It was exciting to see some of the first loads of materials rolling in. The first to arrive was a load of sand to use for mixing cement.
The first load of bricks arriving!
We ordered 1,000 blocks here are the first 500!
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Today we put in our order for blocks, sand, gravel and re-bar. Most of the materials should be arriving tomorrow. By Thursday we should be well underway. Keep this project in your prayers. I'm praying that God will multiply this money like He multiplied the bread and fish.
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This gives a little overview of what we got done today. The existing wood frame that used to be the Las Uvas church is now gone!!! Thanks to a donor who donated $4,000 into the Zaid Memorial Revolving Fund we are now able to start building block walls and install doors and windows. It is becoming more and more our personal ministry policy that we just don't give our people everything they need. That's why we came up with the revolving fund. We have donors who like to give to projects but we as missionaries don't like to just give things away because it creates dependency. So the fund serves to meet present needs but gives our people the responsibility of paying the money back to the fund so the money can be used again in the future for other projects. I'm anxious to see how this experiment plays out. It's going to take them awhile to pay it back but it will be worth it in the long run. They will have a greater love and appreciation for their church.
The first step was to take off the tin roof. We plan to reuse this roof, the tin is still in good condition.
Bro. Baudilio was our tin carrier. He stacked the tin and wood as we tore it off.
Baudilio also helped to dig a ditch to help drain the rain water around the church.
Gecko eggs that we found hidden away high in the rafters.
It was a bit of a challenge getting the rafters down. We plan to reuse the rafters so we didn't want to disassemble them.
A rope and home-made pulleys came in handy.
Then we had to pick the cement around the beams and remove all the old wooden beams so we can put in cement columns.
I picked and picked and picked and picked and picked some more on this one beam. It was kinda funny. These guys are experts with this stuff and here I am learning as I go. My hands are still sore!
My team of helpers!! These guys are great!
The pad is ready for the blocks and cement. I can't wait to lay the first one!
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Joseph finished his first year in nursery school. Wednesday the school had a big party at Pizza Hut. He seemed to really enjoy the year, he learned quite a bit. Playing with his friends also really helped to improve his spanish. At the end of the month we will get his final grades but according to the teachers he is one of the top students in the whole school!! We are very proud of him. Here he is with his teacher Miss Ana.
In other news Joseph beat us at his first game of Monopoly Deal. Of course we helped him play his cards but he really did beat us. He thought he was big stuff!!
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We are rejoicing for a wonderful Lord's day yesterday. God helped us all day long in the services. In the morning service Jose Luis came to the altar and prayed to be saved!! What a wonderful moment to see this young man give his heart to God.
In the afternoon service at Las Uvas, God moved there as well and one of the men came forward to pray!! I just praise God for this encouragement and answer to prayer. God is still changing lives!!
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I had a good trip to Nicaragua thank you to all who prayed for me. God blessed us in every service. Here they are starting the first service. This little church has really grown, it was encouraging to see some new people who have started attending. This church is only about 10 or 12 years old but is coming along very well.
I was also privileged to baptize two of their new converts. Here they are on the day of their baptism.
Here is the group praying for the baptism.
Even the Lone Ranger and Silver came to see the baptism. haha.
The water wasn't real deep and the man I had to baptize was pretty tall I was worried I wasn't going to get him back up but thankfully everything worked out ok.
The man on the left is Nemecio, he is the church musician and has quite a story. He fought in the Contra War back in the 80's and spent a week at Ronald Reagan's home in California during the war. The man on the right is Mike he is from our church in Las Uvas he accompanied me on the trip, it was his first time in Nicaragua and he seemed to really enjoy it.
Things are so laid back in this part of Nicaragua. It's so peaceful. There are rolling mountains, little streams and small farms. I think this picture kinda captures the spirit of the place. This was in the back of the pastor's house. His house is made of adobe, he has lots of plants and a comfortable rocking chair, life doesn't get any better.
I saw this old ice cutter in town. Has anyone seen anything like this before? How old is it?
This lady was shaving the ice and then putting some kind of syrup on it to make an icee. I didn't try one, the syrup seemed a little overwhelming to me.
I loved these old wooden doors.
I did a teaching series on Holiness. I started out on "The Two Types of Sin/Sin of Action and the Nature of Sin" the next night I touched on "Is Holiness Attainable?" and talked some about the difference between Calvinism and Arminianism. The third service was "The Seven Steps to Attain Holiness" and the last service was "What Holiness Does in Our Lives". I really felt God's help and there was a spirit of hunger and seeking among the people. Several came forward to seek holiness in their lives.
Sunday night I was privileged to dedicate this precious little baby girl.
This is pastor Julio and his family. His wife Jenny, their oldest daughter Judalie, their son Obed and their little girl Jessy.
Little Jessy enjoying a nap in the hammock.
