The Importance of Giving.........

In our life we all try to give to others. Maybe we give to charities or to the Salvation Army bell ringers. We give to all kinds of causes from animal shelters, cancer research to political parties. However, one of the most important ways you can give and one of the most important causes you can support is "missions". This is not a blog saying "please support us". We want to share with you what we have been teaching here in Honduras. You see, yes, it took people supporting missions to get us here and to help us on a daily basis even now.

However, we are not the only missionaries in the world. In fact we might not be supported by many of the people who read our blog. We just want to encourage you to give to your church and to it's missions program. There are thousands of missionaries around the world and we all have the same root cause. That cause is telling others about Jesus. Here in Honduras we want the children to grow up and see that it is important that they support missions as well. Right now, we are in our second year of giving to missions. Each year we have a missions conference and after we make
 a "Faith Promise" to give for missions for the year. We encourage the children to give but they have to make the decision and they have to earn the money to give. Here in Honduras our church designates the last Wednesday night of every month as our missions offering. At the end of every month and sometime earlier the children who have promised to give will come to us and ask for an extra job to do. Sometimes. it maybe washing the cars, cleaning the outdoor windows, or maybe even chopping the grass around banana trees. They all earn their money and take it to the church. You can tell they are proud that they are not only giving but that they worked for the money to be able to do it. Our church here supports many missionaries and we want the children to understand that just like people who give so that they can live in Esperanza and know what it is like to have a Christian family there are other missionaries around the world who need to be supported as well. So, if you already give to missions "Thank YOU"....if you don't we challenge you to give so that you to can be blessed.

As a Matter of Opinion?

We all have opinions. Whether it is on a type of car, what we think of political views,  who we vote for and where we choose to send our children to school. We live in a world driven by opinions. You can log onto google or yahoo and see the latest opinion poll on whats going on in the world.  What you think about this or what do you think about that. We have opinion polls to help us make decisions in where to stay for vacation or what kind of car to buy. However, there is a question that is even more important than any other and an opinion poll can not help you in that. It is concerning your eternity. In the book of Matthew chapter 16 verse 15, Jesus asked "Who do men say that I am?" He received a variety of answers on what and who the people thought HE was. None of them were very adequate with their descriptions though. Then he turned to his disciples and said...."But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered and said: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." You see public opinion can help you decide many things but it can not help you with how you are going to spend your eternity. It doesn't matter what the world says about Jesus or whether they believe that HE in fact is the true living God.....What matters is .........Do YOU believe what God says in HIS word! Do you believe that one day your going to leave this world and you will end up in Heaven or you will end up in Hell. If you believe that Jesus is the only way....then one day my friend I will see you again. If you are unsure of your salvation......please contact us or someone you know so that has trusted Christ to help you.

Thankful for Friends with Lessons

Five years ago one of my best friends Valeria shared with me a very valuable lesson. Little did I know that her lesson would help me for many years to come. Josiah was born five years ago and Valeria taught me how to make homemade baby food. Since then, I have made it for Micah and now the twins. The lesson that she taught me could not have been more valuable. You see there are really no options here for vegetables in the area of baby food. The baby food they do have in the veggie area are almost $1.25 a jar. YES! a normal medium jar of veggies if you can find it is $1.25. So, I buy fresh produce which includes, butternut squash, acorn squash, green beans, peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkin and camote. Camote is a sweet potato like veggie here that is purple on the outside and white on the inside.  We want to keep providing and you can help. We could plant many of these things in our garden if we had the seeds. You can help us buy mailing seeds to grow these things in our garden.


The after....ready to feed the boys



Camote- a version of sweet potatoes






 

Mother/Daughter Banquet

  

   

  A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at our ladies meeting. I was very nervous and a wee bit scared because this would be the first time that I would get up in front of a group and speak....and in Spanish. Before, I use to think that getting up and speaking in front of people was hard....but that is nothing compared to trying to share your heart when it is in another language. All of your thoughts, passions and memories are in your first tongue. Not everything is easily translated. As I began to prepare the lesson the Lord really laid on my heart 7 things the Bible says a Christian mom should be. As I studied I reflected on my life, how my children look at me and how others see the kind of women that I am. I also wanted to convey God's truths and share the do's and don'ts but I did not want it to come across harsh.  That night as we filed in to the church there were around 80 people there (mothers and daughters). WOW! What was I thinking.......this was a huge group of ladies. I knew we were in for something special with the way the events started that night. First, right before the ladies arrived we were lighting candles on the tables when all of a sudden I noticed a flame. The fan had blown a silk flower into the candle and it had caught on fire. Then, the caterers were late causing me to do my warm up mother quiz early. Then, just as it is my turn to get up and speak it starts to rain. Boy, the devil was on it. See, here when it rains it makes it very hard to hear because it beats on the tin roof. Thankfully, the Lord knew...HE had a plan and HE was able to use a broken and unworthy vessel to help touch the lives of many women that night. I was so encouraged as I saw mothers with tears in their eyes and then later came up to me to thank me for the lesson. I am so glad that I did not let my fear of making a mistake, stumbling through a language or just a the fact the church was full keep me from sharing what God had laid on my heart. So, I am writing this to share with all women, mother's and mother's to be what God expects out of a Christian mom. I hope that you are all blessed and touched the way that I was when reading this. For the sake of time and space I will not write out each verse but I do encourage you to look them up and write them down yourselves.

7 Commandments that God Gives Every Christian Mother:

1. Availability: every mother is to be available to her family morning, noon and night.
Deuteronomy 6:6-7

2. Involvement: a mother should interact with her children, discussing, thinking processing and reflecting life together. In other words you should know your children. What they like, what they don't like, who their friends are. etc.
Ephesians 6:4

3. Teaching: a mother should teach her children the bible, scriptures, truths and moral standards and how to have a biblical worldview. Mother's don't leave this up to the school or you will be doomed my friend.
Psalm78:5-6. Deuteronomy 4:10, Eph. 6:4

4. Training: A mother should help her child develop skills and discover his or her strengths and weaknesses. A mother should allow her children to be a shadow learning the things that they will need once they are on their own.
Romans 12:3-8, I Corinthians 12

5. Discipline: a mother will discipline her children according to the bible. She will teach them to fear the Lord, drawing a line of consistent discipline and doing it  lovingly yet firmly.
Eph. 6:4, Hebrews 12:5-11, Proverbs 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-14, 29:15-17

6. Nurture: a mother should provide an atmosphere of constant verbal encouragement and support, freedom to fail without persecution, acceptance, affection and unconditional love.
Titus 2:4, 2 Timothy1:7, Ephesians 4:29-32, 5:1-2, Galatians 5:22, 1 Peter 3:8-9

7. Modeling with Integrity: Living what you say, being a role from which your child will see your godly example and will want to follow. Do what you say and say what you do. Do not expect your children to do more than you do. Example: if you don't get up on time to go to church and you don't read your bible....don't expect your children to do it either.
Deuteronomy 4: 9, 15, and 23, Proverbs 10:9, 11;3 and Psalm 37: 18 and 37

The bible never states that every women should be a mom. But if God gives you this opportunity you need to take advantage of it and realize that you have been given a special gift. My question for you all is how do you want your children to remember you. Do you want them to remember the worldly mom or a godly mom?