Hey we are still alive! Just very busy. We have felt God's strength in recent days and we are very grateful. The Las Uvas church seems to be growing. Last night there were about thirty people that attended the evening service. Here at Tiloarque we have been having good services and I have been spending time with baptism classes and membership classes, the people are learning a lot. So between the two churches we are staying busy.

Joseph keeps growing. In the picture he is enjoying grape flavored ice cream. It was actually pretty good I stole a lick or two. He wants to go to school. He will probably start next February at a nearby pre-school. He says he knows his numbers and his letters. So I asked him what "what number is this?" and I held up the number 5. He said "green". Obviously he doesn't know his numbers and colors too well. haha.

Well I hope you all have a great day!

 

Last Friday night was a special time. We had a get-together at the Las Uvas church along with our church people from Tiloarque. We had so much fun. We got there at about 9:30 at night and we left at about 2 a.m. We had a little service together, we sang choruses, had testimonies and even had an impromptu drama of David and Goliath. It was hilarious. We of course had excellent grilled meat, refried beans and rice. I think it was the best grilled meat I ever had here in Honduras, it was soooo good. Then we relaxed around a bonfire the remainder of the evening. I'm so excited to see how God is helping our people. They are good people and many of them are really trying to serve God. These two churches are on two different social levels but even at that, they are learning that in God's family there are no different levels, we are equal and all loved by God.

A video of the celebration: Honduras goes to the World Cup

Last night was glorious!! Honduras beat El Salvador and the United States beat Costa Rica opening the door for Honduras to go to the World Cup. It's the first time in 27 years that Honduras will be playing for the World Cup. There was shouting in the streets. Cars with groups of young people in the back waving flags and rejoicing. The city set off fireworks. The president declared today to be a holiday in celebration of their win. It was amazing. I never saw anything like it. We hopped in our car and join the throngs of people. How exciting!!

God has really been helping us. We sense his presence guiding us along. We now are holding services on Tuesday nights at the church at Las Uvas. One of the couples there have really been trying to get their lives straightened out. They have lived together for 15 years and it looks like we may soon have a wedding!! I'm so excited.

We don't have any electricity at the church so we run an extension cord to a nearby house. So it takes a little while to get everything set up. But it is exciting to see what God is doing. We have been having some good services. We are praying that God will raise up some pastors to lead these churches and help establish them. Keep praying for these works.

Mel Zelaya is still holed up in the Brazilian embassy, not much has changed. Troops have about a whole block barricaded so it doesn't look like Zelaya will be going anywhere fast. Talks are going on between Zelaya's representatives and the government but they still haven't come to any kind of agreement.
There has been quite a bit of damage done from protesters.  There is lots of graffiti, smashed windows, and a few restaurants that were gutted. Most of the damage was done close to the presidential palace. But for the most part life goes on as normal and we are hoping for peaceful elections in November.

Joseph loves to dissemble my office one piece at a time!

Hey just wanted to let everyone know we made it back to Honduras just fine and we are doing great. My parents took us to Newark airport for our early 5:40 a.m. flight so we left the house at about 11:30 at night. We had one last hoopta rah at Perkins! It was fun, Joseph could barely stay awake during the meal and then finally crashed on a bench.














The flight went very well. Joseph slept from Newark to Houston, Texas but was wide awake for our flight into Tegucigalpa. He likes to fly. He pushes all the buttons and was taking out all the magazines from the seat pouch to make tents out of. We had a little emergency when he spilled his orange juice all over his shirt. He sat there next to me saying "I'm frozing, I'm frozing". It had ice cubes in it. haha.






It was so good to finally get home. It almost seems like we never left. Our people did so well and Glen and Helen Reiff and Andrew Palacious did a fantastic job filling in for us. Saturday night the church people had a big welcome home party for us. Jose grilled the meat and the ladies prepared refried beans and rice. It was soooooo good.



Thank you for all your prayers. Right now the country is calm. There havn't been any protests, things seem to be back to normal for right now. Mel Zelaya is still in the Brazilian embassy but it seems like the political authorities are closer to some kind of agreement. We will see what happens.

We are home!! We had a very nice trip everything was smooth sailing. We thank the Lord for a safe trip. Now it's time to catch up on some needed rest!