Service & Outreach...

This morning Will, Joyce, & I took some food, pampers, and other supplies to some needy neighbors and a mother who struggles with an unbelievable burden.

Situated in the middle of some large scale houses in our neighborhood is a tin/board/cardboard/dirt shack that houses a husband, wife, and 7 children! They have a very small and limited pulperia where they sell some items to try to provide for themselves and their children. We stopped by with rice, potatoes, and cereal for them and then spent some time talking to them about the Lord. The first thing we told them was the gifts weren't from us; we were just the messengers. The gifts were from God! We told them God impressed it upon our hearts to bring them something to show them that He hadn't forgotten them. We acknowledged their very difficult lives, but reminded them that in the eyes of a merciful God they were as important as anyone on this earth. We told them these gifts were His way of letting them know He hadn't forgotten them and that if they followed Him one day He would reward them in ways they couldn't imagine. The wife then went into the house and brought out her Bible to show it to us. It was great to just be used by the Lord as proof to them of His love.

The second stop was out in a village called Ocotillo at the home of a woman we met some 5 years ago. Eliadora is a young woman with 4 children; 3 of whom are complete quadriplegics who cannot move or speak. They are 21, 19, & 16 years of age and this mother is literally 'locked' to them as if chained. We were delivering food and diapers from some friends of ours who minister to them on a regular basis, but who, because of illness, were unable to make the delivery. It's some of God's irony because 5 years ago we were part of a group who purchased land for their current home. Please pray for this family whose burden is beyond what I can describe to you. The children are all deformed and just lie there staring. When she picked them up to move them they were stiff as boards...very difficult to see! Pray!

Birthday party, English lesson, & out on the town....

The three kids from Rodolfo Rojas, Rosa, Antonio, & Cesar, are headed out to a birthday party for one of their classmates. That will occupy them for the afternoon, so the rest of us are going out to eat our dinner...you realize going 'out' to eat probably means we'll end up at Wendy's so they can utilize the playground! Not a 'fine dining' experience!

This morning the teller from our bank showed up for an English lesson. I mess with him every time I go to the bank and he keeps asking me to teach him English and today he finally showed up. The good news is that after the lesson we spent about 15 minutes talking about the Lord and what it means to invite Jesus into our hearts. It was a good time.

More of the same...

At 6:00 a.m. the kids were sitting on the couch fanning themselves with their hands to try to cool off during Bible study. IT IS OPPRESSIVE!!!

Nothing but heat...

The heat continues to wear us down...the kids were complaining at 5:30 a.m. about how hot it was...and it only gets worse as the day goes on. It's like living in a constant state of sweat!

Yesterday we picked up some benches and chairs for our dinner table. The table is 8' long so it took specially made benches to fill the bill. It is nice to be able to get all 10 of us at the table for each of our meals. We believe it makes a big difference in trying to develop family unity if we can always eat together.

We're hoping to get our truck back this weekend, along with a newly repaired air compressor. Now, if we can get the rig and drilling bits repaired maybe we can get back to some drilling in the near future.

Will's Update 05/18/2011

Down here things are hot! I mean HOT! You can't even breathe without sweating like crazy down here! I was raised in Florida so I enjoy the heat....but not when it's so hot you sweat so much that you look like you just got out of the shower.

In the last update I mentioned we had some surprises. One of the surprises was that Bob and I had a bad wreck in the truck. God protected everyone that was involved so everyone came out of the wreck in good shape. I'll enclose a pic. The truck has been in repair for the last week and a half so please pray that it is finished soon because we need the truck in order to pull the drill rig and air compressor to the sites that we need to go to.

In terms of myself, it continues to boggle my mind how much an individual's life changes when they undertake the task of raising children. When I was in the states I was able to wake up at 6 in the morning to head out to work, then stay up to around 11 at night. Now, I wake up at 5:30 in the morning and by 7:30 at night...I AM BUSTED, The mental and physical wear from raising 7 kids is insane! Plus....the heat here in Honduras really just beats you down too! For those of you who are parents my hat is off to you several times a day. Every aspect of raising children is insane. You have to watch every move you make, every word you say, every facial expression you make, how much attention you pay to each kid, and much more.

Joyce will be headed out to the states for the first time since January of 2010. Raising 7 kids, and doing what she does on a daily basis at the age of 70 is hard to comprehend. She will be headed out May 31st and will returnJune 16th. Please pray for her travel when the time comes.

Thank you guys for your prayers and your support! THANK YOU SO MUCH.

Your brother in Christ,

Will

Jurassic Park - Honduras...

This morning I was greeted by screams from the cleaning lady of "come help me, there's an iguana in the pila!" For you Gringos a pila is an outside wash station and in this case it's about 2-1/2 feet deep.

First you need to be aware that iguanas will definitely bite you!

Second, you should know that they are absolutely faster than you! This prehistoric critter means business, especially when he's trapped inside a slippery 'pila'.

Third, trying to catch a greased pig would be much easier!

This monster dragon-like animal was in no mood to be messed with...ok, so he wasn't a monster but he was at least two feet long! Ok, ok, so he was two feet long, if you included his tail. But with his lightning speed and the mouth of an alligator he was a formidable foe.

I gathered Will and we headed to the pila to scout out the situation...we weren't making much progress...I put a couple of broom handles down inside the pila, but the monster didn't seem interested in climbing out and every time we would move our hands toward him he would dart about hissing with his mouth in the ready position to bite! After too many squeals from Will and I our cleaning lady decided to come help us get this invader out of our pila. Seizing the opportunity I backed off and gave instructions from afar, as any good general would do! You don't send the generals to front of the battle...it wasn't that I was afraid of this menacing attacker, it's just that someone had to stay calm in this battle and constantly assess the situation!

As the screams continued to come from the pila area I shouted out new instructions from my location on the other side of the pool, but nothing we tried seemed to help. Finally Will came up with the idea of getting a large trash bag and trying to chase this dinosaur-like creature into it. It took a lot of brooms, a lot of jumping back, and a lot more screams; but finally, he was captured. Will carried him out into the street and released him there to reek havoc in someone else's home.

What happens next is anybody's guess...post traumatic stress syndrome, nightmares, hallucinations? Who can tell when something as horrifying as this happens? This is life on the wild side; this is Jurassic Park -Honduras!!!

Remember this photo is taken from high above our attacker and thus he may not look that dangerous to you, but after today we will be purchasing a supply of "Depends"!!!

Sunday morning, ready to praise...

The kids are up and dressed, the pancakes made and eaten, dishes washed and the table cleaned, adult & children's Bible Studies finished, teeth brushed, and we're ready to go out the door to praise the Lord!

Have a blessed day in Him,

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