Living in the “Real World”

Everyone in our family has had people tell them that living in the United States is preferable to living here in Honduras because we are not living “in the real world”, and that we won’t have a “normal” life here. Aside from the obvious, that it is most important to follow where God leads regardless of where that is, these comments brought about a lot of interesting discussions in our home. We decided to research a little bit about what the “real world” is and what “normal” really looks like.

According to the US Census Bureau, the United States only makes up 4.5% of the World’s population. In the United States, 85% of the population over the age of 25 has a High School degree, the median income is $51,914, and only 13.8% of the population lives below the poverty level ($22,350/yr for a family of 4). However, over 80% of the people in the world live on less than $10 a day ($3600/yr) and over 50% of humanity live on less than $2.50 a day ($900/yr). The poverty level in the United States is based on relative poverty, which is solely based on how income relates to the median income and may not actually equate to any lack. With all of the social systems in place in the United States, few people there really know what it is like to know true poverty… not having adequate shelter, adequate food, clean water, access to health services,  or access to an education.

Out of the 2.2 billion children in the world, 1 billion of them live in poverty.  640 million children are living without adequate shelter (1 in 3), 500 million are estimated to be underweight or have stunted growth (1 in 4), 400 million have no access to safe water (1 in 5), 270 million have no access to health services (1 in 7), and 121 million school aged children are not receiving any education (1 in 17). According to UNICEF, 22,000 children die each day due to poverty. And they quietly die in the poorest villages on earth, far removed from the conscience of the world. Being meek and weak in life only makes these dying children even more invisible in death.

Living in Honduras these past 9 months has opened our eyes to a lot of things. For the first time in any of our lives, we are actually living in the “real world”, and we wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. It is easy to live in America and think that that lifestyle is “normal”, but it is far from that. Having the opportunity to live as most of the world lives has taught us to be extremely thankful for the blessing of being born in America, and we are appreciative of the seemingly small things that we previously took completely for granted. It feels great knowing that, for now, we are exactly where we are supposed to be, doing exactly what we are supposed to be doing.

As we mentioned in our previous update, our ministry focus has slightly shifted as we have realized where the greatest need lies. Our main focus right now is working with school aged children and their families in our community of Los Naranjos and helping support them in education. In addition to finding sponsors to help keep students in school, we offer daily tutoring, internet access, hygiene education, and a safe place for students to spend time. We are also doing Bible studies for younger children and teens, and are getting ready to start a study for women with a possible craft time. We are excited to see God working here, and have seen a lot of positive changes in our community.

Life in our home has been busy and exciting, and we are enjoying having Kaileen here helping out. Douglas is growing as a Christian and his English gets better every week. Our neighbors had to move suddenly and left their Deer Chihuahua behind, so we have made her a part of our family. Princess and Conan get along well, and it has been fun having a “lap dog” around.

 Princess (before we started feeding her; she is a lot less bony now)

Updates:

*Our homework time is going strong! We regularly have about 12 students come for tutoring and homework, and we are seeing some great improvement with the kids.  

*We have been doing a Bible study for kids under the age of 12 and a separate one for kids over the age of twelve. We have had some great discussions, and we have about 20 kids coming to our studies. Douglas helps with the translation for the studies, and it has helped him grow as well.

*We are hoping to send 5 additional students (Kevin, Daniel, Franklin, Jennifer, and Josie) to colegio for the next term, and are really excited to be able to offer this opportunity to them. We are praying about moving most of the students to a private Christian school that would offer a stronger education and also provide Biblical instruction.

*Alyssa is teaching Fourth Grade at the local bilingual school for the remainder of the school year (8 weeks). Please pray for strength as this is her first time teaching, and she is the only 4^th grade teacher. She is praying about continuing to teach next year.

If you would like to come visit us and see firsthand what we are doing here, we would love to have you or your group! Please let us know dates, and we will let you know what dates work for us.

 Kids working on a craft project during our kids' night

Ways that you can support us:

·         General support – This money is used for our living expenses and to fund our after school program, in which we offer tutoring, internet access, and a small meal or snack to each child who attends.

