His Eyes

I just got some pictures from Maria.  
 
When the first picture was a train...my mind knew exactly what that meant.  You see, we don't have any working trains in Honduras.  But they do in Mexico.  

This post could very easily take a political, governmental, or ideological bent quite easily, but that is not my point or concern right now.  

Maria got these pictures as two of the children from The Milk Project are on their way to the USA.  Their father was killed last year, and their mother made the decision to leave last Saturday.  I do not think at this point that they are part of the 800-1000 people that left recently from San Pedro Sula.

I read an article today that over 300 people per day are leaving (not counting caravans) trying to go to the USA, just from Honduras.  Not all of them make it.  

Jampool and Maddison are tonight in Tapachula Mexico (just across the border on the Pacific side from Guatemala) where they sent the first two pictures.

I imagine their mother has borrowed money to make this journey, hoping she will have steady work when they get to the USA, and that her children will get to go to good schools and grow up safe.    

Their little sister was left behind though, she is staying with her grandparents.    
 
More could be said.  Right now, I am just praying for safety on this most dangerous trek for the Jampool, Maddison and their mother.    
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We try to write to our Milk Project sponsors every month with some updates on the goings on, prayer requests, etc.  

This month I just felt like sharing that update here, for others to read as well.  

The CIY group that was down visiting us in March brought supplies to de-lice all the kids.  Not everyone had lice, but it was something that Maria had been asking to do for a while.  

Group interaction with the Milk Project has been key over the years.  The day to day operations happen with the Honduran staff, but quite a few of the physical tools they have to work with come from groups, either in what they bring with them, or what they see while they are here and then send down or help us buy.  

Bonus fact...the kids are all in clothes we had on hand for the sewing ministry, clothes we sort out of the clothing ministry supply that is way too big...thus the attractive blue dress here that is actually a very big blue work shirt.





The work in Sampedrana continues, and although it has not been easy for all involved from an administrative perspective and working out a routine for everything, and some parents even changed their minds and pulled their children out due to the project being Christian, the kids are getting fed physically and spiritually,  there is homework help, games, and more.  



One sponsor this month asked for an update on their child for a college project they were working on, and while we try to update profiles every year for all the children, this special request Maria was able to handle.  When I saw this picture and the story that Maria sent with it, I thought it would be good to share it:  This is Angela Paola Escoto, she is ten years old and lives in this wooden house with her mother, sister and little brother.  Her father died years ago.  She is in the fifth grade.  Her mother works as a waitress.  They have many needs including food, and a bed since all three siblings sleep int he same bed.  Paola and her sister take care of their younger brother.  

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We celebrate birthdays every quarter, and March meant the celebration for January-March birthdays.  We do that for the morning session and afternoon session, baking cakes and sharing them.  

Here shown are Elisa, Mariza, Geisel, Cesia, Ricardo and Alex.  As it happens...the day of the celebration was actually Cesia's birthday!  


We started a new fund recently, some discretionary cash for Maria to help with small needs that the kids have off and on during the month, things that can't wait to be budgeted or to ask for sponsor help.  

Recently Maria said she helped Mervin with $4 to get back and forth to a government health center because his mother did not have the money.  

He went because he has been bitten by chinche, which is what we call bedbugs, and they have special care there that they can give for that.  

We are looking forward to using this fund in the future to buy books, supplies, uniform fixes, etc. when needed.  





Here is Lorena, one of our volunteer/scholarship recipients, teaching computer classes recently.  

We are continuing to look at ways to help the kids educationally now and in the future to help them get further ahead.  We are even looking into the possibility of bringing on more staff in the future to specifically help with this, but it is too early on to announce anything.

Prayer requests:
1.  New staff person.  As just said above, we are not sure how this is going to look yet, but praying for God's guidance in this and the best way to proceed.
2.  Encouragement for Maria and the staff.  It has been a hard month in many ways, and just to be buoyed going forward with a renewed energy.
3.  For the spiritual, emotional, and educational health of these 100 children we are trying to reach daily. 

I have noticed recently my use of idioms that I enjoy is a mixed bag with other people.  The point of language is communication, and sometimes what feels right to me leaves other people scratching their heads.  Such it was when this week I used "from soup to nuts" in a conversation.  Putting this blog post together, the phrase quickly came back to me.  Turns out, the origin of this phrase that means just covering everything, comes from old meal courses, when soup was the first course, and something like six courses later, you ended with dessert nuts.  Go figure.  

​The mission house remodel continues.  Currently, tile is going in the new shower stalls, the new fancy hot water heaters are being installed in the walls, and soon we will be able to get everything painted and the bunkbeds moved downstairs.  One step at a time!  

