Money Money Money

One of the hardest parts for me about being a missionary is finances.  Keeping good records of how we spend money, being good stewards of the money that is given to us, raising support, and always the giant step of faith that it takes to not freak out when I look at our account and there just isn't quite enough there.  I think that God has been trying to teach me for four years now that I don't have to stress about money, that freaking out doesn't really help anything :)  Its a hard lesson for me to learn.

But this is me, not freaking out :)  This is me asking you to consider if you can partner with us at this time financially.  We still need 32 supporters at $100/month in order to be fully funded.  This is daunting, but I know that its possible.  And it happens through people like you who give $200/month if you have it, or $20/month if that's what you have.

Would you please consider if this may be the way that God is calling you to answer the Great Commission?  I cannot tell you how thankful we are for our financial partners.  I am so aware that C, Y, G, M, K, B, and M would not have had the chance to hear the Gospel faithfully on a daily basis, study, learn how to be moms, eat healthy, and see the examples of the house moms following Jesus... without your help and support.

Being currently underfunded, every month eats away at the surplus that we had in our account at the beginning of the year.  That will not last us much longer and then we will be in the red if we don't have the monthly support coming in that we need.

If you would like to give you can contact me at ssinnes@gmail.com.  Or use one of the following methods... with our account number 92413

http://www.mtw.org/Pages/GIVE_FAQ.aspx

 or mail a check to

Mission to the World

P.O. Box 2589

Suwanee, GA 30024-0982

Also if you think your church would like to support us or be interested, please send me the missions committee contact and I will gladly be in touch with them!

Good conversation

It was just supposed to be a time for her to learn my name...

Lyssa has had her eye on this girl for a few weeks.  15 years old and 4 months pregnant... she lives with her family, but its rough situation.  Others on our team have had their eyes on this family because of malnutrition, suspected abuse, drug use, and other issues.  You can tell that K is a tough act from the first time you meet her.  I met her about a year ago one day when she was just hanging out with Lyssa, but we didn't know that she would remember me.

I sat down next to her this morning while she waited for her ultrasound.  I made some small talk, asked her about her baby, work, life, her family... and we chatted.  You can tell she wants someone to listen.  Her friendship with Lyssa has been off and on because of her off and on personality, but you can tell that she respects her a great deal.  As we got to talking I shared about Puerta de Esperanza.  I wasn't going to... Lyssa was going to bring it up in a few weeks whenever it seemed natural because she was pretty sure the conversation wouldn't go well.  But as I shared about where I work and what we do, I didn't make it about her, but she said, "I would like to live in a place like that".  Really?  Would you?  

She brought her mom over, we chatted and we'll continue to chat some more.

Please pray for K as she potentially could be our next girl at PDE.  Pray that she has wisdom and really makes a clear-headed decision.  I know that she is a hard personality, both from stories, and because she told me this morning :)  But honestly, I love that up-front honesty so much more than someone who misbehaves when no one is looking.  These are the girls that steal my heart and I want so badly to see God work in them.  After she told me that she can be terrible to her mom and gets angry really quickly I was able to share with her that I believe that God changes us from the inside out and that she needs Jesus before she will be able to stop her anger.  She listened.  I would love for her to one day know Jesus! :)

More than we can Handle

These past few days I've been thinking about that phrase that floats around often in Christian circles... "God will never give you more than you can handle".  I think that it comes, mistakenly, from 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."  This actually doesn't ever say that you will not be given more than you can handle... it just speaks to temptation and that God, through His Holy Spirit, has provided you with the strength that you need to not give in to temptation.  Being a new creation in Christ, you now have the strength to stand up under temptation and endure!  You are no longer a slave to your sin and the temptations that Satan throws your way.There are, however, many other situations in which we will find ourselves overwhelmed and feeling exceptionally unprepared.  The first of which in my life is my very salvation.  As we have been studying through Romans with the girls we have talked a lot about the law and that the very law that would bring life, if you could possibly follow it, really brought death because it showed us how deep our sin really runs and how little we can actually do to try to earn our way to God.  These words from Shane and Shane's song, "Beg" have been running through my head.

I'm haunted by my God
Who has the right to ask me
What by the nature
Of my rebellion I cannot give

From the beginning of our walk with the Lord he gives us something that we cannot handle.  To be in His presence, He demands perfection, holiness... and I, by the nature of my sinful rebellion, will never be able to give that to Him.  So I needed help, a rescuer, and He sent me Jesus.  The first of many things that I could not handle.

