Journal, January 2-4 , 2010

Saturday, January 2, 2010

Today was another good one. This morning four of my older boys and myself loaded up my car with shoes, back packs, and medicine and headed up towards Tecpan. Those of you who have been keeping up with my journals possibly remember reading about the widow and her five children that Pastor Juan, his family, some of my boys and I went up and visited last week. I mentioned that we were able to tell them that we would be building them a house in a month or two. Those of you who read my journals also know that I try not to ask for money I don't even have a magic red button that you can push to donate money to this ministry. Fact is if a person wants to help sponsor a child's schooling, medical expenses or anything else he or she has to e-mail me to find out how to do so. However last week I mentioned that none of the three children that were school age were going to school because their mother simply could not afford to send them. Guess what. Today when the boys and I visited with this family we were able to tell mom that her kids would be attending school this year. Within a day or two after publishing my journal four people offered to sponsor one child each from this family. Now I went to school back in the old days before they had the new math but if I am not mistaken that is one more sponsor than necessary. This is the first time that I know of that we have ever had to contact some one that wanted to sponsor a particular child and ask them if they would either consider sponsoring another child or consider letting us use their sponsorship money to help provide some groceries to this family on a monthly bases.

Do you want to here about another Godincidence?

The lady that is going to sponsor Samuel, the oldest of the five children did into decide to do so because she had read my journal but because she had been here several months ago and I had taken her and some other people up to the village where Samuel lives. Even though I did not remember meeting him at that time this lady had taken a picture of him and last week she just happened to send me that picture asking me if I knew who this boy was. In her e-mail she went on to say that God had laid it on her hart to put this boy into school if by any chance he did not already attend. Talk about God's timing. I had not known that she was looking for Samuel and she had not known that I had just written about him and his family a day earlier.

Today we were also able to visit other families who have children that are being sponsored, and supply them with shoes and back packs that have been donated to us. It was hard to tell other families in the area that we did not have shoes for their children but by the time we gave them out to the kids that are being sponsored there were only a few pare left. We gave the last few pare of shoes to whom ever they fit but there were still a lot of children left with out anything on there feet.




(Click on any picture to enlarge)


We got back home in time to attend Etiline's birthday party. Even though she has never seen her father and not seen her mother since she was a baby, she at least has an uncle and an aunt who take care of her. She received quite a few presents but I think that the highlight of her night was getting to come over to my house to visit with her mother over Skype. True seeing each other over a camera is not as good as being there in person but Etiline, Fernando, and their relatives had a good visit with Etiline and Fernando's mom.

Well it is getting late so I think that I will say, "Goodnight".

Yours in Christ: Dick


Sunday, January 3, 2009

Some may call it a bribe but I call it an incentive. No matter what you want to call it I am going to keep doing it because it worked. Telling my boy that I would put 2 Q (25 cents) into a kitty for each one of them that took notes on what Pastor Mike preached about this morning and later using the money to rent a soccer field seemed to work wonders. Never before have I seen a more attentive and well behaved group of teens sit through an entire church service. Actually Pastor Mike had already printed the notes in the bulletin but had left out a few words here and there that needed to be filled in. I am not sure that he had my boys in mind when he did this but after seeing how well they listened to the sermon I would not be to suppressed if next week he offered some of the older members of the church a cash incentive for filling in the blanks in the bulletin.


After church the boys and I hiked up to the cross that overlooks Antigua. I figured that if I tired them out enough they would perhaps be willing to put the soccer game on hold for a day or 2. Silly me, all it did is built up enough of an appetite that I had to feed them lunch before we went and played soccer. I actually played for the entire game but must admit that I felt more like a target than a goalie.

More food
this evening,




....and now it
......is bed time.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick



Monday, January 4, 2009

I recently ran across the following statement.

"There are people in the world so hungry that
God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

That may be an exaggeration but I know what God says in the Bible about simply patting some one that is going hungry on the back and telling them that you will pray for them and then doing nothing about their physical situation.

James 2:15-17 tells us,

¹⁵Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed," but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.






Today Chris and I spent the day down near the coast. No it was not a day spent lying on the beach. Fact is much of our time was spent in courthouses and lawyer's offices. The end result was more satisfying than a day at the beach though. In about 4 weeks we will be having a teem of men come in to help us build a new house on the parcel of land that we purchased today. No longer will Rosa and her children have to call the ramshackle shack that they have been living in their home. As an added blessing for the first time in their lives they will have electricity, running water, a stove to cook on, and instead of 2 beds for 7 people each one will have their own bed to sleep in.

Are we going to witness to this family while we are building the house? You bet we are! And I would not doubt that as we are sharing the love of Christ with them that God will even give us the opportunity to use words.

Goodnight,
Yours in Christ: Dick