August 8, 2009. We have 9 weeks until we are scheduled to leave for our family vacation prior to landing on the ground in Honduras. 72 days to accomplish so much. Besides the packing and moving part of it, I have my second knee surgery in 9 days and in September Brian is taking a 10 day trip to the Phillipines and Cambodia. There are two other technical schools that have been up and running for 15+ years and instead of trying to "recreate the wheel", they are going to teach Brian what works and what doesn't when it comes to taking a person from the street to a structured program.

All of it very cool and necessary stuff, but Thursday we both found ourselves on complete overload, overwhelm, over the top, freaking out. A few prayers, a little conversation, and a nice dinner later we've got our heads screwed back on and feel settled in to finish this part of the race determined and focused.

We had a great trip to Honduras. When we got off the plane what a joy it was to see 20 Micah boys and staff waiting for us! Very emotional for me as it had been 16 months since my last visit. I'm home, I'm home. That's all I could hear in my head as I cried for joy.

As I said in my short post from Honduras, despite what we had seen on the news here in America, not much was out of the ordinary in Tegucigalpa. A few more police than usual, perhaps. The only military we saw were a couple of trucks heading to the Nicaraugan border. No big demonstrations, although there were reports of road blocks on the major roads heading in/out of Teguc. The man we rented the house from, in fact, got caught in one for 9 hours. Toward the end of the demonstration one foolish individual decided they had had enough and tried to drive through the protestors. Not a good move. They broke all the windows out of the car and then picked it up and threw it into a ditch.

These are Zelaya's supporters, folks. Not the military. We have heard since returning that the military is becoming less patient with the protestors. Yes, people have the right to peaceful demonstration and protest. The do not, however, have the right to disrupt the entire country including the flow of trade, or the right to destruction of private property. I say yeah to that. Even neighboring countries are getting a little tired of the disruption since most of their exports have to go through Honduras to the Port of Cortes. We keep an eye on the news, but for the most part it seems that life has returned to normal, as much as possible, in Honduras. The current government has dug it's heels in and is intent on keeping things as they are until the upcoming elections are held and the new President is sworn in. President Michelletti called for a national day of prayer while we were there, over the political storm. Hmmmm. Our President cancelled ours in May, the first time in a decade. Interesting.

But back to the trip. Since there wasn't much happening we went ahead and did what we normally do. Brian and a bunch of the Micah guys did some street ministry, they held the regular Friday night soccer game with the street kids. Out to Villa Linda Miller, to AFE. We went up into the dump and passed out water and bread to the people that work there. Pastor Jonny went with us and took some of his amigos, one of whom lived and worked in the dump with his family for 20 years. A year and a half ago he went to work for Jonny at AFE and Villa Linda Miller and was able to move his family out of the dump into a small house. He gives God all the praise and glory for what has happened in his life and is now a shining light to those that still live there.

One of the main goals of this trip, though, was to rent a house. We had been praying very specifically about what we hoped for...a house out of the city, a big enough piece of land to have a fire pit and have the boys come out for "camping", a tree for a treefort. And we had a budget of $700 a month.

The first house we went to was a townhouse that, when they saw North American gringos, was going to rent for $900 a month unfurnished...sorry, that's over our budget. Not to mention, nothing like what we had envisioned.

The second house, however, was hand picked by God for us. Josias and Perla Garcia are both dentists. They have twin 12 year old girls and have been called to move to Miami. They have a house on family property 5 minutes outside of Tegucigalpa on the road to Valle de Angeles. We went to the property on Monday and after you drive through the ivy covered archway that leads from the highway, down past the fathers house, brothers house, and sisters house, you come to a gate leading to a typical cinder block/adobe home. All around are hills with lush green trees, you can hear the nearby brook, birds chirping and, at night, the sound of crickets. There is a gigantic Ceba tree (our Swiss family Robinson tree as Brian calls it) with a tire swing, a large open area perfect for a fire pit and pitching a tent. A pen holds a goat and a lamb...although lamby was sick and has now passed away. In the back yard there is a german shepherd and a golden retriever and a space large enough for our kids Easy Set pool. There is also a nice sized area for the garden we want to have.

Inside the home is fairly large for a middle class Honduran home. From the front door to the right are the living room and dining area, the kitchen (which is all white just like mine here), the laundry and storage rooms, and the maids quarters. Yup, maids quarters.

From the front door straight ahead is a hallway leading to two large bedrooms each with their own bathroom. The master bath even has a tub.

Patio doors open from the living area out to a covered patio, or outdoor living room as they call it, that looks into the backyard.

Josias and Perla had been praying for North American missionaries to rent their home. And so, as things happen, someone that knows someone, that knows Josias and Perla recommended we look at the house. Concidence, right? Just like stepping off the plane, we walked into the house and felt like we were home. The house rents for $600 a month, the live in maid makes $100 a month. There's our $700 budget.

The Garcia's have chosen to sell all of their household items and buy new in the states, so we purchased all the kitchen appliances and will be purchasing their 2004 Honda Civic. You have to be careful with used cars, they get a lot of totals from the states and rehab them. But the Garcia's bought this car new and have records of maintenance every 5,000 miles. It'll be a great car for us.

Much of the trip was just spending time with the Micah boys. Our kids both found good friends and are happy to know they'll have a friend right away. I gave Miguel the task of helping to teach Brian James and Michael Spanish and he sat down with a spanish vocabulary book one day and worked through it for about 20 minutes with each of them. They played soccer in the indoor courtyard everyday. Not even the downpour stopped them! They played video games and pool and had a great time. We were treated to a show one night by the second genration of Los Micahs boys. Hector, Cristofer, and Wilmer did 3 songs in the regatone (sp?) genre, kind of rap, kind of not.

When Brian was there in March Wilmer came to a crossroads. A switch went off inside him, he dedicated his life to Christ and got baptized. And when we were there you could see the difference. A very focused determined young man, he is turing into leader at Micah. The other one we see turning into a leader is Axel. He came to Micah a year ago and has never left once back to the streets. He's incredibly smart, doing well in school and, again, very determined and focused to take this opportunity and make the most of his life.

The last night of our trip Michael, Brian James and I did 2 puppet skits. Michael is on the puppet ministry team here and we want to start a team with some of the Micah boys. We explained what the team does and did the 2 short songs. They loved it! And then Michael Miller said he had a present for our boys and pulled out 2 large puppets. During a recent move into a new apartment he found a plastic bin that had 3 puppets in it. Apparently some team had left them sometime over the last 9 years, and now they'll get put to use. That's so like God. Our team will be "Yo y Mi Boca Grande Dos", which is Me and My Big Mouth Two in English, to follow Me and My Big Mouth here in Tigard.

72 days. It was an amazing trip and to see the way the Lord is unfolding everything is humbling. One night after we got home, in the midst of our panic, we both looked at each other and said "we can't do this"...it seemed to huge, too big, for us. And then we said the obvious, no we can't. But God can. It's been Him all along, we just need to keep following His lead. I have a picture in my head of Jesus in front of me, holding my hand. We're walking on a tight rope and I am blindfolded and He's saying "trust me".

And so we are. For each day, each step, for all the pieces to come together. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love and blessings to you all,

The Wiggs