·         Sponsor a Child – If you would like to help a child attend school, you can donate money for a specific child to attend school. We will have them write to you regularly and we will send you a picture of them so that you can pray for them.

o   Private School – The cost of this program is $75/month and includes: Biblical education,

school tuition, school uniforms, books, school supplies, transportation, and one healthy meal per day

o   Public School – The cost of this program is $20/month and includes: school tuition, school uniforms, books, school supplies, transportation, and one healthy meal per day

o   Elementary school – The cost to keep an elementary school child in school is only $10/month, and includes: school tuition, school uniform, books, school supplies, and one healthy meal per day.

We provide tutoring and assistance with homework for each child, English language lessons, and also provide age appropriate Bible studies and lots of love for each child. We have relationships with each family, and keep track of grades to make sure that the students are serious about their education and are each working to their full potential.

It is very difficult for most of the people in our area to attend school because families are very poor and often want to send the children to work picking coffee and vegetables. The families who want to send their children to school are usually unable to come up with the money needed to send their kids even to public school, since there is a cost for uniforms, books, and school supplies, and many of them make minimal wages. We are educating families about how beneficial it is for them to continue in their education so that they can have a better future for themselves and future generations.

If you would like to help support us financially or send a specific child to school, you can donate online at: http://www.shepsstaff.org/eytzen.aspx or by mail:

Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators
PO Box 53640
Albuquerque, NM 87153-3640     Be sure to note EYTZEN # 4182 on your check.

Please email us and specify what age of child you would like to sponsor.

You can also make personal donations via paypal through our paypal address: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com

Finding our Groove

We enjoyed a nice little break in the United States, and it was such a blessing to spend time with our parents, families, and friends. We came back to Honduras refreshed and ready to serve God and the Honduran people. Since we first arrived, we have really been praying that God would show us how He wanted us to serve here, and over time, our mission has become more and more clear to us, which is really exciting!


One thing that is really lacking here is adequate education. A lot of people only go to school until about 3rd grade, some only attend to 6th grade, and few complete colegio, which is sort of like a combination of junior high, high school, and trade school. Without an education, it is nearly impossible to climb out of the poverty that most of the people around us live in. Many of our neighbors pick coffee for a living, and for a full day’s work, they are fortunate if they can earn $3.50. For this reason, a lot of people have even their young children working to try to make enough money to survive.

We decided to help as many students as possible attend school, as well as providing a good environment to do their homework, and tutoring when necessary. Often times, the kids have homework that involves the internet, but they have no way to access the internet, so we allow them to use our computers. We are also switching from group instruction in English to private lessons with those students who have shown an interest in learning and proven that they are committed to studying. We were able to save enough money to purchase the homeschool version of Rosetta Stone English, and will start using this program to teach 10 students as soon as we are able to purchase a desktop computer.

The school year started about a week after we arrived back in Honduras, which made for a very busy return! This year we were able to help 4 students attend elementary school and 5 students attend colegio – 3 of them for the first time. Their needs ranged from help purchasing backpacks and uniforms to purchasing school supplies, to assistance with transportation needs to and from school to school tuition. All of the students in colegio are the first people in their families to have the opportunity to attend colegio, so it is really exciting for them. We are hoping to be able to help even more kids next year.

We will continue to help one day a week with Sister Maria’s day program for preschool children, as well as continuing in our ministry at our church. Eulogio and Leah Crespin, fellow missionaries who have been highly instrumental in the running of our church, are leaving Honduras to follow God into the next chapter of their lives, and will leave two very big gaps, that we will do our best to help fill. We will be helping more with the youth, which should be interesting.

We have some fun changes in our home as well. Our oldest daughter, Alyssandra, came for a 3 week visit, and has felt God calling her to stay, so she is here indefinitely. After a lot of prayer, we also invited a young man from our church who was living in the local orphanage, to join our family. His name is Douglas, and he has been a huge help with the tutoring of the neighborhood kids. In a few weeks, our friend Kaileen will be joining us for awhile to help out. She is really gifted with singing and playing the guitar, and we’re excited to see how God will use her here.

