Things that Make Your Heart Skip a Beat.....

I know that there have been times in my life where it felt like my heart skipped a beat. Like the day Mark asked me to marry him and the day that each of our children were born. To me those are very special times in your life. There are also many other things that give me that "skip a beat" or "hair tingling" feeling. I must say; that being able to lead someone to the Lord gives me that feeling as well. It is such an awesome thing to know that you were able to be used to help another stray lamb find their way to the Savior.

Today, I have had a few more experiences where my heart skipped a beat. This afternoon I walked into my bedroom and heard what sounded like paper brushing up against the wall. (not uncommon when I leave the fan on and my notes and things on my night stand). So, I went to retrieve what I thought were papers when to my surprise.........was a big(okay in my eyes it was big) black iguana. Don't even ask me how he managed to get in the house...but he did and he was in my bedroom. I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Not because I am really that scared of them...but because that was the last thing that I expected to see in "MY BEDROOM"......lol.   (not a good skip a beat situation...but it was to funny not share)

Then, this evening was a great "skip a beat moment" when we sat as a  family and sang hymns in Spanish during our family devotion. It was such a sweet time. The kids have really adapted well and are doing good. We are also trying to teach them how to pray and to pray with their whole heart if they have needs and desires. It is sweet to hear the things that the kids pray for:

Some of the prayer requests include:
Their parents
The Church
Pastor Matt and family
bicycles
basketball goal
they all want cleats.......to play soccer
whole chickens, cheddar cheese, ice cream and fruit

We know that God will answer the requests and there is nothing sweeter than to hear them pray for them. We encourage you all to sing and have family devotion and prayer time in your home if you don't already....it might just be your "heart skipping a beat" moment as well.

Poco A Poco.......Little by Little

 After three days of picking out lice we think that we have gotten rid of them all. We will treat the hair again in seven days just to make sure. Whew! With that behind us the kids were all excited to put on their new clothes and shoes for todays church service. Today, was the first time the boys have ever worn a tie. They were so excited to put them on and waited patiently until it was time to go to church. They all looked so cute as we walked over together. When children are placed in the home we have a waiting period before they can have visits with their familes. This is done so that the children can adapt to living in a new home with new rules. They can however, see and talk to their parents at church if they attend.  Our new family of four's mom attends are church sometimes and their dad has only been maybe one time in the history of the church starting. After all of the children were dressed and ready we started to walk across the field when the kids see a man riding his bicycle.....it was their dad. It was such a blessing to see him in church- even if it was only to see his children- he had to sit and listen to some good preaching. Please be in prayer for him and that he will continue to come to church to see his children and the Lord will soften and touch his heart. We know that the children were excited to see him at church along with their mom ,who cried after she saw them this morning.

Today's service was a great one and we had two ladies accept Christ as their Savior. I was able to lead one lady to the Lord...what a blessing it was. She kept saying that she was sorry for crying, she said,"I just cant stop, I don't know why." I told her it was because the Lord was working in her life, and she said that she had a Catholic background but knew she needed something else. She had actually come to see one of her friends get baptized....but she was getting saved instead. WOW! It truly is amazing how the Lord works. Iglesia Bautista had 2 decisions for Christ and 6 baptized...Praise the Lord for moving in the lives of he people of Honduras.

New Faces=New Beginnings....

(From Left to Right)
Jr/12, David/6, Carolina/9, Belkis/13

 Many weeks ago we told you all about a family of four children whose mom worked long hours and their dad had no job. Today was a very exciting day here in Honduras as we placed them in the home. It has been a busy day with hair treatments, reviewing house rules and just a time of fun and adjustment. The kids seem to have a happy spirit and are excited to be here. Please pray as we will have adjustments on both sides that will need to be made to our increasing family.Also, please be in prayer for their parents as well. Today, we went from eating at one table to using two but it is nice to have kids in those empty beds now. Tonight, I went into the room of the boys which has been empty until now....they were so excited to be able to sleep on their own bed with clean and brand new sheets. The three oldest children use to share a bed and the little one would share a bed with his parents. Karla did a devotion with the little kids tonight and we had the bigger ones in the kitchen. Karla asked if they were thankful for anything and David replied: "I am thankful for all the new clothes that I got today."  We are so excited and can not wait to post pictures of them on Sunday as the boys will be using ties for the first time. If you could have only seen their faces as they tried on each item today it was precious.

Sharing our Blessings With Others

Many of you all know that Mark and the boys have been working hard in our garden. It is so amazing to see the fruits of their labor. It has also been wonderful to see how many people have sent us seeds to plant.  You all just do not know how much of a blessing that is and the fact that no two packages have been the same. God guided each of your hands and your packages so that all of you could be a huge blessing to us. God has really multiplied each row and we have had a boutiful supply. With that said we have been able to be a blessing to many within our church family. Some of them have had a hard time finding steady work and with little work...means little money for food. It has been such a great gift to share what God has provided us here at Esperanza. Here are just a few pictures of us sharing our harvest.

