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.