our overnight visitor

I've got better pictures of her (yes it's a female so they thought....they could feel eggs in her and they think this was the reason she was being so calm and letting us touch and carry her, etc)  but they are still on the camera and it takes forever for me to upload onto here.  So for now I'll just stick with this one.  

Orlin found this iguana the other day and brought it home with him.  He said it made up for Honduras losing to Spain.  ha ha!!  Yefrin chained it up and took John Mark and MaryKyle to have a look.   

He had to be put it up in the tree so that Max (Yefrin's dog) wouldn't eat her during the night.  Since Max has devoured my flip flops, John Mark's favorite oragami book (there were tears over that one), an entire pot of oil off my stove, & tonight a pot of spaghetti off my stove and a few other things here and there....well I had my doubts that the tree would deter him from eating the iguana.  But thankfully it worked.

This is Max sleeping...yes he's soooounnnd asleep.  This is one of his favorite positions on our porch.  It's after 11pm right now and I can bet you that Max is out there looking just about like this right now!!   I wish I had time to count in a day how many times I hear someone yell "MAAAXXX!!!!"  or "Max NO!"  or "noooooo  MAaaaaxxx" (imagine this one more sweet sounding)  it's pretty much a constant!  But as crazy a dog as Max is, you can't help but love him.  he's just completely loveable....even when he's knocking a pot of spaghetti off your stove and into the floor for which you do not own a mop.  But no worries, Max was kind enough to handle the clean up!


(Today all the materials and supplies were purchased and ordered for the many projects the team will be working on.  We are ready for the their arrival on Monday!!)

"Canastas" (aka Baskets)

sorry for the closed eyes.  Just couldn't get one with her eyes open.

For those of you at West Metro church in Hiram, you will recognize the baskets above as our contribution/offering baskets.  Irma, the basket maker dropped by the other night with her kids bringing the 4 more contribution baskets that we'd asked her to make and one more one of our elders requested when he was here back in March and also to show me some of her newest creations.  Just thought I'd introduce you to sweet Irma and some of the lovely crafts she makes.  

She is married to Adelaid and they have 3 sweet children.    Adelaid is the brother of my friend Eda.

The jewelry she's holding up is made from seeds from a tree that is found along the river here. 

Don't mess with that Gringo!

Carnival will be this Saturday in Trujillo....a time to avoid downtown, as the city will filled with people and music and bands and such will go on all night.  But it also brings along with it game booths, vendors, etc that always set up a little early.  We met Emilson and his family downtown the other night and ate baleadas (handmade flour tortillas with beans, cheese, etc) and watched fireworks, ate ice cream and wondered around some of the booths.  One of the games was a target shooting.  They had BB guns and on shelves were all sorts of little army men figures.  Lots of men and boys were lined up to play this game and were working hard to shoot down the little figures.  We passed it once and watched a bit.   As we walked by again later Alfonso, very kindly, asked John Mark if he wanted to try.   John Mark was pretty excited when Alfonso (my other son as Eda says) paid the guy so he could have a chance.  I think everyone was watching the gringo kid laughing. 10 limps gets you 4 shots.  And John Mark made every shot, knocking 3 men over and the other he hit, but it wobbled!  It was hysterical watching the people around.  Everyone was cheering by the 3rd shot!  Alfonso and Emilson heard one kid that was standing near them say "wow, if you see that gringo on the street with a gun** you better run the other way"  hee hee!!  So now all of Trujillo knows that John Mark is not to be messed with!   Our friends reactions were great.  They were all pretty impressed and surprised!!   John Mark was thrilled and my favorite of all was MaryKyle who went RUNNING over to her brother and wrapped her arms around him with an "AWESOME!!"    

**insert name of some automatic weapon here.  I just am totally female and if I attempted to write what I think I remember the kid said I'd make a fool of myself!! 

