Thanksgiving

On Tuesday afternoon I met Maria and her two grandchildren - Nancy and Kelly. Maria lives in a village called America and it is a bad neighborhood. Her house was about 12x14 with dirt floors. There was one bed in the house and that is where Maria and the two grandchildren sleep. The mattress on the bed was one that looked like it had been discarded on the side of the road - it likely was somebody elses trash. Inside the house there was pretty much nothing - very few clothes, no toys for the two little girls, no food to speak of. The belongings that were there were what most of us would consider garbage.
Yesterday we were able to build Maria, Nancy, and Kelly a new house. When the wood truck arrived, Maria was singing a song about the strength of God. Maria sang this song most of the morning as she helped carry the wood up the mountain - about 300 yards. The slope wasn't too drastic but it takes a lot of wood to build a house. Maria never stopped the work until all of the wood was at the top of the mountain. (Maria looks to be in her 60's - I didn't ask)
When we finished the house, Maria cried. She was so happy that her little girls would not be stepping out of bed into the mud anymore. She cried when we were able to give her a big "house box" filled with all sorts of things that most of us take for granted. The box had towels, pots and pans, spices, cooking tools, and many other things that Maria could never afford. When we were all standing in the house, Maria spoke - she said, "Before today, I wasn't sure that God was there. Today, I know that he is real. He heard me - he listened to my prayer and now I have a house. He is strong."
I was blessed by Maria - she taught me a lot about thanksgiving - even though she likely doesn't even have a clue that today is when the USA celebrates the day of thanks.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Working Together

A couple of weeks ago we built a house in a place called the 17th of September. The house we built was for a family of 8 - mom and 7 kids. It was a special house because it was built in memory of a special lady from Columbus, MS.
While we were on the mountain I met a lady named Saundra. Every time Saundra talked to me she started crying and asking me to come to her house to see if there was anything that we could do to help her out. On the day we built the house, I told Saundra that I would come to her house as soon as we finished the new building. I was hopeful that we would be able to help Saundra's house be more livable with a new roof and maybe a few boards to cover up some of the holes in the wall. When we climed up - and I mean way up - to the house, it became immediately obvious that the only solution to Saundra's house problem would be a new house. The place where Saundra and her little boy live is one of the worst that I have ever seen. I told Saundra "right now, I don't have the money to build you a house. We both need to pray that God will deliver the money so that you and your son can get a house." I prayed right then that God would send money soon for a house for Saundra. That was on a Thursday and on Saturday of the same week, I had an email from a friend that he wanted to help build a house for somebody - that somebody is Saundra. Next Monday we will build that house. As of right now, Saundra still does not know that she will get a new house on Monday. I plan to go up the mountain after church tomorrow to tell her - the tears then will be tears of joy. I can't wait!
We get to build 2 more houses next week - I will share details about the families as soon as I have them.
The following week, we have friends from Mississippi coming. The Trace Crossing Church in Tupelo is bringing 5 or 6 to Honduras so that they can "be Jesus" to the folks at the Tegucigalpa dump. they have assembled 250 Maji boxes - specifically for the folks at the dump. These boxes are for both adults and children and will bring joy to just about everybody that the dump. There are treats, gloves, and small gifts for every body. We will have a special day at the dump - serving a hot meal and a gift of love! This group want's to be able to return to Mississippi with the story of giving that everybody needs to hear - especially during the time of year when we celbrate the "greatest gift".
Exciting things - Happy Thanksgiving,
Be a blessing to somebody TODAY!
Marc

Gracias Dios

Thank you Lord for my beautiful wife. Thank you for hearing our prayers and for your answers. Thank you for the great news that we recieved at Terri's doctor appointment this morning. Please help us to never take the blessings that we are given for granted but to always know that everything that we have is from you. Please God help us to learn from you how to be generous.
In Jesus Name!
Amen

Today Terri was given the news that the many many prayers that so many have lifted up were answered. The tissue removed from her breast last week IS NOT CANCER!
She is coming home!
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

I Can't Afford It!

There are lots of times when we use the phrase "I can't afford it!". Especially now in the tougher economic times - we tighten our belts - so to speak, we cut out some vacations, try to not use credit cards, don't eat out as much, etc. We do this because "we can't afford it".
Watching all of the bad news on the ecomomy, seeing the stock market dive, seeing our "portfolio" shrink - makes us all seem poorer. Our houses have declined in value - on paper so we feel like we have lost $1000's. Read the paper, watch the news, talk to friends at work and you could hang your head and really worry about what might be in the future.
Well, if you are in this shape - worry and sleepless because of the economy, think about the words of Jesus in Matthew 6: 25 - Therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear.......26: Look at the birds of the air....your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
We as believers are able to sleep at night because our Father has promised that he will take care of us.
Not only is now the time to stop worrying about our "stuff" we may want to consider selling off some of it - simplifying our lives and using more of what we have to help others. Consider the first century church described in Acts 2 - they sold their things and helped any brother that had needs. If we want to be the same type of believers as the first century christians, maybe we should plan a sale of the things that we are too attached to. Maybe we should look to what our God promises to those that don't hold back. In Malachi, the prophet recorded the words of God when he said (3:10) Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this. says the Lord and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for it.
Our blessing promise may not be more stuff but, our God has promised that He will take care of us and our God is true & faithful. He does what He says He will do. He even tells us to test Him!
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Happenings

