This Week

This week has held blessing and struggles for us.

Sunday we got to church to see a truck of our Sunday School students being driven somewhere else. We asked them where they were going and found out that Iglesia Bautista Nuevo Camino was picking kids up on a "truck" route for their church. This church is part of Baptist Medical and Dental Mission and they have a habit of going into an area where there is already a good Baptist church and stealing all of the members. They have done this many times and as they have all of their funding come from the states, they can do whatever they want. This is not a missionary run church, but a church with a pastor that gets support from the states. They are Baptist in name only. They do not have the same beliefs that we do. Their pastor even believes that if one person from the family attends their church then the whole family is saved. This in direct contradiction to what the Bible says. Last week we had 9 kids in my Sunday school class. While I know it is not about numbers, it is nice to see a full class. I am so thankful for the 9 kids that came knowing that all they were going to get was love and teaching from the Bible.

Sunday morning during our church service we had a baby dedication service. We dedicated Ruben Isaac Zelaya Santos, Jason Alex Rodriguez Lopez, Joey, and Matthew. It was so sweet to see the tears in Ruben Sr's eyes as Jason told how God had used their lives in our church. Jason preached that morning on what it means to dedicate your child to the Lord. Even though our Sunday School attendance was low, the Lord gave us a great adult attendance even though several of our faithful were out sick.

After church, Chad Minnick came into town. He and his wife, Julie, are adopting a girl from Honduras. Normally he stays in a motel, but we offered to let him stay with us and he accepted. We had a great night of fellowship. They needed a place for Magda, the girl who they are adopting, to stay. So he was coming down to get her situated in the house of the uncle of the other girl they adopted a year ago. It wasn't the best place for her to go, but it would be a home where she would get at least food every day.

Monday morning as Jason was talking to Chad, he offered to let Magda stay with us. He didn't talk to me first, so when I heard it I was stunned that he had thought of that as it hadn't entered my mind. Then, almost instantly, my mind went back to the boy we had living with us a few years ago and all of the problems that we had. I felt bad because I am sure the utter terror showed on my face. Magda is 14 years old, but emotionally she is about the same age as Audrey. Chad decided to let her stay with us. I was so glad we could make a difference in her life even for a short time.

Magda has been having a great time. She loves playing with Audrey and they are two peas in a pod. They only time they are separated is when they are doing schoolwork. Although Magda is taller than Audrey, her diet hasn't been great lately and she is super skinny. They wear the same size at this time. They have been sharing clothes and everything. We know that the first few weeks are easy and calm and so we are perfectly ready for things to take a turn for the worse as that is what happened before. Magda is so eager to please and is such a joy that we are hoping that she will make the transition smoothly.

Wednesday I came down with a cold and had to go into the doctor on Thursday as I could not stop coughing. My doctor gave me several medicines as well as a prescription for a nebulization medicine. I am feeling better now, but on Friday Magda and Matthew got sick too. We had to take both of them into the doctor. Thankfully, Dr. Munoz saw Magda for free and gave us her medication is samples too so it didn't cost us anything.

It has been a fun time of adjusting for us with having Magda in the house. She is a HUGE blessing. She helps with the dishes and laundry as well as any time Matthew cries, she picks him up and holds him until I can take care of his needs.

To cap off this roller coaster week, I got a call yesterday as we were working on a homework project for Audrey. Jason called and told me that he had just gotten in a car accident. He asked me to call and have Alan Jackson come and help him and then he hung up on me. I am a pessimist and so therefore I assumed the worse. I called Alan and then called Jason back. He told me where he was and asked me to get the police and then hung up on me again without giving me any more information. I hurried and got the kids in our other car and drove to the police station. Once there I ran inside and talked to the two police officers that are assigned to the town of San Buenaventura. They told me that they were not transit officers so they could not help me, but they gave me the phone number for the police in Sabana Grande (a town about 20 minutes away) where there is a transit police station. I called them and they told me, "We will send someone out as soon as we can." When you know how the Honduran system works that is not very comforting. I drove to where Jason was and was relieved to find out that he was ok. The accident wasn't as bad as I was imagining. He was dropping someone off and so was stopped on the side of the road. A driver coming along was not watching where he was going and slammed into the back of Jason. Two ladies flew out of the truck bed and landed on the grass, but they got up and walked away. We tried to get them to go to a hospital to be checked out, but they didn't want to. One man who was also riding in the back, was sore and pretty cut up on his arms. The man who caused the accident took him to the hospital. Our truck (the small one) is pretty damaged. The back end is all crushed in and something is loose on the front of the truck that causes it to rattle pretty badly when it is running. Jason and Alan took the truck to a mechanic/body shop near our house and the owner told us that the man who caused the accident is a friend of his and he will make sure that he pays. Once everything was worked out the police finally showed up. Since everything was already decided they just left again. Jason is very sore today. His back and neck hurt a lot, but we are so thankful that he was not hurt worse.

It seems like the discouragements always come right before a great victory. Our soulwinning program in Ojojona has picked up and we have seen faithfulness in many people. Many people have visited our church for the first time. The church is growing and we are excitedly waiting to see what God is going to do through us in 2009.

