A REALLY Cold Day at The Water Park

We knew on Monday that on Wednesday we wouldn´t be leaving the house at all because of the inauguration of the new president so we decided that on Tuesday we should spend as much time out of the house as possible.  We decided to take some of the kids from the homeless minsitry to the water park.  All of this was decided in front of fans with sweat rolling off of us.  So we invited the kids and told them when to meet us.  But Tuesday decided to be cold and overcast.  Well once you´ve invited 5 kids to a water park a little cold weather is not going to slow them down.  So we went anyway, and we froze, but we had a GREAT time.  It turns out that only one of the five knew how to swim so we had to keep a really close eye on them but with me stationed firmly at the bottom of the water slides and the other girls riding the innertubes with them all of the kids were all to do anything they wanted.  It was really a fun day. 

Nicol, my little tough girl.  She´s usually too "cool" to be too excited about anything but she had a blast and she wasn´t afraid to show it.  That was neat to watch.

Darwin and Kimberly

Kimberly got sick the second half of the day and didn´t participate much, I think it was a little overwhelming to her, but she had fun anyway.

Notice the very ominous skies

It rained most of the afternoon, but that didn´t slow us down

Warming up a little bit

Sweet, fearless Pedro

This kid wasn´t afraid of anything.  We really had to watch him closely because he was willing to try anything.  At one point Alli was helping him "swim" by holding up his belly and letting him kick and move his arms in the 5 foot pool.  She said, Good job and he said Okay then let me go, and started wriggling to get away.  It was hilarious.

Fernando, The comedian of the group.

This kid is everyone´s favorite.  He is hilarious and loving and just a joy to be around.

Coming down on the double innertubes

So proud he came down all by himself.

Lester is the quiet one of the group and also the only one that could swim so he did his own thing a lot of the day. 

Kimberly was feeling sick at this point but it´s still a sweet picture.

My favorite picture is a group shot but it´s a little too bikini clad for my blog.  They were pretty lenient with the kids but the rule in the park is that you can´t get in the water with anything but a bathing suit on so we were all fairly scantily clad. 

We hope to go again when it´s a little warmer.

2 New Sisters and a Brother

On Sunday two representatives from the church in Del City joined us in Mogote.  They are going to be taking over the oversite of the church and Jairo, which is a huge blessing to everyone involved.  The Antrikins and I are making plans to begin removing ourselves from leadership roles in Mogote because they are more than capable of doing it themselves and we don´t want to hold them back, or make them dependent upon us (wow sorry for the massive run on sentence).  It´s been so neat to watch this congregation grow from 14 people in a room in someone´s house to a large church family of around 150 people.  God has definitely blessed us.  On Sunday we also had 3 baptisms, a small family that has been visiting all decided to put Jesus on in baptism after services.  I love watching this.  They are so excited and hesitant and it just brings so much joy to my heart.  I tried to post a video of the actual baptism but it´s pretty long and the internet is kicking off before I get it uploaded so here is a video of Carla, Carlos, and Dianora taking their first communion with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

A Very Bizarre Night

I don´t know if everyone is feeling the excitement of the upcoming election or what is going on but everyone was a little bit wound up tonight.  At the stadium I got out my little video camera for the first time and everyone was singing for it and having a great time.  Suyapa and Nelson both taped short thank you messages to us and to the donors in the states which I thought was really touching.  Here is Suyapa´s message, I´m still working on uploading Nelson´s.



I´m trying to figure out how to add subtitles but for right now this is just going to have to be for those spanish speakers out there.  Sorry guys.  The sound quality isn´t great either because the wind was blowing really hard.  I´ll try to do better next time :)


At La Chimbomba it was one thing after another.  Several minor injuries, one of which was tear gas to the face, I can´t say I´ve seen that before, but he´d already been treated elsewhere so I didn´t do much.  I couldn´t get a straight story out of that one.  Then we had a major fight that Darwin and I ended up breaking up, we usually try not to get involved but this was a bunch of people basically attacking one drunk kid who had stolen something from one of the other kids.  So once that was over I went over to calm everyone down and start talking to Wender who is sobbing because someone stole his hat (this was really really odd, theft of a hat is not normally cause for tears when you live on the streets, especially by Wender).  So I sat down with him and we talked for a while and the next thing I know there´s a girl trying to pick a fight with Mackenzie and swatting at her hair.  So Darwin went to take care of that situation and soon after that we left.  NONE of that is normal.  It was so bizarre.  I have no idea what the problem was but it´s good to keep us on our toes I guess.

