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!

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.

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.

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!

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.

Honduras Political Situation

Just a little abbreviated version of what is going on in Honduras. Sunday the 28^th 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 28^th 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.

Visiting the USA

Just a short note to let everyone know we are in the US until January 27th, 2009. The Lord has been blessing and helping in our lives and we are so thankful. We are home for deputation and some rest. We have been very busy and have not had time to keep our blog up to date but hopefully here in the next few weeks we will be about to update you all on our new FM radio station in Honduras as well as many other things. Thank you for you thoughts and prayers for us during this time.

Visit to Church in Pimienta

Today we visited a church in a suburb of San Pedro Sula, called Pimienta. The young pastor started the work there around 5 years ago and the Lord has been really blessing his work. The pastor’s name is David Carbajal and is a graduate from our Bible Institute in San Luis. He started the work as a single man and after the church was established he married a young lady,
Delmis, a little over a year ago.

Pastor David Carbajal

These youngsters really did some singing.

After the service many of the ladies gathered in to see baby Kenton. I think some of them wanted to hold him but were a bit nervous when they found out he is only 10 days old. We found out last night while eating supper with some Honduran friends that after the Honduran ladies have a baby they don't leave the house or take the baby out in public for at least 30 days. They say that Tiffany is "muy fuerte" (very strong).

Before service started we visited Pastor David and Delmis. There is only 2 months difference in the age of our two babies. Delmis also graduated from our Bible Institute. While there in San Luis she and Tiffany became good friends. She is also a nurse and after her Bible school graduation she worked in our clinic and was a big help. Tiff thought it quite interesting at last year’s annual conference Delmis came up to her and asked if she was expecting. Tiffany didn't know she was pregnant so she told Delmis that she was not pregnant. Delmis told her she better go do a pregnancy test. Very shortly afterward Tiff did a pregnancy test and sure enough she was pregnant.

The Lord really came in a special way in the service here in Pimienta. The pastor spoke very earnestly about us being used of God. We are all important to the work of the Lord. At the end of the service he had all the leaders of the church come to the front and expressed how important they are to God's work and the church, and that they have a responsibility to carry. Also in the message he used' the example of Samuels service the Lord at such a young age. The Lord wants young and old to be working in His vineyards. Afterward he asked me to come up and help pray for each of the church leaders and as we began to pray God's presense filled that church. It was such a blessed time. I felt the Lord's touch on my Spanish as I began to pray and it was as if He knew I needed to pray and for that bit of time I felt like my words began to flow. It was such a wonderful time. I left the service with my heart full of His presense. It was certainly a time to remember.

Do continue to pray for David and Delmis. They are very serious about serving the Lord. Their church is full of young couples and God is really moving in a special way.

New Arrival to the Melton Family

Oh! so that is what you look like

Finally here!

The McDowell have very sacrificially filled in for us these 2 1/2 months and once again been a blessing in delivering our baby Kenton. Thanks Hannah!!!

Now I am going to have to think about that one.

I am going to give this another try. Friday night I had all the details just about ready to post when everything I had just typed disappeared on me. I was not up to redoing it at that point. Tiff woke me up around 5:40 and told me she thought she should go over to the clinic and get Hannah McDowell, who was working the night shift, to check her and see how far along she was. I got ready and we headed over to the clinic. At the last minute I thought I better grab the camera just in case. From looking at Tiffany I kinda expected that we would be returning to the house and would have some waiting to do, she just didn't act like much was going on. We slipped in the back door around 5:45 am and asked Sis. Hannah if she would see what she thought. Tiffany was around 5 cm and Hannah asked us if we wanted to go back to the house and wait a while that she would be done with her shift around 7am. We decided to wait a little while in the clinic and see how she progressed. Hannah did the paper work to admit her to the clinic and had left the room for a few minutes to get a few things. When Sis Hannah had returned Tiffany was entering 2nd stage labor. A total of 18 minutes in the clinic and we had us a new little baby boy. He arrived at 6:03 am and weighed 7 lbs. and 15 oz.

Boy! am I proud of my brother!!!

Now that is sweet sugar!

We really had a time trying to get settled on a name for this little one and it was not until the night before he was born that we actually decided that he would be called Kenton Daniel Melton. Kendrick prayed so hard for a baby sister that when we found out it was a boy we told him he could help us pick the name. That was ok with him and he loves his baby brother very much. Someone was telling him the other day that they were going to take Kenton home with them and he very plainly told them "NO!" It was kinda humorous.

I have found it interesting to hear some of the talk going around the town about the "gringa" (North American) having her baby in Clinica Luz y Vida (Clinic Light and Life). We found out that Kenton was the first North American baby as well as the first missionary baby to be born in the clinic. The people have been a bit surprised that Tiffany had the baby out here. We have already noticed a big difference in the friendliness of the people. We have had a pile of visitors come to the house to visit, in fact more than we ever saw when Kaleb was born 2 1/2 years ago. We hope that we can continue to see the people open up and allow us to be their friends.

