Wishing all of our friends, family and supporters a happy new year!!!

Help us think of a really good caption for this picture.

Today we got together with some of our missionary friends, the Delongs and the Robberts. The Delongs will soon be moving back to the states so we wanted to take this time to have one more get-to-gether with them before they leave. So we went to a zoo and had a good time of fellowship.

The ostrich is just so unique. They are kinda fun to watch.

Mr. Jaguar enjoying an afternoon swim.

The national bird of Honduras, the Scarlett Macaw.

The MK's (Missionary Kids) taking a break after a hike up a long hill.

We couldn't leave without taking a spin on a the go-karts. 

After the day at the zoo we all headed over to Lake Yojoa for an ice cream and a boat trip.

This was Daniel's first boat ride! He loved it!

Captain Joseph.

It was such a nice day with friends. We will certainly miss Steve and Yvonne and their family. We wish them the best and hope to see them soon!

Thursday was another work day in Las Delicias. It was back to mixin' mud, and making adobes. While clearing out the old adobes that were already dried I found this little guy hiding out. He looks big in the picture but he was just a baby, I'm not sure if he was a rattler or not but he soon lost his head.

We made 132 new adobes, counting the old ones that gives us a total of 189. Just 411 more to go!!

What do you on a hot work day when you want a drink of Pepsi and there are no cups? Pour it in a plastic bag, tie it tight and bite a corner out of the bottom.

Baudilio and Roberto filling molds with mud.

Long hard work.

Ok get this. On Saturday we had a wedding in the afternoon, a reception, then we all went to Las Uvas and had a Christmas play and a Christmas dinner. Talk about a very busy weekend!!! It was great though. The ladies made 17 full chickens for the dinner. This is Rita, she is one of our main ladies, we couldn't do it without her. She is putting the condiments and spices on the chicken.

Everybody pitched in with the food and decorations. They worked all day on Friday getting stuff ready. Even Joseph helped out buttering up the trays to put the chicken in.

This was our first wedding for the Tiloarque church. Everyone was so excited. This is Roberto's and Jenny's daughter Genesis she was the flower girl and Joseph was the Bible bearer.

Roberto with his youngest daughter Jared and his father.

Greeting family and friends as they begin to arrive. The man is the bride's grandpa and the lady on the right is the bride's sister who lives in Guatemala. They hadn't seen each other for three years, she made a special trip to just be at the wedding.

The mothers lighting the candles.

The wedding party.

Here comes the bride!!!!! Our little church was packed to capacity. There were about 80 people present.

It's customary that the couple sits during the ceremony.

It's also customary to "tie" the couple together with a rope. It's symbolizes unity. Then they pass coins from one to the other to represent that was is his is hers and vice verse.

You may now kiss your bride!

Jenny's mother passed away when she was only 10 and she never knew her dad. So she was raised by her grandparents. She thinks of them as her parents.

Roberto's mom and dad. Our new work in Las Delicias is at their home. 

The whole family. God has really been working in this family. They started coming to church back in January during the marriage seminar. He just got saved back in September and she got saved in October. They wanted to get married and also start in discipleship for baptism. They are such a blessing and we wish them the best!

Can you tell they are happy?

We had the reception in front of the house. Needless to say it was crammed but at least we all had a good time.

Hannah made a masterpiece of a wedding cake!! The top was strawberry, the middle was yellow and the bottom chocolate. They all loooooved it!!

Then we all piled up in some vans and headed to Las Uvas for a Christmas play and a supper. It was a very busy day but oh a very good one!!!

This past week was crazy! We had so much stuff going on. First off, Hannah had to bake a bunch of snacks for a Christmas party for Daniel and his therapy classes. He was sick and wasn't able to go.

I think it was Tuesday Hannah had the young people over to practice the Christmas play. Here they are eating lunch. 

On Friday was Joseph's school Christmas play. He was a shepherd and was so excited to get dressed up for the part. After the play he didn't want to take it off and ended up going to McDonald's looking like this. Everyone thought it was so cute.

The gym was packed with people who came to see the play.

It was tough to get some good pics so far away but Joseph is the second on the left. 

All of the shepherds singing their song.

Joseph did an awesome job!! We were so proud of him.

One of the "Jordanian" camels that showed up to the play.

Saturday was a work day at "Las Delicias". Our contact person Jose, has been itchin' to build a church on his property. God really has been helping us in this new work and we are hoping to get an adobe church built soon. This was all a new experience for me. I didn't have a clue how to make adobe blocks and was anxious to see how this whole process was done. Roberto and Jenny, Baudilio and myself headed for the country at about 5:30 a.m. As we came down the road to the farm I had to stop the car as a herd of cattle came towards us. This is their main traffic around these parts.

It kinda reminds me of Pennsylvania. It's nice to get away from the city from time to time.

First thing on the agenda was to find some rich dark soil and start piling it up. Jose found a good spot along his pond. We dug and dug and piled and piled for about four hours.

 The soil was perfect for making adobes. Roberto (in the white hat and boots) started attending our Tiloarque church in January after being invited to a marriage seminar. He and Jenny got saved back in September and have been doing so good spiritually. Through Roberto we got in contact with his dad Jose who is the owner of this farm. He invited us to come and start a work there with his family and neighbors.

The ladies kept us fed well while we worked.

Our mountain of dirt kept growing. I really enjoyed working with these guys, talking about politics, corruption, farming and legends like the duendi and the chupa cabra. We shared a lot of laughs.

We hit a few tarantula tunnels while digging. 

While we finished digging up the dirt. Baudilio and another boy went to fill up sacks with dried pine needles to use in the adobe mix.

Jose gave me a hunk of one of his pineapples. Mmmmmm sooo good.

After we had our dirt piled up we needed to clear a flat space where we could lay out our adobes to dry.

The next step was to haul buckets of water from the pond to start mixing up the dirt.

Then you have to throw in the dried pine needles.

Stomp it and mix it up really good...

Load up the wheelbarrow and carry it to where we will be making and drying the adobes.

We made two wooden molds, 10 inches wide by 16 inches long. You gotta fill and pack the molds really good and tight so they don't fall apart when you slip the mold off.

After it's all packed in tight and smoothed off you carefully take off the mold.

One of my best adobes of the day. Not perfect but not bad for a gringo's first time.

A very very dirty job. But hey, it's lot's of fun.

Our team of workers. They all did a super job. Needless to say we were all tired, we ended up making 57 adobes. That evening we held a service and a new couple got saved!! It was definitely a good day in paradise.