Honduras Hope

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