Settling In

We've been home for a month now and are settling in to "the process" as we now refer to it. We met with Steve and Jon and were given approval to submit our preliminary applications to Action International. We felt that they were the 1st choice mission board as they already have missionaries in Honduras, and the administrative costs were considerably less than the 2nd choice. If the preliminary app's are approved we will move into the formal application process.

21 people are signed up for the Honduras trip this June from GPCC, and 5 days of that will be spent at the Micah Project. If the pastoral staff then feels that this is a ministry they want to build a stronger relationship with they will make a recommendation to the Elder Board to formerly approve us to be sent out, contingent upon an approval by a mission board.

We were also given approval from the pastoral staff to begin raising support. We have formulated a tentative budget of $4500 a month. Brian is beginning to contact churches that he has known through Bridgetown, and you can all expect to receive something in the mail from us in the near future!

You may have read in an earlier post about the property we looked at for a home. Since we are not able to move ahead with any type of purchase at this time, we had to tell the owners that if they had other offers they should go with them. As much as we loved it we have to trust that the Lord will bring the right property to us when the time is right. The other night I kept being led to scripture that said, in one way or another, be patient and you will inherit the land. Patience...I'm told it is a virtue. We are learning.

Speaking of support, we received word from the Micah Project that their donations are down 75% for the 1st 4 months of this year, compared to last, mostly due to the financial downturn here in the US. Drew Smith, the financial guy that is going to work with us to get the vocational school off the ground, is offering to make a matching donation to Micah. You can send a check to the church office and we will forward them on to Drew who will match it. We are praying that the Lord will bring in $100,000 which will put them equal to last year in support. The work they do literally means the difference between life and death for some of these kids. Please pray about sending a contribution of any kind.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. We will keep you posted as things progress.

Blessings,

Natasha

2 weeks to process

We've been home for 2 weeks now and had to jump right back in to "normal" life. I've spent some time going over all of the pictures, praying, and really trying to process all of the events.

Brian and I feel that this trip confirmed even more so that God is leading us into full time mission's with The Micah Project. I am so grateful for our praying church. During the trip, and now as we continue to move forward, I have a sense of floating, like in a balloon, being carried by the Holy Spirit as a resuly of your prayers. It was incredibly hard to come back, to leave everyone behind. It is even more difficult knowing that one of the missionaries vital to the street ministry is leaving THIS August. But we must be patient and not rush God's timing.

We are saddened to know that Erick did NOT choose to go into rehab and as a result his family has been cut off from any support from the Micah House. While we were there he asked how come, if so many people were praying, why he didn't quit using drugs? We sent him a letter and told him that he has a will and, therefore, must choose to accept the help that God has placed before him, the help that Michael is offering. But he refused. We continue to pray that he will see his need for rehab and have the courage to go there.

Wilmer ran off to the streets the day after we left. Daniel found him a few days later and brought him back and now they begin the process again. Two steps forward and one step back seems to the be the way progress is made with the kids addicted to glue. And now there is hope that a new boy, Pero de agua, will choose to leave the streets and move to Micah.

I find it incredibly uncomfortable to go into a grocery store now. The extravagance that abounds in the quantity of food we have available to choose from, and then the thought of how much of it goes to waste. It is abhorrent to me knowing that some children have to eat from the scraps they find in the city dump, and others are dying in the place we long to be because their families do not have the means to buy food. I once heard it said that American garbage disposals eat better than most people in Third World countries. It's a tragedy.

And so now we continue the process...the process of preparing to go. Working out a budget, formalizing a relationship with a sending body, preparing ourselves in our relationship with God and within our family, continuing to study the language and the culture, raising a support base. Sixteen months until we plan to be on the ground, long in our hearts, but it will take all of that to prepare.

We will continue to update this blog as our journey continues. Thank you for being faithful to what the Lord has for us all in this.

Love and blessings,

Natasha

It's Harder to leave each time

We are home now and as I reflect back on the last two weeks I find myself still amazed at the hand of God and the way He is at work in our lives. I found leaving Honduras this time harder than ever before, the cultural whiplash that has been present in the past is stronger than ever. My heart is still there in the streets, the dump, VLM and AFE. I expected this but not to this extent, I now feel home sick for the place, we both do.

The trip was full of challenges which we met with the power of your prayers and the grace of God. The dump had to be the most challenging aspect of the trip, people so poor but some richer than you or I. The other day Pastor Steve said to me "poor is a relative term. You or I may have 4 jackets. When we get rid of one or two we start to become poor in respect to the number of jackets we have. But poor is when you have nothing left to throw away." That is where these people are, trying to survive on the things thrown away, those that are of no value to anyone else, including food. This was where I had a real hard time seeing God at work. But, as always, he was there in a form I had not seen through my ethno-centric mind set. It was the compassion of the man living in the dump that was more concerned for my wife who sat in the van crying because of what she was seeing, than the situation he had to face on a daily basis. It was the look of gratitude for a small bag of water, the big brown eyes of the children as they came to AFE to play in the water, the eyes of Christ saying "thank you, for what you have done to the least of these you have done to me ." That may seem strange coming from me since I deal with this kind of thing every Friday at B-town but it was different this time.

Two years ago at the orphanage in San Pedro Sula I saw no end to the misery these people faced, for some it is all they have known their entire life. I pray that the Lord leads us to help here with the vocational school for some and for others maybe just showing up to say Hi, can your kids come play in the pools at AFE or come and fly a kite. And with the humbleness of Christ they say thank you. Poor by the standards of the world maybe but richer than any I have ever met.

I would like to thank all who had a part in sending us, together we are the body and united we can make contact and have an impact for the Glory of God. Natasha will post a final soon. Pray for us as we seek His will as to when to move and as I prepare to go back with the team in June.

Seeking His Will,

Brian Wiggs -Creature of God