Black Soldier Fly Larva Going to School!

Black Soldier Fly Larva have made it to school!  I recently had an opportunity to teach our newest practical helps lesson at INFOP, the government agricultural school.  It was very fun and very well received!

I had 35 students as well as some instructors!!  The interest level was very high and our time together flew by!

We actually started by reading two Scriptures: Psalm 139:7-16 and Jeremiah 29:11-13!
God knows us, God formed us, and God has good plans for us!

Before the class started I had drafted three volunteers to take part in a skit.

The skit was of three graduates from INFOP meeting in the street and one of them shared his plan to start a pig project.  He was asked if he had enough money to feed the pigs because they eat a lot, and what he planned to do with all the poop the pigs would produce.  Faced with these concerns he decided he needed to rethink his project.  We discussed the skit as a group and they concluded that those were good concerns and that the same concerns also apply to other animal project such as raising chickens or cows.

The skit was followed with three more volunteers who were asked to close their eyes and identify what I put in their hands.  To one I gave a bag of 100 black soldier fly larva, to the next a bag of 500 larva and the last received a plastic coffee can with several thousand larva and he had to stick his hand in it!

The larva were passed around so everyone could see them up close and  asked them to guess how many larva were in each bag.  Pictured above is the bag of 100.

They were all very interested in the larva and both the bags and coffee container moved pretty slowly around the room as they were so into checking them out.

I had a presentation that went over all the physical aspects of the larva and included two videos I had taken of the larvas at our house.  Throughout the lesson I emphasized that God made the larva, and it is the design He gave them that we are utilizing for agriculture.  They were amazed that the larva would "self harvest" into a container making them incredibly easy to feed to animals.

We went through the steps to make a barrel 'composter' in the classroom.

Then went outside to set up the completed composter!  We went over the physical characteristics again and I was very impressed how they had retained everything!  They were very interested!

I shared with them that just as God made the black soldier fly, He made each of us also.
Just as the black soldier fly was unique and had special characteristics we can use for our good,
He has made each of us unique and has good for each of us if we will follow His way!  
I shared that just as the black soldier fly is like a treasure for us in nature that was put there by God, the Bible has treasures for our life put there by God!  
They were so attentive and it was a GREAT class!!  Praise the LORD!!

Here the director of INFOP was closing the session together by going over the value utilizing black soldier fly larva in an agricultural.  A very common problem people here can have is not having money for animal feed.  Another common problem is just not taking care of all the poop their animals produce.  With the black soldier fly larva they can reduce the animal poop on their property, which reduces harmful nitrogen contamination of ground water and removes an attractant for other flies that carry diseases, produces a useful compost and a self harvesting larva that can be fed to chickens, pigs and fish!  Amazing!!

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful,

I know that full well.

My frame was not hidden from you

when I was made in the secret place,

when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

all the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:7-16

CHE, Community Health Evangelism

We had a very exciting week of co-leading a class in CHE or Community Health Evangelism at Equip headquarters and training center in Marion, NC.  (www.equipinternational.com)

CHE is an integrated approach that works with a community through practical helps and Biblical discipleship.  The goal is always to share the Word that some may come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.

This was a very special class for us as one of the couples has recently joined Equip and will be serving with us in Honduras, and our daughter, Kelly, was taking the class as well.

Each morning started bright and early with a breakfast at 7:00 followed by a devotion/sermonette by the Equip founder and former director, Barrie Flitcroft.

Sitting to the left of Ellen (your left) is Harold and Brenda Bracken who were the class leaders and who originally lead our first CHE class in 2008.

Kelly is the third person in from the right and seated to her right (your left) is our friend from Honduras, Ena.

The CHE method is participatory learning.  Ellen is leading this session but she is seated like everyone else and the woman writing on the newsprint board is the "scribe" for the session.

CHE is community based and owned.  Pictured above is a method a community could use to vote on a project.  People had placed items to symbolize things they would like worked on and then each community member had four leaves to vote on the projects.

Training is through a path of discovery.  Here the class had been broken up into four groups and each group prioritized the cards they were given.

Then all the cards were laid out together and the order was discussed.

Sometimes lessons are started with a short skit to help identify the theme.  Afterwards the attendees were asked what did they see, what was happenings, etc, and finally, does this happen in your community.

