This morning while we waited for the boys to get home from school (I didn't want to take off investigating Regino's home by myself) Regino and I decided to make some cookies. It was so much fun. He was so excited to help me in the kitchen and was very precise with "his job".
These cookies are some of my favorites from childhood. They are basically peanut butter cookies with hershey's kisses pushed into the tops. Delicious! and really good "helper" cookies. There was plenty for him to do. I ended up spending most of the morning on the phone with different people from the states. Not a typical morning but I made some good contacts and talked to some old friends. We went out to lunch at Burger King, which he loved, especially the video games, and then headed up to El Paraiso. It's up in the Mogote area but quite a ways past there. I really didn't know what to expect. Regino had painted a pretty bleak picture of life without an education being abused by his older brother and his mom totally out of the picture. That was definitely not the case. He has two adorable younger siblings and along with his mom they are the only ones that live in the home. He does have an older brother that lives with their grandmother and the brother is mentally handicapped. Sometimes he is violent but he is rarely around the other kids. I spent over an hour talking with Mom, Regino, and the younger syblings. 
They are very poor, that was evident but it was also evident that this wasn't an absentee mother. The kids were both clean and dressed and their walls were covered with homemade phonics pages and arts n' crafts. It turns out sweet little Regino has made friends with some pretty rough kids and has been going downtown with them on a regular basis. I talked to Regino for a long time about this and cried for awhile. I think for the most part what mom was saying is true. She is at a loss as to what to do with him. This time he was gone from home for 20 days. I feel for her. Being a single mom in the slums of this country is definitely an extremely hard life. Mom is concerned that she can't keep him safe and is considering putting him in a children's home. I gave her some advice, (I know, who am I? but she was desperate) and she's going to try one more time. I gave her my number and made them both promise to call me if he leaves again. I pray that she'll call. I'm also going to try and check in on them occasionally and see if I can help this family. Sometimes this is an overwhelming job but I trust that God puts those families in my path that he wants me to minister to specifically. Please pray that this family finds some solutions to the many problems they are facing. 
After our adventure into Paraiso we came back into town to fix some things on the car and get new tires. That took the majority of the rest of the day. Then we had church tonight. It was so nice to finally be able to get back up there. With being sick and then all the political mess it had been almost two weeks since I'd been to church. There is no question that these are my brothers and sisters. It is such a family atmosphere and I love it. Class went really well. The kids and I are finishing up on the life of Christ and then next month we're going to begin practiciing for the Christmas play. I can't believe it's already time to get started with that. Things were good politically today. At church I heard a rumor that Obama has given the Honduran government 5 days to reinstate Mel Zelaya then the US will stop sending gas and diesel. That will definitely make life interesting....Keep praying for us. Big day tomorrow. Thanks for checking in. Love you guys!
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