MORE New Faces

Jennifer finally had her baby. 

Jennifer is 17 years old and a serious glue addict. 

I have no idea what is going to happen with this precious baby but by God's hand only she was born a very healthy baby girl.

Meet 18 day old Jennifer Lilianna.

Rosie's mom is going to help Jennifer (the mom) take care of the baby as much as she can.

I'm hoping that we can all be a strong presence in this baby's life.

Here is baby Jennifer sporting one of the precious little hats donated to us this summer.

Please pray for this precious life and perilous road that lays before her. 

Pray that we can be God's hand on her life and on the life of her mother.

This is Ivis (18), Cristian (17), and Carina (15)

They moved in a couple of days ago.

I don't know much of their stories but they are sweet kids eager to fit in and hopefully make a change in their lives.

I look forward to getting to know each of these precious souls and seeing where God leads us in their lives. 

We never know when someone comes to the building how long they will stay, but our prayer is that whatever the amount of time is, we are able to make God more visible to each person before they go on their way.

Down On The Farm (or urban Tegucigalpa)

Today we decided to let the chickens and rabbit out of their little pen and into the yard. 

We weren't sure how the dogs would take this but it went well.

So now we've got our own little petting zoo in the yard....

Yippee...

:)

The cute baby chicks turned into "interesting" looking adolescent chicken pretty quickly.

Darwin has named them Nacho and Chacho.

My little garden setup outside.

I spent a couple of hours outside today planting all the little seeds for our aquaponics garden and setting up this little garden space. 

I feel very "green" today.

Hopefully soon all these planted baby seeds will grow into beautiful healthy plants for our garden.

This part of God's creation absolutely blows my mind.

I am so glad the God of these wonders chooses to be a part of our lives.

We Have Plants!!

Put a few plants in the aquaponics beds today!

Everyone is SOOO excited to see what comes out of our garden.

We still have a long way to go but here are our first plants. 

The rest will be started from seeds in cups and should be planted in the next week or so.

Basil

 Strawberries

Worm casting "tea bag"

This will give nutrients to the plants and also eventually to the fish.

Moringa

This is an Indian plant packed with nutrients that we will feed the fish and also dry to put in the food we hand out.

Tomatoes!

This may be what I'm most excited about. 

You can't beat a fresh tomato.

I can't wait to do some harvesting!

Sunday Morning Fun

Sunday mornings are family time at our house since we attend church in the afternoon. 

This morning Rosie and I had lots of fun

I love this little nut.



The Farm is Ready!

The aquaponics farm is ready to go at Breaking Chains. 

This weeks project is preparing seeds and finding fish to fill our tanks

Nathan working on the Youtube video

The best picture I could get of the whole setup

The auto syphen

Running water!!!

We're all very excited to see where this project takes us and also to see how easy it would be to implement it in other places.

The Babies Are Getting Big

Back by popular demand...

Baby Pictures!

Baby Ashley is 3 months old

Baby Amber is almost 5 months old!

We don't get to see her much, but when we do it is such a blessing.

Her uncle is raising her in a town about an hour away

Baby Allison is just over 1 month. 

There are so many precious babies associated with our ministry and it's a blessing to be a part of their growing up. 

A Garden For Breaking Chains

Since we opened the doors of the Breaking Chains ministry building I've been looking for a way to introduce a manageable garden to our members.  

Several different ideas and plans were tossed around but nothing ever came to pass.  

Until now...

Now we are working with Nathan Hale to produce a small aquaponics farm on the open balcony of our building.

This little farm will produce hundreds of pounds of vegetables and at least 100 fish per year.  

We've spent the last two days working hard on the tanks and supplies for this operation and today we are installing it in our building.  

 Transporting 3 of the 6 tanks we needed.

 David cut all the filter covers

And Kristen drilled the filter holes.

 I was responsible for gluing everything together.

 We had to cut the tanks in two for the plant beds

Nate cut the cages

And I cut the tanks

 Even Rosie wanted in on the fun

This is a "mock-up" of what it will look like on the balcony so we can figure out the plumbing connections.  

It doesn't look like much now but I will post pictures soon of the final product and veggies within the month!

For more information on Nathan Hale, his farm project, or Aquaponics farming go to this website:

http://hondofarm.com

 

Hard Work!

For about a year we've been trying to decide what to do with this crazy mud pit in the middle of our building.

We've tossed around a lot of ideas, planted things, built some things, but nothing has worked so far.

This is less than ideal and the mud continues to cause problems with the drainage out of the middle of the building.

