days. This was on a Friday, so we took off to avoid any port fees. When we arrived we found out that the bus had been there for 28 days! They give you the first 4 and then after that you pay for the next 10 days 8 dollars a day and then after that the price goes up. We have a tax free dispensa, but we couldn't use it after 20 days of the arrival of the vehicle, so we had to pay the taxes. We contacted a port agent, and he was very animated and said that he could get it out with a few phone calls and he said we will make some adjustments on the original documents and title and it will be fine. We got the paperwork and a new agent.
We went in the port on Monday, and we were thinking about doing it ourselves, but this agent, who we found out later was nicknamed "demonio", or Demon, came to help us. He looked like his skin was gray but spoke English and that was helpful because we had Jimmy Potts a board member and Ben Heath who was trying to help get the bus out of the port. We had taken Lina, Carina and Mary because they were ahead in their studies. They were hanging out in the restuarant, Mr. Baleada, across the street. It had air conditioning and a TV, and food, so the girls were fine while we were talking to the port authorities.
Mr. Demonio's assistant was named "Dog". He told me he had 3 kids and 3 wives. He was a young man about 28. He told me he had been into drugs but he was better now. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said that he was. I told him how Jesus helps us with addictions and lifts us out of pits we have fallen into. He said " Well I know He does, but I got out of pit of drug addiction on my own. I used marijuana until I didn't need the other stuff". All I could think to say was "Interesting".
So now I had Mr. Demonio and Marijuana Man working on our behalf. They were telling us that we were going to pay taxes on the value of the bus which they established was $11,000 US . You pay 10% duty fees and then 15% taxes on top of that. We were looking at some serious money to be paid. I was wondering what we could possilby do when another man came up to me. He asked if I was the wife of Brett because Brett always used this agent when he went to the port. I looked for his old office but they had moved. I told him that I was but Brett had died a year ago. I still react by bursting into tears when I meet people who knew Brett and ask how he is. When I told him that he had died a little over a year ago. He said he recognized me and wanted to help. He took the me and my paperwork and talked to the chief of the port. He told the Chief that he knew us before and asked him to help us. The Chief told him if we could find a lower market value on a vehicle like this he would use that. Randy Cox sent us the value of the bus. They lowered the bus to $3500 US. The agent that knew Brett didn't charge us anything for all his help. He said that he did it for his friendship for Brett and to the glory of God.
That took the entire day just to establish a price. So we had to go spend the night at a place Mr. Demonio knew. We were cautious. He said, "It is right on the beach and I will get you a good price". I was skeptical. Well, the sun was setting and I knew we needed to get in somewhere so we followed Mr. Demonio to the hotel. The pool was green but we brought no clothes with us. The beach had a oil-spill look to it, and so it just worked out that we had no suits. It was so incredibly hot there at the port, we were sweating like malaria victims.
We got all that arranged and now we had to do the paperwork. They said, "You will be out by today". Jimmy felt safe about leaving it with us because he had already delayed his flight by two days.
They came up with an amount for taxes and fees and I had to go to the bank at the port. I had to walk through a scanner, put on a hard had and a vest that a very sweaty assistant had used a few minutes before he loaned it to me. I walked about 20 feet, and took off the hard hat and paid the bill. I walked back the way I came, gave the sweaty hard hat and vest to the assistant and went to get the bus. Then they said I had to pay taxes on the contents of the bus. So we had to do all the paperwork on that too which took hours of review of exactly what was on the bus. Demonio said he went on the bus and they had robbed everything. I was heart sick but I thought, "Well, that lowers the taxes." I put on another hard hat to go see the contents, and though it had been rifled through and things were out of their boxes, everything looked like it was there. So I went back to the agents office donned my borrowed sweaty hardhat and vest, went through the scanner and paid the bill and returned. They said, "Let's get your bus". We got to the port and they said that they forgot that the bus hadn't gone through the scanner for drugs. It was now too late because the port closed in a few minutes, so we had another night at Port of Cortes. Mr. DeMonio and Marijuana Man, said they needed money to put gas in the bus to drive it first thing in the morning through the scanner. I only had 40 dollars US at the time and I gave that to them. They drove off happy as clams.