The coffee harvest continues as well.  We have had some vehicle issues, but overall there is just a lot of hard work being done by a lot of people.

We are currently working on properly drying all the coffee we have harvested, but soon we will have to also sell on the local market (where the prices are again lower than the base of the totem pole.  

And with keeping lots of green coffee, that means finding more places where we can sell it as Hill Climber Coffee.  Part of my time in the US has been trying to find more short and long term customers, like at a Church in Indiana where we found a missions pastor with such a passion for coffee he makes his own pour over stations from reclaimed wood.  We might have to follow in his footsteps on this one.    


The Milk Project is starting off the year just like it ended last year...with no grass growing under it (to use another idiom.)  Not only the continuing physical feeding of bellies, spiritual feeding of souls, there is also play, Valentine's Day celebrations...and as seen here, more tutoring and homework help.  Joshua and Yoan are doing some Spanish homework.  

Speaking of which, I just heard recently that in the US there will be millions of Spanish speakers soon that will not be able to read or write the language, as they are learning it at home, but not studying it in school.  I found that shocking to hear, but really, that is what we see all too often in Honduras, or something close to it, where literacy and reading levels for children who are not blessed with good schools or the ability to attend schools for long suffer the same fate.


Being able to provide the kids with school supplies, backpacks, and school shoes is not just nice, but a huge deal for them impacting their ability to go to school year after year, with their parent's help and support. 

Education, learning, growing and changing our neighborhoods and our country, one child and one family at a time...not something we want to say just to sound good, but want to do, and continue to work on going forward.  College scholarships for these kids...wouldn't that be the greatest thing since sliced bread?





The clinic work continues as well.  I thought this picture was a good representation of what sometimes is very complicated and not photogenic work.  

This is Alex.  He is from Jamastran, which is out in Andy's new ground (another idiom I have heard, this one from my father, that I don't think I have heard anywhere else...it means, way far away.)  He is 14, and had an accident from a harvester that is used to cut field grass for cattle.  

He came to the clinic to have his stitches taken out (which stitches he had for over a month) and for some wound care from losing his leg, and we were able to bless him with the crutches seen in the picture.  

Praying for his health, he had originally tried to go to the emergency room with his hemoglobin at 3 (which if accurate is dangerously low) and still has recovery and adjustment of life to deal with going forward.  
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A new growth group in Talanga in a home there, this picture was sent to me recently, just one picture of many such groups in the Church there and the other Churches around the country, and that is always something worth writing home about.  
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​Well, that certainly covers quite a few of the areas of the mission.  It doesn't exactly go from soup to nuts, certainly not as close as two coats of paint, but good enough for a blog post.  

So, I have been kind of wrapped up in a bubble of thinking, "we don't have any transition issues, we are fitting in well here in the US."  For the most part, that is true.  

This license plate was just the first drop in the glass though of something I am coming to understand a little more as time goes on, and that is...I don't fit in as much as I think I do.

I saw it, laughed, and took a picture of this to show the kids, who also laughed.  Kiss me 3?  Nice.  When I showed it to a lifelong USA resident, they said "be same 3" what does that mean?  Wait...who is right?  ​

​We had a really cool experience in the Milk Project this month.  

A Spanish class from Indiana made Christmas cards to give to all the kids in the project, and most of them were even personalized for each child.  

It is a pretty cool thing to get a Christmas card, especially from someone who is thinking of you but you have never met!

We were able to share pictures both ways, to put faces with names in a manner of speaking.  

Something to think about perhaps today...drop someone a line to encourage them, to check in, just to say you care.  If you stop to think about it, just for a couple of seconds, someone will come to mind.  Use this blog post as an excuse if you want, but it will have an impact, you may just make someone's day!  

We got back very early Wednesday from our two week trip to Honduras, hosting a team during that time along with some other meetings and some fun activities.  It was chock full of new things for us as a family, even with hosting a group which we are familiar with, there was quite a bit of change from the normal routine.  

I noticed in this trip though especially, with this perfect storm of sorts of new activities, a lot of travel, a bunch of change, end of the year accounting, a mission Christmas gathering, and more...that the stress level was perceptible.  At least it was perceptible by Cecilia in both Valerie and myself.  Not sure who else might have noticed.

I try to peel back the curtain on the reality of our mission work with some regularity here in this blog, and just knew that writing some of this down would be good for me when I got some time.  

Looking back at the week, everything went very well, and it was a great week.  I could say that with great frequency in general, and even more when it comes to hosting groups.  

