MarchUpdates

On Mondays, we take a trip to the ‘big city’ of La Esperanza for a speedier internet connection and weekly grocery shopping. The internet café is really nice, has space for Kjell to upload updates to the web site, me to do email and online transactions, and the kids to play with whatever they bring (travel toys, coloring, etc.). Sometimes we get a computer for the kids to use and play online games. Internet is about 12 Limperas for an hour (whereas it is 20 Limperas in Yamaranguila), which is less than $1 (US dollar) for an hour. We are able to plug our laptops in (in both internet cafes) and this way we have access to our email addresses in Outlook Express. This has enabled me to receive emails on my computer at the internet, but then read and reply to them at the house (offline), and then repeat the process over.

On Mondays, we also go grocery shopping. I wish it was as easy as going to one place, but we usually go to 2 – 3 places. The first grocery store, is the least expensive. They have had a great selection of stuff so far (although I’ve been told on what products to stock up on because they will have them for one month and then when they run out, they will not have that item again for 3-6 months – items such as pancake syrup), but not a great selection of meats. So, we go to another store for hamburger, chicken, and anything else we’re missing. Then, it is one last stop to the market for fruit and vegetables before we head home.

I was not so surprised to find milk (leche) in a bag here. When I had taken trips to Canada with my friend as a teen, they had milk in a bag. However, in Canada, I remember special containers that they would put the bags in to dispense the milk. I tried to use just a juice container here, but the milk went all over the outside of the bag and into the container (so it’s easier just to dump it into the container or keep it in the bag). What did surprise us is another type of milk that is sold on the shelf (and it can stay on the shelf for months)! At first, we were going to stay away from the boxed milk, but we were running out of milk so quickly that we decided it would last longer that way. Sometimes, as a treat, the kids will get chocolate milk in a bag.

“It tastes just like Grampa Hebert’s,” the girls say. It’s a thick chocolate milk.

We’ve learned how to make corn tortillas. With no instructions, it is hit or miss in the combination of corn flour and water. After mixing the two, you roll it into a golf ball size blob. Then, they are pressed in a tortilla press and fried in a different kind of pan. The same mix is used to make tacos (what we would call taquitos), except you add a chicken bouillon cube to the mixture, insert your meat, roll them up, and fry them in oil. Corn tortillas can also be fried in oil (without anything in them and not rolled up) to make many other things, but we just buy them crunchy (Tostadas). These are used to make enchiladas (there is not an United States equivalent that I know of). You can put ground beef, potatoes or yucca (cut up and boiled), cooked carrot, raw cabbage, and/or red sauce. I kind of just ‘wing’ it from what we were served at someone’s house once. Actually, all the recipes I was given, by another missionary, have no measurements! If you know me, and cooking, and looking at the recipe 10 times, then you know this is not good for me. Maybe sometime I will post some recipes, but you’ll have to ‘wing it’ for measurements.

We wash all of our fruit and vegetables in a bleach solution (9 parts water, 1 part bleach). There’s a reason why you pray over your food! If it’s not whatever we are washing off we need to be protected from, it’s the bleach as well! After a month of being here, our bodies are doing great. Rebekah had some stomach pain one morning and did not eat lunch. We prayed and praised and she was healed by dinner. Katarina had some stomach pain a whole night long. I gave her my MP3 player full of healing scriptures and Everyday Scriptures and some of the gospels to listen to, and she was fine in the morning. She just informed me that my battery was very low (wonder why)!

Before we left for Honduras, one of Kjell’s aunts asked us some very important questions about being a missionary. She thought that a missionary went into an area, told people what they believed was wrong, and ‘converted’ the people to ‘their’ (missionary) ways. I had never heard this view before, but it is very similar to colonization – or what people have done over the years. It is the mentality that one should believe and receive Jesus or die (which over the course of history actually happened, such as the Crusaders). Colonization carries with it the belief that what I believe is right and you must convert. There is no discussion. There are no questions asked. We see this today even with or in the different denominations.

