Celebrating the 4th

When our kids were growing up, the fourth of July was always a fun-filled holiday.  And even after the kids got big, it was still a fun-filled holiday.  I was busy Monday.  Buying groceries.  Running errands.  A in-town-all-day kind of day.  But I still knew it was the fourth and was sort of missing the kids and the grandgirls and watching fireworks on the river and making ice cream and so many things.  The fourth of July is no holiday in Honduras.  But we have a group from Kentucky here and we decided to celebrate the fourth anyway.

Marc sent Richard to find some rockets.  He had to go to San Lorenzo.  But indeed, rockets he did find.  We cooked hamburgers and hotdogs.  And it rained and rained.  And it rained some more.  We did not shoot the rockets.  Marc said we would shoot the rockets another night when it was not raining.

It rained Tuesday night.

Finally, last night after devo, we got to shoot the rockets.

As you can see, these are not your ordinary pop bottle rockets.  These things were not safe. With almost no fuse, Marc suggested using an empty five gallon water bottle.  Richard thought a better idea was to hold them in his hand.  So we let Richard do that.  And there were oohhhs and aahhhs as each one was lit.  Someone started singing "The Star Spangled Banner" and someone else started "I'm Proud To Be An American."  As I heard the beginning of both songs, that pride rose in me.  That pride of being an American and having all sorts of freedoms, even to celebrate the independence of America on July 6 in a foreign country.

While we were having fun and being silly, we had another reason to celebrate.  A reason worthy of the large rockets.  Yesterday, Marc was able to enroll four children in school out by the dump.

The children's names are Angie, Alejandra, Katarine and Bryan.  The mother of these children work in the dump.  And the children hang out in the dump all day.  The school AFE (Amor, Fe, Esperanza) is a ministry and was established to get some of the dump kids out of the dump, educate them, and give them a chance at a better life. The school does not charge anything, but they wanted the mother there to enroll the kids in school.  It was Marc's third trip out there to enroll the kids.  The mother was not showing up. 

It finally happened yesterday.  The mother was really hesitant about putting Katarine in school.  She is 15 and helps earn the income.  For a family that just barely ekes out a living, losing one of the income earners was very difficult.  A decision none of us can even begin to imagine. 

The people at the school talked so sweetly to the whole family and encouraged them with promises of catching them up with their school work. 

As the rockets flew out of Richard's hand, we truly had many reasons to celebrate.  Praising God for AFE and these four children that now have a chance at something better than working the dump the rest of their lives.

Terri