Two More Houses

Our California friends arrived Saturday and Monday. Monday they built a house in Ojojona. The house they built is for a family with three children. They had been living with the with relatives way up in the mountains. The dad of the family is a meatcutter and had been having to ride a mule down the mountain for four hours to work. At the end of the workday, he had to ride the mule back home. Obviously, that did not allow much family time. Their new home is close enough to his job that he can now walk to work. The oldest child was in school and the two youngest ones were at the job site. They were excited and wanted to help. They were much too little to help. Upon completion, the little girl did grab the broom and began to sweep up all the sawdust.

The house that was built on Tuesday was for one of the families whose house was washed away in the recent floods. It was up a steep, steep, steep slope. It was a hard site to get to. Once the lumber and tools were on the site, the house itself was not too bad. It was a rewarding day to help this family who had lost so much.

Both families were very appreciative for their new houses.

Terri

An Answered Prayer

Most Monday mornings Karen and I meet to plan the week and pray. Planning the week and knowing who does what and what kids have appointments and such is important. But the prayers we pray for the children and ourselves and the needs of this home are even more important. For over a year, maybe two, we have prayed for a counselor. These kids are abused and broken and sometimes need more than the love, structure and discipline we can give them.

I knew each time we prayed for a counselor God was hearing our prayers and that one would come. God's timing is always perfect. Then as God often does, a counselor dropped out of nowhere into our laps. Karen interviewed this young woman and had a very good feeling. There have been other interviews for other counselors before and things just weren't right. Some demand more than we can pay, or only want to work certain hours or a whole list of other things. All things worked this time and our prayers were answered.

Dalys started this morning. Of course, the children will need time to learn to trust her, but we are expecting her to be a valuable part of our staff.

Thank you, God

Terri

Tragedy In Tegucigalpa

Rain continues to fall daily and continues to drench this rain-soaked country. Roads and bridges have been washed out. A huge place on the road from here to Tegucigalpa has washed out, creating a trafflic nightmare.

This afternoon a deluge of rain fell. A huge amount of rain fell in a short amount of time, flooding many areas. The rain fell so hard and fast a wall at the national stadium collapsed, killing one taxi driver and crushing some other cars. Other people were injured. The road around the stadium was blocked and all roads leading to the stadium were closed as thousands were trying to get there to see the damage.

Rosy's school is just a couple of blocks from the national stadium. We were beside ourselves. Dorian talked to the school and learned the bus driver had left on the route. Traffic must have been horrible all over town as the bus did not arrive today until 4:00. I usually circle the stadium of a morning when I take Rosy to school. Of course, we are mapping out an alternate route to school.

I am sure there is much more damage than what we know at this time. As rains continue to fall tonight, please keep this tragic situation in your prayers.

Terri

Yay For Sunshine

It has rained and rained and rained. And then it has rained some more. A day does not pass without rain. Today was no exception.

The kids go to school all morning. They then come home, eat lunch, have naps and then do homework. By the time the homework is finished, the rain has usually begun. There has not been a lot of playing outside time lately.

This morning there was sunshine. Yay. After breakfast, chores were rushed through. Some chores were rushed through a bit too much and some children had to be called back in to finish or redo chores. Then they were all called in for an hour of studying. At 10:00, there was a mad rush for the outdoors. Bicycles and jump ropes found themselves very busy this morning. The laughter of happy children filled the air.

As the children were lined up for lunch, they began to ask if they could eat outside. I said yes. They were estatic. They washed tables and found whatever toys they thought would make a good table.

I sat out there and ate my lunch with them. We all soaked up the sunshine. Sunshine and fresh air did everyone good. I had no trouble today getting those boys to sleep. I might have even taken a short nap myself.

After nap, they raced back outside. I watched as a couple of the kids were just running in circles. I let them run and run. It was not long until the rain was falling once again.

While it lasted, yay for the sunshine.

Terri

Exciting Things In Santa Ana

The last couple of weeks Dorian's friend, Ivan has been in Santa Ana. He is as passionate about sharing the good news of Jesus Christ as Dorian is. Ivan is doing a trial run. He is thinking about moving his family here to work with Dorian in this church full time.

Dorian and Ivan are doing a lot of visiting in the community. And results are being seen. Last night there were seven new people in worship.

This morning I left here to go to the market, pay a few bills, get a few things the kids need at school. When I returned, Karen announced there were two baptisms this morning, an older lady named Santos and a younger woman. Santos has attended church here for quite some time.

