2012 - Week 25 Photo Review

Hand made cards from the kids! Naomi...

Tabitha           and           Tobias

Week 25 was notable for many family celebrations. We started the week with a non-Honduran Holiday - Father's Day! (At least Hondurans do not celebrate it in June, but March 19th coinciding with the Catholic celebration of Joseph, the father of Jesus.) PRAY for my heart as a father to faithfully serve my own three children and all of the spiritual children that we minister to at the Ranch!

Like any father's day celebration, I took my girls out for machete chopping lessons.

Our father's day continued with the birth of our latest animal, a new baby goat...

Meet Sorpresa, our new doe! She is a blessed surprise!

Our goal with Sopresa and our other three goats is to begin a "Give a kid a kid program" to teach our neighbors how to properly care for the animals and be blessed with a healthy source of milk. PRAY for wisdom as we are learning a lot through trial and error before we began to distribute the goats.

Bugsy and her new doe / Marillyn milking Bugsy for some very sweet goat's milk

Wedding Day: June 21, 2003

Our final family celebration was the nine year anniversary of our marriage! I was able to find some local missionary friends to watch all three kids and I surprised Mare with a good Italian dinner in Tegucigalpa. Quoting from Mare's Facebook page: "3 kids, 1 on the way, 4 countries and 9 years later... we are still very much in love." Love you too, baby!

Do you remember this boy?

Brayan riding Zoeva with Marilllyn: December 2011

Brayan is a 13-year-old orphan living at a children's home that the Ranch worked with over the Honduran school break. I meet regularly with Brayan's employer and the children's home director for a Bible study and learned that Brayan isn't doing so well in life and at school. Nothing too out of the ordinary for a teenager (apathy, defiance, theft), but disappointing none-the-less for someone with so much potential for serving the Lord. After sharing some of the news with Mare, she gave me the idea to meet with Brayan. So, I set up a surprise visit and took him out to one of the local restaurants and we watched one of the semi-final games for the Euro Cup football tournament. After the meal I shared some Biblical counsel with Brayan and prayed for him. My heart was to show him grace (and undeserved meal) and friendship. PRAY for this young man to get serious about Jesus and not follow in the footsteps of the poor choices of his older brother.

Living in Honduras has refined many things for me, including the definition of a traffic jam

Naomi, Crisna, Tabitha and Yalbana

The Youth Community garden is growing and often becomes a full family affair. PRAY that the Lord would bless the harvest and the kids would put to practice what they've been learning.

The teens secure the poles for palm branches and Mare shows Crisna how to "trim" her garden.

Oscar and his brother Luis show the kids how to feed the chickens

Studying the Resurrection and it's significance to our faith. 1 Corinthians 15

Girl's study this week was a little overwhelming because of the explosion in growth. We already have been seeing many new faces, but last week was blessed with many familiar faces that have not been around for awhile! Praise the Lord! Another unusual blessing was despite the lack of understanding in some of the younger girls, they all attacked the Bible worksheet with a hunger to "find the answers" like I've never witnessed. It was pretty cool! Continue to PRAY for these young ladies - your faithfulness to pray obviously made a difference last week!

Dania Marsela in yellow enjoys the opening group activity / Lisy, Ilsy's 6-year-old daughter, grins at the camera.

Here are two shots from a young, up-and-coming photographer: Naomi Shalom.

The Schemer
"I wonder what Daddy will say when I move that."

The Tough Chic
"You want some of this?"

Thanks everyone for your prayers and support.
 You each are a vital part of our eternal success as we serve the Lord here in Ojojona.
Bendiciones!

Hermanas y botas

No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,

    and this is what he requires of you:

to do what is right, to love mercy,

    and to walk humbly with your God. 

-Micah 6:8 (NLT)