And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

This is one of my favorite verses in regard to the crucifixion story.  Jesus prepared himself before his suffering.  When he asked help from his Father, he received it.                 If our Lord needed strength from heaven, what makes us think we can triumph in the flesh.

We are keeping busy with school and doctors appointments.  Arelsy and I head back to Tegus for another appointment next week.  Please pray for travel safety.

This week is Easter week again.  The time we remember what Jesus did for us, and praise Him for it.  As always, there will be a three day conference with several of the sister churches visiting.  There may be between five and eight hundred people with us this week, hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Many have heard it time after time.  They need their hearts to be broken and prepared even as the sower would break and prepare the earth to receive the seed.

The children and I are praying that the Lord would speak to us all in a special way this week.  Whatever our needs may be, He has something that He wants us to learn…something that He wants us to do.

I have had some kids return to their families recently, and would ask that you pray for them in a special way.  Some are very small and do not yet understand the truth of the gospel.  I have been told that they are attending a church that Brother Ronnie started in their town, so that is a big blessing.

Our baby (wearing green in the picture) just celebrated his second birthday.  Sometimes I wonder where they will be in twenty years from now.  They definitely won’t still be here with me taking care of them the way they are now.  Will they be prepared for whatever God has in store for them?  The task seems impossible, but we can only trust that if God has us here, then He will use us to mold them into what He wants them to be.

Have a blessed Crucifixion and Resurrection week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Electricity update

Well, so far we still have electricity, but we had to give up our dryer last week.  Brother Ronnie told me that the company is going to send someone out to see what appliances we have.  Depending on what they see they will come up with the electric bill for the last fourteen years.  So, at least for now, our dryer is in storage.  The weather is lovely right now so we haven’t had trouble with the clothes drying on the line.  We didn’t used to have a dryer, so it just feels like old times.  Please continue to pray for the situation to be resolved soon and in our favor, but whatever the Lord allows, we want to have a good testimony with the company.

So far so good as far as school goes.  I had four girls from another dorm room move in with us last week, which kind of shook things up a bit, but sometimes we need a good shaking up to keep us on our toes.  They are all four girls that I had cared for in the past, so it’s good to have them with me again.

I ask special prayer for the teen girls, as they are going through a tough time right now.  A couple of them wanted to leave today, but they changed their minds, praise the Lord!  because  Honduras is rampant with gangs, drugs, prostitution, murders,  fornication, abuse, child pregnancies, and more.

Please pray also for the salvation of several of my girls.  They want to behave and do a good job and please me, but without the Holy Spirit to guide them they will always fail.

Brother Ronnie’s wife, Miss Joann, arrived back with us today after a few weeks of visiting family in the states.  She was greatly missed by all, and it is such a blessing to have her back with us.

Back to School Special

The 2018 school year is officially underway.  The kids are back from their first day.  Several of the kids have some sort of throat infection.  What a way to kick off the new year.

Edwin made sure that I didn’t get to much sleep by keeping me up till about 3:30 last night.  I think he miss understood and thought that instead of getting up early, we were just not going to go to bed at all.  Just kidding.  He was sick last night with a fever.

To get everyone one ready for classes we had to get up at 5:00.  They all did their jobs quickly and we had plenty of time.

The electric company is supposed to let us know tomorrow what they decided to do about our lack of a meter.

 

Welcome, 2018

Wow, is it really almost February?

2017 was definitely one of the most crazy years of my life, in part due to the addition of these eight girls to our home.  Ester, Reyna, Dinora, Celia, Angie, Lilian, and Yareli(kneeling) have become a huge part of my life.  We have had our spats and they have had their attitudes, but they have found a place in my heart.  Their daily help in the house and with the kids is indispensable.  Being eleven to thirteen years old has it’s own challenges, but these girls have more than that against them.  Some have never had a visit in more than five years.

Angie moved up with the teen girls last week.  Even though I do see her at church, I still miss having her here.  In 2017 I only took on two new kids, Yareli(11) and her little brother, Douglas(1).  My new helper, Suyapa, also has a little boy, which makes it ten boys, and thirteen girls.  We might be getting another eleven-year-old girl this week.  That would bring us to twenty-four in all.

It is almost impossible to give each child the individual attention they need.  This can cause them to be more emotional and rebellious, especially the older girls, which in turn makes me more stressed and short tempered.  They need more people that can spend time with them individually on a regular basis.

This year also took me to Tegucigalpa, the capital, with Arelsy, who had burned herself pretty badly playing with matches.  We were there in the burn unit at the hospital for a month.  After we were discharged, we had appointments for another two weeks.  After that we had to wait a few more days for the rioting over the election calmed down.  It was just a couple of days before Christmas that we made it home.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I was looking for someone to watch the kids so I could go to the graduation.  Well, I did finally find someone, but I still didn’t get to go to  because we were still at the hospital.

