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| The Crickenberger Family on New Year's Eve: Josuan, me, Erick, Belkis (Marvin's sister), Yessica (Erick's mom), Stefani (Josuan's sister), Jesús Bladimir, Marvin, and Cristofer (Erick's brother) |
Hello All,
It's been quite a while since I updated, and to be perfectly honest, this isn't going to be a full-fledged update either because there are so many changes in the making that I want to wait to see how things pan out concretely. What I can tell you is that I had a wonderful visit while in the States and was able to rest and get my health squared away. Below is my January hard-copy/e-mail newsletter which will give the general overview of what has gone on in the past couple of months. In general, my family is doing well although we have some major changes coming up. But, more on that in the days to come. For now, here's a quick update and some pictures from the holidays.
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| The Gringo Crickenberger Family: Dad, Samuel, Mom, Gabrielle, me, and Naomi |
Breakthroughs
As I write this, I am surrounded by my family in the US with less than a week left in my visit. This trip has been so necessary for restoration and rest in every sense. From the first month I adopted Josuan, I started dealing with stomach health issues. I powered through it for six months, losing weight and unable to digest anything normally before going to the doctor a couple times. But nothing seemed to help me. One of the motivators for Josuan to join the intercessory prayer team was to pray and fast for my health which he has been doing every week since. Throughout so much physical exhaustion and other types of obstacles this year, it was evident to me that everything we were struggling against had a spiritual root. So, Josuan and I prayed together about many of our battles, and we knew that God was always working on our behalf even if we didn’t see a breakthrough yet. A teaching I heard from Kris Vallotton explains it like this—we often face the greatest spiritual attacks whenever we’re entering promised land or doing something that God always had for us to do. Thus, Josuan and I believed with faith that this trip would be the start of many needed breakthroughs for our family. After ten months of physical suffering, I was able to go to the doctor here and get some tests done which revealed that I’ve had the bacteria H. pylori, which causes ulcers, in my stomach and GI tract. They had tested me in Honduras for H. pylori but told me I didn’t have it. Thankfully, I’ve been able to start taking the right medication and am on the road to complete healing. I believe that this is the first of many breakthroughs for our family. I had the joy of sharing with a group of kind, supportive brothers and sisters in Christ from Living Waters CMA Church and was blessed to be heard. During this trip, I’ve also been blessed financially to be able to start the ministry when I return.
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| The lovely group from Living Waters CMA Church receiving Josuan's homemade gift. |
Losing Cristhian
Five days into this trip, I received the news that Cristhian, my youngest in Teen Challenge, had escaped to go back to the streets. While I wasn’t surprised, as a mother, my heart breaks to know that his suffering isn’t over yet—that he is going to have to go through more before realizing he is not an orphan but a son loved by God. I continue to pray for him, but I also have peace that God is not finished with him yet and that I did everything God asked of me for the life of my son. I hope to see him again at 21 de Octubre. Losing Cristhian has been a humbling reminder to me that I can’t guarantee results. Each one of my boys is a miracle that only God can give me in His perfect way and timing. It’s all His work. The responsibilities coming up this year scare me sometimes, but God has never let us down.
Big Changes
Just to give you an overview of some of the situations in the making, here is an update on my kids:
Marvin - Marvin will likely be leaving Teen Challenge soon to be with me. He had intended to stay as a leader in Teen Challenge and go to Bible school through the ministry on the weekends. Due to some changes, Teen Challenge isn't currently offering the option to go to Bible school, which is one of my motivators for being willing to take Marvin so that we can enroll him independently. Because Marvin has a gift for working with young children, I plan to have him collaborate with Naty and Martha in the ministry in Yuscaran, helping them with the tons of kids who attend their services every other week.
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| Marvincito, one of my right-hand men on New Year's Eve |
Jesús - Jesús will finish his year in Teen Challenge on February 9. He goes back and forth on whether or not he wants to stay with me or return to his pueblo. His current stance is that he wants to stay with me, so I've gotten him a temporary job working with Raúl to test things out.
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| Jesús goofing off with a fake mustache my mom sent for my kids on Christmas Eve. |
Erick - Erick will finish his first year in Teen Challenge on February 1, but he has a court-mandated second year to spend in the ministry. Thus, he plans to study on the high school level at the public high school that collaborates with the ministry.
