They've Named Their Kids After Us... or Just Kidding

In the midst of so much running around, moving, looking for houses, going to church and street evangelism, we had the fun of witnessing the joy of life.  The Reyes family little farm has four goats and one of them gave birth last week!

The kids, Tinker and Bell, were really cute.

Unfortunately, this was the first birthing for the mama goat and mama just didn’t want anything to do with the kids!

Arturo and I actually held the mother down at one point and we put the kids on her to nurse, but we did this as a last resort, and in the end both babies died the day after they were born.

Then two days later another female goat gave birth to two more kids!

These two the family decided to name “Mateo” and “Elena” after US!

This mother was much more attentive to her babies.

Allowed them to milk and even ate corn off the cob from my hand while nursing.

The funny thing is that in another place where another ministry is taking place with another Zell, children really do get named after the missionaries: http://midwifey.blogspot.com/

Sunday at Emmanuel

This has been a huge day, lots done, and so many blessings!

The morning starts with the worship service at church about 8:45.  There was no water and so there were no showers!  We did a quick once over with some baby wipes and dressed for church!  Of course, everyone else here, 500 plus kids and all the staff, were also in the same situation!  

The lack of water didn't seem to put a big dent in the kids attitudes.  The younger children went to the gymnasium for their service and the older kids to the church. They were orderly, in their best dress, and full of big smiles!

It was so beautiful to see the Christmas tree is up in the sanctuary.  The music with all the young people singing was fantastic!

A staff couple had there new 15 day old baby dedicated during the service.

We had special prayer for two staff families who are recently pregnant.

We welcomed and prayed for some new children who have arrived from another orphanage.

This orphanage was destroyed in a fire and so the children are being placed in other facilities around the country. Unfortunately, it was probably a good thing that the facility burnt as many of the children being moved are in bad shape showing signs of malnutrition and other problems. Most of them are very easy to pick out from the children at Emmanuel who look so healthy! So far, Emmanuel's has received about 55 new children and a bus left today for another 20 or whatever the Lord has for them.

After the service we socialized outside the church with staff and the kids.

Sheily, Ellen and Ruth

I brought my balloon bag along and so started a period of trying to make balloons faster than the kids piled into line... impossible. The kids love getting a balloon dog or flower or sword or whatever!

For some, watching an intense experience as the balloons are twisted near the point of popping!

Of course, once one special request is made, like this heart, then everybody waiting wants a heart!

I had to turne the balloon bag over to Ellen so that I could go help Wade, the director, hunt down the water problem! This really made me kind of chuckle as I really thought we would just be 'visiting' this weekend and not jumping into 'maintenance work' which I often help with during short term trips.  Of course, plumbing is one thing I can do well, have done a bunch of at Emmanuel, and he needed help.  While Wade and I traveled in one direction, there were other staff also searching through the grounds for possible problems.  We ran all over, fixed some leaks, found that the pumps had tripped off,  and now there's water!!  PTL!!

After the plumbing and lunch, we picked up our sponsor child, Ruth, and her brother, Ariel, and brought them back to sit out on the porch of the Dental Clinic for food and games.

We had to start with the ice cream bars as they were melting fast!

We moved on to playing multiple games of Mexican Train, and eating chips and churitos (fried pork skin), as well as drinking a three liter bottle of coke. I thought we had more than enough food, and I think it was sufficient, but they chowed and there were no leftovers! Did I say it was a 3 liter bottle of coke?!!  Very fun!

After the food was gone and the game over, we took an ice cream bar we had saved in the freezer to their older brother Jairo. These are sweet kids, they are very tender together, and their parents are both living, but they have to be at Emmanuel's because home is not a safe place.

Praise the Lord for His provision of a refuge for these children in Honduras to be clothed, fed, cared for, and daily guided in Biblical truth! Not all the kids here are saved but they certainly have opportunities to make that decision!

Ellen & Sheily

"As for God, his way is perfect: The LORD’s word is flawless; He shields all who take refuge in Him."

