Sunday, October 11, 2009

Daniel's Birthday

Birthday time again – yes big 34. I had such a special time and actually had the joy of celebrating this special time more than once. Tiffany fixed a very special dinner of pork chops, yellow rice and biscuits mmm my favorite. We were just about done eating when I heard a knock on the front door. As I opened the door I found a group of our Bible School students and friends with a pan of some kind of special treats and a rock chiseled into the shape of a heart. They all sang happy birthday in Spanish to me and when they finished I told them I needed to hear it in English and to my surprise they sang it in English also. We invited them all in to have a piece of Strawberry cake and Pepsi. They had special prayer and read a passage from the Bible which was very special. There visit was very special and was such an encouragement!!

Kike and I both have October Birthdays

Some of the Men Enjoying the Tacos

Second celebration came to pass on Saturday the 11th. I received a telephone call telling me that the men’s committee from church were getting together at 4pm and wanted me to be there. One of the men had brought Honduran chicken tacos smothered with chimole (like fresh salsa with cilantro) and two large 3 liters of Pepsi (I love the Pepsi here it taste different than the Pepsi in the US). It was a great meal. We visited a while and then the pastor Bro. Osman had a devotional for us.

The Men's Group from our Church

The Lord is so good to give us such special friends. The two celebrations were big bright spots in my life and then to top it all off Tiffany made my favorite desert “mud slide” for lunch today. I believe with all that has happened the last three days I could stand to have a birthday a little more often. Lol! Just kidding!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Curfew in Honduras

Things are about the same around the country. The curfew was extended again until tomorrow at 6pm. I am still stuck in San Pedro with Tiffers and the boys in San Luis - 2 hours away. I received a call from Kaleb our 3 year old and he asked me "Are you coming home or not?" I think he is ready for his daddy to be home - and I am past ready to be there. With these curfews everything is closed - the airports, grocery stores, gas stations everything. If you didn't have food stocked up you are kinda in a pickle. Please help us pray that this thing will be resolved soon.

Monday, September 21, 2009

The President's Return

I am sorry I have yet to post pictures for you. Daniel's computer has all the pictures on it. He has been extra busy and not had the time to help me learn how to do them. Besides, they are on his computer. I will try to get them posted soon, even if I have to experiment and try it myself.

President Mel Zelaya returned to Honduras today. Daniel is in San Pedro and planned to return to San Luis today; but with the return of the ex-president, a curfew from 4 P.M. this afternoon (Monday) until tomorrow evening at 6 P.M. was placed on the country. So, Daniel is stuck in San Pedro. Poor guy! He will no doubt have 'apartment fever' by tomorrow afternoon. In addition to the curfew, all the big airports are closed and all international flights have been canceled. We will see what transpires in the next few days.

Well, I just wanted to post a short update on the Honduras happenings. We will try to keep you up to date on what is happening.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Just a Note about 'What's Happening'

My husband sat down with me last week to show me how to post on the blog. He just has too many things on his plate to keep up with it all. I am computer illiterate, so was lost when it came to doing something like this. Hopefully, I am a quick learner and can keep it updated a little more frequently. Maybe.......

Daniel headed to San Pedro this morning. Always something to do there. Getting your briefcase stolen out of your car adds to the necessity of going there. The briefcase was full of all kinds of paper work that was of no value to whoever stole it, but of GREAT value to us. Anyway, we are thankful no one was in the car at the time of the robbery. Daniel is still hoping for the miracle of its return.

Kendrick has started his second week of school today. He is doing well. We began two days late, due to being in San Pedro to help the Delong family through thier time of loss. For those who don't know, they lost their third child, a beautiful little girl, while giving birth. We were thankful we could be there and help in a small way. Anyway, back to Kendrick, he is enjoying school this year. I am so thankful. If the rest of the year could go as well as the first week, I would be really happy. I could even stand a few down days along the way!

Kaleb is enjoying the school too. He likes to be right there with his brother. I have given him a couple of papers to do, and he loves it. He is growing up too fast. He likes to help with Kenton, but he also likes Mommy's lap. Sometimes I have a contest going to see who can get in my lap first. Kendrick also likes to join in on this game. I usually end up with all three in my lap!

Kenton is a year old now. He is into everything. This morning he spilled a glass of water that one of the boys had left in the living room. He came, found me and stood there telling me to come see, in baby language of course. It was really sweet! I love to hear him jabber. He also likes to sing. I have to keep my eyes on him constantly though; he is into everything. If he gets quiet, you better RUN to see what he is into; it usually isn't good.

Daniel and I are keeping too busy. With school starting and all, that keeps my plate full. I also need to get in some more hours in the clinic to put on my nursing license renewal form. It will be renewal time in April. Daniel started a 'chicken farm'. He is selling eggs now. It is going really well. People here are learning about it and becoming more interested in them. They know they are fresh and haven't been sitting in a storage shed somewhere. Pray all continues to go well.

