Perspectives Adjusted

We cannot believe our year commitment is almost up!  Isn't it crazy to look back at days that seemed to be uphill and difficult and long, to see that they passed by so quickly?  When we came to Honduras we had a view in our minds of what it would look like.  We had an idea in our heads of what a 'missionary' looked like.  We have come to the conclusion that we did not know anything.  Some of these thoughts and feelings are vulnerable and possibly a little too honest.  It is not our desire to be offensive but to be honest with the things we have experienced and seen.

Here are a few of our perspectives that have been 'adjusted':

We thought it would be easy to find a 'project' and tackle it head on, throwing our whole selves into it.
Adjustment- Not all projects are worthy of throwing yourself into.  Not all mission projects ultimately, truly lead to Christ.  They do not all fulfill the Great Commission. Without great focus and commitment, projects can easily fail to meet the criteria of making disciples.

Hope in this - We have felt God impress upon us that you either intentionally pour your life into something or your life gets very unintentionally poured into nothing.  Meaning simply this, life passes fast.  It happens when you are not looking.  We are earnestly seeking where God would have us pour our lives with great focus and commitment.  This is a process that will never end.  God is being faithful in guiding us and we feel very excited about where He is leading us.

We would feel like we were serving Christ in every moment because that is our intention.
Adjustment- Most of the time we feel like we are living life, trying to get laundry done, cook dinner for our family, do plain ol' work... serving Christ the same way we would if we were still in Forney, TX. The reality of living here is much different than the Spiritual high of visiting on a short term mission trip. We came with high expectations of ourselves, that we would accomplish a lot in this year.  What we have realized is that things take time, long term commitment, and work.


Hope in this -  We desire to serve Christ with our entire lives, in all we do.  We will serve whether we are doing the dishes, planting a garden, feeding those who are hungry physically and spiritually, or when we are tucking our kids in at night.  No matter where we are, that is our desire.We are willing to offer our lives to accomplish the things that God would have us do over time, whether we see the fruit or not, trusting that He is in it, because we ask Him daily to guide our steps.  We are not willing to compromise in these ways.  We won't exchange comfort for honesty, truth for easiness, or the appearance of good work for actual good work.

We would agree and have an automatic connection with all other missionaries.
Adjustment- There are different ways of doing things, different gifts, different focus, different methodology, different priorities, and unfortunately politics in all areas of life, including missions.  This is what has really made us sad, and for some reason a bit shocked.  People can be in the same area, for the same purpose, but unity can remain elusive.

Hope in this -  If you are reading this and you support a missionary or know a missionary, whether it be through prayer or financially, please realize this; Your words of encouragement and your demand of accountability cannot be undervalued.

Taking our kids to serve God with all we have should be great for them and their relationship with Jesus and they would at a young age see the great purpose for their lives.
Adjustment- Now ALL the responsibility of teaching our kids about Jesus and His love and desire to have a relationship rests on us.  We no longer have the awesome children's program in our church to help build  them up and reinforce the teachings they need to know and believe.  We definitely did not take into account the pressure that our children would fall under.  Many times we have had to remind Ethan and Olivia of our purpose here and encourage them in their role as representatives as Christ.


Hope in this - This experience has made our relationships with God much deeper.  We have grown because we have had to rely on Him more.  As a family we have become reliant upon speaking of His grace and mercy to each other throughout the day.  We have seen growth in our children in their perseverance, in their faith, and in their interest to know more of God's word and His truths and promises.  We have seen them grow in their love for others and for their desire to serve.  We know that God has a great purpose for their precious lives and it is our job to help them to see it too.

We would see eternal value in our work and fruit in our relationships.
Adjustment- Relationships take time, they are compounding, much like the work you put into a project.  Every moment is not satisfying, showing direct fruit.  Relationships are also hard.  What is a relationship without honesty, trust, and truth?  This experience has helped us realize how superficial so many relationships can be, and given us a desire to have more than that.


Hope in this - We HAVE seen eternal fruit.  God HAS been working in our time here.  We have seen people come to know Christ, we have seen people smile who have little reason to smile, we have seen people filled with hope who appear to have little reason for hope.  It is easy to desire more or to convince yourself you have not done enough.  There is no telling how God has used us in the lives of students at school, the boys in baseball, the farmers in the field, and so on.