Answers to Prayer:

*One huge answer to prayer is that our relations with our neighbors have been going really well. There was one family in particular who had some negative feelings towards us, and after following God’s leading in how to respond towards them, the relationship has been mended, which is amazing. While we were gone, our neighbors looked out for our home, and they have helped catch Conan when he has snuck out. We are very thankful to have several neighbors who look out for us and help us when we need it. We are also thankful that we have made friends with some fellow missionaries who are here from Georgia. They are living about a half hour away from us and are involved in a similar ministry with helping kids in their area obtain an education. They have been a tremendous encouragement to our family.

*We were able to find sponsors to send Jessica, Efren, and Darwin to school this year. Thank you!

*We had a fun and safe trip back to the USA, and our family issues have been resolved for the most part.

*The “hotelito” which opened next door did not work out, and he decided instead to turn the place into apartments. Still not ideal, but much better than a hotelito or motel! For the time being, it looks like we will be able to stay in our home!

Prayer Requests:

*Please continue to pray for both Gordon and Lisa’s medical needs. Gordon’s nerve damage has progressed quite a bit, and it has become more difficult for him to get around. He is handling it very well, but we are praying that the damage will stop progressing. Lisa has been dealing with a bad flare up of her lupus, and has had a lot of fatigue and joint pain. We figured out that by adopting a gluten free diet, her symptoms have gotten a lot better, but it is a big adjustment.

*Pray for stamina as we assist multiple students with their homework and provide tutoring.

Thank you to everyone who has joined us in our ministry here. It is so exciting to see tangible ways that God is working. We are very thankful that God has allowed us to live here in this beautiful country, but we could not do what we do without the support of people in the states. As always, if anyone is interested in visiting us here, we would be glad to have you.

If you would like to receive monthly updates, you can email us at: jesushelovesme@hotmail.com , or if you would like to receive updates by mail, call Elia Parkin at 402-658-3542.

If you would like to help support us financially, you can donate online at: http://www.shepsstaff.org/eytzen.aspx or by mail:

Shepherd's Staff Mission Facilitators

PO Box 53640

Albuquerque, NM 87153-3640 Be sure to note EYTZEN # 4182 on your check.

Letting Go

We sing the songs in church proclaiming that our only hope is in Christ, and we read the words in our Bibles, but it is easy to sing without thinking and read without applying what we are reading to our daily lives. Our time here in Honduras has probably been the most challenging time of our lives, and we are forced to truly live what we say we believe, which isn’t always easy. These past six months, and the last few weeks in particular, have been extremely challenging for all of us, but the lessons we’ve learned have been life changing, and for that we are thankful. What we have really learned is to fully put our trust in Christ alone, and that there is no other way to truly know joy and the peace that surpasses understanding.


I am not sure even where to begin! We constantly face challenges here that are so different from anything we had faced before. There are the basic differences, such as: living in a very rustic home without hot water, heat, or AC; living in very close proximity with wildlife including countless bugs, lizards, geckos, chickens, turkeys, cows, horses, dogs, and cats; speaking a different language than most of the people; and adjusting to the very different culture.

In addition to a lot of problems here in Honduras, these past few weeks we have also faced problems back home in the states that, because of the distance, we had two choices; we could either worry ourselves sick or choose to give our loved ones and difficult situations over to God because there truly is nothing that we can do. It is so difficult to completely put our trust in God, knowing that only He knows the past, the future, and all of the hidden innuendos of each situation, but when we are able to do that, it is incredibly freeing. As much as we love our family and friends, we need to remember that God loves them A LOT more than we are even capable of loving them, and praying is the best thing we can do for them.

We are looking forward to seeing our family and friends in the US for about a month! We are hoping to visit Florida, Nebraska, Indiana, Minnesota, and Iowa while we are there, and will get to visit both sets of our parents, Alyssa, and Jesse while we are there, so we’re really excited about that! I’m sure that we will have a lot of adjustments back into American culture, so that will be interesting for us. We are currently waiting for about 12 hours in the San Pedro airport before our plane leaves, then we will get to drive about 12 hours to visit Pace, Florida. We are about 4 hours in, and it’s going great!

