a friend reminds me......
Faith makes things possible, not easy

Friends and Family

Sometimes we have to make some hard choices in life. We are looking at having to make some changes and we are in desperate need of every ones prayers for wisdom and strength at this time. Knowing you will be praying will help us more than you can imagine.

Love the Kluges

South Trail Church of Christ
Here while back South Trail sent us some funds to be used as we saw the need for children. We have been able to do so much with the money.

We have supplied over two hundred children with toothbrushes.

We have purchased much need Sunday school supplies such as ink and paper, it is somewhat expensive here and with their help we are well stocked and the children are making fun educational crafts projects every week. They have notebooks with their bible verses in English and Spanish for each week. They have the opportunity to cut, color, glue, glitter; it is such a joy and a pleasure to watch them get so excited over making bible crafts. I spoke to one mother recently that shared how her child shared her bible lesson through the craft projects and coloring sheets she brings home. This is a ministry in desperate need of financial support and South Trail church of Christ really made it possible to give all of these little ones such a great opportunity.

We also provide a snack for them on Sundays as the kitchen is closed, we had peanut butter sandwiches the other day and we even had cake one Sunday.

We have also been providing a food pantry to the community of Mololoa. We have several families who just can’t make it without a little help. Some of them do work but make so little that it doesn’t cover the cost of milk for the baby that the mom has to buy because she isn’t home to nurse, or the mother with twin infants whose husband left and has no way to work with two babies and is having trouble nursing. Milk for babies is very expensive here. Without these funds these families would have truly suffered the last few months.

Day of the Child is a very special day here. It is probably the biggest holiday here for children. What a wonderful concept to have a day in which we celebrate children. Last year we did not know until days before but this year we were prepared in large part thanks to the donations of South Trail. It was a huge day. We prepared decorations of balloons and streamers as well as fun posters covering the church with bible verses to remind children how special they are.

We had a mini carnival complete with games, and prizes, we hooked up a donated PA systems and had fun singing our favorite Sunday school songs with hundreds of children. We decorated and ate cupcakes. And no Honduran party would be complete without a piñata. And we had a few piñatas. It was a really wonderful day that was made possible because of the generosity of our fellow workers at South Trail.
I know that some things seem frivolous when children are in need of basic necessities but sometimes feeding their little spirit is so important as well and the chance to escape from everyday life of hauling water, watching your younger siblings, selling gum on the street, wondering where your next meal will come from, begging for shoes from people visiting, digging in trash cans for things to sell, just surviving, it was a wonderful chance to just have fun.
We want to say a special thank you to South Trail church of Christ and I hope that you enjoy the photos of all of those you have helped.
Love Melissa

IT’S MY PARTY AND I WILL CRY IF I WANT TO…….

That was the theme of Katherine’s fourth birthday.
We had been invited to Katherine’s big O-4. Her birthday is September 4th. Her party was the following Saturday from 2 to 4 o’clock. Well it was also the day before our big day of the child celebration so I had a lot on my plate. We got there right at two and I had planned on leaving at four to work on the celebration for the next day.
I admit I was thinking of this party as a little bit more of an obligation than a chance to celebrate the life of a sweet little girl that I have watched grow from a tiny little baby into a sweet little spoiled princess. In fact I would have to say that I have had a pretty big hand in the spoiled part. I do love this little one.
Well back to the party. Katherine has been so very ill lately, breathing problems, fevers, flu, I was worried about Dengue Fever for a while. She now has an eye infection. But all that to say she was not herself that day. I went into the house at 2 and found that Enedia and Katherine were out getting the cake. At 3 she gets there. I should have taken into account that it was Enedia and arrived accordingly. Everyone else did. The party was quite large, all of the neighbors, the kitchen ladies and kids and a few friends. The room was about the size of an average bedroom and we were packed like sardines and even spilling out into the hallway.
We had a nice dinner of arroz con pollo. And then the real fun began with the piñata. Well poor Katherine had been somewhat fussy and when everyone started to clobber “her” strawberry shortcake she lost it.
A couple of dozen people, a little room, and a big wooden stick. Yeah you get the picture it wasn’t pretty. Nicol came up to hit and did pretty good. The piñata came down and bopped her on the face. She dropped the stick and ran to hide her face on my lap. I thought at first she was just embarrassed but then I felt the warm wet feel of blood dropping on my foot and noticed the floor covered in it. I pulled her head up and blood was gushing out of her nose. Someone called her mom who came on the run with her baby sister at her breast. She thrust the baby at Alora and gathered Nicole who had started screaming as soon as she saw her mother, up and took her out. That left us with a screaming baby who did not understand why she was so rudely dislodged from her meal. Nicole was fine and the bleeding stopped but the party never paused. Delmar came up to bat. Now he is a big boy and all of the kids were ready for candy. They were hopping up and down and cheering. Delmar grins, cocks the stick back ,and takes a huge swing and he hits………….Fernando right on the head. Thank goodness it was Fernando because he is the only one with a head hard enough to have lived. He does have a dip in the top of his head now but we feel it adds character.
We finally finished the piñata with only minimal damage and had a piece of cake. It was an eventful day. I was able to leave after we cleaned up at around 6:30. It sounds like a crazy party and it was but I did get to spend a little while loving on my special gal.
The following photos are a few glimpses of her as we have watched her grow. Where does the time go?