Building Dedication

It was an exciting time for us here on March 11th as we dedicated Esperanza de Honduras to the Lord. We were honored to have so many people with us that day including Mr. Bill Braun and Mrs. Ruth Monti, Jeff Braun's dad and grandmother. We had been waiting for this day since our journey began. It was a very special time for not only us, but all who have been involved along the way. We had 330 people in attendance at El Faro for the special events of the day. We started with our childrens program. It was alot of fun teaching the children to sing in English. They all did a great job and I am was very proud of the 6-9 year old class for learning "So Much to Thank Him For" in English along with Family of God.

Pastor Kerry Nance did a great job on the days sermon and we had 5 accept Christ as their Savior. After the service we all headed over to the cottage for the dedication part of the service. We were able to show Jeff's dad the plaque that had been made in honor of Jeff and his dream to start a childrens home in his native country. We had special times of prayer for our family and the ministry and then headed back to the church for dinner on the grounds. It was a great day and we are so excited for the future. Thank you all who have been praying for us and our ministry...May God continue to bless our efforts and family here in Honduras.

Thank YOU Jeff for your vision for Honduras!

Many Prayer Needs.....

It has been a busy week here and lots to do everyday. We were lucky to rid all of the lice in the house and that is a huge Praise! Another Praise that we have is that Angie is doing well with her studies. She has really learned a lot of English in such a short time and she is improving on her math skills everyday. She looks forward to having class each morning. She can even read small word books that I would have used for K5. She is really excited about reading in English.




Teaching Angie to read in English

 We also were able to go and look at a van this week. This is a huge need for us as we can not all travel in one vehicle. Please help us pray for wisdom in the buying process.  This will not only serve as transportation for the children in the home but for when we have groups visit us from the states.



The van we are looking at but in Silver


The second prayer request that we have is for Angie. We have recently taken her to the dentist for the first time. Being that this was her first visit she had a lot of work to be done. She has had to have two teeth pulled, then they were cleaned and now we are on to filling cavities. She will have to have 6 teeth in total repaired.  This is a large expensive because of the fact that she has never seen a dentist before in her life. We are looking at about $250-$275 for all the work. This will more than likely be the exact same process for every child that come in the home. After the dentist the next stop will be the doctor and then eye doctor. We do not have any type of health insurance here and so all medical/dental treatment is out of pocket.



The kids are all helping move a load of dirt

    Lastly, we have a large amount of standing water on the far side of the property. We are in need of at least 10 loads of fill dirt and rock to fill in this large area. We may even need up to 18 loads total. Each load is roughly $95 a load. This is a huge expense for us but also a great need. Please join us in prayer regarding the funds to fill this and get rid of the mosquito problem that we have due to the standing water.  We know that God will provide all that we need...HE proves that everyday. Thank you all who pray for our family and for our ministry here. We look forward to sharing more with you in the future. Until then Bendiciones(Blessings)

Life....Lice.....Lambs and Lessons......

WOW! While I love being in the ministry sometimes there are parts that we all dislike but are a part of life. We have been dealing with lice here in Esperanza. Here there are more people that have this dreadful tiny little insect than those who don't. We thought, that we had killed off all of them but to our surprise they have returned. We have spent countless hours reviewing hair by hair. We hopefully, have picked them each off and I only wish that I would had thought to take a picture of the larger than sesame seed bug before I tossed it. This has been a time of extreme patients for me....patients at which I thought I had until I had to review everyones head to insure no one else had them. Please pray that we can rid them and keep them gone. 

Now, we can move on to the lambs....we have a herd that seems to use our yard along with the church property to graze. For those of you who garden...you know the countless hours it takes to till your field, mound up your rows, plant and water your seeds and wait for them to sprout. Then, when the fruits of your labor begin to pop up and grow and are just about to give off their fruits..........when a herd of lamb/sheep demolish them in less than 20 seconds. Yep, you heard it...they ate up our green bean bushes, ate the leaves off of the cucumber plants and then ate the squash......the actual squash people.....anyone want "leg of lamb"?

Mark was so disappointed. We went on Monday to buy the wood stakes, metal wire for fencing and nails to put around the garden. Thankful they did not get their fill at our beautiful garden, and God is causing it to still produce. We are also thankful to those who have sent us seeds. We will have so many yummy veggies coming up in just a short time. We hope to pick yellow squash tomorrow as well as red mustard greens. The Lord is so good.  

A few other fun things going on here are school lessons. We are trying to get Angie caught up in areas of her weakness and at the same time teach her some English. It is so amazing at how fast she is learning. Today, we learned a few basic words-box, cat, dog, goat, and jacket-as well as some simple sentences.

She can read the things that she has learned so far and is very eager to have class everyday.

We have a few prayer requests here:
Gummy vitamins
Pony-tail holders/and headbands
Girls no-show socks(size womens 7-10)
Girls half slip (little girl size 12-14)(white and black)
Teen Chapter Books in Spanish(Christian)


Thank you all for how you pray for our ministry.