I have always seen being a missionary as reaching the people that have never heard about Jesus. I’m not so interested in people leaving one church to come to another (which may or may not happen). I am interested in reaching a people group that has never heard anything. In watching a movie recently, ‘End of the Spear’ (and even better than the movie was the documentary, ‘Beyond the Gates of Splendour’), the missionaries did not even change the name of God to reach the Waodani tribe. The Waodani tribe were about to be extinct because they continued spearing (killing) each other. They believed that they grew stronger by spearing. The missionaries found out what the Waodani believed in a god named Waengongi. The missionaries simply stated that Waengongi left his carvings to follow (i.e., the Bible) and presented the gospel in a way they would understand. They even said that Waengongi [God] had a son and his son was speared, but he did not spear back. He left His carvings so that others could follow the path and live well. The result was that the entire tribe changed its ways, stopped killing, and are doing well today.

God wants ‘voluntary lovers.’ God wants people to want to love Him and spend time with Him, not just do it because they have to (are forced to). I also see a missionary as being responsible to teach people about God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit in whom the people are believing in. There are two ways of thought here as well. One thought is, ‘I teach and you believe it because I said it.’ The other thought is, ‘I teach in a way that makes you dive deeper into the Word and/or time with God to decide what you believe.’ I don’t want people to believe something just because I said it. If they do, then what will keep them from relying on me or just believing what every other missionary or white person tells them as well? This has happened in other countries. I know of a Honduran pastor who left the wisdom and counsel of friends to follow what a so called ‘prophet’ said from the United States. If the pastor had been taught how to compare what people say to the word of God (and he might have been), then he would have known what to do. [Side note: It is always possible to teach people how to compare what comes to the word of God and they choose not to do it anyways.] There would be no need to follow (rely on) the teacher or the prophet. We need to be teaching others how to believe God for themselves and be in a position to teach others also.

It is true, there are missionaries all over the world. Some missionaries are in areas where people have never heard about Jesus and some in areas where they have. It is true, there are missionaries that are bringing their denomination into areas that already have a church or churches and there are some that are just seeking to advance the kingdom of God. All over the world there are Catholic churches, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal, non-denominational, etc.

I’m not going to colonize. I am going to advance the kingdom of God. I am going to tell people there is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ (John 11:25-26; 14:6). If they confess Jesus as Lord and believe God raised Him from the dead then they will be saved (Romans 10:9). If they want to know about God for themselves (have a personal relationship with Him), then I will go to their home or they can come to church, not because they have to, but because they want to. Then, they will also tell others because they want to and teach others how to know Him for themselves.

Kjell was asked if he would be interested in teaching English (as a second language) at a Spanish Christian school (Oasis School) in La Esperanza. He has agreed to go on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7am until 3pm. This will help to have him ‘in the culture’ during the week. It is also a great way to practice and increase his Spanish, which he can bring back home to us to learn as well. Kjell will also spend some one on one time with the director of the school to learn Spanish and for her to learn English. This will only be for 3 months or so as the school expects their full-time English teachers to arrive in June.

On Tuesday, I started the Honduran teaching career; well, not a career, but a nice way to be with people and learn their language. The typical Tuesday is that I get to the school at around 7:00a.m., and my first class, 3rd Grade, begins at 7:30. I teach the 15 or so kids conversational English (e.g., greetings, days of the week, etc.) working on pronunciation and simple vocabulary building. There are no kids who speak any English in this class. At 8:20, I leave that classroom and go into 5th grade which has about 15 kids as well. There is one girl who was born in South Carolina and spent most of her early childhood there, so her English is pretty strong, and there are 3 girls who also know a bit of English. I am working on getting the English-speakers more depth to the language while teaching basics to those who know every little. Next, at 9:00, the whole school – all 70 or so kids (grades 1-6) – have a break in which they run around in the courtyard, play soccer or tag, and/or eat a snack. Fifteen minutes later, I head to my biggest class: 6th grade. There are around 20 kids in there and two speak fairly good English. So far, the curriculum I am using is made up as I go along and it tends to be the same for each class with varying degrees of intensity and depth. Next is first grade. The first day was a bad one in terms of behavior, but Thursday was great. I am doing the English alphabet with them. Then, there’s another break for about 20 minutes until I begin teaching the 4th graders at 10:55. A nice small class of six. They are very quiet which is bothersome, but workable. Then, I’m off until 12:40. I typically wander around La Esperanza, buying crackers and a Coke, then I go to the fresh fruit market and buy a banana. It’s a nice break. At 12:40, I teach 7th and 8th grade together because there are only 9 students. This is a fun, but very difficult class because I have 5 girls who are fluent in English – they can speak, read, and write in English – and the other four are not even conversational. I like the age group the best, but the academic part is very challenging. After teaching all day, I meet with the administrator of the school, Dr. Sonia (a dentist with an office across the street). We dialogue about our day in each other’s language and provide instruction at the same time.

