True Orphans

I cannot imagine what it must be like to be a child of 10 years old and have no Mom and Dad. We are working on getting the paperwork for 2 little boys, Oscar-10 years old and Victor-7 years old, to move to Mission Lazarus Refuge very soon. Oscar and Victor are not brothers by blood but have lived together their whole lives. They are actually cousins but Victor was given to Oscar's mom when he was a baby. Oscar's mom and dad (and Victor's) have died. They were living with an aunt who has died also. They are without family.

We went with Oscar yesterday to his old home in hope of finding someone who knew where his papers might be. After an hour driving on a long dirt road with many bumps along the way, we entered his parent's old house to find no papers and not much information. As it was getting dark, we arrived back in Choluteca to drop him off at his foster parent's home.

Oscar is a very smart young man. He has only finished the 1st grade and is 10 years old but he is wise beyond his years. He said two lines yesterday that I will never forget:

"No tengo nadie" meaning "I have no one."
and
"Dios es mi padre" meaning "God is my father."

How powerful! I am looking forward to getting to know Oscar and Victor more and I ask that you pray for their paperwork as it is never an easy job to find all that we need.

Chad

Feliz 2008

Happy New Year! I am going to go on the record right now and say that 2008 will be our best year. I really believe that this year will be our best for Mission Lazarus and the missionaries here. We are on the verge of some great things and 2008 is already getting off to a great start. I hope you are challenged by the new year with new beginnings and will make it your best year also. Let's shoot for the stars!

Shelly and I have just spent some time in the States with our families for Christmas. What a great refresher to be with family and friends! We needed the break and feel energized and ready to start again here in Honduras. Shelly is a bit under the weather right now but will jump back soon. Staying with Honduran tradition, we arrived in our apartment with an inch of dirt/dust on everything and the electricity going out soon after we settled in. We have only been here 24 hours and the electricity has gone out 3 times. The wind is very strong here right now which caused the trees around the lines to interfere with them and cause an outage. Welcome back to Honduras!

Shelly and I have the best families. I want to publically say that we have the best Moms and Dads that anyone can ask for. I am willing to put ours up against yours any day of the week. Thank you to our parents for making our time in the States so special. We love you very much!

Everything is good here. We are ready to hit the trail again on Monday morning bright and early. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, appreciate the electricity that you have (because I am typing in the dark right now) and start the new year off with a BANG.

Let Your Light Shine,
Chad