Home in Honduras

We took a trip to Honduras to look at a house our friend, Lynda found for us. It's in her neighborhood in the Zamorano Valley, about five minutes away from BMDMI's mission home. It's also only about 5 minutes or so from a large agricultural university. The students there have a store from which they sell fresh milk, cheese, eggs, produce, and meat, and other goods. Very convenient for a family with seven kids! : ) It is a pretty quiet area, very different from living in San Jose. The agricultural university owns about 15,000 acres of land in the Zamorano Valley. So, the neighborhood is out in the country, which we love. Although we were already familiar with the area, we looked at it with new eyes, trying to envision what it would be like to live there. It is about 40 minutes from Tegucigalpa, only 20 minutes without traffic (which hardly ever happens). We think it will be the perfect spot for the kids to have plenty of room to play safely and for us to enjoy for years to come.


Sunrise in Zamorano Valley, Honduras



A view from our neighborhood in Zamorano



Our dear friend and fellow missionary Lynda Gregg's house



The house we will be renting in Honduras





Living room of our house



Kitchen area



Back of the house



View from the back



Backyard

Choking

Last week was spiritual emphasis week at our school. Our speaker was a former student here at ILE. He arranged for his father's church to come during the week, do some volunteer work around the school in the daytime, and at night, during the talks, they put on a Vacation Bible School for the missionary kids.

On Friday, the VBS teachers graciously kept the kids from 5-8pm to give the parents 3 hours to have a date night. What a blessing!!! Dawn and I went out to dinner up the mountain south of the city with four other couples. It is a restaurant that specializes in steaks and pork. The meat is tasty. It also will give your masticator (jaw) muscles a great workout if you know what I mean. You just don't get tender grain fed pieces of meat in Costa Rica. Because of that, it is tempting to sometimes swallow before the bite is completely chewed. About 2/3rds of the way through the meal the lady sitting to my left suddenly tapped me on the arm in a jerky rapid manner and I suspected immediately she was choking. I asked her if she was choking and she nodded yes. She had just swallowed a piece of steak and it lodged in her throat. She was completely blocked and could not speak or breathe. We both stood up and I did the Heimlich manuver 3 times which cleared the blockage. It was quite a scary moment as I knew she had about 2-3 minutes until she would pass out and then pass away. Up on the mountain we were at least 45 minutes from any medical help.

So why am I writing about this event? It reminded me of two things. First, how fleeting life is. We all should have the attitude of "Don't waste your life." Every day can count if we take time to commune with God through prayer, Bible reading, service, witnessing, etc. Even if we get nothing accomplished by the world's standards, a day spent in prayer is a productive day by God's standards. The second reason is I was reminded of God's sovereignty. It was very fortunate that I was sitting next to her. It looked as if where we all sat was by chance but God knew where I would be needed and put me right there. I had even asked Dawn if she wanted to sit in my seat, she declined which surprised me but God knew where I needed to be.

Dear God, thank you for every day ordering our lives to put us where we need to be in order to serve you. Amen.

Published by Tully

Monte Verde, Costa Rica and Arcoirises

The old fashioned way of hauling in coffee beans from the field--except this time hauling boys.



















Coffee beans, fresh from the shell


We have experienced a cloud forest--a tropical rainforest in the mountains. It was beautiful, and much colder than we were used to. We were told we were on the continental divide and receiving rain from the Caribbean side and sun from the Pacific side. Along with the rain and sun came the most beautiful rainbows I have ever seen. We could see where they touched the ground on both sides, we were above them in some cases, overlooking valleys, and we even saw several double rainbows. What an awesome Creator we have to have made rainbows, called arcoirises in español!


Sweet Gabriel at the coffee plantation



Cutting sugar cane




Learning about plantains, bananas, and sugar cane


Making candy from the sugar cane

Super Bowl Sunday in Costa Rica

Our day was made complete with friends and grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, chips and dip (a true luxury here), card games for those not interested in the game, and, of course, the Super Bowl!

Halfway There!

Wow that looks good! Last Friday, Feb. 20, marked our 6th month anniversary of arriving in Costa Rica. In some ways, it seems like just a little bit of time has passed, we just got here! In other ways, it seems to be the opposite. Our family has learned so much, changed so much, seen so much, experienced so much in these six short months. We have grown in our love for each other and for the Lord we love and serve.