But I knew going into this that not having a home, dealing with some unknowns, and just the activities of the week was going to be more than I could handle by myself.  I made my schedule starting by getting up no later than 5:20 (most mornings by 4:45) to get a few tasks completed and get in a run.  This helped physically.  It also kept me tired enough late at night that I could not stay up stressing or wondering about the next day.

Prayer was definitely an ongoing part of every day and evening as well.  The funny thing though is how quickly prayer can be forgotten when things go well.  I specifically mean here that I would pray about the day to come, like the mission Christmas party which is probably going into it my most stressful day of the year, and then as we were leaving, I found myself saying "wow, that went pretty well!"  And then almost as quickly as I thought that, the Holy Spirit or the other side of my brain slapped me up the psychological face..."yeah, didn't you pray for help?  For strength?  For success?  For edifying and encouraging everyone that came?  Why do you think this all just 'worked'?"  I felt so stupid, and happily re-educated for the umpteenth time all at the same time.  


Dealing with all of this can bring on some of my depression tendencies.  Without prayer and some constant confronting of myself, I think falling apart into a ball of anxiety and lack of ability to do anything would be a very regular occurrence.  It still does indeed happen from time to time.  I noticed getting back to Honduras that my back started bothering me again, then remembered that it had not bothered me when I was in the US.  I wondered if that was due to the roads/vehicles, or do stress and anxiety?  Hmmmm  At least I was able to actually leave the house every day!  

Thankfully, with enough prayer, a smidge of faith, and perseverance, you can come out the other side each day and see God's providence, and doing things where you find He did not really need you anyway, and does it in ways both amazing, wonderful, and just enough eye opening to continue to say "ahha, I see what You did there" and keep going, because even with all the grim stuff I mentioned above, how can you not also be excited to see what He is going to do next?  

There was quite a bit of that in this trip to Honduras.  But out of the blue, I got this picture on the right from Maria.  Doing the outing with the Milk Project kids was something we came up with, but how to do it, what to do, who to bring...it was all kind of a shot in the dark of trying to make a big holiday something special and fun for the kids.  Trying to remember that while getting bogged with details can be a challenge.  

We did it, and it went very well.  Again, I was pleasantly surprised...but should I have been?  And this picture she sent...having some fun with the bumper cars, nice.  I almost just gave it a quick glance and filed it away except it came with the following text:  "Nataly does not like to play.  She only takes care of her brother and helps her mother.  She says that she never played as a child.  Today I saw her smile, and that does not happen often.  She was very happy.  Thank you for that gift for the children."    

Thanks be to God for that gift, and many more.  

December has been a big month for the Milk Project.  

In Tegucigalpa, they closed out the year with a big party, including dancing, piñatas, and a show.   There is even a full video of it on the His Eyes Facebook page.  Fun fact...any good traditional Christmas party in Honduras has to include red apples and big red grapes (not seedless!)  

In Sampedrana, it was somewhat similar, taking place on the 21st.  Extra fun was that some from Tegucigalpa were able to go up to visit and share in the fun as well.  

There were some gifts, thanks to Maria being creative and the donations we received for the kids in Tegucigalpa.

The Milk Project in Sampedrana continues much like in Tegucigalpa, with not just good food and Good News, but play time, and seen here, some extra time to focus on homework from school.  

A few months in, and things are going well.  To be sure, there will be more to learn, going both ways, and grow, but as in Tegucigalpa, the important thing is remembering what our goals are, and working together.  It isn't always easy, but the long term goals make it worth it.  

Can't wait to see what 2019 means for the Milk Project!

Recent happenings include getting to see the lychee trees that were planted just a month or so ago on the farm in Cantarranas.  

They are about $5 a piece, and 100 trees properly spaced ironically doesn't take up that much space on the property.  It is hard to see in the picture where pastor Jonathan is pointing to one of the little trees that we hope will be over six feet tall and producing fruit in just several years from now.  

Now we just need to figure out how to plant most of the rest of the property with other fruit trees.  Jonathan was very quick on the math to figure out that would cost around $2,000.   I do not think we are in a big hurry right now, we are content to wait and pray, see how God might provide more funding to plant more trees.  But we will diversify.  We wan the property not just to produce fruit physically, but also spiritually, and part of that is multi-use, and when it does produce, not just selling the fruit but using some for the local Church body, the rest of the mission (Milk Project) and then selling some as well to help generate some income.  Not having just one kind of fruit means more fruit longer throughout the year, and not just one thing to use/eat.  We will do that to some extent as well on the coffee farms wherever we can as well with trees appropriate for the area.  Trying for more risky and potentially more profitable short term crops has proved in the past to be just too risky with crop prices when harvest comes to make it viable going forward for the majority of this kind of space that we have.  