Updates:

*We have been spending a lot of time with Jessica, a sweet 14 year old girl (with 25 siblings!) who is very interested in learning about God and learning English. It has been exciting to see how much she has learned and how she has personally grown in the time we’ve known her. We are looking for a sponsor to help send her school starting in February, as she has been unable to attend school for the past 2 years due to a lack of finances. She would like to continue her education and eventually become a teacher.

*We are still working with Efren and Fatima and their families. The kids are doing well, and Efren is excited to be able to go to colegio (like high school) in February. He was living with us for 2 months, but is back with his aunt for the time being. We are hoping that he will be able to move back in with us permanently, so please pray for that situation. We have seen a lot of progress with both of the kids, but their home life is still not good.

*Our church services continue to draw a fair amount of people from the community, and we are becoming more comfortable with the food prep and Wednesday night kids’ church, which was very intimidating at first (teaching kids in Spanish & dealing with the little situations that are bound to come up with kids in Spanish was & is still difficult!).

*Our English classes are on hold until we get back from the states with some new material. We were able to purchase a good English program that we are excited to use with the kids.

*We are all becoming more comfortable with our Spanish (even Gordon!), and able to communicate a lot more effectively than when we first arrived. We still have a ways to go, but we now feel comfortable shopping, having conversations, and even going to the doctor without an interpreter.

*We are continuing to build and develop our relationships with fellow missionaries and other Americans here, and a lot of those relationships have become really special to us.

*We have finally developed fairly good relationships with the neighborhood bullies, and are hoping that those relationships will continue. Sometimes it is really hard to be kind to people who are not kind themselves, but in this case, it has really paid off.

*A “rent-by-the-hour hotelito” is opening up right next door to us while we are gone. It is literally less than 2 feet from our house, and we have a lot of concerns about how this will affect our safety, because these places are known to be used for prostitution, affairs, and drug use. We will likely be forced to find another house, which isn’t usually easy to do.

Prayer Needs:

In addition to the above mentioned items, please pray for the following:

*Safe travel and a safe time in the States.

*Safety for our home and Conan here in Honduras (a lot of people get broken into if their house is not occupied). Also safety for Douglas, who is taking care of Conan and the house while we are gone.

*Sponsors to help send Jessica and other students to school starting in February.

*Karen, an 11 year old neighbor who is already involved in prostitution. We are starting to develop a relationship with her, but it is taking a long time.

*Our dear friends in Nebraska, the Nicholsons – their teenage son, John Patrick, underwent surgery to remove a brain tumor on December 3rd. There will be a long recovery, so please pray for a complete recovery and that God will strengthen the family through this ordeal.

*Family problems back home – that we are able to completely leave these issues at God’s feet and that people will make wise choices sooner rather than later.

Taking a break...

Although we love it here, it can be stressful at times because it is difficult to take a break. We live in a neighborhood with A LOT of children, and most of them are very needy… both financially and emotionally. Most people here have a lot of kids, and don’t have the time to spend individual time with each child. One neighbor has 41 kids and another has 25! Granted, a lot of those kids aren’t in the same home at the same time, but there are several homes with 8 or more kids, and most of them live in one bedroom homes. These kids love spending time with us because we listen to them, hug them, and show them love. When we are home, there is almost always someone at our door wanting something from us. For this reason, we thoroughly enjoyed last weekend because we were able to get away to El Progreso, Honduras!

El Progreso really isn’t that exciting of a place – there is a small mall that is pretty nice, a Wendy’s, Burger King, Pizza Hut, and a few grocery stores. We enjoy going there because there is a comfortable hotel with a nice pool, hot showers, low prices, and lots of quiet. This time we were also able to go to the beach at Tela, which is on the Caribbean Sea, and since there was a hurricane brewing out in the Caribbean, the waves were incredible. We enjoyed playing in the warm water, and met some really nice missionaries from California who were in Honduras building wells. This was Efren’s first vacation, and he really enjoyed himself.