On Thursdays, the day is basically the same, but I teach 2nd grade twice since they don’t get any English on Tuesdays.

Jeremiah (our youngest child, who we can’t wait to turn 3 in April) is doing a lot better than when we first arrived. He is no longer crying all day long and that is wonderful. We have started the potty training. Saying he has to go potty when we are inside is going great, but remembering when we are outside is a different story. I have some very funny things he has done since here – that only a two year old could possibly do:

It’s not like we’re not home. We are all here when he does this stuff. We just never think to ‘check’ on him until it is really quiet and then it is too late. In CT, Jeremiah did go in my purse twice and ate my Mary Kay Gingerbread lipstick (we were thinking it had some yummy ingredient). I will say that Mary Kay gave me a new lipstick for free both times. The first time, they probably thought it was crazy. The second time, I was just hoping they didn’t know it was the same customer!

Our missionary friend in Comayagua, Jim Faber, evangelizes using soccer and is also a coach of a semi-professional soccer team. On Sunday, after church, we met him in La Esperanza to watch the soccer game at the big stadium. It was quite interesting and nothing like I had ever seen! First, the La Esperanza team tried to play head games with Jim’s team by trying to get them disqualified from the game by wearing the same color uniform (yellow shirts). That took about 15-20 minutes to 'figure out' what to do. Eventually, the La Esperanza team put on their red uniforms. Second, the local referees were calling every penalty for their home team, even when the foul was obvious that it was the red team. Third, 8 minutes into the game, they gave a red card (player ejection without a substitute). This was Jim’s best player and the captain of the team. His team had to play with 10 guys for the remainder of the game (they usually have 11). Normally, the progression for an penalty is a warning, then a yellow card, and then a red card. Not only that, but if a player gets a red card, they can’t play for the next three games! Needless to say, Jim’s team lost 3-0.

There was some interesting language and yelling going on before and during the game. Kjell was able to discern a few Spanish expletives (thank God the kids don't yet fully understand the language!) So, we decided not to cheer for Jim’s team, since we did not want to get kicked out of La Esperanza! Some of the fans already saw us talking with Jim (the coach of the opposing team – the enemy)! They take soccer very seriously.

Going to the soccer game in La Esperanza and talking with Jim Faber reminded me that there is a soccer field right down the road from us in Yamaranguila. Two Sundays ago, when we went out to lunch after church, we passed by to see the field packed with spectators for a local game. The teams had uniforms and everything. Now I know why all the men (and families) aren’t at church! It might be worth it to find out when games are and have church on Saturday nights. When we were in Danli, Honduras in 2006, church was every Saturday night.

Last Sunday, we walked down and watched a game for a while. It seemed like young guys (high school age), but some were really tall. They seemed to ‘boot’ the ball from one end to the other rather than pass. The field was bumpy and outlined with tires on one side (standing up in the ground), so we sat on top of those. There were a couple of close calls with balls flying in our direction. We were also trying to make our faces known in the area. We saw some boys from church and were able to say ‘hola’ (hi) to them too.

In talking with Jim, he suggested having people from the U.S. donate money to buy a couple of soccer balls. He suggested finding out who the local league head is and share that we would like to present one or two soccer balls to the league. This is just a way to introduce who you are (the Rosa Adelina Care Complex as well as New Generation Church) and give a gift of a soccer ball. He says that then we could give some more soccer balls every month or so and that this really opens up the door to later present the gospel. Jim has told this to other missionaries and teams that come (who may not even know anything about soccer) and they have had success as well. Giving is always a good strategy to reach a town. It’s just a key of knowing what and when and how much!

