Tuesday in Honduras

Another good day in Honduras!  We just got back from a day in the Valle de Angeles where we finished up the house now belonging to Mr. Helberto!  We plan to return tomorrow, Lord willing, to bring him some furniture donated by the Manchester church in Manchester, Connecticut and Bro. Michael St. Germaine.  He, his wife Emma and their little girl, Natalie, have been with us off and on thru the week.  Afterwards we enjoyed some sightseeing and shopping in the quaint shops in de Valle.

Our plans for tomorrow to finish up include visiting both the house sites and bringing the families some furniture...  we are also hoping to get some work done on Carlos´house before we leave.  I bet Ricky can knock that out in short order!  They are such a sweet family and we are so fortunate to have them working with us in this ministry together!  I´ll have to post some pictures of them when I get back.  (note to self).

Everyone continues to do good... no one has gotten sick and everyone is having a great time... especially our firstimers!  Paula and Sara Jo, Keith and Dale are just fine.

I´m looking forward to getting home (and putting my foot on US soil again) but we´ve got one more full day tomorrow and we´re excited about that.

I´m also pondering what I should do for the message for Sunday, maybe some of you can help.  I´ve got a message on the Psalms... sort of an introductory lesson so to speak, but I´m wondering if I shouldn´t pre empt myself and just give a little report on our experience here this week... any thoughts... (well can´t find the question mark on this keyboard, sorry.)

till later...

Well, we have a saying when we are in Honduras...

Our Honduras Brigades have a saying... Blessed are the flexible, for they will not quickly be bent out of shape.  Oh how that has been true for us this week so far.  If you have been paying attention to the news this weekend, you probably know that the country experienced something of a coup detat on Sunday.  The funny thing is... we wouldnt have known it if someone hadnt told us and if we hadnt turned on the news.  Things seem pretty normal.  There have been a few protests in the city, near the government center, but since thats across town from us, we have been unaffected.  We elected to stay inside on Sunday anyway and scratched our plans to attend church up the the Valle de Angeles with Carlos and his family.  That was disappointing.  But today it was back to normal... and we headed off to the Valle to build the second of our planned houses for the week.  We capped off the first one on Saturday.  The one thing we CAN definitely tell, however, is that the Honduran people are extremely concerned for their country and we all need to keep this country in our prayers.

I wish I had the time to tell you all of the stories right now of all that we have seen and all that God has allowed us to experience... and especially of all of the wonderful people we have met.. but I will save that for tomorrow if I get the chance to blog.  Suffice it to say that God is blessing us and it has been an incredible experience so far.  Should I forget, remind me to tell you about the sweet lady at the Miami airport who saw that we were Christians and asked us to pray for her 93 yr old father... and surely you will hear the story of Ishmael, the blind man who we built a house for... and of his incredible, amazing gift to US... and of Helberto, the nice gentleman we built a house for today.  He was so grateful... or all of the folks at the Hospital Escuela who were so appreciative to recieve a plate of food from the church while they waited on loved ones who were there as patients.

Its been a long, hard day and we are all exhausted, so its off to bed.  Thanks to Brad for filling in for me at the office today and for all those who are praying so hard for us back home.  Keep it up... we definitely feel them going up.

Arrival in Honduras!

Well, we made it safe and sound... intact, with all of our luggage and no worse for the wear! Ray is sleeping off a little motion sickness from the ride, but other than that we are all well... getting ready to head out, get a bite to eat and pack up some food bags to distribute. We´ll write more soon... just wanted to let everyone know we are well and covet your prayers this week!

Preparing for Honduras...

Well, despite the fact that I've been planning on returning to Honduras for the better part of the last two years, I have still waited till the last minute to get ready! This morning I am packing and making a list of all the things that I've forgotten... then I'll be headed to WalMart to pick up all those last-minute items. To be fair, I've already gotten the big stuff together... the clothes, the poncho (in case of rain), the hat (the sun is harsher closer to the equator and my hair just doesn't protect all of my scalp anymore:( ) I've picked up a couple of items for Carlos & the kids. We're taking Carlos & Marla a Spanish-English Bible. It's really nice with parallel columns English & Spanish. I don't speak any Spanish and he doesn't speak any English, but at least we'll be on the same page! I'm taking the boys some T-shirts and a football. Yep, an AMERICAN football. They play soccer all the time (and are quite good) but I'm thinking of expanding their horizons with a real FOOTBALL... the oval-shaped, pigskin variety. We'll see how it goes. Celeste has put some "girly" things in for Erin, their older sister. She's a teenage girl and I'm pretty much clueless with what to take her.
Please keep us in your prayers this week! We're leaving bright and early in the morning (3:00am) from Ricky Pierce's house to catch an early flight out of Nashville. We should arrive in Tegucigalpa by mid-afternoon... in time to pack some benevolent food bags and head out for distribution. Our team this year consists of myself, Ricky Pierce, Ray Hillis, Dale Pierce and Keith White.
I plan to be blogging this week as I have time. They tell me that we'll have Internet access at the hotel, so I'll be keeping in touch with everyone this way. Feel free to send us e-mail thru the blog or directly to me at jimblack@fpunet.com

On Job...

My brain has been a little scattered here lately (okay, more so than usual).  I'm in the middle of preparing Sunday's sermon on the story of Esther... a great and uplifting story, but my mind is already jumping ahead to Job which will come next week.  I just finished reading through Job again in my 'cover to cover' reading and I'm again struck by the central theme of the book:  How can a loving God allow the innocent to suffer?

It's an age-old question, which is why the story of Job is probably the oldest one in Scripture.  Mankind has been wrestling with this one for a long time.  If God is all-powerful (as Scripture claims) and CAN stop suffering, then why doesn't he?  Is he just cruel?  If God is all-good (as Scripture claims) and does nothing, does that mean that he is powerless to do anything about it?  I can't accept that.  Don't we believe that he both CAN and WOULD prefer for the innocent NOT to suffer?  Then how do you explain drunk drivers robbing children of their daddies?  How do you explain children starving to death in poverty-stricken Rwanda?  It's a conundrum to be sure.  What were your thoughts as you read through Job?  What is God's answer to him?  What were his friends telling him?

I can't help but think about the crowd that I'll look at on the Sunday when I bring the message from Job.  There are so many hurting families and individuals right now in our church family.  Some of them are much like Job, having lost so much in recent months.  I'm not sure what I will be able to say to them that might help.  My fear is that I'll come across like one of Job's friends, with empty words and unhelpful advice.  One thing is for sure after reading Job... I'm a lot more cautious in trying to speak for God!  What would you say?

Any thoughts...?