Blessed Misunderstanding

I don't know if anyone reading this has ever made a mistake, but I make lots of them. While I speak and understand Spanish pretty well, there are still times when I fail to interpret something correctly. Yet when this happened the other day it led to a huge blessing.

We have a project in the church called Cookie Project Honduras. It is a ministry based out of a church in Louisiana. This ministry provides us with the ingredients and the money to run a nutritional program for malnourished children. If someone wants to have their child in the program, they must come to the church and Jason or I measure them with a special ruler. With this ruler that measures with centimeters, you measure their arm right above the elbow. If they measure anywhere in the yellow or red, then they are entered into the program.

Twice a month we have two ladies from our and Bible Institute come and bake from 600 to 800 nutritional cookies in a typical Honduran oven. This provides them with a little bit of income and gives them a way to serve.

The cookies are made from a recipe that is high in protein and nutrients. Most of the children love them. Each child gets one cookie mixed with milk and a vitamin premix. Once they eat that cookie and drink a cup a milk, they are given a cookie to snack on for the walk back home. We have been blessed to see this program grow and God has blessed. We have enjoyed seeing many of the mothers come to know the Lord. We presently have three mothers doing discipleship and two more have expressed interest. We just need to sit down with them and come up with a time to meet every week.

Because this program is funded by many organizations in the states that would not give to a ministry, but will to a charity, we are not allowed to push religion or require church attendance for admittance in the program. We wouldn't anyway. While we love to witness, we have found that people will agree to anything if they feel they are being pressured, but once they leave you will never see them again. We are there to love on them and once they feel loved and accepted, they start asking questions and that opens the door to witnessing. Our goal it to see souls saved and spiritual growth and we have seen great results from God.

Since I am not able to go every day to distribute the cookies I am there every Monday (baring sickness) to talk to the ladies, correct any issues, and measure any children that need to be measured. Last Monday morning we got a phone call from a lady asking if we could measure her daughter. Jason told her to be at the church that afternoon and we would measure her. When I arrived at the church that afternoon there were two families with their children waiting for me to measure them. The first one I measured was Nissi and she measured 14 cm so we admitted her to the program. The second a little girl named Monica was also measured. It was with her that I had the "blessed misunderstanding".

Monica Fernanda

A few weeks before, I was sick and Jason measured a young girl from the church in Aragua. Jason thought she should be in the program so he told the lady to come back and bring her birth certificate so we could get all of her information. When I was measuring Monica her mother told me, "Pastor Jason told me to bring her to be measured." I, however, thought she said that Jason had already measured her and told her to bring in her information to be admitted to the program. So I thought that this was the lady from Aragua. She measured right on the line and since she had just turned four it was a judgement call for me. Normally we would have them wait a few months and be measured again. But because of my misunderstanding, we entered her in the program. 

The mother's name is Eva and she has never been to our church before, but is friends with one of the ladies that goes to our church. On Wednesday night she came to church with her friend, Carla. She enjoyed the services and was asking questions about salvation. Bro. Ernesto talked to her after the service, but she did not make a decision that night.

The next day was Ernesto and Nelly's turn to work at Cookie Project. When Eva came with Monica to get her cookies, she started asking them a lot of questions. While she was sitting there watching Monica eat her cookies and drink her milk, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Saviour. After Ernesto and Nelly prayed with Eva, they talked to her about discipleship. Sitting nearby was Sulema who has a young son in the project. As she was leaving, she asked if Bro. Ernesto and Hna.Nelly would disciple her. She has been attending a Pentecostal church that has a woman pastor just down the road from our church and she is not really sure what salvation really is or if she is even saved. The first two lessons of discipleship deal with salvation so we are going to use this as a tool to help her to understand what the Bible says and how she can know for sure that she is on her way to Heaven. None of this would have happened if would have understood Eva the first time. Praise the Lord he allowed me to fail to interpret Eva correctly.

We are so excited to see what God is going to do with this ministry. There are many mothers that at the beginning of the project would say hi to us, but that was it. They were shy or embarrassed by their situation so they wouldn't come to church. Now, when we visit them at their houses or see them on the road, they always stop and talk with us. It is such a blessing to be able to be a help and to be included in their lives. 

Fabulous End of the Year

Last night as we sat down as a family and had a time of devotions, I was struck by how much God has blessed us this past year. Often we are too busy to just sit down and ponder all that God has done for us. We have a house that we now own (or will when we are done paying the bank for it), two cars, two cats, four dogs, seven chickens, and most of all four healthy kids. During our prayer time it was a joy to hear the kids pray about what they were thankful for and the desired they had for the new year. It was funny to hear Matthew pray for snow. That is one request that I am pretty sure will not be coming true while we are in Honduras (at least we hope not). Jordan thanked God for all of the things that he had given us and it was quite a list, but it did my heart good to hear him as God to help us to reach many new people in the year to come.

