highlights

Also, the Clow kids are here staying with Bethany and I for a couple days.  We have really enjoyed our time with them and we are loving getting to be a part of their day. 

Here are some highlights from our time together:

1. “Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus” – we love this book and if you have kids you should definitely get it

2. Bethany and I found English books at a used furniture store and got the kids some Captain Underpants, an elephant joke book, some others, and then the best find of all… “There’s a Monster at the End of this Book”!  Seriously, another awesome kid’s book.

3. Playing highs and lows at dinner

4. Having Evan tell us that sometimes he puts food in his mouth and his “taste bugs” don’t like it

5. Anytime they get to dance the Hoe-Down, Throw-Down.

And my personal favorite is having kids to read to from the Jesus Storybook Bible in English :)  These kids have read through it countless times, but since they are getting older its been awhile.  But I love reading it, so they humor me and we’re all reading it together. 

Turning in circles

Sometimes I feel like I don’t know which way is up.  I want nothing more than to follow God’s plan and go in the direction that He is sending me, but its hard to figure out which direction that is.  And maybe its just more fluid than I think.  Maybe it looks more like just being faithful to walk through the single door that He opened for me today and trust that tomorrow He will open the next one.  Maybe it means that I’m not going to know ahead of time and get to have a plan.  And that’s sad, because I love plans :)

When I’m honest though, I really do feel at peace.  The Lord is bringing Puerta de Esperanza into existence one little piece of the puzzle at a time.  It is not going to look much like the first idea that I had in my head, but its going to be exactly what the Lord has in mind for it to be.  And He is moving us forward.  Some parts at a snail’s pace and some parts faster than I can keep up.  I’m overwhelmed.  Overwhelmed by the Lord’s goodness and provision and also overwhelmed at how much more there is to do.  It is a good thing that those two things go hand in hand and the Lord already knows how much there is to do!

I cannot say how thankful I am for the wonderful help of the people at IHNFA and the social worker Norma.  I will tell you one thing… these people think I really speak Spanish.  They do not slow down for me at all!  And yesterday I was sitting in on a meeting and they tried to vote me to a leadership position on a committee… I’m sorry… I barely understand what the committee is about.  I don’t think so. :)  So in the end I got assigned to be participant #2.  HA!  In other words, I don’t have to do much at all.  But they are patient and helpful and supportive and really want to see this project be successful.  For that, I am so thankful.

This week has been all over the board.  I got business cards made, looked at a potential house and will see it again Friday, got a no from one of the girls I had met with, met a new social worker, visited the public hospital, and talked to a local pastor about helping me find a house “abuela”.  Phew.  Things are happening!

Thanks for your prayers and support!

Hanging out with the girls

Yesterday Bethany and I invited some of the girls from Armenia over to the house for lunch and hanging out.  It was so much fun!  We had nachos and then decorated cupcakes for dessert.

After lunch we played some guitar and drums and sang…  Marjorie is a trip and I wish I had time to teach her how to really play.  Maybe one of these days.  Girl has rhythm that’s for sure :)

We played some games… Uno and Wildlife Adventure.  Am I allowed to be proud of myself that I can actually explain a real board game in Spanish?

We just really love having a chance to spend time with these girls and love on them a little bit.  We pray that they will grow up walking with Jesus and have real relationships with Him.  These girls have precious, sweet hearts and its so fun to get to really know them. 

Going for a ride

I love this family :)  I picked up Carlitos, Antonio, Alejandro, Jose Angel, and their sister Erika for kids club last week.  The boys were in the back of the truck goofing off and it really made me laugh.

Luis and Edwin

I’m experimenting to see if my blog is going to let me put pictures up again.  I still haven’t figured out how to get back the ones that turned to black exclamation points… but maybe I can put new ones?!?

What cuter faces to come back to than these two precious little brothers.  These sweet kiddos have been coming out to play with us in Armenia Bonito recently.  They are from a family of 8 and are in the middle of the crew.  They are really loving kids, play nicely with each other, and love on their little brother and sister all the time.  And they are just so dang cute!

Best Taekwondo video ever

Well… in our opinion :)

Yesterday Bethany and I went to watch the Clow kids in their first Taekwondo tournament.  And I am happy to say that they did way better than these two little kids… they actually stayed near their opponents and fought them :)  Really though… all four of them did great and we were very proud of them!  But these little kids just made us laugh.