2Sam 22:31

We're Staying at a Dental Clinic

We decided to travel to Orphanage Emmanuel this weekend where we have led several short term teams. We sponsor a young girl, Ruth, and also have many, many, other friends among the children and staff. Ellen has one girl she keeps in touch with regularly, Sheily.

When we contacted the orphanage about coming, they simply let us know that they had a place for us to stay. So, we fully anticipated staying at the team house, which is ok... bunk beds... huge dining room... no privacy. Of course, that's all we've known for housing at the orphanage.

We were soooo incredibly surprised and blessed to find that they put us at the Dental Clinic! Really doesn't sound too exciting to say, “we're staying at a dental clinic,” but I'll explain. For people who hate the dentist this might just seem like a worst nightmare come true, but keep reading.

A dentist who partnered with the orphanage had the building made, one side is the clinic and the other is a personal apartment!! We haven't had personal nada for awhile so this was a big deal.

We had never actually been inside the dental clinic before and we are loving it!

It's not big, but it's so cozy, and we're affectionately calling it the 'honeymoon suite'!

The master bedroom's bed has an incredibly comfy mattress!! You would have thought that would have been enough to call us to bed early last night, but we found that our cellular modem works GREAT here and so we were up until just before midnight using the fast internet.

There was one smallish glitchy... just after we arrived yesterday the water stopped working at the orphanage. They have their own wells and water supplies so this is really unusual... I'm sure it's not us!! 24 hours later the leaks were found and repaired!

A really cool thing is that they had recently put up all their Christmas lights! We have not seen any other Christmas lights yet in Honduras and we have never seen the Christmas lights personally at Emmanuel before. So, this was a special treat.

We took an evening stroll, kind of like a 'winter light festival' in the states, but there was no fee!

We enjoyed the lights and marveled at what a truly special place this is for the kids, about 500 orphaned or abused children, who have to live here.

Most incredible of all is our amazing Savior and Lord who raised up this work  to provide so wonderfully and abundantly for the children, both physically and spiritually.

Jn 10:10, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; but I have come that they may have life, and have it abundantly."

Matt

Thanksgiving in Honduras

We love Thanksgiving! We love the food, the focus on giving thanks to God, and we love getting together with our family all crowded into one house for the day... but not this year!  We're in Honduras, Kelly is at the Mercy Clinic in the Philippines, Brandon is home in Maryland with his new bride Desi, and of course all of our extended family and friends are home in the states also.

We travelled back to the mountains outside of Tegucigalpa, to Norma's house, where Ellen and Norma both cooked up a storm and made sure we had plenty of food.

Ellen performed magic and produced some amazing pies!! Both an apple and a pumpkin pie, as well as some unbelievably soft and yummy fresh rolls!

I did some quick surgery on the turkey when it came out of the oven. I'm happy to report that the surgery was a success though the patient, the turkey, didn't make it.

Some other missionaries we had met at language school and who are also serving in Honduras joined us. Also, some of Norma's family joined the feast – including our dear friend Carolina and daughter Maya.

Carolina, Nicole, Maria, and Ellen

After dinner we took the traditional walk before dessert – or, the walk to make room for dessert.

Once all the dishes were cleared and some people sat down for more yak time and others found room around the table to have some fun playing Mexican Train (a dominoes game).

But, to be honest, we were missing family. The Lord provided good friends here, even our friends' visiting parents from the states joined the celebration... but, even so, we missed our family.

We were able to catch up with several of the kinfolk via the modern day miracle of cellular communication! PTL! We were happy to hear that Kelly had a Thanksgiving meal with the other young ladies at the clinic in the Philippines, and that Brandon and Desi had their own private newlywed Thanksgiving dinner for two with food for twenty!

Overall, we have so much joy in giving thanks to our awesome Most High Lord, who protects and provides for, and enabling us to be part of His story! God is good, all the time, and He is rightly deserving of all our praise!