Living on the mission field we miss our friends and families that we have left behind, but it is such a joy to gain "family" here. Recently, I got a call from a young girl, Michelle, who has been coming to our church since August. She came with her sister and got saved. While visiting Karen and Nixon, her mom and "stepdad", they also got saved. Michelle had to go and stay with her dad in another town for Christmas and the New Year. Every day when she calls her mom, she asks about Hermana (Sister) Cassy and Audrey. On Sunday, she was finally allowed to call her mom when she was at church and got to talk to me. She was so excited to tell me that she would be home for church on Wednesday night. Her mother, Karen, is a blessing too. We are praying that she will get married soon. She will help in any way that I will let her. It is such a joy to see someone with such a desire for the Lord. Even though she lives quite a ways from church (too far to walk), she is always waiting on us as we drive by to pick her up for church. We NEVER have to wait on her. We will be beginning discipleship with her soon.

This last year we began some new family traditions. On Christmas Eve, the kids opened a gift that had new pajamas, fuzzy socks, and Christmas cups for each of them. There was also a Christmas movie in the box. We had them put on their jammies and we all sat down and watched the new Christmas movie. After that we watched It's a Wonderful Life. We put out a plate of banana bread, cookies, and peanut butter fudge. We all ate what we wanted and enjoyed the time together. Matthew is the only one who didn't make it. He fell asleep halfway through It's a Wonderful Life. We decided that this would be a fun way to end the year too. Unfortunately, it didn't go according to plan. Matthew really wanted to watch Wall-E so we decided that he would watch that while all the older ones played Train Dominoes. We didn't get done playing until after 1:00 am. While we didn't watch movies and eat snacks, we had a lot of fun. Julie (the young lady who is staying with us for a few weeks), Audrey, Jason, and I ended the year playing games and laughing a lot while the boys watched Thomas the Train and Flipper. What a blessing to be able to have fun and make memories. I am pretty sure that Train Dominoes is going to become a New Year's tradition in the Tate house.

To The Hospital We Must Go

Yesterday I was able to spend a night at the local government run hospital here. It was an eye opener as to how much we as US citizens have so much for which to be thankful.

Friday morning we got a call from Carla, a young mother in the church. She had to take her daughter to the small private hospital in Ojojona. She was sick with a fever and was in a lot of pain. We called her a few hours later and she reported that the doctors diagnosed Isella with a amoeba cyst, but she had bought the medicine and was resting. 

Around 6:30 pm that night, we got a call from a frantic Carla. Isella was crying every time she moved and her fever was back up. She asked if I would take her to the main public hospital. I left with Bro. Ernesto (for my security), Carla, Nora (her sister), and Isella. Normally Jason is the one who makes hospital runs as Hospital Escuela is not the safest place in the world.

We arrived at around 7:30 and stood in line. We couldn't even figure out where the line was so we had to ask. There were probably about 100 people in this little room and only about 30 chairs. Once we figured out where the line was Nora stood in it while Carla and I rotated holding Isella. The line was progressing fairly quickly. It only took us about an hour to make it to the chairs. Once Carla had a seat, Nora and I stood off to the side and talked.

The line was moving fairly well and Carla was soon in the front row. It was about 10:00 pm and I was thinking we would soon be on our way home. However, I didn't expect to have one emergency after another.

One young man was brought in by ambulance. We heard yelling and screaming in pain and then looked outside and saw the ambulance. They sat outside with the young man in the ambulance for about 30 minutes before a doctor came out and saw him. They then proceeded, with one man on each side of him holding his arms, to walk him into the examination rooms. My first though was why don't they have a stretcher to put this young man on. They also brought in two new-born babies. One was brought in one of the plastic new-born bed you normally find in the hospital. The other was just in a plastic box. It made me so happy that I didn't have to come to this hospital to have my children.

The doctors had to come out several times and tell the people to stop opening the examination room door and walking in to insist that their child be seen first. Unless it is an emergency, they would be seen in the order of arrival. One young lady said her baby had been having convulsions. The doctor just looked at her with disbelief and said, "Tell me the truth, when was the last time she had convulsions?". The mother honestly admitted that she hadn't had any in two days and took her place in the line.

Carla sat in the same chair from 10:00 until 1:45 when thankfully, she was finally able to be seen. I didn't get to go into the exam room, but I watched when Carla went in. I was shocked to see some of the beds covered with a sheet that hadn't been changed for at least that night. Others were just covered with big black plastic bags. 

She was in and out with the doctor confirming the diagnosis of the other clinic and then prescribing her the medicine needed. The doctor said that part of Isella's problem was that she was given a prescription for an adult and that was tearing her stomach up even worse.

When we finally had everything done we had to go to the pharmacy to get the medicine. The first order of business was to find where the pharmacy was in this building. We found it, but I was shocked as I walked down the halls to see how many people were laying on the cold, hard floor sleeping. Some had brought newspaper to lay on. On our way to the pharmacy we saw probably 200 or more. I was never so thankful that I was able to go home and sleep on a nice comfortable bed.

