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| I TRY to take one day at a time… but lately, several days have attacked me at once!! |
Since my last post, nearly 2 1/2 weeks ago, so much has happened! I have wanted to write it all down and share with everyone, but there never seems to be enough hours in a day to get everything done!
Maybe some of you remember the commercial with Ben Stein some years ago where he pulls up to a drive through and, with a weary look and a dead pan voice, he asks, “Could I buy some time, please?” Well, that has certainly been my sentiments of late. However, along with the time, I would also like to buy some much needed energy!
Nevertheless, I will try to condense and summarize some of God’s latest blessings that He has sent our way and I will try to do so without minimizing how AWESOMELY He has been working!
Sunday, July 8th: In my last post, I told how our drive to church most probably differs from yours. If you thought THAT was interesting, you will certainly enjoy hearing about our baptism service on this particular Sunday.
New Hope Baptist Church of La Esperanza and Calvary Baptist Church of Ojo de Agua both have a baptismal in their church buildings. However, in some of our other works, we still have to make a trip to the river to baptize believers. That is the case at the In Christ Baptist Church in Naranjitos, our farthest work.
On this particular Sunday we had three ladies to baptize. Across the road from the church is a river with a good sized waterfall that flows into a small pool that is just deep enough for baptizing. That is where we normally baptize. However, there had been a heavy rainstorm the evening before that had left the pool very muddy. When we arrived, were informed by the people there that, because of that fact, it would be better to go to another location.
So, we loaded everyone in the back of the flatbed 450 and drove another 10 minutes up into the mountains.
When we arrived at the designated spot, I could see no river at all. That was when we were told that we had at least a ten minute walk to get to our destination.
Now, I love to walk, especially when there is beautiful scenery around me. But this was NOT a “stroll in the park”!!
It was DOWN a steep, muddy, mountain path, something for which I was NOT prepared! Trust me when I say that slip-on sandals with a low wedge heel are NOT the best shoes to be wearing in this situation! But I’m game, and so, walking behind Mike, with both my hands on his shoulders, we started our downward hike to the river for our baptism service.
The Lenca Indians are used to walking these muddy mountain trails and seem to be as sure-footed as mountain goats. However, it’s a different story for us city-bred gringos! Believe it or not, although Mike did slip down in the mud a couple of times, I didn’t fall even one single time! That fact alone is just more proof that we serve a God of miracles!
While standing in the cold, mountain river, Mike once again explained to the people about scriptural, deep water baptism and it’s significance to a believer’s identification with Christ and their new life in Him.
It was not only a picture of our loving Savior’s death, burial and resurrection, but also a picture of the death of these ladies’ old lives, lives that had been buried under the cleansing blood of the Lamb, and the resurrection of their new lives in Christ Jesus. It was a sweet, sweet service! |
| If you look very closely, you can see the people who made it to the top of the hill long before I did! |
Afterward, we faced the long climb back up the hill to the truck. Somehow, it seemed much harder going up than going down and I had to stop a couple of times to catch my breath and rest a bit. At one point, I thought I was going to pass out! You may ask, “Was it worth it??
"You bet your sweet life it was!!!!
That evening, back in La Esperanza at the New Hope Baptist Church, two more were baptized and, although it was not as exciting a trip to get to the water, it was just as significant and a tremendous testimony to their new life in Jesus Christ.
Monday, July 9th: The next morning, we left cool La Esperanza for HOT San Pedro Sula. We had 3 things on our “To Do” list that made it necessary to make this 3 hour trip, once again in our small, unairconditioned, 21 passenger bus: 1. There were some things that we needed to look for that we cannot get in La Esperanza (like canned green beans and stewed tomatoes). Not necessities, but more like luxury items for us. 2. We had to take a transmission back to where it had been bought to exchange it for another in hope that it might work this time. This would be the third one, and you know what they say ...”Three’s a charm”! and... 3. We were going to the airport to pick up Kara, who was going to stay with us for a month!!!
Kara is a young woman from Faith Baptist in Tacoma, WA. (This is the church where Mike was pastor for 14 years.) We have known her parents since “forever” and count them as dear and precious friends. We remember well when Kara was born. She has grown up with loving and dedicated Christian parents, attended and received her diploma from the Christian school that we started years ago and, all her life, has been in that wonderful church being saturated with good Biblical teaching. Although she was just three years old when we left the pastorate to become missionaries, we always saw her when we would go to Tacoma and visit our son and the church there. It has been such a joy to watch her grow through the years, not only physically, but spiritually, as well. Kara is now a beautiful, godly, 21 year old woman.
