Mohagen Adventures

Tela vacation!

2012-01-29T06:36:00.000-08:00

This week we went up to the north coast of Honduras to visit the beach of Tela for a fabulous 4 days of vacation! We went with our friends the Horsts - also missionaries here in Honduras - who have 3 kids that Sigel and Maddy love to play with! We rented a house a little ways out of town that had a pool on the back porch. We divided our time between the beach and the pool - swimming lots!!! Sigel loved having other kids to swim with (above he is the 'target' and they are throwing water ball on his face) and Maddy spent her time throwing things into the pool and asking people to pull it out again so she could throw it again :). We also brought with us a baby pool for maddy to play in right next to the big pool (the big kids enjoyed the baby pool too because it was warmer :) ). The beach was a block away from our house and the water was lovely! The kids (and Dad's) rode the waves forever! Maddy loved having a giant sand box to play in (except she did find a pair of underwear buried in the sand that she brought to me --yuck!)- and wasn't too sure about the waves and the salty water. I enjoyed the sun, the water, and watching my kids having such a great time. One night the Horsts kid-sat for us and Tristan and I went on a date - it was wonderful - we ate fish and shrimp on the beach at sunset.

It was a really wonderful and relaxing 4 days!

( Sigel is in an 'anti-smile' stage - believe it or not - he's having fun :) lol)

New Years

2012-01-07T08:07:00.000-08:00

For New Years we had some Valle De Angeles (where we used to live) friends come and stay with us for a few days! Vanessa (one the transitioned orphans that we loved on a lot) and Miranda (a co-worker) along with Ana Rosa and Iris (2 girls that are living with Miranda) for the weekend. We played lots of games, ate pizza, watched funny movies, played basketball, and caught up on life. It was a lot of fun and so great to see them again.

We learned another new thing about Honduras tradition this New Years. It's called the Hombre Viejo "old man" (it's a burning man but no it's not like the festival in Nevada). Each neighborhood gets together and collects money to buy the supplies of building a scarecrow/pinata man that is then stuffed with fireworks. At midnight the man is hung on the gallows above a large bonfire and he is set - this is to signify the old year being done and a new year starting. it's quite an explosion with the fireworks going off for 15 minutes! So for the entire week before New Years there were kids standing on the road asking for money to put towards their 'hombre viejo'. the kids in our neighborhood did it as well and I wish I had a picture of the man before he was lit but I don't - just him being burned.

This was the season of fireworks! New Years and Christmas nights you can hear fireworks ALL NIGHT LONG as these nights everyone stays awake all night! so they are loud nights. amazingly Maddy slept through both of the loud nights - yeah!

Christmas!!

2011-12-29T15:22:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas. It was a combination of Honduran and North American culture. My parents and brother Jeff were here for a week and a half which made this Christmas extra special for us!

One thing I love about our job is we get to be the middle men in blessing others - so we took the $600 that some people in Dartmouth, MA wanted to give to a church and spent the $ on 200 gift bags for kids in that church. the bags were a drawstring backpack with pencils, scissors, coloring book and colors, candy, a few toys etc. then we sent them on their way to the church.

then we made 12 batches of sugar cookies with my English class out at El Ayudante - both to do something fun with them and a so we could have a cookie decorating party the next night. my Dad is the King of making sugar cookies and he did a great job at orchestrating us all :).

We did a Christmas Party for the community of Lo De Reina - it is the immediate community surrounding El Ayudante. There are about 200 in the community so we didn't know how many to expect - about 90 people showed up so therefore we had LOTS of food! :) My English class made Pastelitos for everyone - it took most of the day. A pastelito is like an empanada that is filled with meat and potatoes with seasoning (like a hash) and that is in a corn tortilla dough and enclosed and fried - then it's topped with a sweet tomato sauce, a slice of tomato, and some shredded cheese. we had over 300 of them! and then 300 cookies!

We had a coloring table for the kids, Christmas music going and some kids games out. We served coffee, a board member spoke for a few minutes about Christmas and the true meaning of it, we served the food and then opened up the Cookie decorating table (which was a big hit!). most of the cookies had more frosting then cookie and even the adults were into it. we then showed the children's version of the Jesus film on the back porch for those that wanted it while the rest of us continued to color and talk and play games. it was a great night of fun and relationship building.

In Honduras Christmas is celebrated on Christmas Eve - with staying up most of the night, eating a type of tamale (but it's wrapped in banana leaves) that's called a nacatamale and then a dessert called torrejas (don't know how to spell that one). our neighbors and pastor dropped off some for us so we could have some. Families play games, eat, be together, shoot of fireworks, and stay up all night long - and then sleep all day on the 25th. A little different then us :)

What we did was go to a zoo/restaurant on the 24th for lunch that serves lots of Christmas typical foods, we went to the Christmas Eve service at church, and then most stayed up playing games. Christmas morning we opened presents and laid around, my mom cooked a big Christmas dinner in the afternoon. everything was more special this year because my family was here to celebrate with us!

((Below is a picture of the Christmas dessert Torrejas - it tastes better than it looks!))

Sigel and Maddy both love their Uncle Jeff!!!

catch up

2011-12-07T12:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I've blogged. oops. I"ll do my best to capture all of the highlights of the last month.

Tristan was diagnosed with typhoid fever and dengue fever (a bacterial and viral infection at the same time) and was pretty sick last week. He had a raging fever and they threatened to hospitalize him but after being in inpatient care for 6 hours they decided he could come home. He was on a lot of medicine and thanks to the meds and the incredible amount of people praying for him, he is recovering - the DR said to except him to feel weak and tired for another 2 to 3 weeks. He also prescribed some kind of vitamin booster drink as his immune system is very weak and will be for a while.

Sigel graduated from 6th grade! We're so proud of him! He was 3rd in his class with a 96% GPA. Nana flew in as a surprise for the graduation which was fun and our friend Jenny came as well. It was at the country club (the only nice place to have a party at in Comayagua) and after the ceremony they had a nice dinner for everyone. The ceremony was a little different then what happens in the States - yes there were lots of speeches and all that, but when it was the students name was called the parents went up as well and stood waiting as he got his diploma and then we turned for a picture. As this was happening we realized how young Tristan and I look compared to all the other parents of 6th graders. lol. considering we're only 13 and 14 years older than him :). Sigel was really happy about his graduation - he couldn't stop smiling all day long and into the night which was pretty awesome.

Tristan's parents were here to visit - Shanon was here for Sigel's graduation and then Bruce came a week later. We really enjoyed having them here! Our kids were officially spoiled - Sigel loved having someone to play games with all the time and Maddy loved having some new people to boss around. Maddy especially bonded with Bruce super quickly. We didn't go anywhere or do anything special this time- they just entered into our normal life and we slowed down a bit so we were all together. One afternoon we went to a 'corn restaurant' - yes everything they serve is made from corn and it's all typical food. we ate there and then wandered through the Zoo that is a part of the restaurant - they had monkeys, raccoons, deer, a fox, iguanas, bunnies, hawks, owls, etc. Maddy kept squealing with delight! It was a fun afternoon! We also celebrated Christmas with them while they were here so for the first time maybe in my life, my house was decorated for Christmas before Thanksgiving! :)

For Thanksgiving we had Bruce and Shanon here as well as our friends the Horsts - friends from Valle de Angeles who came out on Wednesday, spent the night, and then we celebrated on Thursday and they drove home. It was a lot of fun to cook with Janelle and hang out with them - they are great friends to us! I was very happy that I found a turkey - they are imported and not always easy to find. I paid an arm and a leg for it, but it was worth it :).

I have been working on getting some medical exams for a little girl done - Marcelita is 8 years old and has a lot of physical as well as some mental problems. She is almost blind and after seeing our Dr's that came on a team in June, they were concerned that she might have tumors and that was why her eye sight as well as other things were getting worse. The tests are very expensive - which is why it's taken from June for us to get the tests done. So it took 3 days, but we were able to get her x-rays, ultrasounds, and urine samples completed. (it takes so much longer here because you don't have appt's so you have to come and wait in the clinic, and then one day Marcelita hadn't fasted so she couldn't do a test, and then the next day the technician didn't show up...etc, etc.) The last 2 tests for her are scheduled for this Monday - it's a magnetic cerebral test and an autism assessment test. after this we should know if she has tumors and I'm working to get her into a special needs school here in Comayagua.

Sigel was in his first Taekwondo tournament this last weekend - we were nervous for him as he's only been practicing a month and a half. He lost but he held his own and he was very happy about it! It's been a good thing for him to be in Taekwondo - it's something he really loves and he goes 2 to 3 times a week to practice.

those are the things that stick out from the last month in my mind. there's probably more but that's a start :)

Flood Relief

2011-11-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

Medical clinic in La Escalera

2011-10-24T12:27:00.001-07:00

Yesterday we partnered with a local clinic to put on a free medical clinic in the mountain village of La Escalera! It was great! The clinic brought 4 doctors and a team of nurses and pharmasists. We used some left over medicine from a team we had in June and combined it with the medicine that the clinic brought as well. Each patient passed through 4 stations - the nurses station, evangelism/encouragement/prayer station, the consultation with the DR and then to the pharmacy to get the medicine for free. We also had a group of dentists that saw about 25 patients and even did some teeth pulling! yikes :).

I really loved that we had a local pastor that we worked through - as well as the local school. So the pastor and his team worked to invited the people and prepare the school for the team. They even cleaned the schools bathrooms and put a sign on one designating it only for the medical team. And the school had no running water for a while now so they brought in 50 gallon drums and then bucket by bucket brought the water from the neighbors house to fill the drums so that the clinic and the outhouses and the kitchen would have water to use! This all may not sound like a lot - wow - a pastor providing bathrooms, toilet paper, and water - but this was a lot of work for him!

We are hoping that through this clinic that the 250 people that were served experienced the love of God and that they would begin to seek more of His hope and love by attending the church that helped us put this on.

Believe it or not it's pretty cold right now - in the 60's and up at the top of this mountain village it was cold! probably in the high 50's all morning - and these people waited in line for us from early morning on - most the ladies were in dresses or skirts with flip flops holding their babies close.

Sigel initiated playing soccer with the guys that were standing around waiting to be seen so he played soccer most of the morning when he wasn't needed to help. Madelyn wandered around visiting with all the kids in the line. Tristan and I didn't officially have a job (a first!) which was a neat experience - we organized getting it all set up but the church there did a great job at serving and being available for the clinic staff so Tristan and I did stuff like make and serve coffee to the team and wander around offering to lend a hand if needed.

High learning curve

2011-10-17T07:40:00.001-07:00

our cowgirl! She (and we) love this outfit :)

Nothing huge has happened lately...just life going one minute, one hour, one day at a time. Most of these minutes, hours, and days are going fast! Although we have been feeling lately that we are on a high learning curve as we learn how to do things like meet with business men and women about partnering, write up contracts, and deal with the politics of running a ministry. Some days this part is very very wearing.

Today our intern leaves. Matt has been here for one month now and he's been a big help and easy to have around. But as much as we enjoy having interns and guests, it's nice to have the house back to just our family for a little bit too.

There was a sale on pig heads at the grocery store this week. I realized that this is that uncommon or strange for me - because right alongside the hamburger meat and Chicken breasts there are always pig feet and cow tongue and all that stuff. but I thought you'd like to hear about it :).

we're in the middle of a set of meetings with the cement company in relation to them donating LOTS of cement to El Ayudante for all the upcoming projects. We won't know the answer to that until January when they officially decide but in the meantime we are going to do a medical brigade with them to a village near their cement plant - they will pay for it all and we will organize it. Sounds good to me - just so the people get the help that they need and that we can love them like Jesus does.

It's been colder this week - like in the 70's ;). So everyone is wearing warmer clothes - i've even seen some scarfs even! It's been nice to feel cool (not necessarily cold yet) and Madelyn got to wear a sleeper to bed for the first time in over 6 months! This is a good time of the year to come visit for those of you that don't like the heat.

On Saturday we went to a really neat ministry in the neighborhood just down the road from ours. Every Saturday our neighbors go to a lady's house and they do a Sunday School with the kids -around 30 kids - in this lady's house. It was a lot of fun! I'm hoping to go more with them - one selfish reason is that I want to learn all the songs that she's singing with them - they are all fun action songs in Spanish! It was super poor and many of the kids weren't wearing shoes. One funny thing that happened is one little boy, right in the middle of the Bible story, pulls down his pants and starts to pee. there were some giggles but it wasn't really a big deal - and the floor was dirt and very muddy already so I suppose it didn't matter. Then we fed them a meal and the kids went home. It seems to me like this little Sunday School is the one thing that the kids have to look forward to all week long -they were so happy and involved in the songs and stories and were all waiting for us when we got there. We were told that lots of the kids don't go to school because the parents send them out to collect plastic bottles and garbage to make money to survive.

These are pics of the parade that Sigel marched in for Independence Day - Sept 15th. I just didn't realized that I hadn't cleared off my camera since then. He has the ribbon because he is on the Honor Roll. They practiced marching the whole week before the big day and parade day was hot. it was fun though and he took it very seriously - not smiling while in the parade and not being that impressed at our cheering from the sidelines :). but come on, isn't that a mom's job!?

last week we spend a few hours at the pool - it was so refreshing and wonderful! Maddy and Sigel had a great time (but everytime I tried to take a picture of Sigel he'd duck under the water).

Yesterday we went to our friends house for lunch -and the little girls had their own table -it was pretty cute. we had fun with them - they are just great to be around! We also were attempting to have puppies - they have a chocolate male lab and so we brought Bailey along for the day but the romance didn't happen. we'll try again next time :)

In the last week we found both sets of keys that Tristan had 'lost'. About a month ago Tristan lost both his complete set of house keys, and his truck key! He doesn't loose things often so it was a surprise. I found his house keys in a basket in the pantry - where Madelyn had apparently put them for safe keeping, and Sigel found his truck keys in the back of the truck (which we thought he lost in a field). ! yeah :)

Saint Francis of Assisi

2011-10-03T07:58:00.000-07:00

I've been reading a biography about the life of Mother Theresa. WOW - what an inspiring life she lived - and she loved with all she had!

This is a prayer that she said every day:

Prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord make me an instrument of your peace,
That where there is hatred, I may bring love,
That where there is wrong,
I may bring the spirit of forgiveness,
That where there is discord, I may bring harmony,
That where there is error, I may bring truth,
That where there is doubt, I may bring faith,
That where there is despair, I may bring hope,
That where there are shadows, I may bring light,
That where there is sadness, I may bring joy.

Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort, than to be comforted
To understand than to be understood,
To love than be loved,
For it is by forgetting self that one finds
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.

El Ayudante work done this week

2011-10-01T07:12:00.000-07:00

this last week we've had Jack - a volunteer, and Matt, our intern, with us working at El Ayudante. It's been a full week and a fun week! One of the biggest projects that was worked on was installing the bathroom tub and tiling the bathroom in the staff house -and they did a great job! We also did some varnishing, finishing up some tiling and installing doors in the guard house, and retiling the counter tops in the mission house because the tiles were falling off. The guys also went up to El Espino ( the same village where we celebrated Children's Day at) and laid a cement walkway in front of the outhouses. Last night we had a movie night for the community and that was fun - about 100 people were there - we did it in the dining room of the mission house because it was too muddy to do outside.

Life

2011-09-24T13:34:00.000-07:00

this is our season without teams - and since we've been working full time with El Ayudante we were either preparing for teams or working with the teams while here - which was a very busy busy time for us - that we loved! And so now it's September - we won't have any teams until the beginning of the year so we have been calling this our 'slow time'. I don't know if that's really true - because it's not like we're walking around looking for something to do.

I realized something really cool the other day - another reason why "El Ayudante" fits us. El Ayudante means "the helper" - and that's what Tristan and I love to do - to help - and when we've worked for other ministries in the past we still had so many other side projects going on because we see a need and want to fix it. Well now we are working for "the helpers" - which means really anything we do falls under our job description! Sweet!!

Tristan is helping our church remodel - he has added a handicap ramp and a new wall with some doors - and then he's adding some new stairs and another wall and doors at the other entrance. I will show pictures soon. This is a huge project and a big help to the church - they were quoted at over $1500 for labor (this is a lot of $$ here!). And Tristan's loving it because it's a challenge and he has missed working with wood as so much work lately has been finish work or cement work - and he's much more confident with wood. so he's loving that. It'll be awhile until it's done because he doesn't have a complete week to work on it - it's a day here, a day there.