In our last post we mentioned that we were going to be having Fatima and Efren living with us for a month and then seeing where we should go from there. It turns out that Fatima did not like living here with our rules, and chose to return to her former home. Thankfully, her aunt, who is her guardian, has finally found a job and is better able to support the family. Efren has really adjusted well to our family, and we have all decided that we would like to make him a permanent part of our family. He loves having a family, and is always quick to give us hugs. He loves spending time with Gordon watching sports and playing the Wii, and fits in really well with our family. He had never been in a family where he was wanted, and his life has been in danger many times in his short life; he was stabbed in the heart when he was younger, but thankfully he survived the attack. We are all really thankful that God placed him in our family.


We would really like to find people to sponsor kids who want to go to high school (colegio). If you are interested in helping, please let us know. You can also donate by clicking on the buttons on this page. It is actually very inexpensive to attend school, but for people here, it is difficult. If you would like to sponsor Darwin or Jessica, we can arrange skype calls or an email relationship. Darwin is 12 and Jessica is 14, and both live close to us and spend a lot of time with us. They are both very intelligent and are learning a lot of English. It only costs about $25 per month per student to attend school, so it’s a pretty good deal!

Darwin

+

Jessica

Thank you for all of your prayers. We are all currently feeling pretty good for a change, and are really enjoying cooler weather.


Specific Needs:


*Rosetta Stone English – we are trying to save enough money to buy this program so that Efren can learn English…


*Efren – that if we are supposed to adopt Efren legally that everything will go smoothly for us and that we will be able to raise the money needed to do this.


*Efren again – That we will be able to find someone to stay with Efren while we are in the states in January.

Life Lessons

Today when I was doing our laundry at the pilla (it’s basically washing clothes on a washboard, but the washboard is made of cement and built into the house), and was scrubbing a particularly dirty pair of socks that I thought would never get clean, I was struck with a thought. After briefly scrubbing the socks and not seeing any improvement, I was considering giving up, but I remembered that Karlenis had been able to get some really filthy clothes clean, so I kept on going, and surprisingly, I was able to restore the socks to their previously white condition. I got to thinking that people are like dirty socks, and when we look at other people who seem like they are too far gone to ever be cleaned, we can remember that we also were filthy, and Christ cleaned us, and remember that we are never too far gone for redemption. This is so important to remember so that we are able to show everyone the love that Christ has for them.

Before we came to Honduras, we had a very different idea of what our mission here would be. We had planned on coming and getting the feeding program started through our church, but so far, funding has not been available, and we are currently only providing one meal per week. Although the meals are going well, and we are reaching people through them, it seems like God has a different agenda in place for us! We are living in a small town called Los Naranjos, which is located about 2 miles from Pena Blanca, and we chose to live in a Honduran house surrounded by Hondurans. My cousin, Chris, prayed and searched for just the right house for us, and finally located this house, and we feel like we are right where God wants us to be. We have A LOT of children living around us, and we spend a lot of time with them, and it turns out that our main ministry has been with our neighborhood children and their families. We take about 20 kids, ranging in age from 5 to 15, to church every week, we are teaching English classes twice a week, and we are trying to teach the kids how to love each other and treat each other with kindness and love. A lot of these people have never really experienced love and affection, and consequently, don’t know how to express it to others.

We are the only “gringo” family in Naranjos… there are a couple of single guys here, and also a bar/restaurant/hotel that is a hot-spot for backpackers, and we are really forming some great relationships with the people there, which has been fun and interesting. I don’t think any of us thought that we would be coming to Honduras to reach out to a bunch of fellow gringos at a bar, but that definitely is part of our ministry here, and we are really enjoying it. Backpackers from all over the world come to D&D, and we have a unique opportunity to meet a very interesting range of people. The owner, Bobby, has told us that we can come any time we need to get away, and stay in one of their cabins, swim, and have breakfast for free! The people there have really invited us into their lives, and we are building some great relationships with several people there.