This is her first time out of the United States, as well as her first mission trip. I think that, so far, it has been a real eye opener. She has already been such a joy and blessing to have around. (I have felt badly that we have been so busy, though!)
While she is here, Kara is keeping an online blog of her experiences and thoughts. If you would like to check out what she has to say, you can go to www.karaplein.blogspot.com where her blog is called Honduras Adventures.
Saturday, July 14th: Unfortunately, during Kara’s first week with us, I had to spend nearly all my time writing, and then translating, several lessons and student study sheets, preparing for a meeting that was scheduled on her first Saturday with us.
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| Arlen with some of the children in San Lorenzo. |
I have been praying for some time that God would give us more Sunday School teachers to help in the many works that we have. I can no longer teach everywhere, every Sunday, indefinitely. (This ol’ gal just ain’t as young as she used to be!)
That schedule even took it’s toll on Arlen Stevens, the young missionary wife who took care of all my classes while I was in the States ... and she is in her early thirties!
I had 7 prospective teachers show up at my house for teacher training. Their ages ranged from 13 to 21 years. Thirteen is awfully young, but they can always start out as helpers and work their way into more responsibility as they prove themselves. Also, if they so desire, they can occasionally teach the children in San Lorenzo where we normally have a smaller group of children who, no matter what their age, are at the beginner level.
Sunday, July 15: This was Kara’s first Sunday with us, and it really turned out to be a “doozy” of a Sunday!
After being bumped and jostled for two hours, we finally arrived in San Lorenzo for our first service. I think it was Kara’s first time to attend a Sunday School class where children had to sit on sacks stacked against the wall.
Then it was on to the church in Ojo de Agua where there were 34 children in my Sunday School class! At the end of the service, the children joined the adults to watch a couple of young people get baptized. For some of the children, this was their first time to see Biblical “deep water” baptism, rather than sprinkling.
The first one baptized was Marlene, one of my prospective teachers who has been living in La Esperanza with missionaries Jason and Arlen Stevens this past year so that she might further her education. (Lenca schools in the mountains only go through the 6th grade). Every weekend she travels back to Ojo de Agua to visit her family and attend services in the church where she grew up. (For years, we met and had services in her grandmother’s house where Marlene lived.) Actually, she has already been a helper to Arlen with the classes there during this past year. Many who have visited Honduras and Ojo de Agua will recognize her face and sweet smile. Marlene, who just turned 14 last Friday, has been faithfully attending my Sunday School class since she was only 5 years old. It was so good to see her finally follow the Lord in baptism!
The other one baptized was Kenia, who has become Marlene’s best friend since moving to La Esperanza! She is such a little sweetheart! Even though she is the only one in her family that attends services, her mother gave her permission to follow the Lord in believer’s baptism. She has also been traveling to the mountains every weekend and helping some with the little ones in the classes. Just look at those smiles! You can see the joy of the Lord on both of their faces!! |
| That is Marlene and Kenia standing on the tool box. |
After the services, we all loaded up in the truck and started the two hour trip back to La Esperanza where Mike was to baptize two more in the evening service at New Hope Baptist.
When we were about 30 minutes away from La Esperanza, we came upon a bus stalled in the middle of the narrow road. We had to restrict our already slow pace even more to get around it. We had barely passed the disabled bus when we began to hear the people in the back of the truck banging on the top of the cab and screaming for us to stop because someone had fallen out of the truck!
Kenia, had apparently been standing pretty much in the same spot as in the above picture, but she was trying to grasp some leaves of a tree branch as we went under it, lost her balance and fell, breaking her wrist and some of her teeth. Instead of going home, Kenia, Kara, Silveria (one of the ladies from our church) and I were dropped off at the local “hospital”. (I put that word in quotation marks because I have my doubts about the validity of calling it a hospital!)
Several hours later, she was released with a cast on her arm. We made it back to the house with just enough time to change clothes and make it to the service at New Hope Baptist where we had two other baptisms and then celebrated the Lord’s Supper.