Because Megan is awesome…

I have a logo :)

Connections

The Lord keeps allowing me to make more and more connections.  Yesterday I went to a meeting at IHNFA about the condition of children here in the La Ceiba area.  It was sad to hear the statistics of how many children suffer abuse and neglect.  They have recently implemented a foster care system here and have 64 children in homes with only 11 foster moms!  And no foster families that have moms and dads.  The family I went to visit earlier in the week had 10 kids living with a foster mom in a 3 bedroom house.  But they are all clothed and well-fed and being loved.

There were representatives from all different organizations there yesterday, so I got to meet some of them and hear about other things going on in the city.  On top of that, I’m going tomorrow to meet another social worker who works in the hospital with pregnant teenagers, many of them homeless.  I’m so thankful for all the people I’m meeting who are so supportive of what we are starting here.

It made me laugh a little bit that I ran into a lady at the mall today who was in our meeting yesterday.  Things here are built all around friendships and who you know, so it was fun to say hello to her, get her card, and have her offer to help however she can.

In other news… my car is still in the shop 3 weeks after the “driving through water” incident.  I’m getting to know Raul really well and today as we drove around looking for parts he gave me a lesson in how to drive through water.  Don’t worry… I’m  not leaving my house in the rain ever again!  Hopefully the parts I need will be in town tomorrow… so pray that the work goes smoothly so I can get my car back next week.

A day of two stories

The Lord has given me a huge blessing… a social worker named Norma and a man named Leo.  They work at IHNFA, basically child social services, and are wonderfully supportive of Puerta de Esperanza.  I think they may have the hardest jobs in the world working with social services here in La Ceiba, but more on that later.  This morning they took me to meet two different girls who are candidates for our project.

We drove up the mountain to a neighborhood with a beautiful view, but that was all that was beautiful about it.  We literally slid down the mud to a little, tiny shack where a grandma lives with 5 of her grandchildren.  At least one other little one was removed from the house and is living in the hospital because he was dying of malnutrition and the others are headed that direction.  This is where our first candidate lives.  She doesn’t know how old she is, maybe 16/17?!?  She doesn’t know when the baby is due, Erin guessed she’s about 7 months along.  A man got her pregnant and then went to the states and she will never hear from him again.  She has never been to school and looked terrified to be meeting us.

We came in with a great offer of a hope and a future and a different life… and she was so scared.  And I get it.  Here comes a brigade of 4 social workers and gringos wanting to take her away from her family and everything she has ever known.  She didn’t know what to make of us.  So we took time to explain everything and asked her and her grandma to think it over and we’ll be going back later to talk more.  Please pray for wisdom and that the Lord would allow them to trust us.

The second girl was a different story because she is already in the system.  To my best understanding, her mom died and her dad is not in the picture.  She has an older sister but the sister is fighting to get money from her that their mom left and trying to take away her baby as well.  This girl is 17 years old with a 9 month old son.  She lives in a foster home with 8 other children.  She was very interested in Puerta de Esperanza, but wants to make sure there is no hope of being reunited with her sister before she would choose to come with us.  She will find out on Thursday what a judge has to say.  The social worker doesn’t think she realizes how badly the sister would treat her.  She has education up to 6th grade and seems to be a loving mom to her little baby.  She lives well in the house with the others and I’ll be going back to talk to her again next week.  So pray for this as well.

This is going to be a huge exercise in faith and trust for me as I meet all of these girls and really pray for guidance and direction from the Lord.  Even as I write these two stories, I know that I may not get to work with these girls and its hard because they have so much need.  So pray for clarity.

On Friendship

I’m still reading “The Four Loves” and have decided to write about it in different posts so as to not bore my readers :)  But there is just so much that I love, especially in the friendships chapter!

“In each of my friends there is something that only some other friend can fully bring out.  By myself I am not large enough to call the whole man into activity; I want other lights than my own to show all his facets.”

“In this, Friendship exhibits a glorious ‘nearness by resemblance’ to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God.  For every soul, seeing Him in her own way, doubtless communicates that unique vision to all the rest.”

