The Larva get Special Visitors

I think we were first told about their upcoming visit seven or eight months ago!  It was cancelled and rescheduled, only to be cancelled again, and then there was no news for a long time.

Then out of the blue this past Tuesday we received a call that a team from Zamorano University who work in a department for the development of sustainable agriculture practices wanted to come see out Black Soldier Fly project.  It was not the best of timing but they were already on their way and would call when they were at our door.  Our special visitors were finally on their way!!

When they arrived that afternoon, I showed them the current larva set up, the future “Fly Hotel,” and the new ferrocement tank for the aquaponic system.  They were super excited about black soldier fly larva, talked about making a set up at the university, starting a program to teach small producers, making a video of me at the house!!  That's amazing!!  God is good all the time!!

I was once again so impressed at how talking to someone with a university level agriculture background (with the one guy working on his PhD thesis), they just get it and get it quick.  Their questions were all excellent and showed such a high level of understanding and desire to apply with small farmers.

That’s where the real work will begin in communicating and setting up systems with small farmers.  This has been an area that I have been crying out to the Lord for direction and help, and the Lord has answered!!

I already have a lesson written up on raising the larva but can you imagine how much better it will be with this team re-writing it!!  It’s one thing for me to try to explain to someone what an incredible blessing the larva can be for their farm, but can you imagine the difference of having the endorsement, the voice, of agriculture experts from the prestigious Panamerican Agricultural International University of Zamorano!!

God goes before us preparing the good works for us to do for His glory and His kingdom!!

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—

and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—

 not by works, so that no one can boast. 

For we are God’s handiwork, 

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians 2:8-10

Not Our Plans

I (Matt) read a book by Elizabeth Elliot Gren entitled, "These Strange Ashes." The first time through I just thought it was such a weird book of mishaps and non-endings, and the second time it hit me that it's just real life and not everything turns out the way we plan... like today.

Our puppet team has put a lot of work into being prepared for the next set of performances.  One was for today up in the mountains of Tutule at the public primary school.

We were excited to be part of the start of the new school year and have the opportunity to perform for about 300 children.  We even practiced a new short puppet skit that we added to the start of the show as it was about staying in school and that school is fun!

Yesterday afternoon a cold front came in and was much worse up in the mountains.  This morning we received a message that it was raining badly in the mountains.  So, we sent out some quick prayer requests to cover our travels and prepare the way ahead of us.  The picture above is the mountain road and while it shows the fog that came in, you can also see on the right the tops of the banana trees just off the road growing up the side of the mountain.  This is NOT a good road to be on in impaired visibility!!

The visibility continued to get worse and worse the further up the mountain we went!!  To top it off, we received a call that the storm had knocked out the electricity in the city we were going to.  No electricity, means no speaker, and since we use recorded material that means no show.  We prayed and continued going up in hopes that the electricity would be restored.

We made it to Tutule and reached the school to find not only was there no power, but there were also only about 4 or 5 kids running about, instead of the 300+ kids that attend the school.  The teachers were all together in one classroom. They told us that it is coffee harvest time and that many kids do not come to school for the first few weeks as they are working harvesting coffee. They also said that there may have been more kids coming today but they probably walked back home because of the heavy rain.  I think they may have been actually using the puppet show to entice kids to come!

It was amazing to see the reaction of the team as they said that it was ok and all in God's timing.  If there was anyone fairly bummed it was me, but I got over it pretty quickly in hearing their God-focused response.  We visited some friends in town and had lunch at the local "comedor".  It was fried chicken and some of the best I've ever eaten! (And I've eaten a LOT!)

Our trip back down into the valley was again through thick fog and I was quite happy to be out of the mountains!

This was a neat experience in that in the end it was not about doing a great show but more about having a great attitude and keeping our eyes on God!

There is a time for everything, 

and a season for every activity under the heavens.

Ecclesiastes 3:1