How about moving to the mission field and feeling the call to start a girls' home for young single moms when I didn't even speak Spanish?  God gave me something I could not handle and then provided the help that I needed at just the point when I needed it.  He was reminding me that this ministry belonged to Him and not to me, that He is the one that is building it and sustaining it.


How about when my girls, or as I like to call them my emotionally unstable adult children, end up in a shouting match or a punching match or making death threats to each other.  I would like to go on record as saying that I am unprepared to handle discipline with these girls.  I do it every day.  But how do you gracefully, yet lovingly, yet firmly, figure out how to discipline girls who have never had rules in their lives and don't even know the first thing about what is looks like to love and respect someone?  I swear that there are moments where the Holy Spirit just speaks because I go into a situation having no idea what I'm going to say and then its handled by the time I leave.  Another thing on the long list of things I can't handle.


And in my family?  Marrying into being a mom of three children was not something that was on my radar just a few short years ago.  Dealing with their backgrounds and teaching them English and trying to lovingly point them to Jesus day after day.  I obviously can't handle it because there are days that I don't do a very good job.  And yet the Lord is right there reminding me that they are HIS and it is His job to handle it.


So... lets just dispel the myth that we will never have more on our plate than we can handle.  And instead lets embrace the truth that we are never alone to walk through these things on our own strength.  This ministry, my family, my salvation........  these things belong to the Lord.


I will leave you with one of my favorite verses of all time..."He is before ALL things and in HIM all things hold together."  Colossians 1:17

answered prayers

Yesterday I called around checking in on all of our now former PDE girls.  Before M left the home I reminded her that she was taking a Bible with her and although I knew she wasn't interested in the Lord, I was going to pray EVERY DAY that she would see her Bible and God would give her the desire to open it.  Well, when I called her yesterday I talked to her mom for awhile first.  When I asked how she was behaving her mom answered, "I don't know what's in that Bible she brought back with her, but she reads it every day and writes down all kinds of stuff in her notebook."  WHAT?!?  Awesome.  M confirmed that she has been reading verses and writing them down in her notebook to remember them. 

I am so thankful that God is not limited to places and times, but goes with these girls and keeps prompting them towards Himself.  Please pray that M will come to know Jesus.

So now what?!?

Great question.  Its been a rough few weeks of disappointment and transition.  I have watched two girls walk back into lives that are not best for them.  I have watched them throw away opportunities, school, and a new understanding of family to go back to what they have always known.  I cling to the truth that God's Word does not come back void and that both of these girls hear the Gospel clearly many times while living with us.  I'm praying for them to really know and walk with Jesus, because they need Him so much more than they need PDE.

So what are we doing now that we have only one girl and one baby in the house?

Well... first of all, we are working with C and preparing her to graduate!  In December she will move out and become self-sufficient as she now has a stable job, loves Jesus, and is a great mom to W.  It is so encouraging that she has worked so hard and we have seen God change and mature her over these last few years!

We are praying!  I know of two other girls in nearby communities that fit our criteria, but who knows if they will come to the home.  I can say with certainty that there is never a lack of young single moms in need... its more just waiting on the Lord to show us which girls are a good fit for our home.  And praying that they find us at the right time.  We are putting the word out and are confident God will bring who He wants, when He wants.

We are changing.  This is the most calm that PDE has been since we started this ministry in 2012.  And man, we have learned a lot since then.  I want to re-train our house moms in some areas and revamp our rules and general running of the house.  We have seen lots of different girls come through the home, but there are some behavior themes that we need to work on how to handle in a Godly and patient way.  Oh the stories I could tell you :)  So I really see this time as necessary to pray and seek some wisdom and advice and make some really needed changes.

Also, will you pray something specific for us????  We NEED a psychologist who can work with the house moms and the girls at least once a week.  But not just any psychologist will do... I am specifically praying for someone who loves Jesus and agrees with us in vision and purpose and who has experience with abuse and broken families.  We're going on 2 years looking for this person and have yet to find her, but never have I felt the need so deeply as I do now.  After dealing with threats, suicide attempts, rape victims, and more... not to mention just depression, abandonment, defeat, and rebellion... we need help.  Please pray that the Lord will bring this person to our ministry!

