Lessons on Suffering....

"Permit the children to come to Me, do not hinder
them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all."
Mark 10:14–15 (NAS)

"Permit the children to come to Me, and do not hinder them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

As each morning dawns we have the incredible responsiblity of providing holistic care to the 150 children here at Casa Bernabe. As the months have passed, the responsibility and reality of it becomes ever heavier. The more I observe the children that surround us the more I see the sadness in their eyes, the suffering in the most profound places and the yearning for peace. For weeks now each day has been such an intense battle. The temptation has been to ask..."Did I make the right choice, did I hear the voice of Jesus really asking me to come to this place." "Am I capable of doing the work that is set before me daily?"

I read this statement last night:"As a culture we are allergic to suffering...."

And as I read it I was pierced at my core. Much of my questioning has come at the hand of suffering. There is great suffering on this mountain side. While we are so grateful for the provision of houses, beautiful houses at that, for food, for safety on our campus, the reality is that many of our children, while they have been brought out of such severe darkness, they are still captive to their past experiences.

We covet your prayers....

• Please pray for our children, that they will be drawn to the cross through the Kindness of King Jesus who rescued them out of darkness.
• Please pray for the grief process in each one of their lives. Pray that God will mercifully begin to heal the broken places and that freedom will abound instead of captivity.
• Please pray for rest, strength, passion and creativity for our staff as they care for each child.

Stefan and I are doing well as a family! We've been here for 3 full months now....so we spent the day in immigration attempting to get new visas. It was a crazy process but in the end my new visa is in process and Stefan is a duel citizen and can now travel on his Guatemalan passport with no hassell! Thank you Jesus!

We started the homeschooling process about 10 days ago. It's been rough but Stefan is adjusting well and is so determined to finish his work daily! He's memorized Hebrews 11:7-10.....it's so exciting to watch him grow and explore his faith. Stefan's made good friends in Casa Lamar (the 3-6 year old's house). They play daily and have so much fun together! He's even teaching some of them baseball....

Over the last few months I've been on a crazy learning journey! I've discovered that my spanish is horrible so that has been a work in progress. In addition I've been busy learning about processes that we use here at CB in the social work area. Learning lingo, reading up on the reasons that our kids are here as well as organizing our office. Thanks to FUMC - Niceville, FL we now have a nice lateral filing cabinet! Our office was painted and we are enjoying that! (Thanks Brian LaDue!)

God has also opened doors for me to help out in the area of Public Relations. I am now responsible for sending a monthly thank you letter/email to our local donors and once a month I help to compile inforamtion that we use for a newsletter here within Guatemala. This is an area that I find to be so difficult in Spanish...please pray for a supernatural experience in this area. If I could write fluently that would be so fantastic!

As I get to know each child my heart breaks more and more! Thank you for joining us on this journey! We are in the process of writting a very thorough newsletter....so be looking for that soon! Thanks for praying.....for standing with us believing for healing in the lives of our children and for supporting us financially so that we can be here doing what we do!!!!