Revival

One day she awoke from her brain fog and thought to herself...writer's block is ridiculous.  If God has given her an ability to write and she doesn't write, she is wasting a talent. 

So, nearly 3 years later...

I would like to discuss revival.

My husband and I live in a quaint apartment.  Cozy.  However, shortly after living here the furnace started acting up.  Sometimes the heat rises up to 90 degrees and other times it is icy cold.  This has been fine because of windows and an electric heater.  With this in mind, I'd like to share a story.

For a few days there was a cold stretch. North Pole in the winter gets frigid.  During that time I was housesitting, Randall was in Texas, so we weren't around.  But upon return, our one lush plant had dry froze to crinkled mass.  And then I looked and noticed that a couple stems were reaching out of death, struggling to life.  I took them and placed them in water.  Now they are growing once more emersed and groping for sun beams. I want you to think about this, that even at times the worker can become discouraged and lose faith under trial, and needs to be encouraged back to doing the good that God has prepared for them to do. We are supposed to be spreading the Word and as it says in  1 Corinthians 3:6-9, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor.  For we are God's fellow workers.  You are God's field, God's building."  Let us be fruitful laborers, not among those who wither away. 

It is easy to become discouraged and lose faith.  Like that plant, under struggle withered and no longer was thriving.  It has been on my heart to encourage fellow brothers and sister's not to lose heart and give up.  I've noticed that many people no longer even come to worship God on Sunday morning.  And then I think, what am I doing to help them back?  If we are the body of Christ, why aren't we behaving as though we are part of Him?  A family is supposed to know one another.  Encourage and edify. 

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.  Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.  But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor.  For each will have to bear his own load.

One who is taught the word must share all good things with the one who teaches.  Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  so then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith."  Galatians 6:1-10 (ESV)

If we see a brother or sister falling under the struggles of this life and do nothing to help them, we are not truly loving.  Let us love God and love others.  Let us not lose sight of the goal of our faith and encourage one another to thrive under the strength of our LORD.

Little words for unexpressible thoughts

I want to write a million unexpressible things, but the words fail me.

Here is a people who have very little and have the most extremely beautiful faith in God.

Here is a people who glorify God and when we come with food or clothing or the promise of a new home, they let you know you are a direct answer to their prayers.

Here is a people that give out of nothing and love unconditionally.

Here is a people who hope yet also a people who despair.

Here is a people who live on the streets and thrive on huffing glue to dull the hunger pains.

Here is a people who work hard and get next to nothing to feed little starving mouths.

Here is a people where few are employed.

Here is a people where the very young peddle sweets and toys for a few meager limps for their families.

Here is a people who have been driven through circumstance to a place that is hell on earth. That's at the Tegus dump.

Here is a people, of every sort. Whom God loves deeply and desires a relatonship with.

And it is only Christ who can take away their pain.

Cemento

Early this morning I hopped in the truck with Marc and Kale to Mirador de Oriente to help with the women's center.

Today, we, that is all of us of the Tindalls' home, were to try to go a day only speaking Spanish which is going to be every Monday. Todo Lunas. It was especially funny because Kale and I started off the day on the upper level sweeping and shoveling up cement debri, and Marc made sure that all the hands knew that we were not supposed to speak English, so they were giving us a hard time. It was a lot of fun trying to figure out words with my pocket dictionary like finding shovel to ask for "pala".

Later, the rest of the team showed up with John. Feesh and I asked Louis and Milton if we could help which is, after much correction, I believe, "Te ayudo". Eventually we ended up cleaning up the building that the crew keeps supplies and stuff in. Louis speaks very good English, and he and Steve watched us pick up cement bags and laughed at us and gave us a hard time. But, though we're not all that buff yet, we will get fuerte(strong). It was great though getting to try to know Louis. We did speak some English to try to learn Spanish, but we did slip up some other than that. At one point, we were brought coffee that was stout and Steve was telling that straight black coffee grows hair on your chest after I'd already said how much I love black coffee. And that got a whole big laugh going that I have hair there, but I insist that I don't . Anyway, it was much fun getting to know Louis.

Before we headed out of Tegus, after we'd dropped off Milton and Louis, we made our daily stop to the grocery store. We got some dinner stuff and bologna and bread for the dump feed we are going to do tomorrow, Lord willing. As we were going out of the store two dear little girls in their school uniform were asking for money, which is a heartbreaking and common thing here in Honduras, and they helped Marc and I put loaves of bread in the back of the truck. Marc got a cell phone call so I was continuing to talk with the girl who was still with me and she said that I am alto(tall) and I said you are bajo(short) and she asked how old I am and I did my best to say 18, I had to use my hands to explain, and I asked how old she was and she was 10. Her name was Maria Fernando. Children, beautiful souls. We said goodbye and Mark gave the girls some Lempiras(Honduran currency) and I told the younger girl God bless you as we pulled off. It's hard to explain how the heart feels, but it does ache on behalf of those girls.

