Full to Over Flowing

Greetings,

So much has been going on since I last wrote. We had a small team that came from my church to be with us at Christmas. They were wonderful and helped us get all the gifts and things ready to go. I don't know what I would have done without them.  They arrived a day earlier than I did and I got here to the mission the next afternoon and we jumped on getting all the gifts together. I was so tired after riding on my red eye flight on Spirit Airlines. However, this is the first time that they didn't have their normal luggage nazi working at the counter. It was a great flight and even though in times past, I said I would never fly with them, but I believe I probably will.

 

 

 I had a hotel shuttle pick me up and I went to bed about 3 a.m. We apparently waited an hour at the airport for another traveler to arrive. They never did arrive and by the time I checked in at the hotel, and gave them my information, it was late. I slept for 3 hours and I was off againat 6:30 to catch a bus. Because it was"officially" the Christmas season in Honduras  The bus was full to overflowing.  People were stuffed in the aisles, packed in like a huge Christmas present going to La Esperanza.

 

 It was the 22^nd when I finally arrived and we had little time to spare to get a Christmas ready for 35 girls and other of our grown Honduran Girls who brought their children. We also had a supper for our workers and the community on Christmas Eve. The team and I had to get the girls to town to buy their secret friend gift and the team took the girls, who were divided into two shopping teams, out to Dom Pollo on their day of frienzied shopping. The girls had a great time, loaded up on Chicken and Fries, and lots of coke. I had to go to the bank before it closed for the holidays to get enough money to pay our workers and their end of year monies, buy groceries and extra gifts for the extra folks we always seem to have show up.   

The team from Crosspointe Church out of Valdosta Georgia, had received so many generous donations, from clothes to coloring books, shoes for school and tennis shoes, candies and two huge 20 lb spiral Honey Cut hams. I don't know how they got them through customs, and I didn't ask questions, but they did and it was a huge blessing. The girls here had never had a spiral cut ham and didn't know what it was, but we had plenty of meat and the girls ate like it was their last meal. We had two turkeys that I bought here in Honduras. One was a Butterball that I paid entirely too much for and the other was a more economical Honduran turkey. The Honduran turkey was hands down the best of the two and it didn't have all the additives of the other national brand. The girls made nacatamales for the day before Christmas which is the 24^th, the traditional day they celebrate Christmas. WE were full to over flowing  We go to the mission house and have our secret friend party first and then we open gifts. I believe it was the craziest Christmas ever.

Harold

After the team left, we started picking our coffee.  Here you pick the ripest coffee beans every 15 days.  We all worked hard and we try to fix a big meal, so that the girls will look at it as harvest time and look forward to the food as well as the work.  All the while we are doing paperwork for the beginning of the year that is required for non-profits here in Honduras. We are also getting prepared for our season of teams.  We are going to be super busy, it appears, but teams have become a way of life of us and even though it is a lot of work on both sides, in the States and here at Project Talitha Cumi, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Wesley and Suzanne got back and they have the House of Nain up and running.  House of Nain is the new project that Such of the Kingdom Ministries have been working on since 2013.  It looks great!  We have fresh water and the fencing is up.  We hope to be able to get the boys of the families who have been disrupted for one reason or another. Normally we get the girls, but the boys are usually abandoned to work in other homes.  They don't go to school, they just work for the host family.  With this new home the children will be able to see each other at school and at church and at holidays.  Our hope is that emotionally they will be more settled and stable knowing their siblings are close by.

So we are having water problems again.  The tank is not holding water.  We thought we found the problem.  One of our little girls, whose name I will withhold to protect the guilty party.  I know if you have ever been here, there are 4 girls that pop into your mind that might could have pulled this off.  They are full of mischief. They all have kind of a Denis the Menace air about them.  Whoever was the first girl that popped into your mind, you are probably right.  They were supposed to be raking and then this girl with the amazing ability to get into trouble, started touching and turning valves.  We have two tanks with a float valve and it is complicated as plumbing can be, but we started losing water, somewhere.  We just couldn't find the large amount of water was going.  Our water was running into the tanks, but not filling up.  Later this afternoon we figured she had opened the irrigation tanks to be filled with our fresh water.  The fish needed some good water because those tanks hemorraged into the fish pond.  Be praying that the tanks hold water tonight and don't escape into another pipe that I have no knowledge of.  WATER is source of life. 

