Harvest at the Ag School... Graduation!

Another year has passed for the ag school with the new fruit that has ripened and is ready to be shipped out across the country... the kids are graduating and going home!

It was a big event with dignitaries at the head table, banners up, flag unfurled and pine needles on the floor!

I was invited to come and attend, along with Greg Brewster who is also with Equip, for our service at the school this year.  We were given a special introduction and warm thanks for caring for the kids and their spiritual growth.

The director of the ag school and my good friend, Mario, gave an excellent graduation speech.  In one part he said that he was reading a book and ran across a formula for success in life.  He said that he thought probably all the people there had the same book in their home too.  That it often has a black cover and of course the book was the Bible.

He said he found the formula in Joshua 1:8

• This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

So his encouragement to the graduating class was that to truly be successful they needed to know and follow God!  Awesome!

Lot's of pictures taken after everyone received their certificates.

Couple different media guys there who interviewed Mario after the ceremony!

All in all, great time and very God honoring!  We are so thankful that Mario is the director there and has given us an open door to come in and work with the kids!!

Aiming Higher!

Pastor Gustavo, his wife Noelia, and their son, Fhares, came for lunch and planning today.   They had very exciting news to share in that every week they have new people from the community coming to church and accepting Christ as their Lord and Savior!

One of those newly saved folks used to run a cantina, or bar/liquor store, out of their home which also hosted prostitution.  Now the same people that used to get together to get drunk are getting together to pray, read the Bible and encourage each other.  Amazing miraculous transformation!!

Through the men at the church at El Coquito we have  continued the concrete floor project and have completed several.  Unfortunately the last home we installed a floor in had some adobe walls fall in on one room during the recent terrible rains and flooding of last month.  It's basically a two room house, cement was put in both rooms, and so it is currently a one room house.

I can hardly express how impressed I am with the church as the men have been working making adobe block to rebuild the walls.  They are showing great love for one another as they sacrificially work to help this sister in Christ!

As we talked about what's new I told Pastor Gustavo about the recent lesson at INFOP called, "Aim Higher," teaching about goals and seeking God.  He was very intrigued and wanted to talk more about the Scriptures we used.  He thought our Scripture selection was right on target and that it was a great lesson.

I decided to take him out to show him the blowguns we used and see if he was interested in trying them.

Perhaps being a pastor provides him with a greater lung capacity, or it's possible that his work as a mason has something to do with that, but either way he was a natural!

If you look closely you can see the targets we were shooting at and yes we hit them!  The blowguns are quite powerful!

If it wasn't for a prior engagement that they had I'm not sure they would have left!  Gustavo was very excited after actually trying the blowgun, and given what he considers an excellent spiritual lesson, he has asked me to give the lesson for the teens at his church which is over 20 youth!  Of course, I'm very excited about that opportunity!

We praise the Lord for the special friendship He has given us with Gustavo, Noelia and Fhares!!  

Happy thanksgiving to all!

This is one of the verses we share in the "Aim Higher" lesson, Colossians 3:2-4:

Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 

For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Aim Higher

We had a lesson at INFOP entitled, "Aim Higher," and it used a blowgun as an analogy, or object lesson.  This works well because when using a blowgun a target is needed and to hit the target it is necessary to actually aim a little higher.  The further away from the target you stand the higher you need to aim.

We talked about setting goals for life and the most important goal is knowing God.  In seeking God we need to lift our eyes up and aim higher!

The Scripture we started with was Psalm 121:1-2:

I lift up my eyes to the hills.

    From where does my help come?

2 My help comes from the Lord,

    who made heaven and earth.

The lesson was with thirty some youth at the agricultural school.  The idea of the school is to prepare them to go out and work in agriculture, either for a big ag company or on their own, but to my surprise none of the students had actual goals or dreams or visions for what they would do what they were learning.

So, talking about setting goals was extremely important for them.  Talking about the importance of knowing God and surrendering their life to Him was most important.  Making darts and using the blowguns on targets and balloons was perfect fun for a bunch of teens!

We are so thankful for the opportunity we have to be here and invest in these lives.  We are thankful to the Lord and to each one of you who are praying and supporting us financially!  We work as a team together and it is all for the glory of God!!

Muppet Ministry in the Mountains!

Taking the puppet ministry to new heights... we headed for the mountains!

We had two shows in the same day.  The first in San Pedro de Tutule with over 80 kids and a bunch of adults.  The second was near the top of a mountain in the community of La Peñita with over 40 kids and several adults.

One man came up to me after the show to say he was watching the local cable channel and saw the program being aired live, so he grabbed his two kids and ran to the park to see the show!  PTL!

It is so exciting to us to be part of a group of Hondurans willing to give sacrificially of their time and effort to reach their own country with the Good News, the gospel, that there is but one way to heaven and His name is Jesus!

The First Mad Muppet Ministry Show!

