“Good news! The fire is contained now and came right up to the edge of our property line by the pond, but stopped there. The coffee plants and ranch are all safe and sound, though the stench and smoke in the air is still stifling. Thanks to all the people that fought it and kept us safe!”

Love you all!
Wendy

“We have an aggressive forest fire heading this way and are assessing the need to evacuate. Please pray for the fire to be stopped and wisdom for the decision makers in discerning if we need to evacuate everyone on the ranch. I’ll try and add posts on Facebook as we know more.”

And now I’ll attempt to give everyone an update on how things are going and how you can be praying for us through it all!

Let’s start with our very brief visit to the states. We were in Phoenix for 2 weeks in late February. We needed to come back to get our taxes taken care of, take Jesse to see his eye surgeon and get new glasses, and get some clothes for Jesse and Alex as they have grown considerably in the last year. It was a very busy time, but we were thankful for the opportunity to see some of our friends and family and eat some familiar foods. We even got to go to Prescott one weekend and it snowed the whole time. The kids got to play in the snow – which never happens here in Honduras! God really blessed our time in the states!!!

A quick update on the kids and their classes at school… Jesse and Alex just got their 3rd quarter report card. They have both been straight A students all year long and we couldn’t be more proud of them. Jesse has a fabulous imagination and is always creating something with his Legos or drawing some amazing picture. Alex is an excellent reader and can’t seem to get enough books. He can read almost as fast as I can and is reading things far beyond his age group. Kati really loves school, too. She has learned so much this year, it’s truly staggering. She has learned so much English already! She can count to 10 in English and Spanish. She knows a whole bunch of colors in English and Spanish. She can write her name and can read short words. Considering the fact that she didn’t know ANY letters before September, she is really doing an amazing job of catching up with her class. Eunice loves school, too. We have a new teacher on the ranch this semester – her name is Melody Scully. She is an amazing teacher, and Eunice just loves her. Eunice is sharp as a tack and is learning at an amazing pace. She is spunky and almost always has a smile on her face.

The two little guys are really progressing well. Angel came to us without ANY language or communication skills and couldn’t even walk. He’s running around now and jumping and playing. He can say around a dozen words including “Gracias” and “Por favor” and “poo poo” which is just super cute. Olman is starting to trust us more and more. At first he was very distant and didn’t want hugs or snuggles like most 2-year-olds do. Now he will sometimes come to us for a random hug. We consider this a great stride in his recovery.

All of the ministry children in our home have a lot to overcome. They have been hurt in very deep, emotional ways. They can’t articulate what’s wrong, but they know that they had something taken from them that can never be replaced. We can only try to apply salve to their wounds and give them someone to count on until they can learn to trust God for what they need.

We love each and every one of our children and can’t wait to see what our second year of ministry here at Rancho Ebenezer will hold. We trust God that it will be as amazing as the first.

I also wanted to let you all know that Christmas was a great time.  We had our tree up and because we have two little ones, we had a baby gate around it to protect the ornaments.  LOL!!  There is never a dull moment when  you have 6 kids under 7 years old.  Luckily we didn’t have any that tried to climb the tree but I fear that is just because it was protected.  :-)  The kids loved Christmas and we were very blessed by all the gifts that were given by all of you.

While on Christmas break we were able to take the kids to the north shore of Honduras and we are sure it was the first time seeing the ocean for most of them.  It was a great time of vacation!!  We are very thankful that the Christmas break (which is 6 weeks here) is over.  We had fun but we are glad to be back in a routine.

We will be visiting the states for 2 weeks in February for a little time with our family and friends.  We are very thankful for how God had provided in this last year.  This was a quick update but we hope to keep you informed of as many of the goings on here as we can.

Have a great day!!

Jimbo

Please change our e-mails in your contacts from these:

jwelton@wgo-hn.org
wwelton@wgo-hn.org

to these:

Jim.Welton@wgomission.org
Wendy.Welton@wgomission.org

These are already up and running, so the sooner you switch, the better your chances of having us actually receive your e-mails! (And yes, we love receiving your e-mails!!!)

