Dear friends,

Our bedroom is turning into a nursery. Sunday evening Mother Virginia and some visitors brought Alexander back to our room. I have a suspicion that the visitors saw him in the nursery unattended. The quick solution was to bring him to us. Debra and Renee are taking turns having him in their bed for the night.

Tuesday night Javier appeared. The danger for him was that between about nine and ten o´clock in the evening he was being left unsupervised in the girls´dorm. A blanket could be thrown over his head and he might suffocate, or the children would throw something into his crib and he would be hurt. We agreed, but insisted on having a crib brought for him, because he is very active and squirmy.

The next day, we had another consultation in the office. This time a mother is being accused of abusing her little girls (this has been an ongoing investigation). Could we perhaps take the youngest daughter, and someone else would take Javier (only later did I wonder what suddenly happened to the imminent danger Javier had been in)?

So now the little girl is with us instead of Javier. When I see her, I think of Jesus´ words about the ¨least of these¨. Nobody ever comes to the nursery and croons over her. If the little girls are passing out crackers, she always gets the last one. One of the moms came to our room two nights ago and remarked, ¨How ugly.¨ She was only being frank.

When I went back to the nursery to get her two nights ago, the little girl was all smiles, ready to come. She LOVES being with us. This morning she sat in the chair very happily while I cleaned up the kitchen. The quiet and peace is quite a contrast from the noise and screaming on the other side of the house.

Not that our side of the house is always quiet. At about 5:15 in the morning, I hear Julieta´s voice, “Euracio, Uriel, Roy,” and a few minutes later, louder and more urgent, “Euracio, Roy, Uriel.” After about six or seven rounds like this, the voice is silent. Apparently the boys finally got out of bed. A little later when the younger boys wake up, it’s more like World War Three. Shouting and running and yelling. If I come out to the hall, “Good morning, Liliana. The story today?”

Yesterday was the first day I had the Bible story this week. The children have been using the upstairs room for homework, and we just couldn´t seem to squeeze it in before. I finally prayed that if God wants me to have the story, He would somehow make a way for it. Sure enough, Friday afternoon Mother V. said, ¨No homework today.¨ The children sat open mouthed when they saw how God opened the Red Sea for the Israelites. I told them God is very powerful, and He cares a lot about us. Then I told them I prayed about the Bible class, and how God made a way for it. They were impressed.

God has a sense of humor. I have tried to get ¨out of¨ teaching quite a few times, but it seems like God won´t let me. This time it is tutoring. After school every day I go upstairs to help the children with their homework. Every child seems to be a special needs´ student. A lot of the students read very poorly, or not at all. Their homework seems to be a lot of busywork. I help a lot with their English homework. Learning English seems very important here because they are so close to the U.S. border, and they will be able to get better jobs if they know English.

I felt very overwhelmed helping the children. They ALL need tutoring badly. I decided I will focus on one child. Every afternoon I spend about a half hour with Julia, practicing reading to improve her reading skills. She can read, but very slowly. When it´s time for her tutoring, she skips down the hall. I knew she likes her 6:30 ¨Lola¨program, so one evening I told her we will stop so she can see it. The next day she said, ¨I don´t care about Lola.¨ She would rather spend thirty minutes laboriously reading ¨Curious George Goes to the Hospital¨ than seeing the unedifying soap opera.

Today we went to the ¨Centro¨, the huge tourist shopping center. I felt like I´m in a different world. Horses with painted zebra stripes garnering the attention of the lazy tourists. Adorable little Native American girls selling pretty bracelets. Sweet cinammon treats fresh from huge pot of hot oil. A talented Native American family dancing to the beat of a drum. Shopkeepers begging us to visit their stores. Buying a beautiful piece of pottery for $7.00 when the first price they quoted was $15.00. I feel like I really got a bargain. Smart shopkeepers.

Every day brings fresh challenges. We are never bored. God is blessing us in so many ways. I feel your prayers vividly.

Wishing you God´s peace,
Liliana

Dear friends,

I feel a little “newsless” this week, but I guess I can find a few things to say :-).

I keep marveling at the sheer amount of stuff we find. We sorted and arranged the school closet this week, and found about 1,800 notebooks, stacks of composition books, about eight crates of crayons, six crates of pencils, four crates of pens, two crates of glue, one crate of stick glue, one crate of glitter glue, 60 compasses, one crate of pencil erasers, etc. I am positive they had no idea how much stuff they have, because it was piled and scattered and mixed and remixed. We labeled all the crates with some neon green labels that we found among the stuff. I´ve always wanted to be a professional organizer, but I have to admit this place stretches my limits.