All of this made for a very long, but very exciting day! I am sure that it was a Sunday unlike any that Kara had ever experienced before, and one she will never forget! The next day, she was still feeling the effects of her first Sunday with us here in Honduras!
In the near future, we will also be taking Kenia to see a dentist. Even though the accident was not our fault, we feel that it is only right for us to take care of the medical and dental needs of the little girl of this poor family. Her parents have been very understanding during this whole situation. Our prayer is that, through all of this, God will bring them to accept Him as their Savior.
You know, Satan is never happy when people come to Christ, accept His salvation, and begin to really fall in love with Him and serve Him. He tries one thing after another to knock them off track. But, we serve an awesome, all powerful, all knowing God! How we thank the Lord for His protection in this accident that could have very easily been a potentially serious or fatal one.
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| Hotir passes around the cup of grape juice that is to remind us of the blood that Jesus shed to cover our sin debt. |
Sunday, July 22: Yesterday was another day filled with God’s blessings! It was our Sunday to go back to Naranjitos (we go there every other Sunday). Yesterday, that church celebrated the Lord’s Supper for the first time! The attendance was down, but the fellowship was sweet!
In Ojo de Agua, the service was well attended and that church, as well, celebrated the Lord’s Supper for the very first time. Also, I was able to lead five children to the Lord while, at the same time, Mike was leading a lady to the Lord!
Then, before we left, the male companion of Dora Belinda, one of the ladies that I led to the Lord three weeks ago, wanted to talk to Mike. Cecilio and Belinda had decided it was time to get married so that they could get baptized and become members of the church.
You must understand that the majority of the people we work with are not married! In rural Honduras and among the Lenca Indians, it is an accepted practice for a couple to live together, for a man to have several different “families” and father dozens of children, or for each child in a family to have a different father. It is an accepted practice because the Catholic church has never taught them that the Bible says it is sin, nor have they taught them about the importance of marriage.
For this couple to make this decision, it is a great sign of spiritual growth and a love for God and His Word. This is a fine couple, and they have much potential to affect other new believers in this Lenca community. We are so thrilled about this step of obedience and growth on their part. Please pray for them.
At the service at New Hope Baptist in La Esperanza, we were thrilled to see slightly over 100 in attendance, one of those being little Kenia who had fallen off the truck the week before! Before the preaching, Kara gave a wonderful testimony with Mike translating for her. It was such a blessing to our people. The Hondurans, and especially the children, have fallen in love with her (which is easy to do)! |
| Mike interprets as Kara gives her testimony. |
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| The children (as well as some of the young men) are enamored with Kara! |
Then, as another special blessing from the Lord, 16 year old Hector, one of the finest young men I know, expressed his desire to teach children about Jesus Christ! He will be coming to my house this Saturday for “basic training”.
Well, there you have it! And that’s really just skimming the highlights on what has happened in the last 2 1/2 weeks! God has been tremendously good and He is blessing our efforts here!
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| That is NOT Mike on the radio tower, but rather the man that was hired to do the work! |
In the midst of all of these happenings, Mike has been calling churches and setting up appointments for our time in the States at the end of this year, as well as trying to stay on top of vehicle repairs, buying the needed building supplies, trying to adjust the Bible Institute schedule, studying and preparing messages and, with the financial help of others and under the direction of former Honduran missionary, Jim Foster) helping to facilitate the extension of the radio tower at Voice of the Good Shepherd (a ministry started years ago by Jim.)
As for me, in addition to my “wifely duties”, such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, and so forth, I have also been busy preparing the weekly lessons and illustrations, etc, for the new teachers, as well as working with them in the classes on Sundays. Moreover, I have been engaged in trying to finalize our travel plans, car rentals, Mike’s doctor appointments, etc, for when we are in the States. Furthermore, we are also preparing to receive a Mission Team from the Pleasantview Baptist Church in Arlington, TX, who will be coming on the 31st of this month for a week of ministry in Honduras! (We are so looking forward to their visit!!)
As you can see, our lives as missionaries in Honduras are full and active, with never a dull moment. (Even now, I’m finishing this article in the dark because we lost electricity about an hour ago!)
In fact, our lives are so full that I could really use a little bit of “down time” every now and then. Like Ben Stein, I would really like to know
...”Could I buy some time, …PLEASE?”
