Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Honduran Justice

Spent two and half hours this morning in a Honduran traffic court...you wouldn't believe it! After a bit of jabbering by the other party the judge pulled out the mock drawing of the accident provided by the police and declared the other guy to be 100% guilty! Great right? Not so fast...

Since he has no insurance and no visible means to pay my insurance will cover the accident; AFTER I pay my deductible. That's winning in a Honduran court...he's guilty and I get to pay my deductible! Good deal, huh?

Prayer request...

Friends,

Please pray for our ministry...we are in desperate financial straits and need your help. Please share our information with all of your friends and invite them to join you in supporting us. Our monthly support is dwindling seemingly every month while our expenses continue to rise. As you know we have no paid employees in this ministry and so, 100% of your donations go directly to supporting God's work! If you can step up your monthly support by any amount, please do so now. If not, please help us by soliciting others to come along side and join us in making a difference for the Kingdom!

We also would like to invite each of you to pray and consider helping us as a Board member. Recently several of our Board members have had to step down because of personal reasons and we are seeking 'new blood' to bring us a refreshing and to assist us in the operations of these ministries. Ask God if He would have you to become involved in a deeper, more personal way and then let me know and we can discuss the details involved.

Thank you each for your continued prayers...they are our lifeblood!

Bob, Joyce, Fabiola, Mauricio, Antonio, Cesar, Rosa, Angel, Pedro

Monday, November 29, 2010

Surgery day...

Today we spent 3 hours in the doctor's office having viral warts cut/burned off Mauricio, Cesar, & Pedro. Cesar was particularly loaded with them on both his hands and feet.

They did a great job as they each had to take a needle in each wart and then it was cut, and/or burned off...sometimes both! We had NO CRIERS! Tough bunch, these!

We did have one bail out on the procedure..."mama" was going to get some growths removed from her, but after seeing the needle and hearing that they were completely benign she decided another day would be good for her.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Dancing Beauties...



It only took a month...




It only took one month to be in an accident with our new car. Fortunately it wasn't my fault and fortunately we have insurance. I was traveling down Avenida Junior yesterday at a leisurely pace when an independent bread delivery man decided he was late and had to get his bread delivered now!

He was parked on the right side of the road (a boulevard, a street with a tree lined median) and I was in the left lane heading the same direction as he was parked. Immediately in front of me was a break in the boulevard where you could make a u turn and he was about to do just that. He pulled out from his parking space and went directly left across two lanes of traffic trying to reach the u turn area, leaving me no where to go. I blew the horn, hit the brakes, but didn't quite make a complete stop before hitting him in the driver's door. Fortunately I was going slow enough that there was minimal damage, but it is a real pain.

First I had to wait 1-1/2 hours for the insurance guy and the Transit Police to show up and write their reports and now I have to go to court Monday morning for a hearing on the accident. In the interim they take both of our licenses. I'm told that I will likely have to go to court at least two times to get my license back and in spite of the fact that the accident was totally his fault I will likely have to pay the deductible on my insurance since he doesn't have insurance! Not to mention we will be without the car for at least a week, and I'd be surprised if we got it back that quickly. In addition, since the car is new I will have to take it back to the dealer for repair in order to keep the warranty in tact which means more delays and more money. Sitting in court all day Monday was not what I had planned....

Friday, November 26, 2010

Water for Maranantha


On Wednesday Joyce & I took the 4 kids who are not in school, Rosa, Antonio, Cesar, & Pedro to Maranantha to complete the well there. This is an extremely poor village with homes of patchwork tin, particle board, and lumber; no electricity and no water. It's also in a mountainous area that is very dry and we had to hike far down into the valley to be able to find water; but God provided and now they have 'living water'!
Antonio, Rosa, & Cesar hand out gifts on the way out of the village

Across this rivulet lies our well location.

The hike back up out of the valley, Rosa looks ahead to Antonio.

Some of the local men enjoy the fruits of their labors!

Finally they have water.
Antonio plays in the water by the pila while Pedro looks on.

Pedro thinks he's found a water park!

Cesar's looking for someone to splash.

Assemblying the pump head and stand.

Outreach



Mauricio & Fabiola went with the class at school to help finish a home in the village of El Plan. They put "mezcla" in between the blocks...we would call it mortar. They also painted the front of the house on the outside. It was a great day of giving back to those who are less fortunate...their school works hard at teaching them good life lessons and not just academics.
Mauricio says, "Food makes everything all right."

Break time

Hard at work

Fabiola shows the girls how it's done.

Maurico says, "Watch me!"

Fabiola gets the hard ones down low!

Who's under that hat?

She painted and there wasn't any on her pants!!!

Monday, November 22, 2010

No dieters allowed....

Sunday we had our Thanksgiving dinner at church with 120 in attendance. Great time, great food, great testimonies! This week we'll take the Good Seed kids on another outreach for Thanksgiving.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

School projects...

Today Mauricio, Fabi, & I picked up their Administrator, Principal, and Teacher and took them to the mountain village of Maranantha to preview their outreach program for 4th, 5th, & 6th graders next Thursday...they were thrilled with the possibilities. It's a very poor village with houses of scrap tin, lumber, and cardboard; no electricity or running water! We obtained a list of each of the 45 families by name and age and now the school will prepare individual gift bags for each household.

