And A Little Child Shall Lead Them (Us)

I think I said that recently on this blog, but it happens frequently that a child sets an example we all should be following.

Our sweet Camille really needed to talk to Marc after he was robbed.  She said, "Poppy, I cried when I found out you were robbed.  I cried when I found out the money was for people's houses and they would not get a house.  Poppy, I want to give all my savings to help those people get a house."

I cried when I found out Marc was robbed.  I cried when I saw the wrecked vehicle.  I cried when I found out how much money Marc had and that is was for houses.  I cried when our sweet little granddaughter gave her whole savings account.

And a little child shall lead us.

Thanking God for sweet Camille and for everyone who gave to replace that stolen money.

Terri

Ana

I am teaching three of the kids to work in the store.  Ana is one of them.  Ana helped some in the store last summer.  She can wrap well.  And stock shelves.  And haul things to and from the car.  She has had a terrible time making change.

The rules for the kids to work in the store are:
1) they have to have passing grades
2) they have to have their homework done
3) they have to be polite to the customers
4) the cannot steal

I would never worry about Ana stealing.  She is always polite to the customers.  She barely has passing grades.  She wants to work so badly that she lies about having her homework done.  Two different times I have had to take her home when Karen discovered her homework was not done, or maybe even started.  The first time this happened, she cried and was so sorry.  I was shocked when it happened again.  The second time I told her she could not work for a whole week. 

Last week, after her week of punishment was over, she was not good help.  If we got busy, she would disappear.  I would be busy and Ana would be gone.  Nicole would go find her and I could her Nicole say Ana you are suppose to be working, not playing.   I was getting frustrated with her and was ready to tell her she could not work any more. 

Last night was Ana's turn to work.  Due to circumstances beyond my control, we arrived at the mission house much later than normal.  We had to unload the car and move things and stock things.  The group was already back and needing ice cream.   I do not like to keep customers waiting.  Ana did what she does best.  She helped unload the car and move things.  This was good.  It was what I needed.

As the night went on, we were very busy.  Ana stayed.  She did not bolt on me.  She wrapped lenca and other breakables.  She did much better at making change.  It was 10:00 before we were ready to close the store, which is quite late.  Ana was rubbing her eyes and was tired.  But she did not complain. 

We had to stock the coke machine and move some things back inside the store.  She did one thing and I did the other. 

I was so proud of the way she worked last night.  And, I told her so.  She agreed with me and told me she knew that she had worked harder and better last night.

Clinics, Carnivals and Bicycles

This week most of the group is from Childress, Texas.  They built six houses, among other things.  There are three doctors and one dentist in this group.  By the time they leave on Monday, there will have been three clinics in three different villages.  Hundreds of poor people needing medical and dental care will have been served. 

Yesterday was a different kind of day.  The group held a carnival for the kids that go to school at AFE.  The parents of these children work in the dump.  These children have no extras and the carnival was great fun.  There were several games.  The children earned tickets with which to they could buy prizes.  Among the prizes was pizza.  Also, included in the prizes were underwear, blankets, and sheets.  When you think of the toys that were available to buy with the tickets, it is pretty sad to think about the underwear, blankets and sheets were the first prizes to be purchased.  One little one bought a blanket for his brother.  One little girl bought a piece of pizza.  And then she came back to buy another piece of pizza.  But this time, she gave it to the cafeteria worker at the school.  And a little child shall lead them.  Or lead us.  These children do not have anything and, yet, they were willing to share with someone, who in their eyes, had less than them.

Recently, three more of Heidy, Melissa, and Lizeth's relatives have come to live with them.  These children are 8, 10, and 12 and were living in a very unhealthy situation.  Their mother is in Mexico and is not very motherly. 

Antonio is 8.  Yesterday was his birthday.  He had said he wanted a bicycle more than anything in the world.  The group decided to buy bicycles for all three of the kids and for Jose Carlos as well. 

The bicycles were placed in the dining hall.  Antonio was brought inside.  The whole group started singing happy birthday.  Antonio was in Marc's arms, with a big smile on his face.

All he would have had to do is turn his head slightly and he would have seen the bicycle.  But, he was enjoying the singing so much, he never looked at the bicycle.  At the end of the song, Marc turned and showed him the bicycle.  We only thought he had a big smile during the singing. 

And then, little Cindy, the 10-year old was shown her new bicycle.   More smiles.

Gaby was also very happy with her bicycle.  Antonio and Cindy got on their bikes and took off.  It was fun to see. 

It has been another great week in Honduras.

June Newsletter

 

CASA De ESPERANZA

Making a difference, one child at a time

P.O. Box 9222

Columbus, MS 39705

cdehonduras.org/casa.acklenavenue.com

Amigos de Casa,

I hope you are staying cool this hot summer. We are, once again, in the rainy season with very cool nights and warming some in the day.

The kids have finished the second partial of this school year and we are waiting on grades. There are always some that surprise with good grades and always some that need to spend more time studying.

In May, Fernando was tested again in Teleton and passed. There was a simple graduation ceremony. Reina, because of her age, is also finishing at Teleton. Her graduation will be July 12. We are looking for another program in which to place her. Nicole has visited a couple of places and still has two more to visit; one of those sounds promising. Yair has been placed in more classes at Teleton for speech therapy and motor skills. One of them meets every day. How thankful we are to have an employee that does these Teleton appointments.