Our class was diverse with people not only working in many different countries but even coming from as far away as Nigeria.  Above is Daniel, he and his wife are Equip missionaries, and they serve in the largest home for disabled children in Nigeria.

Here is our new "Team Honduras" with Harold and Brenda!  We had a fantastic week of training and look forward to what the Lord has planned for us to do!!  The new couple, Greg and Janet Brewster, are looking to be based about 25 minutes from us and will be exploring exactly where the Lord wants them when they return to Honduras.  Kelly is coming to Honduras for about three months to explore possibilities to serve as a midwife while helping us in our CHE ministry.  Ena lives in Honduras and will be assisting us, and we her, in many areas of ministry!  All in all, we are so incredibly excited for the team of folks the Lord has brought together to encourage one another, to seek His face, and to work to expand the Kingdom to God's glory!!

For we are God’s handiwork, 

created in Christ Jesus to do good works, 

which God prepared in advance for us to do. 

Eph 2:10

Baby Suyapa

Through one of the churches we are associated with we learned that a young couple had a seriously ill child of just 9 months.  The child's stomach had become grossly distended and she was loosing weight.  If you know anything about tropical medicine then you might think, like I did, that it was intestinal worms.  The mother took her baby to the capital, to Hospital Escuela, for a diagnosis and it wasn't worms.

The doctors kept mother and baby at the hospital (which is rather old and is not a nice place to stay for an extended period) for two months.  They determined that the baby's liver had grown abnormally large and that there was nothing they could do.  They sent them home just last week telling the mother to buy a casket for the baby and wait for her to die.

Now before you jump off track deciding that the doctors here are idiots, I need to say that the doctors here are good, even excellent, and while the conditions at Hospital Escuela are not optimal, the medical treatment is usually right on target.

We went to the visit the couple yesterday and while there, the Lord put on my heart to take some photos of the family as they will be the only memory they will have.  Before we left I was asked to pray for them.  Well, I got going and tried to pray for the Lord to hug the family and instead, I starting crying.  This poor couple have so little and now were loosing their baby.

Six hours later we were waiting for the photos to be developed and we received the call that the baby had died.  We met their pastor and his family on the road on the way back to the house and transferred the pictures to them.  We had them laminated so that they want warp in the rainy humidity.  We even blew one up to 8 x 10 so they would have a nice big photo for their wall (which currently lacks any photos).

They will present the body in the house and stay up all night with the burial being in the morning.  Apparently, they put the pictures around the body and everyone said it is amazingly beautiful!  PTL!!!

The Lord is close to the brokenhearted... Ps 34:18

Here's an update from the funeral.  The pastor's wife was with them until late and one of the stories that came out is that they had a fight early that morning.  The mother was upset at the father because they only had one picture of the baby, that was when the baby was in the hospital for a short visit and was also taken by a 'gringo'.  She was really upset about only having one picture!  So, when the pastor's wife showed up with the eight pictures we sent, and one of them being the 8" x 10", she told her husband, 'God has really blessed us through the 'gringos'!"  (gringos is now a common term for North Americans and is not considered negative)

The other big news is that this couple had only started going to church about three weeks ago, the pastor had a chance to talk to the husband after we left before the baby died, and he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior!!  God is good all the time, and all the time God is good!!!

Standing on the Rock!

The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;

    my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,

    my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Psalm 18:2

Can you imagine the difference that having your dirt floor changed to cement?  Especially if you live in a country with rain more than six months of the year!!

The church in El Coquito worked this passed Sunday to help out a member of the community, who is also a recent member of the church, by putting in a cement floor.

We labored together to put in a cement floor and then exhorted the family to let the rock-like surface of the cement be a reminder to them that Jesus is their ROCK!

They told us that they would start at 7:00 am, and we where there just after seven, but the men had already been working for a half hour!

The man with the big number four on his shirt is the owner.  He has six children ranging from four years old up to two older married daughters.

Francisco built this adobe house himself.  It has no indoor plumbing, no bathroom, and the kitchen is outside, but he is quite proud of his home and it is very well made.

Here is one of his daughters inspecting the work!!  Such a sweetheart!!

Here is Francisco's wife, Marcela, cooking out front.

The sand is piled high, the dry cement is loaded on top, and then everything is pulled back to mix and make a place to hold water.