We left right at 2:00 am and I was never so glad to leave any place in my life. The floors were very dirty, the bathrooms didn't have water, lights, or even toilet paper. Two babies had thrown up when we were in the waiting room and when we had left that hadn't even been cleaned up yet. It made me so thankful that we have a private hospital to take our children to. 

We had to stop by a pharmacy to buy a dosage syringe since they didn't give you any way to measure the medicine you were supposed to give the patient. After that I had to stop for gas and then I was free to go home.

I pulled into the gas station and they started filling my tank. I was finally done and was putting my debit card back in my purse when I was side-swiped by a drunk taxi driver. Thankfully all he did was transfer his white paint to my bumper, but he drove off like his tail was on fire. Bro. Ernest and Nora were able to get the number on his taxi and told me that we needed to stop and report it. So, we had one more stop on our way home. 

I was unsure if I should stop or just drive by the police station. Normally there is someone outside checking the cars that drive by. When we got close there was a car in front of me that stopped and the police in the building rushed out and saluted. I rolled down my window and one of the police tried to wave my past, but I signaled that I needed to talk to them. Soon my car was surrounded by police. They took the information and called to the other police in the area to look out for this taxi. They were very nice. I thanked them and we were finally able to go home. 

I finally got home just after 3:00 am. I was so glad to have had this experience and I was doubly glad that Carla felt comfortable enough with us to call us when she needed help. This is something we try to encourage in the people in our church. They don't always make use of our help though. I was also thankful for the time to get to know Nora. Her kids are faithful in my class, but she has never come to church. I will be writing another blog to introduce you all to this sweet lady.

Living in a Third World Country

Many times it seems that it is all I can do to get one thing done. This past week was full of fun, unexpected events, and brakes in our plans.

It all started when we were coming home from church on Sunday. The brakes in our truck were making a funny sound. Normally brakes start squeaking to let you know you are going to have to change them soon, but ours sounded like metal on metal and didn't seem to be responding all that well. Since we were coming home to have lunch, Jason decided to leave the truck parked and take our small car instead. You do not want to drive down the winding Honduran roads when you are not 100% sure of your brakes. Normally taking the car is not a problem, but we were also taking some of our church people to the service in Los Jutes. So we (the kids and I) had to stay at home from this service. I was excited that maybe I could watch the service from our home church, but unfortunately, the power went out for several hours so that didn't materialize.

First thing Monday morning, Jason took the brakes off of the truck and found out that we had no brake pad left. So he took the parts and went into Tegucigalpa to get the new brakes. He got to the store, having called ahead to make sure they had the parts, and was told that the brakes wouldn't be in until the next day. So home he came with no brake pads. 

Tuesday I had a visit scheduled with some of our ladies, so Jason once again went to Tegucigalpa early to get the parts. This time, thankfully, he was successful. He got home only to realize that someone had "borrowed" his c-clamps when we were in the states. This meant  a trip back to Tegucigalpa. Unfortunately, at this time I was already in Ojojona making my visit. Here in Honduras if you make a visit for less than an hour you will be considered to be too busy to really care. So once I was done with my visit I went to Tegucigalpa with the kids to do some birthday shopping for Jordan and pick up some c-clamps.

Since Jason was not able to finish the brake job on Tuesday, he had to cancel the service with the soldiers on Wednesday morning. Wednesday dawned overcast and very muggy, so with c-clamps in hand he went out to finish the job. He didn't get very far and he realized that one roter was chipped and had to be replaced, so back to Tegucigalpa he went. By this time he was getting very sick of driving to Tegucigalpa. Thankfully he was able to get the part after only visiting a few shops. He came back home and was able to finish the job with no more problems. 

As he went out for his test drive, he received a phone call from a national who works with us in the church in  Ojojona. His name is Gustavo and he was having severe pain in the lower left side of his abdomen. He thought he was having an appendicitis attack. So, Jason went to pick him up. This was now just a few hours from the time church was supposed to start and it was POURING outside. Jason called me on his way to the hospital to tell me that I wouldn't be going to church that night. It was raining so hard that our street and driveway were raging rivers. Jason drove Bro. Gustavo to the hospital and stayed with him until he was seen by a doctor (who though he had appendicitis and ordered tests) and then left to go back to Ojojona to pick up a family member of Bro. Gustavo in case he had to have surgery (another day I will have to tell you all about the ordeal it is going to a government hospital). After going back to Tegucigalpa to drop off Domingo, the family member, he drove home. When he got home just after midnight, the specialist still had not seen Bro. Gustavo. At 12:30, we got a phone call telling us that the specialist didn't think it was appendicitis and discharged them to come home. Thankfully we were able to find a place for them to stay in Tegucigalpa that night so we didn't have to go back.

Thursday and Friday were much calmer with only a mountain load of English homework to help one of our church kids through and Jordan's birthday celebration on Friday.

After such a stressful week it was great to take a little down time and take Jordan to Denny's for his birthday. He received a tool box with tools, a water gun and a Nintendo DS for his birthday. He was very excited and had a great time. 

