Dayana

Dayana is the quiet girl of the group. She doesn't giggle all the time like Claudy or love to chat like Escarleth. But she loves kisses me on the cheek and gives me a hug.

Dayana loves sitting on my lap and telling me about school or about a good grade she got. She doesn't brag but is searching for my approval. She plays hard to get when you first know her, but you will adore her once you get to know her loving nature.

You won't meet a better speller; she and Jose came in first and second in their class spelling bee. She loves to play Uno, Thumbs-up-7-up or really any game I'll play with her.

Dayana day dreams like no child I have ever seen. I often have to call her name to bring her back to reality and her homework. She snaps out of the dream, simple smiles and sluggishly returns to her homework.

I love her dearly, and I hope you'll want to make her Christmas special. Check out this entry on how to do so. We had our Christmas event last night, but we could still use any donation you can give us.

Thank you for caring about our special kids this holiday season. Blessings!

Sponsor Claudy for Christmas

Claudy at their Christmas play

If you have never met Claudy, I hope one day you're able to. She's a ham and a half. I love her and her sweet smiles and innocent giggles. She mothers the rest of the tutoring kids to death, and it's hilarious to watch. It's clear she loves deeply.

I took the kids to lunch the other day, and we all had a lot of fun. While the other kids were playing, Claudy quietly came up behind me and called my name.

"Michael..." Claudy said.

"Yes, sweetie?" I said, turning my head. Then I felt her arms wrap around my neck.

She kissed my cheek softly and said, "Thank you, Michael."

I LOVED that moment with her. She acts very mature sometimes for an eight year old, and I felt so proud of her unprompted appreciation.

I hope you will consider giving this beautifully sweet girl a special Christmas, both for her and her family. See this previous entry for details on how to sponsor and what you would helping with. Thanks for caring for our kids and their families this Christmas. And we wish you a holiday as blessed as ours!

Sponsor Jose for Christmas

Jose is one of our four kids in our tutoring program, for those of you who haven't had the pleasure. He's such an awesome kid. He loves soccer like pretty much all Honduran boys, and he'll even have the patience to play with me. I'm terrible; so, obviously he's a pretty sweet kid.

He'll act shy and pretends he doesn't have an opinion about anything, but that's a lie. He'll talk your leg off and make silly jokes if you push the right buttons.

When we picked up trash a few weeks ago, he and I had a little competition going. I told him I would win, and he proceeded to spend the rest of the time going for any piece of trash I walked toward. He would watch for where I went and run to pick it up before me. He's definitely ornery, but he's got a great, big heart. He wants to make me and his parents proud.

Please consider sponsoring Jose and his family for Christmas; we want to make give them a special night. They deserve it. See this previous entry for more details on how to make that happen. And blessings to you and your family this Christmas, and thank you for blessing our Shine! ministry.

Help our Christmas Shine

December with Shine includes all kinds of events to keep us busy. We'll have the usual activities, purchase a new car very soon, hopefully have the funds to find a few new kids to add to the program and celebrate Christmas with the wonderful kids in our program.

We want to do something special for our Shine kiddos for Christmas. We want to get each of the kids a gift, including the college students. We want to have a special lunch where we give them the gifts.

Most of all, we want to have a special event, where we include their families as well this year. If our goal for Shine is to create kids that grow up to change their world, we need as much involvement from their parents as possible.

So, we have a party planned for the kids and their parents. We're going to take the kids and their families to a nice dinner and enjoy some fun time together. Our two Shine college students, Michelle and Arnold, will be a part of the fun too, and so will our older student Mariela who is a Shine student but isn't a part of the tutoring program. Then we're all going to play putt-putt! I'm sure none of them have ever played mini-golf before; so, we thought it would be something different and fun for all the ages that will be there.

We're excited to spend some time with our kids and their families, away from school, our house and other responsibilities. Our kids are amazing, and their parents love them dearly. All our students have worked hard, and we're thrilled to give them all a special night.

We would love your help to make it happen. We need $100 for for each of the younger kids to sponsor them and their families for Christmas. Michelle and Arnold only need $20 each because they are already partially sponsored for Christmas, and Mariela is fully sponsored for Christmas. We are asking for a totally of $440 to give all of them, including five families and two college students, a special Christmas.

If you can help in any way, please let me know at michael@bchonduras.org. We will gladly except any donation you can make. Please make checks payable to Shine Honduras (as always donations are tax-deductible) and send them to:

Shine Honduras

3126 S. Boulevard #168 

Edmond, OK 73013

Thank you for your love and support of our program. We are so grateful for your belief in our beautiful kids. Many blessings to you and your family this holiday season! And merry Christmas!

