Thankfulness. It's our gift to God. It lifts our spirits, improves our attitude, readjusts our focus.... Too often we forget to do this simple thing (but you can be sure we don't forget to complain). So at our house we're counting down our blessings this month. Making gratefulness a habit. I saw this project on a crafty blog, and another one purchased from a fancy schmantzy store. Ours was made with what I had, muslin and some scraps that have verses. And yes I am thankful for a sewing machine and fabric scraps because they are coming in handy for Christmas gifts and such... And pictured are a few other blessings....Kids who are learning sportsmanship if not winning and our own little market on the mountain. God is good.
11. creativity that satisfies
12. our own little mountain store
13. BB tournaments
14. safety in travelling for kids
15. preparing for Christmas
16. brother's anticipated visit
17. sewing fun with my girls
18. orchids purchased from a needy neighbor
19. girls Mensajeres presentation
20. a day out with my Davita

winds of change

"Blowing toward the south, then turning toward the north, the wind continues swirling along, and on its ciruclar courses the wind returns." Ecc. 1:6

This morning it seems my scripture reading truely coincides with this day. The wind seems to bring with it a marked change, a stirring outside of seasons and inside my heart as well. I'm realizing that yet another birthday's approach means I am further into this adventure, yet I long to be "further up and further in" pressing on toward the mark of the high calling. (perhaps it's sacrilege to quote Lewis and scripture in the same sentence.) So much of my task is still incomplete. I long to do things and yet like Paul I don't. Often I am aware of my own lack of wisdom-you would think after this many years and children I would have gained SOMETHING yet like Solomon I could say..."in much wisdom there is much grief and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain." 1:18 This dust I am made of is quite frail (just brushing my teeth last night caused a chip in one). And wisdom makes me more aware of how often I fall short. So today is a good day to begin to make gratefulness a habit. Choosing to dwell in praise rather than pity. My goal will be to join those who are listing 1,000 just a few each day. Try it. I believe it will change us, one praise at a time. The button is in my side column.
#1 seasons of life
#2 He continues to work despite my frailties
#3 He preserves and protects...Josiah's head injury
#4 quiet mornings for meditation
#5 wind dried laundry
#6 work appointed by the master..dishes, sweeping, cooking
#7 children's faces reflecting His love
#8 a school community gathered in prayer
#9 one who cares to know my daily struggle
#10 head and hands to record

Honduras is going to the World Cup!

Now my boys have played soccer. Harold has coached. I've hauled kids to practice and sat through umpteen games, but you've not seen excitement over a soccer game until you're in Latin America. When Honduras won their game against El Salvador, and then shortly after the US tied Costa Rica there were fireworks, car horns, screaming people....people celebrated all evening long in the streets downtown, cruising the streets cheering and displaying the flag. It's the first time in 27 years that Honduras has won a seat. That fact called for a national holiday declared by the president. We're so happy for them and glad the US could do something right, even if by default. Watch the video link and listen to the Honduran announcers-it's great!

“Earth's crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes - The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries.” Elizabeth Barrett Browning

As a Mom my days are very full. Things just NEED to get done in order for life to continue as normal. There must be clean dishes and laundry, meals on the table, a fairly orderly place to find pencils and homework. Children must be readied for school, make it to and from sports practice.... Even here in a foreign country, without a car, life can be very full. Yet I am learning how to slow down. Perhaps it's the realization that comes with age, or the fact that we don't have a TV. I can't possibly keep up. I will never have the time to read every book, learn every hobby, do every family activity, teach every bit of wisdom I want them to know.... I am finite. And yet life is not meant to be lived in a frenzied rush. There are times when we can't prevent the hectic nature of life, but unless we intentionally calm the pace the quiet never comes.

I read a story recently of a test pychologists did. They put a concert violinist in a busy Metro station, playing his Stradivarious violin in bluejeans and a ballcap. Out of over 1,000 people who passed, only 7 stopped to listen. And EVERY child tried to stop, but EVERY parent pulled them along past. What am I missing with my kids?

Maybe I'm just realizing that I will soon reach the 20 year mark in being a Mom. With my older boys my time of daily involvement is almost over. Have I spent this time so caught up in the activities of life that I forgot to be still, to hear the music all around me? Makes the monastic life somewhat appealing (of course then there wouldn't be any children...) But I want to stop picking blackberries (for some folks maybe texting on one?) and see the fire of God.

