Monday Monday

What a day.  We're glad it's time to head to bed for the night.  Not that anything particularly tragic happened today, it was just one annoyance after another.  It started this morning when Michael went out to feed the dogs and found our German Shepherd was not in the back yard.  Baloo is 2 years old, weighs about 125 pounds, and has a head the size of a medicine ball.  Daddy Brian is the only one that can hold him on a leash and so instead of stepping into his shower he got to go on a dog hunt, safely returning Baloo to the back yard about 10 minutes later. 

Then there was the discrepancy in saldo on Brian's cell phone.  Almost everyone here, including us, prepays for cell phone service.  It's incredibly inexpensive, one of the few things cheaper here than in the states.  Tigo, our cell company, offers triple seconds every Sunday, so we always recharge then.  The 100 lempiras we put on Brian's phone should have gotten him about 5600 seconds...but the text message he received indicated only single time.  So after chasing down the dog he headed to the mall to try and straighten things out with the Tigo rep, who assured him that no matter what his text message said he had received triple time.  The only thing to do now is wait until his saldo runs out, add up the time of his calls, and then head back to the Tigo office.  But is it worth it?  100 lempiras is equal to about $5.25, and that's probably what they're counting on. 

I get the gringa price on tortillas, maybe Brian gets the gringo price on saldo.

After finally arriving at Micah Brian discovered that one of his tools he had brought with us only 2 1/2 weeks ago was ruined.  A 3" steel shaft on his grinder was bent and, naturally, no one had any idea how it happened.  When I talked to him he was pretty steaming mad, wondering how he had managed to have that tool for almost 2 years and never once have anything happen to it, and now it's at Micah for 2 weeks and it's ruined.  Finally, tail between his legs, Juan Carlos fessed up to using it and bending the shaft.  What the heck?  Don't use tools you don't know how to use.  Does he have the $200 and a connection in the States to get another one from Mac Tools?  Not hardly.  That's really making Brian think twice about just who, if anyone, will have access to his tools when they get shipped.  For Pete's sake.

On the home front, I spent my day playing the part of the Screaming Shrew trying to get the kids to do their school work.  Those mom's that home school and do it well, my hat is off to you.  This has been a horrible experience, I have to say.  We all hate it and decided to just grit our teeth and get through this year.  I can't even tell you how many times I have wanted to throttle my boys when I say "can you tell me why you've only managed to get 1 page done in the last 2 hours?"  and I am met with a blank stare and "I don't know."  Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  Today was award winning.  Michael has to spend a total of 4 hours on school work.  He started at 10:00 this morning, and finished at 8:00 tonight.  Just how many times did he hit the pause button on his timer and get up to do something?  He's lost just about everything that means anything to him at this point, and I've just about lost my mind.  I can not wait for August 23rd when they go back to a real school.  God bless teachers!

About 2:00 this afternoon my housekeeper (Daisy) informed me that we had no water.  Sure enough, the faucets were dry .  I called Brian, who was in the middle of teaching class, to see if he had checked the tube going into the cistern to see if it was clear of dirt and debris.  He hadn't, so I put on his work boots, his green plaid flannel shirt, and trekked up the hill, through the mud, then down the steep slope, with the 4 foot high weeds, all the while looking for snakes, carefully making my way to the cistern.  I got the ant covered lid off and sure enough, no water.  I unscrewed the tube and found it clear.  Then Daisy says "Baloo!" and I looked up to see him escaping the yard, once again, coming up the hill to greet us, only he took off to the highway.  I scrambled my way back up from the cistern and we chased Baloo who was now having cars screeching and swerving as he made his way back to us.  That in itself was a small miracle as typically cars don't slow down or move for dogs here.  Must have been because we were actually in sight. 

Great.  How in the world were we going to get Baloo back into the yard?  Daisy is about 5 feet tall and tiny, and I certainly can't control Baloo.  So I took off the green plaid shirt (don't worry, I had another shirt on underneath!) and lassoed Baloo with it, tying the arms of the shirt around his neck.  We each took an arm and started to make our way back down the hill with the dog.  Now came Tito and Padme.  They are 2 dogs that live on the property here, free range dogs and I'm sure you can guess what happened next.  Baloo tore off after the other 2, the 3 dogs started fighting, and there was nothing we could do but stand there watching, waiting for it to get over.  Finally one of the workers on the property came over and lassoed Baloo again with the shirt and walked him into the back yard.

Back to the water situation.  I looked up the ration schedule and we were supposed to get water today, 5 am - 5 pm.  It kind of amazes me they are still rationing with the 2 resevoirs at 100% and flooding going on, but hey, what do I know?  Anyway, Daisy called Sanaa and finds out that yes, we were to get water today, but there was a problem with the main water station at the Picacho.  They were doing repairs but have no idea when we'll actually get water, could be 3-4 days, maybe more.

Fabulous. 

Things kind of slowed down until after dinner.  The kids were ordered to bed early by dad for being so flaky on their school work and as I began to do our nightly reading ritual Brian James says "what's that?"  Without my glasses on I could only see something somewhat large and dark crawling across the wall.  "Michael, what is it?"  A cockroach.  About 3 inches long.  Gross.  I told Brian to keep his eye on it while I ran to the other end of the house for the broom.  By the time I got back it had made it completely to the other side of the room.  I jumped on the bed, aimed and swung only to have it fly a bit and reland.  I take aim again, this time smacking it and we watched as it literally exploded into pieces on the bed.  Okay, even more gross.  I swept the dead carcass from the bed, only to lose half of it.  Okay, now even more gross as I tried to figure out where half of a dead cockroach is in my kids bedroom.  Brian James finally spied it on top of his radio - both are black so they camaflouged well - and when dad came home he got to do DAD duty and pick it up and toss it out the window.

