Maids

Today has been an easy and relaxing day for me. While a maid in the States is only for the rich, here in Honduras it is much different. For a while I fought having a maid as I was thinking like an American. Here if you have even a 2 bedroom house and can afford it, you have a maid. They are much cheaper here and can save you a lot of work. Honduras is a very dirty country. You have to clean your house top to bottom every day. Just cleaning the floors consists of sweeping, mopping with water and cleaner, mopping with water, and then dry dusting after that for a shine. Then there is the dusting, dishes that must be done several times a day or the one sink that you have for them will be to full to use. Needless to say, before we had a maid I spent all day cleaning the house and had not time for anything else.

Here in Honduras a maid costs about $125.00 a month. For that $125.00 a month you get someone who comes Monday through Friday and cleans your house, cooks lunch, helps you with your Spanish, and does whatever else you would like for her to do.

We do not only get a maid for the help around the house. We also make sure that they are saved and faithful to a good Baptist church. Rosa attends Iglesia Bautista Peniel (Face of God Baptist Church) and was recommended to us by the Pastor who is a great friend of ours. She has been without a job for a while. Her husband got a loan from his employers for about $250.00. Rosa was taking this money to the central market to buy things to sell in her neighborhood. While in the market she was assulted and robbed by four women. They took everything from her, even most her clothes. They even took her cellphone. She was left a long way from home with no money to buy anything and not even any money to get home. She had to beg for money to buy something to wear and for a taxi fare so she could get home.

Rosa now had no money and a debt to pay back. We hired her for 130 Lempira a day ($7.00 US) and she has done a wonderful job. She has done such a good job that we decided to raise her wage to 150 Lempira ($8.00 US), which is a very good rate for a maid. Before she started working for us she went to a job fair and filled out 30 applications. She told us if one of them call she would let us know and help us to find a replacement. Praise the Lord the only ones that called have been obligatory work on Sunday and she told them no.

She has been helping me to clean up and organize things. I have gotten rid of a lot of things. I told her that I feel funny giving things that are not perfect away and so I throw them in a seperate "trash" pile and she goes through them and takes what she wants. She has told me how she is going to give some of it to her niece's family who is poor and the rest she is going to sell to make money.

In these past few days she has helped me so much and we have talked a lot. I feel as if she is my sister instead of my employee. I am so thankful that God brought her into our lives.

Today I made her cry. She was getting ready to go and as we had a few people from the states donate cell phones for us, we gave her one of them. It wasn't as fancy as the one that was stolen, but she was so excited. It is such a blessing to give things to people.

It is a blessing when God uses you to be a blessing to others. One of the things that I was "throwing out" was old clothes pins as we got new ones when we got here. Most of the clothes pins were still in good condition, but because we needed them when we got back; and our only ones were still being used by the family that rented our house and furniture for the year we were gone, we had to buy more. Rosa was so excited to receive the old ones as she had just broken her last one the day before. Oh, the little things we take for granted.

Praise the Lord for how He has blessed America.

Home Bible Studies

Last night we all went to Rueben and Xiomara's house for a home Bible Study. (Sorry that the only pictures I can find of them at this time are of their baptism) We gave them both a ride from Tegucigalpa as well as some other church members who work in Teguc as well. We had to take two trucks as we had quite a few people travelling with us. We were a little concerned when we got to the house and the other truck with Rueben and Xiomara was not there. Thankfully we were able to call their cell phone and find out that they had stopped by the church to pick up more chairs.

Being that this was the first home Bible Study, we weren't sure how many people would show up. We were so pleased when we had 20 people attend. Bro. Armando preached and it was a great service. We are planning on having our service at Bro. Armando's house next week and Bro. Rueben will be preaching (his first time ever). Jason gives them a pretty detailed outline to study and then they preach it. These Bible Study times gives these men opportunity to have a little bit of leadership in the way their church is going. They asked if we could start them and we told them that we would help them for a couple of months and then they would have to run it themselves. Praise the Lord for men that are making huge strides forward for God.

Please pray for our family. We have been sick more often than healed. This morning I woke up with body aches, a fever, and nausea. I feel different than when I had the colon infection so I think that this time it is just the flu. We have another group coming in on the 31st of this month and staying for two weeks. Please pray that we would be all healed by then.

