Life continues to be interesting in Honduras. You hear stories of missionaries and the trials they go through….but to be that person going through the trials is no fun! I was so excited last week to get a care package from home. Porter delivered it to me at the school last week. It was a complete surprise and so much fun to get books and cds and Crystal Light Peach Iced Tea from home! Elaine sent me a CD of one of Ron’s sermons which was completely on time for what is going on here and continues to go on here!

This is long…but read on to find out the latest storm we are walking through!

May 29, 2008

Listening to the sermon Elaine sent me, titled Discovering God’s Presence in the Midst of My Storms. What a word for me to hear now. After the last couple of weeks…the most obvious storms being the dog bite and the attempted the break-in, but there have been many smaller showers that happened all together causing weeks of bad weather…trouble with PACEs, stress at school and feeling unqualified to teach my 2^nd grade students, responsibilities at the house, moving furnishings from leaving missionaries, and preparing for missionaries coming in. All these small showers happening one after another, then the storms hit after I was already weakened, tired, and discouraged.

He teaches from March 4:35, a familiar text, Jesus and the disciples in the boat during the storm and Jesus calms the storm. So many truths in this familiar story. So often we get used to stories that we know or think we know and we miss so much He wants to say to us. Thank God for preachers and teachers who look deeper than the familiar and find the spectacular that God wants us to know!

Some things that jumped out at me while listening was that he starts out when them saying “On that day”….it was a fabulous day of Jesus teaching many people, a day of revelation and still they ran into a storm. It was unexpected. They had had a fabulous day with Jesus and then here comes the storm.

Even in the middle of a fantastic time with the Lord you can run into a storm.

We know the promises of God, but when we are in the storm we live in fear. Oh how true that statement is. It is easy to know and believe all the wonderful things about God when things are going great…when it is “on that day”…but when the storm hits it is so easy to get discouraged and loose sight of those truths and beliefs we have of God. But in the storm we are able to truly experience God. It is good to know that this is true for others, that it does not mean I don’t have faith, or do not have as much belief in God and His power as others.

I can think of times that I can testify as to this. That the experience I walked through brought me closer to God, taught me things about God, increased my love for Him, increased my awe for Him, brought Him bigger and more important into my life. But in the middle of the storm it is difficult to be thankful for these times.

Another thing he said in this message that really jumped out at me, was one of the points was about God’s Unchanging Word. Jesus said we are going to go to the other side. That did not change. Even though they encountered a storm, they would get to the other side of the lake.

From this point he said “Why were they on the lake?” “Jesus told them to go”

I am in Honduras because God told me to go!

Although I will hit storms, some big, some small, I am here because God sent me and I will put my faith in that.

I loved Ron’s summary….What God wanted him to tell his people “It’s all going to be OK.” A great word of comfort when riding a storm!

June 4, 2008

Yesterday was another storm. We have much to be thankful for today! We arrived home from school and one of the neighbors told us that we had an electrical cable on the roof of the house and it was touching the barbed wire….we looked up and sure enough there it was and the barbed wire was red. We found out from another neighbor that the fence next door was electrified by the cable and people had gotten shocked coming in and out of the gate. After several telephone calls and people phoning the next person and finally Rosibel going to the electric company and asking for someone to come to our house, we had the electric company come and repair the cable. We thought great, now everything is fine! We went inside and saw we had power, thanked the men and settled in for the evening. We began checking appliances and switches around the house….which was when we discovered we did not have any water. We have a cistern at the house so we went out to where it is in the back to see if it was on. Celestino and I went out to check and saw that it was not running. He flipped the breaker switch for the cistern at which point we heard a loud pop. We went inside the house and Haley and Alyshia said they saw a spark outside. So we knew we had more trouble with the electricity. We called our handyman, Alexis, and explained the situation to him. He told Celestino he would come to the school on Wednesday morning and get my keys and come out and check on things. We decided to pack an overnight bag and all of us go to my house and spend the night there. If you remember….I am renting a house nearby but I hadn’t actually moved myself in there yet because of the two missionaries who were arriving in May before Annette would return. As we were gathering some things together I walked into my bedroom and turned on the lightswitch. When I did it sounded like the 4^th of July on the roof of the house! We all freaked. It was scarey. And we also felt trapped inside the house. We all felt we needed to get out of the house, but we were concerned about the front metal gate. If any of these cables were touching the metal door we didn’t want to touch it. I was worried about the dogs too. We also had Celestino’s little brother, Fernando, at the house with us and he was very afraid. We all were! God must have spoken to Alexis, because he called the house and said he had decided he would come over now rather than waiting until the morning. He came across town, in the dark, on his bicycle! What a great guy! We were alright to touch the gate, he got there and checked things out, and said we should all go stay somewhere else and we needed to shut off all the breakers to avoid starting an electrical fire. He was concerned about us leaving the house empty and completely dark…even though the 3 dogs are there. . . thinking it would be a perfect target for burglars. So Alexis offered to stay in the house overnight…with no power and no water! Did I already say he is a great guy!!? We love Alexis! So we grabbed things, and went down the street to my house. Today Alexis was able to fix the electrical problem, but the cistern is not working. In addition to several of the appliances in the house which seem to have been damaged by the surges of electricity. One of which is Annette’s new stove.

We need favor with the owner of the house. She is trying to say that Lance and Annette must pay for any repairs to the house…not only this instance, but we also have a leaky roof in one of the apts where Alyshia is staying and the owner has said that replacing the roof is Lance & Annette’s responsibility.

Lance and Annette are in the U.S., and I hated to call them tonight to break the bad news to them. Seems that I have had a lot of bad news while they have been in the U.S. Problems with the house….leaking roof, birds living in the ceiling, my dog bite, attempted break-in….and now exploding electricity!

I feel like we are under a physical attack. I am dealing with a lot of fear….especially about dogs. And if you have ever been to Honduras you know you cannot walk anywhere without passing by several stray dogs. The dog that bit me is a street dog….and he is mean looking…he has yellow eyes. I continue to see him in the street near my house.

Today after school we went back to Annette’s house to get another change of clothes for in the morning as we are all still staying at my house since there is no water at Annette’s….and even though Alexis said that he fixed the electricity and everything is alright….I did not turn on the light in my bedroom. The fear of flipping on that switch and setting off fireworks again is too much! Little Fernando stayed in the truck tonight when we stopped at Annette’s to pick things up. He is afraid to go inside the house.

Please pray for Lance and Annette – to have peace while they are in the U.S. and their house and possessions are damaged and the outcome of all the repairs is unknown.

Favor from the owner of the house, peace for me and the other two missionaries, Alyshia and Haley, and for Fernando to not be afraid or traumatized by this experience.

We have been able to laugh about some of the things we did and said last night in the middle of the explosions. You act pretty funny sometimes when you are panicking! We laugh about making a sit-com called “The Guard” about the guard (Celestino) who is guarding the house full of gringos and all the funny situations we get ourselves into. And none of it is made up, it is all our true life everyday life! Last night would have been a funny episode, after we were all safe and away from the house, then we could laugh about ourselves.