On Tuesday, March 11th, Lloyd, Sandy, and Stephen arrived. They are the beginning of a team serving through Tech Serve (www.techserve.org). They will be staying for 2 months to finish the apartments, build a new building, and assist with the radio tower and station room. We were hoping that the container would come in before or at the beginning of their arrival, because it contains a lot of materials they need to work with, but it did not. The container has been in port, but has not been released to be driven here. This could mean: lack of or incorrect paperwork, corruption of wanting a bribe or wanting the items for themselves, or possibly something else. Pray for its release!

On Saturday, the 15th, four more people arrived (Chris Gilbert, Bob Meier, Jim and Cayla Hulse). Jim runs a non-profit ministry called Towers for Jesus (www.towersforjesus.com). This is the team that will build the radio tower and station room. Jim made a deal with his family that any trip longer than 3 weeks, his wife and daughter would go along. This being a 2 week task, his family did not plan on coming. However, when he got to the airport, with two 70 pound bags and his own suitcase, the airline would not let him pay for an extra bag. So, he called home and at the last minute had his daughter (Cayla, who is 14), come along and check in that bag.

Side note: Cayla is staying in our spare bedroom. Our girls are showing her the adventures around the place and we also introduced her to some girls that are more her age up the road from the orphanage. She came over for pizza last night and she and Stephen (19 year old) came over to watch ‘Finding Nemo’ on our laptop. Somehow we watched the movie with all 8 of us!

Towers for Jesus is an amazing ministry that goes all over the world putting up radio towers for the preaching of the gospel. If it is an AM station, then the tower serves as the antennae. The height of the antennae determines the frequency. If it is an FM station (like what we will have), then it is whatever station you are given and the height of the tower does not matter. Towers for Jesus have also, in different and remote areas, gotten 1,000’s of solar powered radios that are tuned only to their station to give to the people in that area.

This helps the people not only receive broadcasts of live services or preaching and teaching segments that are taped, but also can be used to receive upcoming events. In other remote areas, they use the radio station to also make personal announcements. With some people having family members that live miles apart from each other, radio has been used for obituaries and announcing a funeral. This really helps, for example, when it would take another family member days to get down the Amazon River for the funeral. The coolest part is that there are no regulations on what you can or cannot say on radio.

When we arrived, we wanted to open a bank account as soon as possible. We were delayed because we needed a letter of employment (Constancia). So, we had to ask Luis Sorto if he would type a letter (with his letter head and seal) stating that we worked at the Complejo Asistancial Rosa Adelina. By the time we received that and returned to the bank, it was another couple of weeks. Kjell was able to open a savings account and deposit our funds via a check from our bank account in the United States. However, those funds take 21 business days to become available. So, I mapped it out on a calendar and our funds will be available on March 18th! So, we actually made our second deposit before our first was even available.

I had a certain amount of cash on us when we arrived and had some exchanged into Lempiras at the airport. That lasted us until last week and then we exchanged almost the rest of the US money we had. It is about 18.9 Lempiras per $1 US dollar. It’s easier to round to 20 (20 Lempiras = $1 US or $1 US = 20 Lempiras). So, you walk around with 100’s of Lempiras in your pocket and 100 Lempiras is under $5 US. We pay anywhere from 1500 – 2000 L on groceries a week which is $75 ($79) - $100 ($105). Porter, the administrator at the Complejo, is a wiz at figuring out the math in his head. If something is around 44 or 91 Lempiras, then I just ask, ‘How much is that?’

In the United States, I did not pay more than $1.99 for cereal. Here it can be as high as 117 Lempiras (a little over $6 US)! So, overall the costs are lower, but when it comes to items that are imported and then driven all the way out to La Esperanza (cereal, spaghetti sauce, pancake syrup), those items can get costly. So, it might be worth it, when we are in the big cities (San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, and even Sequitapeque that has a new grocery store), to stock up on some imported items at a lower cost (where they do not have to travel as far).

For the last week or so, since the arrival of Lloyd and Steven, I have helped build tables. Lloyd, through Tech Serve, acquired many used table tops from an organization that remodels company's interiors, thus ending up with the used furniture. Anyway, that company has given numerous table tops and counter tops to Tech Serve for use in places like Yamaranguila, Honduras. Since the container hasn't come in yet, the team from the States has been getting ready for the radio tower and finishing up some apartments on the other side of the complex (i.e., doing the electrical, hanging ceilings, etc.). In the midst of putting legs on tables, I also built a large cross for the church. It is rough hewn with jagged edges. The cross piece had a really smooth, saw-cut edge, which I didn't want because I don't think the Romans used radial arm saws! So, I used a chisel and cut away at the edges until it looked worn and weathered. Katarina had gotten me a bucket of mud made out of thick red clay. I slathered that on the edges and let it soak overnight. The result was an old, rugged cross (hey, isn't that a song?).