Sunday was scheduled to be our baptism Sunday and since it is the first since we have been back, we had a lot to baptize.When we woke up on Sunday morning we were very worried. It was overcast and cold. Baptism services here are held at the river. The people don't want to be baptized in a pool or a baptistery. They want to be baptized how Jesus was. We were unsure if anyone would still want to be baptized with it being so cold. We were so blessed to be able to see 17 people come for baptism. One was a 87 year old man that walked down to the river 1 1/2 hours ahead of schedule to make sure he could get there in time. It was a blessed day. God really blessed. We had to take four truck loads of people home. Many of these people haven't been to church in a long time. We are praying that God dealt with their hearts and they will once again become faithful to the things of the Lord.

Change can be good

For those of you who don't know me really well, I am not a big fan of change. I prefer to continue walking the same paths and very little variation is good for me. I have learned these past few weeks of being back in Honduras that change can be a very good thing.

It all started about a month ago when I was mentioning to Jason how if we didn't do something we were going to lose some of the kids that had been with us for several years. I had noticed that most of the older kids (now between the ages of 12 and 14) were still coming but seemed to be bored every week. Most of these kids have been in Sunday school since they were five and six years old. Unfortunately, there was little I could do. To make the class more geared to their age level, I would have to teach a more advanced lesson which would quickly lose the attention of the younger kids who would then start acting up and distract the older kids. But at the same time I didn't want to lose the older kids. We have seen far too many kids reach 12 years of age and stop coming to church. We didn't want this trend to continue.

Jason had been working with a young man named Gustavo. He strongly feels that God would have this young man take an active part in pastoring the church in Ojojona. Gustavo, one of our Bible Institute students, is from an area called Aragua, but lives in Ojojona. He is a leader in the church in Aragua as the church hasn't had a pastor for several years. Three times a week he makes the hour and a half walk to Aragua to help lead the services. This young man has a burden for the town of Ojojona and has been attending services in both churches for a while now. Jason has started putting him in the pulpit more often and the people love him. He is a great soulwinner and a great asset to our ministry.

Since our goal in Honduras is NOT to pastor one church, but to start and turn churches over to nationals, we feel that this time of unrest in the young people was the perfect catalyst to start the responsibility shift more to the nationals. Jason asked Bro. Gustavo to make a commitment to preach every Sunday morning. This allowed Jason to be free to take a class of young people.

Three weeks ago we split the Sunday school classes. We now have a class from birth to 8 years old and one from 9 to 15 years old. We have seen both classes just about double in this time. The younger kids are learning a lot and even answering questions when asked (a huge step as they acted very shy when with the older kids).

We have a lady in our church who didn't want to help out in Sunday school during our last term but agreed to step in if it was needed during our absence. While we were in the states, the lady in charge of the Sunday school became very sick and Xiomara had to step in and help out. I was very pleased when we came back to Honduras and I was able to hear her teach for the first time. She did such a wonderful job. She came with me to the younger kids class and will eventually take over that class, but as she has never taught little children, she was just going to observe a few weeks before taking on small responsibilities for the class.

Last week, God once again changed her mind. I was all prepared to teach on Sunday, but Audrey got sick. I called her and asked her to teach for me and she was happy to do it. Our first Sunday our attendance was eight children. Our third Sunday we had an attendance of 16. Xiomara is getting more comfortable with the kids and they love her.

I am a slow mover at times. I fear running people off so I err on the side of caution. It is great to see the Lord use circumstances to help "push" people into the place he wants them to be.

Mini Vacation

While I was able to visit my family last December when I came to help out with my mom's surgery, It was hard to be in the states so long and not get to see them. Thankfully we arrived to our US home on Monday of last week. It was so great to get to see family and have a little time to relax.

The Lord really blessed us and provided our needs wonderfully since we have been here. One of these blessings was in the providing beds for the kids. We had a bunk bed donated, but it didn't have mattresses. I started looking on Craigslist and found two mattresses for $15.00 each. They were actually in good shape. YEAH!!! I had to buy some sheets for the beds so I went to Target (I had a gift card) and found them on sale for $5.00 a set. I needed to buy sheets to take back to Honduras anyway so we were excited to find such a good deal on them. The kids are loving having beds to sleep on.

This week my mom and dad gave Jason and I a mini vacation. They took the three oldest kids to the beach in their motor home. It has been just Jason, Matthew, and me at home. We have had a wonderful time. Matthew has thoroughly enjoyed his time alone with Mom and Dad. We have gone to the library twice and even got to go out and buy a pumpkin. We have had a great time and are very thankful for our mini vacation.

Stubbornness Can Be A Blessing

I tend to be stubborn at times, but today, my persistence was a hero for one little boy.

We were given a gift basket last night from the church. Inside was a lot of wonderful things for us. One of the things that was given was a small green train for Matthew. He wanted to sleep with it, but we wouldn't let him. This morning, when he woke up we couldn't find it. He slept in late this morning as he fell off the bed in the middle of the night and took a little while to calm down. When he finally got up, the maid was already here. The maid and I looked everywhere, but to no avail. After she left I continued to look and still couldn't find it. I finally went down the hall and asked the maid if I could look in our trash. I found the train under several layers of trash. It was covered with leftover cereal and milk. I was so excited that I had finally found it. I made me remember the story of the woman in the New Testament who hunted for a lost coin and finally found it.

