The Floodgates of Heaven have Opened!

A beautiful pic of Grace. Actually it's her name and it fits her well. She is a school teacher in Juarez and is 24 years old. She heard of this orphange and wanted to serve Jesus here during her spring break. Her english is great...which is a bonus!!!




Rosa holding one of the oven cords that the rats have chewed.




Cinnamon roll helpers!




Ed giving music lessons to the kids. He has a praise team practice and also teaches how to play the guitar and keyboard. Mark and Chandra...your girls will fit right in!






My kitchen assistants!






Patiently counting out 84 cups of flour.




My 'whisk'. (It took awhile!)





Veggie soup! The state-side people LOVED it!







After helping unload some of the produce, I saw these cute little guys tucking Jalapeno peppers in their shorts! They are a real treat to the kids to munch on!






A full room of produce!






Mexican Tel-Cell!




Alivia has such a servant's heart. She is from Michigan and studying Spanish at a language school in Chihuahua. On the weekends she comes to help out at the orphanage. BTW...she is only 17. Amazing girl!




Hanging out




Vicki & Maggy. I was so happy to see Vicki has braces on her teeth. She is no longer ashamed of her beautiful smile!




My favorite garden seat!





Good Friday parade in Aldama. Very dark....




Belem and Alivia




My driver....Belem! She has her own car and is busy going to college fulltime and working at Kentucky Fried Chicken in Chihuahua. The wages are very low but she is thankful for the job.




Adeline dumpster diving. She was in a hurry and threw her keys into the dumpster along with the orange peels. Very funny!!! We had a good laugh!






Briza





More donations! They are coming from everywhere! We are overflowing with God's goodness! Prayers are never answered in a small way down here!




Finally after much hard work there is organization of all the food.




Busy girls




Grace sharing salvation with the young girls. She was here for less than an hour and she was busy telling them about God. She found a little table in the girls wing and had them color little workbooks while she shared Jesus with them. It was AWESOME! This was her first visit too!




Ramon WALKING! He still needs some assistance but HE IS WALKING!!!




This dried up corn was a big deal to the kids. They loved it. I passed...





Juan...such a great kid!




This dried up corn was a big deal to the kids. They love it. I passed....




Kitchen duty




TC Westside is greatly loved here!





Rosaleo




Taking a break.





Casey (from Minnesota) has been working especially with Ramon. He now eats well with utensils, walks with help and is now learning to crawl. Casey, you are a gift to Lily and the answer to Mama's many prayers for Ramon! BTW...I've adopted Casey. Gary, we have a new son!




Oranges and Mangos! YUM




Jicima




Limons and mangos




Yummy lunch




Alivia and Nayelli




Love the fruit!




Maria Elena is such a hard worker!




Tia Lidia will be flying home with me to Michigan. The Riley family has provided a week's vacation for her. She is sooooo excited and talks to be about it all the time!



These are probably some of my favorite pics. On one of the hotter days, they found the drain barrels and stripped down their their undershorts and jumped in. Of course they were not supposed to do it. There were up to 4 little boys in the big black barrel. I couldn't resist the pics. About 15 minutes later I saw them in the cafeteria standing in the corners. Still makes me chuckle when I think of it!!!






Ramon!




Tonito....sooooo cute! He is always giving me kisses....about 50 a day and I LOVE it!




Casey lives in casa #3 with the handicapped boys. He is in charge. You see him here helping put the laundry out to dry.




Leonardo!



This has been a very different experience for me at Lily. Besides loving on the kids, the past 5 years I've always had things to do at DIF or preparing for groups to arrive. This time the Lord opened the door for me to come to Lily and I have no agenda. I am just here. There are no groups arriving and I am open to whatever the Lord has in mind for me. Yesterday, I noticed a boy here at Lily that has been making many bad decisions and seems to be leading several other boys down the same path. I've known him from previous visits and to be honest, I was saddened to see the change. Before eating the afternoon meal, the Lord made it very clear to me that I should talk to him about surrendering his life to God. I asked Alivia, who has been studying Spanish in a language school in Chihuahua and was here for the weekend, to translate for me. She graciously agreed. We looked for a private place to talk and ended up on the edge of the basketball court in the shade. After sharing with him for a few minutes, he said he would like to surrender his life to Christ. Everyone he loved on this earth has abandoned him, but Jesus never will. Alivia and I shed tears as we welcomed a new member into God's awesome family. Will you pray for him? I have chosen not to share his name, but God knows who he is!

Last evening I was in Aldama with Belem and Alivia to treat them to ice cream. As we were sitting in the park, a parade came by. There was a steady slow drum beat as a float with 'Christ' tied up was on it and following the float were many men carrying torches that lit up the night sky. Behind that was a float of Mother Mary with women following. Very said....very empty. There was also a darkness that tried to sweep over my soul as I witnessed the parade. But, Jesus put a hedge around me and the darkness lifted. It's hard to explain...unless you've been down here. This is a dark place that needs the light of Jesus.

Last Sunday the kids told me Rosa had them pray for food. (I might have mentioned this earlier.) Anyway...I think that tomorrow the kids need to tell God that we have enough! The food kept arriving all day today by the truckloads! I took pics of fruit and veggies! Amazing! It made for some yummy vegetable soup and fruit for lunch...but the storage room is filled! I'm so glad other orphanages and homes are able to enjoy our blessing! Isn't God good?!!!

The ovens aren't working...still. Made cinnamon rolls today and each batch took 1 hour and 45 minutes instead of 16 minutes that it used to take in their convection ovens. Rosa showed me where rats have chewed cords and stuff inside the oven. It's such a shame not be able to bake things. She said that last time they were repaired, it cost around $3,000. I can't believe it!!! It seems like new ovens would be just as cheap. Anyway, please pray for wisdom regarding this. Actually, I think they should just have the children pray about it tomorrow!!! A truck with a new oven will probably arrive midweek!

The kids are doing great and enjoying life...like they always do. I'm enjoying hundreds of kisses and hugs each day and wishing more of you were here to enjoy it with me! I have decided to post pics now...and maybe write about them tomorrow. There are stories behind many of them! Stay tuned! Hugs from Mexico!!!