Mike Preaching In Spanish

For the past three Sundays Mike has preached at each of the three Evangelical churches in Armenia Bonito. These are the first three times that he ever preached entirely in Spanish. He preached on “Prayer”, “The Bible” and “Salvation”. Preaching in Spanish was a great stretch for Mike, but a great opportunity for him to work on and deliver three original Spanish sermons.

Watch this 2 minute and 30 second video to get a taste of Mike’s preaching:

To the Dump

Friday, Mike, Jamie, her friend Ellen, Bob, our friend Matt and I went to the local dump. It's about 5 minutes outside of town. Our friend Matt has a small ministry he does here - right now he is developing relationships and wants to get a little more into the community, and hosting a clinic is one way of doing that. So, we went out to the dump to assess the area and look for a location to have a clinic. It will be a busy week as we are still having our normal clinic on Thursday, then another clinic on Friday. We will be doing another clinic the following week as well. Please pray for us as we have a busy week for the next two weeks, and for the contacts that are made in the dump.

English Praise and Worship

Last year we had an English Praise and Worship, and it was so successful and well received by everyone, we did it again! All is all we had about 24 people - a representation of about 10+ families. We sang many familiar songs in English, read bible passages to go with the songs - and basically just had a time to sing in English. Everyone brought something yummy to eat and we fellowshiped from 6:00 until 9:00 in the evening. It was a GREAT time of just being together - all with people who have something in common - our love for Honduras, being Christians, and wanting to sing in our heart language.

This week

This week is a little crazy. I know, par for the course for us. However, Madison has quarterly exams, we have things we are preparing for summer teams, Madison has a dentist appointment, bible study, praise and worship event, Clinic, and we are scouting out another area we are going to do some ministry work in. So pray for us as we are trying to figure out how to make it all fit.

Maddy Back In Front Of The Net

Back in the U.S. Maddy played eight seasons of indoor and outdoor soccer. She spent most of her time as goalie. On Friday she got back to her old position.

In PE class the girls play soccer quite often, and Maddy has spent much of that time at goalie. Her classmates liked her effort and asked her to play in an after school, inter school girls tournament on Friday. So she joined the 7th grade girls in their quest to topple the 8th grade girls. The 8th graders had their way with Maddy’s 7th graders. She only allowed two goals, but her teammates managed none. She stopped five shots on the day.

Maddy had a great time and was excited to be asked to participate.

Madison

Things are just different here. Different language, different culture, different way to teach in school. Different understanding of children, differences all around. Madison continues to struggle in school. She has found a friend, but still hasn't found a nitch. It's hard. She's different from everyone else here in the same way. They don't understand her. She's 12, starting out on the mission field, not a young impressionable 2 year old. Because of this, she is struggling. Please pray for her. My heart hurts for my girl on a daily basis. Doesn't make being so far away from home any easier.

On to lighter notes - some things that AREN'T different - the every desire for a straighter smile. Well, that day has come. Yesterday afternoon, Madison had her braces put on. Now I'm not going to go into the cost of them, I might find my house swarming with people coming down to have them put on (yes, the cost of the flight for 2 people, the x-rays - panoramic - and installing braces is STILL TONS cheaper than getting braces put on in the States). But I digress. Madison being Madison, couldn't possibly only pick one color for her bands - so purple and light blue for the first go-around. Her top teeth lean down on her bottom teeth - so she won't get her bottom ones put on until her top are tilted up a little more - 1 to 2 months

Before:


During:


After:


Close-up:

From Scratch

There are many things that I love to eat that are not available here. So - as in Costa Rica - when I couldn't find sourkraut - I made my own . So - this was the same thing with sour dough bread. Not able to find starter, I made my own starter, then made my own bread. The first loaf didn't come out so pretty - but it SURE tasted good! Dipped in EVOO and a smidge of basalmic vinegar, and some black pepper! Pure joy! The second loaf was much prettier - but I didn't get a picture of it.

The Starter:



Rising Dough:


Final product: Honestly - it tasted GREAT!