A New Year and We are Off and Cooking

It seems amazing that 2014 is here and we're already back into ministry in Honduras!

One big joy for us is that our daughter Kelly came to Honduras mid-January and will be here for most of February.  She has completed a two year program in the Philippines in a Christian birthing clinic where she "caught" 92 babies!  She is certified by the North American Registry of Midwives and is now pursuing options to use her training on the mission field.  She's talking to some doctors, checking out clinics and visiting various ministries while in Honduras.

Kelly jumped right in with helping us here in the various daily projects we are doing.  Here she was helping to fill a new heat retention cooker.

We fill the bags with rice hulls that act as insulation for the cooker.  The wind was causing the hulls to blow all over the place, including into our eyes.

Here Kelly is closing the bag by hand sewing the fill hole.

We had our first heat retention cooking presentation at a ministry that works with single teen moms.  They have 12 girls, their 12 babies and two "Tias".  Tia means "aunt" and these are women who help oversee the daily operations.  Some of the girls come to them as young as 12 years old, their need is for help be a mom and also help in growing up themselves including finishing school.

We wanted the girls to get to taste two types of food with the heat retention cookers and so we made both chicken with rice and frijoles (beans).  We have a problem in transporting the prepared foods because we have to drive over very rocky dirt roads and some rather steep hills.  So, to minimize clean up we placed the cooker in the black trash bag and the pot with frijoles we "cooked" using our cooler.

We start the lesson by explaining the heat retention cooking process and then serving up the food.  The young moms loved the food!

Even in a nice facility like the one they live in, with an indoor kitchen and electric stove, they still cook daily with wood.  Why they do this is simply because they cook beans daily and it takes three to four hours.  That would be a lot of electricity and so they opt for an outside stovetop that uses wood.

Now imagine their reaction when they learn they can simply boil the beans for 15 to 20 minutes and then put the pot in a heat retention cooker for four, six or even eight hours!  They are really excited about heat retention cooking!  It's significantly less wood, less smoke exposure, less opportunities to be burned by the fire, less possibility that the food will be burned... there are such big positive gains from heat retention cooking!!

Kelly served Janet, home director with her husband Greg, a sample of the cooking.  Janet loved it and was thrilled to have her own cooker!

As the young moms and children finished up eating, Ellen went over the lesson and answered questions.  Most questions are really just asking for a repeat of what's already been taught and discussed.  It's ok and expected, as this is a paradigm shift in cooking and so it takes a little time and processing for anyone to accept this new way of cooking.

After they tasted how good the food was, we moved on to dessert... the spiritual lesson.  It was a sweet time of discussing "How do we, as believers, maintain our spiritual heat, our passion, for Jesus?"  We know that not all the girls are believers and this is a great opportunity to share with them what are the disciplines that need to be in a believer's life so they can see part of what it means to be a disciple.  When we share these disciplines we also read and discuss verses that go with them:

   Read the Bible: John 20:30-31, 2Timothy 3:16-17
   Fellowship: 1John 1:3, 1John 1:7
   Pray: Ephesians 6:18
   Share the Gospel: Mark 16:15, Acts 5:42
   Serve Others: Ephesians 6:7
   Go to Church: Hebrews 10:24-25:

"And let us consider how we may spur one another on 
toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, 

as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another - 

and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

The directors are doing a magnificent work loving and discipling, and have even had the pleasure of seeing some surrendering their lives to Jesus and being baptized!

We feel very privileged to be able to spend time sharing a meal, teaching and fellowshipping with these little ones loved by God.

Greg and Janet are sweet, sweet Christians who, as are we, are giving themselves freely that some may be saved!!  We are so thankful for their friendship!

Tamalitos with the Neighbors

We had a great corn harvest from our backyard this year and decided to try making tamalitos.  Matt's become really good at growing corn, but then again, he always was a bit corny!

I had never made tamalitos and asked my neighbor, Noya, if she would teach me how.  So she invited me into her kitchen to learn.  Tamalitos are only made with new fresh corn that still has some "milk" in the kernels.  It's a simple food of ground corn and a little sugar.

Noya and her husband, Alexander (above) and I had a little corn shucking party on their front porch.

The corn is not shucked in the usual way of simply pulling off the tulsa, or husks, but rather by first cutting around the base to preserve the "tulsa" for wrapping up the tamalito.