At the park things were pretty normal, they usually are.  Our friends at the park usually help us end on a good note regardless of what else has happened during the day.

An Eye Opening Evening and A Moment of Your Time

I love this little girl. 

Everyone, everywhere should get a chance to see someone looking up at them with a face like this at least once in their life. 

While I was in the states we recieved a donation of over 2000 cans of vegetables for the homeless ministry.  This not only makes the food a lot healthier but it also makes it go a lot further (which is a huge blessing right now)

Two of our food donors made one time donations that ran out at the end of the year so we are down to very little money for food.  Please take a minute to prayerfully consider if you can sponsor one night a month for $50 a month or one night a week for $200 a month.  We are also raising money for the new building.  We currently have enough money to cover the first few months of rent but need $600 a month rent to keep it going and $150,000 to make it our own.  Please let me know if you´re interested.  I feel confident that this is the path God has put before me, and the ministry, and I have faith that the funds will become available.  Please add us to your prayer list and become a part of this exciting new ministry.

You might remember Roberto from last fall.  He was hit by a car and ended up spending over a week in the hospital and having two pins put in his leg.  He has refused to walk since, which has really hindered his healing process.  But on Thursday night here he came, grinning from ear to ear and walking with his crutch.  It was great to see him again and get one of his hugs. 

One of the reasons we do what we do. 

Take a moment and look at this picture, see if you can figure out what it is. 

Since I got back from the states Jenny (Dulce´s mom) has been telling me she got a new house.  I´ve been asking her where it was and she never really answered me.  Well tonight we had some extra food and Jenny told me we should take it down under the bridge.  So we put Jenny in the car and she led us around to another spot next to a bridge and we parked.  Several people that we´ve known from our other spots came up from under the bridge and we started talking.  They were all talking about their houses below the bridge and Darwin decided to go check it out.  He took my camera and this is what he returned with.  20 people live here in these two trash made "houses" and they are SO proud of their houses.  Notice the black on the left side of the photo.  That is a steep drop off into the river.  This is where 20 of my dear friends are living.  I asked Reina, another friend of mine who has taken on a motherly role of the rest, if she worked.  She said, ""Work, what work.  I´d love to work, there´s no jobs."  I hope that we can help them find more jobs in the future and begin to make a living for themselves.  Right now they have no way out of their living situation.  Please pray for them.

My New Interns and One Last Christmas

Meet Tess Mitchell, Mackenzie Johnson, and Alli Booth

These girls are my new interns.  Mackenzie will be working with us for the next 3 months and Alli and Tess will be with us until the end of July.  I´ve worked with all three of these girls in the past and they are a great blessing to the ministry.  They have already bonded with each other and fit in great with our family.  I´m excited to see how God uses them over the next few months. 

Alli and Tess brought me some Christmas gifts that were a huge hit. 

The girls gave me the new Donald Miller book that I´ve gotten rave reviews about.  I´m only about 1/3 of the way through and it´s already made me cry, and think, several times.  I love it.

And this little machine is called a mibook.  It´s a gift from Alli´s aunt and it´s GREAT.  This little machine takes little chips with video books on them.  Mine is a couple of recipe books.  Each recipe has a step by step video of how to make it.  It´s a really neat gift.

As always, I feel extremely blessed to have so many friends all over the world. 

Sweet, Beautiful Candice

As promised, here is another family post about my next to youngest sister Candice.  Candice is so much like I was at that age that my mom often calls us by each others names.  She´s more interested in books than almost anything else, except boys of course.  It´s been a blessing to watch her grow up.  She´s growing into a beautiful young women, and just this fall became my sister once again by putting Christ on in baptism.  She brings so much joy to my heart.  These pictures are from her volleyball banquet that I was able to attend with her the night before I came back to Honduras. 