We found another hotel on the other side of the port. We used to go there when the kids were little when Brett had to get a container out of port. I remembered how to get there thankfully. They had made a lot of changes and we were the only people in this huge hotel. We walked out to the beach, and just enjoyed sitting there letting the breeze hit us and cool us off. The girls were collecting shells and wading on the beach. We were at peace.
They had made a lot of changes at the hotel. They said they had a new kiddie pool. I thought the girls could walk around in it. The 20 little colorful plastic chairs for small children sat around the pool and a giant green and blue mushroom was in the center of the pool that acted like a fountain. It was really pretty. When we got the edge of the pool we realized that the kiddie pool was 5 ft deep all the way around! I wondered about the unsuspecting parents telling their children to go to the kiddie pool, not knowing they could be sending them there to drown.
The room was very nice but we were on day three of hot days and no change of clothes. I would have gotten some clothes but they said we were leaving. We showered and put on the same clothes. When I went into the bathroom I noticed a bee on the bright white towel and so I killed it in case the girls didn't see it, I didn't want them stung. I woke early in the AM and went into the bathroom. When I opened the door there was over 50 bees. Not just honey bees but killer bees and they were mad. I immediately thought about the bee I had murdered the night before. I wondered if they sent out the hit squad. I went downstairs and left everyone sleeping.
I found a watchman that was about 4 ft 2 in tall and told him my problem. I asked for another room. He wasn't authorized to do that. I asked to just be able to used another bathroom, again he was not authorized. I asked for an insect spray. He said they had some but it was in the bodega and he didn't have the key. I eyed the small fan and I asked if I could borrow it run the bees out and return it, he said it wasn't his to loan. The phone rang and I sat down to wait, trying to think of any other petitions he might could authorize, when I noticed a movement out of the dry fountain that was in the lobby. It was a huge crab and it walk right under the opposite sofa. I got up off of my sofa. Thankfully the phone call was from the owner asking if any customers had come in. The watchman told him about my problem and the boss gave the go ahead to give us another room. I could tell he wasn't happy about the bees or the lack of response on the part of the night watchman.
We got to the port early and they ask me for gas money. I told them I gave them money for that. They said, "Oh that was for my car". "Sweet," I thought, but I must of had a look on my face at this point and Mr. Demonio said, "I will take it off my fee". They went and put deisel in the engine, however, it was a gas engine, so then they had to pay a mechanic to drain the tank and lines and put in gas. Ben was in his hard hat trying to help push all this through, but they finally got everything done and it was time for the port to close for lunch! We waited an hour more under the shelter with our hard hats. When they finally gave us the out, we were first in line, and we bolted through the gate. Ben, the girls and I were euphoric.
The bus is wonderful and we can get all the girls in there, not to mention we don't need a CDL license which none of us have. We went back to our forsaken, abandoned, patiently waiting South Carolina team. They were great and had been so busy while we were away. God had taken care of everything. All I had left to do is get the tags for the bus, but that story will have to wait for another day. :)
Blessings to all who have been so helpful to our ministry. Thanks to Randy, Rich, The South Carolina team, The Botkin family, our wonderful interns, the board, and everyone of you who pray for us. We are blessed and I pray He bless you exceedingly abundantly more than you can think or ask. Blessings, Pam and the girls from Talita Cumi.
I am running a little late with this newsletter. We have been full throttle for a while now. We had a team from South Carolina come down. When they left Honduras, they left part of their team here with us. The Botkin family is living with us and will be with us for a few months. They have been such a blessing and with everything going on, we have needed their help.
Haley is back, Natalie is back and Ben is back (albeit temporarily). Ben came back to help us find some girls that decided to go on a jolly little holiday while I was in the US. He was super sleuth and found one of the girls by waiting at a school for the mother to pass by. When he got to the police station the police officer we were dealing with about this case said, "Hey, you are doing my job". We had tried using the police system, but they were too overwhelmed with cases that were more crucial than a couple of run aways. The girls are with back with us now, but we don't know for how long. Paperwork has begun to move them to a different center. Two of the girls have been with us for over 11 years. It seems surreal right now because they are still living here, but it looks like they will be relocated soon.
