Time to Play Catch-Up

(Pastor Arnaldo, me, Bessy, Maria, and Debbie)... Zulema had to travel, so she was not in the picture :(


(Genesis and her brother Axel)

After a couple of very busy weeks, the day care will be closed for afew weeks. Most of the families go out to the villages over the holidays, and public school for the older kids does not start until February. A lot of extended family lives out in the villages, so it takes a day of travel on bus to get to most destinations.

I will be taking this break to catch up on communication! Since I am not certain on the funding for the year, I will be staying in Honduras for the holidays, with my family here. It’s not exactly the same, but my mom sent Christmas candles and some of my favorite holiday recipes. This week we have plans to celebrate Christmas at Aben’s ministry in Los Pinos (another poor community), celebrate a few kids graduating from his school, our Bible study Christmas party, and then on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we will be with Aben’s family.

I also plan to catch up on emails, blogs, and Facebook. I will now be posting most of my pictures to the Foundation Casa de Luz page on Facebook. I will try to post them on my page as well, but I was asked to keep this page updated, so it will be my first priority for pictures. Here is the link Foundation Casa de Luz Facebook Page Or you can go to my Facebook page and click on my information. I will also try to make another slideshow for the blog with more pictures.

(Christmas artwork)

Now the update of three crazy days, that took weeks of preparation! In preparation, many of you donated to help buy Christmas gifts for the kids and families. Let’s just say, there is not a “one shop stop” in Honduras, so I had to visit many different places to get all the toys, gifts and materials; which also takes time because of traffic patterns and hours at the ministry. The great news is that we got to bless the families! Each kid got little toys (boys: plastic soldiers, cars, plastic animals, ect; girls: bracelet, ring, necklace, ect), candy, a big toy (boys: toy motorcycles; girls: a doll), and a stuffed animal. For the mom’s I developed about 15-20 pictures of each kid that I have taken over the year (most families don’t have pictures because they are expensive to develop and don’t have cameras), a family picture (we had family picture day), a picture frame that the kids made and decorated from popsicle sticks, lotion, body spray and banana bread. It took a lot of preparation, but they were blessed and grateful! Thank you to every one who was part of blessing these families!

Last Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to a discovery -learning center with the kids. I don’t know exactly how it was arranged, but our board of directors told us the Thursday before, that it was arranged for our kids to go for free! Once we got there, the kids loved it. Unfortunately, the driving there was terrible. On a usual day, it takes me 5-10 minutes to get to the ministry; however, this field trip day, I had to go around town because there was ahuge strike on my corner (I live in the worst location when it comes to the strikes). It took about 45 minutes to fight the traffic, choose the ‘best’ route, and get two-three blocks from my house. After getting to the ministry, we got to load up the kids and go on the field trip. Fortunately wedidn’t go through the same mess, but the traffic was a result of the mess and took a lot longer than necessary. I had the little kids in my car, so it was a fun experience. The field trip was very fun, the kids got to play, climb, and learn in many different stations/ rooms.

(lined up, ready to go in toChiminike!)

Wednesday was planned to be the last day and pizza party. We decorated ice cream cones with icing like Christmas trees and put little candies on them to decorate. Some of the kids enjoyed eating the icing more than putting it on the cone J

(Juan Jose frosting his Christmas tree)

(David decorating)

The last few hours on Wednesday we found out that Friday we needed to come and have all the children come, as well as the rest of the children from the church and the community. A national tv program was going to shoot a live program and give the kids gifts. Our space that holds about 20 kids, had about 110 kids and 40 parents all squeezed in. The piñata didn’t work because there was not extra room to swing. It was crazy and there were a lot of crying children, BUT everyone went home happy with candy and very nice toys. We sang some songs and tried to keep the kids calm for 4 hours while they recorded for the evening show, then did a live show after. I actually had the opportunity to take pictures of the street because it was safe with so many kids and mothers on it.

(boys outside, girls inside)

(attempted pinata)
(Javier and his gift) (Heydi, Oliver and Linda were huddled in the corner of the daycare because their mom did not come with them, and little Heydi was one of the smallest in the huge crowd of kids... it was very cute to see them like this!)
(leaving CDL, news truck on the street)
(the street where I park, up on the left is CDL)

(the other direction down the same street)

In summary, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday were great days to be a kid at Casa de Luz. They enjoyed the time and will be missed over the holiday. I’m glad these families were blessed so much. The mothers were extremely grateful and said thank you to all of your for the blessing you are in their lives.

As you know I have been working with 3 other Honduran ladies in the ministry: Zulema, Bessy and Maria. This coming year will have some changes that will take some adjustments. Maria was with us in the morning and going to school in the evening. She will not be with us after Christmas. I really enjoyed working with her, she was very good and caring with the kids. She is applying for a humanitarian job with the government as she continues her schooling. She loves the kids, but not the teaching aspect. She will be missed. Instead of replacing her, the board has decided to have Debbie (who helped over this past year) to come in during the lunch hour to help out. Debbie leads Sunday school at the church and is GREAT teaching the kids. She was a huge help on Friday with the tv program! I don’t know what we would have done without her. I’m excited to work with her on a regular basis. Lastly, Bessy will be getting married on January 14. She plans to stay in the city and continue at the ministry. We are excited for her and are looking forward to the wedding.

Thank you everyone for your prayers and support this year. May God bless you and your family as you share Christmas together.

Merry Christmas,

Jenny