This past week we were able to help one of our neighbors who is being forced to move into a different house, which is very small, and when we first went to look at it, it literally made all of us cry (the neighbors too…) because it is tiny, filthy, and lacking the most basic essentials. The walls were very dirty, there was no kitchen, no running water, overrun with trash, and to top things off, there were bats living inside. We were able to pull our neighbors together to help clean up the house, paint the interior and part of the exterior, put in a cooking stove, make and install curtains, and install a pilla. It was exciting to see so many neighbors working together to help a fellow family, and now the house looks like a home, and the family is excited to be moving in tomorrow. I think that the most exciting part for us is that so many people were able to help and to realize how much fun it can be to help someone else without expecting anything in return. Often times, the mentality here is to only help others when there is a direct benefit to oneself, so we are trying to show them a different way.

Fatima, Lisa, & Efren at church

We have been asked to take in two of our neighbor kids, Fatima (11), and Efren (14). These kids don’t have parents who are involved in their lives, and have been passed around to various family members, never knowing what it feels like to be really wanted. When we first came, we found Fatima scrounging through the scraps we had for the stray dogs because she would rarely have a meal. We have made it a point to make sure that Fatima and Efren get at least one healthy meal a day, and we are keeping Efren in school, with the help of some wonderful sponsors who want to help us help him. We have agreed to have the kids live with us for a month, and we’ll see what to do after that.

Please continue to pray for us, and if you would like to partner with us in our work here, we are really in need of people to monthly sponsors so that we can continue our ministry here. If you would like to be partnered with a child here, we could arrange a way for you to communicate via phone, email, &/or letters. We would also really like to have a team come out and help fix up homes & help with the ministry here, and if anyone would like to come for a visit, we would love to have you!

Communicating

Living in a country where the primary language is not your own can be very interesting at times, and we have all had some issues communicating. Whenever Gordon introduces himself as “Yo estoy Gordo” – he gets some funny looks because he is saying “I am fat” and people don’t realize that Gordo is his name. Chantalle has decided to go by Nicole because the way people were pronouncing her name meant “piggy”, and she didn’t like the giggles that often accompanied her name. I thought a lot of people in one town were named Lisa because I kept hearing people saying my name, but then Chris told us that Lisa means “slippery”. Natalie’s name doesn’t appear to have a double meaning, but she has had her share of communication mishaps nonetheless.

Natalie seems to have some trouble when it comes to discussing relationships. We were in San Pedro and someone asked Natalie if Gordon was her “novio”, and she smiled big and said, “si, si”. The man gave her a funny look and left. Later she realized that he had asked if Gordon was her lover, and she had said that yes, he was… therefore the funny look! Another time when we were talking with a young man, he asked Natalie if she had a boyfriend, and she started giggling. He asked why she was laughing, and she meant to say that she was embarrassed (embarzoso), but unintentionally said that she was pregnant (embarazada). He asked her if she really was, and Natalie, still thinking he was asking about a boyfriend, replied, “no, not right now, but it’s possible in a short time”. He looked VERY confused!

A couple of days ago, we went to Siguatepeque with Chris, and Gordon and I dropped Chris and the girls off at a market and went to tour a cemetery. (They have some of the coolest cemeteries here! Very much like New Orleans…) We were walking around, and a man asked us if we needed help finding anything, and we said no, but he continued walking with us. After awhile, he asked, “do you have family here?” I thought that he was asking if I had family in Honduras, so I said yes, and he asked what the family name was, so I told him “Rivera”, and he nodded his head, and took us to a different section of the cemetery. After about half an hour of walking around and reading tombstones, I realized that he was looking for the grave of Chris Rivera, which, of course, was nowhere to be found. We did find four graves of people named Rivera, and he told us that he would look for the grave of Chris Rivera and if we came back, he would show us where it was.

So far, it has been a really interesting experience living in a different culture and standing out wherever we go. Natalie and I went to the doctor, and Chris called the doctor, who said that he would send someone out to get us, and I wondered how he would know who we were, but everyone knows who we are here! It’s a little strange when we take a taxi home, and the driver, whom we have never met, knows exactly where we live. Sometimes we feel like aliens, and sometimes we feel like royalty around here. All of the attention can be very tiring, and it’s nice to take some days off to spend with just our family. After this experience, we will all definitely have more compassion for foreigners in our own country!