We have a new intern! Matt - from Richmond, CA is here with us for a month. He's a pleasure to have around and has been a big help so far. It's been eye opening for him - this week we visited a pueblo to plan a medical clinic and he saw that the school of 115 students don't have running water at the school - that hit him pretty hard. Reality is hard to grasp until you see it first hand. He knows a lot about construction so that's been nice! We also have a volunteer with us for a week - Jack from Maplewood, TN is here with us. We're excited to have Grandpa Jack with us for the week! So we have a mini team with us for a week and they are going to be focusing on finish work in the guard and staff house. We picked out tiles for the staff house bathroom and we're hoping the bathroom will come together this week as well as running electrical and working on the cabinets. We're also hoping to squeeze in some work at a mountain school - putting in a flag pole and steps.

2 weeks ago Tristan's truck was broken into and his iphone was stolen. sad day. It happened while he was in the bank for 10 minutes. For a while we were told that we would have to have the glass shipped from the States because we wouldn't find it here. We had people looking all over the country for us (God has given us great friends!) and one of them found it for us! YEAH! So this morning Tristan went and they put in a window they found in the junk yard and also we got a new windshield as well because it had chipped and then spidered out - amazingly it all only cost $160!!!! and we didn't have to deal with shipping it from the States! we weren't nearly as sad about the iphone as we were about dealing with the truck with a black eye. :)

Me. well, what do I do? a little of everything. right now i"m working on promotion for El Ayudante - meaning we now have a flyer made and a booklet of information about El Ayudante that we're sending out to any churches that we know of that might want to bring a team down. We're really praying and hoping for 12 teams for next year - this year we had 5 - so we're aiming high!

I'm organizing a medical clinic in a village on top of the mountain - called La Escalera (the Ladder). there are over 300 homes just in that village - not counting the homes that live beyond - and they have no medical services! So with the left over medicine from the June Medical brigade, we are partnering with a local Christian clinic to do a brigade up there in October. We are also working to connect with the local leaders of the town and the local church so that they have a part in serving their community. So although we are organizing it, the local church is going to be the 'face' of the brigade. I'm really excited about this!

Ok, I am distracted so i'd better go - my house is full - my family of 4, Matt, Jack, and our friends kids are spending the night (Angelica, Allie, and Zack). I like having a full house but I was concerned because we have hardly had water for the last week and a half - and have been very very careful with water - well today we got water and now we have 3/4 of a cistern full! God is good! life is so much harder without water - and there are so many that live without water all the time...i am blessed.

Children's Day

2011-09-10T15:14:00.000-07:00

Hondurans have figured it out -it makes sense really - we have Mother's Day, Father's Day, and even Grandparents Day, but no Children's day. Well here in Honduras we do and it is a huge holiday that rivals Christmas and Birthdays!

El Ayudante adopted a small remote school to celebrate with for this special day. The pueblo is called El Espino and is about 30minutes up the mountains past El Ayudante. The village is made up of about 15 families and they have no electricity, running water, no clean drinking water, no church, no store. We had a blast with them! We went with games, a few pinatas, a parachute to play games with, cupcakes, drinks, and a small gift bag for everyone present. We are hoping to continue reaching out to this village - there are some improvements that the school needs and we are hoping to get some water purifying system up there as well for them as the drinking water was so nasty!

As requested...a video!

2011-09-04T20:59:00.000-07:00

Weekend in the Mountains from Elizabeth Mohagen on Vimeo.

Inauguration of Indian Community Center

2011-08-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Mountain top experience

If you are one of our faithful blog readers you will likely recall me writing about how we are assisting a church from Mass. in building a community center for an unreached people group – an Indian tribe called the Toulupan Indians. We don't take much credit in the project except being the support when they are here – Tristan brings his tools and his big truck and he does whatever needs to be done to see the project through. It has now been 2 years that we have been a part of building the community center – since they chose the land until now – the completion of the building. Tristan helped clear the rock and level the land, he was with the team when the walls went up, when the rafters were raised, the roof put on, and this weekend we were there when the building was painted and the door handles put on. This is a labor of love for Tristan – he has loved being a part of this from beginning to end – watching both the building and the building of relationships be formed.

We went up Thursday (Tristan went up Tuesday, the rest of us Thursday) through Sunday so we could be a part of the final steps. Friday was full of all the last minute stuff that happens on a building – all the little things – and Maddy and I went along to help with the grocery shopping for the party. Saturday was the Inauguration – the Dedication of the Building and the handing over the keys to the tribal chief. Inauguration's in Honduras is a big deal! The fattened calf was killed (literally! All 350lbs of meat!)) as well as a pig – plus 80lbs of tortillas, 65lbs of rice, 10lbs each of onion, tomatoes, green peppers, etc. The village ladies cooked Friday and Saturday for the event!

Saturday afternoon was beautiful – overcast so it wasn't too hot – and SO MANY people showed up! After the hour long dedication – of mayors, and pastors, and leaders speaking about how this community center was a symbol to this village of how God has not forgotten them – that they are loved people and even though sometimes they may wonder if they are loved – because they are poor, isolated in the mountains, lack of education or medical services – that even though they have suffered a lot – God has not forgotten them and they are loved! They were challenged to have vision and faith - to use the building to bless others and to lead their village in faith and wisdom. It was a great dedication! And I do pray the same for them – that they realize they are loved and not forgotten about – that was the whole reason of the building – to show these people that they are important to Jesus – and it was done with no strings attached. Amazing.

After the dedication the food came out – thankfully there was enough food for all. I figure over 425 people were served food – we had bought 350 plates and they were having the people bring their plates back so they could be reused! Everyone was happy and talking and relaxing together. I held a couple babies so the mommies could eat. One baby was 26 days old – the mom is 16 AND she has a 2 year old. Wow.

Sigel did really great this weekend – he was so helpful and really felt comfortable up there. The first time we went we were there for 10 days and he was pretty miserable – I think the poverty and lack of electricity and running water reminded him too much of his past – now he was able to love on the people and feel more confident. There was also a 12 year old boy on the team so they played a lot and had fun together. As a mom of a baby this weekend was hard – we only ate breakfast and dinner (at 7:30pm) and we were on a construction site full of MUD. I didn't have access to a kitchen and so Maddy ate a lot of junk – chips and crackers. She loved the mud and slept well at night (although naps were difficult). It was a great weekend and we are glad we have been able to be a part of this project and see it to completion. I believe the church is now hoping to continue helping the community in other ways – maybe microloans, classes, improved education, medical brigades etc.

The poor you will always have with you

2011-08-14T07:17:00.001-07:00

Good morning.

I was talking with a good friend of ours that is also a missionary and we were talking about life in a third world country for a missionary. And she said something profound that I have not been able to put into words before. She said that that hardest part of living here - that unless you live her for an extended period of time so that you experience it - is that you can't escape the NEED. Don't get me wrong - I know that there is tons of need in the States and that there is poverty and desperation and you see need, however it's on a different level in a third world country -and it's exhausting.

Everywhere we look there is need - there are at least 3 men who use hand push carts that pedal around our roads as they don't have legs beyond little stumps -they are begging. Then there are the children beggers who have families but the families have no money to care for them, the little boy that collects plastic bottles to sell in our neighborhood, or when we dump our trash every Monday at the dump point there are people there to go through our trash and they even eat the food we've thrown away. This is not to mention the orphans, the old folks, and the poor families or single moms, or the man who was assaulted and now lives with a catheter bag and is experiencing kidney failure and now unable to provide for his family, or Marcelita - an 8 year old that is blind and autistic and really has no future because her family doesn't know what to do with her. But what really got me was yesterday when I was driving through a toll booth and there was a young mom - probably 15 years old with her very sick baby boy standing in 100 degree weather - plus humidity - in between the lanes of cars begging for money. Her son was sleeping - looking weak and disproportional as his head was at least 2 times bigger than it should have been. I felt like I was in a World Vision movie as I watched this mom try to raise money to live on as she took care of her baby. that got me and it got me good.

So that's what was put into words for me - and I think it's true - that the hardest part of living here is not even missing my family - it's seeing NEED staring me in the face every day - I can't get away from it and I can't change it all and that is the hard part - feeling helpless to change that little boys story.

There are good things happening - that man with the kidney failure is receiving his operation in the next 2 weeks -thanks to the generosity of one of our teams that is sponsoring the $. And Marcelita has an appointment with a Neurologist in the next week if we can work out the details and we have a lead on a special needs school for her.

So once again you've just gotten into my brain. I don't expect you to do anything about it today, or for me all of a sudden to be able to change the world - although i'd love to. But please pray for us - it becomes a very heavy burden when we take it upon our shoulders and not let God carry that load for us - because He loves them all more than me and He has more compassion. Pray as we are confronted with NEED every where we turn that we listen to God for guidance in this area.

Update of the summer - sent out via email

2011-08-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

Good morning! I apologize for the length in time that it's been since we've updated you on what's going on. The time has flown by and it's already August! So much has happened in June and July that i"ll just give a quick overview of it all. For more details you should check out our blog (www.mohagendadventures.blogspot.com) for lots of pictures and more stories.

Teams:

* A team from Tennessee that did mostly evangelism, school presentations etc. Also they put on a great movie night for the community.This team has been coming for many years but this is the first year they stayed at the mission house instead of a hotel.

* Our biggest team: 90 person team from Florida that was split into many smaller teams - medical & pharmacy (served 2000 patients at El Ayudante), eye team (served 800 patients and gave away free eye glasses to all that needed it!), construction team - worked on clinic, paint team (painted at local churches and schools) and a VBS team (programs at 4 schools)

* Team from our home church - 2 guys that accomplished more than the average 10 guys could! They worked on the guard house - (tiling, electrical, hanging doors, etc,) cabinets in the Staff house, and put up the walls in the septic tank for the clinic and guard house.

* Team of youth from Maryland - painted a large church, went to a remote mountain village, futball outreach, and did a huge VBS at the project for the surrounding children.

We also had three interns/guests with us for the summer:

* Jon - just graduated high school and was here with us for 7 weeks - he taught English at a school and did lots of construction with Tristan. He jumped right into the church community here and the youth group threw him a huge going away party when he left!

* Amy - my cousin - also just graduated from high school. She spent most of her 3 weeks at an orphanage - loving on the kids and being a part of their daily life.

* Elisa - a friend of ours came to see what we were doing and she translated for a team while she was here.

* My mom also was down here for 2 weeks - and the sole purpose of her being here was to be a granny - and she did just that (+ some tile work, and inventory of medicine)! She also cooked up a storm and we ate desserts every night she was here :)

In between all of these teams, we were busy continuing the ministry of El Ayudante in other ways - visiting the local schools around EA with the goal of getting to know them and the needs and for them to know us as well, continuing construction at EA, putting in signs, building the website, and preparing for the upcoming teams.

Overall it was a great summer! We really enjoy working with teams and it's so fun to plan all the ways these teams can reach out to the communities and then see the ministry come to pass as we lead the teams in those ministries. It's an exciting life. We are also feeling tired from the nonstop running around of the last 3 months and are looking forward to this month being 'normal' (that is if there is a 'normal' in in our life :) ).

There is a lot more I could write - but I will just share one little story. On the schedule for the youth team that we just had here was for them to climb to a mountain top village and minister to them. The village is called La Oki and it is one of the poorest in the villages around. There is no electricity in this village. The team members were troopers as they hiked straight up the mountain side for 40 minutes to reach the people. Once there, they distributed donated clothes we had brought, played with the kids, visited some of the homes, and did a church service for this village without a church. The team was touched and their eyes were opened to the poverty that these families live with. The team also has committed to help a man who needs kidney surgery (he was assaulted 6 months ago and since has been laid up - unable to care for his family). This team has taken on paying for his medical needs so that he can recover and take over being a Dad and husband again. I think this trip up the mountain was more impacting on the youth than it was even on this man who now has a chance to recover.
above: the home and children of the man who is getting kidney surgery / below: the team at the top of the mountain with some of the villagers.

Prayer Requests:

* That we would find balance in between family and ministry

* Tristan is in the States enjoying some time with his family and attended his cousins wedding. He returns on Saturday - pray that the rest of this week goes smoothly for us in Honduras without Tristan.

* El Ayudante is currently setting up important foundational elements as we know ministry is about to take off even faster! Pray for this all to go smoothly and for wisdom for all involved.

* For the man who needs kidney surgery and for his family. He will hopefully have surgery within 2 weeks time and then will be in the hospital for 2 weeks.

* Marcela - an 8 year old that lives near the project - i'm attempting to get her continued medical care that she very badly needs. She is autistic and is blind and we are going to take her to a neurological specialist to see what else is going on as there seems to be some nervous system issues as well.

***Please help us spread the word - El Ayudante is ready for missions teams to come and serve with us! For more information contact me!

**Check out the El Ayudante website (www.elayudanteinhonduras.com) for pictures of the summer and more information

~ Tristan, Elizabeth, Sigel, & Madelyn Mohagen

Comayagua, Honduras

Honduras cell phone: 97-62-58-69

U.S. phone: 541-234-6494

www.mohagenadventures.blogspot.com

volunteering with El Ayudante

www.elayudanteinhonduras.com

If you'd like to support us financially, please send checks written to "Words In Action" to: Reedsport Foursquare Church, 2900 Frontage Road, Reedsport, Oregon, 97467. All gifts are tax deductible and used to support us as we love on the people God has placed in our lives.

More team pictures from this week

2011-07-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more pictures of this last week with the team:

Madelyn holding a chicken (yes it's alive!)

We served lunch to the VBS kids and whoever else showed up - We are estimating that it was over 300 people - it was pretty chaotic but all in all it went well and was a good end to the VBS program
On one of my trips to the project I had a blockage in the road - a bunch of sun bathing cows...this is actually pretty normal to run into but i thought it was a good picture this time :)
The craft table at the VBS
Up the mountain - to the very very tippy top is a village called La Oki - we took the team there to do a service for the kids and parents, to hand out clothes, and to just love on the community in general. The team saw true poverty and even toured some of the homes of the families. It was a great eye opener for the team and the community of La Oki received a lot of love!
Face painting at VBS :)

Peake Youth team

2011-07-27T06:51:00.000-07:00

this week we have a youth missions team here with us. So far it's gone great and it's been lots of fun! It's a team of 25 youth from Maryland and they have come with so much energy & excitement - it's really fun to be a part of this team! The same church came last year as well - and a friend of ours -Jonny- is a leader on the team - he taught with us that first year that we were in Honduras.

I don't have time to write much - but I wanted to at least put a few pictures up. This team is doing a VBS for the area kids (over 160 kids showed up yesterday) for 3 days, painting the inside of a church, doing a soccer tournament, visiting a village up the mountain, and doing 5 church services!

Here are a couple VBS & painting pics:

Mountain School tour / typical dance

2011-07-08T16:51:00.000-07:00

This last week Sigel's school put on a cultural/folklore event for a few different schools to come to. I was able to go along with Sigel and we had a great time. It was about 3 hours of dances native to Honduras and then they were acting out some skits of Honduran history and folklore. It was very interesting = some of the event was done by groups of kids from the schools and then they also brought in professionals as well for the dances and dramas.

Our favorite part was a dance done with machetes - each dancer had 2 machetes and they would dance around hitting the machetes behind and in front of them - and then kicking and jumping slamming the machetes together to make loud cymbal like noises. It was very impressive!

One morning last week Maddy and I took a drive around the mountain above EL Ayudante with one of the locals so that I could meet the school directors and get to know the area and evaluate the needs up there. It was a fun and long morning. We went to 5 schools - ranging from having 116 students (a 3 room classroom) to a school of 25 students - a one room classroom. All of the teachers were so open to me and happy to have us there to visit - and although I had nothing to give them then, I was able to find out what they need for the future - and for when I'm given things to pass along. The roads were all pretty terrible - really bumpy and some right along the edge of the cliff. We were in the clouds at 2 of the schools when we had reached the summits of that area. One of the roads was really scary as it was along a cliff the whole way up and then there was no where to turn around after we finished at the school - I ended up turning around in someone's driveway with 2 people guiding me and my front tire almost went over the edge...it was a couple very hectic and scary moments. But Praise GOD we're all ok and we didn't go over the edge. Next time I visit that school i'll hike up to it!

