Pulhapanzak

To celebrate all the hard work by the puppet team, we headed to the Pulhapanzak waterfalls.  It should have been about a two hour trip to get there but ended up taking over three hours due to construction traffic.

 The team was pretty excited to stretch their legs once we arrived at the park.

Then we quickly dug into the lunches we brought!

Next was a dip into the river before heading to the see the waterfalls.

The swimming area is made by a little water dam.

The water was amazingly clear!!!

Silliness was everywhere!!

Great fun for all!!

The swimming area was a super beautiful site!!

Then the walk down to see the waterfalls.

The waterfalls are super gorgeous!!

 Just enjoying the view!

I want to point out that there was no sign that said we couldn't climb over the fence for a better picture!

I'm not sure they thought climbing over the fence was such a bright idea!

Next we had to climb back up to be able to continue the trail to the base of the falls.

Great group photo!

It was quite wet at the base due to the continual mist from the waterfall.

Of course the perpetual mist given off by the waterfall makes for great little rainbows!

Another fun group shot!

On the way back we stopped off at Lake Yajoa.

 Super beautiful at the lake!

The pier we walked out on turned into a little wood walkway, but we all walk out on it until it disappeared under the water.

This area of green grass is under water during the rainy season.

Ellen decided to sit out the walk and wait at what was about a halfway point.

Looking back and you can see it was just a beautiful day!

Truly a fun day!!  What made it extra fun is that in spending the entire day together, (which turned out to be almost 12 hours due to another back up on the return trip) the group shared sweet Christian fellowship. Actually, we spent some of the car time going over the next puppet script and also in reading Scripture and prayer!!  God is goood!!

Such a blessing to be treated to a fun day experiencing more of Honduras with such sweet friends!!

I (Jesus) came that they may have life and have it abundantly.  

John 10:10

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