A Bittersweet Evening.

Tonight was my first night back to feed the homeless since being in the states.  It was really wonderful to see everyone again.  The little ones running up and giving me hugs, the adults with their shy greetings, and especially watching Jenny racing across the park with Dulce on her hip make every hard moment worth it.  It truly warms my heart to be able to be a part of their lives.  It was a great night overall but I cried twice tonight.  I very rarely cry when I´m feeding the homeless.  I think a part of it is that it´s all so overwhelmingly hard that you have to shut off that part of you to be able to get through it.  But there was no shutting it off tonight.  I warn you now, this is probably going to be a tear jerker.

This is Noe.  I´ve talked about Noe some before.  Noe was one of the first kids we met at the stadium and a regular at our feedings.  He loves to joke around with everyone and can be quite the trouble maker, but he wants to change.  About once every couple of weeks Noe brings me his bottle of glue and tells me he doesn´t want to do it anymore.  He promises that the next time he comes he will be sober.  Then we don´t see Noe for a little while.  Until he forgets his promise, or is really too high to care.  He knows how to push people´s buttons and isn´t afraid to do it.  But he´s so lovable.  He´s one I debated about bringing home.  He just needs someone to give him a chance.  Or I should say, he just needed a chance.  Noe died on January 9th, alone, on the bench where we feed them, from a drug overdose.  It truly breaks my heart.  I had no idea, but then one of the girls walked up to me and said "Well, at least you will remember Noe."  Then they told me what had happened.  She believes that I´m the only one that cared about Noe.  I know differently.  I know that God has been watching over Noe´s impossibly hard life from the moment he entered into it.  I know that God placed Noe in my life to change me, to make me more aware of how much we each need him, how hopeless we are without him.  Noe has been an addict since he was 8, he never had a chance to make a choice about having God in his life.  I believe that he is finally receiving the love and acceptance that he has NEVER known, in God´s presence. 

I debated about whether or not to tell this story, especially after the last story, but it broke my heart in a completely different way and I think it deserves to be shared.  Tonight as we were finishing up feeding at La Chimbomba I looked up and noticed that there was a bus trying to turn around in front of us.  I really didn´t think any more than that about it, it´s a common and very noisy occurance.  Then about 5 minutes later I look up and Darwin says "What are they doing?".  There were two people sitting on the hood of my car and 4 or 5 more crowded around the front edges and it looked like they were all smearing something around the windshield.  So I walk around the front of the car ready to tell them all off for being on my car and messing it up.  Then I realize what is happening.  As the bus was trying to turn around (each bus here carries a couple of guys that collect money and also help the bus pull illegal turns in the middle of the road by stopping traffic) the bus guys got mad because the bus couldnt back up as far as it wanted to because of our car.  So one of the bus guys took someone´s food and threw it at our windshield, effectively splattering it all over the front windshield and the top of the car.  Our sweet homeless friends were FURIOUS and frantic to get it cleaned for us before we noticed.  (I know it sounds like we´re totally oblivious to what´s going on, we´re not, but we´re a whole lot more aware of what´s going on in our immediate surroundings than a little farther away, and it´s NOISY all the time).  They were so sweet.  Darwin and I kept saying, it´s okay, just leave it, we´ll clean it at home.  But they wouldn´t get down until it was all cleaned up and washed off with the water we´d given them to drink.  It really touched me.  They were working so hard to help us and it just breaks my heart.  I have no idea if this will read with the emotion that I felt but I pray that you understand what it means for them to think about something other than their own personal survival.  I love them, all of them, more than I thought possible.  It´s good to be back with these dear friends.  With tears on my cheeks I wish you all a goodnight.

Shine! Kids

I´ve had the honor of working with the Shine! kids the past couple of days in tutoring.  It´s been a great blessing.  They are precious.  Dayana has been sick but here are the other three.

Aren´t they precious?

Escartleth hard at work on English words with a oo sound.

Claudy is a trooper, she HATES having her picture taken but is learning to smile through it.

