Open Hearts Nicaragua - Farrington Family

Not sure if you have the 45 minutes, but my aunt sent me a link to the guy from the Travel Channel who visited Nicaragua.  It is a really well done episode, especially if you have been here.  He does visit La Chureca and it hits him really hard.  It is interesting to see how darkness effects someone when their first reaction isn’t to lean on the hope we have in Jesus, the hope that God uses Colegio Esperanza to bring to this dark place.  We didn’t know he was filming, or we would have tried to get with him and at least take him into the school….anyways our hope is Jesus!  That is what keeps us pushing on!  Again praise Jesus for Colegio Esperanza!!!  Amen!

http://www.bacanalnica.com/blog/5141-Anthony-Bourdain-Sin-Reservas-en-Nicaragua (click on the second picture that says “clic video”…it will run without commercials)

Sidenote:  The school runs entirely on donations and it is around $9,270 a month to keep it fully functioning.  We have about 60% of that amount raised/committed for the year, so if you would like to help please do!  And if you know anyone who may be able to help please point them our way!  Thank you mucho mucho!!!  (we have a link to paypal in the right column).

Palmer Trinity School from Miami sent another group of students down and build a house for the second time in as many months.  Who cares about Basketball down here right?!!?  We’ve got our own version of March Madness….building a house in one week is INSANE!!!  It is Madness :)…….though I am paying attention to the other version of the madness too Go Noles!!!

Krista’s grandmother Shirley, who lives down here with us celebrated her 81st  this week.  Happy Birthday Gigi!

Timo’s birthday was last week.  We had minature Spidermans running around….the cake even had a web on it.  Happy Birthday Tim Tom!!!! 

This year Palmer Trinity will be coming with a second team in March and will be building another house.  This is a great project and it will be awesome to get to do it twice this year.  The family they will be working for is Carlos & Irania Vivas with their two children Carla and Jan Carlos.  This is going to be a thrilling week for them!  Amen.

Papa just went for a visit to the U.S. of A….and he brought a present back for Mason.  Is it ok that I am teaching my three year old son how to shoot a gun?!?!  That was a question of the rhetorical kind 🙂  Mason loves little present, we hunt for birds together and he learned how to use the safety on our first walk….don’t worry though those bb’s don’t come out hard enough to do any damage, but it is fun!!!!  We’ve got a true little farmer guy on our hands!

Great news!  As the school year was getting ready to begin Luisa & Kener have come back to Casa Robles.  Their mother made the decision to have them come back and remain in the home because of her circumstances that were a bit beyond her control.  Her name is Fabiola and if you could remember to continuously pray for her, please do.  We are very excited to have Luisa & Kener back.  Luisa is the princess at Robles and she was sooooo excited to be back!  Kener was actually really excited too, he loves the new school for this year, which is so huge for him because last year he really had a hard time.  He is all smiles.  Praise God they are back….it is a good thing….thank you all for all of your prayers!!!

Please keep Luisa & Kener’s sister Luz in your prayers.  She is actually going to live with her grandmother for a time instead of returning to Casa Havilah.  She will be well taken care of there, but should anything change for the worse in her situation, there is the possibility of her coming back to Casa Havilah.  Because of her age they feel good about her living with her grandmother and aunts.  We are all in agreement, but please be praying for Luz as well.  Thank you.

I’ve recently read through some really impactful books centered around the events of the Holocaust and WWII in Europe.  Night by Elie Wiesel, Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom and Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl.  All are first hand accounts of experiences during that tragedy….all lending to an entirely new perspective on life, purpose, suffering, meaning….tear jerking and thought provoking because of the harsh reality of that topic.

Victor Frankl was a know Austrian Psychologist whose major life work was his brain child, logotherapy.  Before the Nazi’s came into Austria he was offered a chance to leave to the United States and further his work on a special visa, his elderly parents were elated because he was given the chance to escape what all knew was a coming nightmare.  He was left with a difficult decision:

“It was then that I noticed a piece of marble lying on a table at home.  When I asked my father about it, he explained that he had found it on the site where the National Socialists had burned down the largest Viennese synagogue.  He had taken the piece home because it was a part of the tablets on which the Ten Commandments were inscribed.  One gilded Hebrew letter was engraved on the piece; my father explained that this letter stood for one of the Commandments.  Eagerly I asked, ‘Which one is it?’  He answered, ‘Honor thy father and they mother that thy days may be long upon the land.’  At that moment I decided to stay with my father and my mother upon the land, and to let the American visa lapse.”

Frankl went on to experience some of the most horrific evils in human history.  He lost his parents, saw death, suffering, hope stolen, innocence destroyed, a nightmare so dark in many ways when you read about it, it seems surreal, unfathomable.  His decision to stay cost him dearly, but he did what was right.  Life is but a flash in the pan and he was given a moment to make a choice.  He chose to honor his father and his mother and stay with them.

One might say, “but he lost so much, he would have been better off going to America”.  So it seems.  But his last moments with his mom & dad will be in his mind forever.  They felt the sacrifice of his decision…an overwhelming honoring of them.  He did survive and did go on to finish his work even though his manuscript was lost in the early stages of sorting in the concentration camps.

In our world today where we are told so often to do “what is good for you”, to always be worried about “being taken care of”, to “look out for number one”, a story like this is refreshing.  This example of what it means to “Honor thy Mother and Father” is the perfect embodiment of what Children of God, followers of Jesus are called to do.  We should honor our fathers and mothers.

The team from Palmer Trinity School in Miami has come and gone and left a huge blessing for Victor, Aracely and their twin girls.  What would have taken them years to accomplish on their own was done in less than a month.  It was something that will have changed their life forever…..and it was a fun week of work to boot!