Dear friends and family-
I had started a very detailed, blow- by- blow account of our first week in Cauguira and the significant events leading up to our departure from Miami, but it now seems like a distant memory. I’m sure most of you know by now about our very exciting first week and the subsequent change in our location. We’ve now been in Puerto Lempira for almost two weeks and still haven’t been able to get in a schedule of sorts.
Before I continue, I do want to thank and glorify the Lord for His abundant grace and tender mercies towards us. How can I thank Him enough for letting me see my grandfather before he died. How can I express how humbling and awesome it was for the Lord to honor a silly request of mine to hear a certain worship song I last heard at the missions conference in Oct.’03 at my dad’s church. It was the last song we sang in English with American brethren (the refrain- “ I will follow, I will follow You”). Even through the unexpected events of our first week here, we never experienced full-blown panic or discouragement, but rather an awareness of His of sovereignty and His hand upon us. Glory to our Immanuel!
The main reason for my not finishing the first e-mail and why we are still discombobulated has to do with spotty electricity. I think the problem is now fixed, but we didn’t have any for a couple days, and when we did get it, it would be for ten minutes or maybe an hour. One advantage to the house in Cauquira, we could have electricity whenever we needed it as long as not too many things were on and we had enough fuel for the generator. Now we have electricity everyday from 9:00am to 3:30 pm and then again from 5:30pm until 3:00am. If this trend continues the girls can get in a more predictable schedule with their DVD home-schooling program. We have a freezer (thanks to the Millers) that we use like a fridge. We turn it on and off a few times a day so things won’t totally freeze, or not be kept cold enough when there’s an interruption in electrical service.
We have a cistern on the back porch that holds quite a bit of water. Almost everyday for one or two hours we have water that comes out a faucet and into a cistern on the back porch. The other faucets in the house mock us, as water has never come out of them. The cistern water is used for everything except drinking. Plastic buckets are our best friends. We use them for bathing, washing clothes and dishes, flushing the toilet, etc. In Cauquira we needed to pump the water from a well to do all those things. If we had stayed, the girls and I would have tremendous biceps! It’s amazing how much water a family uses in a day went it takes some effort to make it available.
I shop for food about every other day. Fruit doesn’t last long in the intense heat and humidity. Also, to my surprise fruit isn’t very plentiful here. The variety of vegetables is limited. I’ve enjoyed creating all sorts of dishes with the food that is available. Thankfully, we all love beans, rice and plantain. I’ve made many kinds of fresh salsa as onions, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumbers are plentiful. Alas, corn chips are nonexistent. Gabrielle misses yogurt, crackers (stoned wheat brand), and the Wegmans variety of fruit. Overall, the food aspect of life here hasn’t been very difficult to adjust to.
One of the many blessings is not having to wake up and RUSH. Each morning (they start with the roosters) we can spend an hour or two in the Word of God. I try to read in both English and Spanish. I need all the practice I can get. I basically do all the same household chores I did before only they take up to twice as long. As Ed so aptly put it –it’s like we’re on slow motion drugs. It’s amazing how much energy sweating profusely takes out of you. I must say though, that the climate hasn’t bothered us as much as I expected. Thank God.
One of the quirky things we live with is a talking parrot that lives near us. The first few days here, every morning we’d hear MOMMY! over and over and over. I finally said, something is wrong with that child. Gabrielle was the one to figure out the source of the annoying noise. She wants to kill it. Roosters, chickens, emaciated cats and oodles of small dogs wander at will. There are even a couple of small horses that roam around grazing. Another unusual sight involves cutting the lawn. They use machetes--talk about backbreaking work. We share a house with MANY insects and a couple of lizards (I think they are geckos). The flies, mosquitoes, and spiders I do battle with. The ants have already won the war. Michaela seems to be the most delectable of the five of us. Her arms, and chest are covered with some bug bite. The culprit is either chiggers or sand fleas. Ed continues to get terrible oozing blisters around his ankles (like in the April video). I think we all are getting some of the same bites but he’s having an allergic reaction. I haven’t seen anything too terrible, but Bethany spied a tarantula while looking for a tennis ball in a compost pile. We’ve heard a couple stories about spiders that are as big as a grapefruit. Hope I never meet one.