Great smile!  I LOVE this picture.

Finished!

We´re still looking for sponsors to pay for these precious angels to have a great education.  Let me know if you´re interested. 

Check out http://www.shinehonduras.blogspot.com/ for more updates.

First Haircut

Oh my goodness, I have so many things to blog about tonight. There were a few things I wanted to catch up on from my trip home but I´ve got 3 blogs in my head from TODAY!! How is that possible?

I love her so much.  She´s getting so big.

Here are some updated pics of my sweet babies. They are growing up so fast.

So bored of the pictures.  She was a trooper though.  I´ll post a bunch more on facebook.

Before-A hairy mess

Darwin gave him a mohawk but it was wearing off by the time I took this picture

Toby had his first trip to the groomer today. We will definitely be finding another groomer in the future or I´ll just do it myself at home, I can do at least this well. I´m debating whether I want to even him up or let it grow out a bit. But you can´t really tell in the pictures except for his funny ears.

He cracks me up. He hates having his picture taken so this was the best I could do.

All cleaned up and sporting Bozo ears.  Poor baby.

2009 was a great year.

This past year was really exciting.  Here's a video showing some of the major happenings.  Thanks for taking the time to watch!  Let me know what you think.

Hailey, my silly little monkey sister

This is a family post.  You all are more than welcome to read it but know that it's intended audience is my sister Shasta who doesn't get to see us as much as we all would like.  For your benefit I'll give you a little background on my baby sister.  Hailey is the youngest of my 8 siblings and an absolute character.  She loves to be a little actress and is hilarious to watch.  She is Shasta's mini-me.  She is adopted and 16 years Shasta's junior but it's like watching her grow up all over again. 

Hailey was 4 when I moved to Honduras and convinced that if I really wanted to I could come home for dinner every night.

She was also convinced that if I really wanted to I could bring her a real pet monkey from Honduras.

She can win almost any argument with her smiling eyes and quick laughter.

She is mischevious and clever and a joy to be around. 

I love her dearly.

Here are a few only slightly entertaining videos of her from this week.


Riding in the car, self narrating


Snowed in and baking brownies, notice that she has put flour on her cheeks and she's wearing an apron so she can be a "real chef." 

My mom is a foster parent and I can't post any videos of the foster kids on the internet.  This eliminated most of the more entertaining videos.

I hope to do a similar post of Candice, the next to last sibling, soon.  She's a bit of a nerd like me and videos of her reading and playing on the computer aren't so exciting.  I'll do my best to drum one up though. 

Okay all my talented friends out there posting videos directly to their blogs need to teach me how to do it.  I got a flip for christmas and it is really really handy and easy to use but blogger doesn't seem to be real video friendly.  These come via youtube.

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas Everyone!!! Here are a few pics from our Christmas celebration.  I may have a few more from lunch later.  The ham is finally in the oven, I¨m sooo excited.

Every year we do a family Christmas picture but this year there was no one to take it.  So I used the timer.  After several, several tries I think this "practice shot" is my favorite.  Unfortunately I didn´t have my sweater on and the puppies aren´t in it.

So this was the next best one. 

The puppies really have a hard time settling when one of us jumps up every 5 seconds to hit the button again.

Before the excitement began

Stockings!

This was a set of puzzles that was on sale, he wasn´t real excited but he put on a good face.  Sweet kid.

My beautiful necklace and earings from Darwin

Can´t ever go wrong buying him a soccer ball

The closest thing to a standing Kitchenaide Darwin could afford.  I was so touched he remembered me looking at them at the grocery store. 

My favorite of his Christmas presents

His favorite of his Christmas presents.  (He picked this out, I would never, ever pick a bright orange tshirt with a sequined tiger on it for anyone that planned on hanging out with me)

And the bright blue sequined hat with a skull on it to match?

Random gift request of the year, a skateboard.  But he´s been riding it around the house all morning and it was $5 so definitely worth it.

That´s all for now.  Merry Christmas!!

