Thrill Ride

Some of you may remember my post last year after our vacation in California and how the roller coaster California Screamin was my favorite.  I have often thought how that ride is a perfect analogy for this life God has called us to in Honduras. 

California Screamin is a fairly large coaster with twists, turns, a loop, and a 108 foot drop.  It goes from 0 -55 mph in 4 seconds.  (I know there are other coasters out there that are bigger and badder, but I haven't had the chance to ride them so this is my best point of reference.) In order to ride the coaster the first thing you have to do is get over your fear and say yes.  You then climb the stairs to the loading platform and sit in one of the cars.  The safety harness comes down over the top of you and secures you to the seat and when everyone is ready the car slowly moves out onto a short, straight segment of track and stops.  Music plays with a tick tock tick tock and you hear "Are you ready screamers?  5-4-3-2-1!" taking off like a rocket.  55 mph may not sound like much but when you are over 100 feet in the air on two tiny metal rails, twisting left and right, looping upside down, dropping straight down, it seems really fast.  We were all screaming, both scared and exhilirated, white knuckles and all.  On our first ride Michael Anthony screamed at one point "don't you ever make me do this again!"  Notice I said our first time, a couple of days later he was ready to go again and had a blast.

We said yes 3 years ago then began preparing to go.  We spent a year in discipleship, another year working with a team of Godly men and women helping us with every aspect we could think of so that we would be safe and secure, both spiritually and physically, and then waited until it was time to leave.  The first 3 months on the ground were the build up, the anticipation for things to come, much like the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown.  Then things took off like a rocket.  The ideas for the implementation of the welding school were birthed and born in two weeks and two months later the program is bursting at the seams with 10 guys from the barrio, 4 of the older Micah guys, and 4 new students who have been attending AFE, the school Micah started across from the dump several years ago.  These guys work in the dump in the morning to scrape together enough money to survive then head into the city, change into the Micah Tech uniform and dive head first into welding classes.  15-20 men from the barrio (10 in the program and 5 others) attend discipleship classes every Monday night where Brian and John Bell teach and encourage them through scripture to put the trappings of this world aside and to strive hard in following Christ.  These are criminals, thugs, gang bangers, whatever you want to call them and Jesus is taking what the the world considers garbage and "recycling" it into a thing of great value! 

Yesterday the materials arrived to begin building the carpentry classrooms with plans for the course to begin in August.  Another 10-20 young men that the world has written off will have the chance to change their lives by learning how God has greater things planned for them and gaining a skill that can earn them an honest living. 

Over the last couple of weeks Brian has been meeting with Simon Kafie, the head of the YPO organization, working out the details for a reception to introduce Micah to the YPO members.  On May 10th some of the most influential people in Honduras, business owners, and the Mayor of Tegucigalpa, will tour Micah, see the technical school in action, walk with us where we minister in the streets, and visit Villa Linda Miller and AFE.  Following the tour there will be a reception at Simon's house where we will have the opportunity to share the vision God has given us for Micah and how they can partner with us to change this generation and the course of Hondruas.  They will learn about the 80% success rate that Micah has in taking young men off the streets, teaching them how to be Godly men, and giving them an education to begin to break the cycle of poverty.  The will learn how their willingness to provide employment to graduates of the technical school will make a difference not only in the lives of each young man, but in the lives of their families, their barrios, their cities, and eventually their country.  They will see how God has blessed them and put them into a position to be His hands and feet for the future of this nation.

Brian has also been meeting with Frederic Quiros over the last couple of months to move the automotive program forward.  Frederic owns a large percentage of the car dealerships in Central America and during a meeting a couple of weeks ago asked Brian to come back today with a "Christmas list" of what he would like to get the auto school off the ground.  Brian boldly wrote out a list that would essentially completely equip the entire school and met with Frederic this morning.  Mr. Quiros has offered a building near the airport (formerly a lubrication center) for the school as well as training cars, transmissions, motors, electrical harness, and more.  He also wants Brian to work as a consultant with his dealerships to "tune up" the service departments and wants to get the school going as soon as possible.

We arrived in Tegucigalpa just 5 months ago and find ourselves frantically vascilating between gripping the safety bar with white knuckles and letting go, hands raised high in the air, surrendering to the thrill of the ride.  Yesterday we received via e-mail the invitation to the May 10th reception, being held at the house of Simon Kafie, Consulate to the Kingdom of Norway...huh?  We sat there in stunned silence with our mouths gaping open and closed like a couple of dying fish.  Here we are, a couple of middle class working stiffs from the Pacific Northwest, both having very "colorful" pasts, standing smack dab in the middle of this increasingly amazing plan of God.  I guess we are in good company with the prostitutes and criminals that fulfilled God's purposes throughout scripture! 

Please be praying for us over the next two weeks before we leave for our time back in the states.  Pray that God will move powerfully in the hearts of those with influence and power that will be attending the reception, that they will be willing to be used by God to chart a new course for those we work with and the future of Honduras. 

We love and appreciate all of your support, prayers and encouragement.  May God bless you all as you remain faithful to the call He has on each of your lives.

Natasha

# 1 Thing I'm Thankful For Today

Tile floors!  Living with water rationing is a delicate balancing act.  All of the houses here have a pila, an indoor water holding tank, that is used for washing floors, dishes, clothes, etc.  Many houses, including ours, have an outdoor cistern that gets filled during the two, 16 hour shifts each week that we receive water from the city lines and that is what comes out the pipes for showers, at the sink, and flushing the toilet.  We schedule showers Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday nights.  Clothes are washed while the city water is on or it comes from the cistern thereby decreasing the amount available for other needs.  We also fill the pila during those 2 shifts when the city water is on.