Matthew's reaction when I came back in the room with the train was priceless. He was so excited. In case you were wondering; yes, I cleaned it before I gave it back to him. :-) Today I am thankful for my "persistent" tendencies.

Many miles travelled

The last few weeks have been anything but boring. We are thankful for the good times that God has given us in many new churches. It has been great to meet and get to know many more precious Christians. We are praising the Lord for the one new church's support that has come in since my last post. We enjoyed spending time in a few supporting churches. We were able to report back to them what God has done with their investment into His work.

While we are travelling we have many hours in the van, but when we stop at some place for a few days we try to get out and do fun things with the kids. We were able to spend almost two weeks at a supporting church in the Baltimore area. We got to spend three days doing the tourist stuff. We spent two days in Washington DC. One of those days we had a shaking experience. We were in the Museum of American History when the 5.9 earthquake hit. Being the observant person that I am I didn't notice the swaying of the items on display until the big jolt came. At the beginning we weren't sure if the jolt was an earthquake or a bomb. It was so short. Thankfully there were no problems. We spent the rest of the day outside and walked to see the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and WWII Memorial. The White House and Lincoln Memorial were closed, but we got to see them from a distance. It just made me more eager to go back to DC someday and see things again.

Last Monday we left Ohio to head west again. At the time of this posting we are in Utah. It is a blessing to see how God is moving in this town. God is moving. We were able to talk to a hispanic man in Del Taco. We spoke in Spanish and felt great freedom to say what we wanted. When we left we gave him a tract and pray that he will read it and will accept Christ as his personal saviour.

We will be in Utah until Tuesday and then we start a road trip for Billings, Montana. We will then be coming back to Utah and then on to Arizona. In the many miles travelled, God has been so good to us. Please pray with us that our support level will continue to increase.

Travelling

The motels have been many and the months few, yet we have been blessed beyond measure. As I think about the time that we have traveled and the things that God has done, my mind constantly goes back to the song "He Giveth More Grace". Jason and I sang that song on Sunday morning as we were in Iglesia Bautista South Haven. It is a Spanish ministry and it was a huge blessing to be with them.

We haven't been around many Spanish speaking people since we left Honduras. I was not nervous though. We try to speak in Spanish as much as possible when out and about and we speak frequently with the kids. I thought I was prepared so I wouldn't have much of a problem. I was not prepared, however, for Mrs. Gonzales. The Gonzales family was so kind to put us up in their home. Mrs. Gonzales talked a little bit when we got there, but I couldn't understand much of what she was saying. It may be because of my tiredness as we have been travelling all day, or it may have been the rate at which she rattled off Spanish. I am not sure what the problem was, but my first though was how was I going to live in this family's house for the weekend. The feelings of despair I had upon moving to Costa Rica for language school all came rushing back to me. I took some time that night to pray and ask the Lord to help me. Thankfully all went well the next day and we had some great time talking and rejoicing in the Lord. I was able to learn much about her and her family. I pray that I was as much an encouragement to her as she was to me.

God always knows what we will need even before we need it and provides help for any situation. There are so many things that have gone "wrong" past few weeks of travelling, but each time we were able to see God step in and give us an even better outcome than what we could have hoped for. Now as I sit here in a hotel room, I am overwhelmed at all of the blessings God has bestowed upon us. While I know that as I use this verse here, it is taken out of context, but II Corinthians 9:15 keeps running through my mind. "Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift" We have the greatest gift of all, salvation. With that it should be enough, but God keep on blessing us with gifts of his goodness and grace along the way.

Please continue to pray for us. We are travelling many miles and presenting our work in many new churches. Our desire is to return to the field in February, but to do so means getting new supporters. Please pray for the hearts of those who hear of our burden to unite with us in reaching Honduras. We have every faith that God will provide for our need of more support, but we don't want to neglect to pray for it every day.

New Blog

My blog has been updated with a new design and new pictures. I will be striving to update my blogs more frequently while in the states and then, hopefully with our new android phones, I can keep up while in Honduras.

Doris

The day started out really busy for me. For some reason I had rearranged my schedule to have all of my discipleship meetings on one day. It was Wednesday and I would be gone all day. Since Audrey Viveros and Vicky Valle had just arrived from the states I would also be showing them the houses and people they would be discipling.

During my first discipleship, I was fed breakfast and it was a little before noon when I finished at Xiomara's house. I was getting ready to leave and she informed me that she was making lunch and would like for me to stay. Not being one to EVER turn down food and since it would be an offense to turn them down, I decided to stay. I ended up leaving the house at 2:00 in the afternoon instead of 11:45 like I had planned. Thankfully after six years on the mission field we have learned to be flexible.