It would be easy, through social media and communication methods of today, to stay close and connected to friends and loved ones.
Adjustment - Distance is distance. Photographs and words do not adequately convey experiences.  Whether the experiences are on this end or that end, the way these things impact us and shape us in tiny increments on a daily basis affect and change us in deep ways, and these things are hard to communicate.

Hope in this - While the world sings the praises of technology, to us it is no replacement for face to face, person to person conversation and time spent.  We love our friends and family dearly and this has truly been our largest sacrifice, with no comparison to any item we may have given up in order to move to Honduras.  If the situation allows for our return to Honduras, our home is welcome and open to you anytime. There is not a day that goes by that all of you are not in our hearts and on our minds and we are greatly encouraged when you express that you remember us also.

It would be easy and fun to report back good news and happenings.
Adjustment - We realized early on that we do not want to make the things we do look bigger than they are.  We are trying, just like many of you to serve God, not man.  We also fail.  Honest communications are important.  Each day is built of moments.  Some of them turn out to be great successes that we truly believe God will use to further His kingdom.  Some of our moments are utter and complete failures that hopefully we will learn humility, patience, and perseverance from.  And some of them don't accomplish much at all, adding up to the happenings of life.  All of these things have reason to be difficult for reporting on.

Hope in this -   We desire to have others praying for us. Without knowledge of what we are doing, this can be a difficult thing to ask of anyone.  We will continue to push ourselves to report back the good and bads of our life and service, praying that those reading will read, knowing we are trying to be sincere and open and honest.

So what do we take from this?
Now that we have almost finished the year, we look back at the accomplishments and the failures and we see how much our thought has changed.  What does it mean for the future?  How might we learn from these things?  How might these experiences shape us into better servants to the King?

Antigua, Guatemala 

We will be back in the United States at the end of June.  Travis will be preaching two Sunday evenings, July 1 and July 8, at First Baptist Forney.  We hope that our friends and family can come to hear more of what we have been doing, of our hopes and direction for the future, and to get a glimpse into what in the world we are thinking. While some of the lessons we have learned in Honduras have been difficult, we are so thankful to have learned them and for our roots to be continually growing deeper and deeper into the service of Jesus Christ our King.

Travis and Julie

Invest. Cultivate. Transform.

...More about Rito soon to come.

Providing Tools of Literacy

Currently in academia there is much discussion about what it means to help people in underdeveloped areas. Many questions are constantly asked and debated over. What does true help look like? How does it work over time? Do the things we give to really make a difference? Do the things we do to help really hurt in the long run? Do our actions entrap or enslave or exploit?  While the questions are asked again and again, answers are much more elusive to discover than the questions. As I have spent time in Honduras over the last year, I too have questions about how helping helps. I do not have years and years of research to rely on, however while I have read many books and articles on the topic, much of what I have read and learned just doesn’t seem to apply when I look into the eyes of a small child living in a small and very poor village. All of the books and the wisdom of incredible minds melt away in the gaze of a child.

I don’t remember the first book that someone read to me or the first book that I ever read but I do know that it happened. I know that someone invested time and love and patience to teach me, to help me, to give me tools that I will use for the rest of my life. At no time during that process was there any concern for the absence of materials. There was no lack of books to read or materials to work with to aid or help in the process. The school that I went to had ample materials and tools and the teachers had the training to see that I had the best opportunity to learn. This is certainly not the case in the rural coffee villages of Honduras.

  While academics argue and debate over what are the right ways to deliver help and compassion and aid, there are some things that seem very simple to me. In the coffee villages where Growers First works, they almost all have schools. These schools are built and supplied by the government and the teachers are assigned to the areas. Unfortunately, when I say they are staffed, that does not mean well or even adequately staffed, often having a teacher to student ratio of 60 or 70 students to 1 teacher, teaching all grades. When I say that they are supplied, unfortunately, I don’t mean well supplied or even adequately supplied.

  Recently, Growers First visited the school in the tiny mountain village of El Succoro de La Pinieta.  Prior to our visit an accomplished educator made the trip and assessed the academic needs of the school and the students and made recommendations as to the appropriate materials to help these students. Our visit was the delivery. Thanks to a generous donation for the purchase of these materials, we were able to deliver to the school new books to replace the tattered remnants of what had been supplied to the tiny school many years ago. The whole community seemed to pile into the tiny class room. The books were presented by Dave and Dallas Day, from Growers First, and a group from Napa Valley, California. The teacher warmly and modestly accepted the materials and proceeded to take advantage of the face time with the parents to encourage them (sternly) to spend time working with their children at home.