Today, after a really good service, Lloyd, Porter, Craig, John, Steven, Sandy, Jim, Bob and I went to a tower a few miles away that can be seen from the church. This tower, Jim, Craig and Bob say, will be a relay tower from which we will bounce the radio signal at the Complex to the city of La Esperanza and the surrounding areas. The view from there is stunning!

The call letters of the radio station are HRYI. We have not yet come up with a name for it, but that will be forthcoming. We will be airing in two weeks! On the dial, it is 106.5 FM. Towers for Jesus has been working for a week in preparing for the tower that will be put on the property just behind the utility building. They are going to hook it up to the church so that we can broadcast live church services.

We could use your prayers on this one because God is so obviously in it. The tower that we want to utilize is not being used at all right now. The owner lives right in Yamaranguila not too far from the church. Pray that he will have a desire to give us the tower to use either freely or very inexpensively.

This morning, Monday the 24th, we taught a pre-school class about the Resurrection. Brooke, a missionary who lives in La Esperanza (and married to native Honduran Rene) asked us if we could teach the class. Katarina and Mikayla acted out the story while I narrated. The little 4- and 5-year-olds were captivated by the acting.

On Wednesday, March 26th, the container which was being shipped from Arkansas (through Tech Serve) arrived at the complex. Thanks for the prayers! Between the teams that are here and some Honduran men that have been hired to work construction, we unloaded in no time. We tried our best to place items in piles of what they were for (radio tower, construction, etc.). For us, that meant receiving our pallet of stuff (sheets for the kids, toys, stuffed animals, toiletry items, books, kitchen stuff, some office stuff, one printer, and things I even forgot we packed). It was like having Christmas in March. Items shifted a little bit during travel. One of my plastic bins was cracked, but nothing was damaged. I was most glad to see my keyboard. Although I play guitar a tiny, tiny, bit, I was unable to figure out chords to worship songs on it.

The Tech Serve and Towers for Jesus team had already arrived, so having this container arrive was pertinent (with materials they needed for construction and the radio tower). It was supposed to arrive before we even got here or two weeks after. So, I hadn’t taken a lot of ‘supply’ items. I ran out of Lipton tea bags, but found some already in the house to take care of the days before the container arrived. We were very close to the end of some toiletry items as well (ones we have not yet found available here, but might be able to in the bigger cities like San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa).

All the kids are glad to have ‘their’ stuff. They are now in their own sheets and said they feel more like ‘at home.’ Now all three girls share a room and Jeremiah is in his own room. It was weird putting my kitchen items in the cabinets. Being here feels more permanent now, whereas before it just seemed like I was on an extended, long term, missions trip. I did okay with what I decided to bring for that one pallet. I have a list of items to get, if I find them in the big cities, but I can definitely live without them.

We made a huge mistake since being here. Normally, when you enter a country, they give you 90 days in the country before having to leave (for 48 hours before re-entry). However, after two flights and all of our luggage and four children, we never thought to look at what was stamped in our passports. Unfortunately, we were only given 30 days. What this means is that at 30 days, we were supposed to leave the country (and it can no longer be a neighboring country – so you have to go two countries over). We were way passed that by the time we noticed (illegal immigrants we were). Thank goodness no one came out to Yamaranguila to find us. I guess they figure they’ll catch you when you try to leave the country. We planned on beginning the residency process (which means that during that process you don’t have to leave the country), but we just did not know we should have began this sooner (within the 30 days as opposed to within the 90 days). You know me, a year before we left I was trying to find out what we needed to bring and get paperwork filed out ahead of time, but no one would get if for me! I even tried to find out the first week we were here, but no one would do anything (‘we have plenty of time’ or they just did not know).