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| Erick posing with the Teen Challenge Christmas tree. |
Josuan - Josuan will soon complete nine months of being in Teen Challenge. He was made a collaborator/junior leader in his building just this week. He remains part of the intercessory prayer team, and he's my greatest support system. He will finish his year in Teen Challenge in May--on Mother's Day, to be exact. He already has a job offer for when he leaves, but I'm currently looking for a private school with the US school calendar from August-June to enroll him in when he leaves the ministry.
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| Josuan, goofing off with Abuela's fake mustache on Christmas Eve. |
Bladimir - Bladi will have his first weekend leave from the ministry next week, and it will be a big test of his behavior and whether or not he really wants to change. He's been in Teen Challenge five months now.
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| Bladi showing off his Christmas clothes. |
Stefani - Josuan's sister, Stefani, age 13, is doing well in the sense that she has given her heart to Jesus and is willing to change. But, it is most definitely a process of working through deep wounds and bad habits. I've been trying to do a better job of keeping her close to me, and she's become my buddy in running errands with me while she's been on school vacation. Her high school classes will start again in a couple of weeks. But, she and I are getting more involved in church activities which will also be the case for the boys when they leave Teen Challenge.
Cristhian - I haven't heard anything about his whereabouts. I check in with 21 de Octubre to see if he's landed there again, but at this point, as far as I know, he's on the streets.
John - I haven't heard anything from John in several months. When he used to call me, he was usually drunk or high. The last time we talked, he was no longer living with his mom and was living in between girlfriends' houses.
Joel - Joel is living on the streets. We still haven't seen him since he left Teen Challenge, but some of our friends from Teen Challenge have seen him. I hope to see him again soon.
Elvis - Elvis is doing well in El Buen Pastor and is enjoying his vacation from school although classes will start soon. I have finally won him over, and he proudly tells his friends that I'm his mami. I recently went with the social worker from the center to try to arrange a visit between his stepdad and him because his stepfather is the only father or sense of family Elvis has ever had. But, his father is handicapped, and it's very difficult to arrange transportation. The glitch we ran into this past week after making the two hour trip to Danlí to pick him up from the bus station was that he hadn't come since he didn't have legal papers to be able to travel. Thus, we're at a standstill in our efforts.
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| Elvis after opening his Christmas presents. |
Jorge - Jorge is doing well although I still haven't won him over. I was surprised to find in talking to the social worker that Jorge's mother is still living. Every time I've talked to him about her, he has talked as if she were dead. In reality, she lives on the streets and is a drug addict--living and wandering possibly in the very places where we do street ministry! I may have already met her without knowing it! His older sisters both live in separate centers, and one is a recovering drug addict as well. I'm still working on winning Jorge over. Having lived in the orphanage nearly his entire life, he's not sure what to do with this whole concept of having a mom and family.
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| Elvis and Jorge opening their Christmas gifts from me, Abuela, and Bisabuela Charlotte. |
Christmas and New Year's
I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my Teen Challenge sons, Yessica, Wendy (Erick's aunt who is also part of our family), and their kids. We had a lot of fun opening presents, dancing at the church service, praying and thanking God together, and staying up all night to eat Christmas dinner, light fireworks, and stay warm by a giant campfire. Words cannot express the joy it brought me to see my kids on Christmas. For Josuan, it was the first Christmas he'd ever spent sober since he was around nine years old! For others, they received their first Christmas gift or their first new set of clothes ever. The greatest blessing, to me, however, was hugging and crying with joy together during the church service knowing that this is the first Christmas they've ever spent in the security of loving family. There is no greater thankfulness to Jesus than seeing tears roll down Josuan's face in worship and telling me, "Mami, all I can say is, 'Thank you, Jesus,' because I don't deserve all of this. But, He loves me so much." Jesús pulled me aside and said, "Mami, I just want to tell you thank you. I've never had a Christmas like this--so peaceful and so beautiful." And while Marvin isn't always very vocal, his smile said it all. I also spent New Year's Eve during the day with them. Raúl bought them a whole box full of fireworks, and they set nearly all of them off before it was even dark. I spent the rest of New Year's with Raúl and his extended family as has been the tradition since they adopted me when I moved here. Two Saturdays ago was visitation at El Buen Pastor, and I was able to give Jorge and Elvis their Christmas gifts. They were quite happy.
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| Siblings |
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| The first time I'd seen snow in a while... |
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| Tía Naomi |
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| Tío Samuel |
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| Abuelo Joe |
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| Family Picture
All of my love, Sarah |