These mountain schools are so poor - some of the children not in the required uniform and some even without shoes on their feet. The teachers were asking for simple supplies that the parents and the school cannot afford - like extra pencils and notebooks as this is the most difficult time of the year for this region economically. This mountain mostly is agricultural and they harvest corn and coffee and beans - harvest season for coffee is Dec/Jan and then the others are in the fall - Sept/Oct. So the months of June, July, and August is the poorest. The teachers were really sweet and obviously care a lot for the children as they said that many times they end up buying pencils to give to the students.

One of the schools gave me a branch of plantains as a thank you for coming to visit. (picture below). it was very sweet of them!

(this school above is so very remote - it is not in a village or anything - no church or stores nearby at all! The teacher lives an hour away and comes only Monday-Wednesday to teach the children. The 2 boys in the front of the picture don't have shoes.) The school is new - only 2 years old - before that they didn't have a school to attend in this area. The teacher is a hard hard worker who seemed to care a lot about the students. I've been in Honduras 4 years and it is still so hard to see poverty scare in the face like I do all the time...and I pray that I never get indifferent or callous to this poverty.

above: the plantains that they gave me. the community shows us their gratitude through gifts of what they grow - we also got a bag of onions and a pineapple this week. During the mango season we received TONS of mangos from the community. It is so kind.

Family stuff

2011-07-03T08:13:00.000-07:00

Maddy and Sofia hit it off right away at church - they are inseparable! / below - Sigel and Maddy watching Tristan and John play Soccer.

Sigel and John were playing catch / below -our outdoor cooking stove

Last weekend we had a cookout at our house with 2 of our neighbors. This was a big deal meal :). It's called Estofado - and it's a meat that you have to cook for 12 hours before it's ready to eat. apparently it's a really expensive plate to buy at a restaurant and it's a luxury. We've gotten to know our neighbors pretty well since living here - they have been so kind to us and I hang out with the ladies at least once a week - we go walking or something. I've taught them how to make banana bread and now they've taught me how to make this Estofado.

Estodafo is a piece of roast beef basically that you cut a pocket into the middle of and then you make a stuffing of tomato, onion, pepper, potatoes, carrots, hamburger meat, sausage meat, and seasonings - then you stuff the pocket full - put it in a big pot and cook it over a fire for 12 hours until it's all really soft and smooth - then you add tomato paste, seasonings, more of the stuffing stuff, cilantro, and other stuff and let it cook a little longer. Serve with rice and tortillas. So Claudia, Carmen, and I started cooking Friday morning - after preparing the meat in the morning we cooked it all afternoon and evening on our outdoor adobe stove (cool huh!) and then again in the morning on Saturday - then the rest of their families came over and we ate it for lunch! There were over 15 of us and we had tons of leftovers. (it was over 15lbs of meat!). it was a fun, new cultural experience for us!

Then that night they invited the boys to play soccer at a field with them - so we went that night and Tristan, Sigel, and John (our intern) all played soccer for 2 hours.

It was a lot of fun!

construction that happened this last week

2011-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

above - sidewalk and porch poured at medical clinic / below - guard house painted on outside

above - awnings put up on windows in the dorm house / below: this is EA's new cement mixer! It works great!

above: back sidewalk of medical clinic poured / below: a couple weeks ago we had road signs made for El Ayudante - the white space below the logo is for announcements of events. This is the crew of neighbors that came out to help Tristan put them in once they saw he was working on them.

above: medical clinic roof is completely done!!!! yeah! The next step is stucco on the inside and outside - cost of $25K / below: 2 covered front porches done on the medical clinic
below: staff house finished painting on the outside - also the false ceilings were hung in both the guard and the staff house - they are coming right along - next step is electrical and plumbing

medical, vbs, and construction

2011-06-15T04:22:00.000-07:00

above - what the room looked like before Tristan built the clinic - 8 exam rooms and a pharmacy!

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We are half way through our biggest and probably most difficult team. It’s a team from Vero Beach Florida and the reason it’s difficult is because of how large the team is – we number 90 in all! This 90 includes the team, eye doctors, medical doctors from the states, Honduran Drs, 14 translators, and us! The team is split into construction, pharmacy, medical, eye, paint crew, and a VBS crew. Lots is being done!!!
Monday the medical team saw 500 patients and gave away all the free medicine that they needed, and then yesterday they saw around 600 patients! The eye Dr’s are giving away lots of glasses and drops as well. We are expecting the same amount of numbers today and tomorrow as well! So probably by the end they will have seen over 2000 patients.
Maddy and I are on the VBS team – it’s lots of fun to be with the kids. I was asked to lead the singing! I thought they were joking – obviously they have never heard me sing before . But there I am – leading schools in some fun kid songs. The VBS has been doing games, crafts, and then a puppet show and it has gone really well! Yesterday was pretty chaotic as we were in a school of 360 students and there were only 4 translators including me so we were scrambling trying to keep up with all the groups. Today we are at a special needs school – ½ of the students are deaf and ½ have some kind of disability. It’ll be a great day! Maddy does really great with all the chaos – naps have been hard but she still does well – no huge meltdowns. If you look at the picture of all the kids – you’ll see Maddy in the bottom left hand corner in her blue dress – right in the middle of it all!
Sigel has school this week so he’s missing the ministry part but is enjoying swimming in the late afternoon and going out to ice cream in the evenings. 
Tristan is working with the pastor this week – driving, driving, and more driving – as they are running around delivering supplies, picking up the lunches and snacks to deliver to the various teams spread out in different locations, and to put out any fires. We’ve barely seen him all week!
That’s the long and short of it all so far. I’ll probably have more to say when we’re done with the week.

Maplewood Baptist Team

2011-06-09T14:11:00.000-07:00

We just finished a week of serving with a team. it was an incredible week. here is a thank you letter that was written by one of the team members - Laurel. I thought you might like someone elses perspective.

We had an absolutely amazing week! We know of at least thirty to forty people who were saved this week. We also know of close to 1400 people that we got to share the Gospel with. We had a VERY busy week while we were there! We went to four schools and presented a program that consisted of performing a skit, singing songs, telling testimonies, and presenting the Gospel. We also had a slip-n-slide for Victory Baptist Orphanage, which we visited last year. Later on in the week, we took them to a river to play. These children are precious and are being raised in a loving Christian environment. There are just not enough workers to give the children the love and attention they deserve! We also evangelized at two town squares, one in Ajutarique and the other in Comayagua. This included making balloon animals, one-on-one evangelism, and playing soccer as means of sharing the gospel. One night we passed out flyers around the community of Lo de Reina, which is where the El Ayudante mission house is located, about a movie night later on in the week. We probably passed out 100-150 flyers and ended up having around 300 people show up for the movie night. We now know what the disciples felt like when Jesus fed the 5,000 with the fish and the bread. We had put on the flyer that there would be popcorn and sodas, but when so many people showed up, we did not have near enough popcorn. So earlier that day, we had been to the grocery store, and several of us had bought cookies to take back home with us. We gathered all of our cookies together and just knew it wasn’t going to be near enough. We handed out two cookies and a glass of soda to each person there and ended up having two bowls of cookies left. It was truly a miracle, and it amazed us all. We ministered at the squatter’s village where we handed out hygiene bags. The people who live here literally have nothing. Some of them may have a mattress to lie on, and others of them may have cardboard boxes as their beds. Their houses may be made of concrete, or, for some, they are made of sticks and plastic. We shared the hope and love of Jesus with them as well as handed out bags full of hygiene items that most of them have never had before. We then headed off to another awesome orphanage. The orphanages are always the hardest parts of the trip for me. Most of these people just literally “throw” their children out on the street because they either do not want them or feel they will have a better life if they are somewhere else. While we were at this particular orphanage, the first little girl I sat down beside was very shy and would not tell us much information. She wouldn’t even tell us her name. She did not want us touching her or even really talking to her. We tried everything to make her smile and nothing worked. She looked so sad. She is the girl in the second picture at the top of the page. I was tired and content to just sit beside her. About thirty minutes into our time there, she scooted over and sat in my lap. I got a hold of some bubbles that we had brought and we blew bubbles for a while -- she smiled while we were doing that. She still wouldn’t talk much, but I was fine with just sitting there and loving on her. From then on, if she wanted to go somewhere, she would grab my hand and drag me to another group that was playing frisbees, or flying kites. She was a sweetie who just needed to be shown love. I was so terribly sad when we had to leave, and I had to let her go. What an incredible time God gave us on this mission trip this year! He truly blessed our every effort above and beyond what we deserved. I feel as if I were more blessed by this trip than the people we went to bless.

maddy turns one!

2011-06-02T14:29:00.000-07:00

It's amazing to me that maddy is already 1 year old and chatting and almost walking. She's so big! We went into Tegucigalpa the weekend before her birthday so that we could have a party with all our friends. We had it at our friend Brian's house - the perfect place for a party - and had a really wonderful time! We had a taco bar, cake and ice cream, and had a great afternoon with our friends! Madelyn liked her cake and ice cream a lot - the first couple bites were tentative but then she really dug into it and got it all over both her and her Daddy - then when she finished she leaned back against Tristan and stuck out her belly - a happy baby :).

A quick weekend trip to Pacayal

2011-05-18T10:34:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went to Pacayal - it's a community of Indians that live up in the mountains outside of the pueblo of Yorito (for those of you who feel like looking at a map to see where we were). it's about 4 hours from our house. We've been a part of helping a church in Boston work with the people there - they asked the Indian chief what the community needed and they asked for a community center - so that's what the church is doing. The church is also helping the community by supporting a local gentleman in his endeavors to start a church, and also doing things like micro loans etc. It's neat. We've been helping for over 2 years at this project now - and it's amazing how far it's come! The first time Tristan went is when they spoke with the chief and elders of the town - and now this weekend they were finishing the siding and putting up the interior walls!

This was Maddy's first trip to a place with no running water or electricity and she did great! She loved spending the day playing in the dirt and petting the horse. Sigel helped as much as he could - mostly carrying wood and holding stuff in place for Tristan. Tristan was on the interior walls crew, and Maddy was on the dirt crew and me...well, I chased Maddy around the whole time taking dirt out her mouth. It was a fast trip but we enjoyed the adventure, seeing the people we know, and Tristan loved continuing to work on a building that he has been a part of from the beginning and every step along the way.

fruit

2011-05-18T10:23:00.000-07:00

we've now been living in Honduras almost 4 years and yesterday we were introduced to yet another new fruit. These are called "campanas" (meaning BELLS in English). they are also called manzanas (apples). and that's kinda what they taste like - they are hard and crunchy like an apple but don't have a very strong flavor.

Our contractor for El Ayudante has adopted us and keeps sending Tristan home with mangos, gava, and campanas. :) It's great - except he bring us such huge quantities I'm going to go around and share with my neighbors - there is no way we'll eat 80 campanas before they go bad :)

Here is a picture of our bananas that are in the backyard! We're excited to have banana trees that are producing - we tried to put some in our Valle house but they didn't grow. But these were tiny little 1 inch bananas when we moved in 2 months ago and now they are getting bigger! They at plantains and will be at least a foot in length when they are ready.

Something new for you to learn today - banana trees only produce ONE bunch of bananas in their whole life - and then they sprout a brother plant that grows up next to it. so after this bunch is done we should cut down the tree to make room for the next.

Sigel

2011-05-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure what happened - I wrote this blog a while ago and then the next time I went on my blog it was gone. so here I am rewriting it - I'm sure it'll be a little different :)

During Sigel's Spring Break we went to a Sports Fishing place because he had never been fishing and was starting to drop a lot of hints about how badly he wanted to go fishing. lol so we went - Nana and Grandpa were here with us and we went over lunch time in hopes that we'd catch our lunch. The boys fished and the girls watched. Sigel was super antsy - every minute or so moving to another part of the pond, putting on more bait, or asking where the fish where. Thankfully he caught one! It was a huge catfish and he was so excited! He was the only one of us that caught fish so the rest of us had to buy our fish lunch :). After some pleading, the restaurant fried up Sigel's fish for him (I didn't know what I'd do if we'd a had to talk it home and do it!) and it was a good fish! He was so happy! (I love his stance in this picture below :) )

Also during spring break we visited with Sigel's family. Every 4 months or so we try to meet up with them and take them out to lunch. We feel that it's important to keep the relationship open - one because we need their cooperation and trust as we continue with Sigel's adoption, and secondly because he is and will always be there son - even if they are dysfunctional and are unable to care for him. The meetings are always a bit awkward because our lives are so different - Sigel doesn't know what to say (mostly in part because he's a 13 year old boy that doesn't talk much) and they don't know what to say to him...so it usually falls on Tristan and I to keep the conversation going.

I asked Sofia about Sigel as a baby and she told me that he was walking at 9months , was a pretty happy baby, had thick black hair that stood on end all the time, and that he drank goats milk for most of his first year because she (the mom) was bitten by a snake and in the hospital so she was unable to nurse. I wish I had pictures and memories of Sigel as a baby like I will of my other kids -=- but it's nice to be able to at least picture him toddling around at 9mo with a fro of black hair! :)
Above: mom-Sofia, Dad - Julio, Sigel, Sister- Belin and niece Sofita, Maddy, Tristan, Beth, sister-Llani.

In other Sigel news, he's doing very well. We feel like this move has been good for him - we've been trying very hard to build our relationship as a family and it's paying off. He's a little more open and is having more good days than bad... although when the bad days come...look out! :(. He's doing great in school! Due to switching schools and going into a new curriculum he was a bit behind but now he's caught up and even ahead of some of the kids in his class which is so exciting. This curriculum is work at your own pace and has the potential to do more than one year of school in a year - so we're hoping that this will catch him up to his grade level - he's still about 2 year behind.

Sigel and Maddy have finally bonded! It's taken a year - but the day Maddy was born he asked us to leave her at the hospital - now he seeks her out to play with him and he'll lay on the floor for a long time to play. She loves to go in his room and play - and amazingly he doesn't mind. The other day I peeked around the corned to watch them play and saw maddy giving Sigel a big 'kiss' - really a slobber all over his face - he insisted it wasn't a kiss but it was :). Nothing is better for me than to see my kids love each other and have a connection! Sigel is a great big brother! (But he told us we shouldn't have any more kids lol :)>

Roof on medical Clinic

2011-05-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

So the roof on the clinic is going up! They have made great progress and as long as we get the rest of the money we need to continue, we're hoping for it to be finished sometime in June!

Our new House

2011-05-02T07:32:00.000-07:00

Our House in Comayagua

above - this is our lawn - on the side of the house - at the back of the house it's kinda jungly with mango, banana, and coconut trees - but no grass.

Below: Tristan and Beth's room - is upstairs. upstairs on the landing is our office, a bathroom, and our room and Maddy's room.

above - Sigel's room is downstairs off the kitchen - he has his own bathroom attached to it and he chose the color - 'vivid green'. he loves the color!
maddy's room is upstairs next to ours - it's bright pink and very girly. :)
Living room - the Kitchen, living room, and dining room is all open and connected - off the dining room is an entrance area that we have turned into a family room/play room.
above - the play room that's off the dining room.

So that's our house :) It's starting to feel like home - we have most of the pictures up on the walls and we've found homes for most of our stuff - which was a challenge because there are no closets or shelves so that was the biggest thing we had to figure out. Tristan has built some shelves!

The Hole in Our Gospel

2011-04-27T11:00:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of reading "The hole in our Gospel" - written by the President of World Vision - Richard Stearns. I would recommend you to read this book.

Some things from the book. Things that don't make you feel good, but we all need to remember.

Former President Carter was awarded the Noel Peace prize for his accomplishments after his presidency was over. This was part of his speech:
" At the beginning of this new millennium I was asked to discuss, here in Oslo, the greatest challenge that the world faces. Among all the possible choices, I decided that the most serious and universal problem is the growing chasm between the richest and poorest people on earth. Citizens of the ten wealthiest countries are now 75 times richer than those who live in the ten poorest ones, and the separation is increasing every year, not only between nations but also within them. the results of this disparity are root causes of most of the world's unresolved problems, including starvation, illiteracy, environmental degradation, violent conflict, and unnecessary illnesses that range from Guinea worm to HIV/AIDS."

