If you are a person of faith in Jesus Christ, I ask that you pray urgently for our children (and us!) during this time. This past week and half have been wrought with darkness and unforeseen struggles, and we are at the end of ourselves and no longer have many ideas of what to do.

Our seven-year-old son, Jason, passed the entrance exam to a very good local Christian school, and he entered in second grade about two weeks ago after having been in homeschool with us for a year (the Honduran school calendar begins in February). It has come to light in the past few days that he has been lying both in school and to us, got sent to the principal’s office yesterday for ripping up his homework and throwing it in the toilet, lost his only pair of school shoes, and has deliberately not been doing all of his classroom and homework assignments. We are aghast at this turn in his behavior and are at a loss of what to do after trying several disciplinary techniques, talking with him on end, etc, and last night as he lay in his top bunk sleeping Jenae, Darwin, Jason’s two biological sisters and I tip-toed in and gathered around him, gently laying hands on his little body and asking God for a miracle in his heart. We prayed for liberation from the darkness that has begun to consume him and that his light – which is Christ within him – may begin to shine once again. Please pray with us so that any spirit of laziness, of deceit, of ungratefulness may be eradicated from his life so that he may walk in light, truth and freedom. In the Honduran public schools, children have been known to be sexually abused during recess, classes can be canceled when there is a big soccer game on television, and it is not uncommon for sixth graders to barely be able to read, so this opportunity for him to study at a small, sincerely Christian school with good academics that is only a 20-minute drive from our home is an incredible blessing and we don’t want him to do to it what he did to his homework assignment yesterday.

Our eldest daughter, Diana, is having some very strong emotional and spiritual struggles with the arrival of Jackeline and Josue to our home. Adolescence can be a stormy season for anyone, and especially with all that she has been through in fourteen years. We are looking into Christian counseling for her because, although we want to be able to meet her emotional needs merely by providing a stable, loving family environment with healthy opportunities, etc, we are quickly realizing that she needs professional help. Please pray for her emotional stability, identity in Christ, and wisdom for us as her parents during this time.

Our 10-year-old daughter, Gleny, is having similar (although not as extreme) struggles as her little brother Jason in the sense that she is not valuing the opportunity to study as a fourth-grader in her new Christian school, and her behavior and laziness are quickly becoming a huge problem. Please pray for her in the same manner that I have asked you pray for Jason.

The two new arrivals (Jackeline, age 11, and Josue, age 6) are doing well. We have found a small special needs school for Josue, and we are currently in the middle of all the medical and psychological exams in order to be able to enroll him there as a student. Jackeline has entered fifth grade in our homeschool program, and is doing okay by all accounts, although I ask for prayer for her work ethic (which is currently very poor), emotional stability, and salvation.

My Honduran residency has been in process for two years now, and I just received notice that I will need to leave the country for three days before March 3 because the government is about to close my case due to my lawyer’s extremely faulty job. I have been calling my lawyer three and four times a day for weeks, and she does not answer. After a long series of phone calls yesterday with the government offices in Tegucigalpa, I was finally told that I need to change my lawyer and do a whole other process in order to get my Honduran residency, although I will likely still have to leave in March for a few days and then return to continue the exhausting legal process. Please pray that the government and my new lawyer may have mercy on my case and that the legal process may be done according to God’s standard of justice (and not Honduras’).

In the past couple weeks my cell phone has been thrown down the toilet (thanks, Josue), our days have been consumed with disciplinary procedures, sleepless nights have been spent in prayer, and joy has been squeezed out amidst trying difficulties. Thank you for taking the time to read this long, rambling list of prayer requests, and I ask that you sincerely take the time to present our children before God so that He may continue the good work He has begun in their lives.

Another angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all God’s people, on the golden altar in front of the throne. The smoke of the incense, together with the prayers of God’s people, went up before God from the angel’s hand. — Revelation 8:3