Loving the Least of These

I wanted to email you all about a couple of things. As many of you know Jen Wright, David Logue and I have recently taken in 3 boys whose mother couldn't care for them, and then we also took in another 6 boys and their mother while their father is in an alcoholic treatment center. So needless to say, our house has filled up quickly! Each of these boys hold a special place in each of our hearts, and they are a blessing in our lives. We love having them in our house and cherish every moment we get to spend with them. They are certainly some of the sweetest boys on this earth. It goes without saying that our monthly expenses have increased significantly with 13 people now living in our house. Aside from the significant increase in our grocery bill, five of the nine boys started school in January. They are in a private bilingual school here in Tegucigalpa. It's a great school and the boys will have a much brighter future if they are able to speak english as well as spanish. This ability will provide them with many more job opportunities as adults which we hope, will increase their chances of one day being able to have a family of their own that they can provide for. We hope this will help them to stop the cycle of poverty in their family. While this school is not necessarily a 'Christian' school, they have bible verses on the walls and it is clear God is certainly a part of their day at this school. Three more of the boys we hope to enroll in a spanish speaking school, we feel that this would be best for them because of educational reasons. They are all behind in their schooling, one of the boys is 12 years old and will only be entering the first grade, so we feel that it would be best for these three boys to attend a private spanish school where they won't feel so out of place in their grade level. [ in the spanish schools it is not uncommon for children to be older than the normal age for their specific grade level]  So we feel that this is the best option for these boys and hope to enroll them soon. The spanish school year starts in February and goes until November.  For the boys that are attending the bilingual school, it costs $125 a month per child to send them to this school. We broke that down, and if we can get 5 people to sponsor each child at $25 a month they will be fully supported to get a good education. [ to break that down even farther, it is the equivalent of filling an M&M tube twice a month with your spare quarters. Your coins can change a life forever.] 

Also, our only ministry car has been in and out of the shop over the last month or so.  In early December the vehicle would no longer go in reverse. We drove it as long as we could, but finally we had to put it in the shop because we knew that this was a problem with the transmission and didn't want to continue driving it, possibly making the problem worse. So our mechanic ordered a new transmission from the states and had it sent over here by plane. [ We drive a Chevy Suburban, which isn't a common vehicle here in Honduras, so he couldn't find a transmission here] Our vehicle was in the shop for 8 days that time and this cost us over $1300 just to fix the vehicle but we also had to rent a vehicle for the days that ours was in the shop because those 8 days we had a team here and had to have a car to be able to do the things we needed to for the team. The rental car cost us $60 per day. So the rental car alone was around $480. As soon as we got the vehicle back within two or three days it started running really loudly, and continued to get worse over the following two weeks. When we finally had enough money to rent another rental car for a few days we took it back to the shop and had that problem fixed. We just got the car back on January 16th, and on Sunday the 18th on the way to church the car completely broke down and began leaking transmission fluid. The car wouldn't even start so we had it towed to the mechanic once again...  The car is out of the shop and running {not well} but it is usable for now. We are in desperate need of a new vehicle to continue doing the things we have been called to do in Honduras.  You all have been so great about helping fund our ministries and so from the bottom of my heart I want to thank each of you. If there is any possible way that you are able to help us out with the boys' schooling or with our vehicle we would greatly appreciate it. We would not be able to do what we do without each of you! And the boys will be forever grateful for the huge blessing you are providing them with through a good education.

From the sweet voices who will never be able to tell you....THANK YOU!