Here in Tegucigalpa, school begins in a few short weeks from now. We will be busy buying school supplies and materials and ensuring each child is enrolled in school (a requirement of the program). Our Day Care centers will be operational starting February 11/08. We have 42 new children (age 3-6) enrolled at Centre 2 and 18 at Centre 1. We do everything we can to assist the teachers to get set up for the programs. Many of the supplies have been donated.

 

Training will start February 1^st for our teachers who will be helping us gather information and profiling the children for the sponsorship program. We depend on them to help us determine the needs of each child.

 

Translators are still a primary concern. There is a shortage of totally bilingual interpreters and translators that we can depend on.

 

Sadly enough, some of the little children in the program who graduated from the Day Care last year, are still waiting to see if they can get in school. Public schools are full and we still don’t have a school of our own. More and more we realize how important it is for a child to get an education. Then and only then can we have any sort of impact on breaking this heart wrenching cycle of poverty.

 

We take so much for granted that a child can go to school in Canada and get a free education. Not so here. They attend up to grade 6, if they can get in and if the parents feel like sending them. The education system itself is not up to North American standards. Far from it. SO the chances of them getting a good solid start in life already are against them.

 

Our personal dream is to open a Christian School to see these little ones have the best start in life that we can give them

 

Some of things that limit us from opening a Christian School here in Tegucigalpa Honduras are:

 

In the meantime, God knows the plans and everything happens in HIS timing. He holds the keys to all the closed doors and He will open them when the time is right.

 

We can only do what we can to try and make things better for these precious little ones here. We have learned to work with what we have and make a difference to the best of our abilities, one child at a time.

 

We don’t get hung up on drawbacks, roadblocks and things that seem to hinder the work from going forth. We know that what we do is not in our own hands but in the Lords. Therefore, we just press on, persevere and persist.

 

Thank you once again for helping us help the children. We could not do it without you.

I hope your Holiday Season was a blessing and that you enjoyed spending time with your families. I am so blessed to have a family that loves me so much and believe me the feeling is totally mutual… I least I think it is. LOL.

The time we spend together is so precious and always brings warm fuzzies to my heart.It's a wonderful thing to know that our family relationships are strong and a very important part of our lives.

 

 

Many of you will remember the story of Rosalie. Over a year ago now, a team came to visit Manos Extendidas from Newfoundland Canada. They met a little boy who was not part of our program. He was in rags, he had not bathed and his shoes were so full of holes they hardly stayed on his little feet. He was scared of them, but, they managed to get him washed up and into some new clothes as well as provided him with a spiffy pair of new shoes. After that, someone on that team decided they wanted to help this boy become part of our program. All we had was a picture to go by. Well, we did not know who he was, where he lived or anything about him. We asked around and no one at the Feeding Centre knew his name or where he lived. He was not a regular attendee at the centre, we were pretty much ready to give up looking.

 

We decided to give it one more try to find him and lo and behold, there he was! I approached him and he immediately backed away, cowering as if I were going to strike him. My heart broke. His reaction was obviously one of past experience. Someone had hit him, or maybe worse. He was terrified of me, and ran away. But this time I had a name.ROSALI. I found out he was 8 years old, but looked more like 5 or 6 which is typical of children here, to look younger than they are. This usually comes from malnourishment; children don’t grow as well as they should without proper nutrition.

 

Long story short he started coming to the centre and we signed him up (along with his sister) for the program. They both stayed away from the other children and sat off in the corner by themselves. It’s been about a year like that now. The little girl started warming up to us, but still stuck close to her brother, Rosalie did not warm up to anyone! We could approach him, but only from a distance. If we got too close, he would tend to back away. Rosalie is so unlike all the other children who run to us and who climb all over Randy. Even when all the boys are horsing around with “Grandpa Randy”, Rosalie is by him self in the corner, heartbreaking!

 

 “Someday Lord”, I quietly pray, someday this little boy will know he is loved and that you care for him so deeply. How awful it must be to have that much fear and pain build up inside at such a young age that you cannot even play with the other children or allow someone to hold you and love you and impart into your life the special things of GOD.

 

This week as I walked into the centre, as usual all the kids ran towards me for their hugs and kisses. I drop everything and gather them up in my arms, one by one, ten by ten sometimes, they all want their turn. But what brought tears to my eyes and nearly brought me to my knees was ROSALI. He was the first one who ran into my arms, hugging me. No explanation, it just happened, most unexpectedly, and I was profoundly touched that God could do such a work in such a delicate little life. He even wanted his picture taken with me, a huge big deal before now!

 

I thank God, for what He has done for this precious little one. We are seeing a difference in all the children. We are blessed to be part of this program and see what God can do even when the situation looks so impossible. When we think we are not getting through, God is working from the inside out. Love does conquer all, especially when it is the love of Christ being poured out thorough each and every one of us.

 This is for all the Rosalie’s of the world. Never give up on anyone, when you least expect it, God’s love comes through

 

 

   

Honduras Hope News Update                        August 16/07

 

We arrived back in Tegucigalpa on Monday with no hassles and all our baggage! Wow, we were impressed! First time ever we got back with all our stuff!

