Christmas Day activities...

After lunch we took our truck and headed into the river to collect some rocks for Joyce's rock gardens, but it wasn't all work...

In Honduras there's even good-looking girls in the trees!

Cesar knows no fear!

Angel says, "Man that was easy!"

Rosa shows us Fabiola's not the only girl who can climb a tree!

Pedro says, "Somebody get me down!"

Mama & the boys brave the rapids!

Yeah, that's right! My waist looks exactly like Mauricio's. Well, maybe not exactly!

Joyce & Jasmine on an adventure!

Jasmine has become the consensus 'queen' in our family!

First you learn to sit on the water; then you learn to walk on it!

Nothing like a day in the river to make a couple of 'oldsters' feel like a couple of 'youngsters'!

Beauty & the Beast: Cast your vote for who's the beauty & please consider my feelings when voting!

Sisters by blood; and now: Sisters in Christ!!!

God's biggest surprise of the day...

The older sister of Fabiola, Mauricio, & Angel has been staying with us since Sunday. Andrea lives in an orphanage outside of town that is a completely agnostic if not atheist environment and therefore has had very little exposure to the gospel. Today the Holy Spirit softened her heart and God called her into 'the body'!

After breakfast this morning Fabiola, Joyce, and myself sat at the table with Andrea and shared the good news with her. We went slowly, a step at a time, beginning in Garden and culminating with Christ's gift on the cross. God had ripened her for us...she was ready and proclaimed her desire to invite Jesus into her heart and to begin to learn to live her life for Him!  When we told her of the party all the angels in heaven were having for Andrea she beamed from ear to ear! What a glorious gift from God this was.

But that's not all...we told her about baptism and the significance of it and told her to think about it and make a decision on her own whether or not she thought she should be baptized. After lunch she told us she wanted to make that public commitment! So, not only did we get the thrill of seeing her invite Jesus into her heart and life, we also got to baptize her!  WHAT A GREAT CHRISTMAS!!!

Getting ready to go under with our 'witness' close by!

Jasmine, our retriever puppy, confirms the old has passed away!

Andrea  comes up a  new creation & Jasmine lays 'paws' on her!

Praise the Lord for the gift of a precious soul!!!

The Rains are back...

It's raining so hard here it's impossible to do anything outside. The road to El Doradito had just gotten graded on Wednesday and now the rains will soften it to where it will once again be morass of potholes! We did get two days of good driving. Now the roof over our second floor 'sala' (living area) is leaking and our entire yard is flooded; and it looks like there is no end to the constant downpour.

The kids were already bored with their vacation from school and now they're trapped in the house with us...anybody want to trade places? We have 6 who will keep you either entertained or aggravated depending how bored they are at the moment.

We're praying not for a white Christmas, but for one dry enough where the kids can hit the outdoors!

Community Center/School/Church & House #23...

In El Doradito the work continues at a ferverish pace! We now have almost completed house # 23 and our much anticipated Community Center which we will utilize as a community social area, micro-enterprise work area, school, & church! We are very excited about this building as it will allow us to take another huge step forward as a real community. And, of course, the house will be a new home for another family that probably thought it was never possible for them. Thanks to God and to all of you who give, and labor, and pray!!!

View from the back with the bathroom yet to be erected.

Front view with the window yet to be installed. Soon this will be the best Christmas gift this family has ever received!

We're hoping we can get the community center ready for a Christmas celebration!

Front view, if you look closely you can see 5 windows and 3 doors!

Back view; this building is 50' long!

Soon to be bathrooms!

A look inside the 'common area'!

Looking from the 'work area' through to the 'common area'!

Inside the 'work area'!

End view of our 30' wide center!

Our center is constructed with reinforced footers and foot pads for the columns so it can hold a second story when the need arises. We simply remove the metal roof and raise the walls on top of the existing structure! Thanks to all who have given and all who have prayed...please don't stop!

My thoughts on Newtown...

