Sad Drive Home

Tonight our friends, the Jacksons, called and asked us to help them move. We went out and helped them make one trip. They are still working to finish their house so we could only bring over enough things to fill one of the rooms. With their two trucks and our big green one we made it all in one trip.

On our way home it was very rainy and foggy. Jason almost hit a drunk guy that was walking in the middle of road. We praise the Lord that we were able to advert this accident. As we were coming back into Tegucigalpa we saw a lot of police lights flashing in front of a school. As we got nearer we saw why. There was a young man dead in the middle of the street. We don't know if it was a student or just someone who had tried to cross the street at the wrong time. It made me think of the sadness of the situation. The area we passed through does not have a good church nearby. They only have the Jehovah's Witnesses and Catholics. Imagine this young man coming home from school not knowing that he would be stepping out into an eternity, most likely without Christ.

How easily we get bogged down by the every day life of living in Honduras and work in our church. At time it is sad to say that we can forget why we are here, and that is to see lost souls come to the Saviour. My prayer is that we will not soon forget that every person we see is one day going to be in eternity. We may be the deciding factor in where that eternity will be spent, Heaven or Hell.

Prayer Time

Not much has been happening lately in the Tate house. Jason has been busy, but I have been at home with sick kids. It has gotten cold here. While mid-60's is not cold for most people it is for us. The houses are not airtight or heated and made to stay cool. So when it is the cold time of the year, it gets really cold inside. Whenever this change of year happens the kids always get sick with colds.

Last night when we were having our family devotions and Audrey was praying, Joey started kissing me. I quietly told him to stop as we were praying. He whispered in my ear, "We're not praying, we're kissing". I almost lost it and started laughing. I fear we are raising a Don Juan here.

Sunday

I was meaning to type this up yesterday,but unfortunately it didn't happen.

We had a great day on Sunday. It was very rainy and Jason preached in Sabana Grande for a missionary that is in the states for a few weeks. Therefore, it was my privilege to drive the big green monster (or Ford F-250) to church. We stopped to pick up some people in Los Jutes, but I wasn't expecting very many. Jason had called them and told them that they would have to walk to the highway and I would pick them up there. It takes them about 30 minutes to walk to the highway and when it is raining it is not the most fun thing to do. I was amazed that when I got to the turn off point that there were quite a few people waiting on me.

Church attendance was down because of the rain, but we did have 17 in the service and about 20 kids in for Sunday School. We are thankful for the faithful people that God is giving us.

As Jason was in Sabana Grande, Louis Alonzo from Iglesia Baptista Peniel (Peniel Baptist Church) preached for us. He is a great preacher. He is easily understood to everyone.

Rueben, who was in charge of leading the service and the electrician for the President, had to leave during the preaching as the President's son called him in to come and work. Rueben told him that if he wanted him to work on Sunday that he would have to come and pick him up. This gave Rueben time to lead the singing and stay for most of the preaching.

I was greatly relieved when I was able to turn the truck around to leave without hitting anyone or anything. I had Luis Alonzo in front and Douglas in the back and they did a great job of helping me. The road in front of the church is only about 6 inches wider than the length of the truck so it takes quite a few movements to turn it around. That was my biggest concern, but even to do that I had to put the truck in to 4 WD as the road was so muddy it couldn't get traction.

I am thankful for the great day we had and even more thankful that I don't have to drive every week.

Augustine

We have a young man in our church named Augustine. He is someone who was led to the Lord this past summer. We have seen great growth in his life. He has a burden for the people in his area (he is not from Ojojona) and we have started having weekly services in his uncle's home. We have seen a lot of people from that service receive Christ as their Saviour. We even pick up a truck load full and take them to church in Ojojona every Sunday. At first we were just taking Augustine, but lately many more from his neighborhood have been coming. Unfortunately Augustine has not attended in the past few weeks.