Anyway, we’ve had some interesting adventures lately…

On Thanksgiving day we took Jesse and Alex to the city to celebrate. We ate at Chili’s (a huge treat) and just spent the day with them. We just might make that a new family tradition.

Angel had to have a simple outpatient procedure done last week. Actually he’s needed it since we got him from IHNFA, but getting things done (medical things especially) is far from easy here. First we tried to go through the clinic that works with IHNFA. We arranged for someone to stay with the other 3 kids (we didn’t have Eunice or Olman yet) while we were gone. We came to the city the night before and spent the night so we could be at IHNFA at 6:00 a.m. the next day. When we got there, they told us that they had rescheduled us for November 15… about 4 weeks away. Oh, and by the way, you need this document (which we don’t have) and that document (didn’t have that, either) when we come back. We decided it would be better to go with some other clinic. The trick is funding. Turns out that someone here at the ranch knows someone from church who works at a hospital and is friends with a surgeon. They pulled some strings to get us in with that surgeon. We went there 3 times at 6:00 a.m. (which means staying in the city for the night or leaving the ranch at 5:00 a.m.) only to be told that we would have to come back another day for one reason or another. Finally on the 4th attempt, they actually did the surgery. *sigh* NOT like the states at all. On a positive note, Angel did great and didn’t even have any pain the following day. Hopefully everything is fixed now and we won’t have to do that one again!

Eunice and Olman have been settling in nicely. (I may have said that before, but it’s so true!) We haven’t had too many problems with them. They have some issues of course, but it’s been a little easier than we were expecting. Mostly we see some aggressiveness when they are upset and a tendency to shut down when they think they are in trouble. We’re working through it, though. Really who can blame them for having some social issues. Nobody bothered to teach them things when they should have, so we’re mostly just making up for lost time.

Jesse and Alex seem to really like having little brothers. They play with them all the time. It’s super cute. We’re in the middle of school break until January 5th, so sometimes they get bored, so it’s nice to give them a little guy to chase around for a bit.

We’re mostly just thankful that God has provided for our every need at every step of the way. Even though we still need a few more sponsors to be fully funded, we’ve never wanted for anything. We have been able to make do with what we have and nobody is the worse for wear. It’s a pleasure to serve the Lord in this way!

I know many of you have been asking us to help you understand what kind of situations these kids have come from and why it is critical to pluck them from that and bring them here to Rancho Ebenezer to live. Because we are very careful to protect the privacy of each child here on the ranch, I can’t tell you specific details of specific children, but I can give you examples of things that have happened to various children here in the ranch. Hopefully this will help you to understand how much your prayers and financial support are needed to accomplish critical rescue and healing in the lives of the children here.

There are a number of sibling groups here on the ranch who have been found wandering in an outdoor food market or along the side of the road searching for food after being abandoned. And not teens, either – two of the girls were 5 years old and were left with their baby brothers in tow. Another was only 3 years old and her baby brother was only a little over a year old. One brother/sister set used to wake up every morning in a different place, sometimes with their family, sometimes not. The main problem in Honduras is extreme poverty. The fact is that children whose parents simply do not have enough money to feed themselves let alone their children cannot find alternatives. Their children have a better chance of finding a sympathetic person with money to help them if their parents aren’t around. Sad, but true.

Next after near starvation and abandonment comes the children’s centers. Because of the dire situation I’ve described above, the children’s centers in this country are ridiculously over-full. Two boys were in a center where all of the children were under 3 years old. There were 20 of them in the facility with only one caregiver. Ages ranged from a few weeks old to just under 3. Needless to say, things like diaper rash, colds and head lice are rampant in these facilities. None of the children are held for more than a few minutes to change a diaper or change their clothes (which rarely occurs) so many don’t even cry anymore. What’s the point? Nobody comes to help them anyway. It’s heartbreaking to visit these places. Every time we do, I want to bring them all home with me.

