Vigil and funeral for Maria, Miguel and Jorge´s mom

Granddaughter of Maria, daughter of Nora, Miguels and Jorge´s sister

Fatima, Maria´s youngest, who always wears a hat now since they shaved her head because of lice. 

The younger of Lilian´s daughters, Yolani

The older of Lilian´s daughters, Belinda

On the front patio.  The four walls are the same size as that front one.  It´s a one room home.

The kitchen.  Lilian is there in the pink shirt.  She is the oldest of Maria´s daughters at about 24 years old.  Maria was in her early 40´s when she died. 

Inside the kitchen. There´s no running water.  Lilian has been borrowing water from a neighbor to clean dishes and clothes.

Inside the house where they had the vigil.  It is constumary here to hold an all day vigil, then make the procession to a church, and then to the cementary.  

Looking out from the front door.  Nora, 15,is  posing. The kitchen is to the right.

Lilian, Yolani, and a friend

Nora and her 9 mo. old.  They moved about 2 hours away with Nora´s husband about 4 months ago where she has a job. 

Santi loves cats, and her he is with Fidel and his cat.  Fidel is Miguel´s neighbor and friend.

This house was owned by the mother who passed away.  She didn´t leave a will but Lilian will for now be responsable for her three younger brothers and sister and they will all be living in this house along with Lilian´s two girls and husband.  As you can see, it is very small for 8 people, and there isn´t any running water.
Beto and I right now feel moved to first of all, put running water in their home which will cost around $300.  After that, we´d like to build them an outhouse which will cost about $200. From there, a little more spacious and more higienic kitchen, which also would cost about $200.  And finally, add on a small wooden room, put in a ceramic floor, and cover their adobe bricks with cement and paint.

If you feel moved to help us out in this endeavor, please send checks made out to Long Beach Church of Christ with ¨Melgar-Perez Families¨on the memo line, and send it to the Long Beach church of Christ at...

3707 Atlantic ave
Long beach,CA 90807

The funeral was this afternoon at a cementary near our home.  I´ve never been to a Honduran funeral before and let me just say it was very different from any funeral I´ve ever experienced.  First of all, because most people don´t have cars, they walk behind the truck who´s bed holds the coffin from the church to the cementary.  The vigil earlier in the day is very quiet, reserved, where people come to pay their respects and pray.  At the cementary no one said any words of rememberance.  There was a lot of loud wailing and crying mostly by the young daughters, for about an hour.  While that is going on, a small group of men are carrying buckets of cement from the place where they mix it on the ground about 10 feet from the plot to the plot.  they first fill the plot with dirt and then cover that in cement to make a large square shaped ¨box¨above ground.  And this has to be done fairly quickly, so one man is yelling to the others 10 feet away, ¨More buckets! 2 more buckets!¨   Beto led a prayer and then had to rush Lilian, to the hospital for uncontrollable crying and fainting.   Jorge and his older brother, who arrived drunk to the funeral, went with him. She was able to calm down and is now resting at home.  She hadn´t slept at all last night since her mother arrived at 3am this morning from the capitol city and she had to get the house ready.

To finish out, on the lighter side. When we arrived at the cementary Santi was looking for Miguel.  He thought we were going to his home but I explained to him where we were and what it is and why.  I´m glad I told him in English because throughout the time there Santi kept repeating, ¨Mama died. Jorge´s mama died. Miguel´s mama died. Miguel cry. Fatima cry. Jorge cry. Mama died. Mama died.¨ He´s just at that stage of repeating things a lot and he was just being matter of fact, but I was relieved that no one else could understand him.

Please be in prayer for this family.  It is just so heartbreaking for me to see these young children crying over their mother and to know that their father left them many years ago.  So young without any parents at all. I can´t imagine.
We still have yet to talk to Lilian about whether she is going to take legal guardianship of her younger siblings, or if they will go live with a relative or what.  There is an orphanage here but we have to do a lot of praying and talking with the family.  Please pray for the Lord to give us wisdom in all of this too.