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I'm getting ready to head South! I'll be going to Salamaji, Nicaragua to preach a weekend seminar on holiness at Julio's church. I would really appreciate your prayers, I want to be a blessing to the church and help them understand holiness a little bit better and create in them a hunger for it. Julio and his family are a great team, along with his church he preaches at two or three other preaching points and is working hard for the kingdom. I'm looking forward to a good weekend.
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We are praising God for a wonderful weekend revival at Las Uvas. It was one of the best revivals we have had there. It was also the church's second anniversary. We always celebrate the church anniversary with a revival, it seems to be the custom here in Honduras.
Roger did a very good job preaching, the Lord really used him in a powerful way. The messages were exactly what we needed to hear. Thanks to all of you who prayed for these services, God really helped!!
Roger preaching the last service.
The crowds grew each night. I didn't get a good count on Sunday night but I'm guessing there were about 60 or so that came to the last service.
Baudilio and Samuel are our faithful guitarists. They were our revival musicians.
Enjoying Sunday lunch with Roger's family and some of our church people.
The two Rogers. Roger Jr is 15 years old.
As you can see, our Las Uvas crowd are mainly poor people. But they are learning to give and to work for the church. One of the special things they did that I didn't even ask them to do was to decorate the church. They were simple decorations but special. They also cooked a meal for all that came on the last night. They worked hard and a did a great job, I was so proud of them!!
We had three people come forward to pray for salvation. Two of them were some of the boys from our Tiloarque. Ricky(seated on the far right) and Leo (smiling in the back corner) both came forward to pray. These boys first started coming to our church when we first started our ministry. They have grown up so much and it's exciting to see their interest in spiritual things. Please pray for them.
Joseph asked me to take this picture and put it on the blog. I'm not sure the reasoning behind it but here it is. He is holding decorations from the revival.
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The Las Uvas church is celebrating two years!!! We will be holding a special weekend of services with Roger Ortiz and his family from San Pedro Sula. Please pray for him and others who will be ministering Friday thru Sunday. Pray for a special outpouring of God's presence and that many lives will touched and changed!
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Our church people held another garage sale this weekend. All the funds went to our building fund. We are saving up money so we have something ready for when it's time to buy and build. Anyways, we had a lot of fun. Our people donated clothes, kitchen utensils and food. We made about $150 which doesn't some like much but it means a lot when it's the church people working and giving for the church. It seems like a lot more when you realize that, that amount of money is one man's monthly salary.
These are called pastelitos. They are sooo good. Don't ask me how to make them I just know they are stuffed with rice and ground beef with grated cheese on top. Some of the ladies sold these and Hannah sold pizza at the garage sale.
In the mix of donated clothes was a ladies outfit or pajamas or something that looked like a Santa Claus costume. So Don Raul tried it on and it fit perfectly. Joseph had to get his picture with Santa.
Joseph's new fad is coloring. He is constantly taking my printer paper to draw on and always asking me to print out new coloring pages. Every piece of art gets hung up around the house especially in my office. Sometimes it feels like we live in an art gallery. haha. He tells me different times, "I'm an a good artist dad". He does pretty good for a four year old. Maybe he'll be the next Thomas Kincaid.
The other day I came home and opened the door to this scene. All the kitchen chairs turned around with his pictures taped to the backs of the chairs. Excuse his mismatching pajamas, I guess that's part of the art too. He was pretty proud of his little gallery.
This is our version of David and Goliath. I hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.
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Thanks for all the congratulations and kind words. We are very excited about our new bundle of joy that is on the way.
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For the past three months we have had a lot of rain. Just about every day we have a good shower. Well about three weeks ago one of the bridges on the main road out of Tegucigalpa collapsed. This has caused a lot of chaos in the city. All that traffic has to find another way in and out of the city. It's been a mess. They don't expect to have the new bridge in place until about December. It's going to be a long wait!!
Mike Barjum and his family have become good friends. God has transformed Mike's life in a miraculous way, from darkness to light, from the pit to the rock, He has an amazing story. His mother is from Bethlehem, she moved to Honduras as a teenage girl, but though she settled in a far away country she and her family have held on to much of her Palestinian culture including the food. We were treated to a delicious Palestinian meal with Mike and his family. It almost felt like we were back in Jordan with Hannah's family. It was so good. We had cussa leben (stuffed zuchini and yogurt), hummus, kibeh (cracked wheat stuffed with meat and pine nuts deep fried) tabolueh, marmaon, sufiha and lots more.
From Left to Right: Joseph and myself, Mike's mother Lilian, Mike's son Daniel, Mike and his wife Mimi. Mike has two other sons that live in the states.
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Joseph is an up and coming artist. He loves to color. Most of his free time is spent coloring and drawing and it seems that each day he is getting better. For a little four year old boy I think he does pretty good. Here is a page he colored for his homework. Not too bad huh?
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