Jason left to take the Jacobos to San Pedro. They fly out tomorrow at 7:40 am. Once they get through customs then Jason will take off to drive back to Teguc. I loved having them here. They were here three weeks and while they may have gotten tired of us we greatly enjoyed our time with them. The kids are enjoying not having a baby around all the time. Tonight they played with their train tracks, Lego's, play dough, and all of the other things that were put up when Isabelle was here. Isabelle's problem was that she loved to play with whatever the boys were playing with much to their frustration. :-)

Please pray for the Jacobo family as they return back to the states and deputation as they are looking at going to language school the first of May. Please pray with them that they will reach that goal.

Ranting

Nothing much has been happening to me since I have been home with a colon infection. I am doing better, but ate some meat for dinner. I am supposed to only be having soft foods, but since no one else living here at this time is also on this "diet" I made a roast for dinner. How can you make a roast and not have a little piece? I am thankful that I am starting to feel better though.

Is anyone else, like me, getting frustrated with forwards. I get at least three a day. I should be thankful as some people I know get more than that. I usually try to be nice to the person who sent it and at least skim it. I think that if it was so important to you that I see it you would delete the fourteen other headers and retype the subject line so it would look like you actually cared who read it.

I got a forward the other day that stated that the words "In God We Trust" was not on the new $1.00 coin. I was able to email the sender of that email back and tell them that that was not true. The words are on the rim of the coin. My mom showed me one before we left the states. It was really neat looking.

Anyway.....Thank you for letting me get on my soap box for a while. I hope to have more newsy news the next time I write, but I will have to be allowed out of the house first.

Blessings and Sickness

Jason has received a huge opportunity to preach. One of the men in our church works for the president as an electrician. He talked to the Captian of the President's Guards and they have invited Jason to come and speak to the President's Guards on Thursday the 2nd of August and every Thursday thereafter. What a great opportunity this will be. They wanted him to come so badly that they have given him a gas voucher for 4 gallons "to make sure he gets there in time"

Please pray for me. I have spent today very near the bathroom. I went into the ER tonight and am being treated for a colon infection. I am not allowed to eat until Monday and then only soup that day. Pray for my family as I am not a happy sick person.

Back from San Pedro

We made it back from San Pedro Sula yesterday at around 5 PM. We had a great trip, but our way home was a little harried. We left at a good time and as we drove out of San Pedro Sula I was stopped by the police. This is normal as they do random stops. As a very white woman driving a huge truck (our F-250 is twice as big as most Honduran trucks) with Washington State plates I attract a lot of attention. We didn't have any problem with the truck papers (that was a blessing), but I was not carrying Audrey's Passport of Birth Certificate with me. While we are here on a residency visa and so are the kids, they do not have cards until they are teenagers. They stopped us for almost 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do with us. They were going to make us wait while they called Migration or (worst case scenerio) one of our trucks would have had to stay with Audrey in San Pedro Sula while the other truck with one of us would have had to drive to Tegucigalpa, get her birth Certificate out of the safe, and drive back to San Pedro Sula to show them. Thankfully they just let us go.

I was stopped twice on the way home, but everything worked out fine and we were able to make it home with only a slight delay.

We spent the rest of the night trying to get Snuggles back from a family in the church. There was an accident on the roads and we had to go all the way around. On top of that Sunggles got hurt while he was at Teresa's house. We had to take him to the doctor. His leg was all swollen up and so the doctor gave him some Anti-inflamatories and an anti-biotic. He is doing better today. He is running around and having a great time. The saying "It's only a dog" does not apply when is is the first dog we have ever paid for.

Busy Days

I have so much to say and so little time to say it. We are leaving for three days to go to San Pedro Sula. This is the other major city in Honduras and we are taking the Jacobo family there to see it.

Jason took his tests on Friday and they determined that he had Dengue and lifted off his restrictions. Ever since that time we have been running. Praise the Lord for his healing.

