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.  
​

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.  
​