Mighty to save
December 16, 2006
Yesterday at 2 o'clock in the morning I arrived home and collapsed on the couch with my mom and brothers and sisters in front of the Christmas tree, telling stories and laughing together again. The past 7 1/2 weeks seemed far away, but the faces of the girls covered in smiles and in tears will be in my heart forever. The past few weeks were kind of crazy with the new couple arriving and 3 of the board members to help with the transition. School went on as usual for the most part, with the exception of a few days off including a trip to Tegucigalpa. We loaded all 20 of the girls into the bus and headed to the city and to the mall! This was the annual trip to see the Christmas tree, which this year was covered with almost-life-size Santa Clauses! We walked around looking in the shops and went up and down the escalators-- it was fun watching the girls, some of them for the first time, on the escalators! They hesitated at first, but loved the ride once they got on. I didn't hear one of them asking for anything (except lunch!) they just looked and looked. There was a Dunkin Donuts (a great coffee shop in the States) in the mall and I got really excited, and when no one was looking I went in to grab a hazelnut coffee... and saw the Nescafe push-a-button-for-the-kind-of-coffee-you-want machine and tried not to cry... :):) It was an imitation Dunkin Donuts: Dk'n Donuts, or something like that. For lunch we brought the girls to Pizza Hut and ordered 8 large pizzas! It was fun having the board with us. Although I didn't realized how hungry I'd gotten over the past several weeks at the farm until the president of the ministry leaned over and told Angela I was the poster-child for "Feed the Hungry." What can I do? We made it home again that same night, leaving Miss Pam and Angela in the city to get Miss Pam's residency renewed. Sarah talked herself out of her first ticket on the way home, because our bus papers had expired or something back in 1999. When we got ourside the gate, we realized that the electricity was out and it was really dark on the farm. I found the teacher, who had stayed to watch the babies, in house one by the fire, with the bottles lined up in front of it trying to keep them warm. They were sleeping peacefully and she was still smiling, but I could tell she was exhausted. She's amazing. The electricity didn't come on again until the next day. Somehow, though, we found enough candles and maybe it was a blessing, because the girls were all in bed early that night. That weekend I cut all of the girls' bangs, now we can see their beautiful eyes again. The family who is on the farm now has settled in and the girls have welcomed them to their family. He who calls us is always faithful. I think God brought them there at just the right time and He will be faithful to them exactly like He was faithful to us. They're His girls and He's promised to fight for the fatherless! We got two new teachers this week, as well. They are amazing, they actually teach! And when they're not teaching they are still involved with the girls, whereas the last teachers would shut themselves in their rooms. They are a great addition to the farm. Looking back, the times I remember the most were at night when the girls would ask me to sing to them... One night, one of the girls in my house, asked me to sing her to sleep. So I put on my headphones and sang with my music (I was running out of songs!). Little did she know I was singing to her, not just for her: "I want to rock you in my arms, let you cry, let you cry. I want to take on your pain, get it out from inside. I want to hold you in my arms, wrap God's hand around your heart... and whisper peace." I remember the little girls coming up to me during recess and showing me their school work with great pride! I remember them looking at me with a straight face saying, "Miss Jessica, be serious." (I trained them well:) I remember the girls on their birthdays shining when we all stood and sang to them. I remember movie nights, eating popcorn and drinking hot chocolate. I remember driving down those dirt roads with all the girls in the back of the truck going to church or apple picking or to the park. I remember trying to keep up with Angela! (Angela, no comments please:) Hopefully they remember things, too... and hopefully their memories have something to do with Jesus. My prayer for them is just as Jesus rose and conquered the grave, just as He said to the dead girl in Mark, "Little girl, arise!"... and because He is MIGHTY TO SAVE... Do it again, Father.... do it again! Thanks so much for everything. I hope your Christmas is full of many blessings and the peace of God will be with you. You're the greatest and such a blessing to me.... Love, Jessica
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December 2006
December 3, 2006
"When we love in Jesus' name and for the sake of His sacrificial legacy, that love absolutely cannot fail." (Gal. 5:6 & 1 Cor. 13:8a) I asked Angela to write my update this time jokingly, but she took my pen and notebook from me and (as I made her a cup of coffee) this is what she wrote: "Well, like I always do... write a little description of what is going on while I'm here; this time I'm doing the same. I will start off by saying that if someone thought about the life of a missionary being easy, I encourage you to think otherwise. I'm not saying you shouldn't think about being a missionary, but instead do it but also remember that when you go anywhere and you want to please God and obey Him, the Evil will try its best to make you see things differently and destroy you. Anyway I say all this as a brief testimony. So now I will tell you of what we have been doing during these past weeks." | |