I love this because I know it to be so true.  I know that I have so enjoyed hanging out with specific groups of friends because we each bring out something in the others that we otherwise wouldn’t know.  There are people that can make me so silly without even trying, others who love to challenge me and we have great conversations, others who make me slow down and rest, and others who help me to dream.  And there are specific things I bring out in others as well.

And even moreso, I know that it is true when I talk to people about the Lord.  I went through a phase (actually I loved it and should start again) when I loved playing the question game.  I asked people all kinds of questions and loved just getting to know them.  But one of my favorites was  “What is your favorite part of the Lord’s character and why?”  I gained so much insight from their answers and really got to know more of the God that I love from seeing how others love and experience Him.

Its just really amazing that God created us to live in fellowship with other people.  Even though our sin nature is selfishness, we are made to be part of a larger family and learn from one another.

Internship anyone?

Puerta de Esperanza will be opening its first home late this fall.  Our goal is to open the doors and move girls in before December 1st.  The Lord has already provided people to come down and help me get the house ready… the house that I am trusting the Lord to provided before October :)  But I have another area of need…

An Intern!

I am really praying that the Lord will provide someone else to come down and work with this ministry.  This internship would be anywhere from 6-11 months working with teenage moms teaching them about Jesus.  The intern needs to be speak at least good conversational Spanish since this job is based on building relationships.  The responsibilities would be anything from helping get the house set-up to holding babies to cleaning toilets to teaching Bible studies… you know, its flexible :)

Please let me know if you are interested or know anyone who is interested.  Ideal times to come would be a possible gap year between high school and college, after college, between jobs, or just b/c the Lord calls you and you can’t say no!

You can email me if you want more info ssinnes@gmail.com.

Announcement

After weeks of thinking through names and verses and praying over our coming project, I am excited to present to you…

Puerta de Esperanza
”Door of Hope”

(credit to Krissie who has a gift for naming things and a love of the book of Hosea)

Hosea 2:14-20

Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

“In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.  I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.  In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.  I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.  I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.

As we have been planning for this project I have come back to the story of Hosea over and over again.  I love the picture of the Lord pursuing us, alluring us, speaking tenderly to us, and restoring us by the power of His great love.  He brings us close to Him as a husband would His wife and He reminds us of His righteousness, justice, compassion, and faithfulness.

This is my prayer for these girls… that this home would be a safe place for them and that the Lord would pursue them here.  I pray that they will meet Jesus in a very real way and know Him intimately.  Only in Jesus do we have hope, only in Him do we see real change happen on a heart level.  I am praying that He will break cycles and allow these girls to turn around and teach there children what it means to walk with Jesus and the hope that is found in Him alone.

Please pray.  There is so much to be done and it will be hard.  Gomer ran back to her old life time and time again.  It was comfortable and familiar and all she had ever known.  I know those temptations and I have fallen to them.  Its not going to be an easy road that we will walk.  But we trust that Jesus goes before us in all things.

Oh, is that weird?

Sometimes I forget that things here are different than they are at home until someone points is out again.  Its amazing how quickly you adjust to a new normal.

Things that are now normal…

• 9 year old kids who come into clinic to get their teeth pulled without a parent in sight
• teenage girls with two year old kids
• a beach chair on cinderblocks serving as a dental chair
• pregnant women about to give birth who have never had an ultrasound
• being able to ask the girl at the pulperia to just put something in her fridge for you b/c she likes you since you buy at least 5 bags of water a day from her
• 2 year olds that are under the watchful supervision of 5 year old siblings… which by the way means that no one cares if they eat crayons
• calling your own personal pizza delivery guy to order your pizza instead of the store itself… I mean, it only makes sense, without addresses you might as well call the only guy who knows where your house is
• having the same pizza delivery guy offer to bring you pizza even if you ever happen to be at hotel 20 minutes away because you gave him a good tip
• and if you’re Kathy its normal for that pizza guy to call and ask why you haven’t ordered pizza in a few weeks… don’t you want some, its Friday after all?

Oh there are so many more things :)  But I’ll just let this give you a taste…

Its really happening!

I should be going to sleep.  But I can’t not write about today.  I’m just so excited that things are really starting to happen.