Tuesday Debra and I crossed the border at Otay and traveled to San Diego to pick up Carolyn and Renee. We got through the border in about a half hour and everything went great. Renee was two hours later than what the itinerary said, and one of her luggage pieces was missing, but otherwise things went fine. I am really enjoying our foursome. Things get done in no time, and we are having a party.

When do you know when to listen to your intuitions? This week I had a strong feeling I should buy a spare tire before we go to San Diego. Tuesday morning I finally bought one. Friday we had to go to San Diego again to pick up Renee´s missing luggage. About twenty minutes after we crossed the border, we were driving down a five-lane highway. Suddenly we heard a thump, thump, thump. God guided our vehicle to the left shoulder, I am convinced. I don´t think I ever saw a tire so badly shredded. Thank God for AAA! Carolyn called them and within an hour we were on our way again. God has been very faithful in taking care of us.

Today is Independence Day here in Mexico. We were warned not to try to go through the border today (to pick up the luggage) because there will be lots and lots of traffic. This morning the traffic wasn’t too bad, but we’ll see how it will be by this afternoon.

Yesterday Juana, a twenty-one?? year old mom, said she has the flu, so I gave her a back rub. She said she never got a back rub in her life. I told her my mom often gave me back rubs. I think that was hard for her to imagine. When I see the moms here screaming at their children or ignoring them, I try to remember that that is all they know. They seem to be surprised when we hang out with the children just because we want to.

The toddlers love, love, love going out to the patio. Monday they were all crying because they couldn’t wait to go out. We are going to try to get them out more often, maybe three or four times a week. Most of the closets are organized, most of the walls and floors have been scrubbed, so hopefully we can also have more time to do things with the other little children who don’t go to school. We found lots of puzzles and activities that we can’t wait to do with them.

I do all the translating here between our crew and Mother Virginia. Sometimes that feels very big. My biggest prayer request for this week is that I could do well with that (I haven’t always!!!!). I am praying that God would especially bless all of you who are praying for me and for us!

With my love,
Liliana

Dear friends,

How many moths and worms can you find in a bag of rice and still declare it okay? Thursday we analyzed many bags of rice, beans, and flour. The “safe” stuff we poured into some wonderful mouse-proof containers that some wonderful people donated. Unfortunately, we had to throw a lot of food away. Hopefully with our new pantry, we can keep the food from deteriorating. Gordon encouraged Mother Virginia to give excess food away before it spoils. The verse, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt . . .” took on new meaning for me.

How many keys do you need on a key ring to really confuse a person? Almost every door around here is locked. But I am discovering that at least two-thirds of the keys on the dozen key rings in the office are no longer in use. That means I had to try about five to ten keys before I found the right one for the door. Mother Virginia gave me permission to paint words on the keys. Now all need yet is permission to take out all the keys that don’t have a door.

How many times does God answer a prayer that you forgot you prayed? I had asked you all to pray that Mother Virginia would give me the keys around here. She didn’t actually give me the keys, but she gave me permission to use any of the keys I want, any time I want. This week I remembered I had prayed about that. God has answered so many prayers here, and I have so often forgot to thank Him for answering them.

How much yelling and absurdness can I put up with? This week I felt especially weary and agitated with some of the unreasonableness around here. I’m afraid I was not always very gracious with my responses. Some of the situations here are so absurd that I can hardly keep my mouth shut. I thought of Jesus who “opened not His mouth” when the people were being more than unreasonable. Please pray that I could be like Jesus.

How many ghosts live in this orphanage? Jasmin and Lupita warned me about the “inginiero” here. I had to look that one up in the dictionary. An engineer, here in this house? How puzzling! Maybe it’s one of those weird Spanish expressions? Finally I got it. Years ago an engineer died in this house, and now supposedly his ghost haunts this place. I told the girls I’m not afraid of spirits, because the Holy Spirit lives in me. He is much more powerful than other spirits. I truly believe that this conversation I had with the girls was a direct answer to your prayers for me. I feel your prayers keenly.