"Be still and know that I am God."

trash or treasure

You know you are getting more relaxed as a parent when you don't absolutely fall apart that your toddler is playing in the trash. Since returning to Honduras Tikvah seems to have a fascination with our kitchen trash can. It has a rolling lid and is right at eye-level. When she passes by she likes to inspect what's in there-or throw something in. Her siblings taught her the throwing in part, taking advantage of her curiousity they hand her their trash and she obediently runs to the can and comes back like a puppy looking for something else to toss. Of course, this can lead to silverware, toys and missing school papers that disappear into that gray oblivion...and usually they ask Mom to dive in and recover the missing item. Sometimes as I take the trash out, I'll notice a suspicious rattle and have to seek out it's source. I've recovered forks, plastic plates, dollhouse pieces...

Of course yesterday you would have thought I hadn't fed the child because as I cleaned the kitchen I had to keep taking away her munchies. First it was an ancient PB&J from someone's lunchbox, then the crust of cinnamon toast from breakfast, the remnants of a bag of chips, and apple core....it's when she comes chewing gum that it's really gross (she's not allowed any gum because she doesn't seem to spit it out, it just disappears). "Now just where, exactly, did you get that?" She's all smiles but no indication of said gum's origin.

My kids teach me so much about myself. I am quite similar to my toddler. Often I am quite content to scour the garbage when God's got the good stuff freely available. Somehow that garbage can look so attractive and easy to aquire. Or I throw out the useful life lessons in a rush to move on to more important things. I remember in college there were a group of guys who liked to go "dumpster diving." In Chicago, you could find all sorts of useful things that people could no longer be bothered with. They enjoyed finding good sources and scouring them on a regular basis. (This did cause a problem when one girl discovered that her boyfriend's beautiful boquets where flower-shop rejects, not hard earned paid-for-with- cash posies.) Sometimes it's just a matter of adjusting your perspective on things. When I look at my life with eternity's eyes am I focusing on the trash or the treasure?

all we like sheep

Tonight we went to our first "flock meeting"-I guess they would call it a community group in the states. And as I stumbled over the Spanish songs and looked in my dual language Bible I have a new appreciation for all those ESL folks in the states. I suppose here I am an SSL person. Some days I understand a good deal of what is said in the service, and other days it's a real struggle that makes my head hurt. But it's amazing that fellowship can still occur on some level and that people really do make every effort to include this foreigner in their midst. Choosing to attend a Spanish church was not the easiest thing-especially for the kids-but in the long run I believe God will use this to benefit our family.

We talked to a man who is the first in five generations to be raising a complete family-one with a father in the home. He and his brothers attended a christian school in Guatemala and his whole family became Christians as a result. His testimony was an encouragement to us. And we ate beans and rice with queso among a group of people from all economic levels-many of them new christians. This month there will be a mass wedding at the church-15 couples. Some of them have never been married and want to make things right before the Lord. Others were married in a civil ceremony but want to make their marriage an official covenant before God.

This week at school, we will start a full-day schedule again. Tikvah and I will be sad to have the house to ourselves for a much longer time during the day. Things in Honduras are quieter for now and we continue to pray for a resolution to this situation, which is not an easy one. Harold is reworking yet another schedule of spiritual life events which, Lord willing, will occur as planned.

Over the past few weeks we have been able to have many conversations with teachers, students, pastors....and we are just beginning to connect some of the dots in understanding culture, relationships, and such. True, we've lived in another culture before, but whether that's a benefit in the learning curve or not I'm still not sure. It's hard not to compare the two. As a Mom, I feel for my kids as they often struggle being odd man out. It's not always easy to demonstrate grace in these situations. Thanks so much for your prayers for our family.