Later in the chapter he states that prior to 1800, the gap between the wealthiest region of the world and the poorest was 4 to 1.

Also in a speech that he quoted from former President Bill Clinton I feel like I really related. We work with poor people and I would agree that the Western mindset is that people are poor because they are lazy, uneducated, not hard workers, or just didn't want it bad enough. I disagree with that - some of the most hard working people I know are the poorest people I know.

Insert from the book (pg 118/119)
"President Clinton spoke to the issue of poverty by asking the one thousand leaders present to think about what circumstances in our lives had brought us to this very evening, where we were gathered based on our positions and our success in various fields. He then postulated that 2 things were at play: first that during our lives we had all been presented with opportunities of one kind or another, and second, that we had worked hard to capitalize on those opportunities and that our hard work had paid off. He said that each of us had seen a direct correlation between how hard we worked and the results we achieved. "Now," he said, "I want you to imagine what would have happened in your lives if there had been no connection whatsoever between how hard you worked and the results you go, because that is exactly the situation faced by more than one billion people who live on less than a dollar a day. the connection between how hard they work and the result they will get has been broken." President Clinton's observation is profound. For most of the poorest people in the world, their hard work doesn't matter. They are trapped within social, cultural, political, and economic systems that do not reward their labor. The result of this entrenched futility is devastating to the human spirit.

great statement in the book "Children are NOT statistics to God"

did you know that 26,575 children die daily from preventable diseases? I can't get my mind around that number

"The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." - Flannery O'Connor

more roatan pictures

2011-04-19T05:44:00.001-07:00

Roatan Honduras

2011-04-16T09:32:00.000-07:00

We just got back from 5 days in the beautiful Island of Roatan! It's a part of the Bay Islands which are in the north of Honduras and they are wonderful!

We picked up Bruce and Shanon (Tristan's parents) at the airport in San Pedro and headed to La Ceiba to catch the 4:30 ferry to Roatan. The ferry ride was horrendous - a warning sign to us was that the crew handed out Dramamine and plastic bags to everyone on the ferry. All of us felt sick - but Sigel and I were the only ones in our group to throw up. We were all very happy to be on dry ground. We stayed at Infinity Resorts - and very pretty hotel with a wonderful pool and beach front to the warm, turquoise Caribbean waters. We were all in need of relaxing and refreshing so we didn't make any big tourist plans - just laid by the pool or the beach each day - taking turns playing in the water, throwing a frisbee, snorkeling, kyaking, dozing, and eating. Sigel loved the snorkeling and all the rough housing in the water. Madelyn also loved the water and she loved eating the sand - and thankfully eventually decided that the sand wasn't for eating (although it took a day).

We ate at some fun restaurants throughout the week - Tristan and I went on a date one night to a Thai restaurant - one of our favorite foods but this is the first Thai restaurant we've seen in Honduras (it's fun traveling with grandparents who want to babysit!). We ate some local food and one of the restaurants the cook staff came and whisked Maddy off to the kitchen for a while to play. The last night we ate on a dock looking out and watching a baracuda and a HUGE eel swim around the rocks at the base of the dock. That part was neat!

Roatan has the 2nd biggest coral reef in the world - second to Australia. So we saw some really neat stuff while snorkeling - unfortunately i don't know names of fish or coral but they were all shapes and sizes and really really amazing! The whole week I kept thanking God for all the incredibleness that He created for us to enjoy. He was so creative when He made the world and I was so thankful to be able to enjoy and soak in His creation!

so all in all it was a fabulous week and we were all sad to catch the ferry back at the end. we haven't felt that rested in a very long time. Although we travel a lot it seems, we are always working or fundraising or catching up with people -very different than a week at the beach.

:) now back to reality... ha ha

Pictures

2011-04-07T09:20:00.000-07:00

Madelyn at Mall of America - first wide eyed and not missing a thing....but the mall is very big so despite her best efforts she couldn't do a whole day lol

Maddy playing in the snow for the first time - preferring the brown snow over the white stuff. below in the pool - she only made it 3 minutes before she was shivering and made the escape to the hot tub.

above - going through my Grandma's jewelry - she loved it :) / below: Sigel at his going away party at his old school - they threw him a big party with lots of food and games.

MOVING and the craziness that came with

2011-03-28T10:17:00.000-07:00

We are moved...but i must tell you about the whirlwind :)

We pushed up our move date by 2 weeks so that we would be settled and have Sigel in school before 2 teams arrived that we were supposed to work with. no problem - we can do it we thought. So we got to work fixing up some things in our old house we needed to do, packing, and doing 'lasts' with Seeds of Change - lasts included building a ping pong table for the youth building, taking Michelle, and then Cynthia out to lunch one last time, attending a youth baptism and pool party, going to youth group, taking a cake to Sigel's for a good bye party,dinner with friends, etc. it was really busy if you ask me.

The move was set for Saturday and Monday - but on Thursday we found from our landlord that we needed to repaint some walls that we had painted, rake the entire forest behind our house, and build handrails on the side of our house (we had torn down the old ones because they were rotted and diagonal). Yikes! this was way too much! then on Friday my Grandma HoneyDear passed away from a heart attack(yes that's her name to me :)) and my wonderful aunties offered to fly me to Minnesota for the funeral. so we got my ticket for Tuesday and decided to move Sat and Sun instead. We have incredible friends that came over and helped us pack, paint, build handrails, play with Maddy, etc. I felt so overwhelming loved! ((( Thanks guys!!! ))) so the guys took a big trip out Saturday while the girls painted and cleaned and then Sunday we finished up packing and cleaning and were out of the house by 5pm - then the 3 hour drive...one long police stop, a broken trailer taillight (a bus hit us at the gas station), gas station dinner, and a over heated car later, we arrived at our new house for the first night - 8:30pm. By 10:40 we had unloaded the trailer, found bedding, and covered up the truck for the night. We were all sleeping by 11:30pm. Monday we got to work unpacking and cleaning our new house. Sigel was really excited to set up his new room :). We worked all day and didn't even get a fraction of it done but it was excited nonetheless. Tuesday Tristan and Sigel took Maddy and I to the airport and then went up one last time to pick up the last odds and ends at our old house. Maddy and I traveled all day - getting to Minnesota around 11pm. We met wonderful people during our travels that helped me with all our stuff. :) A woman that I didn't know well but was acquainted with was on our first flight and she helped us through customs and we ate dinner together - what a blessing because I was worried about handling all the bags and Maddy!

Wednesday morning was my Grandmothers funeral - it was difficult - harder than I was expecting but also really wonderful to be around all my relatives and to remember my Grandma and hear all sorts of neat stories about her. One word that was used to define her throughout this week was MUNIFICENT: Definition: characterized by great generosity. As she was generous - in her love, her time, her memories, hugs, garage sale treasures, etc. She was a really really great Grandma and lived such a wonderful full life. She will be sorely missed but we are at peace knowing that she is in heaven, reunited with Grandpa and no longer in pain. Thursday the day was spent emptying out Grandma's apartment and going through her treasures - another hard day. I then headed up to Brainerd - where we used to live and Maddy and I are now spending the week with my best friend Chelsea. It's been great to see her and get to know her kids!! (it's been 2 1/2 years since I've seen her!) It has been such a blessing to spend time with my relatives and my best friend!

While I've been gone Tristan and I Sigel have been busy busy. Sigel started school last Wednesday - so Tristan spent a lot of time getting him enrolled and getting everything he needed for this new school. Sigel is now in 6th grade and seems to be adjusting really well to this new school. We're praying for some great friends for him soon! Tristan also was responsible for buying all the food and preparing for the team that we work with in Yorito (the community center for the Indian tribe up in the clouds) when they come. So he did all the shopping Thursday and then after school on Friday Sigel and Tristan went to Yoro (a 4 hour drive) and met up with the team for the weekend to help out however they could. Sunday evening they came back home. Tristan left Monday morning to pick up the planning team for a big team that we have coming in June (the team will do evangelism/community work, medical, and construction on the medical clinic). Tristan is their driver/translator/everything during this week and will be with them driving all over the place until Friday evening. Our wonderful friend Nicole is staying with Sigel and taking care of all the school runs and cooking and everything. So we're all spread out this week.

I'm so thankful to have this week with Chelsea (although I'm REALLY not used to the cold lol) but it's hard to be away from all that's happening as the first couple weeks in a new home. I know that my house is full of boxes and not clean and still will be when I get back (because Tristan hasn't had a spare second). I don't know about you but I hate leaving dishes in the sink when we leave the house - much less everything in boxes and the house not even clean!

Tristan will be home Friday night and Maddy and I will be home Sunday afternoon - it will be nice to all be together again. 12 days apart is a long time :).

sorry but no pics this time - once our house is presentable I'll be sharing pictures of our new house.

Endings and Beginnings

2011-03-12T07:19:00.001-08:00

Looks like we're moving next week! I can't believe how quickly everything has come together for us to be moving to Comayagua. Moving is SO MUCH WORK :(. But we're slowly getting things checked off - Tristan has fixed some things around the house, we've been cleaning and organizing and starting to pack. Today and tomorrow I"ll be doing a lot of packing as yesterday Tristan went and got a lot of boxes.

Endings - this last week was our last youth group with Seeds of Change. We have all really enjoyed being a part of the youth group and I know that we will miss that a lot! Tristan has done a lot of preaching at the youth and we have some relationships with those kids that we're sad to see end. We also had a birthday party at our house last night for Vanessa - the transitioning orphan that is a part of Seeds of Change. We have always used our house for get togethers for the ministry and for friends and that was probably the last one. It was simple - just had a nacho bar and played Twister and hung out - but it was very fun and I was bittersweet for me. I love hosting parties and making people feel special in that way. As sad as I am to be leaving I have such an incredible peace that it's hard to argue. We are also really excited about all that is happening in Comayagua and being able to really poor into El Ayudante with all of our time and energy. Looks like this is Sigel's last week of school at his school here and that by the end of next weekend we'll be completely moved to our new house.

My Kids:

Sigel apologized to me without anyone making him!!! I was so proud that I almost cried (not in front of him of course!) Apology is such a big issue with him and I can't believe that it was all on his own. yea! He just got his grades for 3rd quarter and he was 2nd in his class - receiving all very high grades! Yesterday he had a friend over to play for the afternoon and they had a great time playing with airsoft guns.

Madelyn is refusing to take long naps but at least she's sleeping through the night a lot better than a couple weeks ago. We're all feeling more rested. She also has 2 adorable (and razor sharp) bottom teeth that just came in a couple weeks ago. She is crawling and pulling herself up all over the place and loves to get into trouble. Seems like the only interesting 'toys' are the ones that aren't allowed - like inside the fireplace and eating dog food. Maddy also has discovered spitting - spitting out food, spitting in general, and spitting with her tongue out. It's cute if it's not your child :)

(this is Maddy's new smile - she wrinkles up her nose and does this laugh through her nose - it's funny and really hard to explain - but believe me - it's funny :) -and you can see her teeth!

2011-03-10T19:34:00.000-08:00

Email Update Sent March4th

2011-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

Good morning!

Thanks for all your prayers regarding the team that we had last week. The week was a whirl wind but it went really well. The only bummer was that a virus went around and about 1/3 of the team was sick for a day or two. But even so the week was very successful - the guard house (which was their main goal) made huge strides - all the walls are up, the roof on, the electrical strung, the cabinets made, and doors and windows installed! Plus in the mission house they: put 20 ceiling fans up, put lights on the back porch in the mission, made security bars for the windows, trimmed in the windows, etc. We also had electricians put in more power poles and a transformer. We had a backhoe that came and dug septic tanks...etc. As you can see it was a super busy week! Check out the blog for pictures and more specifics.

Other big news is that we found a new house! A wonderful business man that we just recently met lives in Comayagua and became our personal real estate agent. He set up a bunch of houses for us to see and then took us around. Our new house is in the pueblo of Comayagua - not the heart of the pueblo but in a neighborhood on the outskirts. It's 4 bedroom, 3 bath with a small garden, and room to park our cars inside the gate. We've been told that it's safe. They are repainting the house for us (and we get to pick the colors! :) and doing repairs and we should be able to move in the end of this month! Yeah! We are so relieved that we didn't have to house hunt for days like last time when it took 2 months. The great thing is that it only costs $300/month - less than what we're paying now!!

Prayer Requests:

* Sigel - he is dreading the move and having a very hard time with the whole thing

* School for Sigel - we think we found one. We have a meeting with them this Monday

* Tristan will be working with a team this month - continuing work on the community center in the mountains of Yoro.

* For the move - it's always lots of details for it all to come together

* Madelyn has decided to stop sleeping - pray that she starts to sleep during the night and take naps again!

* Residency - all our paperwork is turned in - now we wait (should take 3 months)

* Adoption - still waiting on permission from the judge to start the process - for the judge to approve this quickly so we can start

Thanks! We love you guys! thank you for being our support!

Murder of Pastor in Honduras raises security questions

2011-02-26T07:23:00.000-08:00

Murder of Pastor in Honduras raises security questions

construction team

2011-02-24T17:24:00.000-08:00

This last week we had a wonderful team from Tennessee out to El Ayudante. This was really the team that has been around since the beginning of El Ayudante - they were the ones that laid the block for the mission house and poured the cement floors etc. Also on the team was most of the board of directors - aka - our bosses :). We stayed out at the mission house and had a super long list of projects for them to work on - the main goal was to build the guard house - we had the floor poured and the walls up but that's it - they did the roof, windows, interior walls, bathroom, kitchen cabinets, and doors. Lots of work! In addition to the guard house they also put up ceiling fans in all the mission house, lights on the back porch, security bars on the windows...and the list goes on. :)

The bummer is their was a lot of sickness during the week - our best guess is that someone brought down a virus and it was passed around during the week.

Pictures of the guard house: start to finish

While we were working we also had other projects going on at the same time - we had the well finished being dug and the pump put in (and although the well wasn't done for the team like we were planning on - we didn't have any water problems all week! )

We also had septic holes dug for the staff house, the guard house, and the medical clinic! We had a backhoe on the project for 2 days doing that.

Then we also had an electrician crew putting in 3 new poles and a new transformer (for the clinic, guard house, and well pump). It was really neat to watch how they put the poles in the ground and then climbed the poles to do the hires.

We also did a bunch of community things while we were there with the team.

- we had a hot dog lunch for the community - about 150 people showed up and we gave them hotdogs, chips, and juice. We also had 2 pinatas - one for the older kids and one for the younger so they wouldn't trample each other too bad. It was a lot of fun and they hung out for most of the afternoon.

Madelyn enjoyed all the attention - this is Liliana - she is 13 and we've known her for 2 years now. She also loved talking and playing with the other kids. Madelyn is getting to be quite the social butterfly. :)

We went to a local school for the morning and these girls stood against the wall and sang to me for at least 15 minutes - song after song with actions and everything - it was so much fun! I really need to learn these songs!

One of the ladies - Donna - with one of the kids from the school.

The team also went up the mountain to share at the church up there and minister to the community. It went really great! Tristan did about half of the translating for the church service.

email update sent Feb15th

2011-02-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

We've been back in Honduras now almost a month and the time has flown by. We have mostly been focused on preparing for a work team of 35 people that are coming in this afternoon. They will be essentially building 2 houses - a staff house and a guard house. It's going to be a really exciting time watching these houses come to completion in one short week. Please be praying for us as there is a lot going on! Pray for safety, for all the details to pan out, for us to have plenty of water and electricity when needed, and mostly that we would be a light in that community!

We also have some big news to share with you regarding our ministry here in Honduras. As you know we have been sharing our time between two ministries. Since being back here this last month we've had some unexpected changes and have realized that we do not fit with Seeds of Change any longer. The vision & direction of Seeds of Change for 2011 is a lot different than when we started with them 2 years ago. Because of these changes, and the difficulty in juggling 2 ministries, the timing is right for us to focus on El Ayudante. This has been a difficult decision for us, however as we've been praying and seeking counsel we have decided that it is time to work full time with El Ayudante. Please understand this is bittersweet for us - because we are so excited about working full time with El Ayudante -(oh the places the ministry could go!) but also sad (yet at peace) with knowing our time with Seeds of Change is over. We do still believe that our passion to help orphans is not in vain and God will use that - we're just waiting to see where and how.