Lastly, I'm going to try to focus during this time on support raising and getting us up to full monthly support.  Right now we have $5164 pledged monthly out of a necessary $8000.  If you would like to get more information about supporting us monthly, please email me at ssinnes@gmail.com.  If you support us monthly and would consider upping your support, even by just $10, that would make a big difference!  If you know people or churches who may be interested in our ministry, please contact me.  Support raising is one of the hardest parts of this ministry for me, especially to do it from being a country away.  So any help from our partners stateside is a huge encouragement!

Here's the info...
Puerta de Esperanza is account #92413
The donations link is here

Or you can mail a check to MTW with the e-giving form to

Mission to the World

P.O. Box 2589

Suwanee, GA 30024-0982

Another Goodbye

On Thursday we will have to say yet another goodbye as PDE has the fastest transition period since we started.

M's story has been heart-wrenching for me in many ways, but this past weekend was the hardest.  From the beginning she had asked to come live with us with only her son, leaving her daughter to be raised by her mom.  I told her no, and that she should bring both of them.  About a month later she asked again if she could send her back to her mom and I said no, she is the mom and needs to raise her children.  This past Friday after a very difficult period in the house with both she and K she asked me for the third and final time if she could send her daughter back to her mom who lives 7 hours away.  She said if she couldn't send her she was going to leave.

We talked in circles as I tried to get to the root issue of WHY???  Why would you want your daughter to be 7 hours away where she is going to grow up and not even know you?  Why do you want to take care of one child and not the other?  Why do you want to send her back to what you wanted to get away from?  Why, after seeing so many positive changes in her do you think that is a better situation?  And I just couldn't get good answers.  After hours of talking I had to conclude that she just doesn't want the responsibility of both children and the easier answer is to just not raise her.  Sadly, for this culture, that's normal.  Grandma regularly takes the first child and raises them as their own leaving their daughter without feeling the responsibility of being a mom and leading to that same daughter often having more children.

85% of the girls who I have interviewed for PDE or who have come to live us have been raised by someone other than their own mother.  Almost all of them have expressed feelings of abandonment and trust issues and just sadness that their own mother wouldn't want them.  Some of our deepest struggles with these girls have brought up the question... "How could you love me if my own mother didn't love me enough to raise me?"  This is especially true when they know that their mom raised other siblings but didn't raise them.

This weekend I barely slept.  I promised M to really consider the possibility of her sending her daughter to grandma.  I weighed both arguments, I saw positives in both, and I just prayed.  In the end I could not come to a place of peace about it and knew that I had to tell her that it was most important to me that she be in her daughter's life.  As much as I love her, I also love little Y and I feel like I have to be an advocate for her as she has no voice yet... and she needs her mom.  I knew it was likely that she would leave as a result.  And she is.

The good news is that we had some really sweet conversation and I think she understands why I make the decision, although she doesn't agree with it.  And we were able to study through Scripture about marriage and children and family and what a blessing and responsibility it is to be a mom.  All of this is new to her, she has no concept of a Godly family... but the seeds are there now and I pray that they will grow.

So as of Thursday C and W will be are only occupants at PDE.  It will seem sad and empty.  But I trust that God is in charge and already knows who is coming.  So we wait and trust.

Goodbyes are Never Easy

Its been a little over a year since K and O moved in with us.  It has been a tough year in a lot of ways for this girl.  She has really struggled to unlearn a lot of things from her past and relearn a new and different way to live with people and raise a child and put forth her best effort.  There are days where she is the sweetest and most dear girl I have ever met.  She can be so service oriented, works really hard in school, and turns out is very naturally talented at sewing.

But those old habits are hard to kill off and the desire to just run back to what she has always known won this time.  After a hard year of fighting with and for her, this morning K moved out.  I went and picked up her mom and had a chance to just talk to her about the things that I think K has learned and how she has grown and changed.  I got to share about her gifts and how I feel that she can continue to use them.  And then I also shared about the hard things, the biggest struggles for us with her and how I hope that her mom will still fight to be her parent and really teach her the things she needs to know and learn.  I hate to see her struggle with being so defensive and so angry and I pray that in this time out of the home God will continue to soften her heart and grow her into a humble girl who loves Jesus with her whole heart.  Can you pray that with me?

She wrote me a sweet note that I will treasure forever.  She is truly thankful for the chance to live with us and really thankful for each and every one of you who support us who made the time at the home possible for her.  She is already regretting her decision in some ways and yet stubbornly holding on to it in others.  She promised to try to keep going to class and make a better future for herself and her son.

I will be trying to keep in touch with her because she didn't go far :)  I am just praying that God will do miracles in her heart and that I will get the chance to see it!