the dash

I was reading a blog that I often drop in on for a challenge/encouragement and she had a link to a video poem about "the dash." It was a story about a preacher at a funeral telling the congregation that the most important things we not the date the person had been born or died, but that little punctuation in between, the dash that represents life and what you did with it. As I hung out laundry I thought, yes, life really is a gift from God and our gift back to Him is what we do with that dash.
On Saturday our principal and his church lost a dear Sunday School teacher who had been at an appreciation banquet. When someone informed the church members that a la resistancia march was headed their way, he had quickly run outside to move his car off of the street. (Members of the resistance group have been known to cause a lot of damage to vehicles in their wake.) In one split second the number was added to the end of his dash and a wife and two young girls were left to grieve-seems so pointless. Two demonstrators who rode ahead on a motorcycle were looking for trouble and found a victim to shoot.
And yet,this was no surprise to God.
So as I look around and get frustrated by the political climate in both my home country and my adopted one, I am reminded that my calling is to be faithful with my dash. One day at a time.

a week of curfews

These are some of the photos from the past week. Reminded me somewhat of the chaos created when they announce a hurricane in Florida and everyone runs for the gorcery store, only here there was a bit more panic after several days of curfews. (We joked that now in our 40's we have a 6pm curfew, but it really isn't a joke.) In parts of town, people looted grocery stores and left them empty. Folks say there's not much US news coverage on this. We had hoped to see something on Fox after their interview last week with the current President, but most of what we've found (other than Spanish papers) is reported by the Wall Street Journal and BBC. Seems the focus there is on the UN meetings. One newspaper here reported that in these meetings," Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez,invited his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, to be consistent with the ideas and convert to socialisms proclaims as "salvation" of the world ruined by capitalism as in the case of Honduras." Can't believe he could say that without some reaction, but I guess there were a few other offensive remarks from different parties to get folks stirred up.

Here in our little mountain community we are largely sheltered from what is going on in the city. Things had been quiet here. Even the dogs have no one to bark at and traffic up and down the hill is greatly reduced. We went to a potluck for lunch and swam afterward. Our older boys decided to head home early and were sitting in our front room when they saw a face in the window. They went to check it out and saw two guys hopping over our wall. Turns out they'd been in our bedroom and helped themselves to a DVD player. It's a little disconcerting to have your house broken into. I realize it happens everywhere and as times get harder may be even more frequent, but it brought the looting closer to home. We're glad God had the boys here or it could have been much worse.

School is still out for Friday. People are concerned about the possibility of trouble and it seems most of the bi-lingual schools have decided to wait until Monday at least. Zelaya has stated from the Brazilian Embassy where he is camped out, "From now on, nobody gets us out of here again, so our position is homeland, restitution, or death." When we arrived in August it was a few agitators writing graffiti on walls, now it has escalated to the pictures above and is supposedly costing Honduras $50 million a day by people not being able to work. Common folks are the ones who suffer most.

Please keep praying for this country- that God will use all of these situations for His own glory in the school and His church here. Perhaps these situations will make it more obvious to those who claim Christ that living a consistent life is a daily choice. And for all of us who claim Christ, this choice may become harder as His return becomes more imminent.

curfews

We've been hanging out at home, waiting for "normal" to return. Not sure when that will be as curfew is extended indefinitely. We're so grateful that power and water are on and that we had a chance to shop with another teacher during the first 2 week flu break. The cupboards aren't bare, but I may need to do some creative substituting for ingredients we don't have like milk and eggs. The photos above are just at the bottom of our mountain. Harold and the boys ate at that BK last week during their venture out on public transportation and the Pais is actually a Walmart owned grocery store that we shop at regularly. There were hundreds of people lined up (people said, we didn't go as the school felt a bus full of gringos would really stand out). Apparently the stores were quite empty by the end of the day. Thanks so much for your prayers for our family and this country. God is in control!

a day in the life

It was a little quieter here today. At least one less voice contributed to the mob as Nathan is quietly letting his jaw heal after oral surgery (wisdom teeth). The pics above are some of what we've enjoyed the past week. Our weekly trip to the market (Harold is standing at the corner near our green tombstone that marks our street) lots of realxing in the hammock (it's actually from Madagascar and we love it), Nathan doing pull-ups off the loft, and Davita practicing handstands in the gym on our family fun day... today we've been reading. I enjoyed a wonderful book written by a dear missionary friend "No Way Out But In" that is her tale of what might have happened if we knew more of the day to day life of Noah. I loved it and highly reccommend it. Gabe has been ambitiously tackling "Pilgrim's Progress" (kids edition) and Jubilee has been working on the letter "I". Maybe we will be ready for school again.

a forced hiatus can be fun

Can't believe we are almost at the end of our two week confinement. Without a vehicle that's pretty much what it's been . We're dependant upon the school buses or other generous folks with cars. I must admit when I heard of all the teachers headed off hither and yon that green eyed monster in me was surfacing.

