y no me pregunta más

I mentioned before that we have been having problems with the kids’ constant barrage of “can I have?”, “give me this”, “do you have?”, etc.  Its draining.  But I think everyone who has worked with kids has been there.

I literally laughed out loud at Kevin yesterday.

Kevin: Can I have an apple? (for the fourth time)
Me: No, and don’t ask me anymore
Kevin: Don’t ask you anymore?
Me: Don’t ask me anymore, the answer is not going to change

later on…

Christopher: Can I have an apple?
Me: No
Then Kevin looks at him, without being prompted and says emphatically: And don’t ask her anymore!!!

I think he’s learning :)

Beginnings and Ends

I would like to announce a very exciting beginning and a very exciting end.

The preparation is ending!  This past week the Lord provided a precious woman to be our house “abuela” for Puerta de Esperanza!  Doña Oneyda goes to my church and has been there for over 20 years.  She sees this job as a ministry to these girls and is ready to love on them as if they were her own.  She is connected to the church, wants to take them to small group, is going to teach them how to bake… she is amazing!  She loves the Lord and wants to glorify Him with her life.  I can only say, the Lord provided abundantly more than I could ask or imagine.  I look forward to working with her and moving forward in this ministry together.

And as for beginnings… we have an opening date!  January 25th our first mom and baby will move into the house in time to get registered for classes and get settled before starting school in February.  Another girl is coming to visit the home as we investigate possible school options for her.  And I just got a call from social services about a third girl who I am going to meet this morning.  We’re going to have a full house before long!

I am blown away.  I know we’ve been preparing and waiting and working towards this day.  But I love being able to put a date on it and see how the Lord has brought to fulfillment this ministry that He began.  There are still 1000 things that I don’t know and questions that I have.  But the Lord is faithful and I know He is carrying us!  Please praise Him with me!

A sweet surprise!

Recently we’ve been having some attitude problems with the kids.  I know, its like we’re dealing with actual children or something!  They come to the door asking to come in and then from there on out its like “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie”.  Susana, give me this, can I have this… well then I’m not coming back.  Yep, see you in 2 hours, they always come back.  We’re really trying to work on thankfulness and patience and using please and thank you.  And sometimes they just get mad and frustrated.

This happened yesterday.

Jeffri, Kevin, and Ever are our church-going faithfuls.  I can’t remember the last time they missed a chance to go to church with us.  And yesterday they didn’t show.  They had come in the morning and I didn’t let them in, so they were mad at me and threatened not to come back for church.  They always come back, so I wasn’t worried.  But it came time to leave and they weren’t there, so we headed out to church without them.

Twenty minutes into the service with smiles spread across their whole faces, in walk Jeffri and Kevin.  They had walked all the way to church (a long walk) by themselves after coming late and finding us not at home.  They walked right in and sat down like they’d been with us the whole time.  Ever on the other hand stayed out in the hallway ticked b/c it was not his choice to walk to church, apparently :)

All that to say.  It made my heart happy.  Who knows their real motivation in getting themselves there.  But the Lord is doing something in these boys.  We are excited to watch them grow, to keep getting to know their personalities, to teach them little life lessons and teach them about Jesus along the way, and to see them making church a priority.  It put a sweet smile on my face.

Jesus Calling

Nan gave me a devotional book for Christmas called “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young.  What I read last week pretty summed up my life as a missionary, so I thought I would share it with you.

“You can achieve the victorious life through living in deep dependence on Me.  People usually associate victory with success: not falling or stumbling, not making mistakes.  But those who are successful in their own strength tend to go their own way, forgetting about Me.  It is through problems and failure, weakness and neediness that you learn to rely on Me.

True dependence is not simply asking Me to bless what you have decided to do.  It is coming to Me with an open mind and heart, inviting Me to plant My desires within you.  I may infuse within you a dream that seems far beyond your reach.  You know that in yourself you cannot achieve such a goal.  Thus begins your journey of profound reliance on Me.  It is a faith-walk, taken one step at a time, leaning on Me as much as you need.  This is not a path of continual success but of multiple failures.  However, each failure is followed by a growth spurt, nourished by increased reliance on Me.  Enjoy the blessedness of a victorious life, through deepening your dependence on Me.”