This intrepid team of evangelical adventurers launched the very first Mad Muppet Ministry Show!

This photo is actually proof that we survived as it was taken after the show when we went out to celebrate with some "atol" which is a traditional corn drink... thick sweet and yummy with cinnamon on top!

Preparing for a puppet show involves a lot of prayer, practice and even a day of crafts making signs to be used in the show to help highlight important points!

We had our "puppet singers" who started and ended the program.

We had a very fun little drama explaining to kids that they are important and special to God!

Ellen followed the drama with questions to reinforce the lesson!

I (Matt) gave a short Bible lesson on Mark 10:14, "Jesus said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.""  

A peek from behind!

One of the team members concluded the program!

We concluded the program with a rousing round of "Ho-Ho-Ho-Hosanna"!

The video is a set of highlights from the show!!

I'm so proud of the volunteers who have faithfully been practicing for two hours every Wednesday in preparation, and this is just the first as we have several more performances to go!!

Paul wrote, "I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." 1Cor 9:22  Seems so applicable to puppet ministries!!

The Mad Muppet Ministry!

The Spanish word for puppet is "Títere" and we see the potential to use puppets in many areas of our ministry such as to introduce concepts or even to teach a lesson.

The national leaders for the after school ministry have been talking about “títeres” since January when we conducted their training and so the journey began.  I would call this a "great puppet adventure" but that just sounds to much like a muppet movie title.

 I (Matt) started researching puppets on the web earlier this year and bought an e-book called, "The Foam Book" and started making my first ever muppet style puppet.

 He's all foam and so came together pretty quickly.

I was pretty happy with the finished puppet but knew that I would need more to use in a puppet ministry and especially needed more resources in Spanish.   The week before leaving for the states I googled, "Christian puppet scripts in Spanish" and at the top of the result list was the Fellowship of Christian Puppeteers!  

To make things even sweeter, they were holding their annual conference in Maryland the second week we would be home.  So, I registered and made the hour and fifteen minute trek each day to go learn.  I don’t look at this as happenstance that the conference was just when we needed it but God’s amazing sovereignty!

We tried to attend every puppet construction workshop we could fit in.  The folks leading the workshops each have an amazing amount of experience in puppet ministry.  Linda in this photo has worked in puppet ministry for more than 20 years and that's while working full-time as a nurse!

Linda had pre-sewn the bodies so we just needed to put in the foam, the mouth, the nose, eyes, hair and dress them up!

Here they are just missing legs, hair and clothes.

What a transformation!!  We have a little boy that we named Tavo after a pastor in Honduras that he reminds of, and a little girl that we named Linda (pronounced "lean-da"). 

Here are Ron and Freda teaching us another construction method.  They have over 39 years of leading puppet ministries!!   

They do not use cloth over the foam and generally do not make legs.

Instead of cloth, we spray painted the heads and arms.  This is a faster construction method and final puppet is also much lighter.

These two came out looking like a grandparents.  They are the two in the right front of the photo below... still in need of some clothing.

The folks at the conference felt moved to send us back to Honduras well equipped, so they loaded us up with puppets and some funds to buy more puppetry materials!  Some of the puppets above we made during the conference and some were donated.  The big gorilla on the left was made in a workshop on converting stuffed animals to puppets.

Pictured above are the incredible Christian puppetry leaders.  They have worked hard to develop an amazing talent to share the good news of Jesus Christ through puppetry and the arts.  May the Lord continue to bless them and expand their work!

As of this writing we are back in Honduras and reading through several Spanish scripts in order to decide which to begin with.  We will be building a puppet stage from PVC and practicing with the folks here!

Please pray for this new undertaking to get off to a strong start and to glorify our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!!

And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here I have made five talents more.’ His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ Matthew 25:20-21

Flying Away!

For those of you who know we are back in the states for a short visit you might be thinking I'm referring to our flight, but it's something bit... smaller!

It was a day where we had to hold the after school program outside.  We didn't plan to be teaching outside but none of our keys would open the house.  In those famous theatrical words, "the show must go on" and so we sat the kids down and prayed to start!

We were doing a very special craft making gliders from foam plates.  These gliders are known as FPG-9 which stands for Foam Plate Glider - 9".

You might be thinking, "what kind of spiritual lesson goes with making gliders from foam plates?" We went to Isaiah 40:31,

"Those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; 

they shall mount up with wings like eagles; 

they shall run and not be weary; 

they shall walk and not faint."

This is a super Scripture to encourage the children to be steadfast in their walk with the Lord!

We actually drew out the glider pattern on the plates before handing them out.

Before cutting the gliders out we let the kids personalize them with markers.

As you're looking at these pictures, look at the background as this is another view of the neighborhood we are working in.

The gliders were really fun for the kids and the leaders!

Some of these kids had never made a paper plane so this was their very first glider!!  The gliders flew great as pictured above... the girl in the blue dress just launched the glider in the upper right corner!