Anyway, my words fail me, I should go to bed and sleep. Let the people in your life impact you.

Sunday

Hello!!

Today was a fairly chill day. We went to the Iglesia de Cristo de Santa Ana today here on the property. I didn't understand the Spanish much, but I could definitely feel and see their love and passion for Christ expressed through their worship to God. Wow. Afterwards we hung out with the youth and we played games for a while. We went back to the house and Feesh found a blue and green prickly lizard in her tote. We caught it and took it to show the kids playing outside. One of the boys took it, I think it was Marvin, and him and Danela played with it until it bit him and took off in a little hole. They thought it was great.

We ate rice and beans and dottled around the house cleaning and such and all of us but Feesh and Terri crammed in Marc's truck and ventured to Tegus to watch Indiana Jones with Spanish subtitles. Sweet.

Tonight when we got back we met the Tindalls' friend John, who'd showed up unexpectedly. He's from California and is going to be traveling to some different places in Honduras for a week. It was neat meeting him while he stayed and ate ham and cheese sandwiches with us.

Dios le bendiga.

Saturday

Today I slept in a little and got up at 8. We helped Terri paint at the building that is going to be the store. All the kids were playing outside and as we were painting all the sudden it sounded like an uprising. We found out later that the kids were going crazy over these giant jungle ants. After a while, I went and got the bubbles out of my backpack for all the kiddies at Casa de Esperanza. They loved that! They were blowing them and after a while many of the boys were taking small sticks and shoving the ants into the little bubble containers. I was jumping with Pamela, Daniela and Cindy on the trampoline for a while. Then many of the kids embarked on an ant hunt and collected them in a little yellow bucket. They probably had at least 50!! Fernando got up on my back and I helped them go for the hunt. Those 14 kids are most precious souls. They are troopers. With what they've gone through in their young lives they are so resilient. They care for one another and they love with all their might. They've been helping me learn Spanish so much also.

Later in the day my teammates and I took some garbage bags and went out into Santa Ana. There is much trash. It seemed like a great way to get involved in the community and interact with people. Just down the drive from Casa de Esperanaza many people were chatting at the junction. We all smiled and did our best say hello in Spanish. Over by a fence I was picking up some trash and along hopped a big fat toad, and I picked it up, and some of the people came to see what I had and we all had a good chuckle. It is definitely a neat opportunity from God. I think that if we had some down time at any point it would be great to continue to do.

Much to say, but it has been a blessed day. Much love and peace to you.

Friday adventure

This morning Marc, Kale, Felicia and I went up to Mirador Oriente, a village outside of Tegus. That is where for the past few weeks Marc and the Hondurans have been building a woman's center so that the women can take their families to wash up and clean clothes on the downstairs floor and on the top floor the women will be able to learn how to sew and teach classes to oneanother. It is way neat and is coming along so beautifully. Tomorrow they will probably be roofing it.

We got there early this morning and after a while Marc, Feesh and I went into Tegus to meet with a lady named Nora who had requested a new home. We met her and she was so sweet. Feesh and I were doing our best to speak with her, but our Spanish is limited. We listened as she spoke with Marc. We found out that her house is 13 years old and that she has 3 children. We drove up a narrow, rugged road into a rough neighborhood. People had starving eyes and scarcily anyone would smile. We got to up above her house and walked down a dusty path to her home. Outside was a little girl, I took to be her daughter and she was holding a puppy that we pet. Her heart seemed as though it was deeply hurting.

We all went inside and a couple of her family members were there. It was cramped. A tiny room that was pungent and had no food. One person could not live comfortably there. When it storms the water comes in and the wind cuts through. Destitution.

Nora showed us around the outside and Marc told her in Spanish that they would build her a new home. We all held hands and prayed and afterwards she said "Thanks be to God!" and then thanked Marc by giving him a big hug. That joy, that sincere faith in God was overwhelmingly impactful. The power of Christ is magnificent!

