God At Work

I have been wanting to give everyone an update on how things are going and I struggle finding the time to get on here and write when I can focus.  You see, my laptop is dead right now.  It has to get shipped back to the states for warranty repairs.  Another one is being shipped to me right now, but until that happens I can only use the computer when the generator is on, 2 hours during daylight hours, of which 1 1/2 I am teaching.  Today it is raining so I filled the generator up so we could update everyone on life.  Today, I am going to tell a story about how God works.

Our first trip out we were riding in the truck about to get on the beach for the final 1 hour ride to Palacios when we came across a broken down truck.  There are about 15 trucks (Toyota Hilux, Nissan Frontiers, etc.) that drive back and forth everyday from the city to Batalla, the village across the lagoon from Palacios.  The truck drivers are all like family to one another even though they compete for business daily.  One of our regular drivers, Palulo, pulls over to check on the broken down truck and we all get out to stretch after 8 hours.  Walker is watching the guys pull the back end out from under this truck to do a major repair (one that would take 2 weeks and thousands of $$$$ in the states) on this dirt "road" and a guy notices his Texas hat and asks in English where he is from.  Now, we are in the middle of Honduras a long way from nowhere and there are not a lot of people that speak English.  Walker and I talk to him for a while and find out he lived in NC and worked for a long time in Spring Hill, TN.  We thought that was cool, and figured we would never see the guy again.

Fast forward 2 1/2 months and it was time for me to go to town for groceries.  I am at the truck stop in Batalla, waiting to ride in with our driver and I recognize him standing beside me.  I begin to talk to him in broken Spanish and he replied in English.  My driver didn't have a full truck that day and was only going to take me so he told me to ride with Noel, my new friend.  I bring my Bible and storying tracks with me everywhere I go b/c you have a lot of free time in a truck for 9 hours with no one to communicate.  This trip was different!  I had the opportunity to witness to Noel the entire trip.  He had such a desire to learn more about Jesus and what it meant to follow Him.  He grew up Catholic but told me he became Christian while in NC.  He was deported for driving without ID shortly after, leaving his American wife and daughter behind.  He mentioned since his arrival back in Honduras, he has not found a church in the city he lives that felt like his church in the states.  I talked to him about the house church planting model.  I spent the last 3 hours of our ride explaining everything to him, showing him the story model, and teaching him how to implement it in his own network of friends.  I was teaching him, thinking that I would be able to get him my Spanish training notes the next day in Palacios, and he told me he prefers to read the Bible and comprehends at a higher level what he reads in English.  WOW!!!!  I had the entire kit with me and I left it with him to begin teaching a house church in Tocoa.  There was no doubt in my mind that God crossed our paths that first day out with His greater good in mind.  Who would think that the first person I taught in Honduras would speak English fluently and would have lived and worked 10 miles from my "home" in the states?

Please pray for the continued growth of Noel and that he will be a light for those around him in Tocoa and his family both in Honduras and the States.

And the word of the Lord was being spread through the whole region...Acts 14:49

God Bless,

Ryan

Updates

Wow.  It has been a really long time since we have been on here.   We have had computer problems and have been very busy.   Sometimes we need to just take a moment and catch up on things.   There have been a lot of things going on in our family as well as our ministry.   I am going to try and just hit the highlights of it all so as not to bore you all. 

Ministry

This month we had a missionary teacher return home 6 months earlier than anticipated.   This was dificult on us all and it really brought the struggles of ministry to the surface for many of us here.   With her return to the states the mission school here was without a teacher for 6 kinder students.   After much prayer and discussion Ryan has stepped into this role as he completes his language studies.   Ryan will work at the school in the morning and continue language training in the afternoon.   He will spend the evenings and weekends working in the community and other villages.    Ryan is also working with another missionary teaching him Bible storytelling so that he can teach the people he is working with.   Ryan is also teaching this same missionary T4T (training on mentoring) so that the local pastors can be trained in this and begin outreach in their own community.   Ryan continues to mentor a local youth and continues to teach him bible stories.   Ryan spent sevarl days in May on the river and in a local village doing minstry work.   During June and July he will have the opportunity to go to a village 25 hours away up the river.   Part of this will be a research opportunity for an unreached people group.   This is a group we hope to work with in the future.

Natalie has been able to start a bible study with another missionary wife here.   She is working in the communtiy building relationships in hopes of starting a bible study with the ladies.   Ryan and Natalie also believe that one of these families would be a great host for a house church.   Praying that God opens more doors and opens the hearts of the people.

Walker has started working with a youth group in a Spanish bible study.   He is being challenged now to translate scripture from Spanish to English.  So that he can better understand biblical Spanish.

Family:

We celebrated two birthdays in May.   Walker and Mari-Madeline continue to go to the local school here.  Walker loves it and and is so excited to go.  Mari-Madeline loves school, but does not like being away from home.   We have been praying about what she will do.  Her teacher is amazing and so patient, I had to go get MM from school one day and as we were leaving her teacher encouraged her just to stay for a short period of time each day. 

Lorelai stays with mom most of the day.   Amazing enough her Spanish is probably better that Walker's.  Mari-Madeline has begun to correct Ryan and I in our pronnunciations.   She has also had to help Ryan with translating.    The kids have so many friends here and this is truly their home for now.   I am not sure that they will ever be at home in the States again.   Life is so simple here and so uncomplicated.   They value relationships and time with family over anything else. 

