Update on Fernanda

We had to go shopping today and ran into the Jacksons in the store. They are still hurting from all that has happened, but yesterday when they were talking to the nurse at the clinic, God gave them peace about the situation. Please continue to pray for them during this time of great sadness for them.

The situation with Fernanda at this time is, that as long as she is in the birth father's house there is nothing that can be done as she is in a "new home situation". If she goes back to the house where she was living before with her mom and grandmother she will be taken away by InHFA (like CPS). As the original report was filed solely because of the conditions of the grandmother and mother's house and its affect on the girls, it would have to be refiled. This means that there would have to be another complaint listed. As long as she is living in another area, getting her medicine, and does not get drastically sick again there is nothing that can be done.

Saturday, after the funeral, the birth father proposed marriage, and so Reina, the birth mother and Carmen, the grandmother moved into his house. After just one day the grandmother (who has mental problems) left and as she has a lot of influence over her daughter we are not sure how long she will stay with the father.

Please continue to pray for the Jacksons safety in this time. The father of the babies is a gang member and the night before the funeral got together 20 men and circled Bro. Alan and started asking questions very accusingly. The church members were defending the Jacksons and told the men how much the Jacksons do for anyone in their church. They were not trying to "steal" the babies, but were only trying to help them get better. Bro. Alan didn't get mad, but answered them in a soft voice and they finally left. The Jacksons are going to take baby Fernanda a gift tomorrow to help them see that they only want what is best for them and then they are going to leave them alone. They want the leave the situation on a happy note though.

The Jacksons did have something positive happen on Sunday. They had 60 first time visitors in their Sunday school program. There is an Episcopal Orphanage a few miles from where the church is and two ladies from the church in San Buenavenura work for the orphanage as cooks. For reasons known only to God the orphanage has decided to send all of the kids to the Sunday school at Iglesia Bautista Betel (Bethel Baptist Church).

The Jacksons have seen the Lord really grow their work in the past few months. The devil never likes to see people getting saved and he is fighting. We are so thankful that we have a God who knows the end of the matter and who will never leave us.

Wild Weeks

We have had a lot going on here. Jason is getting ready to take a group of men to a place called Puerto Lempira. There are no roads in this area. You have to take a plane or a boat. These three men are going to survey the area as they and their families were kicked out of Venezuela where they were working with indigenous tribes. They have the desire to do the same thing possibly in Honduras.

Our friends, the Jacksons, have a church in an area about 10 Kms from us, but on the other side of a main road. Their town is called San Buenaventura. They are great people and for the past week have been helping a lady with twin 6 month old daughters. Reina is a very immature mother. Her own mother is not all there mentally. To make a long story short, Reina agreed to let the Jacksons keep the girls for a year to help them build up their defenses. The girls were very sick, they both had pneumonia, and wouldn't be able to get better in the home they were in. The house was built of scrap lumber and was very cold. They babies were being fed rice, beans, and tortilla with coke and as you know a 6 month old with no teeth cannot survive on that. After more than 2 weeks in the public hospital the babies were discharged this past Thursday evening. They went to the Jackson's house to spend the first night. Daisy, the sickest was having a hard time breathing, but was eating well and took her medicine just fine. Waking up on Friday morning she seemed happy. She coughed a little as they were getting her dressed, but it didn't sound normal. Becky (Jackson Mom) sent Alan (Jackson Dad) with Jenny (teenager) to the clinic as when she patted the baby on the back she didn't react right. The left quickly to go to the clinic. They went to the two closest clinics, but they were closed. They went to the doctor's house, but he wasn't there. By the time they made it to the third clinic (6 Kms away) despite CPR, Daisy had died. When they started back home all of the clinics were open. They called us and we left right away. The nurse at the clinic told us that the hospital had let her go home because they knew she was going to die and didn't want her to die in the hospital. The whole time that they were in the hospital they were treated badly because the nurses thought that the biological mother was unfit so they didn't try to save the kids. They never once suctioned out the lungs.

Fernanda (the remaining twin) was still at the Jackson's house and they asked us to take her into Teguc to our own pediatrician to make sure she was not going to die too. I knew her breathing was shallow and fast when we first picked her up and I was worried that she was going to die on the way to town. The doctor said that though she was bad, she didn't have pneumonia anymore. Her breathing was more than 60 breaths a minute and she was struggling for each breath, but she didn't have to be hospitalized. He gave her some stronger medicine and another type of breathing medicine. By the time the Jacksons got done with the preparation for the funeral and came to pick her up, her breathing was at around 44 breaths a minute and she seemed to not be struggling for each breath. I was so relieved when she had seen the doctor and had started breathing better on the medicine. We were so relieved that she was doing better. Joey loved playing big brother and getting to play with her. He kept trying to bring her toys and tickle her.

The Jackson had the funeral Saturday morning. They had borrowed our truck to take people to the cemetery and brought it back Saturday evening. I came downstairs and found all of the baby stuff we had lent them. They were supposed to keep the baby, but the father of the babies (19 year old gang member) persuaded the mother to keep her. The Jackson's had to give her up. They said it was the hardest thing they have ever had to do as they are sure they are giving her up to die. We bought all of the medicines for her, but they have to go and have them administered as half are injections. The family tends to be lazy (wouldn't get free medicine when Daisy had just gotten sick, because they didn't want to stand in line). Please pray for the Jackson's as this is a very hard time for them. Also pray for Fernanda that she would survive.