Yesterday was our water day.  4 o'clock, no water coming in.  5 o'clock, no water coming in.  6 o'clock, no water coming in...hmmm, did SANAA change the schedule?  Nope, checked the internet, still the same.  8 o'clock, no water coming in...getting kind of nervous here.  Guess we'll have to forego the Wednesday night showers.  Just before going to bed we checked one last time and found we were finally receiving water.  I set the clock for 5 am to turn the water on into the pila.  The last time it was this low it took 5 hours to fill it up due to the low flow rate they make available so I figured I could turn it on at 5, go back to bed and then check the level when I got up at 7. 

The alarm went off at 7 and I walked into the hallway to find about an inch or 2 of water throughout the house.  The pila, which is on the opposite side of the house as our bedroom, was overflowing!  RRRRRRRRRRR!  My quest for efficiency turned into almost 2 hours of sweeping water out of the house.  But thank God for tile floors.  Nothing was ruined, we're not pulling up soggy carpet, and now my tile floors are sparkling clean without any dead ants, cockroaches, or dirt to be found. 

Have a wonderful day finding unexpected reasons to be thankful!

Happy Easter!

Marvin, Brian James, and Michael stuffing their faces with popcorn while watching Eragon.

Last night I had the enjoyable task of trying to explain the tradition of dying eggs and then finding them "from the Easter Bunny" to a 15 year old Honduran boy.  I'm sure Marvin is now convinced that we are entirely crazy.  I was able to find a PAAS coloring kit in the store and showed it to him, but he just laughed and shook his head.  And when you think about it, it really is kind of crazy.  Celebrating the resurrection of Christ by coloring eggs, pretending that a giant rabbit hides them in the yard early on Easter morning, and then sending the kids out with baskets to find them all. 

I did a little poking around on the internet and found an interesing entry on The Huffington Post.  This guy is a pretty big blogger but more often than not, because of his anti-Christian bias, I find hs writing more of an irritation than anything else.  However, he did come up with some good stuff regarding the history behind the Easter Bunny.

He writes:  Why does the Easter bunny distribute eggs? It turns out the egg-toting Easter bunny evolves from a mythic German goddess named Ostara, (Oestre / Eastre) who was the Germanic Goddess of Springtime. According to the Encycolopedia Mythica:


"In ancient Anglo-Saxon myth, Ostara is the personification of the rising sun. In that capacity she is associated with the spring and is considered to be a fertility goddess. She is the friend of all children and to amuse then she changed her pet bird into a rabbit. This rabbit brought forth brightly colored eggs, which the goddess gave to the children as gifts. From her name and rites the festival of Easter is derived."

All other European words for "Easter" derive from the Hebrew word "pasah," to pass over, thus reflecting the Christian holiday's Biblical connection with the Jewish Passover. According to www.godchecker.com: Ostara was very popular with the Anglo-Saxon people, who worshiped her under the name Eostre.

Yet there is something odd about how little there is written about Eostre/Ostara; the myth only resides in one area, and is recorded to exist for a fairly short period of time. Most Sumerian, Greek and Egyptian figures, including Isis, Kali, and Demeter, were widely worshiped for thousands of years, and many of the stories had moral components or attributes to emulate. What's the moral element of the Easter bunny? Something about it just doesn't fit with other myths.

Was it all a joke?

Recent research suggests that the Ostara myth was potentially invented during a mischievous moment by the Venerable Bede. This well-known monk mentioned her in connection with the pagan festival Eosturmonath in a book written in 750 A.D. -- but extensive research has failed to find a trace of her prior to that. Talk about the "stickiness factor" of Malcom Gladwell's book The Tipping Point. Imagine: a famous monk makes up a weird story about a goddess who never existed - who turns a bird into a rabbit that lays colored eggs -- and it morphs into a mega-watt holiday celebrated the modern world over.

Wow. Bet that gets your bonnet in a tizzy. Imagine the irony in making up a goddess myth, which becomes linked with the "greatest story ever told," and simultaneously serves as a mecca of commerce for Hershey's, hat makers and basket weavers. For those who are devoted Christians: does this affect the power of His word and His teachings? No, but come on, it is a pretty darn good story.

Now if any of you have a clue how I can relay all of that to Marvin, please fill me in!  I think I'll just let him continue to believe American's are crazy and we'll just focus on the real reason we celebrate tomorrow...Christ's victory on the cross that allows each one of us to have that same victory over sin and death if we will ask and receive it from Him.

On a completely different note, I wanted to share a couple of things I have come up with here while spending most of my life in the kitchen.  Back home one of our favorite portable breakfasts was the homemade Egg McMuffin - thank you McDonald's for that wonderful invention!  English muffins are a little difficult to find here so I came up with a variation that we can take in the car with us on those early morning drives into town:  an omelet in a tortilla.  Mix one egg with a little milk and fry it on medium/low heat it in a small pan, covered, until cooked through.  Then put two slices of ham deli meat and one slice of American cheese on one half of the omelet.  Fold the other half over he top, let cook covered just long enough to melt the cheese.  Place it on 1/2 of a heated flour tortilla, fold the other half of the tortilla over the top.  Put it in a napkin and go!

The other thing I came up with was prayer boxes.  There are many times I sit in the kitching waiting for something to cook or bake just a couple more minutes.  So I wrote the names of everyone I could think of on pieces of cardboad (like from a cereal box) and placed them into one of the boxes.  When I have a few minutes I reach into the box on the left and pull out a name and pray for that person, then put the name into the box on the right.  When the box on the left is empty, I'll reverse the process.  It's kind of interesting and fun to see who you get to pray for!

May God richly bless each and everyone of you this Easter. 

The Wiggs