So all that said, we are moving closer to El Ayudante. El Ayudante is currently 3 hours from our house - way too long of a commute and separates our family a lot. A move is always hard - leaving our friends, Sigel's school, and our church. But we are really excited about pouring into El Ayudante - about seeing the medical clinic finished, establishing community work around the project, and facilitating lots of teams. This change is coming at a great time as the Board of Directors of El Ayudante is part of this team that is arriving today and we will be able to dream with them about how to advance with El Ayudante and then start to put those dreams into a reality in the upcoming months!

Our desire is to serve Jesus - wherever that may be. For this season it will be El Ayudante and we will keep you informed as we find out exactly what that looks like. In the meantime please be praying for our move and our establishment in our new community. More info coming as we find out ourselves.

Thank you for loving and supporting us as we daily strive to bring glory to Jesus. That's really what it comes down to in the end - Glorifying Jesus!

Odds N ends

2011-02-13T08:03:00.000-08:00

Some weeks it's hard to define what we did because it feels as though we run in circles to do it all.

Yesterday Sigel had Family Fun Day at his school. They were raising money for a projector for the school so it was a full day (9-2) of outside games and challenges plus lots of booths of food for us to buy. it was a great sunny day and lots of fun. Tristan and Sigel won a prize for winning the father/son relay race. I asked Sigel if he wanted food at one point and he said " i think i'll have to eat afterwards - i just don't have time - i have to go play soccer". he had a blast and played hard the entire time - only stopping once for a bowl of fries. Maddy loved being outside and having so many kids and dogs to watch. We then had some friends over for dinner to eat our ham from our pig. it was a lot of fun! They have a baby 5 mo older than Maddy and the two girls played together the whole night - super cute!

Above: Sigel making a goal :) / below: Kyle and Tristan with their girls - playing wii together

Madelyn finding toys in the box / below: Sigel's first time bowling - he beat us both his first game ever!!!

We are working on our residency again. (boo hoo- back to lawyers!). it's already been 2 years since we've completed it the last time and we are now changing it up because we can have our residency under Madelyn (because she was born here) verses doing as a religious residency. So 'they' say that it's better to have it under Maddy and easier to get. So to do this it means $1,000, visits to immigration, the lawyers office, collecting paperwork, making copies of paperwork, more visits to the lawyers offices, calling to make sure the lawyers are actually working on it, more paperwork... catch my drift? so this week we started that and it should be done in 4 to 5 months. This week and next will be the most work until the end of the 5 months and then we'll have to be in the office a lot again.

Another paperwork thing we've taken on is getting me car insurance! We were able to add that into our budget for this year which is great considering how dangerous it is to drive down here. So this meant dropping off paperwork at the insurance place, dropping off paperwork at the lawyers office to notarize something for that, and then going to a different building to get pictures of the car taken. Then when we have time, Tristan will have to take a morning and go into the downtown area and do more paperwork for it - which could possibly take a whole day. but the good news is it's only $250 for the whole year of insurance! :)

We have a team coming this Wednesday for El Ayudante. They are the BOSSES and board of directors of the project. We're really excited about them coming because so much has happened since they were here last that we are hoping they will be really excited and happy. that's the hope. it's also a lot of work because they are staying in the mission house for the first time so we want it all to be perfect. While here, they will be pretty much building 2 houses!!!! a guard house and a staff house plus doing some more finish work on the mission house (little things). The exterior walls and the floors are poured for these 2 houses and one of them will have the roof on - and the team is doing the rest - plumbing, electrical, windows, doors, false ceiling, screening in a porch, interior walls, toilets, kitchen cabinets, closets, light fixtures etc. the list is super long and it's going to be amazing how much they accomplish in one short week! It's a team of 30+ experienced construction workers and handyman type people. oh and they are also connecting the well to the house and doing electrical stuff. it'll be pretty much amazing :)

So for the team this means lots of trips to Comayagua for Tristan to bring supplies out there - and lots of times in stores buying the supplies (everything just takes longer here - at one hardware store it took them 2 hours to check-out because they had to enter a 5% discount for each individual item that we got a discount on! and then they had to go to the storage yard to pick it it all up the next morning because it was closed that night.) I too have spent time going all over to get supplies for the mission house and for all the food. it's a lot of running around and a lot of time on the phone planning things.

Vanessa - one of our transitioning orphans - came over on Friday and spent the entire afternoon and evening with me - making cookies and bars and dinner and just hanging out. it was a lot of fun and really good for her to be with family. she's so impressed with my cooking - she doesn't know how to follow a recipe for everything is impressive - so we're working on teaching her how to follow recipes :).

Yesterday we also picked up another intern that is staying with us for a month. His name is Riley and he's from Reedsport. He'll be working with us in whatever we're doing. So at the moment our house is: me, Tristan, Sigel, Maddy, Jeff, and Riley. I must start cooking in bulk for all these boys!! :)

So that was part of our week - at least the highlights. :)

Well being dug!

2011-01-31T12:28:00.000-08:00

we've been working on a well to be dug for El Ayudante. There was a well but about 2 years ago it apparently caved in (we're not exactly sure). but we spent many days trying to pull the pump out of it but using pully's and Tristan and John's truck (matching dodge's) and even hiring someone to try but no luck. So beginning in December we began a new well! Very exciting really because otherwise we're dependent on city water which comes and goes and we can't depend on it at all. As of last week when Tristan went to check on them they were at 100Ft. we need it to be at 300ft plus have the piping and pump at the bottom of it before our team that comes Feb 16th! Yikes. The driller told us he'd have it all drilled by now....well no surprise really - we're still waiting. We're hoping for a good report when Tristan goes back out tomorrow to check again. They said they can do 30ft in a day. we are learning so much about so many things :-)

I like these pictures because the rig is pretty impressive...and most of all because the sky behind it is beautiful! (it was dusk).

....Landing in Toncontin..

2011-01-28T15:27:00.000-08:00

We're not trying to scare you into not coming - just show you part of the adventure :) Pretty crazy

Homecoming

2011-01-28T15:19:00.000-08:00

I just have to say that I hate how we travel - even though it seems necessary. We travel to the MAX everytime - so this time we were coming into the airport with 2 huge carts full plus we were carrying stuff. we had 6 50lb suitcases (duffles because they carry more :) ). plus 2 rolling carry-ons, 1 duffle, 2 backpacks, and 1 babybag. yes that's us - oh and did I mention that I carry Madelyn so Tristan is like a workhorse trying to do it all. Pretty ridiculous but there are so many things that are half the price or cheaper if you buy it in the States and there are lots of stuff you just can't get here - add to that CHRISTMAS and we're in for it :). So it's 3 days later and I'm still unpacking - but making good progress considering I've been sick and had to put away Christmas. I only have 3 more 50lb bags to unpack :).

The flight is a red eye and I must say I think I'm getting old :). ha ha. not just because it's an all nighter but we're up all day the day before packing and running around doing all the last minute things we didn't fit in, then we travel all night (trying to get maddy to sleep well so we don't) and then we get in in the morning and we're up all day until bedtime. we went to bed by 8:30 that night - as soon as we got our kids to bed.

The actual flight went great - no problems (besides the chaos of our luggage and maddy). Madelyn does really well on the planes - so far we haven't been the ones with the crying baby. I think it'll be harder when she wants to crawl and walk around and can't. The fun part of the flight is the landing at Tegucigalpa airport - it's supposedly the shortest runway in the world and there is often problems landing there - there's been one big crash since we've been here when the pilot overshot the runway and ran into houses and there are many times when planes to touch and go's due to overshooting it. When you come in to land it's amazing because it feels as though the wings are going to touch the houses on the hill sides - that's how close the plane must go to the hills. Tegucigalpa is a valley surrounded my mountains and the whole place is very hilly.

So we're home and happy to be home. Trying to catch up on everything that happened while we were gone and preparing for a huge construction team that we have in 2 1/2 weeks. Tristan's already been out to the project to check on the well being done and the buildings that are being built and it's going well. It's so great to be back with Sigel - we really missed him. and it's just nice to be back in our own beds and house!

Madelyn at 7months

2011-01-20T14:41:00.000-08:00

I may be biased but I think she's the cutest baby in the whole world!!! and looking at these pics that her aunt Jenny took I don't think you can argue :)

Plotz family pictures

2011-01-20T11:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas visiting

2011-01-01T11:10:00.000-08:00

We've been in the States since the 17th. Unfortunately Sigel couldn't come with us because we couldn't get him a visa - we tried and tried but we don't have the paperwork that we need in order to get it. So Tristan, Madelyn, and I are in the States to catch up on family, enjoy the Holidays, and do some fundraising for our 2011 budget. So far its been a very full and fun time!

The first week we were home we were with Tristan's family. On the 18th we celebrated our 5 year anniversary!!!! we went to Jack London Square and went out to dinner and to a comedy club. It was hard for me to leave Madelyn for so long as she has hardly left my side in her 7 months but the grandparents were great babysitters and we all survived. (Actually I think i could get used to a little time away from her every once in a while :) ). Tristan got me flowers and we each gave each other rings - I lost the ring he proposed to me with so he got me a duplicate and he had lost his wedding ring and was using a fake fair ring so I got him a new ring as well.

We also spent a lot of time with family - we did lunch with Tristan's Uncle Rick and Great Aunt Mary, did dinner with his Jewish aunt and uncle, and then celebrated Christmas Eve with Tristan's dad extended side and Christmas Day with his Mom's extended side. His sister Jenny was up from Arizona for almost a week so she got a lot of Maddy holding time! Madelyn has done so great meeting so many people and surprisingly she is letting a lot of people hold her which is a miracle - the week before we left she wasn't letting anyone hold but me.

We are now in Oregon visiting with my family. It's a lot quieter up here - mostly because we don't know as many people so when we're up here we're just relaxing with my family. It's been great to all be together. We went shooting (my bro-in-law is a cop so he has lots of cool guns to shoot) and all the boys really loved that. We've also celebrated Christmas, played games, went crabbing, gone on walks, and eaten way too much fabulous food.

Sigel is staying with friends of ours and seems to be doing pretty good. He says he misses school - which starts again next week, and I know he's missing being home and being with us. It's hard to be separated - we had family pictures yesterday and he wasn't here to be in them. :(

While here we're speaking at churches and meeting with the wonderful people that allow us to minister in Honduras. Without them supporting us financially we wouldn't be there - so it's been so fun to meet with them all and attempt to thank them in mere words for the generosity that they have and to share with them where there money is going to and what is happening in Honduras. It's so hard when the words "thank you" sound so small compared to their BIG generosity. So if you're one of our supporters - THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

Another new year...wow - I can't wait to see what's in store for this year - last year was so full and here we are starting a new one. I think there should be a few days in between each year to give us time to reflect and prepare for the next one :).

Fun things

2010-12-16T15:53:00.000-08:00

This week has been full of fun little things that we've been able to do

* Leonie and Mario got married last Friday! (That's the founder/our boss of Seeds of Change). it was a wonderful wedding - everyone was happy and all dressed up and there was good food and good times had by all :)

* We bought a bunch of appliances for El Ayudante - there was a huge sale on and we had $$ left over from a team so we bought a fridge, stove, microwave, BBQ's , ceiling fans, and a generator! The whole truck was full of appliances. This is great because we have a big team in February that we'll need it for.

* We went in search of Analia - a maid of friends of ours that moved away and since she has not had a job and we nor our friends have been able to find her for a while. We found her house (only had been there once before and we never go to that area) It was so great to see her and we were able to be the carriers of a gift from our friends. Sometimes it's fun to be the middleman.

* Had a Christmas party with our Monday morning Bible Study - we took them out to coffee and bought them all journals. It's a really neat group that comes.

* Went and visited a friend that just had a baby and took a bunch of pictures for her as she doesn't have a camera and has no pictures of her baby.

*Visited another family with a 3 day old baby (so little!!!) and blessed them with bag full of Maddy's little clothes.

* Cynthia and Wilson - a family that we love and talk about a lot - Wilson has started making some beautiful wood pieces to sell and he's doing a great job - we bought a few from him and they were so excited to be making their own money and having a trade!

* Tristan went to El Ayudante and checked on the construction projects - walls are up and it looks great on both the staff house and the guard house and the well is beginning to be dug this week

* and now we're on our way to the States to share at churches and visit family - really we're coming home to share Madelyn with the grandparents. :)

That's all I can think of for now. It's so fun to have a week of seeing lots of little things come together and being able to bless and love on friends.

Youth Christmas party

2010-12-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

you can't tell because of the flash from the camera but it was pitch black so she was using a candle to read with

Last night we threw a Christmas Party for our youth group. The work started for me days in advance and I worked to have a t shirt for our youth designed and made. We have quite the stories about attempting to have tshirts made here - with the designer/makes saying that he'd have them by a certain time and getting them months later and having them look terrible etc. so we were all a bit nervous about getting them on time but I found a great tshirt guy that is wonderful and he made great tshirts and had them ready for me on time! Yea for reliable people! All day Wednesday I was wrapping the 40 tshirts, making billions of sugar cookies and frosting so they could frost their own cookies and also making pizza for the party.

The party went great - only trip up was that the power went out for the majority of the evening - but we just ran to the store next door and bought a bunch of candles and put them all over the floor - probably not up to firecode but it worked. A girls hair almost caught on fire but other than that it was fine. Unfortunately we didn't get to enjoy all the Christmas lights hung throughout the building. We did a white elephant gifts exchange - which was very funny and new to everyone - that's a not a Honduran game :). Sigel came home with a roll of toilet paper and a bar of soap. Then we gave them the real gifts - the tshirts and they were all so excited and put them on right away and wanted to pose for pictures :). What I thought was so neat about that was they were proud to have an identity as part of the youth group "la Raiz" - which means THE ROOT - based on the Bible verse Ephesians 3:17-19 - being rooted and established in the love and knowledge of Jesus Christ. All in all it was a very fun night and worth all the work that it took to do it all. Our goal was to show them they are special and loved - I think that was portrayed!

Update on Words In Action activities

2010-12-01T07:39:00.001-08:00

This is the email update I sent out to our mailing list:

It's officially the holiday season! Yeah!

I don't know about you all, but for me Thanksgiving is a holiday that really helps me gain perspective on my life and to be more optimistic and find more to be thankful about. This year Thanksgiving really hit home for me even more than usual- maybe because it's my first year being a Mommy and being so thankful and full of love that I'm get moved to tears a lot easier than I used to. One thing we are so thankful for is our relationship with YOU! Thank you for your support, your encouragement, and your prayers! You mean a lot to us!

November was a really big month for us and we have lots to share with you all!

First and foremost - our family permanently has a new member! We found out this month that Sigel's adoption/Student visa was 99% impossible - we went to court to attempt a student visa for him to go to his adoptive family and the judge declined it. The only other option to try was going to take another 6 months minimum. The roller coaster of uncertainty has been really hard on all of us, and so after speaking with the adoptive family, we all agreed that it would be better for Sigel to remain permanently with us in order to give him security and help us all move on with life. Tristan and I are very happy to have Sigel as our son -as he already has been in every sense of the word. Sigel was SUPER excited when we told him the news! The future is still unknown legally for us - due to our age we don't think we can adopt him in Honduras - it's going to be complicated but we have peace and know that somehow we'll work it out in the end. So please be praying for us as we begin to tread in legal waters and make him legally our son!

Other family news: Madelyn has turned 6 months! I can't believe how fast it's gone - she's changing so much! she is now eating lots of different foods, starting to sit on her own - albeit rocky :) , she is playing and chatting and giggles all the time - especially with her Daddy and Uncle Jeff and she's growing like a weed!

Jorge finished up his first year of school this month - he's graduated 7th grade with very good grades and will be starting 8th grade in February. We're really proud that he's held down the same job now for a few months as a cook at a restaurant!

Jeff -my brother - has been a huge help to us - he's cooking all the time for us on top of his ministry endeavors. He's been doing lots of projects that we never seem to have time to do - just in the last 2 weeks he's made 5 tables and 10 benches for El Ayudante! He also took care of Sigel for 10 days while we were in Massachusetts.