6 of these boys prayed to receive Christ after watching the Jesus film in the school.

  I want to thank the donor for their involvement in purchasing these school books. I want to thank the educator who spent his time assessing these students and this school. I want to thank the teacher, who in the face of a daunting, daily challenge, perseveres to provide these children with the best education she can provide.  I don’t know the answers to many of the questions about how aid works and what is the best way one can help impoverished communities, but I do know that with education and simple tools, like the ability to read, these students have the possibility of answering some of those questions themselves.  Working to strengthen the education of children through an already functioning educational system, not reinventing the school system but strengthening what is already present, helping to provide the tools of literacy, seems to me as help that helps.

-Travis
(Hopefully I will add pictures of the actual book presentation.  These pictures were on a different camera, but these were some pictures of the same evening at the same school.)

Copán Ruinas, Honduras

Last Friday our visas reached the 90 day mark.  Every 90 days it is required that you leave the country you are not a resident of for 2-3 days before returning, earning another 90 days.  In some ways this is great! It is an excuse to take an exotic vacation, and I say exotic because no matter which direction you choose to travel in Central America, you are going to see beauty I can't even explain and that pictures don't come close to capturing... the rolling hills, the green mountains, waterfalls, blue skies, unbelievable wildlife - truly indescribable.  Another bonus is that these trips can be very inexpensive.  Traveling by car to these places a few hours away, staying in a room for less than $50 a night (with a family of 4,) eating crazy cheap meals, make it very nice.  On the other hand, it is still spending money we would rather not spend on 'vacationing' every 90 days.  If you plan to have a long future in  Honduras it is best to get your residency, which will allows you to stay in the country 1-5 years.

So on Friday we set out in the direction of Guatemala, by way of Copán Ruinas.  We were told even though the distance is not very far from San Pedro Sula to Guatemala, it is not safe to travel at night.  So we stayed Friday in San Pedro Sula (about 1 1/2 hr from Siguatepeque,) and made the 2nd half of the trip on Saturday.  Unfortunately, Saturday... because of stinking Leap Year, we were on day 91 of our stay in Honduras.  Without too much detail, I will just say that when they say 90 days, they mean 90 days... not 91 days.  BUT after a little begging, sketch Spanglish, pouting eyes, more begging, and a lot of waiting at the border, the kind border patrol officer negotiated with us and in the end walked our passports over to Guatemala for us and sent us directly back into Honduras without us having to so much as step a foot out of lovely Honduras into Guatemala.   It ended up saving us a huge amount of time and money.

We left that border so quick and went back the 12 kilometers to a quaint, not plush or even all that comfortable hotel, in Copán.  BUT it was clean, in a safe area, had a pool and the room had air conditioning, and it was $47a night including taxes. (And Travis would add that it also had a Crazy Canadian named Guy who handed out free hug coupons along with a firm hug.)

You can see the way this tree is pushing up this pyramid.

Copán is known for its Mayan ruins.  They were incredible and we had a blast discovering them.  Travis and I couldn't help but compare the work of man vs. the work of God. The ruins in this area are around 1600 years old. Some of the structures are massive, built of carved stone, excellently crafted. While these structures are impressive works of the hands of man, they are no match for the power of a tree root grown from a tiny seed. The work that took so many to build is crumbling because of simple rains and the most destructive force is hard at work, time. These works so strong by the terms of man are nothing in the face of eternity. Nevertheless, we were very impressed and captivated by these amazing ruins.

I loved the way the root made a trail right through  the concrete.

Look at that tree root! Amazing... and so cool!

 We also went to a bird park called Macaw Mountain.  This is a rescue park for birds in Honduras.  It was a beautiful nature hike, seeing Macaws, Parrots, Owls, hawks, and butterflies.  We had two highlights here.  One was getting to hold several of the birds - so cool.  The second was Travis being bitten by a Toucan.  (Olivia wrote a blog and illustrated this.)