A Sad Ending to the Night

Last night as we were driving home from our homeless christmas celebration we saw Ovilio, another favorite, sitting in a door way.  Ovilio is always sober and always making jokes.   He had been at the stadium and received a gift but we had a few extras and he was alone so we called him over to give him another one.  Ovilio said thank you and told me goodbye one last time then started to walk away.  But as he was walking away Darwin and I both realized something was wrong.  Ovilio is always making jokes and laughing and he just wasn´t himself.  I asked him what was wrong and he just looked at me.  Then Darwin asked him what was wrong and he said nothing but he was obviously holding back tears.  Then he said, "It´s nothing, I´m just sad".  Darwin asked him if he missed his family and he made a quick retreat back to his doorfront, trying not to cry.  Darwin got out of the car and went to talk to him for a bit then we continued on, he was trying hard not to lose it in front of us and we wanted to give him that dignity.  But it was one of the hardest things I´ve seen down there.  He was trying so hard to be brave, but no one should have to feel alone, especially at Christmas.  Darwin and I both rode in silence with tears running down our faces for a long time.  Then Darwin said, ¨That could so easily be me.  Sometimes I don´t appreciate what I have."  Talk about a heart breaker.  I just pray that both Darwin and Ovilio know that they aren´t ever alone and that God will fulfill our need for love if we allow him to. 

Christmas with Breaking Chains

In Honduras they celebrate Christmas on the 24th, which worked out great for us because we were able to celebrate Christmas with all of our homeless friends on their actual Christmas day.  We spent most of yesterday putting together, 20 bags for women, 20 bags for kids, and 60 bags for men so that everyone would get something for christmas.

All but 25 of the adult bags were able to contain a tshirt or some other item of clothing thanks to clothing that has been donated in the past. 

The rest of the bags had bath products and small stuffed animals.  The kids´bags were easy to come up with.  We were able to find lots of great toys and stuffed animals from left over give away stuff.

Every bag also had candy and an apple (a traditional honduran christmas food) It took some work but we were able to get something for everyone.  Which was a huge relief to me.

Roberto and Dulce, two of my favorites, Dulce has her christmas doll.

All of the bags were numbered then they drew numbers and received the matching bag.  This eliminated any issues of favortism and everything went much much smoother than anticipated.

Dulce and Jenny, Saying goodbye to Jenny was really difficult.  She´s become like a daughter to me and she took the fact that I¨m leaving for a few weeks really hard.

Eating Christmas Dinner

Rice, Beans, Sourcream and Pepsi

Sweet faces to remember

Just a few of the sweet faces I will be taking with me in my heart when I head back to the states tomorrow (weather permitting).

These two little girls are new at church.  I don´t know their names but they are precious!

My sweet silly kids, I´m going to miss them

Sarita.  Love, love love her

Sarita and her mom wiping down the pews before church.  It´s fun to watch them working together and laughing.

Alfonsito, he brings me flowers all the time.  It´s so sweet.

Darwin and Roberto, one of our favorite homeless guys.

Some of the guys from the park being silly.  We love them so much.

Roberto was harrassing me about something, I don´t remember what, but we were both laughing when we should have been smiling for the camera.  I´m going to miss him.

1st Annual Nueva Espana Vigilia

On December 19th Nueva Espana (Mogote) Church of Christ had their first vigilia.  A vigilia is basically an adult lockin.  The whole church stays all night and listens to speakers, eats lots of good food, and the youth group performs prepared skits and songs.  The church in Mogote has been talking about doing a vigilia for almost as long as it has existed.  And this year it became a reality.  They asked me to make 250 cupcakes for the event, which I agreed to without really thinking about.  The day of the vigilia I spent all day making and icing cupcakes and finished up right as it was time to go.  I was exhausted but also honored to be a part of such an important event with our church family.  I was in charge of keeping the kids occupied, so we did lots of Christmas crafts and then at about 11 we watched Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.  The kids loved it and the adults loved that the kids were held captive for a couple of hours.  I didn´t take any pictures and really I was in a haze most of the night but it was great for the church.  They are already making plans for next year. 

A Fun Day

Early this month a good friend of mine sent some money down for a couple of kids she has known for many many years, and today I got the priviledge of spending the day with them and trying to help them pick out Christmas presents.