The Big Day

Honduras VS Spain today at 12:30!!!
We ate on a street corner downtown last night to enjoy some fireworks.  There just isn't anything like a baleada cooked on a grill on a street corner!!  The best!!
The restaurants and stores were hanging blue and white balloons.  Everyone seems to have a TV up.  When eating our lunch yesterday the restaurant where we ate always has a small TV on usually with kids shows on for their children.  But while we were eating he opened a huge case to reveal a GIANT screen TV.  I told Thad "A futboal game must be about to start"  sure enough....

Can't imagine what it will be like downtown today.  Decorated, yet also no one shopping....only watching!

I am about to go help Yefrin, Maybelline and Roxana for the morning.  they have some huge plans this week with the families they minister to here at Little Hands Big Hearts (aka Manos Chicas).  MaryKyle is already with Myra in the kitchen helping and working to prepare lunch for a lot of people.  Roxana just returned from taking one of the children to Tegucigalpa to meet with Operation Smile people about getting his cleft palette repaired.  While there she was also able to learn some helpful physical therapies to use on the children they work with.  So this week one thing will be to teach the parents what she learned so they can be doing it with their children.
Today Pablo is working on the sermon he will be giving soon.
After lunch, we will head to Emilson's house to watch the game!!!
And just after the game.....Pablo has another meeting about the work for the groups!

a busy yet blessed day for all of us.  Even John Mark has a friend over playing futbol and such!!  Yes we are blessed immensely.  thank you for your continued prayers!

Fish fun!!

'Pablo' has always wanted to take the time to get out on the bay to fish.  So in March a friend invited him to come with him as soon as 'Pablo' came back this summer.  So yesterday, they made it happen.  They left at 5am and came back after lunch time.  

'Fonso' was here when 'Pablo' returned so they immediately sat down and got to work 

cleaning the catch.

The sack of 'gringo' fish Thad brought home after his day on the bay in a little dug out canoe with Santiago (one of the ministers) and Franklin (caretaker at the school)

We laughed that in the states we might be arrested for keeping these little fish...some were just tiny.  I thought they looked like good bait.  But they were really tasty.    They also caught a sting ray, but seeing as how I have NO clue how to cook that, Franklin took it home!!!

(there was one bigger one)

Maybelline and I decided to wait til after Ladies Bible class last night to cook them for a late dinner!  I went on and put some sides and a dessert together yesterday afternoon and after Bible study we got to work frying the fish (we'd marinated it all day) while the guys worked on creating the schedule for the 'campaign' that will be taking place when the group is here.  Here fish often is fried whole. Can I just say fish eyes frying...well they just freak me out a bit!  But didn't stop me from enjoying the yumminess (minus the eyes...I have limits)!!  

Our dinner was so late that John Mark put himself to bed and never ate.  Jack (2 yrs) slept on our bed for a while, but woke in time to eat and be the life of the party.

We said goodnight to everyone around 11:15pm and we all have leftovers from the day for tonight between the fish leftovers we shared with them and Maybelline's delicious Chop Suey she made for lunch yesterday and shared with us.  It sure is nice living right here with so many people we love.  Right on the same property we have Yefrin, Maybelline and Orlin.  Just down the road we have Marleni and Hector and just over the hill (I can yell and they can hear me) we have Emilson and Eda.  One of the closest pulperias (little convenience store) is owned by our friends Roxana and Marel's Mother a sweet Christian lady who just recently opened this new pulperia!

Although it has it's challenges being outside of town, it's nice too to be surround by such 

wonderful people!!  We are blessed!!

Quick Update

Sorry for the lack of posting or returned emails, we've not had access to the internet and it's being very slow right now so I can't seem to get any pictures uploaded.  So I apologize for the extremely wordy update!

Yefrin has been kind enough to allow us use of his vehicle.  So today we were able to do something while here without a group that we've not been able to do before.  We drove out to Mission Del Caribe and worshipped with some of the Christians there.   They've had quite the struggle out there.  There was a nasty rumor someone had poisoned the water source out there.  So, the water supply was shut down and cleaned out and some pipes dug up...only to discover it was just that....a nasty rumor.  But now this small community has gone 11 days with no water and it might be next month before it's all fixed and they have water coming from faucets again.
Yesterday Santiago and his family (the minister at the church out there) came here to Little Hands to fill some large containers with water so that they could take some back out there for bathing, washing clothes and dishes and such.