We have three new girls here at the center. Nelly 15, Maria 9, Paola 9. They have been through some tramatic times recently and we are glad they are here with us. The two younger girls are settling in nicely, but Nelly is struggling. She wants to be with her mom but her mom cannot protect her from her home situation and so she is staying with us. She tells me everyday how she wants to be with her mom and wants to talk to the judge. Pray for her to get peace about being here.
When the team from SC was here, I was informed that the bus that we had been waiting for was at the port and had been for a few days. This was on a Friday, so we took off to avoid any port fees. When we arrived we found out that the bus had been there for 28 days! They give you the first 4 and then after that you pay for the next 10 days 8 dollars a day and then after that the price goes up. We have a tax free dispensa, but we couldn't use it after 20 days of the arrival of the vehicle, so we had to pay the taxes. We contacted a port agent, and he was very animated and said that he could get it out with a few phone calls and he said we will make some adjustments on the original documents and title and it will be fine. We got the paperwork and a new agent.
We went in the port on Monday, and we were thinking about doing it ourselves, but this agent, who we found out later was nicknamed "demonio", or Demon, came to help us. He looked like his skin was gray but spoke English and that was helpful because we had Jimmy Potts a board member and Ben Heath who was trying to help get the bus out of the port. We had taken Lina, Carina and Mary because they were ahead in their studies. They were hanging out in the restuarant, Mr. Baleada, across the street. It had air conditioning and a TV, and food, so the girls were fine while we were talking to the port authorities.
Mr. Demonio's assistant was named "Dog". He told me he had 3 kids and 3 wives. He was a young man about 28. He told me he had been into drugs but he was better now. I asked him if he was a Christian and he said that he was. I told him how Jesus helps us with addictions and lifts us out of pits we have fallen into. He said " Well I know He does, but I got out of pit of drug addiction on my own. I used marijuana until I didn't need the other stuff". All I could think to say was "Interesting".
So now I had Mr. Demonio and Marijuana Man working on our behalf. They were telling us that we were going to pay taxes on the value of the bus which they established was $11,000 US . You pay 10% duty fees and then 15% taxes on top of that. We were looking at some serious money to be paid. I was wondering what we could possilby do when another man came up to me. He asked if I was the wife of Brett because Brett always used this agent when he went to the port. I looked for his old office but they had moved. I told him that I was but Brett had died a year ago. I still react by bursting into tears when I meet people who knew Brett and ask how he is. When I told him that he had died a little over a year ago. He said he recognized me and wanted to help. He took the me and my paperwork and talked to the chief of the port. He told the Chief that he knew us before and asked him to help us. The Chief told him if we could find a lower market value on a vehicle like this he would use that. Randy Cox sent us the value of the bus. They lowered the bus to $3500 US. The agent that knew Brett didn't charge us anything for all his help. He said that he did it for his friendship for Brett and to the glory of God.
That took the entire day just to establish a price. So we had to go spend the night at a place Mr. Demonio knew. We were cautious. He said, "It is right on the beach and I will get you a good price". I was skeptical. Well, the sun was setting and I knew we needed to get in somewhere so we followed Mr. Demonio to the hotel. The pool was green but we brought no clothes with us. The beach had a oil-spill look to it, and so it just worked out that we had no suits. It was so incredibly hot there at the port, we were sweating like malaria victims.
We got all that arranged and now we had to do the paperwork. They said, "You will be out by today". Jimmy felt safe about leaving it with us because he had already delayed his flight by two days.