The rest of the afternoon we were in Mirador. When we got back there Marc dropped off Feesh and I at the Comisa, which is a place where sweet sisters prepare and serve the 250 children of the village everyday before they go to school in the afternoon. As we got there, a few children were already mingling outside. We were introduced to the women back in the kitchen and all the smells of the kitchen were so delicious. Feesh and I were greatly appreciative of their patience with us Gringas as we tried to express that we wanted to help and made hand motions. Kia, one of the women, was trying to tell us what different words were. They set us to work helping dry some baskets, squirt soap on the hand of the children as they came through the door, and served the children the rice and beans with morrila. They also had a type of juice that might have been pinapple. They insisted, after many of the kids left, that we have some of their food. I'm so grateful for that.

I'm also thankful for feeling foolish. I really, really can appreciate better what my foreign friends of the past went through with struggling to communicate. It is very humbling.

Those women there are incredible servants of God; body, soul, and with all their might. Their bones ache; they work to the glory of God.

After all that Feesh and I went to see what we could do to help the guys out. Marc had us cleaning up some concrete rubble. That was fun.

Anyways, I'm muy sueno and should turn in for the night. But God bless you and I hope to write some more insight tomorrow.

Plane trip to the jungle on the 20th of May

Out of Dallas, TX on a 757 after not sleeping the night before for the sheer excitement of heading out to new places, Steve, Rayner, and I could say, "This is it, it's official".

We met up with two of our other teamates, Kale and Felicia, in Miami after going through Taca's ticket counter and through security with our passports. We were ecstatic and I looked around at all the people waiting at the gate and thought, "Wow, these are the people of Honduras and we are going with them to their country. "

We boarded the plane and I came to my spot were there was a very beautiful elderly woman. I tried to communicate that my spot was the window, and she quickly understood that I didn't speak much Spanish. After I'd sat down I quickly learned that she could speak English very well.

Before the flight took off, the flight attendents handed out visa forms for entrance into Honduras. My teamates and I were sitting fairly near eachother so me asked eachother questions, but with what we didn't know, the elderly woman, Lilo, was so helpful.

Lilo and I talked quite a bit. She is from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. I found out that she is a Christian and that her daughter is too. Her grandson is not much older than me, and she says that he is a good kid. She helped me with my Spanish and she was so patient. She said I was a good student, but I told her that she was a good teacher. I asked, "Como se dice "God bless you" en Espanol and she smiled and said, "Dios le bendiga".

Our plane stopped in San Pedro Sula in the north west corner of Honduras and it was neat to see the land there, which from the sky wasn't all that much unlike the farmland in northeast Texas. The landing was cool. At the descent it was quick because they free falled and did some great turns, finally to hit a bumpy runway that was short. Once we grounded, there were crates of chickens flapping their wings as they were unloaded with the rest of the planes' cargo and a whole crew came on the plane to clean and there was a air cleaner that rolled out in a fog from the vents. After an hour stop we flew out to Tegus.

Shortly after being air borne we were descending again. It was a similar landing, except before we descended we went over a volcano to get down into the valley. On ground, Lilo and I parted, and I am going to try to be in touch with her and her family while in Honduras. She told me if I needed anything, to got to the market, or just hang to call her. Really, her love is beyond what I can express, except that that it is compelled by the love of Christ.

We all got in the line to go through customs and at my turn I gave the lady my passport and visa papers, she looked at them, and took my picture and summoned me through. We all got our luggage off of the belt and stood in line for the luggage check. Once I got there, I put my luggage through their scan and waited for my turn to get my luggage search, but since I was last, and security seemed tired, they just waved me through.

Some men in green shirts helped us get out luggage out and we were met by Marc and Terri Tindall the missionaries of Santa Ana, our coordinators, and Keith, our other teammate who'd gotten on a flight earlier out of Dallas. We all hugged and tipped the guys and then loaded up in Marc's truck and Terri's SUV.

I was feeling stoked and sort of hazy. All around was Spanish and new smells, fruit stands and the wildest driving I've ever seen. People watching from the streets, and windy roads and mountain air and trees and humidity and so many new and exciting things. After driving for about 45 minutes we came to the village of Santa Ana, which is where Casa de Esperanza is, our new home.

Us girls packed the luggage down the rocky path to Marc and Terri's and then worked on setting up a bunkbed for our room. The guys got there later with Marc with some groceries. We met Marc and Lori, another couple who have recently returned to live and work permanently as well as their dog Esperanza and the Tindalls' dog Skillet. I helped Terri get some sheets out of the guest house and Marc started dinner. We all mingled and just were taking in the newness and enchantment of the jungle, all the birds and bugs and plants, etc. That night we all ate fried tortilla with beans and fellowshipped and tried to start to get to know one another. Eventually we all turned in for the night. Our God is amazing!