Hot days without water

It was hot when our church was here and I didn't thing that it would get much hotter, but it has. Over the past two weeks it has been in the 100's several days. It wouldn't be so bad if we had air conditioning, but we don't so it has been miserable. The past few days have cooled down (normally that doesn't happen until it rains) and only been in the high 80's to low 90's. Rainy season was supposed to start in the middle of May, but so far nothing where we live. Outside of the capital city they have had rain for a week and a half. We are anxiously awaiting the start of the rain.

For those of you who don't know, we live in a big house on a dirt road. At the end of our road is several mechanic shops. To say our area is a dust bowl is a mild exaggeration. When the rain starts I will be able to take down all of the curtains and wash them. Right now you can see the dust on them. I would wash them now, but we have not been getting much water.

We have an underground cistern that holds 1,500 gallons of water. That will last us quite a while if I am not doing lots of laundry. Yesterday we had to buy water again. We have not gotten any water from the city for a week and a half. Today we are going to try to go and report it to the water department. To report no water you must take your monthly bill that has been paid to the main office. Yesterday we tried, but there was a protest out front and we couldn't get in.

We also have to go to the phone company today. They shut off our phone for not paying our bill. We hadn't gotten the bill yet, but I guess that doesn't matter. We had to go to the main office and request our bill and then paid it, but they haven't turned the phone on yet.

On a happier note, we have Baptism Sunday this coming Sunday. We have two people at this time who want to be baptized. One of our men from church called us yesterday and told us that someone threw a dead dog into the pond where we normally baptize. We are not sure what to do. We are going to try and clean it up, but if that doesn't work, we will have to find another place to baptize. If they get a really good rain it will wash everything down stream. We are praying for that.

Life is never boring in Honduras.

Mother's Day gift for my mom

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Sunny Day

Today was a gorgeous day. It has been quite hot as we are coming to the end of the dry season. We have a lot of heat and humidity. For the past month or so we have had a huge amount of smoke that has settled over the city. It has been so bad that we could not see the other end of the runway and flights have been canceled off and on for the past two weeks. This morning though, when we woke up, I actually saw the blue sky. It was so beautiful.

Tonight the clouds started to roll in and the humidity has really picked up. We are praying for rain.

The kids and I are home tonight instead of going to church. They all have really bad allergic coughs and sniffles. Once it rains we should see a dramatic improvement in the air quality.

Even though rainy season means a drop in attendance, it also means that most of the allergy problems in the country clear up.

Our busy month

This month has been crazy for us. It started just before I left for the states to attend my brother's wedding and it is all starting to wind down now.

This month we had our church come and stay for two weeks. They helped in tract distribution, VBS (they brought everything with them, which was great!!), and programs in Public Schools. We had a great time. We were able to see over 100 kids accept Jesus into their hearts as their personal Saviour. We ran ourselves ragged, but it was a time that God really touched people's hearts. It was very special to see Bernadette (one of the group that worked with us) make such an attachement to Carmen (one of the ladies in our church). The Lord really bound their hearts together. Carmen even came to the airport to see them off. She found someone who lives near her that speaks English to write a letter to Bernadette to say goodbye. I was supposed to get a copy of all of the pictures taken, but something happened when Bro. Jeff tried to copy them to my disks and so they told me that they would mail the pictures to us.

The biggest blessing while the group from our church was here was, my mom came to take care of the kids and help with housework. The kids loved it and of course we did too. Three kids can only take so much time in the hot sun without getting cranky and making Mom cranky too. Mom was able to help do the laundry for the group and this saved them much time and money. It was a huge blessing to have her here.

We are now winding down school for this year. I am probably the most excited for summer vacation. We only have two weeks and two days left, but I am already anticipating the freedom.

Corrections

Much to my regret I gave out false information. The wedding between Reina and Alfredo is on March 28th as well as my brother's wedding. I was really tired when I wrote that blog. Sorry!

Getting Ready to Go

Things have been so crazy the past few days. I am getting ready to go back to the states for my brother Jason's wedding. I have been doing nothing but school the past few days. We are trying to get a week ahead so that if Jason doesn't get all of their work done, they won't be very far behind.

Today we had a great day in church. We had 89 people in the service. After the service we went to Ernesto and Nelly's house and celebrated their son's 17th birthday. We had carne asada, refried beans, rice, and chizmol (my favorite). It was so good that I don't think I will eat for a week. After the birthday, we took Reina and Alfredo home. Reina had a good laying with her hens in the past few days and gave me a bunch of fresh laid eggs. The kids were so excited because that means that we will have eggs for breakfast tomorrow.

Reina and Alfredo have lived together for 35 years, but since they have started coming to our church they want to get involved. They are finally getting married. They went to the mayor's office (where the legal ceremony is held) and got the date set. They will be married on the 28th of April. As you are not able to pick the date for yourselves they are going to be married while I am in the states. I was so disappointed about the timing, but I am excited about the fact that they want to serve God with their lives.

This week is Samana Santa (Holy Week) which means that most businesses are closed and we get spring break in school. I only have a few classes to give to get the kids ahead, but I am going to take it easy.

Pray with us as we are thinking on moving out of the city. We have wanted to move closer to Ojojona for some time now, but haven't found a place for rent that would be suitable for us. Our friends told us of a place that will be available soon. We will see how God moves. We would like to do this to help us save money so we can buy the property for the Bible College and our house. There are a lot of things to work out first, but please be praying with us over this matter.

Here again

Finally I have a few moments to be online and the blogger site is up and running. I tried a few other times these past few weeks and every time the site was undergoing routine maintenance.

These past few weeks have been hard and wonderful at the same time. On baptism Sunday three Sundays ago we had the privilege of seeing four people baptized. One, Daisy, was a personal blessing for me. She had been saved in another church, but stopped going and got into sin. She now has two little boys one of which is in my Sunday School class. A few months ago the Lord laid her on my heart to give one of Joey outgrown outfits to. This outfit was given to Joey last year and didn't fit him very long so it was in very good shape. Daisy came a few weeks after that to tell us that someone had taken her son and wouldn't give him back. We prayed with her and gave her our phone numbers in case she needed something. A few weeks later the courts returned the boy. Ever since that day she has been in church. We were not sure of her salvation so we talked to her and she gave us her testimony. She then asked if she could get baptized. We explained baptism to her and what it signifys, and were so happy to see her as one of the four to get baptized.

For the past week I had been feeling sick. I thought I was pregnant so I took a home pregnancy test and it came back negative. Since I would be really early pregnant, my doctor ordered a blood test for me. Instead of going to the hospital lab to get the work done, I went to a labratory down the street that looks nice and clean. I called for the results on Friday afternoon, and the lab tech told me that I was pregnant. Since it was Friday afternoon (the office was closed at 10:30 AM) and they were not open again until Monday, I had to wait until Monday to pick up the results. When I went early Monday morning to get the results she told me that she was sorry, but she had read me the wrong results and I was not pregnant. I was shocked and saddened. I called my doctor and she is going to order me some tests to find out why I am still feeling nauseous. I am feeling a little better today so we will see what happens.