Back in La Ceiba!

The Lord is just funny sometimes in the way that He works things out.  One the biggest lessons of the past six months for me has been learning that success and failure are often opposite in the kingdom of God.  Things that seem like failure are so clearly a part of His bigger plan to work in hearts and draw people to Himself.  And this week we have seen that in the lives of Yajaira and Juli!

You may remember that in November Yajaira left PDE to go and live with her mom in Roatan.  It was so hard for us to see her go since they have lived with us for two years and we were all the family that Juli had ever known.  But since she was not 18, we had no choice but to release her to her family... and we prayed so hard for God to use her time with them to reconcile some deep heart wounds that she has had for most of her life.

God used her time with her family to get her attention like never before.  After two years of using her mom as an "out" whenever things would get tough.  "Its okay, kick me out, I'll just tell my mom to come get me." She learned that sometimes it is better to stick it out and learn to live with the people you are with because wherever you are it is hard to live with other sinners!  Things there were not a walk in the park either.

She also clung hard to the things she learned at PDE... it was hard to watch other people watch her daughter while she went to work every day knowing that they used bad language and yelled and didn't treat her well at times.  She would call telling me how much her heart hurt for Juli and how thankful she was for how she had grown up at PDE.  She understands more and more the necessity of good, Godly discipline and the need to show her daughter how much she loves her.

But most importantly she remembered what she learned about Jesus.  She called me one day and asked me to help her find a new church.  After two years of fighting with me over the doctrine at the church we attend she went back to the kind of church she grew up in and couldn't stay there because the guilt and shame of the works-based Gospel was just too much.  So she clung to grace and to the truth of the Bible that we had studied.  She was able to verbalize that what she was hearing taught is not what we had read together in Scripture and she wanted to believe what the Bible says!  Praise the Lord!

Then she turned 18! :)  She is not at odds with her family, I think her time with them was so necessary and that they will continue to be in touch and have visits together.  But as a full-grown adult she decided to move back to La Ceiba, continue working in the Salon where she is growing in her field, and go back to attending the same church we attend.

I love this ministry so much because it allows us to become family for these girls.  We were able to help her find an apartment/room to rent at my mother-in-law's house.  She is paying my sister-in-law to watch Juli while she works.  And she is learning to be independent!  We helped her get set up and she also has her savings she saved up while at PDE.  She is all set!  And Lesther's family is being wonderful helping in her real world transition... independent, while being surrounded by a family who is not going to let you fall on your face too hard :)

Juli is going to start preschool with us tomorrow and get to see her brother W and her Abuela Oneyda at least twice a week.  And she is SO excited.  She and W danced around the room together when they saw each other again for the first time!

Join us in praising the Lord for what He is doing in the lives of these two precious girls.  And pray that He will sustain Yajaira as she learns to be independent and live on her own while trying to follow Him.