So yesterday we decided to take advantage of the broken tiles that have come from our broken down roof. 

Everyone at the building worked hard today, hauling tiles from upstairs, smashing them into smaller pieces, and spreading them around the mud pit.

The result is a much prettier, less muddy, workable space. 

We still have some detail work to do around the outside and we're eager for a big rain to wash the broken roof tiles clean and then bake down in the sun, but we were all pleased with the results.

Soon we hope to take out the concrete "fireplaces" and build them an outdoor stove.

This week we are working on getting an aquaponics vegetable and fish farm started.  Keep checking back for pictures and updates from that project and others that are happening every day at Breaking Chains!

Visiting Friends!

I met this sweet girl 10 years ago on both of ours first trip to Honduras. 

Since then Barrie Jo Mitchell has interned for me numerous times and taken residence in a very special place in my heart. 

After 2 1/2 years of not seeing her smiling face she finally made it back down for a visit this week.  I'm already having a blast showing her all the things that have changed since she left and I'm looking forward to what the rest of the week holds helping her reconnect with kids she has grown to love over the years.

Barrie Jo's friend Kristen also made the trip down with her and has quickly made her way into everyone's hearts.  Rosie has decided Kristen is her new favorite person and several of the kids at Breaking Chains have fallen in love with her fun spirit.

Corey Bryant is here for a year staying with David and teaching at a bilingual school, but he's fallen in love with our ministry and we've pretty much fallen in love with him as well.

Corey has a heart for children and it shows in his interactions at Breaking Chains.

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people. 

God continues to shower his blessings of love and fellowship upon my head and I can't say thank you enough.

Everyday Life At Breaking Chains

Allison is getting bigger everyday and is the princess of the building.

Escarleth, Pamela, and Erickson just hanging out and having fun.

These little moments are some of my favorite to witness.

They have such few opportunities for normalcy this is a blessing to witness.

Outside our building tonight

Absolutely love him!

Some of the kiddos enjoying their dinner tonight.

Martin, quiet and sweet. 

I think he has some mental handicaps and he refuses new clothing or shoes but he is a quiet blessing to our ministry with his shy smiles and polite mannerisms.

Two of our older ladies, Idalia and Kenya's mom, serving dinner tonight.

These ladies are feisty and a joy to watch serve others.

More New Faces

Our ministry building has become a safe place in the community for people to stay and that warms my heart.  We still have a lot of people passing through but we average about 30 people a night making a home in our building. 

Over the past couple of weeks we've lost a few back to their addictions and the freedom of the streets but we have also gained several new friends along the way.

This little guy doesn't have a name yet but he and his Mama, Kenya moved in just a few days after he was born.  Kenya's mother and little sister also stay with us a lot of the time to help out with the baby.

The same night that the little family above moved in, Jose de la Cruz showed up after several months of not seeing him.  This kid is already deep in my heart.  I met him over a year ago at the boys' home 21 de Octubre.  He is desperate for someone to love him and eager to help out in any way he can.

He has quickly become a favorite to all of us working at Breaking Chains.

Last night Hugo, Jennifer, and Joel showed up.

Hugo and Joel have been talking about moving in for a while but haven't been willing to make the life changes necessary to live in our building. 

I met Jennifer for the first time last night.

All three kids are shy and very uncertain.  I didn't see Hugo at all today and it's possible that he has already decided to make a break for it. 

Many of these kids struggle with the simple act of being accountable to someone and are easily frightened off by that. 

I'm not sure what will happen with these precious souls but I am so thankful we are given even a small amount of time to touch their hearts.

Running For Our Friends

One of the groups that came down this summer is holding a 5K to help raise funds for our ministry and we've decided to run our own 5K alongside them, here in Honduras. 

So we've enlisted the help of a Couch to 5K program on my phone and we are running 4 nights a week.  It's a great opportunity for all of us to get into shape and it's been a great bonding time for all of us.

I must admit these first couple of pictures are staged,

I can't run and take pictures at the same time.

But their enthusiasm is most definitely not staged. 

We don't always have a full crew running but they are cheerful and encouraging running partners.

The slower parts have also been a great opportunity to get to know some of the kids better and share a little bit about our own lives with them.

Sunday night is POURED on us but we kept going for most of the run anyway.

It was hilarious but so much fun.  This is our dripping wet, smiling running crew for the day.

Kimberly and Corey are always happy to cheese it up for the camera

Escarleth is definitely one of our most enthusiastic runners. 

She is 8 years old and LOVES to run with us. 

She looked adorable with water dripping off of her nose and this sweet smile on her face.