(Here she left space for me to fill in about last week. I don't remember everything, because it was a while ago now, but we did take a day off of school to kill the hog. Everybody helped cut it up and some of it was ground. Unfortunately I had to take one of the girls to the doctors which lasted several hours so I missed most of it... the "unfortunately" part was a joke!) "On Wednesday we started getting things together for next day-- our long awaited Thanksgiving!! We started off by going back to town to get some ingredients for our pies. Also we bought some vegetables and to tell you the truth, we also got some ice cream, even though it was colder than ever (only we would do such a crazy thing). We came back and got right on making pies. We planned on having a few of them, but unexpectedly we ended up with 13 pies, which was a good thing for we had alot of people to feed the next day. This process started at 4 o'clock and we got through at 10:30 or so. While we waited for some pies to get cooked we also strung some popcorn for the tree-- which is tradition here at the farm to be put up the same day we celebrate Thanksgiving. You might want to know how we got all of this done. We made an assembly line, I was making the dough for the pie crust, Angela and Sarah were rolling it out, and Miss Pam was doing the rest. "Next day, Thursday, was our day. We started off with some small doings. While we were in the middle of this process one of the girls came by with some kind of lumps on the sides of her neck. Sarah and I had to take her to the doctor where we spend two hours till she got checked. When we arrived back it was almost time for the big lunch and we had much more to do. It was hectic, but we pulled through. To kind of control the hunger of all the people waiting, the youngest girls put on a program of singing and doing hand motions to three different songs while we finished up the preparation and began to serve." That's where Angela left off. I'll continue... :) Pictures the girls had colored of pumpkins and turkeys were on the walls. They'd written something they were thankful to God for on each picture -- everything from "Thank you for food" to "Thank you for my new family here." When the friends and neighbors had eaten their fill and headed home and the mission house was somewhat back in order, we got out the Christmas tree and dusted it off. We pieced it together roughly into the shape of a tree. Christmas music I had brought from home was blaring in the background as the firelight shone and we hung the twinkling lights and popcorn on the branches. By the time we finished it looked like a Christmas tree! That night we all piled into the bunkbeds there at the mission house and spent the night together. I got up early yesterday after sleeping hardly at all to go to town with Angela. We took the day off from school. The new couple that is coming here with their son will be arriving tomorrow, so we spent time today doing last minute cleaning and getting ready. We also put another Christmas tree in the kitchen where the girls watch movies sometimes. Also we have new teachers coming in for the next term, which I am very thankful for because school was crazy on Friday with just Miss Merlin, Sarah, and me! Please pray that everything goes smoothly picking them up from the airport and for the transitions that will be taking place over the next few weeks. Several of the girls have passed almost all of their tests and if they pass just one more on Wednesday, they'll be moving up to the next grade-- they've been diligently studying all week! Please pray.... *for the Spirit of peace to flow like a river over this mountain. *for the girls and their test this week. *for Miss Pam: as she seeks the Lord for the next step. *that every day we would LOVE IN FAITH and show a Jesus the girls will want to fall in love with. I hope you all are well, I miss you and can't wait to see those of you in the NH vacinity at Christmas time. Blessings... and (belated) Happy Thanksgiving! I'm so thankful for all of you. Love, Jessica P.S. Just a side note about the weather here, which I thought was about 70 degrees F. year-round, actually gets cold for a month-- this month-- until Christmas day then it gets warm again. It's not that it's really cold, cold, but there's no where to go to get warm. At home it's freezing, but at least we have heat and fireplaces. I can't complain, though. There's no snow :)
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November 2006
November 12, 2006