Here's our bucket of "tulsa" ready.

Noya was so fast as she cut the corn off the cob.

We had to go across town (~4 blocks) for our next step to grind the corn. The woman in the blue shirt has a little home business of running a big electric grinder.  She charged me 50 cents, which is the normal rate.

The grains of corn were passed through twice to be extra fine for making tamalitos.

Back in Noya's kitchen, we put a little sugar into the ground corn and then put a spoonful of the mixture into the "tulsa."  Noya made it look way easier than it really was.

Basically, each tulsa gets a big spoonful of very liquidy corn glop.  The big trick was keeping the corn glop in the tulsa as I rolled the edges around the glop and then turn up the end.  Trust me, it takes practice... or maybe being born Honduran.  :)

After each tulsa is filled, rolled and closed off on one end, it's put in a pot.  This is another skill that's very easy to take for granted as they have to be placed together just so in order that they don't fall over in the pot.

Here's our full pot almost ready to be put on the fire.

Here you can see the pot with the wood fire behind it.

The final step before cooking was putting a few more pieces of "tulsa" over all the tamalitos and then carefully pouring in about an inch or two of hot water so as to steam the rolls.  After the lid was on the top of the pot, we wait.  The tamalitos cooked for about 45 minutes, until they were firm.

Here's a picture of a cooked tamalito (right) alongside a tamale (left). (Tamales are made with corn, too, but a completely different recipe.)  Often our Honduran friends will make a meal of just tamalitos. While we do well to eat one or two because they are so filling, our friends will eat four, five, six or more in one sitting!

A week later, Matt and I decided to try and make them ourselves.  Halfway through, we had Noya come over to check on us.  She was excited to see "her students" practicing their new skill set!

¡Buen provecho!  (Enjoy your meal!)

Missions is Kids Play

We've received a lot of great comments and questions from our August monthly email newsletter and because of the interest in our trip to the orphanage we decided to expand on the trip with a blogpost.  There will be a little redundancy to the newsletter, but also a little more info and more photos.

2013 Maryland Team

We joined a team of 34 to serve at Orphanage Emmanuel in Guaimaca , Honduras for 10 days  This is the same orphanage we lead several teams to before becoming full-time missionaries.  You might not think that orphanage work goes in line with community development, but we firmly believe that the best way to reach a community, or change a country, is through reaching the children.  So, whether they are youths in the community or orphans at an institution, we desire to show the love of Jesus and share the truth of God’s Word.  Maybe this is how we can best put into practice today Jesus’ words to, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Mt 19:14-15

Our first team was 2007 and only consisted of 10 folks including the 4 Zells

We started short term mission trips to Honduras in 1996 with Dr. Sam Maldonado, a dear friend and co-worker from my previous life at the FDA, and ten years later we started leading our own teams to Orphanage Emmanuel in 2007.

2009 trip, Zell family with orphanage church in background

The team that we started taking to orphanage Emmanuel was taken over by a couple, Dan and Joanne Andrews, who had been part of our last team.  They had a team scheduled for this year and invited us to join their team and help out with translating.

Balloon wars are always a blast!!
We had several during the trip.

Orphanage Emmanuel is home to about 600 kids ranging from just delivered and still in diapers up to young people in their early twenties about to head out on their own, and the orphanage has been operating now for 22 years.
 

This is Friday morning "Big Circle" where all the kids
gather for praise, prayer and a teaching.

In our normal use of the term orphan we think of children whose parents have died.  At Emmanuel that strict definition would apply to about 10% of the children and the other fall into a wider category of children without parents to care for them.  These are children whose parents are living but may have abandoned them on the street for lack of funds to care for them,  or maybe their mother has taken a new boyfriend/husband and he does not want to support the children from another man, or in the worst cases they may have been the victims of abuse in their home.  Whatever the case, the Lord has brought them to a place where they are well provided for and get to hear about Jesus often.

The "Small Boys House", made up of about 30 little boys,
recited an entire chapter from the book of Isaiah for Big Circle.

Here's a couple of those future Bible scholars close-up. 

Small boy's circle.  They are a riot!

Monday through Thursday each house has it's own small circle for praise, prayer and teaching.  I was able to give the teaching a couple times at the small boy's house in Spanish and without a translator!  It's so fun to talk to these little guys about living for Jesus!

