2012 - Week 20 Photo Review

Moma Mare: Mother of three and one-to-be;
among 2 horses, 3 goats, 2 dogs, 2 cats and 17 chickens!
Am I forgetting anyone, babe?

This last week at Rancho Oasis was filled with visitors (both new and familiar), activities (regularly scheduled and special events) and a whole bunch of spiritual warfare! "Man your battle stations!"

Dia de Madre Celebration at the local elementary school

My involvement at the escuela teaching English, lead to an invitation to participate in the Mother's Day Celebration Sunday morning. I gave the "Welcome" to all the mothers and briefly talked about how a godly mother is virtuous, capable and more precious than rubies! (Proverbs 31:1)

PRAY that God will continue to give us opportunities to minister to people in the community and for favor among our neighbors.

Friend and local baptist minister, Jose de La Paz leading worship at the celebration

Can you find the Gringo?
Tobi and I ditched the festivities for the playground. Julissa is watching over Tobi!

Mother's Day is a pretty big deal in Honduras:

I gave Marillyn,Oscar and Genesis a ride into Ojojona;

they were on their way to Tegus to pick up their cake.

Ilsy and her daughter Lisy were having a special M-day celebration for the kindergarden

(Ilsy said it was the second time she wore a dress so formal! The first was high school graduation.)

PRAY for God to work in Oscar and Ilsy as they help in the ministry at Rancho Oasis.

Sunday Afternoon Adult Study:
Karla, Mirna, Crisna, Yalbana, Maura, Blanca, Marilyn, Oscar and Jeny

I decided to go for the hat-trick on Sunday evening (I had taught the same passage to the girls Friday and the teens Saturday) and continue to teach through Proverbs 31 with the adults. Mare baked her infamous bean-brownie for the mothers, but I didn't want to lose focus on the Word. We read through the passage and then I asked the adults to find at least five characteristics of a noble woman. After the observation of the passage we then spent the majority of our time discussing the meaning of each virtue and personal examples of women whom we knew who exemplified these virtues. We concluded the evening by reflecting in the areas where we need to allow God to work in our lives related to the virtues in the passage. It was exciting to watch the Word change people. 

PRAY that God would continue to open doors to minister to the kid's parents.

Inductive Bible Study Charting and Jose Miguel sorely beaten during his tour of child care!

Monday Morning Missionary Men's Bible Study:
Marc, of Honduras Hope, and Byron, owner of Cafe El Gringo in Santa Ana

Our family's experiment to find fellowship at an English speaking service in Tegus was fun, but it wasn't sustainable. However, the desire to study God's word in my first language never ceased. So, I called some of my local missionary friends and we've started a study through the book of Galatians. 

PRAY that God would bless our fellowship and help "iron sharpen iron"! 

Tobi works his charm over immigration employee, Wilma

According to my lawyers, we should have residency in less then 30 days! Woo-hoo! 

PRAY that everything is finalized... soon. Residency will make many things so much easier in Honduras, plus we won't have to fork out $80 a month to renew our visas!

Abuelos in the House! Wayne and Brooke Goranson

My in-laws and RO4Y ministry partners (Wayne is on the board & Brooke runs State-side team coordination and ministry finances) arrived Monday for a three week stay at the Ranch. We spent our first 10 months in Honduras living together, so they are very familiar with life and culture in Ojojona. Their visit includes an inductive Bible study seminar, water filter & rocket stove production, a honey-do list of projects and hours & hours of book reading with the grand-babies! (Did I mention they read a lot of books to Naomi and Tabitha?)

  PRAY that God will keep the Goransons healthy and blessed during their stay!

Not sure what it's called, but this carpet of purple flowers shur iz purty!

Brooke joined us for guitar class
and taught us one of the Spanish worship songs she learned during her recent trip to Peru:
Cesar (with muted guitar LOL), Melisa and Nexser

Cousins, Crisna and Yalbana, supervising my work! LOL!

The Youth Community garden continued this week and we are one step closer to planting!

PRAY that God will bless our fellowship and the health of the kids working on the garden.

 

Foreman Tobias Dayne / Girls removing tape from cardboard in preparation to lay at bottom of garden to prevent weeds

Cardboard stow away, Yalbana; Leandro helping me measure width of garden bed.

The 1st of two 4' x 6' raised bed gardens using 100% RO4Y "grown" compost!
Each garden will contain 24 square ft gardening areas: 12 for each of the youth -
Gerson, Leandro, Crisna and Yalbana.

Shopping for the IBS seminar meals with Mare at our favorite "pulperia" in OJ.