About the house. If you saw the April video, you saw an airport with small planes on red soil runways. That scene is our backyard. The red clay soil blows in the breeze and covers everything. Because our windows are always open, I could sweep five times a day and always gather a pile of red stuff. We have a small kitchen (yes, even smaller than Jamie Laurin’s), connected to a great room we use as a dining room, living room and schoolroom. There is a bathroom and two bedrooms. The girl’s room looks like a harem’s suite with three mosquito net canopies flowing down from the ceiling around each bed. There is only one closet (in our bedroom) and we use it as a storage room for tools, etc. We all use the 18 gallon plastic bins for dressers. All in all, we feel right at home. The girls are having a ball together. It’s such a blessing to watch.
Of course we walk everywhere. Ed’s hoping to get a bike soon. A bike with a basket would be perfect!
We’ve met some wonderful people. The pastor of the local church we have been attending considers himself a missionary. He and his wife are from Tegucigalpa (the capital) and have been here about three years. Their vision is to have the indigenous people of La Moskitia (our region) take the reigns of the work once they’re established in the faith. He’s very excited to have the girls here as he puts a lot of time into the young people (most of the worship leaders and musicians are between about 8 and 20 years old). So many children want to learn how to play instruments, they have lessons three times a week and our girls are involved in teaching them. During worship we sing some familiar songs, but of course, in Spanish. I find I can’t remember some of the English words to them anymore. The preaching is pretty much lost on the girls and I. The pastor is young and very exuberant (he reminds me of Bro. Tom Conena) and as a result speaks very fast. I can’t tell when one word ends and the next one begins. The church has a school that goes through the sixth grade. We’ve just met another American missionary family and the wife is teaching at the school. She‘s doing more than she can handle there, and just recently stopped teaching in the morning so she could help her children with their studies as they are in school all afternoon. Guess what the need is? - an ESL teacher. I’m blessed to have something to offer. I hope to teach a couple days a week. The above-mentioned family is from Texas, and has been here for five years. They have two children ages 9 and 7. They invited us to their home for dinner last Saturday night and we had a blessed time. They are solid, mature Christians doing a very interesting work here. The focus of their work is to teach godly stewardship by augmenting economic development. Instead of giving fish to the hungry, they teach them how to fish. Ray travels all over connecting small village products with possible markets elsewhere in the country. They do this teaching biblical business principles, and of course, sharing their faith in Jesus Christ. Ray has had on his heart to be used of the Lord in Algeria since before he and Laurel were married. The desire is as strong as ever even after 20 years. I was so blessed to meet someone else who has an experience similar to mine. Many of you know my hearts desire is to be in S.E. Asia someday in the Lord.
We’ve met another American family with three kids (5-8) who have been here eight years together. The wife, Katrina, has been here for fifteen years. She has a tragic past and came to Christ as a result of Teen Challenge. She told me that as a new Christian, just going to church on Wednesdays and Sundays wasn’t nearly enough. She came to Honduras as a nanny for a missionary family and knew this was the place for her. She and her husband, Roger, take care of abused, malnourished, and disabled children. The local judge channels abused children to them, and the hospital (I use the term loosely- they don’t even have enough clean water available to meet all their needs there) refers children to them as well. Sometimes a whole family will stay with them if their child needs critical care and they’ve traveled for days on foot to get here. Katrina also works a lot with children who need life saving or life altering surgery (like a cleft palate) at a more sophisticated facility. One of the local airlines will fly a patient at no cost, for every ten plane ticket receipts they receive. Once the patient arrives at the hospital in Tegucigalpa, the care is free. The children in their home receive the love of God and the Word of God. Gabrielle is helping two of their adopted boys learn how to read in Spanish.
When Ed came to Puerta Lempira, the day after our run-in with the thief, and told Roger and Katrina we would probably move here, she put her head in her hands and cried with relief and thanksgiving. When Ed told me this, it was much easier to say goodbye to Cauquira.
We plan to regularly visit the patients at the hospital here like we did at Rosewood in Syracuse (please Bro. Paul, give our love to Virginia; and Sis.Nila, please pray with and hug Hang on our behalf)). I look forward to seeing what the Lord is going to do. Even though I know the Lord has used us to encourage the other missionaries here and the local church, I know that is not the full scope of the Lord’s will for us here.
“ He will not fail nor be discouraged, Till He has established justice in the earth; And the coastlands shall wait for His law.” Isaiah 42:4 NKJV
We miss you all, and think of you often. Thank you, with all my heart, for your prayers. We have been so blessed by the grace and presence of the Lord, that I KNOW that many of you have been on your knees.
“Never lag in zeal and in earnest endeavor; be aglow and burning with the Spirit, serving the Lord. Rejoice and exult in hope, be steadfast and patient in suffering and tribulation; be constant in prayer.” Romans 12:11&12 Amplified Bible
With much love,
Karen and family
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