Teleton and/or IHNFA has requested vision tests for Josue and Olman and hearing tests for Josue and Yair. As we are seeking the places to have this done for such young children, please join us in prayer that all is well with vision and hearing.

Josue is in physical therapy and a class for motor skills. He is not walking on his own yet and is not talking, but daily improvements are being made. He has been sick. He is so little and frail. Any little sickness causes us to worry about him. Please continue to pray for this little guy.

Through a series of events and new laws, we have had to have pictures made of the children who had not seen their parents in six months or more. Those pictures were then posted in the paper. After all these years, Rosy and Sisi's parents surfaced. IHNFA called and wanted Karen to allow the parents to visit even if it was not regular visitation day. I am not sure how anyone else felt, but I was extremely apprehensive about this visit. Both of the girls, especially Sisi, were happy to see the parents. Both of the girls made it clear to us that they did not want to leave here. We did not need to worry about that 

happening. The parents live in Yoro, a ways from here. The mother made no promises to return and the dad said he would be back for visitation each month. I hope and pray that he comes back. Sisi has spent many hours crying and wondering why her mother never came to see her. Now the mother has been once. I am not sure what this will do to Sisi. It might be a good thing for her and it might not be.

And speaking of Rosy, we are trying to get Rosy into town once a month to go to the deaf church. We believe the kids spiritual well-being is as important as their educational and physical well-being. Since Rosy is completely deaf, sitting in church is not giving her any spiritual instruction. I loved watching her as she signed the songs with a big smile on her face.

The new Honduras Hope mission house has opened. All Honduras Hope missions teams, and hopefully other teams, will be housed there. The income from this mission house will sustain the new campus of Casa de Esperanza that we hope to open in early 2014. This campus will house girls that are a bit older.

At the mission house, a new store for Casa de Esperanza was built. It is bigger. It has more light. It has windows, meaning it has some air circulation. Bigger and better means more product, which we hope means more income with which to support these children. Without the income from the store, it would be very difficult to give the level of care we give, especially to those children that have special physical or educational needs.

Our desire is to be able to teach all of the kids on both campuses to do something before they leave here. Brayan, Jackson and Ana are learning to work in the store. They are working hard. Brayan is learning in all areas well. Jackson is waiting on customers and making change well. Ana is not quite so good with making change yet, but she can clean and stock and haul and help arrange the items on the shelf. I am proud of all three of them.

The groups mean a lot of visitors coming to Casa. The children have already been treated to two outings, a movie and pizza. Outings are fun for us.

In addition to the outings, we get some work done that needs to be done, saving us both time and money. For one group, our friends from Columbus, Mississippi, the work involved building something for the kids, a brand new play area.

Initally, the group had some setbacks and some “welcome to Honduras” moments. But the new playground was finished just in time for a week out of school. It is being enjoyed by everyone. Thank you, Columbus.

Your partnership through prayer, encouragement, and financial support is very important to us. Don't stop praying.

If you have questions or concerns about Casa de Esperanza, please email me at terriltindall@yahoo.com. And, please feel free to share this newsletter.

Sincerely,

Terri

                                                              

After The Rain

It is rainy season.  And, this country needs water, so rain is good.  At least once each day, often several times a day, it becomes very dark and the skies open and dump buckets of rain.  The wind blows and the rains pound.  At times, the rain is pounding so hard that we cannot hear each other talk or hear the phone ring. The creeks rise and some roads become impassable.  It may rain several inches in a short amount of time. 

After the rain, everything is fresh and beautiful.

The Store

Several years ago, we started selling Casa de Esperanza t-shirts and a few other things with the profit going back into the home.  We have increased the items stocked in the store every year. Most groups that come see the store once or maybe twice. Casa de Esperanza could not survive without the income from the store. 

When we started the new mission house, we decided to build a room for the store.  We did not close the store here on the campus of Casa de Esperanza.  The new store is bigger and has more light and more room to breathe.  It also has more product.  We open the store every night for the groups to shop at their leisure.

I am training three kids, Brayan, Ana and Jackson, to work in the store.  Brayan has worked the longest and knows more of what to do.  As the mission house and the new store was being built, Brayan was a bit more excited than the other two.

When we get to the mission house and open the store, we have to clean and straighten.  We stock drinks at the end of the day so they will be cold for the next day.  Brayan knows more than anyone else to do these things.

Last night we got to the mission house and I had to leave immediately and forgot to leave the store key.

As groups come and go, most of the kids get to know people and get closer to some people than others.  When I returned, Brayan was talking to Eric Green, whom he met three years ago.  Eric has not been back since that trip three years ago, but obviously Brayan was very fond of him.  Brayan said to me lets go open the store.  And, off we went.  Brayan asked Eric to come with us.

We opened the store and Brayan began to say to Eric, "see our new store.  See how much room we have.  See our new product.  See this.  See that.  We sell ice cream now."   Brayan was telling and showing with much pride.

 Of course, I was a bit proud myself as I watched Brayan proudly showing the new store.

Time Is Flying

People say "how time flies, when you are having fun."  If that is the case, I must be having lots of fun. 

Someone asked how long Marc and I had been in Honduras.  I answered 5 years.  Actually, it is a lot closer to six than five. 

This morning as I was giving the 6:00 a.m. medicine, I started to write 6: a.m. June 14.  How did it become July 1 and where did those two weeks go?

I am having fun, even with weeks like last week.  I love being a part of these kids' lives and I love having groups here.

Time is flying.  I hope we all make the best of every day and every opportunity before it flies right past us.