Here are all the leaders for that day!!  Even though the day did not go as planned (we were outside) the Lord was faithful and we had a GREAT day with the kids!!

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence is in him.

They will be like a tree planted by the water

that sends out its roots by the stream.

It does not fear when heat comes;

its leaves are always green.

It has no worries in a year of drought

and never fails to bear fruit.”

Jeremiah 17:7-8

Day of the Student at INFOP

We continued to be blessed and honored by the wonderful staff and students at INFOP the agricultural school and this time it was their invitation to join them for a recreation day - the Day of the Student!

I think it's one thing for us to go and teach a lesson but uniquely different to be asked to join them for fun!  We have been there for three years and never knew that they had a Day of the Student, so this was quite touching to be invited in as part of their fun time or down time.  We really praise the Lord for this, as it is wonderful to be so fully accepted by the staff and students!!

We asked them how they celebrate Day of the Student and they said they had games like tug-of-war and relays and the students had the whole day off.  I asked if we could bring some games and they gave us permission to do whatever we wanted!

It was time for the three newly appointed "game masters" to put on their thinking caps (which looked amazingly similar to their everyday hats) and get to work!

Matt finally figured how to make a hole in one... one golfball at a time!  But what type of game is this?

Next Matt was cutting up some PVC tubing... this is supposed to be a game?

Kelly was busy tying up loose ends, but how is this going to be fun?

Finally, the day of the student came and true to their word they had games... to be precise they had two; tug-of-war and a relay.  So, our odd collection of stuff was a welcomed addition!

We had made four sets of lawn goals or bola toss!!  The students LOVED it!!  Each team gets three bolas and each bola has two golf balls, so that's 48 golf balls!!  Each bola ladder (the PVC thingy) is made from 24 feet of PVC tubing, so the four sets used 96' of tubing!!

 We also brought some empty pizza boxes!

 We had pizza box relays in which they runners needed to hold the boxes with just one hand over their head!

Some of these guys should consider changing from agriculture to pizza delivery!!  In the next round, we notched it up by making it five boxes instead of three... sooooo much fun to watch!!

The officials were always on hand, overseeing the games, and ensuring fair play was maintained... or, maybe they were talking about what's for lunch?

 Matt is explaining the next game to a group of rather unsure contestants.  The game is simple: dunk the huge sponge in the barrel of water, pass it back over your head and the last person squeezes out the water to fill a bucket.

We explained to the director that the games would include this water game and he said fine.  Then he told us that the water pump for the institute was broken and they had almost no water, but they would give us water for the game.

The day of the games came and in met the other Equip missionary, Greg Brewster, at the entrance of the road that leads down to INFOP.  Right there on the corner is a water pump station that was currently pumping water to the city and there was a hose just pouring water out like a fountain.  So, Matt explained to the attendant about the games for that day, that INFOP's pump was broken, and asked if we could have water.  He said that was fine but that the pump would only be running for 15 more minutes.  We filled the two barrels in just over 10 minutes and left the attendant with a big handful of some of the candy to be used for the games... he was pretty happy!

We had already been to INFOP that morning and had not noticed the pump station, the hose or attendant, but when we came out to meet Greg we couldn't help but notice it all.  Just a coincidence?  I don't think so.  God is truly a loving Father who loves us all as His own dear children.  He provided what INFOP really could not have provided themselves.  He can provide what we need and can not provide for ourselves, the living water - Jesus!

 When the action started, only some of the water actually made it back to the bucket.  It was really fun... to watch!!

Matt stayed in the middle cheering them on to wetness and glory!

After all the wetness of passing the sponge back, the last man really worked to get every drop possible into the bucket!!  They liked this relay so much that we ran it until there just wasn't enough water to have another!!

We also introduced our own version of tug-of-war, one-on-one, and on top of crates.  The first person to let go or step off looses.

Greg had previously worked at a children's home in Comayagua and was excited when this young man came up to him... he was one of the boys at the home who is preparing himself at INFOP for a career in agriculture.

After the games we moved on to a craft - the FPG-9!  What is the FPG-9 you might ask?  It is the Foam Plate Glider - 9" and you can look it up on the internet to find out how to make this at home!

These are young guys anywhere from 15 to 21 years old and they all loved making the foam plate gliders!! 

We did grease the competitive spirit by bringing a HUGE bag of candy.  While we did give the candy to the winners of the relays, in the end, everyone received candy!!

This is what I have observed to be good: 

that it is appropriate for a person to eat, to drink and to find satisfaction 

in their toilsome labor under the sun 

during the few days of life God has given them—for this is their lot.  

Moreover, when God gives someone wealth and possessions, and the ability to enjoy them, 

to accept their lot and be happy in their toil—this is a gift of God. 

They seldom reflect on the days of their life, 

because God keeps them occupied with gladness of heart.

Ecclesiastes 5:18-20