Part of our thanks to the Lord is for our many family members and friends who have joined us through prayer and financial support to make it possible for us to be here to serve!

Catching up with our family and praising the Lord was a huge blessing for us, and we hope your Thanksgiving remembrance was a blessing for you and to the Lord!

Matt

Ellen Doing Engine Diagnostics!!?

This amazing photo catches Ellen using the computer connected directly to the truck engine...

but she's not doing engine diagnostics!

She is happily reading and sending emails!  You might ask, 'why is she doing this with the computer on top of the engine?' and that's a great question.  It's for the electricity!

The Reyes family's house does not have electricity and our computer battery does not last tooo long.  So, we connect to the truck battery via an inverter and... voila, we have electricity.

It's not super convenient but we can charge the computer battery and use it wherever... for a little while.

We have internet connection via a USB modem using a cell phone chip.  it's relatively cheap, though not really fast or always available where we are, BUT it's internet and that makes us both pretty happy!

¡Ataque de las Ranas!

Attack of the Frogs!

After a late start, we successfully moved to our friends finca (farm) on Tuesday, arriving around 4:00 pm. There was a little Bible conference being held in a nearby town, not that we had been planning on going but they were, and so we left around 6:00 to go to that. The conference was good and went until 9:30. We did not get home until 10:00 pm and we were beat. We were actually too tired to eat and just wanted to go to bed but first a quick 'splash bath'.

The Reyes family house

There is a shower area in the bathroom but there is only running water when the pump is on, which is about every three days, and so we fill up a big plastic trash can in our shower to dip water out of and... splash ourselves. The water is not too warm but not real cold, so it's just very refreshing.

When I started 'splashing' I saw a flicker of motion at my feet! I thought it might have been a cockroach but then to my surprise I saw a little frog climbing up the wall!

Our Water Container!

After drying off I caught him and threw him out the window which was a short drop to the ground below. I'm pretty sure he would be fine and at least I would be happier with him outside even if he wasn't.

Later, I caught another in the bathroom and then another in the bedroom right before going to sleep. I thought it was all rather strange but more of a one time occurrence.

The next night we caught four frogs before going to bed and so I posted on Facebook and asked for suggestions on how to stop their advance up the shower drain pipe which opens to the outside as grey water. Before going to bed I stopped up the drain with a wash clothe to keep the frogs from coming in.

Then in the night I was awakened by a 'plop' on my pillow. I sat up and asked Ellen if she had heard that and she said 'No.' I asked her to turn on her flashlight and look and sure enough a frog had fallen from the wall onto my pillow!!!

Una rana (a frog) on the wall in the shower!!

In the morning when I took my splash bath I removed the wash clothe from the drain and started my bath. For some unknown reason the water was puddling at my feet instead of going down the drain. I struggled with the large trash can to move it out of the way to see the drain. It looked brown and clogged and so I stuck my finger in it to move the dirt out of the way. Instead of dirt, three frogs leap out in all directions as I stuck my finger in! Great, the wash clothe trick did not work at all!

Ellen told our friends about the plague state today and they said they didn't know it was happening but that if we pour just a little clorox down the drain that usually deters our leaping friends.

We have applied the deterrent and now have hopes of a 'plopless' night!

First Honduran Funeral

Ana was one of the women in our Friday night Bible study as well as Ellen's Monday afternoon women's group. This was a woman Ellen really loved and they talked of doing cooking projects together but they ran out of time.

Ana is in the center - we were playing games outside.

When we first met Ana this past April, she was a wonderfully joyful and exuberant Christian and she was also a woman in her second round of chemo treatments fighting breast cancer. When she sang in the group she sang strongly and with joy to the Lord for His glory. Her testimony of God's goodness and blessings were strong and convicting.

Ana is in the center with cap - making cross necklaces

Even though she was 33 years old, she was a relatively young Christian of only two years walking with the Lord as her personal Savior. As far as I know, her husband and three children have not yet made professions of faith. Her children are 16, 12 and 7 years old.