Saturday, Xiomara and I started the first lesson in our Discipleship course. It went well and we are excited on the growth in the family. After lunch we went with Adelaida and Armando to their house for lunch. We had a great time, but Adelaida had to go into the hospital with pre-term labor the next morning so please pray for her that she make these last few weeks. She is due on the 24th of August. I told her it would be to much for her to cook for all of us, but she is stuborn (not at all like her friend Cassy) and did it anyway. We are glad that everything turned out good.

Sunday I took over the Sunday School class again. Praise the Lord for the 18 kids that came. We were down a little, but it was a cold (about 75 Degrees) and raining so the adult attendance was also down.

Please pray for our ministry that God would bless it and that it would grow.

Jason's sickness

I was going to try and write last night, but there is just to much to do. It seems like when it rains it pours. Jason has been sick off and on since last Thursday. He seemed to be getting worse and yesterday I finally suggested that if he felt that badly, he needed to go to the doctor.

He went to the Emergency room yesterday and they kept him for a while. They finally concluded that he either has Malaria or Classic Dengue. Both are very similar in the symptoms, but Classic Dengue is not a illness that stays with you. While Malaria is a illness that can reappear at any time. Both illness come and go for a week or more, but Malaria is usually every 24 hours you get sick and the next 24 hours you are well.

Jason is still sick this morning so that is a good sign. He will have to go in Friday morning for some more tests. Please keep him in your prayers. This is especially hard on him as we have visitors that are here and he wants to be able to show them around Honduras.

Electricity

Isn't electricity wonderful! We found out just how wonderful it was when we got it cut yesterday. We haven't even been in Honduras for a month and we got our electricity cut yesterday because the old tennents of our house did not pay their bill and neither did the landlord during the time the house was unoccupied. There is a new rule that when someone doesn't pay for their electricity for two months they cut the service. When you move into a rented house in Honduras all of your utility bills will be in the landlord's name. This is because it can take months to get a new account with electricity, phone, or water. If the landlord keeps the accounts in thier name then the new tennants can move in without problems.

As we were getting in the car yesterday to go to church someone rang our doorbell and gave us a slip saying that they were cutting our electricity because our bill had not been paid for two months. It said that when we paid the bill they would reconnect us. We immediately called our landlord and he told us that they were sending someone to the bank right away to pay it. So we went on to church. We called him several times and finally after the banks had closed and there was nothing we could do about it, he told us that they were in Guaymaca and there are no banks there.

This morning, we got an electrician that was building a house nearby to hook our electricity up for us. This will cost us a fine, but the landlord said that he would pay it.

This afternoon we have to go by the water and phone companies to make sure they don't cut those services too.

Sunday was a great day at church. Bro. Jacobo preached a great message. I missed most of the service as I went to visit Reina and Areli who had not been to church in a while. They were both sick, but we sat and talked for a while and I encouraged them to get involved in church again. I did get to hear the last half and it was a joy to get to hear a service again in English and Spanish at the same time.

After the preaching Brenda wanted her baby dedicated. Jason taught on what dedication of a baby is. How it is the parents pledging to raise the child for Christ and the church is pledging to pray for this family. Jason told Brenda that she could not raise her son for the Lord if she was not saved. She needed to accept Jesus as her Saviour first. She prayed right then and there for her salvation. During this time there were tears rolling down her face. Brenda has told us many times before we left that she was not saved. We tried to get her to pray and accept Jesus, but she never would. She told us to keep praying for her that she would get saved. Please pray that her decision was real and that she will continue to follow the Lord. Please pray also for little Daniel Aaron that he would become a great man for God.

Today we had lots of errands to do. I had to take in a receipt for my China Cabinet as a handle on it broke. It has a 3 month warranty so the store is sending workmen out in the next week to come and fix the handle. I am glad that they didn't make me bring the whole cabinet back in. The handle was broken when I bought, but I didn't want to wait two days for them to deliver a new cabinet so I figured I would just have them fix it later. I also had to stop by the pet shop and get Snuggles' shot records, go to the Honduras Medical Center and pay my insurance bill, and do some grocery shopping.

I am losing patience with my fridge. I do not have a fridge and freezer, but at this time I have two freezers. I have the fridge on the lowest setting, but it is still freezing everything I have. I have to get the milk out an hour before breakfast so that it thaws enough to use. I am glad that the problem is it is getting too cold and not the other way around.

