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."

Ladies Meeting

This past Saturday we had the first Ladies Meeting in over a year. During my pregnancy we had to cancel almost everything I was involved in. We had a special potluck meeting at our house. We invited 20 ladies and of those 20, 16 actually came. We had Becky Jackson come and give a devotional on the right kind of love.

For our game that day, we had the ladies pair up in groups of two (non-family members) for a Bible scavenger hunt. First they had to find what to look for by looking up a specific Bible reference and then they had to go out and find that item. I had Jason hide all of the items for me so I couldn't help anyone. It was amazing what some ladies found that was not part of the scavenger hunt. One of the references mentioned nails and one of the ladies brought back a log with a bunch of nails in it. Many things were buried in the yard and were from the last tenant of this house.

We made woven heart baskets from construction paper for a craft. I thought they would get it, but I ended up doing a great majority of the baskets for people. I guess the next time I will have to find something much easier.

The puppies that our dog had 6 weeks ago kept getting into the house. I announced that we were still trying to give one of them away. I had two girls instantly say, "I want one." The only problem was that there was only one left. The other two were already promised. Thankfully both girls wanted a different puppy and we talked to one of the people who had wanted one and he was glad to give it to someone else as "he really wanted a male".

The next day in church, Karina, brought her new puppy to church. It was dressed up in a ribbon and sweater. She even showed us pictures on her cell phone of the bed she made for the dog. It is actually a bed with four posters. It was really cute. She told me that she would not bring the dog to church next week. I hope this is true as I had to watch nursery along with the puppy.

Matthew is crying now. That nap was way too short. At least you all know that we are still alive.

Catch-up

Today is the first time I have been able to update my blog in over a week. What a week we have had. Last Sunday we had a baptismal service. We had four people baptized. Tonita, Kenia, Reina, and Karina.

Tonita is in her late 50's. She works as a street sweeper and walks 6 1/2 miles every day with a broom and wheelbarrow sweeping the street off. She is tiny and so very sweet. She started coming to our church about a year and a half. Almost a year ago she started attending faithfully. She really struggled with her salvation for the first year she attended. She would raise her hand for salvation every service. We tried to explain to her time and time again that the Bible teaches that once you make a decision for Christ then you are always saved. Finally about six months ago it clicked. She finally realized that the decision she had made many years ago did not need to be repeated. Even though her husband will not let her come in the evenings anymore, he did not forbid her from getting baptized and she was so excited to finally take the step of obedience in baptism. She is legally married (a rarity in this country) and is so excited to be able to serve in the church. We were teasing her on the way home from church that she needed to be ready to teach Sunday school the next week and to be sure to have at least two songs ready to sing for a special.

Kenia and Reina are two preteen girls that live in the same area. They mentioned a few weeks back that they wanted to be baptized. Jason talked to them both in the presence of their parents and they both gave a clear salvation testimony. Both girls' parents gave them permission to be baptized. Kenia's mom was under conviction and had many questions after the talk. Bro. Ernesto, who was with Jason at that time, was able to answer her questions and she received Jesus as her personal Saviour.

Karina, is a very sweet girl who is 15 years old. She is almost albino her skin and hair is so light. Her family started coming to church as a result of a ride that they got from Bro. Javier. He gave them a ride one day and invited them to church. They had been saved in a church in a town called Guinope, but had recently moved. She had not yet been baptized and was excited to make that step of obedience. Please pray for Angi, her younger sister, she was going to get baptized with her sister, but got scared and didn't make that step. She said that she wants to be baptized next time we have a baptismal service.

Monday evening Jason and Alan Jackson started a new session of Bible Institute. This time we are having classes two nights a week to help the students get done faster. Living closer to the work has helped us to be able to do this.

Thursday was Jason's birthday and we had a special dinner of Spaghetti. We had invited Ernesto and Nelly to come and celebrate with us, but their bus got here late so we had to celebrate after church.

Unfortunately, since our truck is still in the shop from the accident, I didn't get to go into town to buy him his birthday presents. We still had our big green Ford F-250, but it is big and the parking spaces in Teguc are small so I don't drive it there if I have to park it. I felt bad to not have a gift for Jason to open.

Friday, we went into Teguc to get Jason's birthday gifts. We were late getting started as Alan Jackson called us to take some teens home from a teen meeting. They had the pickup full of teens they were dropping off and some ladies they were picking up for the Ladies Meeting. One of the teenage boys was sitting in the truck bed with his legs hanging over the side. Becky, who was driving, went over a bump and he fell out. In the process he managed to grab another boy and drug him to the ground with him. They were both fine, but the one who wouldn't get all the way in the truck bed pretended to be unconscious. They took him to the hospital that is near and Becky explained to the doctor what had happened and how she thought he was faking. The doctor examined him and also conclued that he was faking too. To snap the kid out of his "unconciousness" he gave him an injection in the behind. He was instantly cured.

We managed to get into town about 15 minutes before the stores closed. Thankfully I knew what I was going to get him and managed to get everything just before the stores closed. We all got back into the car and started home. About five miles from where we used to live in Tegucigalpa, the ABS light came on in the truck. A few minutes later the stereo stopped playing, then the lights dimmed and went off. Finally about two miles later the truck stopped as we came up to a gas station. We were able to pull in and called for Alan Jackson to come pick us up. We then called our old neighbors, who have a car, and they came and towed the truck to their house. If we had left it there, it would have been all taken apart and gone by the time we got back. God worked everything out, but Friday night at 8:00 pm is not when you want to break down. We figured it was the alternator that fried and are having our mechanic fix the problem.

Since we didn't have transportation we had to cancel Saturday's activities. Saturday afternoon we tried to get our small gray truck from the body shop to be able to go to church on Sunday. We got it back late Saturday night, but on Sunday morning when we went to start it up, it wouldn't start. For a few months we have been having trouble getting it to start. We have know the glow plugs (spark plugs for diesel motors) were going out, but when you don't have money to change them you wait until they are gone before you do the work. Well, Sunday morning they were gone. Jason had to call Ernesto and have him run the service and we went to Alan Jackson's church. We were encouraged when we called Ernesto after church and found out that we had over 20 adults that came to church. Several took the bus to be there since we couldn't pick them up.

Please pray with us about a matter with our gray truck. Both the motor mounts are bad in it. I am sure they were getting bad when Jason was in the accident. We hadn't had a problem with them though. After Jason was hit there was a rattling sound whenever the truck was turned on. After they have repaired most of the body damage and all of the damage to the muffler the truck is still making the same sound. We are trying to get the man that hit us to replace the motor mounts as we are sure this is what is causing the vibrations and noises. Frankly we don't have the money to do this ourselves and since we didn't have this problem before we were hit, we don't think we should have to pay for this. Please pray with us as we talk to the man who hit us that he would be willing to pay for this repair.