Good morning!
It has been a very long time since I've sent out an email! However if you happen to check our blog regularly you'll see that we are alive :) and what is happening with us.
Thank you all for your prayers regarding my pregnancy and morning sickness! I'm happy to report that I'm feeling much much better! The nausea is finally gone and my belly is growing really quickly! I can feel the baby move and I"m already 17 weeks along - we can't believe how fast this time seems to be flying. Next week we find out if it's a boy or a girl. any bets?
El Ayudante has hit the ground running this year! Last year we were working hard on building our foundation as a ministry - and now with a new board etc we are feeling like all of our ducks are in a row and we're ready for take off! We have 6 teams scheduled for this summer with more still contacting us - which is great because the heartbeat of El Ayudante is using the talents of the teams to serve the people! We have a church that has plans of finishing the medical clinic this year - Praise God!!! We have received one shipment of 98 water purifiers to put in families homes, and another church is working on raising funds to send more - clean water will change their life! We are hosting a variety of youth events, church retreats, etc at El Ayudante as we aim to evangelism and disciple!! We have 1/3 of the funds to begin the exterior wall around the complex - and need another $40K if any of you have $$ you don't know what to do with :). We are working hard to partner with Hondurans to love on Hondurans and that has been wonderful to see! The rotary club is trying to help us out, we have a bilingual school that will do their senior project at the public school next to El Ayudante throughout this school year, the local cement company is donating cement, we are doing 2 days of free medical clinics in March with a local school and clinic, etc.
Our kids are doing well! Sigel started 7th grade at a new school last week and he's liking it - although he'd rather school started after 10am. Maddy has a new play mate - Felix the cat is 5 months and so kind to Maddy as she chases and grabs and totes him around everywhere. Maddy has also added words (in English and Spanish) to the constant chatter that comes out of her :). My sister and her family just left after a 2 week visit - we had such a great time with them - it was the first time all 4 cousins were together which was very fun (cute pics on our blog).
God has dropped some opportunities in our lap to supplement our financial support. Tristan is working 1/4 time for an architect friend of ours who is building market places throughout Honduras - Tristan is supervising the construction of the projects and is really loving it. We also just bought a small plot of land this month as an investment with the intention of building and selling a few houses. Please pray for these projects that they would be successful and that somehow God would add a few extra hours in each of Tristan's days :). We have no intention of loosing focus on our ministry -as that is our first priority for being in Honduras, however with our growing family, we really feel like God has given us this chance to work a little as well.
Prayer Requests:
* Sigel's adoption - moving along but very very slowly.
* My pregnancy - that the baby would grow healthy and just as God designed
* There was a huge prison fire (the world's deadliest prison fire within a century) here in Comayagua on the 14th of February and 359 people were killed. Pray for the families as well as the rest of the inmates that have suffered trauma and many physical wounds. Then last week there was another fire in a huge market place in Tegucigalpa and 100's of people lost their livelihoods as their whole stores were burned up.
* We will begin to distribute the water filters in the next 2 weeks - our prayer is that these would be great relationship builders between us and the communities and that it will open doors to share about the hope and loving of the Living Water available through Jesus.
* We have a lot of plates spinning - with the construction on the clinic, planning the teams, building the wall, installing filters, helping some people with medical issues, as well as all the daily life things and weekly scheduled ministry (English classes). As always, pray that we not loose focus on the Reason we are were - that above all it is to glorify HIM - I never want to get to busy 'doing' that I forget about Jesus in the process.
Thanks for your prayers and for your love for us! We appreciate you and couldn't be here without you - you are a necessary part of our ministry!! You are making a difference!
God Bless,
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