Praise God for these two new sisters.

Terri

Fe, Esperanza Y Amor

Fe, esperanza y amor translates to faith, hope and love. Three beautiful words in english and spanish.

Since we started working in the dump two and a half years ago, we have had a dream that some day all children would be out of the dump. Another organization called Fe, Esperanza Y Amor has the same dream. They actually began teaching school in the dump in 2001. There weren't many children that would come to school, but it was a beginning. They later moved across the street and then were finally able to build a school building. The school is close enough to the dump that you cannot escape the horrid odor or the sight of dozens of buzzards flying over the dump in search for food, same as the people that live and work there.

As in most schools in Honduras, children are older than you would expect to see in grades 1-6. Children don't always start to school at age six because of not being able to afford it or not having transportation or living in the dump. I could not really tell how many children are currently in school, but praise God some precious little minds are being rescued. Without education, the dump would be another perpetuating cycle of hopelessness and despair.

In addition to the school, a daycare has recently been opened. Moms who work in the dump can leave their babies at the daycare. There are nine children in daycare. Nine little souls that don't have to be in that filth daily. The daycare was very clean and neat, stocked with loving workers and lots of toys. When I was there, all the babies in the daycare center were soundly sleeping. Again, praise God.

I hope soon there will be more children in the daycare center and more attending school.

Terri

Campamento

During the dump day back in May, a group from Fort Worth, Texas called Bread for a Hungry World gave a $25,000.00 donation to the dump fund. Yes, that is suppose to have three zeroes behind that 25. We had never met any of these people and had never even heard of them. The story of how they heard of us is a story for another day.

Marc met some of the folks in June and then was able to meet the whole group while we were recently in the States. They already have some work going in Honduras and were wanting to get more involved in work here. Their work is in Campamento and they approached Marc about partnering in some areas, they helping us and we helping them. There is a large church a day care center and milk program. Milk programs have always tugged at my heartstrings. The thought of small children getting a glass of milk a day just thrills my soul. Marc wanted to go see what is happening in Campamento and I easily convinced him to go today, Tuesday, my day off.

Dorian left at 6:00 this morning to take Rosy to school and called and said there were rockslides on our highway and traffic was a beast. It took him over 2 1/2 hours to get only to the airport, a normal 30-40 minute drive, maybe an hour in morning traffic. We left at 8:00, not knowing if we would get through or not. By the time, we got to the place of the rockslide, most of the rocks had been cleared off the road and traffic was moving, though be it slowly. Due to the heavy rains of late, we saw many rock and mudslide places. Fortunately, there was no rain as we drove today. I would hate to be in those rockslide areas during the rain.

Campamento is about 120 kilometers from the edge of Tegucigalpa, the edge out by the dump. The road was horrible. It has to be the worst major highway in the country. Not the worst road, but the worst major highway. Marc said I am sure it is going to get better, soon. It did. For about 1/16 of a mile. We bounced happily along on a wonderful thrill ride. Disneyland doesn't make any thing this good. My bottom feels more like I rode a horse to Campamento and back.

We saw rainbows and waterfalls and much of the beauty God created.

We all know the govenment has no money to fix roads or anything else. Is some places, individuals will set out to fix the road. They have shovels, dirt and wheelbarrows working away. They are also soliciting donations to buy more supplies with which to repair the roads. We saw several of those work crews today.

We met Bob who has worked with this program for the last 15 years. He is the only American in Campemento and has no one with which to speak English. I think I would lose my mind. We visited a while and then he took us to the church and the daycare center. The church is a large church, with regular attendance of over 200.

Once upon a time, the daycare center was a children's home, that had to close several years ago. The director of the daycare center is a beautiful young woman who grew up in the children's home before it closed. She came as a little bitty girl whose stomach was bloated and distended from extreme malnutrition. She was loved, fed and taught about God. She now directs this daycare center where impoverished single moms can bring their children to a safe, loving environment while they work. The children all ran to Bob with hugs when we arrived. Some of them shared a few hugs with me, too. The children sang a few songs to us. The director was radiating God's love as she led them in the songs. We can only pray that someday we will have a success story like this, one of our own, a beautiful Christian teaching more young children about God's love.

Unfortunately, we did not get to see the milk program. Milk is distributed to 1200 kids a day in schools. It is done a lot earlier in the day than what we were able to be there.

We both left Campamento with our hearts and minds overflowing about getting to be a small part of this ministry.

Terri