The clinic evangelism has been going well, with hiring a part time evangelist who also does that part-full time with the Church we partner with just next door to us.  Getting to personally talk to each patient himself, and keeping records, has been enlightening and encouraging, but also providing some opportunities for prayer.  One sample report I saw this month included prayer requests for:  a job, for family unity, spiritual life, work for their children, God's protection from hexes that have been cast on them, and for children's lives.  They are visiting us for physical health issues, and trusting we can help with that...but prayer requests are often overwhelmingly for other aspects of life, aspects we as a health care providing facility need to remember when interacting with everyone that visits us.  

What do these particularly different topics of ministry conversation have in common?  In the past, I might have thought we had a good handle on how "exactly" to address those situations, or expressed some firm idea of how to move forward.  I have been talking to my kids lately of controlling our thoughts and often how we need to mull things over and think them through before saying them out loud, lest we find a lesson coming quickly behind showing me I don't know nearly as much as I think I do.  Nothing wrong with coming to grips with not knowing much, but being wise enough to stifle the tongue before finding that out is a little more elusive.  

Case in point:  Driving this week in Lafayette, I noticed a plate on a car from Nevada.  I think I blurted out "well, we certainly won't see another car any further West than that today!"  Maybe a minute later...we pulled up behind this California car.  

I wasn't angry though, although I did chuckle at my shortsightedness that slipped out before I could stop myself.  Having a point of view, a place to start, a way to begin is important, but being willing to be guided, to face our mistakes in thinking, lack of vision, and just flat out being way off base, is where true growth and seeing a bigger Kingdom and world happens.   Day by day, step by step, lesson by lesson, prayer by prayer.  
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I saw this painting in a house we were visiting recently.  It struck a chord with me.  No clue what the artist was thinking when creating it, but the more I looked at it, the more it reminded me of God's relationship with me.  

It is not a perfect analogy, but I saw that 5 gallon jug as an imperfect, empty, vessel.  From that, with no soil or water visible, comes green lush leaves.  

Sometimes I have to be reminded that while I sometimes feel about as useful as that empty jug, that God can bring forth something meaningful regardless, all the more glory given to Him, since it clearly would not be produced otherwise.  
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I am finding that keeping up with the goings on in Honduras via messages, chats, and the occasional video call can work...but it is definitely different.  The good news is that the important stuff has  actually pretty easy and going well so far, and everyone is doing well with the transition and carrying on with the daily grind without any complications.  

It is just the little nuances, the jokes, the stories and conversation that is harder to do for both sides.  Slow internet means video or audio calls are only for the most important meetings, so trying to fit everything else in the other mediums requires, well...nuances.  

Take this picture that I got from Oscar recently.  We were talking about ongoing projects and progress on many of them.  The cow catcher for the Ford was supposed to be done by our welder, but he left for the US recently, so we had someone else working on it, and we wanted beefy work done.  Turns out, we had a former leaf spring from one of the old Fords around, and that has now been drafted into duty as part of the new cow catcher (bonus...we call them mule killers.)  Stronger?  For sure, it took extra help just to get the bends in, with four guys having to hang on it to get it to give enough.   


Ingenuity, it is a fact of life in Honduras.  While I might have questioned about going to the effort to use the leaf spring, although it sure does look cool, I understood the mindset.  I also got a picture from Maria this week, a new Milk Project home, which is made of a variety of materials, and construction methods, due to the extreme poverty of the family.  It is not sound, safe, or protective from the elements, but it was the best they could do with what was available.  



From Sampedrana, two girls, Alexandra and Yenifer, told Maria while getting a ride closer to home after the Milk Project in Sampedrana that they were glad to get to go, because that was their supper for the day.  The school gives them a little beans and rice, and then they get their "supper" there at just after lunchtime.  

This unfortunately is not the first time by far that we have heard this.


Work continues in Honduras, life is happening in community, and the love of Christ is being shared.  Maybe talking with a welder about why we are so thrifty, welcoming a new family to the Milk Project, or chatting while giving a ride home.  Well, all that plus a ton more than I don't have pictures for...the clinic work and daily work of the Church pastors.  But it is definitely happening.



We did get to have a meeting Monday, and I got to be in on my first leadership devotional for the first time in a few months.  Four people sharing in song, thought, and then in prayer together.  Sometimes when I am there in Honduras it is not the part of the week I look forward to the most...but I have definitely missed it.  
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