 

There were a few "surprises" awaiting us though…The car did not start. The battery cables were all corroded, but Randy, being the “jack of all trades” that he is, cleaned them all up, and fiddled and faddled with all the wires, ran the car down the hill and eventually jump started her in 2ND gear. Yea!

 

Then our first night back here, the water pump gave out and we were almost 3 days before it was fixed. Randy was getting anxious for the water to come back on... but we were at peace and did not sweat it. (SO TO SPEAK) After all, it was only in the 80 degree temperature range.

 

So Tuesday we went to the cable company to reconnect our cable. Three hours later we got back to the house, and still had to wait till yesterday for our internet phone and Internet service to be reconnected. One hour later the power went out with thunder storms. (We are in the rainy season) So that was fun too.

 

Our land-line telephone was cut off and our cell phone was out of minutes.

But Randy was happy, the TV was on :)

 

But in all fairness, we really are just laughing about all this, we really are!

 

Our favorite expression is "Welcome to Honduras" so we are learning to just go with the flow!

 

This is just a continuation of our lessons on "patience, perseverance and pressing on"  and as our dear friends added, God's peace as well is certainly here with us.

 

In Canada: It was an adventurous trip home to Canada having visited 8 churches and spent most of our time on the road between Itineration and trying to see family and friends. We thank God for all of them. All in all, we were blessed to be there and have 20 more lbs on us to prove it :)

 

Also, in Canada, we had a few difficulties with the van which cost us quite a few bucks and we nearly blew 2 tires. However in both situations God's hand of protection was definitely upon us. Both times the tire was showing the steel and we could have had an accident, but God is soooooooooooo good!

 

Unfortunately we lost our camera that we use for the Ministry here, just a week or so after we got home. We searched everywhere and it was no where to be found. We were on the road so much it literally could have been anywhere. Every time we went to buy a new one, we felt like God said to "wait". God again is faithful, a few days before we left, a couple came to us and gave us the funds specifically for a new camera. Praise the Lord!

 

Our Itineration Co-coordinator has resigned her position. Nancy has been a tremendous help to us over the past year, helping us get into several churches to present the mission of what we are doing here. She did an amazing amount of work and we would not be where we are today without her help. She will be dearly missed and hard to replace.

 

The best thing about being in Canada was just seeing our kids and grand-kids and just loving up on them and getting my momma/ granny “fixes”. Although there never seems to be enough time to stock up on all that lovin. I would have loved to have seen them all more. Better still, I’d love to just pack them in my suitcase and take them all with me. Leaving the family behind is always the most difficult part for us, especially when our 3 year old granddaughter Leah, the day before we left, looked up at us with an expression of horror on her face, , and said, quite passionately ,“you’re leaving??” My heart broke.

 

We were blessed to be at Spring Bay PAOC Camp and take in all the wonderful speakers and worship for 2 whole weeks! This really built us up and helped rejuvenate us to come back to the field. (We really needed it)

 

We will take a few days to regroup and get settled back in before heading back up to the mountains to work with the children. Monday is back to normal, Lord willing. Then again, we never did quite figure out what "normal" was here. So we intend to pace ourselves more, put in a good weeks work and actually take a day off this time around. Pray that we stick to that! With so much need here, it’s hard to just sit back and let it wait. But we have come to realize that if we burn ourselves out trying, we are no good to anyone, including ourselves, much less God being able to work effectively through us!

Reality check, we have all been there! “Lord send more labourers..Please”

 

We appreciate all the help, encouragement, prayers and support that you give us. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and part of this team. You are making a difference here in Honduras by being the hands that send us. We could not do it without you either.

 

For those of you who would like to come and experience the Mission field first hand, or just revisit, NSPC (New Sudbury Pentecostal Church) is planning a 2 week Missions trip for April 2008. For more information, contact the church at 705 566 9447. The team leader is Anna Burton.

 

Please continue to pray for us and be encouraged yourselves. God is in Control and HE is still on the throne. No matter what you are facing today may HIS peace, joy and love flood your soul and bring you closer to HIM. No matter what, if we keep our eyes on Him, He sees us though every storm.

 

We will be in touch.  Until then, God Bless all of you 

We now have a Bilingual Dentist that started last week with the program. We began with an educational lecture, then had examinations and applied fluoride treatments. In all we had about 70 children and have now begun the daunting task of deciding which work we can do for what children at this time. We found that many of the younger children already have major problem with their baby teeth, some of them only have roots left. Older children, who have their six year molars, have 3-4 cavities in them already. We are told that 98% of Hondurans loose these 4 molars before they are 15 years old. We are hoping to have the Dentist use preventative treatment, seal the molars that are good so we can beat these odds. We were surprised that the examinations revealed worst case scenarios than we had imagined. This is largely due to poor diet and inaccessibility to clean water in the home as well as lack of proper dental care. Our task will be a huge undertaking to continually educate the parents and children to ensure this changes. 

 

Our First 2 weeks back in Honduras have been a belssing. We were able to ease back into things, and yet not feel pressured to get things done. This is amazing because there is a LOT to do, but God's peace has been so prevalnt in our hearts that we are just taking it one day at a time and allowing HIM to lead guide and direct our daily tasks. Oh we did do that before, but this time there is a more personified peace about it all. We really do committ each day into HIS hands and HE does the rest.