Christmas and Weddings...

Three weddings (Bodas here) in one day…. on Sunday.
Not a feat I want to repeat anytime soon but a wonderful day none the less. A couple of months ago several newly saved couples fell under conviction about marriage. We began classes and teaching the importance and during this time I made a comment if they would commit I would cover the lawyer fee and allow it to be at the Children’s Lighthouse. That’s all it took and suddenly I had several weddings on my hands, and it always cost more than planned. They are all very poor and the cost of getting married here is prohibitive for many, especially if you have no conscience about it. The whole church got involved and it became a big event. Ladies preparing food and decorations, borrowing clothes, finding rides. After hearing Iris pray in church a while back they all wanted her to be the flower girl. I found a Cinderella coach to take pictures in. Lisa spent weeks finding all she needed to make a real wedding cake. Carlo’s mom came to church for the first time so I handed him my notes and had him preach. There were 3 in the large group of visitors who raised their hands for salvation…leave it to Carlos. Amen! Then he wimped out on the ceremony so I performed the wedding…kind of. To my surprise the lawyer jumped in and took over which I found was normal here…You need a lawyer for everything. When he was done I stood up and continued by adding there were no lawyers in the Garden of Eden… So now it’s time to make our vows before the LORD. And got a round of amens. It was a long but good day. I called Carlos at the end of the day just to talk about the days events. He answered quietly and said “Can I call you back. Two of the couples asked him to come over for a special time of prayer in their home…” all I could do is smile and say amen.

Christmas Morning in our house was a treat as well. Lisa had them make Christmas houses(ginger bread house out of gram crackers) and decorate them with candy and icing. All of the new children had never had a Christmas with presents before. Thankfully in the years before we came to Honduras Lisa and I had packed away some toys collected from various ways and shipped in our container. Plus a few ministering saints had sent some in crates a few months ago. This year we just didn’t have the funds to buy things, all of the children needed clothes, they wear them out so fast. Lisa found a bail of used clothing from the USA in the market for a couple of hundred dollars. By God’s grace it had mostly usable clothes in it. We still had a few toys left from the first container which allowed us to wrap presents for all 19 of the kids we have. Nothing major, but it made for an impressive mountain in the middle of the floor. We sat them all in a circle around our toy mountain, talked about the Lord, sang and prayed. Afterward we told the children to pull out presents with their names on them and open them…

Two videos were uploaded Click here to watch a short video of them Sing Silent Night

http://video.xanga.com/britcompel/8d5de962796/video.html
Or click below to watch them open presents

http://video.xanga.com/britcompel/d9e5d962778/video.html


It was then I got a little glimpse of what our reactions might be when we all get to heaven. To see them hug a teddy bear or eyes budge out with glee over a toy car or doll. And the best part run up and give hugs n kisses saying thank you papi over and over through 19 children… True thankfulness is found in the expectation of nothing…Thank you all for making it possible to serve the LORD here,

Unworthy servants to a Worthy Saviour,
The Ritchies