They came up with an amount for taxes and fees and I had to go to the bank at the port. I had to walk through a scanner, put on a hard had and a vest that a very sweaty assistant had used a few minutes before he loaned it to me. I walked about 20 feet, and took off the hard hat and paid the bill. I walked back the way I came, gave the sweaty hard hat and vest to the assistant and went to get the bus. Then they said I had to pay taxes on the contents of the bus. So we had to do all the paperwork on that too which took hours of review of exactly what was on the bus. Demonio said he went on the bus and they had robbed everything. I was heart sick but I thought, "Well, that lowers the taxes." I put on another hard hat to go see the contents, and though it had been rifled through and things were out of their boxes, everything looked like it was there. So I went back to the agents office donned my borrowed sweaty hardhat and vest, went through the scanner and paid the bill and returned. They said, "Let's get your bus". We got to the port and they said that they forgot that the bus hadn't gone through the scanner for drugs. It was now too late because the port closed in a few minutes, so we had another night at Port of Cortes. Mr. DeMonio and Marijuana Man, said they needed money to put gas in the bus to drive it first thing in the morning through the scanner. I only had 40 dollars US at the time and I gave that to them. They drove off happy as clams.
We found another hotel on the other side of the port. We used to go there when the kids were little when Brett had to get a container out of port. I remembered how to get there thankfully. They had made a lot of changes and we were the only people in this huge hotel. We walked out to the beach, and just enjoyed sitting there letting the breeze hit us and cool us off. The girls were collecting shells and wading on the beach. We were at peace.
They had made a lot of changes at the hotel. They said they had a new kiddie pool. I thought the girls could walk around in it. The 20 little colorful plastic chairs for small children sat around the pool and a giant green and blue mushroom was in the center of the pool that acted like a fountain. It was really pretty. When we got the edge of the pool we realized that the kiddie pool was 5 ft deep all the way around! I wondered about the unsuspecting parents telling their children to go to the kiddie pool, not knowing they could be sending them there to drown.
The room was very nice but we were on day three of hot days and no change of clothes. I would have gotten some clothes but they said we were leaving. We showered and put on the same clothes. When I went into the bathroom I noticed a bee on the bright white towel and so I killed it in case the girls didn't see it, I didn't want them stung. I woke early in the AM and went into the bathroom. When I opened the door there was over 50 bees. Not just honey bees but killer bees and they were mad. I immediately thought about the bee I had murdered the night before. I wondered if they sent out the hit squad. I went downstairs and left everyone sleeping.
I found a watchman that was about 4 ft 2 in tall and told him my problem. I asked for another room. He wasn't authorized to do that. I asked to just be able to used another bathroom, again he was not authorized. I asked for an insect spray. He said they had some but it was in the bodega and he didn't have the key. I eyed the small fan and I asked if I could borrow it run the bees out and return it, he said it wasn't his to loan. The phone rang and I sat down to wait, trying to think of any other petitions he might could authorize, when I noticed a movement out of the dry fountain that was in the lobby. It was a huge crab and it walk right under the opposite sofa. I got up off of my sofa. Thankfully the phone call was from the owner asking if any customers had come in. The watchman told him about my problem and the boss gave the go ahead to give us another room. I could tell he wasn't happy about the bees or the lack of response on the part of the night watchman.
We got to the port early and they ask me for gas money. I told them I gave them money for that. They said, "Oh that was for my car". "Sweet," I thought, but I must of had a look on my face at this point and Mr. Demonio said, "I will take it off my fee". They went and put deisel in the engine, however, it was a gas engine, so then they had to pay a mechanic to drain the tank and lines and put in gas. Ben was in his hard hat trying to help push all this through, but they finally got everything done and it was time for the port to close for lunch! We waited an hour more under the shelter with our hard hats. When they finally gave us the out, we were first in line, and we bolted through the gate. Ben, the girls and I were euphoric.
The bus is wonderful and we can get all the girls in there, not to mention we don't need a CDL license which none of us have. We went back to our forsaken, abandoned, patiently waiting South Carolina team. They were great and had been so busy while we were away. God had taken care of everything. All I had left to do is get the tags for the bus, but that story will have to wait for another day. :)
Blessings to all who have been so helpful to our ministry. Thanks to Randy, Rich, The South Carolina team, The Botkin family, our wonderful interns, the board, and everyone of you who pray for us. We are blessed and I pray He bless you exceedingly abundantly more than you can think or ask. Blessings, Pam and the girls from Talita Cumi.
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