So are you Bob Marley fan, or are you church people?

So it was that time again to renew our visa. This time we headed for Belize on a boat that leaves from the north shore of Honduras in Puerto Cortes and goes straight to Placencia, Belize. It was a long journey and took a couple of days but it went smoothly. We had a great time relaxing in a beautiful country we had never been too.

I loved the culture of the people in Belize. Placencia is a mix of people from all over the world. Many of the locals speak Criole which sounds like a mixture of languages with some English thrown in their but most people speak English with a really cool island accent, kind of Jamaicanish. Everyone is sooo friendly too. You can't walk down the street or the sidewalk in town without saying hello and having small conversation with everyone you pass. One man we passed on the street and became friends with stopped us and asked, "So are you Bob Marley fans or are you church people?" I replied to him that we were both, haha, and I think that blew his mind. We ended up having a conversation later with him sitting on the beach about life, love, and respect.

We had a great time of relaxing and discovered a really cool place in the world that we can't wait to visit again to renew our visas.

The "Campout"

Last Saturday was the big day. The boys in Will's Wednesday night bible class had been looking forward to this day for a long time asking about it just about every time we were in Mogote. The "campout" at our house. Many of the boys don't get to get outside of the city very often so they were thrilled to come to our house "in the country".

I will let Will tell more details, I just wanted to put these pictures up while the internet was working well.

Family!

Well, this blog is a little late, it has been a busy week once again, but we had great visit from the women folk in Will's family a week ago. Will's mom Tamara, sister Jessica, and Jessica's mother in law Janet, all made the trek down despite the political unrest.


As soon as they got off the plane, we hit the ground runnin. With a gift from the church Will grew up in, the Bristow Church of Christ, we were able to purchase 63 needed pairs of tennis shoes for every boy at Jovenes. So we piled suitcases and shoe boxes in the back or our truck, and dropped them off, so that we could drive to the stadium and feed people with Amber. The stadium can be an intimidating place and we took the ladies there within hours of their arrival, but they did great and were a huge help passing out soup. I always enjoy when we have extra people with us at the stadium because it frees us up to be able chat with people more freely.


We didn't slow down much the rest of the visit. Friday, we spent the day at Jovenes passing out shoes, figuring out whos was whos, playing some soccer, and sharing some of our favorite new eating places. Saturday we went the the Jesus statue, La Tigra the cloud forest, and La Cumbre a really neat restarant that overlooks the seemingly infinite shining lights of Teguc. Sunday we went to Valley of the Angels in the morning, and church in Mogote in the afternoon.

We were so happy to have our family here. It is so refreshing. I'm so glad that we had the chance to share our life here with our loved ones that live there... in person...it is just a neat thing.


This is at La Tigra. We had a blast hiking around and the clouds were amazing that day, we hiked through the clouds for a long way making the forest really dark and cool in the middle of the day.


We love you guys. Thanks for making the effort to get here. It means a lot to us.

Spontaneous Parades Throughout the City!

Honduras qualified for the world cup tonight!

After church tonight we hurried into a grocery store to try and be able to catch the end of the game. Honduras had to beat El Salvador and the U.S. had to tie or beat Costa Rica for Honduras to qualify. The stars were lined up for Honduras tonight because the beat El Salvador 1-0 and in the last minute of injury time in a game that should have been won by Costa Rica the U.S. scored making it a tie game 2-2. The games ended at about the same time and the entire country of Honduras errupted into cheers and honking horns. We left the grocery store into a lively city and decided to drive around a bit and enjoy the moment.

The city turned into a spontaneous parade. Everyone came out into the streets waving flags, wearing jerseys, and hollering. We drove around town, honking and yelling with everyone else. While listening to the radio we heard the president announce that tommorrow is a national holiday!

It is so exciting for this country. The world cup is HUGE! Honduras hasn't qualified since 1982, and this is only the second time in Honduras history to go. It is so great to have something so unifying, something so exciting, something going so well for the country. I believe that for tonight, and maybe tommorrow, this country has forgotten their political strife and is unified in celebrating this great feat. And it is so exciting. I'm happy to be in this country tonight! I'm so proud!

Current Situation in Honduras

As you may have heard there has been some new political turbulence in Honduras this week. The ousted president is back in the country and at the Brazilian embassy in the middle of Tegucigalpa causing many clashes between his supporters and those of the new government including the military. The new government in response has imposed a curfew since Monday night at 6 to keep people out of the streets. They are suspending the curfew today from 10am-5pm so people can get out and get food. All the airports have also been closed but will hopefully reopen tommorrow. The borders too are closed since there is a curfew but should reopen when that is lifted.

We are fine. We are at our house in the country away from the turmoil in Tegucigalpa, we have plenty of food and water. We are using this time to rest and get settled into this new house.

We just wanted to let you know the current situation here in Honduras, but also to let you know that we are fine.

Please pray for peace in this country.

"Tankless Water Heaters"

Before we left the states, I worked with my family building Homes. I enjoyed my time there and will always be greatful for the opportunity to learn from my dad, who've I've always looked up to, and work with my brother(my best man friend) and my mom-the sweetest lady I know. Building the houses I learned alot about working with people, different types of people, crusty old construction dudes, rich young people buying nice houses, good Oklahomans and family. I believe that I will always be involved in construction some how, It is two deep in my blood, being plumber and coming from a gene pool 4 generations deep in plumbing-it is fate. I don't want to quite working with my hands. I think my soul would die in an office, right now, anyways while my heart is still ticking normally. Having said this, now I can get to the point of this post. We moved into a different rent house this week. Before we left the states in working in construction and doing some plumbing, it was easy to see that "Tankless Water Heaters," were the future of trendy, "green", expensive add-ons and were all the rage in custom Homes. I have seen this version of the "Tankless Water Heater" here before, but now we have one in the new house. So they are not completely new here, just new to us....The first few showers are a little intimidating, but I think it helps me realize every day that I'm living by the Grace of God. Yes, that is 110 volts, bare, running directly into the shower head. Enjoy the pic.

Transitions

This is a view from the front porch of the new house we moved into. We love living in the country. Will has already been able to ride his bike and the dogs, including the new one, love playing in the yard. We are excited to be in the country among the chickens, cows, and horses, and with fruit trees in our yard including, orange, mandarins, guyaba, papaya, banana, and coffee plants.

As we move in our work from Mogote more towards working with Jovenes en Camino and Shine Honduras, this house is in the perfect location right in the middle of both. It is so quiet and cool too. We are glad that we got to know Tegucigalpa well in the last year but are happy to be away from the hustle and bustle of the capital city (and occasional street protests...).

A view from the side of the house overlooking the "orchard" and the mountains behind the Zamorano Valley.

We hope to be able to use this house for possible church retreats, campouts, and hosting other people.