So much has happened since I wrote last, I don't know where exactly to begin. God is so good and He is everything we need, especially in the day-to-day routines when sometimes we need Him the most. But I'm glad He's also there when the schedule gets broken up a little bit! Last week, I was just getting into the hang of having the school run smoothly and getting the materials together for the girls BEFORE their classes began for the afternoon (they have Spanish classes in the mornings that have nothing to do with me!) and our water pump broke. So mid-week, Angela -- a graduate of the Project, who took a semester off from college to come back to the farm to help out -- and I left at 6 o'clock in the morning to catch the bus to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, to try and find a couple of parts for the pump that we can't get around here. The ride was 4 hours through gorgeous countryside, over the mountains! I tried to concentrate on the beautiful scenery and not the sharp curves, fallen boulders, or the vehicle we passed upsidedown in the ditch. We drove past the cement houses, past children in the street, past banana trees and coffee plants, past people selling fruit and vegetables, and then we saw the city! It was build in a big "bowl" surrounded by mountains. You can still see where hurricane Mitch came through several years ago-- there was a mudslide that washed away an entire section of the city. We took a taxi to the hardware store (I almost had to leave my legs outside the vehicle, but somehow manage to get inside and close the door.) They had one of the parts we needed. The guy there called another store, found the part, caught a cab for us, told the driver where to go and sent us on our way. We got the part. Across the street was a supermarket and we finally found our Thanksgiving turkey (and carried him frozen all the way back to the farm on the bus!). Then we went to Angela's apartment for lunch, watched a tv show, and headed back to the bus station. We thought we'd have to wait an hour for the 2:30 bus, but the 1 o'clock hadn't left yet. We got on, and as we sat down the bus started moving and we headed home! At one point during the day, Angela said, "Momma must be praying..." (the girls all call Miss Pam "Mom"). She was. That was a long, but good day. In school, two of the grades are using English video classes for math, literature, penmanship, English, etc. The fifth grade is supposed to as well, but we don't have all the books they need, so I took over that class and pieced together a curriculum. It's been fun, although I didn't realize it had been so long since I looked at a math textbook! A new girl arrived from the judge's office on Wednesday. She's 12 years old and lost her mom last year. She and her three brothers had been living with a crazy aunt who was very abusive. The judge is still looking for a home for the boys. She used to work, selling things, and had never been to school. I was her first teacher (poor girl:) As I was showing her how to make her letters and sounds, she just couldn't stop smiling. She'd read short words and her eyes lit up when she figured out what she was saying-- every time! Yesterday Angela was teaching her about the parts of a plant. She asked the girl why we have flowers. She replied: "to take to the dead people." At first I laughed, then realized it wasn't funny. While we were walking to school one morning, a 5-year-old girl was crying. I asked her sister what was wrong and she said, "She's crying for my mom." Her mom died over three years ago of cancer, I think. I scooped her up in my arms and wanted to cry with her. But I told her about heaven instead. There have been times I've wanted to wring their necks, but it's moments like that I thank God for bringing me back. Last weekend Angela and I took 14 of the older girls for a hike! If you walk behind the farm, you're standing on the side of the mountain and on a really clear day, you can see El Salvador. We walked down into the valley and followed the river for a while. At one point we were walking through the forest and all of a sudden I found myself surrounded by 7-foot tall coffee plants (and music started playing:) with lime trees in the middle of them! The girls were asking me to pick limes for them, because I was the only one who could reach them. We found a nice spot a little further down and jumped in the river with all of our clothes on. We tried teaching the girls how to swim and float on their backs -- I just tried not to notice the 3" spider on the rock next to us on the side of the river. When everyone was purple and shivering, we got out and ate our picnic lunch before continuing on up the other side. We crossed the river on a questionable bridge made of ropes and boards hanging from the trees about 10' above the water. Miss Pam's friend lives on that mountain and she wanted us to visit her since she couldn't, because he foot's still in a cast from when she twisted it a couple weeks ago. The woman made us all coffee and we sat for a while eating bananas and drying off, then headed home. Everyone slept like babies that night. After school this past week, we've been cleaning and painting the fourth house (for the new couple that's coming in December to help run the farm). The girls have been a big help, but have gotten almost as much paint on the floors as they've gotten on the walls. It will be beautiful by December. A 15-year-old girl decided three years ago not to like me from the moment we met. Her older sister and best friend, the only one she confided in, was one of the girls who left the farm a few weeks ago. The lady who came with the papers to get her sister promised this girl she'd come back for her next week. That was a month ago and she hasn't come back. This past week the girl saw her sister in town and her sister told her to stop giving Miss Pam problems and attitude. She relaxed a little bit after that, but not completely. I keep trying to get her to teach me Spanish, which she gets a kick out of, just to get her to talk. And last weekend, when I slept at her house, she kept getting the other girls to ask me to sing them to sleep while we were all there in the dark. Please pray for her, that God's light would shine in her darkness. Please remember us all in your prayers! Blessings to you. ~Jessica
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