My next stop was in a neighborhood called Cucuie. It is an area in the town of Santa Ana where a lot of people come to our church from. Everyone that comes from this area must be brought in our truck. We have been picking up people from this area for about two years now. We have seen many people that live in this neighborhood get saved. It is a dangerous neighborhood. Many who live here are use and sell drugs. There is a lot of crime, but God has blessed and we have been safe.

It is in this neighborhood that I have one teenage girl that I am discipling. Miss Audrey and Miss Vicky would also be starting to disciple four more converts. I was introducing them to the ladies they would disciple. We had gone to the all but one last house. We kept this house for last because the visit would take a long time. As is customary, we were invited in. As we entered the living room we saw two women we had never seen before. Cristina introduced us to them. Both women were quiet and we tried to talk to them. I invited them to church and the older women assured us that she had no need of God. The younger woman, 16 year old Doris, was very quiet and shy. While we were talking mostly to her mom, as they got ready to leave I invited Doris to come to the teen class that we have on Thursday nights. She mentioned that she wanted to go. We were very surprised as her mom was so dead set against ever setting foot in the door of the church. Cristina promised us that she would show us where Doris lived on Thursday night so we could pick her up. I let Doris know we would pick her up at 6:30 on Thursday night.

Thursday night rolled around and I, unfortunately, had told Doris the wrong time. We had to pick her up at 6:15. Since I didn't have a phone number to call her, we just hoped she would be ready. When we arrived at Cristina's house she wasn't there. We were a little frustrated, but decided to try and find Doris' house anyway. We started driving and in about half a mile we saw Cristina walking on the road. We picked her up and she informed us that Doris had been ready and waiting for us, but when we didn't show up she decided not to come. I didn't understand this as we were still early. It wasn't even 6:15 yet. As we drive by the house we saw Doris out front and tried to encourage her to come. She looked like she was going to change her mind, but her Mother called out, "She isn't going". I was definitely upset and decided to try and visit her another day.

The next Thursday rolled around. We were excited for church and to see what God would do. While we were not expecting to see Doris at church that night (her mom still was very cold to us), not only did she come, but her mom came too.

Since that Thursday, Doris has not missed a service. She comes out soulwinning with us and is so excited about being with us. Last Saturday during churchwide soulwinning, we started talking to her about what salvation is. She is not saved and since she has never been to church all is very new to her. We started giving her the plan of salvation, but had to stop when she told us that she had never heard the story of Jesus dying on the cross for her sins. She is so excited and open to the things of God, but we are going to have to start at square one.

Doris comes from a very poor family. Her dad died when she was young. Her mom and her live alone. There is no income so Doris has never been to school. Miss Vicky has started classes with her to teach her to read and write and is also slowly explaining the story of Jesus to her at the same time. Please continue to pray for Doris' salvation. It is exciting to see what God is doing in her life.

Our Lives These Past Few Months

It is sad that I only seem to be able to post once a month. Today we are in Tegucigalpa and thanks to Jason's new laptop (which has a battery that lasts more than 10 minutes), I am attempting to update you all on what has been happening with the Tate family.

Thankfully we were kept safe when Tropical Storm Agatha came to Honduras. It brought with it a full week of rain. Being from Seattle, we thoroughly enjoyed the wet, gray skies. The only problem we had was that our clothes didn't want to dry being out in the rain and all. We also lost water the last day. The pipe that brings water from the well to our house has to cross a river and because it was so swollen, it broke the pipe. Thankfully once the river went down, we easily fixed that problem.

There were many people affected from this storm, but thankfully, is wasn't as bad as it could have been. If there had been any wind, there would have been many more mudslides.

Since Audrey Viveros went back to the States I have been taking over her discipleship duties. I have 5 ladies that I am discipling. Gabi, Xiomara, Maritza, Fani, and Deisi are growing a lot. Three of these ladies are really soaking everything in. I am so blessed to be able to be involved in their lives. When I first started discipling Maritza, I couldn't get her to finish a lesson on her own. It was taking her a month just to do one lesson. Last week, she complained to me that she needed more than two lessons a week. The great thing is that she is not only doing the lessons, but asking questions every week.

We have been having a lot of power issues lately. Today we didn't have any electricity. The kids love it. If we lose power they only have to do their paperwork in school. I am hoping that next year we can get their books on time and be done with school by this time of the year. We have 25 school days left to go. YEAH!!!! This seems like it has been the longest school year ever.

Tomorrow, I will be going out soulwinning and then if the sun is out, I will be trying to get caught up with the mountains of dirty laundry that have accumulated since we haven't had electricity and sun at the same time in the past week. :-)

I am so thankful for the opportunities that God has given me to minister for Him. When I have days that feel like I am getting nothing done, I just have to take a step back and I can see everything that God has done. What a blessing that He felt that I could be used.

Easter Sunday

Today was a great day. Normally the church attendance is very low on Easter Sunday. Most of this is due to the fact that the whole week is vacation time and most people spend it at the beach or with family members. Today while it is normally the lowest attendance day of the year, we had a great attendance.