Last week Terri went to the states to speak at a ladies retreat. All went very well with the retreat and Terri was able to speak a couple of other times to friends with the Fairview Heights Church of Christ. We are blessed that we have such amazing friends in IL
While in the states, Terri had her annual check-up and they discovered something that needs more testing - she is having a biopsy surgery on Wednesday of this week and we covet your prayers that all will be 100% okay! Our God is faithful and we know that He is in control of everything.
In Honduras, Karen and Dorian have been visiting family in Nicaragua so - I have been spending a lot of time with the kids at Casa. On Saturday I was blessed to spend the entire day 6:30 AM to 8:00 PM with our beautiful kiddos. What a blessing they are. We have rigged a jump rope to so that one person can spin it so - on Saturday we jumped rope for about 3 hours. That helped everybody to get good and tired for bedtime. They were all up again at 6:30 on Sunday morning for pancakes and getting ready for Sunday School. Rayner - one of the AIM'ers came to help me with crowd control during church - Thank you Rayner!
My dog Skillet was treated to a "date" this weekend. (also and education for the kids). One of my friends here has a Black Lab - same as Skillet. His lab was in heat and he asked if he could bring her to have a "date" with Skillet. My poor dog was the description of "dog tired" by the end of the weekend. All of the kids are already asking "where are the puppies?"
Over the next couple of weeks we are going to be praying that God will send the resources that are so desperatly needed to rebuild some of the houses that were lost in the recent rains. We already have 3 or 4 and are hoping that we can spend or Thanksgiving week building - as many as 10 to 12 houses!. Pray with us please. Come and build with us if you can. I can't think of a better way to say thanks for our blessings than to share what you have been given with someone that has nothing - and I really mean nothing.
Well - it's monday morning and I need to get back to work. I was with the kids for devotional at 6:30 this morning and it is a pure blessing to hear the sincere prayers and the happy singing of these children. What a great way to start a day.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

October Monthly Report

October was a very interesting month. I started the month heading to Copan for the annual conference on children's missions and health care missions in Honduras. Terri and I both attended the conference last year and this year she was unable to go along. The conference is a place where you can meet with many many people that are working in similar ministry around the country. It is a place where you can gather tons of helpful information about how to avoid some of the same problems that others have experineced. As a result of the conference, we have learned how to apply for a couple of grants for shipping containers into the country as well as how to utilize the resources of our own military transports to ship goods into the country.
As soon as I returned from Copan, we were blessed to have a couple of friends from Atlanta as our house guests. Our guests were able to see the Mirador Woman's Center on the day that we recieved the first of many truckloads of water from the city. Our Atlanta guests are from the Campus Church of Christ - the sponsors of the woman's center project. A later follow-up on the project was great. I have hired one of the church members to manage the facility and they are making great use of the facility for the community. It takes about 5 hours for a woman to do the family laundry so - only 10 or so ladies per day can use the pilas. The facility is being well used serving about 40 to 50 families a week.
(Other community news regarding Mirador Oriente involves the new block school building that was completed in September. In late October the roof was blown off - in a 70 MPH wind. We have put a temporary fix in place and plan to complete the repairs in November. )
Days after our Atlanta friends left, we were blessed with having friends from California for a week. We were able to take the week and do many many things including - visiting the kids at Hospital Escuela, feeding the poor at the dump, building a house for a person that lost their home in a fire, working at a children's feeding center, and meeting many many people. Additionally we took a road trip to the south. We planned to visit the community of Santa Katerina but, the rains had made the rivers too high to cross. We had purchased enough food for 100 families so we met many of the community at the river edge to distribute the food. The people that came for the food had to cross 3 rivers and walk for more than 2 hours just to get a small bag of food for their family. After we left the area, we found that the whole community had been down to having only tortillas to eat and that the food that we distributed helped them get past the crisis. Our God is amazing and we are blessed that we were His hands in answering the prayers of the hungry.
We are planning to help the community of Santa Katerina on a longer term basis in 2009. Our prayer is that we will be able to construct a community center that will function Monday - Friday as a feeding center for the local children, on Saturday's we would use the facility as a baking co-op for the women of the community to prepare bread for every family. On Sunday's we hope to utilize the facility as a place of worship. Seven days a week - feeding, helping, teaching, and delivering the hope and promise of Jesus! I have applied for a grant that will provide for one year of operations for the feeding center and it looks like we will be in a position to recieve the request. We are still working on the design and construction funding but are confident that our God will provide. After all - He has all the money in the world.
In October we were faced with lots of really bad weather. Rain for about 12 days in a row - followed by 40 to 50 MPH winds for 6 or 7 days. The rains were a dissaster for this country. There are 1000's of homes that have been destroyed and the roads and bridges are falling in or down - everywhere. We are working to try and help rebuild several houses during Thanksgiving week. So far we have comittments for 2 or 3 houses and are praying that we will be able to build as many as 10 to 12.
In the last week of October we were able to build a memory house for the family of friends in Mississippi. The new house is now in use and 8 people are living in a 16'x16' one room house. The appreciation was given to the Lord and the family was so very happy with the new home that was delivered as an answer to prayers.
The AIM Team has completed 2 months of Spanish school and has started working in various ministries. Throughout school, they have continued to feed at the dump every Wednesday. They have been able to start working in evengelism at the dump by securing the help of Richard - the minsiter of the church in Oj0jona - the small town where they live. We are blessed to have this team of young folks working with us for the next year.
We once again want to thank all of you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your support.
Thank You!
Be a blessing to somebody today,
Marc & Terri