Our neighbor, Douglas, who is friends with Augustine (they were baptized on the same day), told us that Augustine is trying to go "wetback" to the states. Douglas told us that he has not been coming as he is afraid to talk to us about it. He has gotten encouragement from some people in the states that it would be a good thing to do.

Please pray for us as we try and deal with this situation. We know that God is never in favor of someone breaking the law to make money. This is the first time in our ministry that we have had to deal with a situation like this, but it is not an uncommon thing. Please pray that we will have wisdom in this situation and that God would get a hold of Augustine's heart.

A Bee In My Pocket

What are the 9 words that strike fear in every mom. They are "Hey Mom, I have a bee in my pocket". These same words were spoken to me by Jordan. I had asked him to beat a rug for me. He came in with his hand over his shirt pocket. I thought he had confused a bee with another type of bug. No, it turns out that Jordan knows exactly what a bee looks like and he had captured a live one that was trying to get out of his pocket. What I don't understand is how he was able to capture a live bee with nothing more than his two hands. And more than that, how he was able to put it into a dress shirt pocket without even getting stung. He is going to be one of those kids that if they make it to adulthood without killing himself we will be amazed. This morning I also found a slug that he had bought into his room. We made a science project out of that one with a little bit of salt.

This past week and a half have been CRAZY. Jason has been gone to meetings most of the time and there just isn't enough hours in the day to do everything.

In the past two weeks we have had a great baptismal service (two young men were baptized), two record high Sunday school classes, and so much rain that we are water logged. There are two types of rain in Honduras. The first is a fierce rain that washes everything (garbage) down the rivers. This clogs up every drain in the country which in turn produces massive flooding. The second type of rain is the soft Seattle rain. It completely soaks everything which causes every hillside and retaining wall to slide into the river which in turn produces flooding too. The rain of the past two weeks has been the second kind. I have never seen the roads in Ojojona so thick with mud. I am so thankful that I don't have to walk to church.

Yesterday we had 40 kids in Sunday school and we were missing some of our faithful kids. It is such a blessing to have Xiomara and Nelly help me with crowd control and attendance. Last time we were in Honduras I did everything myself. I am so thankful for the help. We had a meeting with the Sunday school workers to decide what was going to be done for Christmas. We decided on a drama and kids choir. We will have a small lunch for the kids and their parents after this and are hoping that we will have a good attendance and that this will get some of the parents interested in church.

Finally a moment to breathe

My life has slowed down for a few days. This past week I have been unable to post a blog for the sake that I haven't had a moment to spare.

Jason left this week for a meeting in Ocotal. It is three day meeting where he will teach an intensive course from the Bible Institute. As we don't know what most of these pastors have taken we decided to start with the course called Leadership. The only bad thing is that the person who wrote the notes for this class didn't do it in an easy to follow format. The teacher's notes were somewhat outlined, but the student notes were just one big paragraph with very small blanks for writing words in the notes. Last weekend I started to format the notes to make them outlined for easier following. There ended up being 50 pages. After I formatted the students I had to reformat the teacher's notes and correct some grammar problems. I was glad to get them done before Jason left. Normally it would not take more than a day to do this, but I am also teaching school, doing discipleship, and taking care of the family so it took a few more days. I really enjoyed doing these notes even though it was a lot of work. It made me realize how much I miss secretarial work.

Jason wanted to do things right so we bought one of those machines that puts plastic binders to make a book. They looked so great, but I am really tired. It is amazing how much of a difference something like that makes.

Yesterday we stayed in and got caught up on school and house cleaning. Today the kids and I were going crazy. They kept asking if we could get out of the house. I had some things to do so we went out and ran errands. For a treat for both of us I took them to Popeye's to eat. The Popeye's near our house just installed Wireless Internet for free. I can get Internet at home, but sitting here typing my blog while the kids are playing is relaxing. And on top of that I don't have to wash dishes when I get home.

Normally when we come here we are running to church or somewhere else and the kids don't get to play. I told them that today they could play as long as they were good and my battery didn't run dead.