With the teams here, the container coming, and Semana Santa (Holy Week), we had to wait even longer to start the residency process. So, on March 26th we were supposed to go to Seguitapeque to immigration and then off to Comayagua and then Tegucigalpa (to meet a lawyer for residency). However, right outside of La Esperanza, the van would not go up the mountain. Kjell tried shifting down, to get more power, but to no avail. So, all packed up, we had to turn around and get the van to a mechanic (we hit a rock that was in the road and it hit the oil pan and the oil pump on our way out of Yamaranguila). I waited there (with the four kids and our stuff) to be picked up by Porter and be brought back to the complex, while Kjell headed to Seguitapeque with Tom (who we were going to follow) and all of our passports. Unfortunately, the immigration office in Seguitapeque had closed, so nothing was accomplished that day.

Porter was going to Tegucigalpa on Friday (28th) to bring someone to the airport, so he offered to take our passports to immigration on our behalf. He found out that we were only stamped for 30 days because we wrote down ‘obtaining residency.’ He was able to get an extension on our passports for us after filling out some paperwork and paying both the late and extension fee which was 2,000L each/12,000L total ($106 each or $635 total). He was unable to drop off paperwork to the lawyer though. We are going to use the same lawyer missionaries at the orphanage down the road used for residency. I have copied all of our certificates, marriage certificate, passports, etc. Apparently, Hondurans love paperwork. So, I just photocopied everything I could (22 items). This will create a very good beginning to the whole process!

It costs about 9450 L ($500) per person for residency (56,700L or $3,000 total). This is good for five years. We’re not sure if there is an annual fee of $100 each as well ($600) or if that covers the five years. We thought there would be different prices for head of household versus the kids. Then, there are other fees (for the lawyer, to file extensions [for each month or three months stints until residency paperwork comes through], plus travel and accommodations). We will have to go to Tegucigalpa eventually to pay the lawyer and bring any other paperwork or sign paperwork as time goes on too.

Our neighbor, Julian (also the house parent with his wife, Adelma, for the orphanage) has been one of the few constants in our lives in Honduras. Although there is a language barrier, we communicate daily through broken Spanish and sign language. He is a strong man in the Word, full of integrity, and kind beyond words. I have asked him to be the usher for the church and he agreed. Praise God! He will help in greeting people (especially since my Spanish is still coming along, Julian can say so much more than 'hello' and 'welcome'), help get the kids from children's church back into the church when they are finished (they often come in when we are just finishing the service, and, since they all have chairs they're bringing back, there's lots of noise), help me in moving the pulpit when the kids leave (again, since they take their chairs, the first 20 feet is completely void, so we move the pulpit so I can be closer to the people), and he cleans and maintains the church is various other ways.

Planning Evangelism

One of the men who came with this group from Arkansas, Frank, has a real heart for evangelizing and he has the know-how to get it done well. He has been telling people about Christ for many, many years all over the world most recently in Africa. So, I am learning! I told him that I was so excited he was here and that we could set some things up. He said, "Okay, how about tomorrow [Monday]." So, we decided that Wed, Thurs, and Fri we could utilize Frank's giftings and get some things done for the Kingdom! What Frank has done is go into a neighborhood's meeting area, draw a crowd through loud music, and then either go ahead and start preaching or show the Jesus Film. When he shows the film, he stops it in the middle and starts by saying that these are just actors but the one who they are portraying is real. Awesome!

We started out by leaving the Complex at around 10:00a.m. and going to Marceal's house (our guard). Marceal is very well-known in the area and knows it very well. We picked him up and he drove around to the various barrios (neighborhoods) figuring out where to set up. Since there are really no general areas for meeting except the center of town or the Complex (where we live and have church), we figured, "Let's do it in both places." So, on Wednesday, we will show the Jesus Film here at the Complex and Thursday we will show it in the town square. Now, Marcy and I have wanted to meet the mayor and let him know that we are here to serve the town. We have been trying to plan when we could go in and formally introduce ourselves and bring a gift. Well, when God wants something done, you do it His way! Come to find out, Marceal and the mayor are good friends. Praise God! Marceal and I have coffee 2-3 times a week together and have come to trust each other. So, Marceal introduces us to the mayor who tells us that he is so thankful to God for the Complex being here in Yamaranguila. After about 15 minutes in his office, he gladly gave us permission to use the town square for showing the Jesus Film. Yee-haw! We also are planning to go into some local schools.

Update as to what happens will be next week . . .

Marcy's Journal