Friday night Bible study group

It wasn't that long ago, maybe a couple months, that Ana announced at a Friday night meeting that the Lord had cured her and the doctor's had pronounced her cancer free. She was ecstatic and we all rejoiced greatly and praised God for what He had done.

Ellen's women's Bible study group
Ana is in the blue shirt

Just about three weeks ago Ana was feeling sick with a cough and soon started having trouble just walking around the community. They finally took her to the hospital. One test lead to another, they kept her over night, then another night, and then the doctors finally diagnosed her with terminal lung cancer.

My emotions spiked with the internal battle of how could this happen, yet God had allowed it to happen, but why, and why cure her for this turn around? For me, and I'm sure much more so for her, it was very hard, and yet you would not have known that from her disposition and trust in the Lord.

We took a chicken dinner over to her husband and the kids while she was still in the hospital. He was in such emotional pain he could hardly talk and the kids did not even come out of the little house.

Then we were told that since the doctors could do nothing more for her she was being released to return home... with no more care. Would she have hospice? No, there's no hospice here. Would she have in home care? No, there would be nothing. No hospital type bed, no potty chair, no nothing!

This was difficult to accept, having just seen my mom die from cancer and knowing everything she had... a new flat screen TV in the room, along with a reclining bed, and most importantly pain killers. In the front of my mind was 'How was Ana going to make it and how could her family deal with it?'

Funeral Procession

Ana was sent home from the hospital to die. Ellen and Norma were able to visit with her just a day before she passed. She was very weak and had lost a lot of weight. That night they said her vomit was all black. Amazingly, a doctor did go to her house with pain meds that miraculously she never needed. She was tired and short of breath, but not in unbearable pain.

Last truck in the procession was a big work truck!

Ana died early Monday morning, November 7^th. Friends came to Norma's house in the wee hours of the morning to ask for an adult diaper to put on the body because the bowels would void. The body was cleaned by friends and kept at the house.

The casket was carried in a police pickup

Cotton is put in the mouth and nostrils to prevent... stuff from coming out. They dressed her in her wedding dress and placed the veil on her head. The veil was a very lovely touch as well as practical as it kept insects off her face. Friends and family came to visit all of Monday, straight through the night, and into Tuesday morning. Tuesday was the funeral.

The casket was loaded, unloaded and carried by friends and family.

It was our honor, privilege and joy to be able to use our pick up as one of four available for family and friends to pack into. The lead car with the casket was a police pick up (a friend of the family). People were packed alongside of the casket in back of the police pick up. We were blessed that the final vehicle in our procession was a huge work commercial truck that they only wanted the men to ride in (probably because it wasn't too clean).

We went to a little mountain cemetery and there was a small chapel for holding a service. The man who introduced Ana to Christ shared first. I think at home we would have thought that was enough of a sermon, but he was followed by the leader of the small community worship group she was a part of and he spoke longer than the first man. Finally her father shared. Her father's words were amazing, that his daughter's best decision was accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, and that the only way to heaven for any of us is Christ alone!

Many songs were sung, there was only one guitar player, but the music and praise was beautiful, even if sometimes a little off key. They carried the casket to the grave and the friends and family lowered it in with ropes. Probably what struck me as being the most different from a US funeral, here the attendees actually dig out the grave and at the end shovel the dirt back into the grave.  Everyone stayed until the burial was completed.

Norma, our friend that we currently live with, commented afterward that she was amazed that there was no wailing but rather a spirit of celebration. We have experienced the custom of wailing at a funeral and it's quite disturbing. We actually didn't notice the lack of it during the funeral but we praise God for the peace and comfort He provided to these people as they mourn their loss and celebrated her being in glory!!

We're so thankful the Lord allowed us the opportunity to know and love Ana, and to share a little piece of her life here.  We look forward to the day we can see her in glory!