Little by Little......Block by Block......

By now most of you should have received our latest newsletter by mail. In this newsletter it spoke of the large and urgent need of building a concrete wall around our 10 acre property. We need this for the security and protection of the children and the home here as things are getting a little more dangerous. The price is around $50,000 for the completed project. Yes, we had a large hard to swallow gulp as well. However, we have decided to approach this in a different way. Little by Little and Block by Block.

Here in Honduras the men make almost all of the concrete blocks by hand. There is no large factory that processes the blocks for the city and being that everything is made of concrete this is always a job opportunity.  I was able to go and visit one of our local "bloqueria" to learn how much blocks actually cost.  We gathered a price of 50 to 60 cents per block.  The block to be installed with the needed rebar, concrete and sand will be $1 per block. We also have had someone pledge the money to fund the first 250 blocks. We are asking that you, your Sunday School class, your teen group, your co-workers or whom ever you wish to help enlist in this project select a goal to help buy a certain amount of blocks.

For example:

25   blocks= $25
50   blocks= $50
75   blocks=  $75
150 blocks=$150
200 blocks =$200
500 blocks =$500
1,000 blocks= $1,000
3,000 blocks= $3,000
5,000 blocks= $5,000
and so on you can pledge any amount. We know that God will continue to protect us and we pray that you all can help help us little by little and block by block start the wall. 

What an Amazing View......

I remember when we lived in North Carolina,  Mark and Taylor loved to look up "google earth." They would type in addresses and zoom pretty much into our front yard. It was amazing to think that you could use the computer, give it a little information and boom there was the exact place that you were at that moment. We did the same thing the year that we lived in Costa Rica. It was amazing the view that we could see all on the computer of the city of San Jose. While it was indeed crazy to be able to see the world like that it was still only a very small piece of the whole picture.

Now, let's think of it from the eyes of the Heavenly Father. WOW! What an amazing view he has. The Bible says in Psalm 33:14 "From the place of HIS habitation he looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth."  God right now is looking down and he sees everything that we are doing. What a thought provoking thing...in my mind. He sees children playing outside, he sees teachers teaching, he sees people giving HIM glory and singing praises. He also sees a baby takes it's first breath as it enters the world. He sees the bride walking the aisle to meet her true love. He sees so many happy things.........but he also sees sin. He sees those who are wrapped up in themselves and they are sitting at a bar trying to solve their problems, he sees people who are getting ready to defile themselves whether in pornography or sexual sins. He sees those who are about to take their own lives. He sees the little on man sitting on the park bench missing his wife who just passed away. He sees the parents who are dying inside because someone kidnapped their little girl. He sees the ones who have been given the WORD....the Truth, that Jesus is the Savior and they reject HIM. What about those views. It must be like watching a movie for the Lord. He has already seen it and He knows what is going to happen but HE just has to watch it through. The Lord sees with his heart of love as He considers who we are and what we do. The Bible revels that He longs for us to trust Him and follow His way. He longs for us to have fellowship with HIM and give HIM our all.  We are never out of God's sight and He always keeps a close eye upon us. We must keep our eyes on HIM and give HIM glory.

KEEP YOUR EYES ON GOD FOR HE NEVER TAKES HIS EYES OFF YOU!!

In the Midst of it all.......

Today, like many days I looked up to admire the mountain view that God has blessed us with here. I love the fact that I can wake up and walk outside and see a beautiful mountain range with patch like works of tree lines. Each day is a different type of view depending on the cloud cover. Today was no different. However, as I looked up I began to think about Moses and his meetings of fellowship with our Lord. How he walked up to the top of the mountain and God covered him with his presence and put him in the midst so that no-one else could see. WOW! What a time that must have been for him. At the same time I start to think about what the people below were thinking. Maybe they were thinking; "what makes him so special" or "why is he the only one chosen". Really the fact of the matter is we all have the opportunities to spend time with God if we want it. We can have HIM in the good times or in the bad. We can have him on the mountain or in the valley. As I looked up at the misty range today...I could not help but think how God makes and wants each of us to feel loved and special and important. He covered Moses so no-one else could see....they had a private conversation. It is awesome to think about really. I am so grateful that the Lord loves me and wants to hear from me in the midst of everything that he has to deal with.

And the Lord came down upon mount Sinai, on the top of the mount: and the Lord called Moses up to the top of the mount; and Moses went up. Exodus 19:20

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.....my help cometh from the Lord. Psalms 121:1-2

Getting your hands dirty......

excited to work with new work boots

this was the side yard before a chicken coop and trees

never to early to teach one how to work

As young boy growing up in the country we had cows and chickens. It was also my job to take care of them and feed them. We lived on a family road and many aunts and uncles along with our family were all together. I remember having large gardens and we all were working together to harvest. I also remember helping my mom and dad with the family business. As a young boy and well into my teens years if I was not in school I was helping out.  I am thankful that my daddy and momma taught me the importance of working hard.  We were always working, whether we were at home or at our beach house in Surf City. When Amy and I got married I wanted to be able to teach our children the importance of working hard. However, being a fireman and working on the side it was hard to show Hunter some of the things that I wanted too. I remember when we moved to Honduras, I told Hunter it was going to be hard work here. At that time he had never really done any hard work. The first time we set out to cut the grass it was waist high and with two machetes. I remember Hunter looking at me saying; "Daddy this is hard work."  Now that we have Josiah and Micah and a house full of children we are striving hard to teach them it is okay to get your hands dirty. We want them to know and understand the importance of working hard. We also want them to see the benefits and the rewards of their hard work. Many times we see people who rely on others to do a job for them. We want these children to know that they can do anything. The Bible says: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Philippians 4:13"  Whenever, I go outside to work it is not long until I have a few shadows behind me. Josiah is close and then a few others are right behind. They love to help and they are learning at the same time. While I am outside some of them are inside learning from Amy. Taylor has learned how to cook so many things. She will surely go off to college well prepared. The other children love to see what she is doing so that they can prepare the same thing when they go home on visiting. We are thankful that we had parents who taught us the importance of getting our hands dirty and working hard. We pray that they will continue with the things that they have learned and teach their children one day.

Elvin working hard cleaning the rows

Mark and Carolina cleaning the rows

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