Wow, the beach places are cheap (with the economy and political unrest they're begging folks to come) Costa Rica or Panama sound glamorous (even on the chicken bus, it would be an adventure) or the resort at El Salvador with a waterfall in the pool...

Unfortunately, reality is that travelling with 7 children is not easy. And it's downright expenisve- even with a discount. And there's also the small fact that we've been, um, somewhat sick. After the stomach flu we moved on to colds/sinus infection and are just praying Harold has sufficiently recovered by Monday. We also had Nathan to the dentist and his pronouncement was that all 3 wisdom teeth needed to come out-sooner rather than later. He's there as I write.

So we've spent two weeks almost losing track of time. Every day feels like Saturday. There is no pressing need to do any specific task and no place to go. Several days we weren't even allowed on campus so that they could sanitize the place. We've been working on some projects here, enjoying lots of family game times and crafts, inviting folks over for meals.... Harold spent 2 days helping another teacher to get the internet back up in the elementary school-crawling around in the ceiling and discovering that the lights were rather precariously attached when one came crashing down through the ceiling. He and the boys also had an adventure riding public transportation when they took the rapidito bus to the end of the line and discovered it doesn't go back the other direction until the end of the day.

Last week was the Day of the Child celebration and our kids had a pinata at church to celebrate. The girls went Monday with some other girls from church to work on the verses they are memorizing to complete the first section of their book. Kind of like an Awana class, but verses, of course, are presented in Spanish.

This week we watched the goings on from the safety of our living room as parades and marches marked Honduran Independence Day. The Central American Independence torch was passed around this small country-fighting to maintain democracy. So they passed their own torch within. The marches were peaceful and celebratory though people wore the color of the person they supported. I was proud of my adopted country who struggle to maintain order, largely without the support of the outside world. Reminiscent of the People Power revolution in our former adopted home.

Monday life will resume it's normal flow. But I can honestly say I am glad for these quiet weeks at home and will miss the company of my family.

when pigs fly

As I walked to school to pick up Jubilee from PreK, I was thinking how perfect the day was...low 70's, breeze swaying the eucalyptus tree, guanacaste still in bright orange bloom by me, sun shining-yeah this is the postcard Honduras. Sure my calves were hurting as I pushed that 3-seater stroller uphill when I hadn't done it for a week...and I was more than a little embarrassed as I walked by the guard with my red face, but I made it and headed up the steep hill to the elementary school. "This will be easier when we live closer," I thought,"then I can walk for fun instead of out of necessity."
Something wasn't quite the same at the playground. Less than a dozen kids played there when there should have been close to 40. When Jubilee's teacher came out late with her bunch, she greeted me with,"Don't leave until I give you her work." I thought, "Homework, in PreK?" She continued, "I guess you heard you will have two weeks to do it?" I must have looked confused because she started to explain, "School is closing for two weeks after today. " We chatted for a while, I picked up homework and headed over to Harold's office to see what he was up to. The campus buzzed with talk of two weeks break and Nayt said he'd seen the space alien guys earlier (department of health guys in full gear). No we hadn't had any confirmed cases of the terrible flu, it was just a precaution after some schools in the city closed. At dinner that night Charis told how one of her Honduran classmates in writing English sentences on the board used the words "pig flew" rather than "pig flu" -easy mistake, and we all joked about it. Yeah, two weeks off of school when you've just started...when pigs fly -well the swine flu made it a reality.
So here we are with two free weeks and everything on the brink of being ready. The campus is officially closed. Not even the maintenance guys around. (We had to scramble to get our bottled water delivered before they all left.) Things had just gained good momentum, like a train beginning to climb a big hill, the school year stretched ahead....now everyone has to rethink and replan and restart the year. And, selfishly I thought, if we were going to have 2 weeks off couldn't it have been just a little further into the year so that I could use it to pack? We are hoping to move up the hill this semester and may possibly be able to do it this fall if our house here can be rented to another mission that's interested. They are supposed to come later this week to look, but I'll lose the whole possibility of cleaning the other house and maybe painting.....to a Mom of 8 who is frugal with everything (even time) it seems like such a waste.
Pray for God's purpose to be accomplished in this. Though it seems like a big, frustrating hassle to us, nothing happens that He doesn't allow.
On another note, we ask you to pray for Harold's mom, Hattie, who is in the hospital again with some complications from her surgery earlier this summer. She's been struggling through her first chemo treatment and a scan revealed that she will need another small needle surgery to remove fluid. It's hard to be far away from family at these times.

