We've Got Talent!

Saturday, June 14, we experienced our first annual talent show, planned and hosted by the Emmanuel volunteers. The children had two weeks to practice. There were 20 acts, including a presentation of some artwork, and the action ranged from dances to dramas to breakdancing. (yes, breakdancing) Two staff members got in on the fun with juggling and balancing things on the chin, including a broomstick, a metal folding chair and a flaming newspaper cone! My girls performed two dances and a drama. Third place was a tie between two of the other girls' houses. Second place was the staff member's balancing act, and first place went to the breakdancing boys. The grand finale was the volunteers' surprise rendition of the "Thriller" dance! It was definitely an entertaining night!

Becoming a mother...

Where do I start? Seeing as how 95% of the people I know are real-live, true parents, anything I write here will probably not strike most of you as new. Being a parent is hard! I obviously have not experienced the stress of pregnancy or the pains of labor, but coming to care for and understand a child without knowing what has happened to that child before you arrived on the scene of that precious life is pretty difficult in and of itself...times 44! I am pretty much daily amazed by the blessings and challenges that I face as I try to raise 44 girls in the way of the Lord. Please pray that I will continually seek God's help for the wisdom to do this because I can surely not even begin to be successful in my own strength...I have none. In ONE day, I had:

*1 girl who wandered over the hill behind our house and down close to our neighbor's property because she was upset about something another girl had said to her (This was in addition to the same girl ripping someone's drawing, breaking a mop handle and breaking a window pane, all within 3 weeks. Can we say anger management?)

*1 girl whom I argued with because, well, it would take too long to explain. Basically, she was disobedient to me because she was angry that she had already missed out on a privileged opportunity due to vanity and stubbornness, etc. (Of course, her version would be something totally different, right?) Teenagers!

*1 girl who was upset about I don't know what and chose to hide while I was putting the other girls into their rooms for the night, so that I thought she had run away and went out looking for her. Thankfully she didn't and was o.k.

*1 girl, one of my normally good 20-year old leaders, who refused to go into her room because she was mad about not being able to go to the planned talent show that evening because she had to stay and watch over the rest of the children who were not going.

WHEW!! Not to mention that Honduran pride is some of the toughest I have ever seen. Pretty much every time I try to help and ask, "What's wrong?" I get the back of a head, or whatever kind of blow-off they seem to think is appropriate at the time--tighter than a clamshell!

It's a pretty stressful profession/ministry/life at times. Please pray that I will allow God to help me put aside my own pride and frustrations so that I may be a pure example of His love to these children. I was thinking about my own family yesterday and how blessed I am, and I cannot even begin to imagine how these children without families or with every-now-and-then visiting families must feel. Lord, please help me to understand and love them!

"Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." James 1:27

Painting the Town!

Last month, I had the privilege of chaperoning one of our 7th grade classes as they completed a community service project in our hometown of Guaimaca. The project took 3 days, and it involved cleaning up and refreshing the town's central park (pretty much every Honduran and possibly Latin American town has one). The first day, the children used their expert cleaning skills (we clean a lot at Emmanuel) to rake and pick up trash around the park. I was pleased to see an elderly man joining in the process (I think there might be one or two Guaimacans who care about the cleanliness of their environment). They also painted all of the benches in the park, and by the end of the project had painted a monument, the lamppost bases, all of the parking lot curbs, and a yellow line around the park (?). We worked in conjuction with the mayor's office, so we basically did what they told us to. The students did an excellent job. They worked diligently and offered few complaints, which made me very proud. It was a little disheartening to see the ground covered with trash again on the second day, as well as places where people had carved their names into our fresh bench paint, but just like anywhere else, there are those who protect and those who destroy. There were two elderly women who were very protective of one bench in particular and made excellent security guards, watching that noone sat on it. At the end of the third day, we had enlisted half of the jobless, stray men hanging out at the park to protect other freshly painted areas, so it really did become a community project, which was fun to see. As some of us discussed, we did our service...it's up to the others whether they appreciate it and care for it or destroy it. My prayer is that the townspeople saw Jesus in the children and that they learned a little about serving and taking care of what they have been given.

"You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:14-16