Miss Audrey Viveros has been staying with us for the past few months and has been a huge help in our ministry. Today, she got to lead the mother of one of our teenagers to the Lord. Margelia has seven kids, the youngest one being just a month old. Her daughter, Daisy, is one of the teens that God is really using to build a teen group on Ojojona. She came to the camp that we held this past week and brought her cousin. Isabel was not sure of her salvation and was able to receive Jesus Christ as her personal Saviour.

It has been a blessing to have Miss Audrey here with us. We will be very sad when she goes back home. We know that her church is missing her, but we wish she could stay forever. :-)

In an effort to save some money we traded in our satellite for an portable modem. Unfortunately, we didn't try it out enough before we made the decision. Some days it is fine, but most days we can't even get online. We are hoping that the cable company that strung lines behind our house in the past month will also have internet so we can do away with this unreliable internet.

Please continue to pray for our ministry. God is really moving. We have really started hitting hard the discipleship. We have four ladies enrolled right now and one man. We hope to have these soon trained so that they can train others. We would have more, but we need more discipler to be able to accomplish this.

Fair Day

Today we took the kids to the Pierce County Fair. We had a great time. We got to visit a lot of free exhibits and the kids went on a few rides.

It did our hearts good to hear what their favorite thing at the fair was. They all said that their favorite part of the fair was hearing the Bible story at the Child Evangelism Fellowship Tent.

What a wonderful testimony that our kids love the Lord.

We talked with the couple after the other kids were gone and found out that they go to a independant Baptist church in Chehalis, WA. They have even been to our church. It was the first booth we went to, and it was a great start to the day.

Tate Update

Ok, so I know that it has been a while since I have written anything and I am not going to start off by making excuses. I will just say that I am sorry and will try to do better in the future. :-)

So many things have been happening to our family. We had a great time with the East Hill Baptist Church teenagers. They came down the end of June for a Missions Trip. It was during this trip the President of Honduras was arrested for trying to put through an illegal vote allowing him to rewrite the Constitution.

Because of the after affects (and threats) of this event we left the country and came back the US for a time. We are monitering the situation in Honduras and are looking forward to the time when things have cooled down enough for us to go back.

At this time we are visiting supporting churches near our sending church trying to raise the money needed to buy plane tickets back to Honduras. Please pray with us about that.

This morning we called a supporting church, Riverview Baptist church, to let them know what was going on and they asked us to come and visit tonight. This church has been a faithful supporter since we left for language school in 2002. We had wanted to visit as we have many friends here, but the timing was never right. Anyway we had tonight free and they asked us to come.

I was able to see my best friend that I had all of my growing up years. Her name is Stephanie Erquiaga and as she was showing me to the nursery, I saw someone walk down the hall toward me. It was my best friend from college, Audrey Longo (now Coffman). I was so excited to see her. I have tried to get a hold of her many times, but could never find her. We were able to talk and had a great time. It was so funny because I introduced my friend Stephanie to her. During the service Stephanie remembered that her and Audrey had both been my bridesmaids. I had even forgotten. When she reminded Audrey at the end of the service she said, "I knew you looked familiar, but I couldn't remember from where."

I am so thankful that God has used this time to refresh not only our spirits, but has also allowed to us renew old friendships.

Need for coffee

Have you ever had one of those days where you just felt like you needed a cup and coffee and some time to relax? Well, this month has been like that. We had a missionary family come and visit us. They are moving here the end of July and so they came from Costa Rica on a bus to spend two weeks with us. They ended up finding lodging for themselves free of charge. Our good friends the Jacksons are going to be going back to the states for 6 months to help get their kids adjusted to college life and they offered the Jacobos their house for those 6 months. That will help both families as the Jacobos will have some time to save up for their move to Campamento and all of the household things they will need to buy at that time.

The Jacobos ended up staying a few extra days because we all (Matthew was the only one who escaped) got sick with Rotovirus. It makes you very sick for a few days and destroys all of the good bacteria in your intestines so everything runs right though. We had to be put on a very strict diet and some recovered faster than others. I was the last one to get sick. I thought maybe I had dodged the bullet, but I was not so lucky. I was sick for almost 3 weeks. I finally had an appointment with a specialist, but was able to cancel it when I started feeling better. The plus side of this sickness is that I have lost a lot of weight. I am down 17 lbs at this time. I only lost 13 on the sickness, but have lost the rest because I am not eating as much as I was before. Hopefully I can continue to lose weight. I would love to wear size 10 again. :-)

A few weeks after the Jacobo family left we had a group from the states come in. We had a great time with them. They just left. We have another group coming in a few weeks and so we are rapidly trying to finish school before they get here. Hopefully once our summer vacation starts I can feel a little more rested.

Please pray with us about the kids' schooling. We have a courier service to get our school materials, but we were just advised by them that the Aduanas (customs agents) are confiscating all packages over 4 lbs and charging a "holding fee and inspection fee". We already have to pay $4.00 a lb (last year for two kids we spent over $100 just on shipping) to the shipping service, but this new "fee" can be whatever they feel is fair. We haven't purchased the kids' books and videos yet, but are dreading the cost to get them here.