One of the projects was to put the team's native English
speaking skills to work teaching English.

While we were at the orphanage the team had prepared and brought materials for several projects.  Several folks measured all the kids for clothing sizes to go on the Christmas list, a couple of folks gave hair cuts to hundreds of kids, they brought lots of crafts to do with the kids, they had materials for decorations and cooked an Hawaiian dinner to bless the staff, several folks helped at the school in the English classes, people shared at the morning prayer and worship circles, and many of the men shed pounds in sweat digging a 160' trench for a sewage line for a newly constructed house.

Power Toddlers getting a little custom hair styling attention;
If that's possible using just one cutting tip.
Ellen's brother, Matt Jones, is the one wearing the hat.

There were probably many other things done, including being with the kids in their respective yards playing soccer or making balloons and the like, but that's a good list to let you know what kept us busy for 10 days.

Field day planning.  In the center looking straight at the camera is Dan Andrews
 who is the current team leader with his wife, Joanne.

One of the biggest single events, that we did with four different groups, was a Field Day followed by a hot dog meal.  There were seven different stations including face painting, water guns, sack races...

We wanted to make sure that all the kids had fun!

Ok, I'm a big kid too!

"Gee, I'm pretty thirsty" has never come to my mind looking at a plunger.
Honest, the game was just to move the water with the plunger and not to drink it!!

The Hawaiian dinner for the staff was another major team activity.  This was a real blessing to the staff, the food was delicious, the tables were decorated very nicely, and child care was provided.  Ellen served as hostess while I was a waiter.

Ellen and her brother, Matt Jones, before the guest arrived.

Teens on the team going Hawaiian.

One of the ways that the orphanage is supported is by sponsoring a child.  It's been a joy and a privilege for Ellen and I to sponsor Ruth since our first year to the orphanage.  She is growing into a wonderful Christian young lady.

Playing "Qwirkle" with Ruth at the ice cream shack.

Our first year with Ruth in 2007!

Ruth and Matt 2008

We do have a couple other pictures we could post, like 900+, but I'll have to keep it short do to our internet limit.

We're looking to go back in September to share with some of the staff about heat retention cooking!

Blessings!!  Matt

No Water in Humuya

We live in a pueblo or maybe it's more of a  'pueblocito' which is little town.  One of the most amazing things is that in our little town is that we have electricity and water pretty much every day.  The electricity goes out occasionally but is normally restored pretty quickly, and the water is shut down about once a month to clean the tank but otherwise we have water every day.

Our water is not potable, that is, it's not drinking water, but it's fine for washing clothes, doing dishes, taking a shower and watering plants.  This is because the water is piped directly from a river into the community tank that serves the town.  They pipe the water from a long way off, like 4 miles, so that it's coming from a cleaner part of the river.  To do that they run 4 miles of four inch white PVC pipe over ground to the tank.  That's a lot of pipe!

About six days ago someone, or some people, not living in our pueblo decided to take a machete to the pipe and destroyed several sections.  It was a lot of work to fix because they had to walk the pipeline to find the broken sections.  They fixed the first section not knowing there was another area cut until they tried to refill the tank.

In all we had five days without water.  One advantage to such a crisis that the people here have over how we live in the states is that they all have a pila (pronounced 'pee-la') which is a large concrete tank to hold water that is part of their kitchen.  They use this water for cleaning clothes and doing dishes.  So, they have a ready reserve of water at their house that can normally carry them through a short water crisis.  How long will that water last?  It's apparently about four days.

On the fourth day without water the containers of water we keep on hand for just such a time had run out and so we started what turned into many trips down to the river to bring up water for ourselves and several of our neighbors, especially the elderly.

We only took a couple photos and videos of our water delivery.  The people were sooo grateful to get dirty river water that they gave us big hugs and even kisses on our cheeks, and we told each one we were happy to be able to give them water in the name of Jesus Christ.

After fetching and delivering water we were rather beat and when you consider the weight of water, it's actually pretty understandable.  Each gallon of water weighs 8.34 lbs.  We were moving about 32 gallons of water with each trip which is about 267 lbs and we did many trips!  Our muscles are sore, we're sunburned, our knuckles are scraped up from the plastic containers, and we feel great to have loved on our community!  Thanks so much to all of you who make it possible for us to be here! 

"Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.”  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.  John 7:38-39

"He (Jesus) said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.” Rev 21:6

Just Plain Corny!

Having grown up in Maryland we normally don't think of October as a time to plant. Now living in Honduras we have discovered that many people try to plant a crop by mid-October and that's exactly what we did this year.

As we are in a rural area of Honduras many of our neighbors have their own corn plots.  This doesn't mean that they own a field somewhere, they might, but more often it means that they plant every square inch of their yard that they're not using.  This is because corn is such a basic food staple used to make tortillas and many other common foods such as tamales.

This provides us a great opportunity as our mission agency, Equip International, promotes using the Farming God's Way method which has years of successful experience for growing crops both commercially and on a family scale.  Their yields are often several times, even up to ten times, that of the area average.

This method has been used for years in Africa and other countries to help the poor, show the goodness and love of God, and turn make new disciples.

The methodology is no plough which reduces the compaction of the dirt and helps maintain the protective organic layer on top.  So, individual holes are dug out and planted with three seeds each.

We used an area that is 30' by 48' divided into 25 lines with 14 holes for planting in each line.  That's a total of 350 holes and 1,050 grains of corn, which is about 2 cups worth.  At the base of each hole we put in 1 1/2 cups of aged manure, covered with soil, planted three grains in a row, and covered with top soil.  The plot we have planted is larger than many of the backyard plots but not as big as some of the other neighborhood lots.  So, it is a good size for demonstration and learning.

Corn is highly susceptible to many insect pest and one of the worst is the corn borer.  We are using Neem leaves to make a tea and spray on the plants.  This is natural type of insecticide and cost us just the time and fuel to make it as the tree is easily found here.  Weeds are also a constant problem and we are employing the hoe which is a very effective, non-toxic, method of taking care of weeds.

Our neighbors will plant 2, 3, 4 or more corn grains per hole.  This results in plants competing for the same nutrients and ending up more weak.  Often they're using chemical fertilizer and chemical herbicides and pesticides.  Those are all effective but not good for the small family finances or for the soil or for their personal health.

This is from one of our neighbors plots.  Notice the multiple plants growing out of same hole causing weak growth.

We do not need to grow corn for ourselves but this is a great opportunity to engage the community.  We hope that this is a growing method that will enable them to obtain greater yields while reducing or eliminating the costly inputs.  We desire to bless the people, to learn from them and what their needs are, to gain the opportunities to share our faith and the hope that lies within us - Jesus Christ.

"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; 

I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." 

 John 10:10

Women's Bible Study

One of the joys and challenges the Lord has given me is participating and occasionally leading a bi-monthly women's Bible study that can have anywhere from about four up to ten women.  This day we just had five - PTL!  Most of the women are from the very poor community of El Grupo that we are working to reach.  They have no electricity and only receive unfiltered, untreated water from a spigot outside their house.  But they are grateful for what they do have and are some of the most joyful people I know.

I led a study on the importance of reading God's Word daily.

Our memory verse was Ephesians 5:10, "and find out what pleases the Lord."  If we are to find out what pleases the Lord, where should we look?  God's Word, the Bible!

At one point, it began to rain and rain hard.  Then I had to shout so the ladies could here me.  Do you know why?  The church roof is made of metal so the noise of the rain becomes unbelievably loud.  They are used to that, so they didn't even seem to notice the change in my voice!

More rain...

Griselda (the pastor's wife) is helping to explain a game that we were getting ready to play.  I had various items each in their own black bag.  We took a turns to guess what was in the bag by feeling it.  Then we talked about the purpose of each item.

When we got to the Bible, we talked about the purpose of the Bible. It was a great opportunity to read about what the Bible says about the Bible.  There are many Scriptures on that topic, but these are the three that we looked up:

    Psalm 119:105 says that the Bible is a lamp to our feet, a light to our path;
    
    2Timothy 3:16 says that the Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting
       and training in righteousness so that we can equipped for every good work;  
    
    Romans 15:4 says that everything was written to teach us, so that through endurance
      and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.  What an encouragement!!

I look forward to the next time - I am a student as I observe their joy in Jesus, not in the "things" they have.  After all, they don't have much in the way of material possessions.  That is one lesson that I need reminding of often.  They are following Hebrew 10:24-25 which says, "Let us not give up meeting together..., but let us encourage one another and all the more as we see the Day approaching."