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.

What are the odds...

...of in the year that we are home from Honduras, I get jury duty twice. Yes, you read that right. I was called for a session in February and just today I got another summons. I am glad to help, and I wish I could. The only problem is that we are going to be in Arizona and California at that time. When I opened the envelope I was hoping it was my check for the term I just finished, but it wasn't. I am really hoping that they will let me serve in May instead as I really enjoyed it last time and I would have enjoyed it even more if I would have made it on a jury.

On a different note we are so happy to have my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew coming back to Washington to live. Dan came back about a week ago and has been looking for a job and apartment. When he finds those he will be moving out of our trailer and going to pick up Susan and Aaron. Please pray for him to find a job soon as we want to see Aaron before we leave. :-) Dan has a really great prospect so we are praying that God's will would be done.

Joey's third birthday is coming up soon. I can't believe how time has flown. We went shopping for him today. We got him a lot of Thomas the tank engine things as he loves trains. He got a wooden train set for Christmas and so we are adding to that. As we were walking through the store buying his wrapping paper he kept saying, "Happy Birthday to me". Oh, how fast they grow up!

Potty training

We are now in the throes of potty training

Yes, it is true, Joey is finally in that stage of his life. He got a potty chair from his Grandpa Tate in December. He has used it, but it has not made any difference in his staying dry abilities.

He has no problems with using the potty chair and receiving a "special treat" which is a jelly bean. We have even tried to put on training pants as he does not like to be wet. We found out that while he does not like water on him, he doesn't mind wet underware. It just figures doesn't it.

The past two days, however, have been vastly different. While he hasn't yet gone of his own free will, he has been almost dry when it was potty time and finally he seems to be emptying his bladder. Maybe this kid will someday be in the ranks of the non-diapered crew too.

Please pray for us in the next few months as we are praying about where we will be headed ministry wise when we return to Honduras. We have several ministry oportunities, and we are praying that God will clearly show us where He would have us to be when we get back. It seems hard to believe that we will be back in Honduras in around 4 months. I have so much to do before then.

Preacher's Delight

Tonight was the first night of Preacher's Delight, the annual conference for Pastors and Missionaries at our home church. We were so blessed to hear a sermon by Dr. Gibbs and Dr. Paul Chappell. Dr. Gibbs preached on pride and Dr. Chappell preached on how to have a great year for the Lord. The preaching was phenomenal. It was just what I needed.

Everything went really well. The choir sang three songs (I got to be in the choir) that really got the meeting started. It was such a blessing to look out over the congregation from the choir loft (before we sang) and see so many people from different churches that had come to get their batteries recharged and receive a little encouragement.

The auditorium in the church was packed. Many of Faith's people had to sit in overflow rooms to watch the sermons. We were so blessed to be able to sit in the auditorium. Preacher wanted to us be there with all the other pastors. It was so much better than when we were on staff and running from one place to another during the services. We were able to meet many pastors that we have not seen since we have been to their churches. We also met several missionaries who were on deputation the same time as us and are now also on their first furlough.

To cap off a truly wonderful night, Jason and I stopped by Starbucks on the way home to enjoy a pumpkin spice Frappaccino. You just can't end an evening any better. :-)

Tomorrow night I get to be in baby nursery for the first service. I am excited as this is the first time I have been able to help in a ministry since we have been back. I long to feel like every other church member instead of always feeling like I am special. I know many would argue that missionaries deserve special treatment and care, but many times we just want to get to work like everyone else in the church. I am shocked to find out that I miss the unseen tasks of the ministry the most since we have been home.

Happy New Year

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. So much has been going on. We cannot say we have been bored.

We spend most of December in California. We spent most of the month staying at my in-laws house in Tehachapi. Tehachapi is located in the mountains north east of Los Angeles. We attended a few services at Lancaster Baptist Church and a few at Mojave Baptist Chapel. It has been great to see what God is doing.

We were able to visit a few new churches and even had to cancel a meeting because of Highway 58 closing due to snow. That was frustrating for us, but our kids loved it. This was the first time they had seen snow and we got about 4 inches of it. They built snowmen and made snow angels and even had a snowball fight. We were so thankful to everyone at Faith Baptist Church in Ontario who had given our kids coats, boots, hats, gloves, ect. We had a great time in the snow.

Tonight we had our New Years service at church. We were so glad to be in our home church to partake of this special event. Pastor Smith unveiled the new theme for this year as well as gave out Bible reading schedules, Prayer stickers, and church calendars for the next year. We are looking forward to going "Henceforth Unto Him" this year. I am especially looking forward to the Bible reading schedule this year. It will be great to be reading my Bible with everyone else this year. What a great thing to have several people on the same page with their Bible reading as you are.

I am also looking forward to being at our home church for a few weeks.

Audrey got a bunch of letters today from Shadow Mountain Baptist Church in Morgan Hill, CA. It is always a blessing for us to know that there are other people praying for and thinking about us. Just a simple little note means so much to a missionary. Thank you all so very much who write to us and let us know you are praying for us. We greatly appreciate it.

We look forward to serving the Lord in this present year. God has blessed us so much this past year. We can't wait to see what he has in store for us this next year. We pray that we will be able to lead many more souls to a saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.