Travels and the winds of change

Mike is once again off! Off to The States for a couple of meetings, conference, speaking engagements, etc. Madison and I will be the lone women in our house once again. It's all good, but we sure miss him when he's gone. Luckily I have my 110 pound dog to protect us :-) : I know...I know...he sure looks fierce :-)





Taught an English class yesterday solo - Mike has TONS of things to do before he leaves, and Madison had a boat load of homework. So - managed to teach 15 beginners and 2 advanced learners. Had a lot of fun worksheets for them to do with bribes (oh - did I say that?!) - uh...positive reinforcement treats for each sheet the finished. They ALL managed to finish ALL of them - go figure :-)

Tomorrow is prep day for clinic, then Sean and I will be solo for the medical clinic on Thursday. It's always a challenge when we are "short staffed", but we have it down to a science, so prayerfully things will go well.

Last night brought in some much needed rain and a relief to the weather! Can't believe it's November and I continue to sweat, and have to sit in front of the fan...this rain has been a nice relief! I pray it stays through the holidays!

Saturday

All day yesterday I sat on the couch and relaxed! It was heavenly! Nothing on the agenda, nothing pending - just me, myself, and the couch!! I was also anticipating Tropical Depression Ida to hit, but away she went. As of now she still can't decide if she is going to dump tons of rain on us or not. The skies are black, a nice little wind, but nothing else. We shall see.

Mike returns tomorrow from his time in Colombia. He had some great training. Then he will spend the following two days preparing for his time in The States. He will be gone for 2 1/2 weeks, but back just in time for Thanksgiving! I've already purchased the turkey, made plans with the McCann's, and can't even wait! Thanksgiving is a special time for us - filled with traditions...then the Christmas Tree will go up that weekend - and the Christmas season will commence! Exciting times :-)

Colombia, Clinic, and Ida

Mike is currently in Colombia for a leadership conference. After a false start at the hospital, and a one-day delay, he will be there until this Sunday. Then, on Wednesday he will leave to The States for additional meetings.

Today is our weekly medical clinic. We have had an increase of people coming from the mountains. As we are one of the only free medical clinics, people are coming from near and far. The difficulty with this is we are not able to see as many people from Armenia Bonito, as people from outlying areas are coming - the pros are - we are seeing people from unreached areas and are able to pray with them, and provide them with evangelism material.

Hurricane Ida has made landfall in Nicaragua. We are waiting to see what impact it has on Honduras. It is scheduled to arrive still as a Hurricane in a few days. It seems to be veering a bit East, so it looks like we won't get hit with the eye of the storm - but it's sure to bring a lot of rain.

Update

Today I taught an English class on Days of the Week and Months of the Year. After having a fun time yelling out the words, given cards to sort into the proper order (and to take home and practice more), and placing signs with days of the week on the walls, and having people run from place to place to the correct "day of the week" sign - I came home to my husband who stayed one more day in-country, and will be leaving to Colombia tomorrow.

Our team mates, The McCann's have returned after just over two weeks of a restful time with their family, and are ready to jump back into work :-) Although they have been gone, we have continued with all of our ministry work with just Mike and myself. Now Mike will be gone. I'll be continuing our English classes with the assistance of Madison, the McCann's will pick back up the Kids Club, and Sean and I will be doing our mobile clinics. Busy times indeed :-)

Fall is here, but you just wouldn't know it. We continue to swelter, sweat, and wear shorts and have our fans on full-time. A bit difficult to get into the season. However, our decorations are up, I've purchased the turkey, and now we are just waiting and starting to plan for Thanksgiving. Because Madison attends a bilingual school, they actually do celebrate many of the U.S. Holidays. Yes, she is the ONLY North American in attendance in the school, but they DO celebrate Thanksgiving (accion de gracias). So, she has Thursday and Friday off!

Great Week For Madison

Early in the week we received Madison’s first report card at her new school. She received two Cs and all the rest As and Bs. This was her first time receiving all passing grades while here in Honduras. This is a big deal…don’t forget, half of her classes are in English and half are in Spanish. Her teachers also agreed that her Spanish has improved sufficiently enough that she is no longer required to receive mandatory Spanish tutoring.

She also received special recognition, only one of 5 (out of 50) in 8^th grade, for having perfect attendance during the grading period.

There was a highly anticipated school-wide drawing contest. Madison, who loves drawing, drew and entered a special picture for the competition. In all of Jr. High her picture got first place!

Then on Friday the whole school held a costume contest. Madison, dressed in her best wolf costume, received second place in the whole school.

Cooking From The Deep, Deep, Deep South

This evening Mike was very excited about dinner. He cooked one of our favorites – barbecued pulled pork sandwich and sweet tea with a side of corn on the cob.

It is not hard to cook in Honduras, but sometimes it is hard to find the things you need to cook your favorites. Not many butchers in La Ceiba carry pork loin and corn on the cob is rare.

For our friends from the South – Does it scare you to see Californians cooking Southern classics in Honduras (the deep, deep, deep South)?

Kids Club – Dave And The Giant Pickle

Today Mike, Madison and I hosted 50 kids in our weekly Kids Club in Armenia Bonito. It was a fun and special Kids Club for all of us. The kids received a great message about David and Goliath, had fun and enjoyed a new experience…watching Veggie Tales. For our family it was really fun. Since Madison is 13 our family is charter members of the Veggie Tales family. Madison was raised on their videos.

We took the kids out to the field to play some games. The kids were corralled into the town hall and I read the kids the real story of David and Goliath. We then projected Veggie Tales’ “Dave y el Pepinillo Gigante" in Spanish (Dave and the Giant Pickle)” - for the kids. This was the first time we projected a movie for the kids and the first time any of them had seen a Veggie Tales movie. The kids got a rare treat of popcorn during the movie.

After the flick the kids colored and decorated a picture of the “Giant Pickle” with Matthew 19:26 underneath it - Para Dios, todo es posible (with God, everything is possible). A really fun day.

Reading the story before they see the movie so they know it's a bible story, not just a fun movie.

Madison helping out with craft and making her own



The kids proudly showing off their creations


Movie Snacks


Kids Watching The Movie


Mi Amor - Oneida