Dream On!

January and February have both been busy months with lots being done.  In January, the Daycare was finally finished and opened back up.  There are lots of pictures on our Facebook page for you to take a look at.  There is a link at the top of the blog that will lead you to our Facebook page.  We are averaging 25-30 kids a day with over 40 registered.  The Manna Project is also doing really well.  We have had a slight increase in kids that come to eat everyday.  With the way the economy is dipping and the increases in taxes this year, we may start to see numbers increase a little more.  All in all, it has been a great start to the year. 

This month school has started back in Honduras.  The Honduran school schedule runs from February until November.  Most kids are now back in school which could be a reason for our increase in the number of kids who eat at the feeding center.  The schools do not provide lunch and if your friend at school is eating there and you are hungry, well I think we'd all go eat there too.  There is a morning session as well as an afternoon session.  So about 11 am, the kids who attend the afternoon classes come for lunch and then go to class, about 12pm the kids who just finished the morning session come for lunch.  The start of school also means it is time to buy school supplies for the kids who need really need them.  I feel like I am now an expert school supply shopper.  For an entire week nearly all I did was buy school supplies and hand them out.  We were able to buy for 106 kids and are still working to get list from families who we know cannot afford any supplies for their kids.  The money is nearly all spent however.  I felt so accomplished on the day that I bought supplies for the 106^th list I had, the last one.  Then, when we gave out those supplies that Thursday I received a few more lists.  Well….not just a few more.  At noon I had zero lists, by 5pm I had over 100 new lists.  Right now I’ve got 120+ and our funds are almost gone.  No matter how much you buy, you can never buy for all of the kids.  It’s awesome to be able to buy and give supplies to kids but it sucks to have to tell kids no, I’m out of funds. 

We are also building a new house for the preacher to live in.  The wooden house that was next to the kitchen was in rough shape.  When Noel moved out in December we really saw how bad that house was.  To repair it we were basically going to have to replace all the high priced items, corner posts, siding boards, support columns, window and door posts, fix some roof leaks.  The most expensive parts.  So instead we are building him a block house that is a little bigger and will last for quite a while.  Evelyn said that one reason she moved out of the house was because it was in poor shape and needed repair and she couldn’t see Pablo living in that house for very long.  We were all in agreement that the best action was building a new one.  It is under construction right now and will hopefully be done in a week, possibly a week and a half. 

Jorge Aguilera has also begun to take on a larger role in Mololoa.  His new clinic FEBE opened in Los Pinos last year.  He conducted a medical clinic in October as well as a follow up in early February and has found that there is a lot of malnourished kids in Mololoa.  He wants to work with us to help solve that problem. I also have a link at the top of the page to his webisite clinicfebe.org for you to take a look at.  We are wanting to find sponsors for children who are in stage 3 of malnutrition.  You can read all about what we are trying to do on his website.  One big thing we want is to build a medical clinic in Mololoa.  In my last newsletter I mentioned this and how I would like to build it on the property of the Daycare.  This would work and it would work well but as Pablo, Jorge, Dra. Romero and I have been talking, we are looking at other possible locations.  One of which is buying property very near the Church and feeding center and using that property to build a clinic.  For those of you who have been here, the family that lives next to the classroom, this property is in front of their house.  If you are standing on the bridge looking up at the Church, it’s right next to the bridge on your left.  It’s one possibility but we are going to have to find funding first.  Jorge and I will both be trying to raise money over the coming months for the children as well as the clinic. 

The reason for not building the clinic on the daycare property is because I would also like to build an afterschool program.  It makes a lot of sense to have the afterschool program near the Daycare.  Supplies can be shared and using that entire property for learning opportunities (the daycare is a center for learning as well as a potential afterschool program) will be better than having sick people coming onto and off of the property, possibly making the daycare kids sick.  It just seems to make more sense to me.  Jennifer really wanted to start an afterschool program and planted the idea in my head.   I think her idea is wonderful and I’m hoping to make it happen.  Parents aren’t always able to help their kids with schoolwork and a lot of times the parents didn’t make it very far in school themselves.  They just do not have the ability to help their kids study and learn.  We can give the kids a better chance of success by tutoring them and helping them learn.  Also the public schools aren’t too great.  If we want to help create a bright future for the kids then this is another great way to do that.

I’ve also mentioned that I would like to be able to provide breakfast for the kids in Mololoa.  We are doing a great thing by providing lunch 5 days a week but with the malnourishment problems that we face, we cannot provide the nutritional value that the kids need with just 5 lunches a week.  Don’t get me wrong, The Manna Project has been a huge blessing to the community and I’d hate to think of where those kids that are most malnourished would be if we didn’t provide lunch for them.  I just want to do a little more. 

March 24^th-April 23^rd I am planning on making a fundraising trip to the States and quite a few trips to Taco Bell, Oh Taco Bell how I’ve missed you.  I don’t know if I’ll get funding for all of this, or some of this, or any of this.  But you never know if you never try.  A few years ago I got a Barnabas note (an encouraging note from someone on a Terry Reeves Torch trip) that had a set verses written at the bottom.  It has become one of my favorites.   Habakkuk 1: 2-5 says: 

How long, Lord, must I call for help but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, “Violence!” but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrongdoing?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  Therefore the law is paralyzed and justice never prevails.  The wicked hem in the righteous so that justice is perverted.  The Lord Answered, “Look at the nations and watch and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.”

I hope that God is saying the same things to us.  “Just go out and try to do what you think you need to do and then sit back and watch.  Watch me blow your minds because I want to blow your minds.”  I really, really hope that’s what He is saying but if not then that's ok too.  I think we have to dream big, see the injustice, see the wrong that is in this world, make ourselves available to The One that can change it and then let Him work but we have to understand that He is the one that is doing the changing, He is the one making it all happen.  I can only present the information to those He leads me to and He is the one that will move hearts to give.  Let your dreams be big enough and so nearly impossible enough that in order for them to be realized, God has to be involved.  Dream dreams that require the power of God to be accomplished.  So that’s what I’m doing, that’s what we are doing.  Jennifer had dreams of an afterschool program, I’m dreaming of a medical clinic, I think we’d all love to be able to provide breakfast for the kids, Jorge is dreaming of ending malnutrition.  Big dreams, a need for lots of funding, lots of fundraising, lots of prep work, lots of planning, lots of praying and it’s Honduras so lets be real, lots of frustration as well but I believe we have the Creator of the universe leading our way so lets do this.  Lets do what we can until we get to where it’s impossible for us to continue and then watch and be utterly amazed at what He will do.  If our efforts and our dreams align with His, then I’m sure we will have our minds blown.  We just have to have the faith like the size of a mustard seed.

I think I might have asked Jesus what it would look like to have faith like the size of an apple.   But then He probably would have schooled me with some answer like, “well get to the size of a mustard seed first and then we’ll talk”.

I hope everyone is doing great.  If anyone knows of a congregation or business or individual who is looking for a ministry to support, I’d love to go talk with them.  I’m open to going wherever I need to go and talking with anyone that will listen.  Just let me know.