I spy a lizard... welcoming you to Honduras. ;)

I'm pretty sure this parrot is smiling and nodding at me.

This is not the actual toucan that bit Travis...;)  Can you believe the colors on his beak?!
You can't see how vibrant they are in the picture... God is amazing!!

love birds on Macaw Mountain... (corny, couldn't resist)

This poor owl is missing an eye.

I dared Ethan, my self proclaimed 'dare-devil,'
to climb this tree and look who led the way.

 After leaving the bird park we traveled up the mountain to some natural hot springs.  This was incredible.  Water, smelling of sulfur from the earth, comes out of a spring boiling hot!  They have gone in and created stone sitting areas to sit and enjoy the water.  As you go down the mountain side the water gets cooler, so you can decide which pool you would like to sit in according to how hot you would like the water to be.  Sitting in this hot water in the middle of the rain forest on the side of a mountain is surreal.

We gave ourselves mud facials.

 
We returned to Siguatepeque after our weekend trip to renew our visas.  Semana Santa, or Holy week is a very big holiday week in Honduras.  The streets were empty... which is very odd for our town!  Next week it is back to work!  Only 8 weeks left in our school year!

God is still only revealing one step at a time for us.  Please pray for us as we determine what the Lord is guiding us towards in the coming months.  Pray we will continue to seek His guidance and that we will be obedient to follow.  Also let us know how we can pray for you.  It feels very good and eases our homesickness to be praying specifically for our friends at home.

Spotlight on Francisco

  A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to travel with a group of students from Wheaton College to the small mountain village of Azabache, near the border of Honduras and Nicaragua. Growers First has three coffee cooperatives in this area and it was my first glimpse of this breathtaking landscape. We spent a few days there camping out on the floor of a church where the members went out of their way to take care of us, preparing excellent meals inviting us into their homes, their church, and into their lives.

   Prior to this trip I met one of the coffee farmers from this area at a “Ten Seeds” training session near Siguatepeque. I was struck at that time by his personality; namely at his desire for advancement.   This small plot farmer from a very remote part of the globe was carrying a cell phone in which he had a service that updated him daily on coffee trading prices.








Plastic shelf used for sizing coffee beans.

Later when we visited farms near the training session he spotted a plastic shelf that another farmer was using as a sizing device for milled coffee beans. Seeing the value in this, a trip to market was arranged so this technological improvement could be employed back in Azabache. I want to share with you one of the things that really struck me during a conversation I had with this man Francisco Serrano while visiting his farm.



  First of all you must know that Francisco, while farming his small plot, is also very active in his community. He is currently serving as secretary of his co-op and our original meeting was at a training to help evaluate the needs of given communities. His personality is incredibly warm and he carries himself with him a great pride. Not the bad kind of pride that leads to arrogance but the kind that makes you want to be around him, the kind that comes with caring intensely about what you are doing. We traveled to his farm on a morning following some intense rainfall and the roads were not in the best of shape between his farm and the church where we were staying. Francisco made his way to the village and rode in the back of a pickup truck with us for the visit. When we arrived I watched as he hosted the students from Wheaton setting them up with picking baskets and showing them the ropes of picking.





Coffee/Corn mill

After getting them started he showed us his wet mill and recent improvements that allowed him to use the same gas engine to mill his coffee and grind corn for his wife to cook with. 




















 He demonstrated a mortar that had been passed down through the family that was used to remove the parchment from coffee beans. He showed us framed pictures of his children and spoke of them proudly.

His wife served us drinks and explained their large adobe oven.

   









This was a rich experience in and of itself. After the students had measured their picking and things began to settle a little bit, Francisco, Enoch, (Growers First National Operator and Linguist Extraordinaire,) and I squeezed in a few moments for a brief conversation. I, being a small plot vegetable guy, asked Francisco if there had ever been other things that he wanted to grow. I had noticed a small row of mixed plants immediately surrounding their home. He said this, “Coffee is my heritage. My wife is always asking when I am going to plant it in our house.”   He continued on telling us of how when his family had come to the area they had struggled dealing with monkeys and wild pigs and other wildlife. He told us how he left the area for a while and went to school in Danli and later returned. I had seen the pride earlier when he talked about his plants but it was this one sentence that struck me most. “Coffee is my heritage.”

