My New Friends

This is my (Ellen's) first time to post on our blog!  I have many things I would like to write about, but I will focus on PEOPLE this time.

Our move to Honduras has been a huge change for us, especially for me as I dearly miss my family and friends.  We are still in transition, but making friends helps us feel more connected.  I want to tell about some of the people the Lord has allowed us to cross paths with.

Our new neighbors have welcomed us by bringing us a variety of food gifts: bananas, papaya, mangoes, homemade cheese (requesón) and a same of a fish torte.

One afternoon while Matt and I were taking a walk, we stopped at the fence of a couple who were out in their yard.  As soon as the lady saw us, she eagerly came over to meet us.  She said that her husband had come home one day and told her that some "gringos" had moved into the town.  She repeated over and over that she was so glad to finally see us and to meet us.  She invited us to return to their house whenever we wanted.

One of our neighbors is taking English in high school, so she came over one afternoon with a classmate to get some clarification on some English words since they were having an exam the next day.  We had a fun time together and they both did well on their exam!

Last week we went to a neighboring town to see the fuel efficient stove project that began two weeks ago.  The man in the blue t-shirt is overseeing this project and was eager to show us the new stoves since he knows of our interest in helping people improve their health.

These new stoves will reduce the amount of smoke that is put out by the burning wood, which in turn fills their lungs. It also uses a fraction of the wood, thereby reducing the need to buy or collect wood which is costly and time consuming to collect.

Our friend Carolina and her daughter Maya were with us as we walked through the town.  Maya was an automatic switch that made people smile!  She was wearing my hat for some of the time.

While we were walking through this town, we saw a soccer match just beginning and recognized one of the players!  It was then that we realized it was our town's team that was the visiting team!  And the last boy in the line was our first friend that we made in Humuya back in February!  Unfortunately we didn't have time to stay and cheer our team on to victory.

One Sunday at Arturo's church, I took a few moments to play with two little girls who are cousins.  They loved having their picture taken!  After our "photo session" they wanted me to come into their Sunday School room and be their teacher!

Then today we went to San Pedro de Tutule.  They are having a festival in the town all this week.  We met up with our friend Alma who is a school teacher there.  We had a lovely time walking around the town and listening to the traditional music and seeing all the many people who gathered.  We even got to meet Alma's mother and learned that her mother is a Lenca Indian!  That is one of the people groups that we would like to work with.

We also got to meet the mayor of Tutule.  He invited us back to his town to help in whatever way we can.  What an encouragement for us as we keep trying to meet leaders in the community!

We truly believe what the Bible says in Ephesians 2:10 -  "For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."  GOD has prepared good works for us - - we need to keep walking as we discover them.  And all of our looking involves meeting all kinds of wonderful people!  Thank you, Lord!