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!

Honduras is Numero Uno

 This month’s big news is that Honduras came in number one in two separate categories, but unfortunately not in areas to be happy about.

The rather shocking story was all over our news broadcasting that an international study found Honduras has the highest rate of homicides in the world.¹

This was followed a week later with a report that Honduras has once again regained it’s position as being the poorest country in Central American (a position that over the years has been swapped back and forth between Honduras and Nicaragua).

Along with these headlines were the continuous daily reports of corruption, drugs, natural disaster and many more problems that plague the daily life of those living in Honduras. 

These drastic findings in Honduras may cause you to wonder is it wise for us to be here, or what could have ever lead us to go, or maybe if you were in our place you would be deciding it’s time to pull the plug and head back to the states.  These are rather valid points and so we would like to address them and share some of our perspective.

Since our first involvement with missions in Honduras back in 1996 we have known about the high and growing rate of crime.  The gang activity in the two principal cities, Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, is very strong and has only been increasing over the years.  Gang activity is related to the drug trafficking which is primarily to the states.  Both of these, gangs and drug trafficking, with the addition of a high poverty level, I believe, all play into the surreal homicide rate.  The report was from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s Global Study on Homicide and they found that Honduras had a rate of 82 homicides for every 100,000 persons.¹

As a comparison, Belize has a rate of 41.7, Guatemala is 41.1, while Mexico is only 18.1.  To bring it back home, the United States had a rate of 5, Canada was 1.8, and the UK a low 1.2.  So, the rate in Honduras is quite significant.

Do we see this in our daily lives?  Yes, we see it in many ways.  That every bank, grocery store, gas station and little convenience store has an armed guard standing by or at the door.  On our way to church one Sunday this month we saw several police cars and a crew of reporters at one of the many piles of trash along the side of the road.  As we came closer we realized there was a body that had been, quite literally, dumped there on the trash during the night.  It was quite unsettling and significantly colored the day. 

Does it effect the way we live?  Well, yes and no.  In many ways it does not impact our day-to-day routine.  We live our lives, meet with people, walk the streets, drive around, and we are not afraid and do not see public violence.  At the same time, we are cautious.  We purpose to not return home after dark (about 5:30 pm), and we try to be aware of who is around us and what is going on at all times.

The bottom line for us, regarding these new statistics for Honduras, is that they are real reflections of a very spiritually dark country.  This does not make us want to pack up and go home, but rather, this is the very reason we came.

These recent news broadcasts reveal how desperately the people of Honduras need the truth of the gospel.  Not the health and wealth gospel, but rather, the simple truth that God loves them, right now, and right where they are.  That they have a problem because they have sinned and they live trapped in their sin.  That God sent His Son (Jn 3:16) to die for them so that they might be set free to have life and have it abundantly (Jn 10:10).  JESUS IS THAT LIFE (Jn 1:4 & 14:6).  Not the guarantee of more money, not the pursuit of more stuff and not a promise that life will simply turn all smiles if you just accept Jesus.  No, Jesus is THE LIFE, it is He that they can have abundantly, and that will change their whole life even if their surroundings stay the same.

We don’t think of leaving Honduras because, after prayer, counsel, and many years of short term missions here, we truly feel the Lord has called us here.  We know that the Lord is able to keep us from all harm (Dan 3:17-18).  That does not mean we feel that the Lord will protect us from all harm.  Rather, it means that we are confident that we are following His path for us and that in anything that happens, ANYTHING, we can rejoice and be glad in (Mt 5:12), because we are walking in what the Lord has laid out beforehand for us to do (Eph 2:10).  This is the best place any of us can be as Christians.  Whether you are on the mission field, or home in the states, the safest place to be is always where the Father leads.

¹ http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/data-and-analysis/statistics/crime/global-study-on-homicide-2011.html  

Door Number One, Two or Three

We went to San Pedro de Tutule house hunting the second time in as many weeks to look at some houses to rent. Norma came with us and brought her cousin from Tegucigalpa to have a 'cousin's visit' with the third cousin, Faustina, in Tutule.

In Tutule there are currently only three houses as potential rentals making it a choice between door number one, door number two or door number three. Reminds me of “The Price is Right.”

House number one is normally rented out to male students attending the local training institute and there are currently nine students living there. The house has three bedrooms and two bathrooms (one of which actually works).  The kitchen has no stove or refrigerator (common in Honduras for the renter to have to provide) and the sink faucet is a spigot on very flimsy plastic piping that comes through a hole in the wall. The window panes are so badly eaten by termites that whole sections of the windows are falling out and currently held in by tape. Every window has at least one pane missing. The floors are mostly cement and the walls have missed the last several cycles of cleaning and painting. Outside, there are sections of the covering for the eves are missing and open for anything to fly or crawl in. So, we have to say “no” to this house.

House number two is a big older house right around the corner from the center of town. It's nearly impossible to describe but to simple enough to say it is older and in much need of work. So, it is also a “no” for house number two.

House number three has the most potential. It is actually an almost finished house and so it's new. It has a nice little floor plan and so really looks like it would be a sweet little house. Unfortunately, the neighbor is a cantina, and a good size one at that, and everyone has advised us, “DO NOT RENT next to a cantina.” Men get drunk, there are the occasional fights in the streets and they indiscriminately shoot their guns. So, house number three is also a “no” even though we really do like the house but it's in a bad location.

So, Thursday after a day of driving and house hunting, Norma and her cousin were spending the night at Faustina's house, and we were going to treat ourselves to the same hotel we had stayed at the week before in Marcala, which is about in 45 minutes away. The hotel is a treat simply because it's uber clean, the bed is very nice, there's plentiful hot water for showering, and the hotel restaurant is ok for homey cooking. All this for about $30 per night.

Well we had a surprise and disappointment because the hotel was full. They gave us a recommendation for another hotel in town. That hotel turned out to be a little cheaper but the savings just weren't worth it. The floor was uber ucky so we had to slip into our shoes getting out of bed. It was supposed to have hot water but that turned out to be somewhat intermittent. No restaurant. And, worst of all, the internet was not strong. So, we had disappointments from house hunting followed by a kind of gross hotel experience.

We woke up in the morning in a different mindset recognizing that a 'closed door' from the Lord was as good as an open door. We had to examine our options.

1. We could continue indefinitely at Norma's house but this leaves us far from Tutule.
2. We can move in with our friends and fellow missionaries the Reyes family who are serving about an hour from Tutule. That would put us closer but in a house that lacks electricity.
3. We could try to find housing in La Paz or Marcala as they are bigger population centers, but not BIG by any means, would probably have more housing options and both are closer to Tutule than the Reyes family.
4. We can assess is the Lord directly us to start in an area that is not Tutule.
   
   
   Where we are today, Saturday, November 5^th, is the thought of combining options. We plan to stay with the Reyes family for a period while we seek out housing options in La Paz and Marcala, and cry out to the Lord for His leading!