Brian James is asleep, Michael is tossing and turning, I'm sure with visions of cockroaches dancing in his head.  I would like to doze off myself,but am feeling a tad bit itchy. 

Sweet dreams.

Time To Get Back To Work

Hello all! We are back in Honduras and back to work. Our 4 weeks in the States was very nice giving us a chance to visit friends and family, and to share what is happening at Micah with many people.

Brian’s trip to Roswell to see Jake graduate was wonderful. He hasn’t been back since he left in January 2000, leaving many old ghosts behind. Besides the huge blessing of being able to spend time with Jake and attend the graduation, he got the chance to finally close the pages on that chapter of his life. He visited his old probation officer, the only man who believed in Brian and made him feel like he could turn his life around. Officer Mike was blown away to see Brian, 10 years later, and hear how God has changed him and where He has taken him. Brian told Mike that he wanted to say thank you and to encourage him to continue to do what he does, that his job may be hard most of the time, but he just doesn’t know how someone is going to turn out. The other officer in the room, hearing the story, blamed the tears in his eyes on the dust coming from his pistachios as he cracked them. Uh huh.

I spent 2 days in Phoenix with my mom. It was nice to just sit and visit with her, but at the same time very hard. She’s 84 years old and will probably not be able to live on her own much longer. I had always hoped to have my parents with me when they were older, but it isn’t possible for her to live here. My siblings are unable to take care of her for various reasons. And so it breaks my heart to know that she’ll have to go into a nursing or care home of some kind and how lonely that always is. In my mind she’s still the mom I had in my teens, not this little old lady that can’t remember what she said an hour ago, or if she took the right pills or not. I just don’t know how to deal with this or what I can do so please be praying that the Lord will be with her and let me know how I can help.

We landed in Tegucigalpa on June 9th and let me just say…OH MY GOODNESS!!! For those of you that don’t know, Toncontin Airport has been considered to be one of the most dangerous airports in the world for quite some time. Statistically, there have been 8 crashes since 1980 – 3 on take off and 5 on landing. In all of our travels, however, the landings have always been pretty smooth (but the close proximity to the roofs of nearby houses can really make a person tense). This trip was another thing as we came in by a different approach. The pilot had to increase the altitude several times and during the final few seconds Brian James exclaims “Look MOM! I think our wing is going to hit those houses!” I looked out the window, death grip on the arm rests, and just about threw up.

Needless to say we arrived safely. But when the flight crew was even unnerved, then I know it wasn’t just my fear of flying. We were sitting in the back row and so the last to exit the plane. By the time we hit the jetway the pilot was coming back. (I assume he went in to either a) hit the rest room for a change of clothes; b) get a shot of bourbon; or c) both.) One of the stewardesses said “come to mama, come to mama, we need to have a chat. We were back there thinking ‘oh no, okay he can do it…ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh, okay he can do it….ohhhhhhhhhhh!” I stopped shaking about 20 minutes later and am glad we don’t have another flight planned for quite awhile.

Here are a some You Tube clips of landings in Teguc, one from the cockpit, one from the ground. Make sure you watch to the end so you can here the comments.

View from the cockpit landing in Tegucigalpa

Veiw from the ground

We jumped back in with both feet, Brian teaching classes and a team arriving from Houston. The boys and I began settling back into our routine at home. Monday after arriving here our small dog Amos got sick. Very suddenly, acutely ill, he was diagnosed with severe pancreatitis, with enzyme levels 5 times normal. When we visited the vet on Friday it looked like he might not make it over the weekend and we had to talk to the kids about the possibility of putting him down if he didn’t begin to improve. I am happy to report that after 4 very sleepless nights giving IV fluids and meds every hour around the clock, he has turned the corner and looks as if he’ll make a full recovery.

The Tuesday after we arrived little Miguelito’s mother died from cancer. He is one of our newest guys, only 12 years old, and was very close to her. Please pray for him as he goes through the grieving process, that the Lord would give him peace and comfort, and that Miguelito would continue to look to Jesus for his hope and not back to the glue and streets to numb his pain. Please also pray for us that we will have the discernment to know what to do to help him through this painful part of his life.

Thank you so very much to everyone in Portland that made our stay great:

To Tony Weber, dude, you rock. We could not have asked for a better place to live out of suitcases for 4 weeks. May God bless you and give you favor as you continue to seek to live in His Spirit.

To Mary Hunter, the second car was a HUGE blessing. I miss you friend! Keep telling those kids about Jesus and bringing them into the kingdom.

To everyone at Grace Point, we love you all and are continually amazed and overwhelmed by the love and support you give us. Steve McCracken, keep preaching the truth boldly and loudly. Jon Knapp     and Doug Winn     – what can I say? Without your leadership and passion we wouldn’t be here. I could go on and on. It was a joy and blessing to worship with you all again.

Ken and Brian at Neighborhood, thank you for allowing us time to share at both services, for your encouragement, and for beating the drum.

Pastor Dave at Hillside – thank you for the time in service you gave us to share about Micah. We look forward to seeing you and your team here at the Lord’s timing, and to expanding our partnership. Darin McCarthy, thank you for your heart and passion for Micah and for igniting the flame at Hillside.

Jonathan, Carolyn, and Chris at Riverwest, thank you for all your prayers and support, and the hard work you have put in to bring Riverwest on board. We are so excited to see how the Lord will work with Jonathan on the Micah Board. Thank you for putting together the Sunday presentation. It will be great to see how this expands at Riverwest.
Now it’s time to get back to work.

Blessings and peace to you all,


Natasha