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

Some changes and an update

Okay, I (Natalie) have mostly been posting here, but Ryan and I have decided that we both want to contribute.   So, we are going to start each post with our name, so you will know who is writing.   This is going to be fun.

So, I am going to start by being honest, what's new?   Things are rough!   Yes, I knew this was coming and no, I was still not ready for it.   Ryan and I were fussy with each other and had to regroup today and get on the same page.   It has been several of days that have just been crazy weird and wild.   We had a family lunch with my parents and brother scheduled, but it had to be rescheduled and now they have the flu :(.   We had family coming in for Ryan's ordination service, but got snow instead and everything was rescheduled.   We packed our bags and were quickly overweight...onto plan b.  We sold our vehicles and had nothing to drive, Mari-Madeline had some weird virus.   You see what I mean, just a crazy week.   As, I sit here looking at it all, I can also see God at work.

Blessings during this all, I got to see a friends baby for the first time...what a gift from God.   A friend volunteered to drive us to Atlanta so we can fly out.   We sold our cars, and everything else we needed to sell.   We got to see one last snow.  More of Ryan's family is able to come to his ordination service.  We are learning what is really important when we pack.  We have our health.   This week I have learned to accept help from friends.   I am learning to let God be in control all the time!

So, even though it was a rough week, God was always there.  

We will be leaving Columbia on Tuesday February 15 and heading to Atlanta, we will overnight there and fly out early the next morning.  We have a layover in Florida and will get to Honduras just after lunch.   We will travel the rest of that day and overnight in a city.  On Thursday we finish our travel and get to our new home.

I will try and upload some pictures and update in Honduras.