Ticket

Yesterday we had to go into town for a few errands. We were planning to go in around 2:00 in the afternoon, but Alan Jackson called us and asked us if we wanted to go to lunch with them. We decided to go in early and have lunch with them. First though, they were going to take us to a new store that is really good.

As we were leaving Hondutel (the phone company) pulled up to our house. We haven't had phone service since we moved in and they finally got out to fix the line (only 2 months after we requested it). We called Alan and told him that we would have to wait around for a few minutes before we could leave. Hondutel told us that they had to go to the main office and pick up something they need and then they would be back.

We went to our neighbor's house and asked if they could come stay in the house so Hondutel could work and we didn't have to wait for them to get back. Our neighbors are Bible Institute students and their house is separated from our house so that you can't even see the other when in one, but they are part of the same property. When we rented this house we requested that they also rent us the little house for the same price. Jose Luis and Suyapa keep on eye on things when we are not around and for that they get to live rent free thus enabling him to work less and attend more Bible Institute classes.

We drove to Teguc with no problems and as we were heading to the new store, we had to make a u-turn. Jason saw two police officers standing on the side of the road and was almost going to go down to the next intersection, but the small bus in front of us made a u-turn and so we decided that it was legal and Jason started to make a u-turn. Just then the police waved for Jason to pull over. Very few police have cars so they wave you over and you must pull over. Who knows what would happen if you didn't, but they carry guns so I don't want to find out. Anyway, we pulled over and the police officer proceeded to ask for our identification and papers for our truck.

Jason gave them to him and then he told Jason that he was too far over in the turn lane and thus was a danger to himself and everyone else on the road. He started making out the ticket. Jason is so calm. I, on the other hand don't like being taken advantage of. So I was furious. But I was good and kept my mouth shut. I do have a frustrating problem though that when I get really mad I cry. So as the tears were running down my cheeks, the other police officer standing with his partner came over. He proceeded to explain to us how dangerous our actions were. That made me even madder as I am not an idiot and I know that we did nothing illegal or harmful to ourselves or others. He then told us that if we would help his partner out he probably would not give us the ticket. Jason told them that we are Christians and don't participate in bribes.

We now have three days to pay a fee based anywhere from 900 Lempira ($50.00) up to 1,815 Lempira ($96.00). While I know that this is cheap compared to the states, it is frustrating to pay when you don't deserve it. There also is no way to fight or complain about tickets.

The police officer told us when he gave us the ticket that we had been in a lot of accidents. We bought our truck from missionary Mike Lane who had been in several small accidents. They are all minor and only can be seen if you are looking for them. We were also in an accident while we were in a store. We came out and our truck was in two parking spots instead of one and the bumper was just about yanked off. Of course no one saw anything. The security guard (who is paid to watch the cars) told us that how does he know we didn't come into the store with it looking like that. Oh well, what can you do.

We have a feeling that those police officers were just waiting for a gringo to come by and look for an excuse to pull them over.

Abigail

There are so many kids that we love to have in Sunday school. They are excited to come and love to participate in class time and in church. And then there is Abigail. Abigail is a strange case for us. Her cousins (that live with her family) used to be some of our most faithful kids. They loved coming until one of them got saved and wanted to get baptized. Then their maternal grandmother didn't want them to come anymore. Abigail is 13 and never was faithful. Lately though she has become very faithful. Her paternal grandparents come very faithfully and she comes with them. She has a bad attitude when she gets into the truck and acts like she is being forced to come. What is funny is that if she didn't want to come there is no one to make her.

Abby is a big problem in church at this time. I am constantly having to chase her back into church. For the past month she has been complaining about feeling like she is going to throw up right when the sermon is in full swing. It would be nice to sit through a service without having to chase her down. She obviously wants to be there as no one is forcing her. I am praying that God would really get a hold of her heart and that she would change her behaviour. She claims to have accepted Christ as her Saviour when our church was here.

Some day, if we can find the space, we want to start a class for girls of this age. We have four of them at this time, and it would be so good to have a class especially designed for them. First, we have to finish the classroom and then add on the 2nd story for this to happen. I probably won't happen for a while, but please pray with us for this. We are tired of losing girls of this age. Just last week I had a 14 year old, that used to come to Sunday school, come to church and show us her new baby.

Registering Matthew

A few days ago we went into Teguc to register Matthew. Knowing that it would take a while, we hired Jenny Jackson to watch the kids and keep them going on school. We left at 9:00 am and got into town at around 10:00. We decided to go to the registry first and then do our running around. We got there and had a hard time finding a parking spot. We saw a huge line outside the registry. So instead of just getting in line we decided to push and shove like everyone else to trying to get inside and ask which line we are supposed to be in. There are two doors leading into the registry and both have lines that go around the building. We finally pushed our way up to the door and as politely as I could I started yelling, "Excuse me, I just have a question", in Spanish of course, when the guard opened the door. Finally he got to me and I asked him what we needed to do to get our baby registered. He told us that we had to be there at 8:00 am and get a number. He told us that there are only 50 numbers given out a day and over 300 people who show up to get a number. That means if we want to be one of the first 50, we must be there at 6:00 am to be one of the first 50 in line to get a number.