We started out the afternoon by seeing Avatar which I wouldn´t necessarily recommend for small kids but their mom was going to take them and they REALLY wanted to see it so we went.  At the beginning of the movie Mariela said ¨this is the best movie I´ve ever seen.¨ In the middle of the movie she said ¨I never want to watch this again¨ (I think she was a little scared at that point) and at the end of the movie she said I LOVED THAT MOVIE!!  So I guess it got mixed reviews.  Arnoldo was glued to it the entire time. 

Afterwards we went to pick out presents.  Arnoldo was very successful and quite the little bargain hunter.  Mariela wanted a skateboard with two wheels (I have no idea what that is) and ended up coming home empty handed.  Her mom later found the skateboard and I¨m going to head over there later today to take a picture of Mariela and her new skateboard and give her mom the money for it. 

Since Avatar was a whopping 3 hours long (I didn´t realize that going in) we were really late to feed the homeless and I decided to take the kids with me, then take them home afterwards.  I was so glad I did.  They were great helpers and I think they had their eyes opened a little bit to the fact that there is good in everyone.  At one point Mariela looked at me and said "I thought all street people were bad people".  Both of the kids had a great time and I think I will have them helping me again in the future.  It was a great day and fun was had by all.

(Merry Christmas Holly, this post was mostly for you!)

A Sweet Story

No pics here :) Lost or otherwise

The other night we were at La Chimbomba when I noticed that everyone was really picking on one of the guys that is usually a pretty sweet guy(I think his name is Olman) and he was walking around yelling at everyone.  I didn´t think too much of it and went on with the evening.  As we were getting ready to leave though, Olman came up and was crying hard.  He was pretty out of it and very distressed so I had him sit down on the curb and I sat down to talk to him.  Once he was calmed down enough to talk I realized that his shoes had been stolen and that they were picking on him because he was accusing everyone of doing it.  We talked a long time about how it´s easy for him to get taken advantage of when he´s too out of it to defend himself.  In the end I gave him the pink flip flops I was wearing and told him to go find somewhere by himself until he was more coherent. 
So, then we headed down to the park and I tiptoed around the car and sat on the tailgate.  Darwin proceeded to tell everyone my shoes were stolen and they quickly put together a "posse" to go take care of the situation.  We laughed and told them what had happened and everyone calmed back down.  It was sweet how quick they were to defend me.  But the sweetest thing was Vanessa.  Vanessa opened up the little bag she carries with her everywhere and offered me her extra pair of sandals.  I almost cried.  It was so precious.  She literally has nothing.  Less than most of even the homeless people but she was willing to give me her "extra" because I was barefoot, without expecting anything in return.  It was definitely the most vivid picture of Luke 3:11 I have ever seen. "John answered, "Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same."  What about those of us that have closets overflowing with shirts and shoes and food.  I´ve done some serious self reflection since that night. 

An Early Christmas

Okay, I´m really sad that these pictures won´t upload but maybe later.  Recently Dudley and Vicki Chancey and Norm and Denise Easter came for Baxter graduation.  Dudley and Vicki brought lots of presents from home and Darwin and I had a great early Christmas.  One of the guys from the Izopo Corn Team sent us a Wii!!!! We were both SOOO excited.  Dudley and Vicki gave us a game and extra controllers for the Wii as well as some fun kitchen stuff and clothes for Darwin.  The Moore family sent down a big box of kitchen goodies and some chocolates and movies.  It was a great day!!! I´ve got lots of cute pics so hopefully later I can get them to upload.  Someone is on the Wii almost constantly when we´re home.  We´re really getting a kick out of it. 
Now I just need to get on with my own Christmas shopping or Christmas morning we´re going to be sitting around looking at each other :). 

Emmanuel Orphanage

Last weekend before the girls went home, we loaded up the puppies and headed off to Orfanato Emanuel, the children´s home where the girls worked before coming to Tegucigalpa.  It is a really nice facility and we had a lot of fun playing with the kids.  I didn´t take any pictures at all but Darwin took a few.  I´m working on posting them here but I think I´m going to have to wait until Darwin gets back with the cable to my camera which is in the car.  For some reason several of the pictures I downloaded aren´t working so I´m going to try it again later. 