My helper, Jacky(16), was finally able to take a few weeks off after I got back from the hospital.  She has been helping me for the past two years with only a few evenings off a week.

We are waiting for the arrival of the couple that will be helping out with the older boys, and school should start in a couple of weeks.  Other than that, we are just hanging on for the ride of whatever God brings our way in 2018, praying that we will be faithful in our service to him.

Please pray for us this year, especially that God would provide us with the servants that He has been preparing.

Thank you for your prayers and support through the years.

 

Out for a walk

Visiting Hermana Lola

Kristhian

We took the kids to visit Hermana Lola, an elderly lady in the village.

Douglas and me

me with the girls

Yareli and Gledis

The whole group

Top-left, Me with Douglas, top-right me with the older girls, middle-right Gledis with Yareli, bottom all of the kids before Douglas and Yareli

Sunday school

Christmas pic

The left is the Christmas photo, and the right is my Sunday school class.

Arelsy and Miguel

Arelsy is doing great.  Here she is with her brother, Miguel, on his birthday.

 

 

 

 

R & R

I’m at my parents home in Pennsylvania right now. The stress of the job has really taken it’s toll these last few months, and Brother Ronnie Doss has been very gracious to let me have six weeks to rest.
I am up to 24 kids right now. That includes: my sixteen-year-old helper, eight girls ages ten to thirteen, six girls ages three to seven, one fourteen-year-old boy with cerebral palsy, four mentally challenged boys ages ten and twelve with one to four-year-old mentalities, one seven-year-old boy with CP, two little five and six-year-old boys, and a one-year-old baby boy. They keep me busy. It’s almost exhausting just to write them all down.
I am praying earnestly for God to burden more godly Christians with strong personal standards to come and minister with us. There is such a great need. We have over eighty children who live full time at the home,with more who come for school or with their mothers. Every day there are almost a hundred kids on the property.
There are twenty adults who live full time on the property and another ten who come to help. You might think that’s a lot, but you have to consider that a handful of them are only eighteen, and others don’t come everyday. That also includes three teachers and some wives who care for their families that live on the property.
Please pray with me for this great need.
The remodeling of our house is pretty much complete. We were able to move back in late December. There is still painting and electric and plumbing work left, but it’s at a standstill now that it’s livable. We are no longer priority in the guys busy schedule. I thank the Lord that they have gotten so much done for us.
The next big thing on the calendar is graduation in November. I need someone to stay with the little ones so I can go see the others graduate, but this year it seems like everyone is either graduating themselves or has someone they want to see graduate. I trust that the Lord will provide someone who isn’t dyeing to go.
Sorry it get’s long, but I go for so long without getting a chance to write, so when I do there is a lot to talk about.
Thank you all for reading.

Painting

Edwin…not so thrilled

The new swing. Gledis was thrilled

happy birthday!!

The girls playing in the yard after rain

Easter week

Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.  IICor. 9:15

This Easter week we have “vacation”.  That basically means that the kids don’t go to school.  Which means that they are home, which means that it’s not a real vacation for us, but we will enjoy spending extra time with them.

We will be having a conference at the church all this week.  Several of our sister churches will come throughout the week to share this time with us.  There is a lot to do as the ladies that work at the home will be serving lunch to around six hundred people Thursday.

Please pray that souls would be saved this week as we hear the Word.  There are three in particular that I have been prayer for.

My seven older girls have been improving a lot these days, but they can still use your prayers as they continue to learn, grow, and mature into godly young ladies.

We have a couple visiting us from the states who are on their way to being missionaries to the children of Mexico.  They are here to see a working home and gain experience in the ministry.  They will be with us for three months.  Pray that we can be a blessing to them.

Thank you for all of your support.  I will try to update soon.  God bless you all.

Stretch for you Tents

So many changes have been discussed these past few months, but things turned out completely different than any of our plans.

We had seven girls ages 10 to 12 years old moved back from the teen girls.  I also have a new helper and her three year old son, so we are up to 25 people in our house.

The older girls are still struggling some with attitudes, but they are starting to calm down some.

 

Happy New Year

2016 was a very interesting year, although I’m pretty sure it was only half as long as 2015.  Either time is speeding up or I am slowing down.  Either way, the point is that not everything that should get done gets done. Like updating this blog.  I had tried to update a few times over the past ten months, but between problems with my computer and the internet, I was unable to do so.