After the water is added, the dry is moved into the middle mixing everything.

It sort of becomes an unruly mess that we have to chase around with shovels.

The pastor, Gustavo - in the ball cap, has lots of experience working with cement so he is leading the project.

Around 9:00 am a breakfast was brought to the house by Ellen and the pastor's wife.

After a little bit more work they brought lunch!  Well, it was after several hours but it seemed like a short time.  See, just like church programs in the states, food is an important part of the day!!

While the pastor was leading the cement floor project, he also had to break away to start the children's Sunday school program!!

These are two of Felipa's daughters.  Felipa received the first cement floor from the church!  

Gustavo built up these lines of cement to fill in between to make the rest of the floor.

What a beautiful floor!!

Just before putting the final touches on the finished floor, Pastor Gustavo shared Scripture and gave a blessing for the family!

Everyone there at the end was given an opportunity to share and it was so beautiful to hear how these men who had worked all day gave all the glory to the Lord for His goodness!!  Francisco shared powerfully, filled with gratitude to the Lord, and exhortation for the church!

What is so exciting to us is seeing the church members step up and purpose in being a blessing.  The reality is that this is a poor community, they probably all need cement floors, but they are working through deciding who has the greatest need and blessing them!

The community is also taking note because they have never seen a church working in this way... which reflects the Scripture in Mt 5:

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.  

Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. 

Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.  

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds 

and glorify your Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16

Preaching Confirmation

Preaching in the Spirit
As all of my preaching opportunities are as a visiting preacher, one concern that I have is am I preaching what the Lord desires for the church.  I have just finished preaching in three different churches, in as many months, and have experienced an amazing confirmation that the message was exactly what the Lord wanted for that church and at that time.

I preached basically the same message in all three churches.  It was a discussion of forgiveness from Mt 18:23-35, the parable of the wicked servant or, as I prefer to title it, the parable of the merciful king.

The Message
The message is simple, we are like the first servant with a mountain of debt owed to the king.  In fact, it’s 200,000 work years worth of debt.  We are also like the first servant in that we live trying to dig ourselves out of our own problems and in reality only dig ourselves in deeper.  Our final similarity is that the first servant received undeserved and unrequested grace and mercy from the king in the cancellation of his debt, and we have received the same if we have trusted in Jesus for our salvation.

The servant failed to appreciate what was done for him and went out attacking another servant for a meager amount owed him – it was like 4 or 5 months of pay, which is nothing compared to 200,000 years he owed the king.  When the king learned of what the servant had done he had the servant dragged back in before him and, because the servant should have forgiven his fellow servant as he had been forgiven, the king sent him to jail to be tortured until all the debt was paid off.

Jesus closes the parable with a strong warning, ““This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” Mt 18:35

The Confirmation
The first church I preached this message at was at the church we attend in Comayagua.  The pastor had invited me to preach on that date about a six weeks prior.  The message was well received and the pastor would like me to preach it to a group of youth leaders in Tegucigalpa.  That’s nice but I would not necessarily look at that as confirmation from the Lord.  The week after I preached, there was a group in from the states visiting the church and the guest preacher also preached on the very same passage with most of the same points.

I had also been invited to preach at a church in El Coquito where we have been working.  We changed the date twice and so ended up preaching about a month after the Comayagua church.  The message went fine and afterwards the pastor told me that on Friday they had an event in the church where a man from the congregation had come forward during the service saying that the Lord had told him two women in the church needed to forgive each other.  This man is new to the community and so does not know the history of the people in the church.  He named the two women and it turned out that they both had previously dealt in witchcraft and that they indeed needed forgiveness but were unwilling.  They had a guest preaching on Saturday and he preached on… forgiveness.  I came in on Sunday and preached on forgiveness.  The pastor was very happy and very thankful for the message.

Finally, we joined a team from the US that came down to serve at an orphanage we have been going to since 2007.  I was invited to preach and gave my message on forgiveness.  Another man who had come with the team had been invited to share a message for the Wednesday service and his message that he prepared before coming to Honduras… forgiveness from Mt 18!

The Movement of the Spirit
For me these three separate events that ended up with similar results is very encouraging for our life in the Spirit.  I had not asked for confirmation that what I was preaching was the desire of the Lord for the church, but it was the concern on my heart.  I absolutely marvel at how God was working, coordinating events across time and space, to bring the messages together.  The pastors at the two churches and the staff at the orphanage all clearly saw how this was of the Lord!  