El Ayudante - we have broken ground on 2 new buildings in the month of November! We're building a guard house and a staff house (for us while we're there with teams which will make it so much easier to bring our family out there!). The foundation is finished and this week they will start pouring the floors. The walls will then be put up and then in February a team is coming to do all the finish work for the 2 buildings - cabinets, electricity, plumbing, bathroom, fixtures, painting, doors, windows etc. It's been a lot of work for Tristan as he's been supervising and organizing these 2 houses - working with the contractor, organizing supplies etc. Next week we are also set to begin drilling a new well out there.

Seeds of Change - in November we received our Non-profit status! Praise God! Now we can begin fundraising to buy land. Youth groups have been going great! We finished another year with the feeding program as the school year is finished. We'll begin again in February.

Tristan, Madelyn, and I were in Massachusetts for 9 days speaking at churches, visiting friends, and doing a little touring. We were very busy! We spoke 5 times at churches plus met with a mission committee, a couple pastors, and some individuals concerning ministry in Honduras. We also packed in some history - the Freedom trail, Plymouth plantation, the Mayflower, and touring the Vanderbelt mansion inRhode Island. We were so blessed by Pacific Union church and all the love they poured on us while we were there - they took such good care of us! During our trip Jeff and Sigel held down the fort in Honduras.

Sorry for the lengthy update but as you can see November was a really really full month! December will be busy as well! We will be in California from December 16th - 27th, in Oregon from the 27th through the 13th of January, and then back in California from the 13th through the 25th. If you have a Bible study, church, home group, friends, etc that you'd like us to get together and share what we're doing in Honduras we'd love to share what God is doing in Honduras!

God bless!!!!

Above: Madelyn's first time on an airplane and first time on US soil! She did great on the plane!

Madelyn loved the turkey leg! She gobbled it right up trying to fit the entire leg in her mouth at once :)

Above: us touring the Vanderbelt mansion in Rhode Island / below: madelyn all tired out from the site seeing

This weeks family pics

2010-11-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

Maddy and Tristan love to play together!
Madelyn having a conversation with her bunny after bath time! So precious! She was stroking the bunny's head :)

Above - family play time :) even the dog was in on it / below: go HONDURAS!

ponderings and learning

2010-11-06T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I (and Maddy) went to a Women of Purpose retreat/conference. I So needed the getaway and the time with other ladies. It was fun, relaxing, and really refreshing. What is was, was a team of ladies that run the Women of Purpose conferences in the States – and they came here to love and encourage missionary women – they thought of it all – they had free manicures and pedicures, free hairt cuts, we made jewelery, they have a free book table, and lots of good chocolate and fruit sitting around. Friday we were at the conference all day long – speakers and great worship. There were a couple things that really hit home during that weekend.

God doesn't have higher expectations of me just because I'm a missionary. I'm supposed to love Jesus and love people – whether I'm a missionary or not.
Jesus understands how I feel when I want to give up – when it's all just too hard. When we feel like we're going one step forward two steps back in ministry, when Sigel has had a horrible week of angry outbursts, when Tristan and I haven't gone on a date in weeks, when Maddy has kept us up all night, when a ministry kid isn't doing well....etc. Etc. When Jesus came to earth he was excited – expecting the best and all ready to do what he was supposed to do on earth – ultimately die on the cross as the penalty for who we are (unworthy to go to heaven) so that relationship with God can be reestablished. Then what happened in the garden the night before the crucifixion? He cried out to God all night – in anguish – pleading and begging to be allowed to quit and for God to come up with a plan B. (how I feel sometimes!) So – for me – I need to be more like Jesus in that when I want to quit and don't have the energy to go on (I'm not in any way relating my petty daily problems to what Jesus was trying to deal with – death by crucifixion.) - I need to go spend time with God (maybe in my garden) – alone and plead with him to help me through it. Instead I try to do it on my own or decide that I need sleep or chocolate or a movie instead of leaving all that and seeking my strength from my heavenly Father who wants to give me the strength. Jesus also asked his friends to pray with/for him – he was vulnerable and open to his friends – not hiding his agony like we like to do. This really rang true with me – when I think life is too hard – stop turning to superficial things and turn to the ultimate strength!
One more thing I realized this weekend – is that it's emotional draining to be a missionary :). ha ha – you'd think I'd know that 3 years into being one. If you've ever been to a 3^rd world country – or seen somewhere desperately poor – where people don't have the things you take for granted – water, toilet, drinking water, three meals a day, more than a one room hut, a vehicle, etc, - do you remember the feeling when you saw that for the first time? When you were a kid and realized people begged on the streets and slept under bridges? I remember very well my first trip to downtown San Francisco. When I'd go to Mexico on missions trip I remember that feeling so well – despair for them and guilt for my nice life and hopelessness in not knowing how to fix it in the end. But within a few weeks after your trip you look back with fond memories and can move past the panic of seeing that kind of poor until your next trip. We as missionaries never get to move past that – we don't get to go home and forget about it -because we are home. We do see it everyday. I don't think this realization changes anything for me accept that it gives me permission to need to process life a lot, to understand when I'm emotionally spent after visiting Sigel's birth family or speaking with 3 sisters from the feeding program that wouldn't have eaten that day except for that we brought food to their school that day.

Not really an 'upper' in terms of blogging but these are my thoughts, this is what I'm going through.

water

2010-10-26T13:47:00.000-07:00

I definitely used to take water for granted - of course I could have a shower everyday - and a hot one at that. of course we could wash dishes -again with hot water. washing clothes - as many loads as I want to do. Now that we've lived here, my perspective has changed - I appreciate water and electricity so much!

Honduras seems to have a love/hate relationship with water. We have times of the year that there are droughts and no one has enough water and we are all rationing our water because we don't know when and how much will come through our pipes to our houses water storage (in our case we're blessed with a nice big cistern unlike others who don't have any water storage at all). we usually get water every other day - some only get water every 30 days. THEN there are times - like now - that we have way too much water -that the reserves are over flowing and there is flowing and mud slides etc. Sometimes we get some much rain that the ground cannot soak it all up and we have standing water in our yard. Currently all the dirt roads are in terrible condition because of the rivers that have been running down and across them for the last 2 months. For a while we needed 4 wheel drive to get to our house. So we either have too little or too much. maybe someday the government will figure out how to make more reserves to balance this out some.

below: this is the color of the public water that at El Ayudante - yuk!

Then there is the drinking water. Water is not safe to drink here yet a lot of the poor and rural communities drink it anyways. One more thing that adds to our everyday to do list is that we purify our water - we have a purifier that our water drips through so that it's clean.

above - this is how we purify our water - we go through almost a 5 gallon of drinking water a day.

Here is a blurb about water in Honduras from a ministry that works with the water in Honduras. (from www.waterforpeople.org)

Water and Sanitation

A recent water and sanitation sector analysis reported that in 2001, Honduras had reached water coverage for 80% of its total population and 70% of those living in rural areas. But the same study revealed that water quantity and quality are not adequate, and suggested that the existing infrastructure poses a serious health risk to citizens. An alarming 90% of the water supply is intermittent and unreliable. This study found that only 44% of the water provided is effectively disinfected and that there is a lack of adequate water quality control and monitoring, especially in rural areas. Many rural communities have no water infrastructure whatsoever. Sanitation coverage in Honduras is improving, reaching 68% of the total population but only 50% of the rural populace.

From the ground up

2010-10-17T11:12:00.000-07:00

Tristan and Jeff just got back from 9 days in Yorito - working with the Toulapan Indians up in the mountains. A church from Massachusetts have started a project up there and the neat thing is that we have been a part of it from the time they were deciding if and what they were going to do to help these people. Tristan began helping the project when they were surveying the land and even before they excavated the land to begin building. The project is to build a community center for this Indian tribe. This area has no running water or electricity. It's 40 minutes up a terrible dirt road up the mountain from the smallest of pueblos. So it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere and that makes it so peaceful and very simple living. You don't feel like it's 2010 when you're up there. :)

So this time a team of 7 guys came from the church in Massachusetts and Tristan and Jeff went with them to do the framing of the community center. The wood used was wood that a lumberjack had felled a tree, and used a chain saw to cut it into the beams, planks, etc. Tristan cut all the angles and made the trusses (i think i'm using the correct terms) with a chain saw because that's the only saw that was available. So the whole project was a challenge but it was incredible to see a building come up in 8 days! Only one mishap but thankfully no major accidents - one of the guys fell from the 2nd level of the building - flat on his back - and the only thing hurt was that he dislocated 2 fingers! I'd call that a miracle!

The team stayed at our house when they flew in and out - so 2 nights. I love hosting and using our house to bless others! The last night there were 13 of us camped out around our house - even with one sleeping on the patio. :) They were a really great group of men and it was a pleasure to be a part of their ministry to the Toulapan Indians; I'm sure we're not finished helping with this project.

Personally I don't think I'd be holding that -even for a picture!
At the beginning of the week it was a flat area of land and a pile of rough cut lumber - 8 days later - a building! below: Jeff and another one of the guys were the chefs for the week - they ate over 70 pounds of meat during the week and had everything from ribs, steak, omelets, pizza (made in a wood fed brick oven), hamburgers, shish cababs etc. The food didn't feel like a missions trip (ha ha) but all the work and the shack they stayed in sure did.
Unfortunately i don't know the elevation for where they were, but they were at cloud level - this is looking out over the cliff of where the project is.

Pictures

2010-10-11T07:16:00.000-07:00

I realized this morning that I haven't posted pictures of Madelyn in so long and she's changing every day! So I know that you're just dying to see how much she's changed! :) Her new tricks are to reach out and grab something and pull it right into her always open and ready mouth. This trick failed miserably when she tried to steal an espresso from a friend who was holding her - resulting in spilled hot coffee on her hand - it was a panicky few moments but she was fine. And just this morning she rolled all the way from her tummy to her back! i know i know -you're thinking "wow what talent!" - yes :) Maddy is now 4 1/2 months - these were all taken in the last 3 weeks or so.

Leonie and Mario's engagement party at a beautiful restaurant overlooking the city!

above - Madelyn loves her playsaucer - but gets frustrated when all the toys don't fit in her mouth at the same time!

above - Sigel's first day in 5th grade! :) below - not staged! Tristan and Maddy crashed on the couch

Relaxing weekend of Hard Work

2010-10-02T17:40:00.000-07:00

A relaxing weekend of hard work

I'm sitting here at El Ayudante. We're here for the weekend to work because there is so much that goes on during the week – the weekends are our only chance to come out for a few days. We made it a family event and came out together because Sigel doesn't have school on Monday and Tristan is working with a team for 10 days starting next week and will be gone so we didn't want to be apart another weekend as well. So Friday we packed up our stuff and fumigated our house (so when we come home the house will be a disaster but hopefully bug free!!!). As much as it's a lot of work coming out here – planning & packing the food, packing up ALL the baby essentials, all the tools and driving 3 hours to 'camp' at a mission house, it's actually a little like a vacation and it's relaxing. What!?!? yep it's relaxing – because I don't have a to-do list that is endless out here. I don't have a dirty house to clean, clothes to wash, or a hundred emails to answer. Out here we work, eat simple meals, and work some more.

We've been coming out here for 1 ½ years – for anywhere from 1 day at a time to 5 days at a time. My job description has changed – at the beginning it was just Tristan and I – working 15 hours because we both are so driven to 'just do a little bit more'. Now we bring a truck load (6 of us) to work and now I'm the Mom. I cook, do the dishes, encourage, bring tools, and work while Madelyn is sleeping – otherwise I'm the mom. I hold Madelyn. I really liked while I worked with just Tristan, but I have decided that I really also like my new job – I get to spend hours holding Madelyn and giggling with her while everyone else lays tile. :)

This weekend we're working on the back porch – tiling, screening, and putting up trim boards. The weather is great – warm but with a nice breeze. It's not 110 like it usually feels like out here.

Maddy's Paperwork!

We now have almost all of Madelyn's paperwork. She's 4 months old and we can finally take her out of the country if we wanted to :). The paperwork was a puzzle. It was all in order – first we had to get her Honduran birth certificate – which involved going to 5 different offices around Tegucigalpa – first a handwritten form, then a signature and stamp on that form (at a different office of course) and then take it to the other office to have someone type it up, and then back to the first office to order a different kind of birth certificate that the U.S. Embassy needed. So we got all that. Next we had to make an appointment with the U.S. Embassy to report her 'birth overseas' – then go to the appointment with lots and lots of paperwork – we even had to prove that we was ours – bringing pictures of while I was pregnant up through her birth to the present. And make a list of all the times we've been out of the U.S. -with dates and all – that was quite a list. At that appointment we ordered her birth certificate, passport, and Social Security number. THEN we had to go back to pick it all up a couple weeks later. So we have all that. One more step we must do is go to Honduran Immigration and get an appointment and then get her Honduran Passport. So much to do. Madelyn has joint citizenship with Honduras and the U.S. Until she is 18 and then she will have to choose one.

Our kids

Sigel has started school. We attempted homeschooling after Heidy left for the States to go to college but it was a big failure. Sigel and I were both miserable and he was not accepting me as his teacher. So he has finished his second week at a private bi-lingual school about 15 minutes from our house. It's very small – only 9 in his class. And the best news – he tested into 5^th grade! When he came to us a year and a half ago he was in the middle of 2^nd great. He's such a smart kid! And this is in his second language. He's adjusting pretty well to school. He has to get up earlier – which is hard on all of us :) and he's getting used to the small things – like writing his name on all his papers and studying for tests etc. This last week he marched in a parade with the school around the pueblo – he was so cute and nervous about it – he even combed his hair without being told :).

Madelyn is growing so much! She's 4 months old. Before a few days ago she would roll from her back to her side by accident – now she's figured it out and does it all the time on purpose. No more sitting on the couch or on the table! She's not sleeping through the night – actually it's gotten worse instead of better :( - now waking up 2 or 3 times a night! At her DR's appt last week he told us she was in the 95^th percentile for height and 50^th for weight – so she's a tall girl :). Maddy is so much fun. We're really loving learning how to parent a baby. I love how she expresses herself with her whole body when one of us comes into sight and how she trusts us to take care of her – like when she wakes up from a nap she lets out a big “hey! I'm awake” and then doesn't make any more noise as she waits for us to come in the room – she watches the door :).

2010-09-26T08:29:00.000-07:00

Town wide Youth Scavenger Hunt

Ministering is so fun!

2010-09-20T13:58:00.000-07:00

We've had some exciting ministry advancements in the last week.

"Teach 'em how to fish" update

If you remember from a couple blogs ago "teach 'em how to fish" I talked about my friend Cinthia and how I so badly want to help her but I do not want her to become dependent on us but instead my goal is to enable her to be successful on her own. I had talked about buying her a sewing machine and classes on sewing. Well after doing more research and being ready to talk to her, I went and had a very frank conversation with her - explaining that I wanted to help but I was only willing to help once - that if it I helped her and she squandered her money, that was it. Well she said she was nervous about sewing because she's not great at it - hence the classes I said. So we're still considering that for the future. But in the meantime her idea was to sell some things out of her house - like a mini store. She lives right on the main road so it's perfect for selling things she said. My concern is if she gets robbed then she's back to square one - and her house is not secure enough to withstand being robbed. Or if her brother or husband gets mad at her and decides to eat all the chips or something. So that was the concern but she really wanted to try it. The first week I gave her 25L ($1.25) - we're starting small :) - with that she could buy enough ingredients to make 150 tortillas to sell - she made them and sold 49 tortillas - earning back 24L and having 100 tortillas for her family to eat - not bad for a start. The second weekend she made another 150 and sold them all earning 150L!!!!! Success!! She has saved 25 of it to buy for next weekend and was able to buy something her sons needed at school! I'm so happy! I've also given her 200L ($10) to start her store and she's been selling chips, cookies, and suckers and making money on that as well. She feels so good about herself! She is keeping track of it all on a notebook. Monday's she's coming to Bible study and we're checking up on her selling and buying. I'm feeling so good about it - that she is helping herself and learning how to make money on her own. (PS - making tortillas to sell requires her to get up at 4am and walk down the hill to the corn mill to grind the corn - come back up and make the tortillas on her hut fireplace and then to get her 3 kids up and bathed and still she has clothes to wash by hand etc!)