Snuggles has to go to the vet tomorrow. In addition to needing shots, his leg got hurt so tomorrow we are taking him in. While his leg is doing better, he is still limping a lot so we are going to have it looked at just to be on the safe side.

I am in the process of getting my office done. It is a lot of work, but I am glad to finally get the time to start it.

Jason is getting over being sick and Audrey is starting to have a runny nose. Please pray for us as our week only gets busier from here on out.

Today I finally got to go shopping. I was encouraged by the number of American items I found, but it was mighty disheartening when I found out that Pricemart no longer carries Cream of Mushroom Soup. Now I will have to go back to making my own. :-(

It has been good to have the Jacobos here. We are trying to cram as much information into their heads as we can in the few weeks they are here. Today I took Abigail to see different places to buy furniture and household items. They are not sure at this time where they will be living when they come here so a lot can change, but at least she will have a good idea on what is available and what she will need to bring.

Snuggles is doing good. He learned how to get out of his box last night. When we woke up this morning there were several surprises on our floor. He doesn't like to do anything in his bed, but he has no problem using the floor.

Today while we were shopping I had the distinct honor of rolling over my heel while I was pulling the shopping cart behind me. It hit it so hard that it took my shoe off. It takes much coordination to do something like that. Needless to say, my foot hurts a lot. I am hoping that I will be able to walk a little better tomorrow

Adelaida, a lady in our church, is pregnant and about 7 months along. She has been having a hard time finding someone to watch her 3 year old son while she goes to her doctor's appointments. I volunteered to watch him and I think that they were so surprised and pleased with my offer. Adelaida has three living children, has had one stillbirth, and had one baby that lived for a few hours. The doctors are keeping a close eye on her. This means that she has to travel the hour and a half by bus to and from the city once a week and spend most of the day with ultrasounds and tests. We praise the Lord that everything is going good at this time and please pray that everything would continue to stay good.

Home Again

Finally I am set up to continue updates on my blog. We have been in Honduras since June 13th and I am starting to feel like my life is getting back to order again. I finally have a desk to sit at and answer emails.

It seems like so many little things have gone wrong since we got back. I am glad to say that I must be used to Honduras as none of these things have fazed me much. The worst thing would have to be about two weeks after we got home we had the daughter of missionary friends, the Jacksons, over to help me unpack while Jason was gone. Unfortunately Jason has had many meetings with nationals that he did not set up, but had to attend which has left me to do most of the unpacking. Jenny Jackson came over to help me one day and as I was driving her home on Saturday afternoon, I hit a dog. I was passing a bus on a two lane road (all roads in Honduras are two lanes, one each way) a dog walked out in front of the bus and just looked at me. I slammed on my brakes, but it was either hit the dog or the bus and I decided the dog would be a better choice. I was almost to my turnoff so I kept driving. According to Honduran law, if you hit a dog and it damages your car then the owner of the dog is responsible. The only problem with this was that we had just gotten our truck (small Mazda 2 wheel drive, not the one we drove from the states) back from where we had stored it this past year and it didn't have a warning triangle or fire extinguisher in it. If I would have pressed the issue with the dog owners they probably wouldn't have been able to pay anyway and I would have gotten a ticket for not having a triangle and fire extinguisher in my car. Once I did stop I saw the water gushing from my radiator and decided to call the Jacksons to come and rescue us. They came and followed me down the very long hill to their church. They stored the truck for me until Jason could come home and get it fixed. It cost about $150.00 to fix so we were thankful that it wasn't more than that as it could have been much worse. I am just glad that the dog did not hit anyone as it flew to the side of the road.

Tomorrow our first group from the states comes in. For the next six weeks we will have visitors in our house all but three days. We are going to be busy, but loving it at the same time.

Last Sunday after church we went out looking for a puppy. The only place that we could find one was at a pet shop. They had four dogs for sale and we bought the one we named Snuggles. He is a 7 week old Pug. He loves to play and when Audrey actually lets his feet touch the ground he is running all over the place. The kids love him and if I can get him house trained before I kill him then I will like him too.

Now you are pretty much caught up on what has been going on here. Not much besides unpacking, organizing, and dog killing. I will try to add a post every day or at least every other day. So just keep checking back to see what else happens to us.