God is working in ways we can not imagine.  We are too limited to even ask for what God already has in store for us.

For those of us who have been cleansed by the blood of Christ, God has become our heavenly Father, and His love and hope for us is that of a father for his child.  He has gone before us to lay down our path with opportunities crafted for us and to glorify Him.  He waits and He hopes that we will put aside our own desires to discover the treasures He has placed in our path!!

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.  Eph 2:8-10

For those of you who haven't trusted Christ for salvation, you simply need to pray putting all your hope in God alone, through Christ alone, by grace through faith alone for your salvation.  It's not us, it's all Christ.  You can get more help from a local evangelical church or you can email me. :)

While I praise the Lord the confirmation of the messages, I will not be looking for amazing confirmations in the future as it is enough to trust in the Lord and that His Word will accomplish His will.

So is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 

Isaiah 55:11

Fun at Orphanage Emmanuel

It's that time of year again when the Maryland team comes to Honduras for 10 days at Orphanage Emmanuel.

This year's team included folks from Maryland, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Arkansas.  There were 36 team members!!

One of the big treats for Ellen and me is getting to catch up with our sponsor child who is now 14 years old!!

The day after arriving, we jumped right into two days of field events for three of the children's houses.

The groups ranged from about 38 to 60 kids... it was a really good thing we had a big team!

We made several stations with different fun activities for the kids to rotate through.

They only had about 10 minutes at each station so they knew they had to move fast, obey the leaders and have fun!

She wanted to be a kitten!

Even the team members were able to get in on some of the fun!!

Ellen even put on some speed while playing a type of tag with the kids!

Each group ended their time with a meal of hotdogs!  This is a really big treat for them and the loved it!

Sunday morning I preached in Spanish and Ellen translated into English.

I was so blessed to have some of the boys say they liked the message and comment on specific points.  After church we had lunch and then off to another afternoon of field events!

Monday morning we started sharing with the kids during their morning 'circle' time.  They usually stand outside in a circle for a morning devotion, prayers and songs, but this particular morning it was raining so we were in their dining hall.

There was a soccer tournament with some other schools in the area.  The girl's team won 7 to 1 and the boy's team lost 0 to 1.

Some brother-sister yak time during the soccer game.  An extra special blessing is that Ellen's brother, Matt Jones, also comes for the orphanage trips!!

Ellen sharing with the little boys one morning.  We were inside because it was raining... again!

Sandra is the little girl in red.  She was quite pleased with herself for stealing my hat!

Sandra with Ellen at big circle time which is each Friday morning at 6:00 am when all the kids from the whole orphanage come together for discipleship, prayer and singing praise!

In our "free time" we would often head to the special needs yard.  These kids are here during the school hours as they don't attend school.  It's a joy to play with them!

One of the big projects that we have been doing each year for the orphanage is measuring all - as in over 500 kids - for their weight, height, shirt size, pants size and shoe size.  This is used for the Christmas list that folks can access to send clothes, and is also part of the reporting to the government.

Another big projects the guys took on was a cement floor for a new greenhouse.

We had two cement mixers going.  Matt Jones has extensive experience with making cement slabs so he was heading up as well as mixing the concrete!

The finish slab was gorgeous!  Lots of hard work and sweat!!

The little girl on Ellen's left is always soooo excited to see Ellen because they both have the same name, "Elena".  That's the name Ellen goes by in Honduras so they both have the same name here!

This is big circle at 6:00 am Friday.  The little boy's house are in the middle reciting the chapter of the Bible they memorized!

This is the middle girls singing at morning circle time at 6:00 am!!  Sooo precious!!

It is always a blessing to go, to get to be with a team from the states, to share in English, and to serve!

This post really only touches on such a little of all the work, fun and loving that went on during the orphanage visit.  We had teams in the school, teams cutting hair, teams doing crafts, teams fixing all sorts of stuff, and still there was more.  We worked hard, from early in the morning into the dark, and we praise God for the opportunity He made to serve Him!!  May He bless the children!!

But Jesus called them unto him, and said, let the little children to come unto me,

 and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God. Luke 18:16