Needed, A time of refreshing....

Nice to have a good Sunday when you have had a really bad week...

Our newest church plant here at the Children's Lighthouse property decided to have a family day,
and as with all Baptist, it must include food. Pastor Augusto brought members from Santa Teresa and I also invited a young couple from Namisigue. Manuel might become another preacher in our mix. (Man with the monkey in photo and family on bridge photo) Pray the LORD opens and directs. He packed up a few people he has been working with near his home and brought them as well. In all well over 100 people under preaching. And fellowship. Lisa had the families pose on our bridge and the plan is to give them each a family photo. Maybe not a big deal in the USA where digital cameras abound but here having a family photo is a rare treasure. We also put out the growing collection of animals we have as a petting zoo. People keep dropping them off to us knowing they will have a good home...Kinda Like the children I suppose. Lisa has had a pair of turtles in a plastic bucket for several years. After we finished the bridge down below she wanted a turtle pond by it. No big deal dig a small hole throw in a bag of cement with a few rocks and presto. As we were doing this though a neighbor asked one of our men from the church helping me, What was he doing for the American. "Building a small turtle pond" ..." I have 4 more big ones does he want them?" ... Of course give them to the children first...then have them go "ask" papi. Sunday morning fill the new pond and toss in the now 6 turtles and head up to change clothes. When I return one of Lisa' s small ones had escaped... We were also given a pair of baby raccoons. The petting zoo went over well with the abundance of children in service with families.

Manuel has an open door into the local high school of 600 kids to preach. And also wanst to do a middle of town movie outreach.
Mark Antonio has gotten proficient on his motorcycle...but Not good enough for his wife to be willing to ride yet. She said maybe in a few more weeks... The money came in to pay it and the day after we did...see Below.

Now for the bad news. Our first legit electric bill came in. Technically for a month but actually it was for 90 days since it was a first reading. A whopping $2700!! My jaw dropped. We are being charges 140% higher rate per kw than we use to get. Simply because it is in an American ministry name (i.e. American business) not a Honduran. I have a appointment today to see if it can be lowered. Not holding my breath. Not sure what to do because we sure cannot afford this kind of bill let alone every month. Everything in the house got shut off we took lights out of sockets that were know to be left on frequently by the kids etc.

Now the worse thing. Jenny the child who has been with us the longest took off with a guy last week. After 5 days of searching we found her and she is already not the child we had. She refuses any guidance from anyone. Us, child services, friends, pastors, older sister, framily, no one. She only wants to stay with him and she says she has no family, no parents, no brothers of sisters only him. He is jobless, drinks, smokes, does drugs and lives in a 12x12 run down mud hut owned by a grandmother... There is nothing good I can say about it. Absolutely heartbreaking. He happens to be the thief jr and I put in jail 6 months ago for entering into our inner fence around the house in the middle of the night...(unsaved neighbors asked me then why I did not just shoot him...hmm) Now he has stolen the most treasured thing in the house to simply destroy it and I am helpless save for prayer to do anything about it. She went to bed last sat night and gave us sweet smiling hugs and kisses and I love you's. Only to wake in the morning getting ready for church and she was no were to be found. Please keep us in prayer. I need much refreshing to come our way to counter the continuing heartache of the cross we bear daily.
Unworthy servant to a Worthy Saviour,
Barry Ritchie