Picking up trash around the neighborhood

The kids and I walked around our neighborhood picking up trash a few weeks ago. We have talked all month about service, and this was a concrete way to act on what we had talked about. They collected tons of trash with big smiles on their faces, and they competed to see who could pick up the most in the 30 we were outside. Jose kept stealing my trash. 

Needless to say, I lost the competition, but I gained even more appreciation for these wonderful kids and their beautiful souls. They have huge hearts for helping others. They were tired by the end but happy to see their piles of trash.

Sweet conversations

The kids and I have talked a lot about service this last month. I began videoing our afternoon a few weeks ago with the intention of asking the kiddos about what they did the previous weekend. I had encouraged them to draw a picture of them serving people and then act out that picture. 

As always the kids surprised me with their sweet comments I never expected. Escarleth's comments about God seem well beyond her years. Sometimes I have to collect myself in order not to follow their responses with "Umm...." and a gulp.

Here's the continuation of the previous video. They are always so surprisingly willing to serve others. I hope they grow up to want to serve others to create change for the better in this world.

Little moments

I took a video of the Shine kiddos, telling you why they like German and ALL the German words they know. They started talking about their German class during tutoring one day, and I thought you would want to hear them speak it a little. They can't form sentences as well, which is why we ended up with a grand list of words learned.....enjoy your German lesson! Plus, it's pretty to awesome to hear them speak a some of three languages!

Click here to watch the video!

Jose's birthday!

 Jose, one of our sweet Shine kiddos, turned 9 years old on Tuesday. We had to work on some math concepts, but we also wanted to do something special for his birthday. So...Amber and I decided to make caramel apples - a nod to Halloween and Jose's birthday!

The birthday boy got to make his apple first of course.

Doesn't he look thrilled? Jose is, one might say, the opposite of dramatic.

We had to tell him to smile. He's so funny but adorable, right?

Then beautiful Claudy went. She is certainly the opposite of Jose. 

She used more Oreo's then could actually stick to the apple.

Next Escarleth stepped up to begin her creation.

Darwin patiently helped Dayana with her concoction. He's so wonderful with the kids, 

waking up early to pick them up for school and taking them home every day.

Dayana is more reserved than the other girls. But once you get to know her, 

she will love you with the purest sweetness.

Then they loaded on the toppings, Oreo's, chocolate chips, almonds, M & M's galore.

They seemed to really enjoy the fun activity. Even though I think they thought it was a bit strange at times, especially Jose, they were excited for the treat.

Especially Dayana.

And Claudy definitely enjoyed it too. It was a fun afternoon!

Happy birthday, handsome Jose!

A Shine Halloween!

The kiddos had a costume party at school on Friday. Amber and I were at a retreat, but Darwin snapped some pictures. They kids were very excited about it. I wish I could have seen them in person. But these pictures are pretty great.

Escarleth looking gorgeous in her angel costume.

Dayana and Claudy with a friend at school.

Jose and Escarleth, my favorite picture by far!

Dayana makes a lovely queen for sure, and I think she may know it.
Look at that cute head tilt. She looks way too grown up!

Rosie joined in on the fun too. What a sweet little face.

The kids and family getting instructions for games.

I'm not sure what Escarleth is looking at, but she's very intent upon looking.

Couldn't find a cuter group. Hope you all had a good Halloween!

Starting out with Shine

I have lived in Tegucigalpa for two weeks, and already I'm having so much fun with the Shine kids. We have worked on book reports, learned - relearned for me - math concepts like rounding and greater than or equal to, read together and played Hide-and-Go-Seek (sometimes you just need a break from homework).

For those of you who don't know, Bob and Amber have decided I will take over Shine under Amber's supervision for the next two years. I'm a graduate of Oklahoma Christian University, and I will spend the next two years living and working with Amber through the Helpers in Missions (HIM) program. I love Honduras, and I'm looking forward to finding new ways to grow Shine and help Amber in any way I can.

Next week I hope to put a picture post up and give you a better idea of how the kids are doing. Amber and I are off this evening to attend a women's retreat. So, I won't be able to update for a few days.

I can say now that the Shine kids are brilliant and are continuing to learn more and more every day. There English has improved greatly since I was last here in May of 2010.

Thank you for all each of you do for these wonderful kids. A world of opportunities are opening for them, and I can't wait to see how they use them. And I can't wait to watch them continue to learn and grow. Thank you.