real life blessings

Life in Honduras. Funny how you need to get reacclimated to life in another country after only a few weeks of ease in the states. I was taking my daily constitutional...yes I walk 2 miles a day now to pick up Jubilee after a half-day of PreK....anyway, I saw this iridescent blue green lizard and my first thought was, "someone's going to be sad he lost his toy out here in the road," then I got closer and the "toy" ran off. Oh, yes, I am in Honduras and it makes sense that a huge shining lizard is laying there in the dust.
On Saturday we walked to the school to play at the playground with the kids. On the way back a delivery truck passed us that advertised a furniture gallery in Chicago. Harold remarked, "Wow, that's SOME delivery charge!" Vehicles from the states get a new life here. A former Tennessee schoolbus now serves as a rapidito, careening around the corners up and down our mountain on a regular basis. I've seen a bus with Maryland plates and various types of delivery vans. If vehicles could talk you wonder the war stories they tell in the garage at night.
Friday was Open House at the school so I got to talk to all the kids' teachers and hear some of their own stories. Jubilee's teacher told me,"Sometimes a child's name just fits-she's such a joy to have, always singing something." Gabe's teacher told me about how she became a christian as a teenager after losing her Dad and having her family fall apart as a result. She switched careers in mid-life after a lot of God-nudging and has been teaching 1st grade at Pinares for 8 years. I'm so glad God placed him in her class. Just what he needed. Charis' Bible teacher bragged on her ability to define the gospel and Nayt's physics teacher reassured me that he will make it even through his test anxiety. The Spanish teacher says Josiah understands a lot-he just needs to speak it more.
Tonight we had one of the new teachers over for dinner. He told us that he and his wife had been praying for God to expand their territory. In one day he lost his teaching job of 25 years and his Mom. After grieving these losses he realized their purpose was to answer his request. God said, "I have a new place for you." Sometimes answers are painful.
Tomorrow is a "planned power outage" from 8 to 4. We have plenty of unplanned outages, so it is nice to get a warning. Gabe reminded me he can't bring anything for lunch that requires the microwave and Harold reminded me to fill the pila -a cement water tank in the laundry area- so that I will have water. I did a load of laundry that I figure I can hang out in the morning. This is Honduras-you adjust. And you are reminded how grateful you are that you have running water and electric most of the time, and your floor is tile not dirt (even when it does feel cold it's clean)...and so many other blessings.

