Home Invasion!

One May 29th, we returned home to Honduras, only to find that our home had been invaded ...TWICE!! This is just one of the things that we, as missionaries, must deal with sometimes.  

It seems that the first home invasion was from mice and spiders!  Whenever there is no activity in our home, the mice either burrow through the adobe or chew off a corner of our wooden doors to gain entrance! In addition, the spiders leave their delicate, but annoying, webs in every corner, in every cabinet, and hanging from every picture and light fixture! 

Then, they all get together and party and leave the biggest mess for us to find when we come home!  Unfortunately, we have come to expect this and we know that, upon our return, every cabinet and every drawer, as well as every dish, utensil and cooking pot in our kitchen will have to be cleaned and washed with bleach water!

The second invasion was by our neighbors, with Jason and Arlen Stevens (our dear friends and fellow missionaries) as accomplices, supplying them with a key to our home!! Can you believe it????

You have heard us mention Hotir, the young man who grew up in my Sunday School class and who is now my husbands’ right arm in the ministry.  Well, Hotir’s entire family is just as special as he!  For several years Alex, his brother, faithfully helped me in all my children’s classes, followed by Victoria, their sister.  Lincy and Victor, two more brothers, are also vital to the ministry, doing anything that is necessary, whether it is driving a bus, construction projects, handling the audio equipment, or whatever!  

Well, it seems that for a solid week, these “kids” (and I understand their mother for a short time, too) came into our home and cleaned, and scrubbed, and swept, and washed everything, getting our home ready for our return!  No one asked them to do it - and there was no pay involved.  They just did it out of the kindness of their hearts!!  This is just one example of why I love these people so much!

Wednesday night service at New Hope Baptist,
the day after our return.

How good it is to be home!! It has been so wonderful to see everyone!  My “kiddos” had all grown so much that I hardly recognized some of them!  

I finally got to see the work that had been done on side additions on our main church, New Hope Baptist, in La Esperanza (I will try to post pictures of this soon!). There is still much to be done as soon as funds are available, but it was wonderful to see the progress!

Calvary Baptist Church of Ojo de Agua
with their new Sunday School addition.

I also finally got to see the new Sunday School addition to the Calvary Baptist Church of Ojo de Agua.  What a tremendous blessing!  And I know that Hermana Enrique is glad, after several years of meeting in her home,  for the children to have somewhere else to meet!

Next month, the people we have transported from Quebrada de Lajas for the last few years to our services at New Hope Baptist in La Esperanza, will finally begin meeting in their very own church building in their own community!  

The new church at Quebrada de Lajas

A church construction team from Tennessee came a month or so ago and built their  new church on some property we had purchased a year ago just for that purpose.  We have given that work over to the very capable hands of our fellow missionaries and co-workers, Jason and Arlen Stevens.  We have no doubt that God will bless them and that this church will continue to grow and be a real lighthouse in that community!

Because Mike and I were not able to go with the team to the mountains last Sunday, I have yet to see the new building at our work in Narranjitos that was built last year by a church from Florida.  The reason we could not go was because, for the last couple of months, Hotir has been taking our teens up to our mountain works among the Lenca Indians on Saturday afternoons and they go soul winning and visiting.  Then, because it is such a long trip back, they sleep on the cement floor of one of our churches in whatever community they are working that particular Saturday. The following morning,  with Hotir and Salvador preaching, they hold Sunday morning services in each of the works before arriving back in La Esperanza about 2:30 on Sunday afternoon.  Mike and I, with our backs, are not quite up to doing that.  But, it seems that they really don’t need us there anyway!  They led 9 people to Christ this last Saturday!!  If you add that to the 4 that accepted Jesus in San Lorenzo the Sunday before, that is 13 people that have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior in the last 2 weeks!!!  

People, that’s what it’s all about!!!!

As I said in the beginning, our home was invaded by mice and spiders, then by our precious neighbors.  However, it is our prayer that we may “invade” as many Honduran homes as possible with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and His message of love and salvation!!  Please pray with us to that end!!!