Youth Building

We got a call a few days ago from a lady in OK that paid for Oct's rent and is working to find permanent supporters for the rent of the building. It was so encouraging to hear! We have signs ordered and bought material for curtains, fans etc. We also might have 2 couches coming as well! it's coming together! We had an awesome youth event this Saturday (a video coming soon) that the kids loved! We did a video/scavenger hunt throughout the pueblo and then had food and homemade icecream afterwards. It was a blast and it was so fun to have the building as a central location. Jeff starts English classes tomorrow which will be a good draw and Tristan has 4 guitar students currently.

Feeding Program:

Everything Thursday we still all get together and cook for the public school up the terrible dirt road (we need 4wheel drive to get up it). There are 70 students and we've been ministering at that school for years so we have good relationships with the kids. This school is so poor! The kids are so cute! Last week we finished putting in the play set that we've had for them (otherwise there is nothing to play with). We bought it from a family that was leaving Honduras and we used working on it as a ministry as well - we had boys over to work on it - sanding it, varnishing it, and then installing it at the school. Tristan is so good at leading these boys to work. The kids at the school just love the playset!!! we also got to watch these kids march in the Independence day parade on the 15th - I think they were happy to see us there cheering them on!

(Isaac - Cynthia's son in the Independence day parade.)

SOC youth building!!!!

2010-09-15T13:46:00.000-07:00

Seeds of Change has rented a building! We're so excited as it is perfect for the ministry that we are doing. It's a block off of central park in our pueblo which means very assessable. It's a 2 story building - the bottom level is a smaller room than upstairs and it has a kitchen in it. We have had a tv donated and plan on putting some couches and beanbags down there. The upstairs is a much bigger room - plenty of room for youth group and other meetings. We're using the building for guitar lessons, English classes, Discipleship classes, mentoring times, youth hang out, and weekly - soon to be bi-weekly youth group. We're so excited to have a place that the kids in the pueblo know they can come to to hang out and learn more about Jesus. We have big dreams - a ping pong table, foosball table, coffee maker and tables and chairs, games, etc. Currently the building looks very bare as we are waiting on funds.

Monthly rent is $500/month plus electricity and we're really also praying for activity money to be able to do events with the kids. Please pray about being a part of the youth ministry that we do up here by paying for part of the rent of the building. We all pitched together for firsts month rent but we need sponsors for the building by the 1st of Oct. If you are going to sponsor the building please let us know so that we can depend on it and we'll breathe easier. We are trusting the God wanted us to have that building and that the funds will come in.

I'll continue to post pics as we decorate and fill up the building with furniture etc. In a month this building will be transformed!

Dream list of what we need in the building. If you're like to take on one of these needs let me know!
- couch
- bean bags - 4
- curtains
- fuseball table
- screen for projector
- stove
- fridge
- water dispenser/ mugs/cups/coffee maker/pichers
- 4 tables and chairs
- BBQ grill
- Fans 2 or more

Team Video from July Team at El Ayudante

2010-09-12T10:29:00.001-07:00

Peake Youth Honduras Mission 2010 from Mark Howard on Vimeo.

old wives tales about Babies

2010-09-04T06:09:00.000-07:00

I'm learning lots of Old Wives tales about babies that Hondurans hold as truths... I thought I'd share a few:

* Don't take the baby out of the house before 40 days old! ( I got yelled at a lot for this one - by complete strangers walking up to me and telling me to get home!)

* The mom doesn't leave the bed or do anything for at least a few weeks

* If the baby has hiccups - rip off a small piece of newspaper, get it wet, and stick it to the baby's forehead - this will get rid of hiccups

* Madelyn is pretty much bald - for that I've been told to take ash from a fire and make a paste with water - put it on her head and leave it there for a day - wash it off and then her hair will start to grow

* Put breast milk in a baby's eyes at ASAP after birth and their eye color won't change

* The evil eye - is something that is taken very seriously - someone can give your baby the 'evil eye' and it will make the baby sick or unhealthy and that baby will have problems in life. To avoid this you must put a red beaded bracelet on their wrist and that will help against the evil eye.

That's all I can think of for now but there are so many! I'll keep you posted as I learn more.

Copan Vacation 2010

2010-08-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

This last week we went to Copan - Northeast of Honduras which is about 8 hours away - with our friends Lucas and Vanessa who came to see us for a week. We had a wonderful week with them! While in Copan we went to the Mayan Ruins and a bird sanctuary where they had tons of birds and wildlife to walk through. We spent lots of time playing cards, talking, taking pictures, and relaxing. We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast which was great except unfortunately 2 of the days we didn't have power or water - bummer. oh well. On the way home we went to a huge waterfall -Pulhapanzak -and then we went to El Ayudante for the night to check on things and show the project to Lucas and Vanessa. It was a great week with friends and we feel very rested and relaxed!

teach 'em how to fish

2010-08-23T13:48:00.000-07:00

( Wilson, Cynthia, 3 kids Danny, Isaac, and Jennifer plus Wilson's mom Gloria and son Samuel)

I went to visit my friend Cynthia the other day. She is 25, has 3 kids - 6,5, and 1 1/2 years old. They live in a leanto room off of her mother in-laws house and they share a kitchen with her. They have no running water. A year and a half ago we put a cement floor in their room and in the last 6 months they finally got electricity and a small fridge recently. They have one bed and a crib - 5 people. Cynthia works very hard to keep her house clean, wash the clothes by hand, heating up water to give her kids baths over the wood fire, walking her kids to school etc. A month ago I got a call late at night to take her to the DR's as she was in incredible pain and had been for 3 days - looks like it's something to do with her kidney and is still being examined. Her husband is not skilled in a profession and so it is very hard from him to find work. They do not have a great relationship and he does not like to put the money he does make into the kids school and clothes etc.

Why am I writing all this? Because many times we feel stuck. As North Americans we are 'rich' in Honduras. I could solve a lot of their problems by giving them $15 a week - that would be enough for their food and school supplies. So why don't I do that you ask? Well I ask myself the same question all the time -and sometimes I give into it and give them money, take them food or notebooks - like I will be doing this week. The thing is that they have been being helped financially for years and years by our friend Miranda and they are now dependent on help. They can't really make it on their own without help from someone - that's not a good place to be in. Someday I will move back to the States and then what will they do? Wilson and Cynthia are both intelligent and capable people and should be able to provide for their own family. The question is - the longer that we keep stepping in, the longer that they will not be working to take care of themselves. Do you see the dilemma? I can easily solve their problem temporarily - each week - but in the long run is that the best for them? Letting the Dad continue to not take responsibility for his family and what happens when we leave? Our goal here is to help people help themselves - not for people to not make it without us. So what do we do in a situation like this? Fight the urge to just give money, be their friends, give them odds jobs when we can, love on them, and sometimes give them some help.

My new goal for them is to find a way to help find them in a trade. A job that Cynthia could even do in her house so that she can care for her children at the same time. I'd rather find Wilson a job but I haven't had any grand ideas for him. So my new thought is sewing - I could buy her a machine and I found out that there are trade schools that teach sewing once a week starting in November for a year. I want to pay for her to get started - buy her a machine and pay for the classes and then she will have the ability to make her own money. What's the phrase - teach someone how to fish instead of giving them fish?

Please pray for me in this as I really want to make a long term difference for them as that they no longer have to be dependent. It must be so hard to be that poor. My heart breaks for them. I hope you see the dilemma and not think that I'm mean - I feel in between a rock and a hard spot. This is not the only family/person that we feel like this with - we face tough decisions all the time like this and all we can do is pray for wisdom each time and that God would show us what to do each time.

12 years and 12 weeks!

2010-08-16T17:00:00.000-07:00

12 years old and 12 weeks old. I never would have thought that we would be parenting such an age gap when I was 25 years old. We are dealing with such different issues! With Sigel we're dealing with the pre-teen issues - the attitude, the talk back, the wanting to do everything on his own but at the same time not wanting to do anything :). I am now homeschooling Sigel - wasn't in the plan but when you don't have a choice and your kid needs an education you do what you gotta do. It's been tough because Sigel doesn't take correction from me well - or me telling him what to do - you can imagine that makes it difficult to teach. :) With Madelyn we're dealing with sleeping - or lack there of - with learning how to take naps that are longer than 20 minutes - which is more frustrating to me than her waking up in the middle of the night. I'm finding that Maddy is a much happier baby if we are home more -the busyness and noise of being out all day is stressful for her and I pay for it for at least a day. That is hard as we have a busy life. There are fun things that are happening too - Sigel is growing up in lots of ways - he's a big help while Tristan is gone - and it's amazing to see how he has changed in the last few months. With Maddy she's cooing and talking and keeping eye contact - she finds me in the room and starts to talk and coax me over to her (irresistible!), she now loves baths, her neck is getting stronger and she is getting better at finding her hands (but I don't think the revelation has come to her yet that they are hers).

Although it feels like all I"m doing is parenting, there is other things happening too. We're hanging out lots with our 'other' kids - the transition kids. Today I spent the day with Vanessa - it was a lot of fun to hang out with her. Last week Tristan took the older boys -Santos, Jorge, and Alex to the movies and to dinner to celebrate Santos celebrating his 18th birthday. We had another pig slaughtering party last week - had 15 people at the house from 5am to 9pm - went from live pig to pork chops and sausage in the freezer. This week at youth group Tristan and I are leading at talk on relationships - we'll split into guys and girls and talk about healthy relationships etc. Should be fun. We've also been doing the feeding project cooking and all that from my house - makes for fun and full Thursdays of lots of cooking and lots of dishes :).

This month we've also been working hard on our pastors training stuff. Most of you don't know - Tristan and I are both in training to become pastors through the Foursquare church. It is a lot of working - 2 big books (one of them 550 pages of theology!), plus a binder of 35 discussions with 4 essay answers each that we have to answer and study, plus an online course. When we finish we will go through an interview with a panel of pastors. So we're getting closer on that.

Tristan just got back this evening from Yorito - its the mountain village that we visited in December. We're kinda the support staff missionaries for a church in Boston that is working with the Toulapan Indians up there - pretty much an unreached people group - they are building a community center, working on farming improvement, helping one of the locals start a church etc. It's a neat thing they are doing. Tristan was up there for 3 days doing some ground work for the building of the community center that will be going up in September. Boy I'm glad that I'm not a single parent (hats off to those that are!) because I'm exhausted of doing it all while he was gone.

well, that's about all I have time for - my short napping baby is waking up again. ta ta for now.

next blog...the drama of attempting to get all of Madelyn's paperwork - birth certificates and passports!

Sigel's version of working with a team

2010-08-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

Above - Sigel - he's grown up so much! / below - this is the entire team giving Sigel a goodbye hug - he's somewhere there in the middle.
below: the back porch of the team house before we screened it in. This team put on the wood and varnished the entire porch including ceiling!

This is Sigel's rendition of our week with the team:

Last week we went to Comayagua for a team.
We travel for a long time, the team got there in the night. On Sunday we went to church with the team. On Monday we started working then we went to a school. I met new friends and I gave nicknames to almost all of them. Then I start riding in the bus with them. I had a lot of fun riding in the bus with them. Almost always we made a lot of joke in the bus. We always worked so hard and by lunch time we finish working and then we went to Schools.
My favorite part was spending time with my new friends. I spent more time with my new friends than my family [ that week] my mom stayed in a hotel so I couldn’t see her a lot. I gave my email address to my friends and they gave their email address. I always ride with them in the bus and my favorite I always ride in the back of the bus because is the best place to make jokes. The harder part was to say good bye, but they email me.

-Sigel

Sigel had a great week and Tristan and I almost didn't see him :) the whole week! He has grown up so much - usually sticking to our side and not wanting to be around new people - well this week he showed us how much he is growing up - choosing to ride in the bus instead of with us etc.

* It is now Friday the week after the team and we are still recovering. we had been away from home for 10 days (Tristan 12) because of the team. We got home this last Monday and since they have been working on catching up on sleep and laundry - Maddy isn't helping with either of those :). We came home with all the sheets and towels from the team - 30+ of each plus clothes from 10 days of working for 5 people... am I EVER going to catch UP? :)

Big week

2010-07-28T20:13:00.000-07:00

The kids were so enthralled in the presentation! / Maddy hard at work :)

The public High School we are doing some presentations at - lots of kids!

This is the week we've been working towards for 1 & 1/2 years! Slowly we've been working on completing the mission house at El Ayudante so that it would be team worthy. We've tiled bathrooms, made picnic tables, fixed toilets, put in sinks, dug drains, fenced, painted, refixed the toilets, cut off rebar, touched up the stucco, refixed the toilets again, ....the list is endless! This week El Ayudante has there first ever official team staying at the mission house - talk about a combination of stress and excitement all rolled up in a big ball of 'lots to do'.

The team made up of 19 teens and their 5 leaders from a church in Northern Maryland. They are a great group! So respectful, fun, not complaining, and really hard working. This group learned about us through our friend Jonny who taught with us our first year in Honduras. It has been a big compliment to us because they were really impressed with the facility and with the food and our services so that is fun and good to hear. Their jobs for the week have been to do more finish work on the mission house - lots of painting and varnishing and then doing the back porch ( which involves screening, tiling, varnishing, painting, and putting up boards). They are also doing big group assemblies at high schools in the area - 3 high schools that they are speaking to the same group of kids twice. Their presentation is great and the message very important and clear.

Saturday we all head up to San Pedro where they are flying out on Sunday. Then we will make the long trip back home ourselves on Sunday. As much as I'm having a great time, I'm looking forward to going home :).

Sigel is doing great! He loves the team and has made some great friends. He's become so much more independent and confident in the last year - he used to not leave my side and now he just runs over to get a hug from me and then is off with his new friends. He will have a hard time saying goodbye on Sunday. Madelyn is doing well considering all the chaos around her. She's a trooper and does great until evening and by then she's had it with the noise and crowd of people. Madelyn and I are staying at a hotel in the town so that we don't wake up the entire mission house during the night. Madelyn is a Mama's girl and does not like others to hold her for very long or at all - so I'm learning how to do lots of things with one hand. I think that has been the hardest part for me - feeling torn to be 100% with Madelyn and 100% serving and leading the team.

Rancher Tristan

2010-07-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

We have been raising 2 pigs since December. We got them at 6 weeks old and have been raising them for meat. One is ours and the other for a friend. At times they have been a royal pain - because they learned how to escape their pen and get out into the yard. Did you know a 200lb pig can jump a 4 foot high fence! That's Some Pig! Then they started getting out by going through their roof. Sigel has stated from the beginning that he doesn't like pigs - and yet he's been the one to feed them every morning :). Tristan and Sigel were very excited to kill one of the pigs!

So last week it was butcher time. Tristan has spent hours studying on the internet how to kill, gut, clean, and cut up the meat. Then he learned about brining, and smoking, and making sausage. Pretty amazing! Tristan's helpers were my mom, Sigel, and Santos. Alex and Jorge helped for a few hours. They festivities started at 4 am - they worked until 11am and took a break while the meat cooled in the coolers - and we watched the last game in the world cup. Then from 3pm to 8pm they continued to cut up the meat into the correct pieces - bacon, ham, pork loin, ribs, etc. Tristan had his instructions out and knew exactly what to do - very impressive I thought for the first time! I'll spare you the bloody details but the end result was a bunch of tired people, one less pig in the yard, and a freezer full of meat! The next day we spent 4 hours grinding 25 pounds of meat into sausage - breakfast, polish, and italian. We still have ham and bacon in the brines and will be smoking them soon in the smoke house that Tristan is making.

We will repeat the entire process in a month for our friends pig. My job throughout the entire time was to take care of Maddy and feed the crew. From my outside view - it was A LOT of work! It's a good thing the meat tastes so good - we had a pork loin one night and Italian sausage in spaghetti the other night - both were fabulous!

Madelyn - 15 hours old!

2010-07-19T06:45:00.000-07:00

4th of July out of the States

2010-07-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Maybe you've never thought of it, but the rest of the world doesn't celebrate the 4th of July (or Thanksgiving).

The 4th is one of my favorite holidays and so it is so sad to miss the picnics, parades, celebrations, BBQ's, and fireworks. The 4th is also my mom's birthday and the 5th is my brothers so this holiday was always a big one for my family. How do you celebrate it outside the good ole' U S of A? We had Mandy and 'the kids' (the transitioning youth) over for a BBQ - hotdogs, potato salad, chips etc. We played cards and listened to Mom's patriotic music. My mom is still here visiting us so it was fun to have her for her birthday. In the afternoon we went to church and we were in bed before the fireworks would have even begun back at home. So I hope you enjoyed the fireworks for us :). I think the best part of the day was Madelyn's 4th of July outfit that Aunt Fran sent down for her :). The shirt says "Baby's First Forth". The sunglasses and hat only stayed on long enough for the photo :).