We had a lot of fun and the puppies were a HUGE hit.  They were kind of overwhelmed by all the kids but they did a good job remaining calm.  I´ve got some good babies :).

 

Emmanuel is about 2 and a half hours from Tegucigalpa so the volunteers don´t see a lot of  "American" food.  I made pizza for everyone for dinner then we played Pit.  I haven´t laughed so hard in a  long time.  Several of the volunteers are from Denmark and are absolutely hilarious.  It was so much fun just laughing and hanging out for a night.  

 

(I´ll try to post some more pics later)

Mariachi Band

So, Alli and Tess have had a dream all their lives of hearing a Mariachi band (or so I¨m told).  Well it just so happens that the last place we feed is across from the Mariachi Band Members Union (or something like that).  So a couple of weeks ago Darwin decided to make the girls´ dream come true.  He went and talked to some of the Mariachi guys hanging around and asked them to come play for us.  It was HILARIOUS!  We had so much fun.  The homeless guys all jumped up and danced around with us and sang the songs. (none of those pictures turned out)   It was a really neat night and I think everyone involved enjoyed it a lot.

Several of the guys we work with claim to be able to play guitar so we´re working on procurring one for Christmas.  They LOVE to sing.  So maybe one day we´ll have a Breaking Chains choir and band.  You never know! :)

Shine!

I think I´ve talked on my blog before about Shine!, it´s a program being started by some friends of mine to help underpriviledged kids get a better education than is available in the public school system here.  I have been blessed with being able to help get this started.  It is very exciting to be on the ground floor of something that is going to change many many lives. 

Mariela, who traveled to the states with me this summer, has been enrolled in a really great school for most of her educational experience and we are planning on using the same school with Shine!. 

In January, 4 1st graders from Mateo will be enrolled in Alitom school to begin an adventure in learning.  It´s going to be really tough at first but these are bright kids and we know that with our support they are up to the challenge.  Mariela is a great example of what can be accomplished with some hard work and loving support.  If you are interested in sponsoring a child´s education let me know and I will get you all the information you need.  Here are some pics of the school the kids will be attending.

 

 

A word from your sponsor :)

Hey Guys,
Sorry for the terrible delay on these blog updates.  I´ve been feeling really strange and tired at night which is when I usually blog, I´ve been sleeping instead.  And my computer is doing something weird and is having a really hard time giving me pictures but I´m now sitting in front of two different computers with an external hard drive and a jump drive and the determination to post some blogs.  Unfortunately none of them are really earth shattering or anything but I hope you will enjoy them.  Love you guys!!!

Nov Dec Newsletter

Hello Friends,

I pray that you are all enjoying this holiday season with friends and family.  We´ve had several visitors lately and I´m headed home soon for a couple of weeks right after Christmas.  So, I´m looking forward to some family time myself.

It´s been a crazy busy month, like always, but great things are happening.  Breaking Chains is taking off.  We seem to have more people show up every time we go.  I am also really developing relationships with a lot of them.  I love them so much.  It´s often hard to walk away.  The other day we had a birthday party for Little 2 year old Leticia on the side of the road on a blanket, complete with cupcakes, presents and singing.  It was so much fun and everyone really enjoyed it.  I hope to start having monthly birthday parties for everyone. 

I met with Medicos sin Fronteras (Doctors without Borders) a few weeks ago.  They work nearby and they are really excited about partnering with us.  They recently cut their feeding program and are beginning to work their way out of the country due to lack of funding.  They answered a lot of my questions and offered to help us with any medical issues we have as well as do occasional health seminars.  I´m really excited about this new relationship. 

****At the bottom of this newsletter I´m attaching some personal stories from my blog about Breaking Chains.  It´s kind of long though so I decided not to put it here.

