Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Life is Good, God is Great, All the Time

Well, This is the first post to our blog since our arrival at our new home!  We are slowly adjusting to the new lifestyle and the people.  We love it here!  I am working on my language daily, we are both helping teach in the English school ran by Nathan and Rebecca Lloyd-Jones in Palacios.  The original plan was for us to stay in Palacios for a month or two at the most and then move to Belen to build our home.  Upon our arrival and with discussion with Frank Monterroso, the missionary we are working with, it was decided that we will probably be moving 30 hrs up river in 1 1/2 yrs or so.  There is an indigeneous group that has never heard the gospel and I want to go teach them.  They are the Tawaka Indians and there are around 5000 of them we think.  The plan had been for us to move to Belen, get settled, learn the culture and begin working with local church plants.  After discussion with Frank, Dr. Neal Creecy and others, we are now going to be staying in Palacios.  We purchased a boat and motor to be able to travel more efficiently and will begin looking for a receptive village with no regional churches currently.  We are looking to establish a network of house churches in the lagoon and river region between Palacios and Belen over the next few years.  I will be teaching the concept to the local house churches we establish and working with them to ensure reproducibility for each generation of house church.  After this is established, my family and I will move to Kurpa to establish the same network in that region with the Tawakan's as well as the Mosquite and Latin villages.  Please pray for us as we follow the Lord and teach the gospel to the people groups of Honduras.
On the personal side of things:
Natalie and the kids are adjusting well.  We love the locals in Palacios.  It is a large village with a mix of Latin, Misquite and Garifuna Indian influences everywhere.  We have made meny lifelong friends already and are happy that it will be our extended home.  A picture of the house we are staying in is on my Facebook page under Honduras:Palacios.  It is right on the water, overlooking the Lagoon and the mouth leading out to the ocean.  The girls are learning Spanish quickly, Natalie is learning the different terminology used in the area and is beginning to incorporate that into her existing Spanish training.  Walker is picking up things as well.  I am adding to my vocabulary daily. 
Walker and I crab fish late in the evening on our dock to catch supper a few times a week with a Mosquite high school student that lives in the mission dorms.  His name is Bediak and he is a new christian.  Please pray for him as he comes to further his knowledge of the Lord.  He cooked us fish soup, Snook (Roballo is Spanish) and Mullet, a few days ago with fresh squeezed coconut milk and a little pepper.  It was some of the best fish I've ever ate.  He made fun of Natalie because she doesn't eat fish.  He proceeded to tell her that Jesus ate fish and she should because of that if nothing else.  She said He also ate bread and she would stick with it.  We have several kindergarten children that we taught for a few weeks that we have grown to love.  They come and give us hugs daily and play with our kids.  My favorite one, Ibor, told me that I cant conjugate in Spanish and I need to stop trying. haha  Ibor is special to me.  His father was killed several years ago in Nicuragua in the drug trade and he doesn't have a Father figure in his life at all.  I am trying to spend time with him and have grown to love him.  He is also the most mischevious of all of the kids.
If the servers are working at the TIGO (ATT in Honduras) store, I will be able to purchase an internet card for the computer.  The TIGO modem works in Palacios which means that we will have internet at home!!!!!!!  It is very cheap and pretty slow(in american connectivity, very very slow)  which means we dont know if we can upload photos or not but at least we can update weekly.  It is strange, no electricity, no running water unless the tank is filled up by generator, but by golly we have internet.  In fact, many people in Palacios have cable tv.  They cant afford anything and dont make enough money to put a good meal on the table, but they have a flatscreen and cable tv. Does this sound familiar?  We dont and we dont miss it.  You dont realize how much time it takes from your day until its gone.  If you are one of the people reading this that says, "Oh we dont watch tv!" then go turn your cable off, save the money and cut the cord to the tv.  I guarantee you will have more time to read your Bible, spend time with your family or serve the Lord. 
Please continue to pray for us and we hoep to keep you updated regularly.

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