Growing things

I have always loved growing things.  In The States we always had a huge garden.  Finding things to grow well here has actually been quite challenging.  Because of the extreme heat and tons of rain that floods things out, I struggle with making things grow the way I am used to.  About six months  before we left to go back to The States this furlough, I purchased a papaya from a local fruit stand.  Now, I am not a huge papaya fan, but I know the nutritional value of them so use them a lot in fresh smoothies.  So I took the seeds out of the papaya, and threw a bunch of them in a pot with some soil.  Well...they took off.  By e time we returned from furlough the trees had started fruiting!  However, not so sure I will actually be able to enjoy the fruit of my labor so as some local fruit bats have found out about my tasty papayas.  All in all, it is the growing of things I love, so that's okay :-)

Here is e planted tree right before we left

The trees after we returned

And some fruit that the bats are enjoying...

Readjusting to life in Honduras

Well, we have returned, and started things off with a bang.  Two days after our return we started a leadership assessment of the men on the team.  Folks from Mission to the World have come down to be a part of this process.  It is a great way of looking at strengths and weakness in areas of leadership and is designed to give some insight into each couple evaluated.  We have not only been evaluated, but are part of the assessment team.  During the same time we are trying to get our house in order.  We have literally been going non-stop since our return, and have not even managed to unpack, we are still living out of suitcases.  Gratefully food is provided during this week as our stove and oven are not functioning, and we are not home to be able to have a repair person come evaluate it to be fixed, or if it is even fixable.

Life here has continued on as expected.  New businesses have opened, many have closed. My he clinic has been running well, and continued mobile clinics in numerous communities have continued as well.  We are going to take the next few weeks to get our house in order, spend time together as a family and just live before we start evaluating what our role here is going to be.  Summer teams are right around the corner, so there is that as well.  We have numerous international trips planned including a trip to Africa to do some information exchange.  They have a great seminary program up and running and we want to learn from them, and we have done much in terms of medical/mercy ministry and they are looking at starting something and want to learn from us.

So that's us in a nutshell...no different than usual, the Pettengill's running 100 miles an hour, but that is how we roll :-)