Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Just like Elijah's floating axe head...

Fabiola was blessed by her good friend, Tony, with the gift of a hand-made ring. She cherishes this ring and virtually never takes it off. Last week during a 'dual' birthday party for Mauricio & Rosa we had a swimming party at the house. After everyone left for their homes Fabi came to me and said, "I can't find my ring and I had it on when I went into the pool." I told her to pray and then to enlist the help of the boys and put on their goggles and search the bottom. 

Earlier one of the other girls had lost her earrings and the boys donned their goggles, dove to the bottom and found them almost immediately, so we were pretty confident they could find Fabi's ring. However, it was not to be. Next she searched her room and the outside bathroom where she had changed, and still nothing. She was totally disconsolate! I told her she needed to write to Tony and tell him she'd lost the ring he had made for her. Brokenhearted she did just that. But she continued to pray believing God would cause the ring to show up somewhere.

Today, four days later, Mauricio was vacuuming the pool and went to empty the skimmer basket. When he bent down to pull it there among the leaves he saw Fabi's ring! Now we all know rings don't float! But just as Elijah caused the borrowed axe head to float in 2 Kings 6:5, so God caused this precious ring to float to the top and drop into the skimmer basket. And then He allowed Mauricio to see it instead of just dumping out the leaves. 

Prayer really does work!!!

Monday, April 15, 2013

Another blessing from above...

Yesterday God sent the Holy Spirit to our church, Los Discipulos de Jesus, to call forth another soul for His family! 
Carlos, the 16 year old son of Carlos & Maritza, came forth to answer the call of God on his heart. At the end of the service Carlos came up for prayer and was joined by his mother and father as he invited Jesus into his life and Lord and Savior! It was a great moment which carries with it a great responsibility for discipleship by his parents and his church family. Together we will help Carlos walk out his newly professed faith.

Thank you, Jesus!

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Another well completed...

Today we were able to finish another well. This one is in Seis de Mayo, Rivera Hernandez. The heat was so brutal today that I'm still paying the price. I'm cramping all over my body...guess I didn't drink enough water, but it felt like I drank enough for several people. 

God really blessed our efforts and allowed us to finish this well in just two days!!! 

Thank you, Jesus!

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Ovens & Earthquakes...

We drilled today and it was a mixed blessing: the equipment worked perfectly, perfectly and it was actually a joy to use. However, it felt as if we were drilling inside an oven. The heat was just unbearable, even my Honduran helpers were running for shade as often as we had an opportunity. God gave us great favor with the equipment; now if we can just get a few clouds and a breeze or two...not complaining God!!!

To make things even more interesting we had an earthquake! Some say it was 6.1 and some say it was 5.5, but it evidently set things, including the earth, to shaking resulting in lots of schools closing early after evacuating classrooms. No damage that I've heard of to this point. Joyce said it was really strong here at the house with all the hanging lights swaying back and forth accompanied by a very loud noise. She said it definitely got her attention.

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

It's braggin' time!!!

Indeed, it is braggin' time!
Fabiola came home with her third quarter report card and she is on the High Honor Roll! 

All of our children did exceptionally well, but Fabiola outshined them all. Some subjects don't come as easily to Fabiola as they might to others, but she had a desire to prove herself to be much more than just capable and so, she put forth the effort it required. She worked many hard hours, but now is smiling a dazzling smile of renewed self assurance! Thank you Jesus!

Wild & Wonderful...

This Sunday in the village was both wild and wonderful! During our church service we always have a time of praise and prayer requests.  Things were moving along normally when this prayer request was put forward: "Please pray for my husband, someone threatened to kill him!" 

Now where we live that's not a threat you can take lightly. The Holy Spirit prompted me to respond in a strong manner. I told them I took that threat personally; that I felt a sense of responsibility toward this community and if someone threatened one of them it was as if they threatened me also. I also told them they should feel exactly the same way...we are one family and we need to look out for each other, even in this violent country! I told them after the service I would get involved in the situation and that's what I did. After finding out who the person was that was doing the threatening I went to his house and called him out to speak with him. Gently, slowly I began to remind him what the Bible tells us in Matt. & Luke about forgiving each other regardless of who is correct or incorrect. As you might expect he didn't want to hear this and said he absolutely wasn't going with me to apologize and shake the other person's hand. However, as we continued to talk it wasn't long before the Holy Spirit began to soften him and the eventual outcome was that we were able to get the two men together to say they were sorry and then to shake hands. Again, as you might expect at first they wanted to say, "sorry" and then make their accusations against one another. But we stopped them and explained forgiveness was just saying I'm sorry and nothing more. In the end they were able to bite their tongues and pull it off! This may seem trivial, but in Honduras this is a big, big threat averted. Thank you, Jesus.

Now the wonderful part...As we were leaving the village I noticed one of our congregants walking across the football field with a young man hanging onto her shoulders and both appeared to be crying. I asked one of the kids to yell out the window and see what was wrong. It turns out the young man's wife had just left him for another man and he was devastated. The woman asked if we could pray for him. We got out of the van and gathered round them and began to simply talk about how life throws us curves sometimes and how difficult it would be to try to handle that on your own. Eventually we asked if he knew who Jesus was and he responded, "Not really". Well, now you can guess the rest of the story...we told him the good news of the gospel and before long he was praying to accept Jesus as his Lord and Savior. We gave him a Bible and prayed with him and although he was still in deep pain and was very disconsolate you could see a difference in his face. There appeared to be some hope, some strength where just moments before there was utter despair.

God will bring opportunities across our paths and if we are looking for them, He will use us! Today ask God to give you the opportunity share the gospel with someone who needs to hear the good news!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Passing out blessings...  

Through a gift from a fellow missionary we were able to bless the families of El Doradito with bread,croissants,donuts,and cakes.  



                                   
                                 
                                         
































































                                     































                     

Monday, April 1, 2013

Easter Sunday Baptism...

We told you of Eduardo, the friend of Andrea, who is the older sister of Fabi, Maurico, and Angel, accepting the Lord on Palm Sunday. Well, the Lord blessed us again by causing Eduardo to ask to be baptized on Easter Sunday! What a testimony this young man will have: saved on Palm Sunday & baptized on Easter Sunday!

He also gave an excellent and sincere report of how grateful he already is that he now has the Lord in his life!
Very powerful for our church in El Doradito!


Going over the reason and the symbolism of baptism with Eduardo.


Down goes the 'old' Eduardo...


And up comes the 'new' Eduardo, filled with the Holy Spirit!