It's difficult to know how to address something as heinous as the Newtown massacre, but it must be addressed, it must be written about, it must be discussed among ourselves so that it's never forgotten. This morning I was watching FoxNews' coverage when they simply scrolled the names and ages of the children and adults murdered. Somehow watching that lifeless script roll by indelibly etched the horror in my heart!

How? Why? What's next? How do they recover? How do we as a people, a nation, a world recover? Questions that should be haunting all of us; but I fear too few of us are even thinking about it any longer. We have become a society that is calloused, one that stands back from the fire, one that is quick to 'move on' to something more enjoyable. But if these senseless tragedies are to cease we must take stock of ourselves.

The common response is this is just an isolated incidence, one 'crazy' gone bad, it could never happen here. Tell that to the community of Newton, CT., or Columbine & Aurora, CO., or Virginia Tech, or Jonestown,or the mall shooting in the Northwest, or the families of the 77 murdered in Europe, or countless other shootings that are simply foggy events in the past! 

It can and it will happen "here" if we don't make some changes in our society world-wide. I heard an ex-psychology professor at West Point make the case for movies and video games being one of the prime contributors to these events...and I agree with him. He said that these movies and video games teach children how to kill, how to aim and shoot, how to make bombs, how to break in without getting caught, how to shoot everyone at least twice to make sure they're dead, how to steal cars, how to sell and buy drugs, etc., etc. AND HE'S RIGHT! We need to make manufacturers accurately rate their games and movies, and then we as parents must step up to the plate and enforce them. Too many allow their kids to sit for hours and play video games that are filled with horrific actions because it keeps their child quiet, keeps them occupied, keeps them out of trouble, allows them to do what they want without interruption from their children! 

I think most of us would agree with Proverbs when it tells us we will become like those we hang out with...well your children are hanging with murderers, drug dealers, prostitutes, thieves, mass murders, and more when they are 'occupied' with their video games or movies! I hope this angers some parents, I hope some of you get very angry with me for daring to suggest that you might be responsible for your child's actions; and then, I hope that anger turns into introspection! I hope you decide to make sure your child doesn't become the next one to turn the video game into real life! Look at the backgrounds of the past shooters; all of them spent countless hours on video games! Does your child?

The aforementioned ex-psychology professor at West Point says, "...this is only the beginning; things will get worse if we continue on this path..." Mike Huckabee says we've created a culture of evil, a culture where God is lacking or removed completely. What did we think would fill that void? We've become obsessed with "our rights as individuals" and completely forgotten about the rights of our Creator! 

To the card carrying ACLUers I would say, "We've tried it your way and it's not working!" As a Christian I would tell you it's time we turn back to God, time we put God back in our schools and our homes. Problems in our schools used be gum-chewers or cheaters on tests; now it's mass killings! What's different? Oh yeah, we can't pray, we can't talk about God, we can't even pray SILENTLY! 

We have a God who wants to protect us, to shield us from these onslaughts of evil, but we turn our backs on Him; or we play at honoring Him and then wonder where He is. Don't forget Newtown or all the other tragedies before Newtown. Understand it could very well be your child who is the next mass murderer if you don't get involved with their every actions. Leaving them to spend countless hours alone (while in your house with you) is leaving them to the assaults of evil...and soon enough they may fall into the thought process of the Newtown murderer. 

As I watched the names scroll by I looked at my local newspaper and read that 20 people had been murdered in San Pedro Sula, where we live, just last night. But I can assure you it will not illicit much response from the people here...we are used to it, calloused to it...just as the world is becoming calloused to these mass murders. They are not one time events. There is a history of them, an ever-increasing history of them...what will we do? MAYBE WE SHOULD TRY TURNING TO GOD!!!

Air Compressor woes....

Just received the bill for the repair of our air compressor: 24,353 Limperas or approx. $1229.00; and that after we purchased the repair part that was needed. Hopefully we can get some wells completed now to help ourselves recoup some of the money. If anyone is looking for a place to sow some Christmas-time funds...here you go!