Last weekend, in our quick trip to Honduras, I realized how much we have also grown to love the country and the people we have been called to minister to. God has done that. He has put a burning desire in our hearts to be in Honduras. We can't wait to get there! I have enjoyed life in Costa Rica so much. . .I had wondered about that. Would I want to leave it when the time came? But after getting to Honduras for a few days, Honduras is. . . well, home. I was truly sad to leave it at the end of our brief trip, but the Lord quietly reminded me in His gentle way to live in this moment He has given me. I have enjoyed my time in language school and in Costa Rica so much, I don't want to miss a moment of it in pining for the future to get here!

Our graduation date is set for August 14. The light glows brighter each day at the end of the tunnel. In the meantime, though, we pray that we will continue to enjoy each second here, and that the next six months will be as great as the first!

Pictures of Our Casa

Our kitchen


Our dishwashers



The living room




Hallway to master bedroom and upstairs




Master bedroom



Trey, Tee, and Luke's bedroom





Carmen and Anna's room




Elijah and Gabriel's room

Two Brothers in a Different Place

They caught my eye because they must have been about the same ages as Trey and Timothy, or Timothy and Luke. I smiled as I watched them. I was missing my boys during our trip to Honduras. There they were--two other brothers: beautiful brown skin, black hair, completely given over to laughter about some shared joke. They were busy with what they were doing, but not at all troubled by their work. They stopped every now and then in their chatter and laughter and tossed something up in the air or to the other, still smiling and having a great time. We had come to a stop in traffic beside a trash dumpster along the side of the road to Zamarano in Honduras. They caught my eye. I watched them, mesmerized, as I realized suddenly that they were waist deep in the trash dumpster--looking for food or who knows what. Two brothers, in a different place than the brothers I am the mother of.

Goodies from Home

Sometimes it feels as though we're in a time warp here. It's easy to imagine things in the US are as they were when we left them in August and again in early January. We have some friends from Maine who arrived here last April, and they say the same thing. They feel everything in Maine should be the same as it was last April. Living in a different country, it's hard to believe our family and friends have been through seasons changing, children growing, parents aging, jobs working--in general, life lived without us. It's strange.

Yesterday, we got a slip in our post office box that said we had a package to pick up at the post office. Excitement was thick in the air as we waited in anticipation until today when Tully could go pick it up (you have to take your passport and walk to the post office to pick up a package). I was studying during a break when Tully got back to school with the package--we opened it together and oohed and aahed over everything--chocolate chips, Valentine's candy, stickers, and balloons for the kids, magic markers, notebooks (which are really expensive here), and in the bottom were two Greenville News newspapers and a Family Circle magazine--WOW! News from home--it was wonderful to read about all of the happenings in our city firsthand. It's also a good reminder for us that everything there is moving right along without us, as it should, just as things are moving right along here.

In our time here of learning Spanish, one of the biggest encouragements we have experienced is knowing that our journey in missions is shared among the body of Christ. Sometimes that encouragement fits into a box lovingly packed and neatly filled with goodies from home. . .

First Ministry to Ticos

Last Saturday, January 31, I took Trey, Timothy, Luke, and Gabriel to a very small village east of San Jose called Cristo Rey or Christ the King. The conditions were very poor with raw sewage running through the middle of the little village. I went with 2 other couples from school. We played games with the kids and then one student presented the gospel with a rope magic trick. My classmates invited them to a Bible study the next Saturday to learn more about Jesus Christ.

While there, I examined one boy's foot who was hurt playing soccer because he played barefoot. Please see the picture of his shoes. He had no laces so his shoes would not stay on. One student, Danny Fredericks, took off a shoe lace from his own shoe, cut it in half, and put in the boy's shoes. See the picture of 4 boys and look for the white laces.

I also talked with a 23 year old mother about her 3 year old daughter who was sick with a virus. We gave her a pack of soda crackers for her daughter because that is all we had. The mother did not know what soda crackers were, she asked, "Are they sweet?" She was so poor that she didn't know what soda crackers are (saltine cracker).




Looking down on Cristo Rey from a bluff where we played games.





The village is extremely poor. The residents are all Nicaraguan refugees.




Two village girls.






Getting ready to play red light-green light.





Access to the village is mildly treacherous.





This boy desperately needs new shoes.







Look for the new white shoe laces.




Danny on the right presented the gospel to the children.



Timothy and Luke playing soccer.




Gabriel having fun.

May God shower forth his love and provisions on the people of Cristo Rey. We plan on continuing to go to this village and minister to the people. See the post below for more pictures.

Ministry near San Jose