Next (if they are lucky) the children are brought here to the ranch where everyone speaks English. They’re frightened and confused and thrust in with bilingual children they don’t know. Needless to say things aren’t always smooth.

Our hope is that in time they will know that we truly do love them and through our love for them they will feel the love of the Lord Jesus. It’s easy to meet their immediate physical needs. Giving them a safe warm place to sleep and play is easy. Giving them regular, nutritious food is easy. Changing their diapers whenever they need it is easy. Helping heal emotional and psychological scars is the real work. Looking into the eyes of a four year old who doesn’t understand why her family didn’t help her the way we are is the hard part. Holding them while they cry because they miss their grandmother is why people aren’t lining up to do this job.

But we know this is exactly where God wants us to be. He has us here for a purpose in the lives of these little ones. And through it all, He continues to give us encouragement and strength. He has provided friendship and support both here in Honduras and back in the states. We are always thankful and relieved to know that He is providing our every need. What peace and joy!

We’ve had no trouble with bedtime crying or even bed wetting. Apparently this is usually a big problem with children coming out of a “rescue center” in the city. Everyone seems to love being here – even the two very new kids. They are all smiles and truly charming!

We are working right now on getting a newsletter out with more details on the children, and as we get to know them better, we will be trying to post some things here as well. In order to protect their privacy, we are not allowed to post their photos on this site. It is a public site and we can’t control who can see photos here. So watch your mail for photos in our newsletter! If you aren’t on our newsletter mailing list and would like to be, send a request to my e-mail address which is wwelton@wgo-hn.org and we will get you on there.

Thanks so much for all of your faithful prayers. We could not do this job without the strength we receive from God.  He has blessed us with children who have been chosen by Him to live together in our home.  He knows exactly what each child needs and we can see Him working to provide that for them!

We have been working on getting our next newsletter finished. It’s so hard to narrow down everything to just a couple of pages. We’re thankful that we have the blog so that we can give a bit more than we can put out in printed form, but not everyone who gets our newsletter also reads our blog, so it’s hard to decide what to put where and what to put in both… but hopefully we’ll do enough that everyone knows what’s going on with us.

Right now Jim and I are in Tegucigalpa spending a couple days away from the ranch. We are supposed to take a couple of days each month since our job is actually a 24/7 kind of deal, but we haven’t taken any days off until now. It’s been so relaxing just sitting and visiting with each other without interruption. We get so busy working through all the emotional issues of the children in our home that we forget to spend time just with each other. Thankfully, WGO has a plan for that and lets us take a couple days now and then to reconnect with each other kid-free. We’re ready to get back to the ranch and jump back into the fray!

We are constantly reminded of how fragile our situation is and how much God blesses us every day. A friend told me today that she is going to have to move out of her house because the bank is foreclosing. We will be praying for her and her family, of course, but we will also be thanking God all the more for His provision for our family. Really none of us are guaranteed anything in this life. Things can be turned upside down in the blink of an eye, so we need to remember to be thankful for what we have. As for me, I’m thankful for a husband that has been my best friend for over 2 decades and still treats me like a princess. I’m thankful for my boys who constantly make me proud because they have big hearts and sharp minds and love to love on the new kids in our home. I’m thankful for the opportunity to change the lives of the two children living in our home. I’m thankful for the opportunity to bring even more children out of a life of abandonment and pain into a life of loving acceptance and security. I’m thankful for friends and family who sacrifice a bit of their lifestyle to fund our work here in Honduras. I’m thankful for the huge number of people who pray for us on a regular basis. I’m thankful for a Savior who fills my heart with love in a way that nobody could do without Him. I realize that it’s a little early for Thanksgiving, but really, I think every day should be a day of thanksgiving, don’t you?

I love you all, and I’ll try not to let the blog go un-updated for quite so long next time!!!