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