His Eyes

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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It has been a long time coming, with lots of talking, praying, planning, patience and work, and in September the second Milk Project location began!  Sampedrana seemed a natural choice for the first expansion, although logistically it is the hardest of the Churches to do this in, but in most ways it is also the most in need for such a project.  

We are starting with 25 children, most of whom range from just starting school to third grade.  After talking with the Church, they decided to include 13 children that are from the community but not the Church, with 12 coming from families that attend there.  This is purposefully trying to see the project as a way to reach more in the areas we serve for Christ, and was great to see them see this so much as to purposefully request more than half be from the community, as this is something that many wish they could be involved.  We started out with 50 profiles to get to the 25 we are starting with, for example.  

This all took got started over a month after I left for the US, it has been great to see Oscar and Maria take the plans and run with them, including at least a visit per month for several months together to make sure the new staff (a director, cook and volunteer teacher) are gelling and doing well overall.  

Getting vegetables and such for cooking is not nearly as easy as in Tegucigalpa, and since there is no electricity, we are currently staying away from adding items that require refrigeration, but as they continue to work on bringing electricity to the community, a refrigerator/freezer and new menu options will come likely soon.  

Maria will be keeping in touch as well about lesson plans, how the teaching is going, and how we can eventually expand in terms of homework help and the like, similar to what is done in Tegucigalpa.  As we collectively get a feel for what it is like doing this in a different community, there will likely be many things to talk about and tweak.  

For the meantime, be praying for this new location.  It is a concept we know, but in a location and situation that we have not done before, so how to tie this directly into the Church and more directly involve the Church leadership will be a learning process for everyone.  

As well praying for Oscar and Maria for overseeing this in the opening months and helping with purchasing food and supplies as they get everything set up and working smoothly.  

And be praying for these children, this Church body, and this community, that this would be a physical and spiritual blessing that helps long term in more ways than we can currently see to reflect and glorify Christ!  






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Sometimes I am really proud of those that work in the mission.  Ok...most of the time I am.  But, case in point, during the celebration last month for Children's Day, there was one child from the Milk Project that could not be there, one of our newest children, Luis.  He had surgery and won't be up walking for some time.  So some of the volunteers and children just decided to take the party to him.  

This is the kind of creative and loving thinking we love to see.

We are also going to be working on some creative thinking going forward in the project in general.  We are seeing that as the children age, and we want to help them try to get through high school, that there are other factors other than financial ability that can hold them back, including family pressure to drop out and start working full time as early as 13 or 14.  

There are some things we cannot control, but we are trying to look ahead and in different areas/ways, to see how we can continue to improve and show Christ's love to the kids and their families.  Pray for our volunteers and staff as they daily do this work, and for them and the mission leadership as we continue to strive to see how we can improve this already great program into the future.  

More to come soon about the beginning of the Milk Project in Sampedrana!