We have a house!...kind of.

Great news!!

We found a"permanent" rental house!

One of the local missionaries has recently bought a couple lots of property, and they were going to build a couple rental homes on it. They knew we were looking so they asked us about renting one of the homes they were building. We agreed on the amount we could afford each month for rent and the decision was made just like that!! So, they are building us a home, and we were even able to get in on the layout and design of what we liked! What a blessing!!
It won't be ready for another 60-90 days as they complete construction, but it will be brand new......AND IT'S ON THE BEACH! Yep, right on the lagoon with beautiful green waves, a nice constant breeze, and large palm trees. See the pics below for photos of the lot. Truly a blessing for the SAME price as regular apartment in town!! What do you think?!

However, here's the kicker...we will need to furnish it soon! Right now we have NOTHING but the suitcases we brought. So If you have any of the following items you could donate, there will be a crate leaving in a couple weeks from Allen,tx. This will be a HUGE blessing to our family as we move out and prepare for the next level of our ministry!

Appliances:

microwave, fridge (preferably a small butane fridge), gas stove/oven(something that I can still use when the electricity here goes out), washer, small deep freezer (or upright). **all appliances MUST BE energy efficient! Sounds picky, but electricity here is $.80/kw vs. only $.08-.10 in the states!

Small appliances: 

crockpot, mixer.

Furniture: 

most furniture we will have built here, tables and beds,etc. That's the most cost efficient and easiest way. However, I would love to have an indoor/outdoor patio sofa. Something light, like wicker, with a cushion. Also a Queen mattress and two twin mattresses. Good firm condition preferably.

One last thing:

A vehicle!
I realize this is a big need, but our God is BIGGER! The house is about 1 mile outside of town, and about 2 miles from the children's home locations where we are currently helping.
We are looking to buy a 4wd UTV, like a John Deere Gator, Kawasaki Mule, etc. these are the absolute best way of transportation here in Puerto Lempira as the roads extremely rough and muddy most of the time. They are also good on gas which can be quite expensive. We will be needing about $6-$7k to buy a good used one here in La Ceiba and have it shipped over.
If you are interested in donating to our transportation fund, you can give online at our website, www.LoveShinesMissions.com, or you can send a check to LSM at po Box 3552, Cleburne TX 76033.


I truly appreciate all of your support and outpouring of love for our family. If you have any of these donations, please email for drop off info, either in Allen, Tx or Cleburne, TX.

God bless you all, my friends !

SO HERE WE ARE....

It has a red dirt runway.

It's only accessible by boat or plane.

Google maps cannot even find it.

It's our new home.....Puerto Lempira, Honduras.

Secluded from the rest of the country, partitioned off by protected rain forest, Puerto Lempira is our new home. And I couldn't be happier!

My daily '5-year journal' asks one question for each day of the year. I can answer it on the five lines it provides. April 8 2013 went like this: "What is your secret passion?" My answer: "I'M LIVING IT!" How many people in this world get to write those words? Yet I'm able to live out my passion in the most forgotten and rejected areas of a third world country. Not even the Hondurans care about the people in the La Moskitia region of their country, but MY heart is happy!

I want to share with you what my days have been like so far. We only got here on Saturday, and today is Wednesday. It hasn't even been a week, but I wouldn't have enough time to share everything that has been going on since we've been here! So I decided to jot down some notes on April 8 in order to share with you my "typical" day so far. So here it goes....

• We woke up at 5:30 am to get 30+ kids awake to get ready for school, eat breakfast, and do their chores. Although we were already half way awake because of the BILLIONS of roosters that want to crow all hours of the night. That normally wouldn't be too much of a problem except that when the electricity goes off in the middle of the night, so do our fans. It's wayyyyy too quiet in the room, so it magnifies every...single....noise....outside of the room!

And if you've never tried to wake up 30+ kids at 5 am, count your blessings.

• A mother came in to the clinic here at House of Hope with a malnourished baby. She is 8 months old and weighed 13 lbs. She's not an extreme case, but she also had swollen thyroids, so we drove her to the hospital. Then we gathered clothes, diapers, and extra necessities for her and the mother and took those by the hospital as well.

• We drove through trash-filled red dirt streets in a UTV, learning our way through town with another local missionary. She directed us to the local stores. We then were able to (on our own) go back to those stores and buy a few necessary items, IN SPANISH! :) We also found out you can buy milk! In bags!

• We gave money to a lady who was begging on the street. She "says" her daughter was sick and needed money to be able to take her to the hospital. She was only asking for $1. Normally, I wouldn't have figured she was truly going to take her to any hospital with only $1, but earlier that day someone told me that most people come to House of Hope for help because they can't afford the .50cents it takes to get into the emergency room......  FIFTY. CENTS.

• I was asked what LOTION was used for. 

• We are CONSTANTLY attacked by knee-high children. I can't walk outside without hearing "Alicia!" and then....POW....leg hug.

• Little Rodrigo got into some trouble. He threw a plate of rice on a baby...and then smiled at me. We had to lower his discipline pin onto a different color on his board, then I returned him to the scene where I asked him to pick up his mess. He refused at first, but when I turned my back and waited for him to do so, he did. So I picked up his sweet little hand after I seen he had done enough, and I told him "thank you" for obeying, and gave him a big hug and kiss and made sure he was ok. I walked away feeling successful.

• I smiled when I heard all the kids yell, "HOORAY" at the same time. You know why? The lights came back on!

• I ended the day sitting with a group of girls and getting my hair braided while we were listening to some Spanish worship and I was listening to them sing along. 

I could add: taking the preschoolers to class across town, letting the children rummage through used shoes to find a "new" pair, putting band-aids on wounds, giving a sick child medicine, watching the babies while the nanny isn't here, sorting toys to dispose of trash and keep the good ones, hand washing clothes on the washboards out back, putting together a wheelchair, painting the side of the house, cleaning out the bookshelf, pushing toddlers on the swings, checking in at Mama Tara's orphanage to see how things are going, and seeing Linda off at the airport........ but that was just what we did TODAY! :)

So here we are...... in our new home. And I couldn't be happier!