We're Back

What a day Tuesday was.
I knew it was a little crazy to attempt to return to Honduras with 7 kids by myself, but the offer of a weekend at Women of Faith with the ladies from Faith (our home church) was too tempting. So I stayed a week after Harold had to return. Mom watched the kids (with the older boys help). They went to Chuck E Cheese and orientation night at their old school to see friends. I snuck away for a weekend of singing and encouragement and dinner at the cheesecake factory where I didn't have to help anyone with their food!
Soo.... along came the dreaded day when we had to get up at 3am in order to leave for the airport by 4. Everything went pretty well in Tampa getting checked in and the only problem in security was 2 nerf guns the boys threw in and a package of oxyclean (over which there was much discussion as to what chemicals were included and whether they were legal-as if in my condition I could actually make a bomb out of oxyclean powder!) Then we got on the plane. It was full. Entirely so. Fitting our carryons into the bins was almost impossible. One bulging bag was partially dumped into a blue plastic airplane bag so that we could fit it overhead and make our slightly effeminate steward happy. I was sweating but we were in our seats at last. Everyone travelled well-Tikvah even fell asleep.
Next was Houston, where we reclaimed all our carryons (under advice from said steward that checking them might have been wise even though it costs money) and discovered that the Houston airport is incredibly LARGE and not nearly as easy as Tampa to navigate. We lugged what seemed like hundreds of pounds of carryons through miles of airport terminals, lost sight of the boys at one point when I ran to catch Charis and then realized I had made a turn at a three way and didn't know if the boys saw. Infamous steward saw the boys searching and reprimanded them for separating from us and told them which direction to go. We reached our international gate as they were boarding, had our passport checked and headed on another plane. This time Tikvah was not thrilled to get back on but we made it through the flight.
At customs in San Pedro, we had a very gracious lady who felt compassion on this family with so many children and let us go to the front of the line, she didn't even make me give her all the declaration slips I had carefully filled out. Josiah and Charis gathered luggage while I finished handing passports and pointing to children. Then we pushed our things to the security checkpoint and they asked us to open two bags. One gentleman was rather interested in a stick of pepperoni, but we made it through without a hangup. Our bus drivers were waiting with a sign and helped us load the luggage, which was Wonderful to this tired Mama. Nathan was quick thinking enough to ask if we could get something to eat at the airport Wendys-the only restaurant at the San Pedro airport. So he waited in line while I took the girls to the bathroom. After a long wait we finally had meals to the eight of us and our 3 companions and we were on our way.
Coming out of San Pedro our first holdup was a jacknifed Pepsi truck. Crushed 2 liter bottled were all over the road and people were everywhere combing the ditches for free Pepsi. It was like a party, with little kids guzzling down bottles and moms walking away toting as many bottles as they could carry. The poor driver just stood there looking miserable while an officer took down information. It looked like maybe he had attempted to back into this little road and caught the edge of the ditch on the way. Most of the ride after that was uneventful. Piles of pinapple along the road for sale. A look at the beautiful Lake Johoah, where our driver stopped for a plate of fried fish. A stop at Bongos for the bathroom and cold bottled water (we had sweated in that stopped bus for a while in San Pedro). On past Comayagua's military base and Word of Life Honduras camp, the El Indio coffee factory and finally the edge of the city. We went around the city and through El Centro in the Guanacaste section. Unbelievable that someone could acutally drive a bus through those narrow alleys. There's some poitical graffiti around but no sign of uprising. Finally we recognized the road up our mountain. The driver actually took us all the way to our door! Did I mention these guys are incredible drivers? How they can manuever such a large vehicle into such a small space is beyond me. Harold greeted us at the gate and he and the boys started to unload while a missionary friend pulled up with dinner. God is so good. Beginning to end was 3am to10pm Florida time-a 19 hour day.
School started with a half day today and everyone seemed to do well. We're mixing up some cookies to celebrate. The kids are playing with friends whose Mom works at school so they are here for the afternoon while she finishes. Our boxes arrived yesterday so I've been unpacking suitcases and boxes we shipped earlier this summer. They were wrapped in green plastic, which everyone teased Harold about. He told them they were just jealous because our boxes were so easy to spot and that he had actually looked for some red plastic too because it's like Christmas when they come. Thanks for your prayers for us. They were very evident through our trip.

Graduation Day Part One

Today we had our very first Pinares graduation. Gabe and the rest of the class of 2021 were promoted from Kinder to Elementary School. Each class sang several songs and each child walked forward to receive their "diploma" while a photo of them in cap and gown was up on the screen with their name and what they would like to be some day.If it's any true indication of future career paths this country will be flooded with dentists.
As we were eating our snack at the reception the sky went black and big drops began descending. By the time we made it up the stairs to Harold's office in the high school it was pouring. So....we had an adventure walking home in the pouring rain. A missionary from another organization saw us about halfway home and we finished the ride in his truck. On a side note, I also had 3 loads of laundry on the line-big mistake.
Tonight we made pizza and watched Narnia-Gabe's choice as the honored grad.
Matters for prayer in the next couple of days:
We will go tomorrow am. to get the last three Carnets (required residency card). For some reason they processed 6 of ours and lost 3. We need these before we leave the country so pray that all goes smoothly tomorrow.
Also pray for a safe and timely trip to San Pedro Sula as we leave on Thurs. This should be between 4 and 6 hours, but as there's only one road between the two cities, a major accident can cause hours (or days) of delay.
Finally, keep praying for Harold's mom, Hattie Cochran.She has been in the hospital about 10 days now. The doctors are having difficulty regulating her chemical levels and she's also having quite a bit of pain. They're not sure if this is related to the other meds she is on for her Parkinsons or just what the cause for the pain is.