Things at church continue to go well.  As I mentioned last month I challenged my bible class students to invite enough friends to have 40 kids in our 8 to 12 class at least twice.  THEY DID IT! They were so excited.  We had a big pizza and movie party with over 50 kids in attendance.  Their next goal is 80 kids at least twice.   If they do that I told them I would take them all to the national park.  I told my mom I´m more nervous about having 80 kids in my class than having 80 kids running wild at the park but they are excited to reach the next goal.  It´s so much fun to watch them light up at recognition for inviting a friend or learning their memory verse.  They are precious, precious kids. 

This weekend we are having a ¨vigilia¨.  A vigilia is basically an all night church service.  We start out with a big meal then have guest speakers and singing all night.  At some point in the middle of the night we will also have a bonfire.  I´m a little apprehensive about this all night church service but the church members are extremely excited and have been planning it for months.  It will be fun to watch our church family spend some quality time together, but I may have to hide some coffee in the car to stay awake J.  The ladies in charge of the meal have asked me to make 250 cupcakes for the event.  I´m going to do my best, but we may end up with a few regular cakes instead. 

This month has seen lots of visitors and random events.  Early in November we had a small team visit from Indianapolis.  They traveled to Izopo to help them develop new ways of corn production in order to better feed their families and make a small profit.  It was the beginning of something that could change the whole community in a really great way.  On their last night we camped in the church building and had a big bonfire.  This was our second camping trip in Izopo and we had a wonderful time. 

Alli Booth and Tess Mitchell from Chicago have been working in Mateo and this month began working a lot more with us as well.   Together we had a lot of laughs and helped a lot of homeless people.  The girls did a great job and were a great help to Darwin and I with handing out food.  This past weekend we took the girls to the orphanage they used to work at to say goodbye to staff and kids before heading home.  It was neat to see another work here and make friends with their volunteers and kids.  We took the puppies along and the kids LOVED them.  The puppies were a little overwhelmed but adapted well.  Today we sent the girls home for about a month.  They will come back in January with new plans to work with the people of Honduras.  They really are a blessing.

The weekend before last was Baxter graduation and several people were in town for that.  It was great to see old friends.  Dudley and Vicki brought with them an early Christmas for Darwin and I.  And thanks to a very sweet man who came earlier this year we now have a Wii.  It has definitely gotten plenty of use already and brought a lot of smiles to our faces.   While they were here I was able to show Dudley and Vicki, and Denise Easter the building we are hoping to purchase for Breaking Chains.  We also fed people with Denise and Norm.  It is always a blessing, and a lot of fun, to share my dreams for the future with more people. 

 

I´m making a quick trip home from December 26th to January 16th to visit the family and Park Plaza.  Then I´ll be back here and prayerfully opening the building for Breaking Chains in February.  It needs a lot of work but I feel like God is leading this decision.  We have a medical team at the end of January into early February then it´s going to be full force with Breaking Chains.  I´m really excited.  Please pray for these preparations.  

 

Prayer List

• All of our friends with Breaking Chains.  That they see the love of God shine through us and that his protection be on them as they live a very dangerous life.
• The church in Mogote.  That it continue to grow and that the leadership continues to have the strength to lead as we step out of the way and let the locals take over their thriving congregation.
• That my trip home be restful and encouraging
• That I am following God´s lead always and not taking any steps forward with Breaking Chains without his lead.
• For two little girls in Mogote (who will go unnamed here) that are dealing with the aftermath of sexual abuse.  I pray daily that God wrap his arms around these babies and shows them more love than we can humanly show them.  They´ve got a rough road ahead.
• For Jenny and Dulce, Jenny is really struggling right now to provide a stable life for them both.  We´ve shed a lot of tears together.  I pray that God shows me the best way to help her.  
• For Shine! as we prepare to enroll the first 4 kids into a new school.  It is going to be very difficult at first but with God´s help we know these kids will be thefirst of many to thrive with new opportunities.  

As always I thank you for your love and support and appreciate any words of encouragement you write.  This work can´t continue without you.  Have a very Merry Christmas and great holiday season.  (Don´t forget to check out my blog, there´s an excerpt at the end of this email!)
Love,

Amber Foster
Silver Mountains Ministries
www.silvermm.org
www.amberinhonduras.blogspot.com