I was so frustrated. When we registered Joey there was a line, but it only took about 2 hours to get helped. It seems that with time the process should get better and more time efficient. To deal with just 50 people a day is crazy. A good worker could do that in less than 3 hours.

We decided to take Matthew to San Buenaventura (the town where we live) and register him there. We thought that going to Teguc would get us the papers much faster. So the next day, we went to the registry in San Buena and found out that the man in charge of registering was in Teguc. They took our phone number and told us they would call us when he came back. Later that afternoon Jason checked back in with them and was told that while the man was there, they had not been given the official book for births yet. They had the one for deaths and marriages, but not births. We checked back a few days later and they still hadn't received it. They suggested that since the land we own is part of Santa Ana (another town nearby), we should try to go there to register Matthew. We did yesterday and finally we got him registered. It will take us about a week to get his official birth certificate, but that is fine with us.

We need a Forma Larga (Long Form) certificate as well as the normal one for the US government. We had a time explaining to the registrar what we needed, but finally she understood and told us that she would have it ready at the same time, but it would be handwritten as they don't have even a typewriter. I hope the US government doesn't have a problem with that. Once we get the papers in order we will go and try to get his US citizenship. We are in a little hurry this time. We need to have everything done before tax time. :-)

My Birthday

Today was my birthday and it didn't start out to good. Matthew decided that I did not need to sleep last night, so I didn't wake up in the best mood. We did school and had to leave at 1:00 pm to go to Teguc for Dr's appointments for Matthew and Joey.

We have been having problems with bugs (Joey looks like he has the chicken pox, but it is some kind of insect bite) so we decided to set of bug bombs when we left for our appointments. We took the time to make sure all of the lights and electronic equipment was off, any food was put away, and the windows were shut. We then set off the bug bombs and ran out of the house. We started looking around and realized that we had shut two dogs and a cat in the house. The only dog that wasn't in the house was Snuggles (our pug) and he was in the neighbor's yard barking at their visitors. So we can back in the house and quickly found Anne (the mutt) and Mittens (the cat) and got them out. We couldn't find Max though. He is the husky mix that was given to us after Goldie (my Golden lab puppy) died. Jason and I held our breath and ran through the house several times and couldn't find him. This is unusual as Max is the one dog who will not stray from the yard. He was hit in the eye before we got him and is cross eyed now (we found out after we got him). This makes him timid. He is a great as a watchdog though as he sits by the front door while we are gone. Since he is a bigger dog everyone is afraid of him.

Anyway, we couldn't find Max. Jason and I decided we just had to leave him and hope he wasn't dead when we got back. Jason asked me to go and chain Snuggles up so we didn't lose him. As I was going into the neighbor's yard the fence snagged my shirt and ripped the sleeve (of course it was my favorite shirt). So once again I held my breath and entered the house. I quickly pulled a shirt out of my drawer (thankfully it was wrinkle free) and ran out of the house by way of the guest room entrance. We had shut the doors leading to the guest room from inside the house as we didn't buy enough bug bombs. When I got inside the guest room I took a huge breath of air and was greeted by Max who had found a nice cool room to lay in. I called him and being gun shy like he is he ran away from me.

I had my new shirt in my hand and picked up Max to take him outside. I got him out and got into the truck. With a great deal of difficulty, I changed my shirt (modestly) while Jason was driving, but when I was going to put it on I felt a wet spot. Thinking it was damp from the line I continued to put it on anyway. Once it was all the way on I noticed a strange smell and smelt the wet spot on the neck of my t-shirt. It was then I realized that as I picked up Max to take him outside in his excitement he had helped me "wash" my shirt again.

So I got to put back on my ripped shirt. I was going to try to do it modestly again, but it was not easy the first time I did it. So I crouched down on the floorboard and told the kids to shut their eyes and changed really fast. Thankfully we were on a deserted road.

After all that it didn't seem like anything else could go wrong and thankfully it didn't. We made it to the appointments on time and Matthew was given a clean bill of health. The doctor wanted him to put on at least a pound in these past two weeks, but Matthew gained 1lb 12 oz. Joey's arm also looks good and in a week and a half will get the stitches removed.

After the doctor's appointments Jason took me to an Argentinian Steakhouse and it was so yummy. The only way it would have been better is if they had served baked potatoes. YUMMY!!!

As we were leaving dinner, Jason had to run into the store and so I sat in the car with the kids and told them to start working on the last of their seatwork. It was then Audrey realized that she couldn't find her Spelling book. We tore the car apart and couldn't find it. Thankfully the restaurant was within 5 miles from the doctor's office. We returned and found it right away. I was thanking God for that one as we found it in another part of the doctor's office than where we were, but it was visible from the main doors.

We came home and had cake. Jason did a great job buying the cake. It was very good. Unfortunately he undid that good deed by telling everyone that I was turning 39 today. :-)