As I was walking all over the farm, trying to find a leak, I got to thinking about those tanks.  We have a storage facility, where the water is pumped.  We use it to sustain life.  But sometimes we open a valve that are not meant to be open and our source leaks out to parts unknown.  My anger valve drains my tank, my disobedience valve drains my tank. My pride valve drains my tank dry, and then I am wondering why God isn't keeping me filled up. Water is flowing in, so He is doing his part.  I just need to investigate where certain valves are draining the the life giving flow that God is putting into my tank.  No good thing will He withhold to those who walk uprightly.  Water is a good thing.  He is faithful.  Blessings from the water seeking, valve closing, Honduran MOM 




 

All is Merry and Bright

After Christmas Greetings,

WE had a team at Thanksgiving and I left shortly thereafter to the United States to spend a few weeks with my family, have some ministry meetings,  and do some personal end of the year business.  We had the best of times with my family.

This year, because I am grandma from out of the country, I really don't know what my grandchildren need.  My kids have done a great job with them and I really didn't see that they needed anything at all.  My grandchildren are blessed.  So I prayed about it and decided that I would give them all the same amount of money.  They were to buy for someone else who might be in need and give it to their schools.  The kids at school wouldn't know who gave the gift and my grandkids wouldn't know who got the gifts.  They all shopped very well. They bought mainly clothes or generic gifts that could be a gift for a boy or girl.  They were excited that they saved so much money shopping the sales.  I have to admit they did a really great job and after the initial, "what are we doing again?" looks, they really got into it.  WE had a great time shopping.

This year, one of my adult children of five that I have, was the assistant directing for a play at the local  community theatre.  My merry little family group went to support her and the actors that she had worked with for these last few months.  They did a super job with a Christmas classic!  It was almost like watching the movie.  We stayed a little late and my daughter introduced us to the actors and it was a lot of fun.  The community theatre was located on such a beautiful street and I was thankful to be in a town were people could walk late at night and feel safe.  It was late, restaurants were closing and so we ran over our options for a snack, or dinner, because some of our group had not eaten. We had two of the oldest grandchildren, who of course, can eat at any moment's notice.  We opted to go to a late night burger restaurant.

My son-in-law had left earlier to get us some seats He was the first to arrive, but there was a super long line out of the door.  So he immediately decided this was not the place for us because we wouldn't be able to put our merry big group together, and he so drove out.  I drove in and knew that my family would not want to wait for the super long line and I looked for a place to turn around, when I noticed people were running towards the parking lot.  So I decided this didn't look like a good place to be.  All of a sudden a fight started somehow, about who knows what, so I decided to go "out" the "in" because the drive thru was blocked.  It was late, I was frazzled and I was ready to get home.  I used my Honduran back-road driving skills to get out of there and parked in a nearby parking lot. However, after calling 911, we looked over towards the restaurant we had abandoned, only to see the bright red tail light of car number three that held the rest of our of our family members. They pulled into the parking lot before we could find a phone that had battery power, (we had been taking photos and it was late, you understand). We all started praying that the occupants of our car number three could get out of there, when we heard a lot of shots being fired.  WE got the grandchild with us on the floor and recalled 911. We were praying for them and for whoever was in the restaurant and parking lot.  Finally, after dumping the contents of my purse in the floorboard to get my phone, that did have a charge, our other 2 cars got in touch with us and we all agreed to go home.  WE were all wired, because nothing like this had ever happened to any of us before.  It was really quite surreal what happened.  We were all so thankful that God protected us.

One of my son-in-laws remarked later that evening, while we were eating take out pizza, that we being more or less normal people, were along with so many others, that night in the parking lot, were trying to get out of harms way as fast as we could go.  On our way out of this horrible situation, we noticed the 911 facilitator had contacted the police and their cars were zooming into harms way.  It is really an amazing type of person who would go into a chaotic situation like that so that we could live in peace and safety in our communities.  I was thankful that people were in place to restore the order.

Now as bad as the situation was, I stayed in Thomasville for the rest of my visit.  I didn't decide that I would never go there again because of the violence that erupted there that night. Everyone was shocked that this violence happened in their small town.  I have had a lot of people ask me how I could serve as a missionary in a place that was supposedly, super violent.  Violence can break out anywhere, apparently.  It breaks out in homes, schools, communities, countries and the world.  We can't focus on the fear.  The Bible says that fear has torment and it does.  It also says, that God didn't give us a spirit of fear, and He doesn't.  You just need to be where God tells you to go. It is truly the safest place to be.  If it is to the neighbor across the street, or to a neighboring country, have no fear, God is with us.

While I was home in the States, listening to all that has been going on, as of late, people seem to be full of fear, about politics, finances, and the loss of freedoms.  I am thankful for my country and for the country in which I serve, as well as all the other countries in the world.  God created them all.  He came towards our chaotic situations to bring His love and forgiveness to us.  He came to bring order to our chaos.  He sent his Son so that we wouldn't have to live in fear.  That is our good news that Jesus brought to earth. Emmanuel, God with us.  I pray that your days be Merry and that you see the Bright New Year that Jesus is ushering in.

I will write about our Honduran Holy Day next.  Blessings from the Merry and Bright Honduran MOM