How often does God protect and direct us here in Mexico? Daily. Today we had the wonderful privilege to go to Playas de Mexico where Elmer and Anna, a couple from our church, are staying at a clinic. We found the clinic with only a small half mile “detour”! And they were waiting in front of the clinic when we got there. We spent a wonderful few hours walking down to the beach, and then eating flautas and burritos and milanesa at a little restaurant. Anna said she will probably pay for all that exercise later, but she said it will be worth it. I poured out some of my frustrations on their listening ears. How refreshing.

How big of a detour do you have to take before you say you were lost? On the way home we missed our road somehow. I stopped, and a smiling old man told us how to go. I told him I think God sent him. In about twenty twenty minutes we were on familiar turf again. We are now safe at a very familiar town, and Debra is making some phone calls while I’m writing this.

God bless you all with peace. A million thanks for all your prayers for me!

Only because of Him,
Liliana

This update was supposed to go up last week already!!! The date on here should be September 1.

Dear friends,

I appreciate Christianity like never before. Here yelling, lying, and injustice are part of a day`s work. I am so grateful I serve a God who is just. He is not affected by mood swings; He is a rock, the same today and yesterday and always!

This week was tough. Matt and Sara left. That made me sad. I miss Carolyn`s common sense (which I depended on so much). That makes me sad. I miss my family. That makes me sad. I miss my friends. That makes me sad.

But I had some ¨hugs from God.¨ Maria begged me to allow her to wash our truck. Michel came back to find me, specifically to thank me for helping her with her English homework. Larry, my favorite toddler, makes me smile every day, because he is always happy to see me. Thursday when we were organizing the chaos of soaps and shampoos and toothpaste, I found a ¨Messiah¨CD. Vienna Boy´s Choir. Wow! I´ll probably wear it out.

The children started school this week. The mornings are very quiet with only a few preschoolers running around. One day I got out the matchbox cars that my brother Johnny sent, and they had a real party. The rest of the week they kept begging me for them. Thanks, Johnny!!! I keep the cars in my room, and make sure I supervise the children when they play with them. If I wouldn´t, the cars would be gone in a week. They would either get flushed down the toilet or get thrown on the roof or disappear into thin air. Really!

My ¨courageous escape¨ story last week wasn`t quite accurate. The big brother did not go to the girl´s dorm to find his sister. It was Lupita, the girl with Downs Syndrome, who noticed the locked door and went to the boys´dorm to find her brother. I guess that makes the story even more incredible. Lupita has been following us around some this week and helping us. She loves helping, and doesn´t get tired of working as quickly as some of the other children.

Chavelita is one of my favorite moms. She is deaf and can`t talk, but makes unintelligible noises and gestures. She only ¨hollers¨ at the children if they are throwing rocks at each other or climbing on the high wall or when they are dawdling on the patio instead of being prompt for supper. She does not ¨holler¨when they are only being children. Her two children are the sweetest children here. Maybe part of the reason she can stay sane is because she can´t hear the noise.

The noise doesn´t bother me a whole lot; actually, it has become a sort of ¨white noise.¨ One evening the noise was really bothering me, and then I realized there were visitors out on the patio. The noise had a different pitch, and I wasn´t used to it.

Debra and I had great fun organizing the ¨soap pantry¨with the brand new shelves Gordon made. We emptied many miscellaneous bags and separated toothbrushes from shampoo, deodorant, bar soap, and toothpaste. This morning we were shopping at the Commercial Mexicana, the Mexican alternative to Walmart, and I am almost certain we have more bar soap at our orphanage than in their whole store.

We found lots of packages of baby wipes to add to our baby pantry. I figure we have about 15,000 baby wipes. Right now we have ten babies in diapers. How long will it take to use all of them?? Mother Virginia said it´s only in the last year that people have been donating baby wipes.

Monday morning Debra and I spent about three hours just putting away the donations that came over the weekend. I love seeing what comes in each week. The food pantry has been staying orderly, just like we organized it. That is encouraging. All the new shelves that Gordon is building really do make a difference. There´s a system now. I love it. And the ladies are keeping after the laundry. No more mountains. And the babies get to run on the patio twice a week. Just a few little things.

Right now I am listening to the song, ¨Prayer of the Children,¨ by the Oasis Chorale. I heard it a few months ago, and was one of the things that inspired me to come to Mexico. One of the phrases haunts me: ¨. . .crying Jesus, help me to feel the love again.¨ Pray that the children would feel the love again through us.

Thanks again for all your prayers and emails. Each one is very encouraging. My favorite one this week was from my grandma. Thanks, Mommy! What a blessing to have a grandma who loves Jesus!

With all my love,
Liliana