  I grew up in a family of dirt people.  I know more about dirt than most people would ever want to. Even though the paths of life have removed me from the life I grew up in, dirt will always have a special place in my heart. Francisco’s words reminded me of my own heritage. That heritage is always there in the room, always waiting like a comfortable pair of jeans. It makes me wonder about the content of every dump truck that passes by. Makes me speculate on the destination or role of every piece of equipment I see. I see the world through it even though that life has been left far behind. Francisco’s words “Coffee is my heritage” means so much. It is not just something that he does.  It is in a sense part of who he is. Francisco is a craftsman of the coffee plant, an agricultural artesian by heritage. The coffee farmer’s work is to the cup just as the work of a painter is to the canvas, as the work of the Creator is to His creation.  There is great beauty in what man can accomplish by the work of his hand and this is a great reflection of the capacities which God crafted us with.  

   I have heard an expression many times in my life, “If you work at that which you love you will never work a day in your life”. When I see the care these farmers work with I see this is true. I often think about all of the physical work that these farmers put in to produce the best quality product that they can. They stay on their farms and they work as the market moves up and down. They climb up slopes to pick and prune and fertilize, they rush to mill and dry before one hint of quality is lost. They invest their lives to produce this little bean, which most will never see enjoyed by the final consumer.  They struggle in communities together helping each other with a sense of community that is vastly lost in the U.S. today.  Many live in areas with minimal amenities, no healthcare or electricity, water is a struggle, they have schools that are rustic and sparsely supplied.  Many might ask why. Why stay? While some may ask, I know why. It is part of who they are. Work and the quality with which we do it is how we can share who we are with others; how they can experience the joy of our hearts. In the case of Francisco, the joy of his heart can be experienced in a simple cup of coffee.  

Francisco has a great, contagious smile. 
I will have to get a better photograph of it next time I visit.

Hang On, Hester!

I found this book on my desk Friday afternoon after another particularly rough week.  I’m honestly not sure how it got there.  It is from my class library but I had never noticed it before.  

As I looked at it, I thought, “Oh how appropriate!”  With all of the decisions we have to make for next year, with the endurance I need to finish out this year, with uncertainty and faith needed to believe God wants us here and trust He will provide for our needs, I just new this was God’s clever way of speaking to me.  To tell me it is going to be okay, I just need to “Hang on, Hester!”

Then today I was doing dishes and laundry, (both of which take an insane amount of time,) worrying a bit, doing some self-deprecating talk a bit, questioning God on whether or not we are doing “the right thing” a bit, and I started to think about the title of this book again.  This time though it sounded more like, “Now you just hang on, Hester!”  It was not the coddeling, comforting way of saying it, all the accents were in a different spot… it was reprimanding.  It dawned on me, who am I to worry about things of tomorrow?  I didn’t even know I was moving to Honduras until weeks before it happened!  Who am I to belittle myself for falling so, so short, even when doing my best?  Who am I to question God?  We are here, in Honduras… what in the world??!!  We have great things going on for His glory!  We are doing things we would have never dreamed of doing… or even really wanted to do!;)  When we are honest with ourselves and listening to God, we know we are where He wants us…today.

Our family has been doing a Bible study on 1 Samuel.  I think the book could be titled, Hang on, David! David’s faithfulness to God, despite being hunted for nothing, troubled, and confused, stoned by his own men, and chased from one land to another, has been sobering to us.  We have clung to the truth that “David was made strong by the Lord his God,” 1 Samuel 30:6, our God!  We have been inspired by the promise that “the Lord rewards everyone for doing what is right and being faithful.” 1 Samuel 26:23  Maybe these truths will tighten our grip for 'hanging on,' and remind us to whom we should be 'hanging on' to.

So how am I supposed to take this bit of wisdom?  …I think,Yes.  Hang On, Hester!   

-Julie         

P.S.  More about our thoughts on next year, soon to come... (by Travis)  Lots of exciting work!

January 22

  There was this song way back when I was kid in the 80's by Men at Work. It was very catchy and had this one line which I will now quote. You will be reading it at whatever pace you read but trust me as I write this I will be singing it probably repeatedly in my head, over and over. "Ain't nothing gonna breaka my stride, ain't nothing gonna slow me down. Oh no I got to keep on movin’." You remember the tune… At least most of you who are over 30, anyways.