We enjoyed having an intern from Penn View with us for six weeks this summer. Josh Carveth was here and a big help. We hope we were a help to him and that he had a good learning experience. He did get in on a little excitement. We had a big storm that blew down four trees on our property. It reminded me of tornado weather. I was a little worried. There is no place to hide from one of them here.

We also helped with a medical brigade that used our facilities for sleeping and eatting. Daniel really enjoyed the change of pace. I missed having him around. He was usually gone from six in the morning until six or later in the evening.

McDowell's came to help us for six weeks also. Hannah helped in the clinic to cover the nurses vacations. Rex taught some classes here, in Costa Rica and Guatemala. They also did a marriage seminar here for the pastors and their wives. Jeffery did a lot of yard work! Poor guy, he helped break up some big stones in the middle of the runway, so Daniel doesn't have to mow around them any more. Thanks Jeffery! They had some visitors from Michigan, Amanda and David Byler. Amanda helped in the clinic and David hung out with Jeffrey! What a lot of helping hands! They sure did lighten out load!

Well, that about raps up the summer. Hope this catches you up to date on our happenings. I haven't learned the picture part yet. Maybe Daniel can show me when he gets home and I will post some pictures of the above happenings! Come back to see us!

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Honduras Political Update II

Over the last several days and even week things have settled down across Honduras. Many of the schools have returned to giving classes and others plan to start on Monday. Today there has been more peace talks in Costa Rica. As I understand there has not been an agreement but there is to me more talks tomorrow.

I find it interesting to see how the Internet news that I have seen has been focusing on the negative of this whole thing from the actual coup to the violence. The violence has been very contained and is not wide spread across the country like it would seem from the Internet videos and news. There have been some very large protest but just about everyone of them peaceful.

Where Tiffany and I live in San Luis everything is peaceful. The people are just kinda waiting to see what is going to happen to their country. From the ones I have talked to, many of them feel that the ex president was leading the country down a Communistic road but others who don't really understand what Communism is are only seeing the raise in minimum salary that was given as well as the cash hand outs that have come from the Zelaya government. One lady was quoted the other day as saying that she was paid around $50 to vote a certain way and as she put it "who cares how you vote when you are hungry". I spoke with another man who was fixing our telephone lines for our radio station and he was telling me that Hondutel, the main telephone company, has not paid him his salary for 4 months. He can not quit working now or he will loose all of his rights to back pay. He has 3 children at home with out food.

What most of these poor people say is that the ones running the government don't care what happens to them and that has really been the case most of the time but along came ex president Mel Zelaya and raised the minimum salary, started handing out food, cash and trying to win the people. So many of the people see him as the one who cared for them. The majority of the people who are out supporting the return of the ex president are either among the really poor people or the people who have been paid to protest.

Well, for now that is how it is. Tomorrow the peace talks continue.

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Honduras Political Situation

Just a little abbreviated version of what is going on in Honduras. Sunday the 28th of June the Honduran President Mel Zelaya was taken out of power. He was trying to have a national vote on rewriting the Honduran Constitution which would give him more power and also let him possibly run for election indefinitely. Supposable to have such a vote is against the Honduran constitution. The Congress as well as the Supreme Court reviewed the situation and the request and told the president it was not legal and that he could not do it. He stated that he wanted to do it anyway and ordered the military to distribute the ballot boxes or start the process so the country could vote on the 28th of June. The head of the military stated it was against the law and that he would not obey the president’s order. The president in turn fired the head of the military causing a chain reaction of others resigning their positions. The Congress reunited and put the director of the military back as head of the military which Mel Zelaya would not accept. Mel pushed ahead planning to have the vote without the vote of the Congress, Supreme Court or the Military to support him. In a meeting between the Congress and the Supreme Court the decision was made that to allow the vote would be illegal so the order was given to the military from Congress to remove the president and take him to Costa Rica.

There had also been word passed among the people that if they voted ‘NO’ on the vote they would go to jail so many of the people out of fear had plans to stay home and not vote at all. The Congress and the Court decided it would be wiser to take the president from the country, removing him from power, rather than allow the vote to go through. As I understand there is not a plan set up in the Honduras law by which they can impeach a president and take him from power. There are supposable 18 counts against Mel Zelaya if he returns to the country including making it possible for drugs to be passed through Honduras on the way the north with his permission. It has been printed that at times 2 plans a night from Venezuela would land and unload packages said to be drugs and money. There supposedly is evidence need to convict him just on this one offense.

As of yesterday ex president Mel Zelaya tried to return to the country of Honduras. There were some 20,000 supporters of his there to support him. The airport was closed though and the military had parked and placed things in the runway to keep him from landing. The airport has been closed indefinitely until they deem it safe for reopening. Mel has vowed to return to Honduras and says he will attempt to fly in again sometime in the next few days. The teachers are also on strike all across the country and have stated that they will not return to give classes until Mel Zelaya is reinstated in power. I have been told the number teachers in Honduras are around 60,000. So far one has died and many have been hurt.