Madelyn - one month old!

2010-06-24T20:01:00.009-07:00

Above - Tristan on Father's Day with his kids!

Above - the cradle that Tristan made - it is amazing! It's an exact replica of the cradle that his grandfather made and Tristan slept in as a baby.
Madelyn has such wide eyes!

I can't believe the changes that Madelyn has gone through in this first month of her life! She is more alert - following voices and faces. She is starting to consider smiling (not just an involuntary smile). She is a very content baby - happy to sit in our arms and look around. The first few baths Mady screamed bloody murder but now she sits wide eyed and enjoying it! All 4 grandparents are here visiting us and they too are enamored by her! Luckily we haven't had any fist fights about who gets to hold her :).

Sigel is also loving the grandparent attention - he has gotten sugar on his cereal, extra help in math, and lots of games of Uno & cards in. He is soaking in all the attention & will go through withdrawl when they all leave! We have also put the grandparents to work! The Dads have been helping Tristan build a chicken coop and other random projects around the house. The mom's are cooking & doing dishes and laundry and holding Mady. We are enjoying & appreciating the help so much! Today we did the feeding project and the 4 parents did all of the dishes - 80 plates & forks!

The month off...

2010-06-17T19:57:00.000-07:00

"We are taking the month of June off" is what we have been saying since we found out we were pregnant.... ha ha. My mom is saying that it's a good thing we are the taking the month off otherwise we would be running like crazy :). She said it completely sarcastically as the month has not turned out as quiet as we were expecting. We did take the first week or so off which was wonderful however El Ayudante had 2 teams that were here during the month of June - and although we gave away the official responsibility to others and they did a great job leading the teams, we still had all the prep work to do. Tristan spent a lot of days preparing for the teams at the site, making sure the water was working, that there were medical clinic partitions, paying the hotel, etc. At home we were making calls, confirming everything, etc. So we were a part of the teams more than we thought :).

The first team was a group of 14 from Tennessee that did mostly evangelism. They went all over the area doing working at schools, out in the community, and they also spent a day painting the dorms rooms at the clinic. The last day they came up to our village to spend the night and do some tourist shopping before they flew out. We joined them for dinner and enjoyed getting to know them - they are a great group of people! The team did some great things throughout the week and we are so glad that they came.

The same day the first team left, the second team came in. They were a group of 65 people from Florida. This is the same team that we worked with 2 years ago at the end of our time as teachers and we had such a great time with them then as well. They split up into 3 groups - Evangelism, Medical, and Construction. The medical team had 7 doctors and brought in a complete pharmacy of meds to distribute - they saw around 300 people a day each day for 4 days! The evangelism team went to a couple schools and did programs as well as a big painting project at a local special needs school. The construction team painted the outside of the dorm house, did a bunch of clean up, and laid all the cement floor in the entire 20 room medical clinic! We spent 3 days with the team - Tristan working with the cement, Sigel going along with the evangelism team, and Madelyn, Shanon, and I taking pictures and floating around. We also brought Jorge along with us and he really enjoyed it as well - he loved working on the team and all meeting all the new people.

Besides the teams and the progress at el Ayudante, good things have also been happening at Seeds of Change. The feeding program continues weekly - which is now being cooked at our house for the summer. The youth group has been going great! Last night we had 30 people at youth group - Tristan did an excellent teaching on Paul. The kids seem to be learning lots and are so interested and attentive!

So that has been our 'month off'. :) Next blog: family visiting & baby pics!

Kids from one of the school presentations of the group.

Above - pouring cement in one of the construction rooms. Below - Tristan & Jorge moving the cement along from the truck to the room.

Sigel's Baptism!

2010-06-17T15:12:00.000-07:00

I know I'm way late in blogging this but I still wanted to :). On May 29th, 2010 Sigel chose to be baptized as a public declaration of his faith in Jesus. He was very excited to do this. He was baptized with a 3 others from our youth group that have also recently made a commitment to follow Jesus - one of them was Alex - our neighbor who started attending the Seeds of Change Youth group and met Jesus.

This was Madelyn and my first outing and it went well - she slept the whole time :). I bit painful for me but it was way worth going! People were so surprised that we took Mady out at 4 days old - the culture here says that babies and mom's don't leave the house before 1 1/2 months.

Below is Skarleth - one of our transitioning youth, and Alex - our neighbor who is a very frequent part of our life. :)

Pictures of Madelyn

2010-06-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

I realize that 3/4 of these are of her sleeping - but she does that a lot :). We are adjusting to parenthood - boy is she a lot of work. Although she totally has my heart wrapped in her little fingers and I'd do anything for her! Thankfully she has decided that she likes to sleep at night (cross my fingers that it stays that way) and she gives me a 5 or 6 hour or more chunk of sleep in a row. I'm really thankful for that! Tristan is amazing with her - he loves to hold her and take care of her. Sigel has adjusted very well to having a baby in the house - I know that it's been hard on him but he is not too jealous of her - he does work to get my attention and is very insistent on cuddling with me more than he ever has been. It's been a huge blessing having Shanon - my mother in law here! It's nice to hear her advice, have her willing to walk Madelyn, do the dishes, play Uno with Sigel, and talk about Madelyns bodily functions :).

There's lots more going on in life but this is all I have time for right now...more to come soon I hope...

Madelyn Grace Mohagen

2010-05-26T18:29:00.000-07:00

We are so happy to announce the arrival of our daughter - Madelyn Grace Mohagen. She joined the world in a rush - arriving at 4:50 am on May 25th, 2010. 7lbs and 12 ounces, 20 1/2 inches long.

The story:

I woke up 12:30am on the 25th with contractions that were 3 1/2 minutes apart. I spent an hour wondering if this was the real deal and decided it definitely was as they were getting closer and more intense! I woke up Tristan at 1:30 and we called our midwife - she said to call back in an hour and update her on what was progressing - I told Tristan to go back to sleep - thinking we had lots more time. I woke him up again at 2 telling him I needed him - the pain was getting really intense! So after timing them and having the contractions coming every 2 1/2 minutes and lasting over a minute each time, we called back our midwife and she told us to pack up and go over there so she could check me and then we'd see. We got to Leonie's at 3:30am - she checked at found me dialated to at least a 6 with the head almost in position. We called the DR and climbed into the truck for the 30 minute drive to the hospital. I was on my knees the entire labor - including the drive down the mountain road - finding it much more comfortable than laying or sitting. Tristan drove like a maniac - through really bad fog and just missing the 2 cows that were in the road. About 5 minutes away from the hospital I could feel her head and knew I was ready to push - (Leonie (midwife) told me after that she thought she might be delivering our daughter in the backseat of the truck. ) We pulled up to the wrong door - our DR was at the other door waiting for us. Leonie grabbed a wheelchair and took me upstairs while Tristan parked. The DR found me at 10cm and the head coming out - we headed for the delivery room. Unfortunately the nurses told Tristan he had to go register downstairs so the DR is telling me not to push and I'm yelling for them to get Tristan up here because I can't NOT push and I'm not about to have Tristan miss this... Finally Tristan comes flying into the room - still putting on the scrubs with the face mask all askew and his shirt on backwards. Next contraction I pushed - about 3 pushes and 1 minute later Madelyn arrived! The labor was short but SO intense! (although I'm sure anyone that has had a baby and no matter how long the labor was would call it intense). Dialating from a 3 to a 10 in 4 hours is pretty fast. Within 30 minutes of being at the hospital Madelyn was born.

Madelyn came out completely healthy and we spent the day in our hospital room - with very few interruptions- just enjoying getting to know each other. It was so nice! Tristan is a pro-Dad already - changed his first diapers and she loves it when he holds and talks to her. Shanon (Nana) flew in that morning - Tristan met her at the airport with the great news and brought her over to meet her granddaughter. Apparently we were the talk of the nurses station - they couldn't believe that we didn't want her in the nursery and that we were taking care of her - then they raved about how great she looked compared to the other babies because of the time she had with us. We were discharged by 6pm and headed home - Just 13 1/2 hours after we arrived at the hospital.
We got home and had a photo shoot (the opposite of what I had the energy for - but when an opportunity comes - you can't miss it!) We had a professional photographer from the states visiting our ministry and making a promotional video about the ministry - and she offered to come and take pics. So we had an hour of pictures, and a few Skype video calls to family before the day was over. (Then she kept me up all night so the day wasn't really over :) ). And that was day one of parenthood.

Sigel's 1 year anniversary!

2010-05-24T17:30:00.000-07:00

Tristan was just saying how amazing it is that time can go by so fast and yet so normal at the same time - hard to explain but I'm assuming you understand - we have now had Sigel for one year.

May 18th 2009 he came to live with us for what we thought would be a few months - it has turned into a year - a year of successes, challenges, new things, adjustments for all of us - but ultimately it has been a great year. He is a great kid and the distance that he has come in the last year is incredible! We do not know how much longer he will be with us - we are all still waiting for his adoption with the Prior family to come through - the process has just taken longer than we were expecting.

This last Friday we had all of our ministry over (15 of us) for a bonfire - unfortunately it was pouring rain the whole night - so instead we moved it inside and roasted hot dogs and marshmellows in the fireplace. We played pictionary - a first for many of the kids - and it turned into a huge hit! Tristan was the ring leader and at some points it was so loud that we couldn't even think. :) It was a fun evening of getting together for good fellowship. Sigel had a great time and enjoyed knowing the party was for him.

And the walls have it!

2010-05-14T17:55:00.000-07:00

Let me start at the beginning - June 2008 a wonderful team came to El Ayudante and put the very first bricks on the medical clinic. They had all the foundations poured and put in the beginning walls. Then the clinic sat, and sat, waiting for someone else to come along and put the time and money into finishing the walls. The clinic sat until December 2009 when some funds were raised to hire a local brick layer to finish the job. It's now May 2010 and the walls are finished in the entire 20 room medical clinic! We a huge accomplishment!

With Tristan being the general contractor on the medical clinic - it has been a huge project for him and very time consuming. He's dealing with the workers, ordering and bringing out supplies, communicating with the bosses in the States and then making it happen here, plus dealing with the finances etc. It's been pretty impressive if you ask me. This last week he finished the plumbing plans and sorted out what needed to be bought and then took that out to be put in. By the end of the week the plumbing should be finished and all the floor leveled and ready to poor the floors! The team that started the clinic back in June 2008 are coming back this June to lay the floor and possibly put on the roof. It's been so neat to see all this get done in just 6 months after it had sat for 1 1/2 years. Praise God for progress!!!!

on to other -a bit disturbing news....our land lady just put a new roof on our house (yea for no more leaks!) however when the workers were doing it they found a HUGE tarantula - the kind you only see at a zoo - it had made it's home in our roof. it's the size of Tristan's hand spread wide. gross! We'd really like to fumigate the whole place but we're wondering if it's the best time with a baby coming into the picture any day. ??? This spring has been much worse for bugs then last year.

pictures

2010-05-10T11:30:00.000-07:00

Aparently this is the season of bugs - we have so many flying beetles around our house it's crazy. One cool thing is that we've had lots of fireflies which are fun. This handful of beetles Sigel collected in a minute or less :). Below is Sigel playing the baby grand piano in the hallway at the Marriot - we were there for a meeting. Sigel has been taking piano lessons from Miranda and he's doing such a great job - he seems to enjoy it also.

Mother's Day pics :). 36 1/2 weeks - I'm feeling huge and very uncomfortable!

Email sent today / Jenny's Blog

2010-04-27T16:57:00.000-07:00

Our friend Jenny has been staying with us for the past 6 weeks while she attends language school in her preparation to move down here again (we were teachers with her our first year here) but this time to work at a poor daycare. It has been so fun to have her staying with us - she's easy to have around and I've really enjoyed having a friend around all the time. On the weekends she's been in the city at another friends house - and all of us miss her - Sigel prays for her at bedtime and always tells her she misses him. This Sunday Jenny leaves for the States to finish her fundraising and will then return.

Her last blog is about life living at our house. It's fun to hear another's perspective on life here.

http://jennyhonduras.blogspot.com/

**********************************************************************************

Email update I sent out today:

Hello all!

We have had a very full and great month of April! Lots of the prayer requests I sent out last time have been answered - and we love sharing all the great ways that God is moving!

*Our Dodge truck is now officially a resident of Honduras! After 16 months of working with paperwork, lawyers, etc the truck has Honduras plates! It was easier for us to our residency than for the truck to be imported. The 2 great things about this is that we no longer need to leave the country every 90 days and we're stopped at police check points less often. Thanks for all the prayers!

*We have seen some progress in Sigel's adoption paperwork! The adoptive family are in the final days of collecting all the required papers and having a completed homestudy and will be sending the paperwork to us in the next week. The lawyer here in Honduras will then begin working to complete the Honduran side of the adoption! Continue to pray for speedy progress!

* We have a job lead for Jorge - pray that is works out both for Jorge and for the hotel kitchen that he's applying to work at.

* The medical clinic walls are going up so fast! Within the next 2 weeks all the walls and support beams will be finished. This involved Tristan getting 160 100lb bags of cement, and 6 dumptrucks of sand to the site- for pictures of progress on the clinic visit our web site! (www.mohagenadventures.blogspot.com). I'll post more as soon as the walls are completed.

* In the last email I told you we were in a drought - well the last 2 weeks we have had the strangest weather for this season - big huge rain storms EVERYDAY!!! Praise God! I think God likes to confuse the weathermen. Although water is still being rationed, the rains are a reminder that God is in control and He is in charge of the water! Please continue to pray for more rain.

* The countdown continues to the birth of our daughter - 5 weeks to the due date! Continue to pray for the final days of mypregnancy and for the delivery.

* Weekly activities are continuing strong - feeding program, English classes, youth group, school with Sigel, tutoring Jorge, Tristan goes to El Ayudante 2 days each week to work, plus the mentoring of the youth, organizing teams, orchestrating all construction for El Ayudante etc. There is also always the random project - currently we're working on putting in a play structure at the poor government school that we minister at - I'll send pictures when we finish!

Thanks for your participation in our lives! Continue to check out the blog for more detailed descriptions on what's happening with us!

If you would like to financially support our ministry please make checks payable to: Words In Action and send it to: Reedsport Foursquare Church, 2900 Frontage Rd, Reedsport, OR, 97467. If you would like to set up automatic billpay to our ministry please contact me and I'll send you info.

Progress

2010-04-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

We recently received the funds for completing the rest of the walls of the medical clinic - so that it will all be ready for the roof! We have been super happy with the contractor that we are using to do the work - he is honest and has given us even lower prices then we were hoping for. He does quality work and seems to care about the project. This last week Tristan spent 2 days bringing out all the rest of the material that they will need to complete the project. He brought out 75 pieces of rebar 25ft long each, plus 160 bags of 100lb cement mix. 6 dumptruck loads of sand and gravel was also delivered. Thankfully all the block has been there so he didn't have to bring that in this time. It's amazing how fast this team of men can put up the walls- and use that much material! Looks all the walls will be completed with the support columns within 2 more weeks! Tristan is already working on getting things ready for the plumbing lines to be installed - which is the next step that must be done before the floors will be poured in June.

The other great progress that has happened lately is that it is official! - Our truck is Honduran! After 15 months of trying to get the truck imported and waiting on paperwork or waiting on lawyers, or waiting on something or another, we finally have all the paperwork finished, the inspections passed, and Honduras license plates on our truck! This means no more trips across the border every 90 days to get a new visa. I would say it was more complicated to import the truck than it was to get Tristan and my residencies. One very cool thing happened - when Tristan went to pay the registration for the truck for the year, the cost was going to be L5,800 (lempiras - not dollars!) and somehow there was a L5,000 credit under his name at registration so he only had to pay L800 to register it. Neither of us can come up with any sort of reason that he would have a credit at DMV and so we really think that God paid our registration for the year for us. I feel rewarded for having gone through the hassle of doing things correctly instead of taking the shortcuts that we really wanted to take to get it over with. A big plus to having Honduras plates is that we get stopped less often at the police checkpoints :).