Good Bad and Ugly

The Good— The electric is all in the Children’s Lighthouse, all tested and even prepped for a few future things, just need electric company approval to put up the transformer and pay them the connection fee. The electrician said it would have cost $40-$60,000 in NY for the same job…all donated. Wow and amen the LORD is good. The driveway gutters are now complete all the way down with culverts, road tubes and all. Made a concrete upper drain across the driveway Friday, to collect the water between the buildings and roof. Started on the rest of the gutters for the building; and the classroom section plus the floor/ceiling over the kitchen Monday. Just keep working as the LORD provides. Dropped off Wellington, the electrician, at the airport early this morning. He was a major blessing for Barry Jr, Carlos and us. He worked from 530am to 6pm daily, got a foot fungus, bit by scorpions, got sick and never missed a moment working, witnessing, smiling, preaching or serving. I was amazed at his testimony and true servant’s heart. Thank you Wellington for your service to our wonderful Saviour.

The Bad—It rained again before services on Sunday and filled the tent with about 5 inches of water. One of our ladies grabbed a shovel and began digging a trench, but did not get a shovel full before others took over to try to drain water away. It rained so hard it collapse 2 corners of the tent. Bibles went into the water the pulpit was water logged, everyone and everything was drenched, church was late, yet 60 still came to a meaty preaching, teaching message by Carlos. Amen!
Wednesday amidst all the heartache told below in the “ugly”, we had a church email us telling us they were terminating our support for lack of communication (?) and too much reporting about the lighthouse and children and not about the church. My heart sank we are already living by faith month to month. And we share those things close to heart at the time. When it was the church plant in Los Tererros, that filled the blog, When the doctors and preaching outreach was here, that filled the blog. What ever the LORD is doing I share. The timing could not have been more painful. Wellington was taken aback, he saw a lot here and witnessed the struggles first hand. It was like kicking a seriously wounded soldier for not fighting hard enough. Not only do we have constant frontal battles, supply battles but some willing to kick your feet out from under you for some reason they think is just in the midst of the battle. My reply was lengthy and I will share it without names for those interested, but not in the blog.

The Ugly-- The last four children Nancy, Recardo, Mario, and Fernando are no longer with us. After the surprise in the court house last week things got ugly and dangerous. It was heartbreaking but had to be done. We poured so much of ourselves into them, they were changing for the good, then see it unravel in a week. In the courthouse the parents seperatly(they realy hate each other)huddled in corners with the children for about 10 minutes before the lawyers/clercs broke them up. The dad had told them to steal our identification and papers, Credit cards and anything they could pass to their cousin when they went to the school. Also to poo on the floors, walls and misbehave as much as possible…and they did. Even the school saw a big difference and complained. The cousin at school had also been telling all the children we have to steal from the Americans…good thing it is a “Christian” school. (if we could just afford our own school we are legal to do so) We caught Nancy stealing my all my ID, credit cards, money and Sasha’s gold School ring, to take to school for her dad. I wanted to scare her and took her to the police after talked with all the children to find out the story…. All said their parents told them to. We filed a report to be able to give to Child services. After several hours talking with the police she seemed sorry, we prayed and I did not sign to charge her or her father and took her home. The next morning I woke Nancy first and we talked for over an hour about everything, a really sweet sounding moment and she wept on my shoulder said she was sorry and we prayed a while…but an hour later she stole our second set of keys, told her brother to try again to steal our IDs, this time not just mine, but Lisa and Sasha’s as well, and all our credit/debit cards, passports, residency card and even more money from the church offerings and construction funds. It was during our tent set up time as we are going in and out of the house setting up for church in the rain. That was enough, I took them to the police filled the reports and left them. Then went to the Judge and gave a deposition about the dad and the children. It was ugly, Satan trying to attack and only the Grace of the LORD protecting. Please pray for the children and keep us near the throne….we need wisdom, protection and provision beyond measure.

Unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour,

Barry