Endings

I can't believe it, but the school year has ended and teachers are in the grading and packing mode. Some will leave Pinares for new adventures, following where God is leading. Such is life in the missionary/ex-pat community. Although we've been in missions before, it's always difficult to say goodbyes.
The biggest task at hand is emptying the 1st and 2nd grade building so that workers can put on a much-needed new roof and redo the wiring. This is the building that Harold's brother Hugh helped build in 1978 and the electrical system is still from that era. Another building of similar age burned when a mouse began eating the wiring ( a lot of it runs on the outside of the cement block walls). The kids and I spent the day at the school yesterday helping teachers pack up. They enjoyed helping finish out everyone's candy stash as most teachers give candy as prizes for reading and etc. We will head up again today and I'll try to get some video.
On another note, Bryan is doing better. They hope to get him stabilized and move him to the US where he can be in a hospital that specializes in patients with hemophilia. The one he is in here is the only hospital with the medicine he needs for clotting but as it's a public hospital there are unique challenges.
Mom Cochran is doing well, but Dad is hoping to get her to eat so that he can take her home. They say first results indicate the cancer was contained only in the uterus, but will still reccommend chemo for any free floating cells. It's both an answer to prayer and a cause for continued prayer as she enters the challenge of chemo.
Thanks so much for your prayers as we end out the year and travel home. We look forward to telling you firsthand of what God has been doing through your partnership here.

I was able to get a little rest last weekend....
This weekend is the 7th & 8th Grade Retreat.

We have been staying very busy here on the mountain. We did have time to go on a church retreat on the pacific coast of Honduras. From the shore you could see El Salvador to one side and the other Nicaragua was barely visible. The weather was much hotter and the swimming was good.

At school the students have had several events including a Band/Choir/Guitar concert. There have been a couple of teacher meetings which has allowed me to meet several parents.

The 7th grade has several students that want to make a difference for God in the school and it is exciting to talk with them and encourage them. I started a 7th grade boys Bible study two weeks ago. It is a small group but we are praying for more students next year. I want to use this to try to develop a couple of students. The retreat is coming up tomorrow and I am praying that it will be a time to draw the students closer to God and that they will reaffirm their committment to make a difference for Him in the school.

Prayer Requests:
-7th&8th grade retreat
-7th Grade Bible Study-growth of the students involved
-Leaders in the 7th Grade- Andrea, Florencia, Josue, Bryan and Kevin
-Good finish to the school year
-Preperation for coming back for the summer
-Gods continued provision for our daily needs
-Good Health

Reflections

I wipe crumbs from the counter on my way to grab the juice and return it to the fridge…the mound of laundry flows over the basket and puddles onto the floor into the kitchen door. Today I will do what I did yesterday and tomorrow it will need to be done again. Another meal, another load, sweep, mop, hug, read this book a hundredth time… “If you wanted to come as a servant Lord, you should have been a mother”…I can hear it with a Yiddish accent like a quote from Fiddler on the Roof.

And as I sit for my quiet time, I reread old sermon notes and look up some of the verses. “The difference between being burned out and being poured out is whether my focus is on my energy or God’s supply.” There it is Lord. Too often my focus is the American, ”I’ve got a right!” rather than the Servant’s approach. In His Kingdom there is no line between the sacred and the secular. Dirty dishes and diapers become a sacred act when my life is lived as His servant. If my focus is on the job itself, I begin to expect some kind of reward. I feel taken advantage of. “Haven’t I told you a hundred times to….?” I remember my Dad years ago calling me up short when I fussed, “Isn’t that the problem with servanthood? Everyone treats you like a servant.” Umm….yes….. that IS kind of the point.

As the days fall into their pattern let my focus be on Your endless supply Lord, seeing every act as one of sacred service to You….through all the repeated tasks of loving and serving this family. Then what is poured out will be the fragrance of Praise….

“and the whole house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume…” John 12:3