I now have sixteen children (eight boys and eight girls), one fifteen-year-old helper(Jacky), and one lady from church who comes three times a week (Denia) and her four-year-old son (Rohel).  We had some kids and helpers come and go, but the Lord has been good to us.

This was by far the most unusual Christmas we have experienced,   mainly due to the remodeling of our house, which started about four weeks before Christmas.  We had to move out for the demolition process, which took three weeks, and moved back less than a week before Christmas.  The Jarvis family was gracious enough to allow us to stay in their house during those three weeks.  The changes to our house have opened up most of the smallest girls rooms into two large bedrooms and a family room for the girls.

The idea is to separate the boys and girls by moving the little girls to the other side of the hallway.  They can still play, eat, study, and have devotions together, but have better privacy at the same time.  Please pray for wisdom in carrying out these changes.

We all took turns being sick this holiday season.  It wasn’t anything serious, just coughs and fevers and such, but it all adds up when there are ten people sick at once (myself included).

The Lord gave me opportunity to spend this New Year’s with my family in the states.  I arrived on December 27th as a total surprise to my parents.  Yes, they were excited.

I will be heading back January 30th to the 16 children that God has given me.  Gledis(13), Edwin(12), Jose Manuel(9), Juan(9), Gerson(9), Kristhian(7), David Juarez(5), David Martinez(4), Celia(11), Reyna(10), Keyla(7), Wendy(6), Arelsy(6), Kimberly(5), Karen(4), and Amanda(3), and

From us all at Hogar de Amor Children’s Home, thank you all for your prayers and support this year.  May the Lord bless you as you serve Him in 2017.

Love in Christ,

Christa Miller

 

The house that the Jarvis’ lent us.

 

 

 

 

 

So send I you

New paint job thanks to MT. Zion Baptist Church, PA

First day of school

Little kids

Going to the park!

Juan

At the park

In this Resurrection Sunday, let us remember that one of the first things that the resurrected Savior said to his disciples was, “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.”(John 20:21)

So much has been happening since my last post.  The Jarvis and Birkholz families have both arrived. I would say that they are getting settled in except that the Jarvis’ had to leave a few weeks ago and the Birkholz will possibly be heading out also.  The reason?  Paperwork.  Please pray for this area of the ministry as it has been severely neglected for the past few years.

Karina, one of the Honduran workers, and I have been put in charge of this headache inducing work.  We already run our mental capacity to the max, so this is kind of scary.

School is up and running, aside from this weeks Easter vacation.  We had revival services Thursday, Friday, and Saturday with service in the morning and afternoons.

We had a very difficult situation with a few new kids that social services brought last month.  There were four kids, two with special needs.  Juan(8) came to live with us, and Heidy(8) went next door with Nohemi.

Heidy had just gotten out of the hospital the day that they brought her.  We were assured that if she took her meds she would be fine.

Three days later she couldn’t wake up enough to eat.  We took her into the doctor that saw her hat the hospital and we found out the I had doubled the dose of two of her four medications.  Three of them were for schizophrenia.  After staying one night with her at the hospital I realized why she was on them.

We all decided that our home was not a safe place for her due to her illness, and she was placed in social service’s care again.  Please pray for this little girl who has had it so hard.

I had a helper leave a few months ago which had left us very short-handed until a lady from church that used to work with me told me that she could start working again.  She is one of the easiest people to work with and is such a blessing.

Here are a few prayer reminders:

The church’s paperwork

Jarvis and Birkholz paperwork

Heidy-Lord, keep her safe and put her in hands that serve you

Wisdom for leadership

Laborers!!

My head!!!

Karina’s head!!!

P.S.  Happy New Year!!!

 

Christmas Greetings

Dear Friends and Family,

Praise the Lord, the container made it before Christmas.  The Lord always does things in His time.

Gledis´ walker came on the container.  He was thrilled with it.  We have used it very much yet.  After Christmas I hope to set up a time each day to work with him.  Thank you so much to the Adams from Slippery Rock Baptist Church who donated this piece of equipment.

I would also like to give a special thanks to Brother Graham Hutson and all those who put so much work into the containers.  I know God would provide for us in another way, but He has used them so much in our lives.  The couch was a very special blessing.

Thank you all again and may God bless you.

I thank the Lord for every child in my care.  We have 18 at the moment, but I will soon be sending my four oldest girls to the next house.

There isn´t much going on other than getting ready for Christmas for the kids.

Please pray for wisdom and health for the leaders.  We have been receiving visits from the new social service department with complaints that have been raised.  So far they have been very kind, but they want to see some changes.

I don´t have much time, so that´s all for now.

Merry Christmas!

Love in Christ,

Christa Miller