So yeah.  That’s my life right now and it’s a hard blessing.  The Lord definitely put in my heart a dream that was far beyond my reach.  I was talking to Kate yesterday about all the disappointments.  Every time we’ve had to push back the date, every time a new girl didn’t work out, every time things cost more than I had anticipated, every time I think about how much more there is to do… it seems like I cannot achieve the goal of opening this girl’s home.  And yet… its really happening.  The Lord has made it so clear that this is HIS project, HIS ministry.  He has opened all the doors to make it possible.  And yes, there are still a thousand unanswered questions… but HE is right there in the middle of those too.  I believe that He will not leave us in the process because its HIS.  These girls are HIS and this home is HIS.  And He is teaching me to let go and stop thinking of all that I can offer.  And its hard, so hard to not be able to have all the answers.  But I think the Lord did it as a blessing for me so that I could learn to walk in faith and prayer.

In that vein, I’ll give you a brief update.  I think that Lord has brought us an abuela.  I meet with her again today and then I’ll know for sure.  But keep praying…

Making the non-monumental, MONUMENTAL!

Inspired by the traditional advent calendar, the roommates of La Alameda are delighted to bring you THE COUNTDOWN!

You could say that our life is boring, but I think we would prefer the term creative.  Seriously, tonight we were commenting that moving to Honduras threw us back in time.  This comment came after hours of sitting outside on the porch in rocking chairs doing nothing but chatting with each other.  I would also like to say, I LOVE IT!

So the countdown.  Every day leading up to Christmas we had to do something together as a house, read a Scripture, make cookies, dress the dog up like an elf, you know, the norm.  Then we’d hang the cards on the Christmas tree to supplement the lack of ornaments.  We considered keeping the tree and renaming it The Countdown Tree.  But we decided that may be excessive :) 

So every month we get to choose non-monumental event to make MONUMENTAL and we count down to it every day.  This month, I get to be monumental!  We are already counting down to my return from the states and I haven’t even left yet.  I’m feeling pretty special!

Because we’re not bored, just creative, we issued a roommate challenge tonight to all write a blog on the same topic.  So to read more about the COUNTDOWN, go here and here!

Remote Control

So… crime shows.  My roommates love them.  Almost every night at 8:00 you can find us sitting in the living room watching CSI, Law and Order, or something of the like.  But I have discovered something about myself.  Criminal Minds.  I can’t watch it.  My roommates love it, but my feelings about it are similar to Kate’s feelings about my recently completed puzzle.  IE Hatred.  I think maybe its okay that I haven’t developed an immunity to be able to enjoy a show featuring torture and serial killers… so they miss it when its my turn to have the remote.

In other news, I just finished a 1499 piece puzzle that I had to restart 4 times.  Kids put it away after hours of hard work.  Then its possible that Kate put it away after hours of hard work (hence the hatred for the puzzle b/c we were so mad at her about it).  Then it got dropped on the floor while I was trying to move the table.  But I’m just stubborn, so now its finished and only missing one piece after all that shuffling around.

Can you tell we took a week off for vacation?

So Close…

I have GREAT news!  We are one step away from seeing Puerta de Esperanza open!  This is really amazing and I praise the Lord for every step that He has walked before us and every door that He has opened. 

And I have an item for prayer.  The last thing that I need to do is hire the “abuela”, the house mom who will work with the girls and live there with them.  I have such a heart for these girls and pray that the woman who works with them will see this as a ministry and an opportunity to live out Christ’s love in front of them.  I have two interviews this FRIDAY!  Please pray that I will understand the Spanish easily and that the Lord will give me discernment to know who He has to work in the home with the girls.  I don’t want to rush it… I want the right person.  But I am anxious to get the doors open!  So pray that I will step back and trust in the Lord’s faithful provision.

Thanks so much!