After worship, we headed into town for lunch.  We ran into our friend, Angelina, on the way walking in the heat with her sweet baby, Noe (who she had just after we left last year...if you read last year we went to her baby shower and I made the cake for it).  So I was excited to finally get to meet him.  So she hopped in and we gave her a ride back up the mountain to her home where we passed friends all along the way returning from worship this morning.  Reminds me of our days living in the small town of Dayton, TN  where just about everywhere we went we would see someone we knew!!  I LOVE IT!!!

After dropping off Angelina we headed back down the mountain to our traditional Sunday afternoon place (Chicken Express), where we were greeted with  "WELCOME BACK!" as soon as we walked up.  Yes, I just love it!! I wonder if they will say that to us at Moe's when we return to Georgia?  Perhaps I'll imagine when they say "Welcome to Moe's" that they really noticed that we've returned!

Since it's been a few days since we've had the ability to get online and post.....for those interested, here's a just a bullet list of what we've been up to.

• 'Pablo' has had meetings to plan out the work for the groups.  We are really excited about what is being planned to work alongside our Honduran brothers and sisters and the variety of activities that will be going on.  Everyone here is working hard to prepare and get ready for the team's arrival! 

• MaryKyle and John Mark went with friends to the weekly Youth activity and can not wait til Thursday to be able to go again!  MK especially loved working on learning the song "Here I am to Worship" in Spanish.  

• We worshipped Thursday with the congregation in Eduardo.

• We worshipped Friday with the congregation in Limonal

• I went to Ladies Bible class last night.  We worshipped in the rain and dark as the electricity was out in the city.  So we all gathered around one candle we found in the bldg. to praise God (until someone came prepared with a few more candles), laugh and enjoy time together......AANNNNDDDD   I am now the designated speaker for the class next week.  If you know me well, you know my heart about stopped when I was asked (pretty sure it dropped to my toes before it stopped completely)!  Say a prayer for that PLEASE!!!  

• 'Pablo' FINALLY went fishing.  Santiago and Franklin invited him to join them and they headed out on the bay in a small canoe.  They divided up the catch and we had  enough for our family plus more!  

Tonight brings some more fun time with friends, HOORAY!!!    We are looking forward to, in just barely over a week's time, the group joining us and the preparations being put into action!!  

Every short person needs a tall friend!

It's always nice to have a friend who is taller when you (me) happen to be shorter!  My friend Sara is taller than me.  She can reach things that I can't.
We are staying in what was Brian and Sara's 'house' while they were in Trujillo....they lived here and worked with the Little Hands Big Hearts Ministry for 2 years, but are now living back in New Hampshire (and due with their 5th little one!! HOORAY!!). But my friend Sara's presence is still around me.  A few of her beads from her lovely jewelry making are in a drawer, her hat is preserved in a bag, some of her dishes are mixed with mine for now, the lovely quilt she made for the bed on cool nights is here, her handwriting is still on the whiteboard in the kitchen and thankfully she left a hand juicer since I accidentally forgot mine that we purchased here previously in my kitchen drawer at home (so now I don't have to buy another)!!!   Last night.....her height once again came in super handy!!  You see I'm using her clothesline.  And seeing as how she's taller than me, I can't reach it very well at all.....so 'Pablo' has to hang the clothes if we want them hung neatly!!

THANKS Sara!!! 

Yes every shorter person needs a taller friend to help them out now and then!!

PS Readers please be in prayer for Rebin (seen HERE in a previous year) we don't know any details except that he is at the hospital and 'very sick'.  His father, Antonio works here, and he left at lunch with food for them and to check on things.  We will let you know, but in the meantime please pray a special prayer for Rebin's health!