In spite of all of our mis-steps, overall we are having a good time here, and I think that our impact overall is a positive one. We enjoy the natural beauty of this amazing land that God created – it is absolutely breathtaking here, with a lot of waterfalls, lush greenery, amazing animals, and beautiful people who love to smile. As with any place, there are people who try to bring us down and discourage us, but we are trying to keep our eyes on God, and realize that ultimately He is the only one we have to please, and that relieves the negative pressure.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Two months and counting...

Whenever we cook anything and have leftovers, we have a tiered system of getting rid of our leftover food. We give our best food to our neighbors, then sometimes we slip Conan a tortilla or two, and if there is food we don’t think he would like, we give that to the starving neighborhood dogs. Well, one day I had a bowl of food that was going to the dogs, and one of our neighbor girls came over and started eating it like there was no tomorrow. I stopped her and told her it wasn’t good to eat, and she insisted that it was “muy rico!” (very rich or decadent). She told us that she hadn’t eaten for almost two days and was very hungry, so we ended up giving her some chicken, which she ate at record speed. It is still difficult to fathom the sad fact that people here are literally starving to death.

We did a trial run of our feeding program for one month, and are planning on resuming the program in a couple of weeks, if we are able to get enough support raised for it. The program was a big success, and a couple of people came forward to receive Christ, which was really exciting. We are excited to be able to expand the program and for our church to grow. We also take children with us every week to church, and afterwards we go to a restaurant for lunch, which the kids LOVE. Before we got here, most of the kids had never been to a restaurant, so it’s a fun treat for them.

Thankfully, we were finally able to get a car! Eulogio drove Gordon and I to San Pedro last week and we looked at a bunch of cars with him and Roberto, and Gordon and Roberto returned to San Pedro the following day and purchased one of the cars. After being without one for the past two months, we really appreciate having the freedom that a car offers. The day after we got it, we were able to take our neighbor who was suffering with a high fever to the doctor! (She ended up being diagnosed with bacterial pneumonia) We are still waiting on our internet – the necessary equipment is being delayed in customs, but hopefully we will have internet in our home very soon. As it is, we go to one of Chris’ good friend’s place of business, where he graciously lets us sit in the air conditioned room and use his Wi-Fi, so we really can’t complain.

We are getting pretty good at making tortillas, after helping at Sister Maria’s every week, but the Honduran women are still able to make about 3 tortillas for every 1 that we make. Most people around here eat a lot of tortillas, and they are mostly made of corn flour called MaSeCa. We are not big fans of these tortillas, mostly because we have been fed too many of them, but there is a lot of other food here that is really tasty. The neighbor girls and our housekeeper have been teaching us how to cook some classic Honduran dishes, like Chicken with tomatoes and fresh limeade. We feel a little bit inadequate when we have to have the 10 year old neighbor girl show us how to properly cut up a chicken, but we are learning to set our pride aside and learn some new skills.

This week some of the neighbor boys have offered to take us out on the lake and teach us how to fish “Honduran style”. We’re looking forward to another adventure, and it is fun to get to know the boys better. It is really impressive how much these boys are capable of, and at such a young age. We have hired the boys to do a lot of random things around our home, like repairing our fence, digging a trench, fixing the kitchen cabinet, and cleaning our windows. I don’t think most 10 year old boys in the states would know how to do most of these things! There are some benefits to not having TV available!

It has been a big adjustment for us to not have Jenn with us! She was an enormous blessing to everyone here, and we are all sad that she had to go back to the states. We are praying that she will be able to return again before too long. In order to help her with a return, she is selling COFFEE that is grown right here in our little town. If you want to buy some wonderful Honduran coffee, please let me or Jenn know, and she can hook you up!

We all hope you have a wonderful week, and if you are led to come see what we are doing here in Honduras, we would love to have you come for a visit. It is more breathtakingly beautiful than you can imagine here, and you can’t help but fall in love with the people!

(both of our cameras are broken, so presently, we can't take pictures...)