Sacrificate

Living in Honduras for the past 8 years has been an amazing adventure. People often ask me what's a normal day like for me. Well, there is nothing normal about any day of my family's life in Honduras. It's an adventure. I hope to be able to share some of our daily adventures and experiences through this blog. Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Jungle Days



I am often asked what a normal day is like for us here in Honduras. If you’ve ever spent much time here visiting you know that we don’t have normal days. Today was one of those days. We started the day early, myself, Ally, Meredith, and our new intern, Cameron. We were headed way up into the jungle to visit 2 sick ladies. One lady, Doña Gumercinda with a severe infection several years old from a surgery gone wrong and the other a sister from the church in Las Pitas, Doña Pancha, who is believed to have a heart problem. The drive, however long, dusty, and bumpy is always beautiful. Ally and Meredith did what appeared to be a wonderful job examining the lady with the infection and then giving her the antibiotics that she needs to kill the infection. Then we were off to Doña Pancha’s house. A short hike, crossing a beautiful mountain stream. This was a bit more complicated. We had a portable EKG program that runs off of a computer but we needed electricity so we took the battery out of the truck and carried a power inverter along as well. We reached Pancha’s house and then, as happens so many times here, we began to wait. Ally and Meredith played with the little girls while Cameron and I talked about the crops, forest, and work with the men of the home. After about an hour Doña Pancha finally arrived. Ally and Meredith got all set up in a room in her mud brick house and they were ready to go, except for the fact that the computer malfunctioned and we were not successful in examining her heart. So, we’ve planned to return next week. It’s so great to get out in the villages and spend time with the people, something that we don’t do nearly as much now that the mission has grown so much. It’s our goal for it to be the face of local Christians that the locals see in their villages, but It’s nice to get to do it every once in a while. Enjoy the few pics.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Blessings of December



December was great. We received from HHI about 9500 Magi boxes, we distributed them to all over the country of Honduras. It only took us about 10 days from the day we received the boxes to the day 99% were delivered from our warehouse. The only ones that were left were the boxes that we actually handed out ourselves when a crew from HHI arrived for a week with us. We were still about 1000 short.
God has amazing ways of opening doors down here. About 15 miles outside of Choluteca is a large 24 hour road block. This facility was built by US DEA to help combat drug traffic through Central America. The best highway through Honduras headed north to the US is this particular route. I have been stopped at this place too many times to count, I’ve had my truck searched numerous times, and a group of interns were detained here once. Needless to say, it’s always a bit nerve racking crossing through this check point. Until a while back. Our local director of operations for Mission Lazarus, Ronald Millon, met the head officer of this facility a while back and he mentioned that they’d be interested in us studying the Bible with them. So, on December 17, all of the officers and soldiers were called to attention, about 25 – 30, and I was blessed with the opportunity to share about a 25 minute Bible lesson with them. I used Romans 13:1 as the basis for my lesson “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.” The class was well received and afterwards we were invited to join them in their cafeteria for breakfast. It truly was a very unique experience. Now when I go through the soldiers greet me with a “God Bless You!”
We have been in very remote mountains all month long. God has opened doors for to minister to the poorest of the poor. We were convicted to the heart when we sat to enjoy our Christmas Eve dinner after visiting with so many folks during the month. The burden that the time spent with our poor brothers and sisters convicted us but at the same time it was a true blessing, it made being away from family and friends during the Holidays well worth it. (The stomach is still recovering from never turning down a plate of food no matter how poor the family or house!)