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.