I had a meeting today with some of the people at IHNFOP, basically social services.  And then really seemed enthusiastic about the project that we are working on.  They shared with us that the two biggest needs for children in La Ceiba are…

1. Childhood malnutrition
2. Teenagers and what to do with them – including children having children/young moms

I was just so excited to be able to tell them that we are going to do what we can to address both of these issues.  Kate will be working to provide food to street children as part of the drop-in center when she gets here.  And I will be working with teenage moms.  They were very encouraged.

The hard part is I want to help all of them.  They told us stories that just broke my heart.  IHNFOP can only provide help to children up to age 18 and you can tell it is just really hard for them when they have teenagers who are doing well, but have to leave their services.  I am really thankful for these women who have worked there over 10 years and you can tell they just really love the kids that they know.

I cannot help all of them, as much as I want to, but I can help four.  And I’m excited to go on Monday and actually meet the first girl who is a candidate for our program.  The social worker is taking me to meet a teenage girl who is pregnant.  I don’t know much about her situation, but I will soon find out.

Please pray for wisdom and discernment.  They shared with me that the need is great and they will introduce me to a lot of girls.  So please pray that I will know how to proceed.  I’m a little overwhelmed that it is really happening, but just so thankful that the Lord walks before me in this process and He already has it all planned out.

On things that make me sad…

I think some of the Spanish words I’ve used the most since I’ve been here are these… “No pelea!” which means “Don’t fight!”.  It is constantly coming out of my mouth along with “No grita”, “Don’t scream”.

The sad thing is that for some of these kids fighting is survival.  Its as easy as that.  Its what they know and its how the make it from one day to the next.  It’s the only example that has been set for them.

Carolina and Vilma were doing a puzzle today.  Two 12 year old girls struggling to finish a 24 piece puzzle.  All the sudden they are punching each other.  And its no surprise.  I’m fairly confident these girls have never been in school a day in their lives.  They do whatever they want all day long with no authority figure present.  They don’t play educational games or have someone read them stories.  They most likely get beaten instead of lovingly disciplined.  They have probably seen violence inside of their homes and within their families.  They get picked on by the other kids in the community because their clothes show their poverty.  So they fight back in the only way they know how.

And it makes me sad.  And it makes me want them to know a different way to live life.  I want them to know hope and joy and peace instead of survival.  I want them to know grace and mercy and kindness instead of fighting.  So we pray for them to know God who can show them all of those things and who can change their hearts to know a different reality than the one that confronts them everyday. 

And until then we will lovingly discipline and teach them that there is a different way to interact.  And we’ll love on them give them hugs and watch them play soccer and show them that someone cares.  And we’ll keep saying… “don’t fight” until we’re blue in the face :)

Translating

Oh so much harder than it seems.

The thing is… I speak Spanish as if I’m playing catch phrase.  If I don’t know how to say a word, I just talk around it until the person I’m talking to guesses what I’m trying to say.  Well… when you’re in a medical clinic, trying to sounds professional, but not even knowing what half the words are in English… it’s a whole different story.  Welcome to our week!

Today I got to figure out how to say heartburn, ulcer, lymph nodes, and so much more!  But… the joy of all my Spanish learning is that we are treating patients! 

We are so thankful for the team from Trinity Pres who brought an amazing medical team down.  We have two doctors from Columbia who speak Spanish as their first language and that is a huge blessing.  And they brought a dentist and an ultrasound machine.  I mean… this is great.  So we saw a bunch of patients today, got to share the Gospel with them, pray with them, and help some of their physical needs as well.

Please pray for us this week as we will have 4 day-long clinics in Armenia Bonito. 

Music

One of the things that Bethany and I have been doing this week is expanding our Spanish worship music repertoire.  I’m teaching Bethany to play guitar, so it’s been a fun way to practice and to learn some new stuff.  We have come across a new favorite song!  You may know it in English…

Here are the words… roughly :)

I see the King of glory
Coming on the clouds with fire
The whole earth shakes, the whole earth shakes
I see His love and mercy
Washing over all our sin
The people sing, the people sing

Hosanna, hosanna
Hosanna in the highest (x2)

I see a generation
Rising up to take the place
With selfless faith, with selfless faith
I see a near revival
Stirring as we pray and seek
We're on our knees, we're on our knees

Heal my heart and make it clean
Open up my eyes to the things unseen
Show me how to love like You have loved me
Break my heart for what breaks Yours
Everything I am for Your Kingdom's cause
As I walk from earth into eternity

Pavement Project

Its almost official… we are so close to forming a partnership between MTW’s team Honduras and the Pavement Project.  If you have no idea what that means, you should read here.  The Pavement Project is a ministry with at-risk or street children that works from a picture-based counseling program.  Currently they are holding Kate and I a spot at their September training so that we can go and learn more about this ministry and receive training to use their materials.  We are SO excited!!!  And a little nervous… the training will be five 8-hour days of Spanish… that is a lot!  So you can be praying for that.