Happenings

So much has happened since I wrote last; I grew a year older, we had a great Ladies Meeting, Sunday school attendance has picked up, school started again, etc. Perhaps the greatest thing that happened is that Audrey learned to wash the dishes. I decided to teach her on Friday night. I had to stand by and give the dirty dishes to her again and again explaining how to clean them properly. Since then she has washed all of the dishes and I have not had to clean one of them again. There are times that I wish she was still a little baby, but when she is washing the dishes for me is not one of them. :-)

Today was a great day in Sunday school and church. We had only had one problem. We had to tell a Grandmother who sends her kids in that we cannot pick them up anymore if she is not coming with them. The kids were running crazy outside during the service (they were angels in Sunday school) and when I told them to go inside and listen to the preaching, they ran away from me. Thankfully they didn't get lost or hurt, but I was so worried that something was going to happen to them before we got them home. Isabelle came last week with her grandkids, but this week was a no show. Isabelle and her daughter both said that they want to come with the kids next week. I pray that this is so.

Tomorrow starts another school week. (Yuck) Jason will be gone most of this week on preaching engagements so it will just be me. When he gets home then Bro. Phil Gagnon is coming to stay with us for a few days. Bro. Phil has meetings with some national Pastors, but I believe he is running away from the ladies who are taking over his house. The Ladies Conference is this week and they have several ladies from the states coming to help them with all of the work. This year I don't get to go because there is no one to teach school. Jason will be with Bro. Phil at his meetings and I cannot drop classes for those days as the kids are going to miss a week when I am in the States in March and they may miss classes when the church comes for two weeks in April.

As Jordan finished his first homework assignment today, he came and gave me his book. He told me, "I am finally done with my homework and I don't want to read again, ever." He is always good for a few laughs.

Quiet Days

The past few days have been relaxing and quiet. We haven't been doing a lot but have started to get caught up on all of the office work. I am trying to design a easy to read tract that anyone can read with our church information and a simple gospel message. I wish I could borrow Stacy Smith's brain for just a few hours. :-) When our church comes they should be bringing some, but we need something for in the meantime.

The past two days have brought hurricane force winds to Honduras. While the winds that we have had in the city are not that strong, because we are in a bowl shaped city surrounded by mountains, we have had very cold temperatures and wind strong enough to knock the power out a few times. Our friends that live outside the city just got their power turned for the first time in two days.

Please pray for our church people in this cold. Many of our people are sick. The past week was nice and warm, the perfect weather actually, but the past two days have been the opposite. When your house is drafty and you don't have a lot of warm clothes you body can't handle a 20 degree drop in temperature over night. Thankfully HiperPiaz (Walmart of Honduras) had coats on sale for $5.00 last week and I bought my kids new coats so they are set for any cold weather that may come around. Because of the good price I called all of the church members that had phones and many of them came into town and bought coats too. If I only had enough money I would have loved to have bought each one of the Sunday school kids a coat.

New Years Day

We had the Jackson Family over for New Years day. Normally we buy a Ham for that day, but this year I couldn't find the kind I normally buy which is precooked and ready to heat and eat. I did find a huge Smithfield ham with instructions in English. I got it, but it didn't look like any ham I had ever eaten. I decided to bake it according to its directions. The only thing was that it was missing the first half of the directions and we didn't know it. We started baking it as was stated, but when we took it out of the oven it didn't look done and when we started to cut it we could see that it wasn't done at all. We put it back in the oven and cooked it some more while we ate the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and salad that were ready. When the ham was finally done (2 hours later) we cut it and tasted it. The amount of salt in the ham just about burnt my mouth. We cut it up and decided to use it to cook in other recipes while cutting out all salt called for. Today as I was doing research online I found out that I was supposed to cover the entire ham (it was a salt cured ham) in water for at least 24 hours while changing the water every 4 hours. You could soak it for less time if you wanted it really salty. No wonder my ham tastes like I am eating a salt lick.

We had so much fun with the Jacksons. We played a game called Up and Down, then we played speed Skip bo, and after that we had fun playing two games of Cranium. It has been so long since we have been together as we both have been so busy, that we played until 10:00 at night. We both needed the time of fellowship and refreshment. We have never laughed so hard. It was a really relaxing time for all of us.

We learned one thing while playing Cranium with the Jacksons. If you have a strong feeling that an answer in right it probably is. At the end of both games we counted up at least 10 trivia questions that we ladies knew, but over analized the question and possible answers and therefore got them wrong. I wish I didn't have to wait all year for another chance to play games like that again. Not that I want my children to grow up any faster, but there are times that it would be fun to play non-kid games as a family.

I hope everyone had a great New Year and that God will bless all of you in 2008. My prayer is that many new souls will be saved this coming year and that the hearts of Hondurans will be opened to the Lord like never before.