My kids use the Abeka video school and I love it. Audrey was the only one last year, but Jordan will be joining her in using the videos this year. Since we are missionaries we get to keep the videos for future kids. This year we have to buy two complete grades which is a huge upfront cost, but this is the only year we will have to do this. We are praying that one of the missionary groups that is coming down this summer could bring the books down for us.

This past week we had an earthquake. It was located about 200 miles north of us in the ocean off the north coast. It didn't cause any problems where we live, but it seemed like it lasted forever. I was up feeding Matthew at the time (yes, he is 5 months and still doesn't sleep through the night). It is a good thing because if I had of slept through it, I would have never heard the end of it. Everyone has been email making sure we are okay.

Spring Break

We are enjoying our spring break. We did school Monday and Tuesday to make up for some days we have missed. When we moved we had to take vacation time and now have to make that up. We have several missions groups this summer so we must make those days up before they come.

Tonight we are at the Jackson's house. We are enjoying a good time of fellowship and food.

We had the church over on Wednesday for a service and swimming time. We have a river that runs through our property that has several swimming holes. Everyone had a great time.

In this country everything shuts down from Thursday to Sunday. Contrary to life in the US, Easter Sunday is the least attended church service in Honduras. Since everything is closed down, we have a few days at home to catch up from the past month. It has been a nice time. We filled the pool and the kids have lived in it. They are all quite sunburnt today.

Tomorrow Jason will be teaching a marriage seminar for a church in the colonia of San Miguel. They will not have childcare, so I will be staying home with the kids. I am hoping to use the time to catch up more. We will see if that wil happen. :-)

San Pedro Sula

We are in San Pedro Sula as I write this. We found out on Monday that the US Embassy couldn't process Matthew's application for Citizen Birth Abroad until April 30th. They did inform us that if we went to San Pedro Sula we wouldn't need an appointment. We got Ernesto and Nelly to watch our older kids and off we went.

The US Consulate office here is only open Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm. We got there shortly after 1:00 and were able to be seen after only waiting 30 minutes. The Consular was impressed that we had everything all ready and set up. We started going through our papers and found out that we were missing a key paper.

It was Joey's birth certificate of all things. Joey's birth certificate proves to the US government that we have lived in the States in the past. Don't ask me how his Consular Report of Birth Abroad certificate proves this, but it does.

We had to call Ernesto and have him take Joey's certificate and send it to us on a bus. Thankfully He was able to go this morning and we now have it in hand.

We will be going back to the Consulate tomorrow and are hoping that everything goes well.

Last night when we got back to our hotel we were shocked at the sight of all outdoor personnel. Every last one of them had on bullet proof vests. I thought the motel was in a good neighborhood. It just brings to mind that San Pedro Sula is a lot more dangerous than Tegucigalpa.

We are planning on going home tomorrow and are looking very forward to it. It has been a nice vacation for Jason and I, but we feel guilty leaving Ernesto and Nelly with the kids for so long.

This picture is of the Dining Room decorated for the party. The gray spots on the walls is where the plaster is being repaired. Only another week and we should be able to paint. YEAH!!!! Joey and Brooklyn (Hodges) eagerly waiting for cake time.

Joey hitting the Lightning McQueen Pinata

Joey loved his cake. He was so excited to get a race track cake. It was so easy to make. Jordan is already putting in his order for one on his birthday.

Video Games

Joey had a birthday last Friday. He turned 5. We had a birthday party for him and it was good to see all of our friends again. Even though we had just three families over, our house was packed. We had hot dogs and everyone brought a side dish for potluck.

Thursday evening, while on the way to church, Ernesto (the man who helps us in Ojojona) got a call from his brother saying that his mom was doing badly and they were taking her to the hospital.

After church, Jason took me home and then drove Ernesto and Nelly home. When I got out of the car at our house, Ernesto was explaining to his brother that his mom was 96 and had smoked most of her life. She had been saved for the last 12 years and in that time had not smoked once, but her lungs were permently damaged. He told his brother that if she didn't die that night it wouldn't be long for her.

We got a call Friday morning saying that she had died during the night. Jason left to be with Ernesto and Nelly (who were supposed to come to the party) and help them in any way he could.

We couldn't cancel the party as most everyone invited had a fully scheduled month already. Thankfully everyone was late and Jason got home just after the last guest arrived. Ernesto and Nelly couldn't come as they had to stay with the family for the viewing.

Joey was a little disappointed that Ernesto and Nelly couldn't come. Jason almost didn't get to come so we were thankful that at least he was able to be home in time.

Joey loves cars so we had a car theme. I made him a race track cake. He loved it. His favorite gift was the Leapster educational video game player we got him. He ties to sleep with it at night. Jordan has had one for a few years now and it is a much fought over toy.

Today Jordan told Joey that he was going to let him use some of his games as soon as he gets his out of toy jail (he was playing with it at night when he was supposed to be in bed). Jordan prayed for lunch today and when he was done Joey said, "I thought you were going to pray for the video games to get out of toy jail."