  Stride is something that is good, a good pace of forward movement is something that I think we all seek. Stride has been something that has been elusive so far here in Honduras. Rather than life in stride our time here has felt more like riding along in a car with someone driving a manual transmission who has no idea how to drive said vehicle. While you eventually get where you’re going, you arrive with a sore neck and good case of nausea.

  Over the last week or so things seem to be rounding into stride. Let me explain. When we first arrived the area we set out to farm was grown up with weeds and scrub brush. The tractor implements needed repair, the plots had to be planned and other things had to be done just to prepare to begin to work. After the prep work was done we began to get heavy rains that delayed working the ground and planting crops. Finally impatience got the best of me and we planted our first bean crop while wading through shin deep water between the furoughs. While we were gaining ground on becoming a working organic farm, each inch of it was fought for, step by step.

  When we returned from our visit to Texas on New Year’s Day, I wasn't really sure what to expect of the weather here in January, as I seem to get different answers from almost every person I ask as to what to expect. You must remember however that where you grow up has a great deal to do with how you define such terms as cold or hot or rainy or dry. What I have been fortunate to discover here thus far is that January is simply fantastic! It is very much like those middle weeks of March in Texas, when the sun climbs high and warm and night comes with enough cool to require sleeves and even the occasional slight shiver. 

  The time for preparing to be an organic farm is over, and the time for doing what we came to do is here. In the last few days our first field of beans has been harvested. The turnout was poor but I have learned why and as we continue to cultivate that field, returning organic matter and micro nutrients to the soil our production will get better and better. The second much bigger field looks much better and should give us a decent return in a few weeks. We have begun the third area and in it we have already planted lettuce, carrots, turnips, zucchini, crook neck squash, eggplant and tomatoes. This week we will recultivate and add organic material to the area we just harvested and hopefully be replanting in the next 10 days.

  We are playing baseball on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the kids playing are getting much more comfortable with the game and us.  It seems like they have gotten over the initial nervousness of something new and they are starting to have fun. I am still taking Spanish lessons a couple of hours each day and this morning I think I understood about 40% of the sermon at church. That doesn't sound like a lot; but it is when you start with like 1%.

  The kids have settled back into the routine of school. Olivia seems to be the darling of many of the older girls and she is learning a lot of Spanish, but she is very shy to use it. Ethan has had some trouble fitting in with the other fourth graders but has found he gets along better with many of the fifth and sixth graders. Ethan seems to be learning Spanish so fast! I hear him speaking to many of the other kids all the time. Please continue to pray for both of them... at times they both have struggled in their own ways.

  Julie is back to full swing at school. She told me earlier that there is only 20 weeks left in the school year. The work load is very heavy for her and it requires much of her time after school hours. This week we restart devotionals on Fridays for Third and Fourth grade. Tomorrow Julie and Ethan will be teaching 2 Timothy 2:15 via puppet show for the entire Elementary School.

 Please continue to pray for our family as we seek what God would have for us when the school year ends. In so may we ways we have just gotten started here, it is hard to believe our time is half done.

  There will be many opportunities to minister to this community over the next few months. Please pray that we seize the opportunities He has put in front of us to the best of our abilities.     

Sunny Day Laundry

I was SOOOOOOO thankful for a beautiful, sunny day on Sunday!  I was able to hang my laundry out to dry and get DRY clothes!  I feel bad even posting about this subject because it is a normal part of life here in Honduras, and for that matter, all over the world.  

One of the most common questions we were asked when we visited home for Christmas was, "What are some of the hardest differences?"  My answer always included LAUNDRY!!  Please do not mistake this for complaining... I am fortunate that we have a washing machine and a nice safe yard to hang my clothes in.  I just wanted to give you a glimpse of a sunny laundry day.

This is my washing machine... it is one of the two things we had to buy for our house.  It is next to the pilla where clean water is stored and you can wash clothes or other things.  We do not have a lot of water pressure, so the water that comes into the washer is more of a trickle than a spray, so I bucket water from the pilla into the washer. (I am so thankful it is right next to my washer!!)





Then when the laundry is finished I hang it up in my backyard.

Sunny days make this process a breeze (no pun intended,) but I can be a bit whiny about it when it rains day after day...  So on sunny days, I am oh so thankful!!