Pulpo is the Spanish word for octopus, so shopping consists of asking for items
and watching the pulpas, Suyapa and Karen, grab all our food off the shelf!

Eva, with mouth wide, encourages her classmates to work faster!

Thursday's English class was interrupted by "Pick-up Trash" Day!

Rather than lose a day of class, I spent time walking the roads of El Circulo with my students practicing English and decreasing the road side garbage. It was pretty fun (and stinky)!

Daniela, Lupe, Lizy, Ismael, Nexser, Orlin / Noe, Darlin, Yeison, Francisco

Day #2 of IBS Seminar

I don't think I was prepared for the spiritual warfare surrounding the Inductive Bible Study seminar that Wayne was going to lead at the Ranch. It was a great learning experience.

Alberto & Wayne

Wednesday evening, the night before the seminar was going to start, I received a message from my translator that he wouldn't be able to make it! Ahh! This after we had spoken at least two months earlier to secure the date! Josue had a work conflict and could not, for the life of him, find a person to take his shifts! He felt terrible - thanks for trying, buddy!

Jeremy, Angela & Iris studying Psalm 1

So, a gringo friend from Iowa, who I first met in Ojojona (yeah, a God-cidence) reminded me via email that our mutual friend and translator was back in Honduras. Thanks, Andrew! I called Iris and her Guatemalan husband, Alberto helped translate Thursday night! God is faithful! Though we only used them Thursday night, they and two visiting friends (a Guatemalan woman and Andrew's brother - yeah, small world) stayed for the entire seminar! Who knew it was going to be international!?!?

Mare & Maria

Well, the level of translating was pretty advanced and though Alberto did a good job, I was in need of a very confident Latino who could speak English. Through another missionary friend, we were introduced to Maria. (Thanks, Adrianna!) She was wonderful!

Well, the Lord worked out the translation details, but we got side-swiped by sickness. Wayne, taught Thursday evening, but fell ill - a nasty 24 hour bug (I'll spare you the details!) So, now what?

Oscar & local believers from El Circulo
studying Mark 2:1-12

It was up to Brooke and I. Brooke left Friday morning to pick Maria up in Tegus, I lead worship then Brooke and Maria taught the entire day. It went really well, but we got another attack! Brooke got sick with the same 24 hour bug! Thankfully, Wayne and I were able to finish out the seminar Saturday morning!

That said, I realized that I failed to bathe the seminar in prayer. Not only did Satan try to mess our translator plans and stop our teacher with sickness, but he worked in the hearts of the invited pastors NOT to come.

Wayne & Maria discussing the class's observations
of Psalm 1

Overall, we had around 20 people attend the seminar, but only a few for all three days. Of the twelve invited pastors, only two came - both for only one day! The pastor of the Ojojonan Assemblies of God church confessed to Oscar's wife that after sitting through the teaching the last day of the seminar, he regretted not coming to the first two days! He said a little voice whispered in his ear not to come. I wonder if we (me and you - the RO4Y support team) would have been more diligent to pray, that the Spirit would have vanquished that little voice! Lesson learned, right?

Karla, her teen son, Jose Miguel and Ilsy working through the Mark Study

Most exciting for me was the attendance of RO4Y faithful: Oscar, his wife Marilyn, Ilsy, Karla and Jose Miguel. I'm excited to see how God uses the Bible study method to deepen their relationship with him. 

Thanks, Wayne and Brooke for pushing through. A tough, but necessary lesson in Spiritual Warfare!

PRAY that God would continue to speak to His children through his Word and use the Ranch to instruct them how to dig deep and delight in it.

Spotted one of these for the 1st time in 2 years on the Ranch's "road" - Miracles never cease!

Serious Ladies & the result of me forever joking:

Maura, Crisna, Mildred (window), Yalbana and Idalia

Though youth group was scheduled after the seminar, only Crisna wanted to come. Jose Miguel was grounded, Maria had a visitor from out of town, Lelsi had a belated mother's day celebration, Kevin wasn't back from an errand and the other girls never answered. So, I ended up hanging out with Crisna and her family at their home. 

PRAY for these teens to draw closer to the Lord and for their families to follow suit!

The Beard Trio: Tobi, Tabi and Nomi
Who knew a tire swing could log so many family hours of fun???

Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?

    Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?

 

Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,

    speaking the truth from sincere hearts.

Those who refuse to gossip

    or harm their neighbors

    or speak evil of their friends.

 

Those who despise flagrant sinners,

    and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,

    and keep their promises even when it hurts.

 

Those who lend money without charging interest,

    and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.

Such people will stand firm forever.

 Psalms 15