Tomorrow we take the 5th and 6th grade kids to San Manuel to add the finishing touches on a house being built for someone who previously lived in sub-human conditions. I love this school and their emphasis on giving, doing, and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

School is out..........

At least for half the 'brood' school is out for 3 months! The 4 kids at Rodolfo Rojas (Rosa, Antonio, Cesar, & Pedro) are out for 'summer vacation' until Feb. 15. The other 3 are on an American schedule. BABY SITTER POSITIONS OPEN...VOLUNTEER ONLY, NO PAY!!! (I hope I don't get too many responses)


Monday, November 15, 2010

Prayers needed...

Although we don't know exactly where they live we do know that Gershon, Karen, & Jesus live in Colonia Lusiana. This morning in the paper there is a plea from the patronato (head of the neighborhood) to the city government for more protection. They say the streets aren't safe and that the delinquents are running the Colonia.

Pray that God continues to put legions of angels around our "three"!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Saturday and other things...

Rainy Saturday morning (and cold for here)...Joyce has taken the girls to dance, so the 5 boys and I are off to the barbershop (read joy, joy). We're back home from haircuts and in 40 minutes we'll load up and head out to pick up the girls (Mama is at a ladies luncheon for our church).

The truck has a parasitic electrical drain and so far we haven't been able to identify it, so everyday I have to disconnect the batteries. I've been working on a well in the mountains behind Pimiento...a tough one mile hike in and back out; and somehow it's uphill both ways!!!

It's rainy season (almost daily) and Tuesday is the last day of school for the 4 youngest kids...seems like a double whammy, doesn't it?

Mauricio can now play "Blessed be the Lord" on his guitar and soon we will have him to play in front of the church...pretty cool!

Last night we had a family meeting...we all sat around the table and threw out ideas for rules for the family...after writing down all the ideas we voted to select the top 5 rules which are:'
  1. Play together w/o fighting
  2. Be good in school and obey the teacher
  3. No crying if you're not in pain
  4. Do not interrupt others
  5. Do not ignore others .....pretty good for the kids coming up with them.
Then we fielded ideas for punishments for violating a rule and they are:
  1. No television
  2. Not permitted outside
  3. The "whippin' stick"...nobody wants this one
  4. Go to bed after dinner
  5. No toys, inside or out
  6. No swimming for a week
  7. Pick up the dog poop
  8. House cleaning
  9. Mouth washed w/soap
Remember the kids came up w/these as well. The way it works is this: we made numbers from 1-9, folded them over so you can't see them, and put them in a jar. When you violate a rule you pick a number from the jar and match it to the corresponding punishment. Thus you have selected your own punishment and must accept it. Should be interesting!

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Gold Medal Day....

Last Saturday the kids at Good Seed School had an Olympic Day consisting of various foot races. Our three came home with medals hanging on each of them...Angel picked up one Gold, Fabiola garnered two Golds, and Mauricio captured three Gold Medals!!!

Sorry, but our camera didn't work so we don't have pics....and the computer is driving us nuts which explains the lack of posts.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Dangerous start to the morning...

Joyce was overdue from taking the kids to school when I received a call from her telling me she was stuck in the middle of a manifestation and they wouldn't let her through. She told me if one large rock was moved she could get through. So, I jumped in the truck and headed up to where she was to find her surrounded by hundreds of yelling and screaming Hondurans who had blocked the major artery into and out of the city on the North side.

I parked the truck off the road and pushed my way through the crowd to where Joyce was sitting in the car. In front of the car were several large rocks prohibiting her from going around the blockade of cars and even larger rocks. I grabbed the rocks and threw them off to the side and motioned for Joyce to move forward....she made a few feet before a guy ran around me and threw the largest of the rocks back into her path blocking her from further movement. He was yelling and swearing at me as I bent over and again, removed the rock. Now two other guys came pushing me and throwing the rocks back into her path. As they closed in I pushed back to give myself some room and not permit them to completely overrun me. The longer I was in the confrontation the more men came to harass me and it became apparent I would not be able to get the car out of there. So, I went to Joyce and got her out of the car and forced our way through the mob before they could get the courage, or the stupidity to do something more dangerous or harmful to us.

We got back to the truck and watched for an hour as they continued screaming and blocking all traffic in both directions. Finally the police showed up and they began to disperse; at least enough for us to get the car out of there. We're back home now, but haven't been able to get the vehicles to our house yet. It will take a while for the traffic to clear out before we can drive into Campisa.

Honduras is definitely different...............

Monday, November 1, 2010

Outreach day...

Yesterday afternoon we loaded the kids into the truck along with 4 large boxes of items to give away to those more needy than us. We headed out to La Sabana where we've become a part of the village since drilling wells there. Not only do Joyce and I have good friends there, but all of our children as well....when we pull into the village they all come running calling out our names. It's a great feeling!

We unloaded our boxes and then the kids began giving out the clothes, toys, books, etc. to the villagers. It was awesome to see the look on our children's faces as they were able to evoke huge smiles from the villagers as they accepted their gifts. The kids are truly learning the joy of giving and it was great, great fun!

Sadly, neither Joyce nor I remembered to take a camera so we have no pics to share; but you can believe it was a day that the people of La Sabana and our kids will remember for a long, long time!

Angel's New Birth............

Happy Mama w/newly born Angel

Angel's 2nd Birth


Ready for the plunge

Telling the people, "I have Jesus in my heart!"

Confession of faith w/Pastor Bill and church