But our overwhelming emotion is just excitement that the Lord is putting this tool in our hands to reach kids for His kingdom here in Honduras.

I want to share a story with you of a girl that went through this program in Acapulco.

A dripping faucet can pass un-noticed for years.  The dripping is slow and rhythmic, but can cause enormous damage over time.  A little at a time, drop by drop, the faucet is eroded from the inside out.  Imagine if your heart was like this faucet.  Imagine if you suffered pain so deep and yet felt forgotten by everyone as it just dripped and dripped.

This image was given by Lucia, 12 years old, when asked to describe herself.  She drew a black and white picture of a dripping faucet and explained to her counselor how the pain of her father’s death was destroying her inside.  She felt that she was a faucet running with sadness and pain and that she was simply not important to anyone.

After describing herself in this way, Lucia heard many stories from Scripture that showed how important Lucia is to God and how much He loves her.  One story spoke to her heart… the story of when Jesus gave life to the widow’s son.  Lucia began to cry as she understood for the first time that Jesus could take all of her sadness and pain and renew her hope in the same way that He had done it for the widow.

Now when Lucia was asked to describe herself in a drawing, it was no longer black and white.  It was a beautiful butterfly with colorful wings that Lucia described as happy, beautiful, and FREE!

Please pray for the children that are going through this program now and that the Lord would prepare the hearts of the children in La Ceiba that He has planned for us to work with after we receive this training.

So much to say…

I have so much to say since I have time this week to sit down and write.  But… my blog has been acting up and I haven’t been able to post anything.  Now I post things, but nothing with pictures.  As you may have noticed, they are all black… weird.  So please forgive the fact that you’re going to get a barrage of posts, not necessarily in the right order, once all of this gets back up and running! :)

I will start to say… this week has been great!  We have a much needed week off from summer teams to rest and recover before welcoming in two teams to end the summer out well.  I have still been able to do some ministry this week and just do some of the other hundred things on my to do list…

1. look at houses
2. learn new songs in Spanish to sing with the kids
3. organize all the random ministry stuff at my house
4. get our new songbooks in order
5. you get the point!

There are just all the little things that need to get done in the midst of a busy schedule of being out of the house all day.  It has been great to get to do some of that stuff as well as take an hour to sit on the hammock and read.  I’ve needed it!

Well… that’s all you got for now.  Hopefully fun pictures and updates to come soon!

Newsletter - August 2011

August 2011

tshirts!

I am so excited to introduce you to some of our favorite kids!  Also excited that Bethany has a camera :) 

This is the first family that ever came to our door… there are 8 kids in their immediate family and their cousin also lives with them.  They live with their mom and their dad is not around anymore, which sadly is pretty common around here.

This is Ricci Mabel (14), Lilian Teresa (12), Selvin (12), and Franklin (10).  Selvin is their cousin and they have a 16 year old brother plus siblings ages 6,4, and 2.  We’ve met some of the others, but not all of them.

Today when they came by I brought out some tshirts for them to decorate along with Mac and cheese and vitamins.  It was so much fun.  They had a blast and I really loved talking to them.  I got to tell Ricci about the home I’m starting and told her to think about if she had any friends who needed that kind of help.

These are the finished product, front and back…

Love them…

Ministry Help

Here’s a little update from the week…

Some of the ladies came over to the house to sort the baby stuff that Lindsey left.  It was a great.  They were really helpful and now I have a list of all the things that we have so I can figure out what we need.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, we hadn’t seen many of the street kids recently, but I think its because we have had teams and not really been around.  Over the past few days we’ve had lots of visitors at our gate, given lots of food, read some Bible stories, and made some new friends.  Please keep praying for these precious kids. :)

A Little Car Update…

So, if anyone is living in suspense as to the car’s post-lake-driving condition, I will enlighten you.