 Natalie and the kids made thier first trip to the city since February.  While we all had fun, the hustle and bustle of the city was overwhelming and we were all excited to come home.   We had to make a quick return trip to the city with Mari-Madeline.   She was very sick and her malaria test were negative, but the local clinic did not know how to treat her.   So we packed up and made the 9 hour trip, by boat and truck back to the city.   Just as we were taking her to the hospital we met a doctor from the states who is a missionary at a clinic there.   He was able to tell us what labwork to have done and how treat her.   What a blessing from God that was. 

While in the city we also met another missionary couple that was able to connect us with a a network of missionaries that have a yearly conference and yearly kids camp in Honduras!   How amazing is that.   We are so excited about this.  Gods blessing are so simple yet so amazing all at the same time.   He knows just what we need! 

We are still working as a family on building relationships and learning abour our neighbors.   We live among three different people groups and each group functions very different.   One group the men are the leaders of the family and function more similar to us, another group the women are the leaders and are very aggresive about their postition in the family, and yet another it seems that both man and women are in charge.   It is also not uncommon for the men to leave the family and go for months and even years looking for work.   We saw one such family this past week.  The wife and kids had gone to the city and were visiting dad and the morning the family was returning was the same we were coming home.   It was so difficult to see the father and children in tears, because they know it may be 6 months before they see each other again.

We are so happy here and pray that we can be blessing to these people.   We pray that God can use us reach these people.
 
1 Peter 4:11
Whoever speaks is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength wich God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever.  Amen.

School Clothing Ministry

What a blessing this week has been. This is our third year to give school clothes to the children of Maury County, however it was our first annual "give-away." Now, if I told you things went great from the beginning of planning until the last family was served I would not be honest, so bear with me as I share how BIG our God is!

When we began planning for this year we had a few items left over from last year in our possession. We began asking for donations of clothes to be brought to the church, but every time I took stock things were the same. I began to panic and ask God "Okay Lord, what next?" I began talking to other churches about asking their congregations to help collect clothes and all said they would. Wow, one more hurdle down, but still there were no clothes. Ryan and I went to camp with the kids just 2 weeks before the Big Day and I prayed even more. "God, what are we doing, did I miss something?" When we returned from camp-NOTHING had changed! I thought okay, we will help the first 20 people, but that is all we can do.

Four days before the Youth Mission week was to begin a few items began to drift in, but still not enough. I just thought God is going to have to make this one happen. I kept praying, reading scripture and relying on God to handle it. On Sunday, I gathered my first team of youth and we headed to the mission closet where the clothes are stored, I was scared! I open the door and almost fell over all the clothes! Our God is BIG! It took about an hour to gather all the clothes, I was speechless. God is so great! As the day went on I realized that even though we had a lot of clothes it was still not enough. Again, I went to God with it. The next morning my phone rings and it was a local church, they had a "ton" of clothes for us to come pick up. As I went to get the clothes I could not imagine what was waiting for me. When they showed me to the office that held the clothes I broke into tears. Again, our God was faithful! I now felt that we could actually do this, because they really had a "ton" of clothes. As Walker and I loaded up my van I sang praises to our mighty God and cried tears of joy. We still had two days before the big day and God never stopped working. It seemed like evertime the phone rang or a door opened it was more clothes! I mean what man could do this? NONE, only God!

The BIG DAY arrives and I will admit I was scared to death. I mean this was a huge deal. Again, our God is full of grace and mercy and he showered this ministry in both. The staff at church, the youth, senior adults, parents and others came out to help and help they did. People began lining up at 9 am, the give-away did not start until 4 pm, again, I panic. I stopped, went to God and said "God, you know what we have, you know the needs, you know who is here, You are going to have to make it happen." Clothes continue to come in up until moments before we open the doors. About one hour before we opened the door everything was done! We were completely ready for what was out the door. I again hit the floor, face to the ground and asked my Father to handle it all. At 4 pm we opened the door and the first group came in, the gospel was shares, they were registered and they got their clothes. This was a process repeat so many times over the next 4 hours. After the first several goups, I began to check on how our supplies were holding out and I could not believe my eyes, they were multiplying on the racks! I could only think of the loaves and fishes and how Jesus fed everyone with leftovers to boot. Our God is Big! Every time I looked at the clothes it seemed like nothing was changing, we still had clothes! Now, if you were in Columbia you would know how hot it was. People were hot, so we gathered bottles of water, but again it was not enough. A man helping gathered some money and sent some one to the store for more, they returned with 15 cases of water. God, was again meeting every need we had.

About 7 pm things began to slow down and people were only coming in every so often, but we still had clothes. Just before 8 pm as we were cleaning up and putting things away, our last family arrived. The family had 2 very small children entering kindergarten and I felt over whelmed. I did not see a lot of small items left. As I began looking, one of the people helping came out with 2 bags of brand new clothes! Someone had brought clothes while the give-away was going on we never saw them. What was there was a shirt for the girl and boy! Our God is GREAT! When they left I realized not only were the people blessed, but so was I. I saw a miracle from God that day and I will never forget it. Guess, what remember the bible story? We have left overs! Yes, we can continue to help others with school clothes as the new year gets under way. God, isn't he Amazing!