leaning

---

It is cool to see a plan form, then implemented, and the results from that.  Sometimes though, you get to see things come together without perhaps being able to say you saw that coming.  

The decorations on the right here for the Milk Project are something Maria has been working on all year...collecting pine cones.  But then, her seeing that we were using spray paint with a group in September, gave her the idea that if we had leftover paint...she could make them even more festive.  

Ingenuity...I have seen quite a bit of that here over the years.  So much so sometimes it becomes the norm, but I like to be surprised/refreshed by it now and then rather than taking it for granted.  

---

The organization Bring Good News has made funds available for us in the past to put on conferences for pastors and church leaders, using an organization here that specializes in that, called Walk Through the Bible.  

We were able to do another one (finally after COVID protocols have been relaxed enough) and through some "planning" all three of the Milk Project staff were able to be there together, and have a little meeting of their own the same day.  
​

I had a chance yesterday to talk with the team now in Honduras from Casas Por Cristo, an organization that builds homes through pastoral networks, hoping to help the church do outreach into their communities, reaching people for Christ through helping them physically, specifically through home building.  They are praying about where to set up shop in Honduras, and how that will unfold (so you can be praying for them...lots of need, lots of possibilities) but it was also very cool to see how many times it seemed like a small world just talking about their general experiences, places in Honduras, opportunities, connections, etc.  

It reminds me that while right now looking at the soon beginning new year, and the changes coming, and potential changes/growth/hiring/building/etc. coming...that we have to trust, obey, follow and move, trusting God will bring it all together.  That faith...beyond what we can see but leaning on the everlasting arms.  

Funny how there is such joy in that...and yet, to be honest, also at least a bit of trepidation, mostly related to how I could screw things up.  

Even as areas around us in Tegucigalpa enter later today into a "state of exception" where certain constitutional rights will be forfeited in order to try to prevent extorsion and problems from gangs, meaning, apparently, that the police can pick up anyone they even suspect of committing, assisting, or benefitting from a crime.  This will last for thirty days.  

Sounds a bit scary to be honest, especially looking into the future of how this will be implemented and seeing just unknown (some of those 89 areas are directly around us.)

Apparently the writer of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms wrote that hymn in 1887 after two friends wrote him letting him know both their wives had died.  He wrote back, including the verse "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27)  He thought about that...and coo coo ca choo, came the hymn.  

So, we will keep walking, but not alone, and not by our own power.  We will, we must...keep​ leaning on the everlasting arms.

Want to hear a cool version of this hymn?
Early Sons of the Pioneers  this one made me cry
The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi this one made me move

Got one I missed you love?  Share it!