It runs :)  Praise the Lord and Hallelujah!  I got to drive it back to my house tonight.  However, it sounds terrible.  I’m quite literally not running on all cylinders.  Although as I said to Kathy tonight… “one of my cylinders isn’t running… but I still have 5… that’s good right?!?”

I’m going to take it to the mechanic this coming week to find out how bad the damage is and then decide whether to fix it or just drive a really noisy car ‘till the whole thing gives out.

But in better news… my AC works and I have a new alternator so it should start every time I turn the key!

I’m just so thankful for the men the Lord provided this past week to work on my car… it was a huge blessing.

The Four Loves

This morning I started reading “The Four Loves” by CS Lewis.  Those of you who know me know that I’m not really a reader when it comes to books you have to really think through.  I’m more of a reader of fictional fluff.  But this is a book I’ve been meaning to read for a long time… so I’m praying I learn something!

This really struck me today…
M. Denis de Rougemont says “love ceases to be a demon only when he ceases to be a God” 

To which Lewis replies…
"If we ignore it the truth that God is love may slyly come to mean for us the converse, that love is God… Every human love, at its height, has a tendency to claim for itself a divine authority.  Its voice tends to sound as if it were the will of God Himself.  It tells us not to count the cost, it demands of us a total commitment, it attempts to over-ride all other claims and insinuates that any action which is sincerely done ‘for love’s sake’ is thereby lawful and even meritorious.”

Wow.  I can’t even begin to explain how important I think this message is for myself and the generation in which I have grown up.  The fairy tale idea of love is romantic, idealistic, and idolized.  People live for the idea of loving another person and even believers turn that back on truths of Scripture for the sake of love.  People also do all kinds of harm in the name of “just loving people”.  I think of all the harm done overseas because people go and give and overwhelm impoverished communities with their giving in the name of love.  But it doesn’t help anyone long-term except to make them dependent.

I’m not pointing any fingers because I will say that I am guilty of believing this fairy tale love is enough in friendships and ministry… to the point that it has been detrimental to my walk with the Lord.  And I have had to really wrestle with how the truth of Scripture really does enrich love and teach us how to let God define love for us and trust that His love is the best kind of love.

Just thinking today… thankful that God is patient with me as I learn to trust that He is love, totally and completely.

A Blessing

(imagine a picture here of 2 men working on a 2001 Red Ford Escape)

Joseph and Miguel are awesome!  Joseph comes from Arizona and Miguel from Mexico both here working with the short term team.  3 days this week they are providers in our medical clinic.  Today… they are mechanics.  Joseph has lots of mechanical experience and they both have huge servant hearts.

This morning I got the good news that after having water in 4 of my 6 cylinders… the car actually started!  (Be warned, the factual information in this post about real car stuff is probably wrong.  Most of the stuff the guys have told me this week hasn’t stuck in my brain… but I’ll stick to the truth as best I can :) )  It is still making a funny noise… but we’re going to pray that it just goes away before we try to start up the car again.

I still needed a new alternator, and apparently an oil change, and a new air filter b/c mine was wet and moldy after its swim.  So the guys did all of that for me!  They have a couple things to finish up tomorrow… then we wait with baited breath to see if the car is actually going to really work… correctly…

Today, they are my heroes.

Reading

One of the things that didn’t make the first load from Costa Rica was my Spanish kids books, and I’ve been missing them.  But since Mike and Ashley brought them when the came… thanks guys… I have a new favorite activity!

Some of these kids just eat up books like you wouldn’t believe.  This is Samuel who hasn’t ever been in school a day in his life.  But let me read about 4 books to him this morning and loved looking at the pictures!

There is another girl named Nagele (I have no idea how to spell it!).  She is 4 years old and absolutely loves books!  She would probably sit calmly on my lap for hours if I would keep reading.  I love it.

And one day my pronunciation might even get better with all this reading practice :)

I want to give them nametags…

It just kills me that I don’t know all their names.  I’m learning slowly but surely, but there are just so many kids.  But relationships are so important and I want to know them.

It reminds me of one of my favorite verses in Scripture…

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.”  Isaiah 40:26

If He knows the names of all the stars, He definitely knows all their names.  And He holds them in HIS great power and mighty strength!