Kenton is know 3 days old and is doing fine. It is so amazing how good God is to give us such a precious bundle of joy. Tiff is also doing fine and getting lots of rest. Thanks for your prayers and the notes you all have sent.

Safe in dads arms

Now that was a lot of work! I think I'm going to rest awhile.

Thanks for checking out my pictures - Kenton Daniel Melton

A Visit to Las Cabañas

This morning we decided to visit one of our churches that is located on the outskirts of San Luis, Santa Barbara where we live. The name of the church is Las Cabañas and for many years has been struggling with a small congregation. I was so encouraged as I took a seat and began to watch the people come in to worship the Lord. One after another came in until there was around 38 adults and children all ready to sing, pray and worship the Lord.

The young lady on the right is one of our Bible Institute students. Her name is Venicia. It has been really great to see her grow spiritually in our just about 4 years here in San Luis. She has always had a desire to serve the Lord and has been very faithful to church. This last January she submitted an application to study in our Bible school. She is a young lady with a desire to study and work for the Lord. In our Bible school we train young people to work in the church either as teachers or pastors. Venicia has jumped in all the way and is now working in this local church(Las Cabañas) so that they can have a Sunday School for children. In this picture Venicia is leading the preliminaries in the service and the older lady to the left is reading a passage from the Bible. She is one of the founders of the little church in this small suberb of San Luis. If I understood all the pastor said, the first services were held in her house as a congregation was built. The church has been going for quite a few years now and the Lord is really starting to work in this little town church called La Iglesia Emanuel de las Cabañas.
The lady in the middle has had a birthday. As we sing their happy birthday song to her each person of the congregation goes up and shakes hands with her or greets her in some way to congratulate her for another year of life. To the right is the pastor a young man who graduated from our Bible Institute several years ago and is doing a fine job. He also helps us in our AM radio work here in Honduras. The Lord is blessing this young man whose name is Ramon. I pray he will continue to allow the Lord to use him.

FM Radio Station #1

Our FM radio project is coming right along. For those who have not received the news, when the president of Honduras came to visit us here in San Luis he promised to help us receive the permissions that we would need to set up an FM frequency here in San Luis. As I arrived here in Honduras a little over a week ago and had a meeting with the lawyer I found out that we are really close to receiving our FM license. Maybe even as soon as tomorrow (Monday the 3rd of August).

The lawyer had to publish our request for the FM frequency in two different newspapers two different times. Then we had to wait 10 days to see if anyone would be in opposition to us having the radio. Well, tomorrow is the dead line for people to say if they are opposed to us having the station. We have been and still are hoping and praying that all goes well and we are able to start putting the equipment and such together so we hopefully can be on the air by the first of October. It is going to take a lot of things going smoothly for that to happen, but it is the Lords work so we are leaving it in His hands.

We have found out that we will receive 70 watts and that we will be located on 102.3 MHz FM. We praise the Lord for the progress that has been made. We know it is because the help of the Lord and the prayers of His people.

I will put the good news on the blog as soon as we know something. We appreciate your prayers!

Back to Honduras

Our time in the US has flown by and now we are back in Honduras. We enjoyed so much while we were home visiting friends and families. But by the end of our time we were ready to come back to Honduras.

As many of you know we are expecting another boy who is suppose to be here within the next few days to a week. There were many questions as to if Tiffany could travel back to Honduras since she was 38 week along. We had several doctor visits in South Carolina the last few weeks before we left and as disappointed as the doctor was she had to write Tiffany a letter saying all was safe for her to travel. The doctor is a friend of Tiffany's and she wanted to deliver the baby.

Dad and Mom were so kind to take us to the Atlanta airport.

Everything went well with the flights even though there had been a mix up with our departure dates. Somehow there was a miscommunication with the travel agent and when I called to confirm our tickets I found out that we were suppose to have returned to Honduras on the 22 of April instead of the 22 of July. We finally were able to get everything straightened around with tickets for the 24 instead of the 22 of July. The flights were very full.

It was really neat Tiffany being pregnant. We were escorted to the front of every line we went too, including immigration here in Honduras. We were sitting in the very last seats on the plane so were the last ones off of the plane but we ended up being one of the first ones through immigration. It was really cool!! ;-) Then after collecting our bags they have to go through a x-ray machine where they look to see all the goodies we were bringing with us. Usually they are looking for things to charge you for and it is usually a hassle to get through. It was such a blessing to have a pregnant wife and 2 hipper boys along. The men running the x-ray machine were loving the show Kendrick and Kaleb were putting on for us and all 12 of our bags slid out the other side of the machine untouched. Praise the Lord!!

Things have been very busy since arriving so we have not slowed down much. We are expecting the baby anytime this coming week if the Lord wills. We have had a real chore finding names. We were all ready with a little girl name but the boy names have been a bit more difficult to come by.

Thank you each one for your love and prayers you shared with us while in the US. We hope to be back in the US October through the end of December so we may be able to visit many more of you all.

Honduras News

Zack and Sarah Robberts have been really doing a great job keeping everything going smoothly in Honduras while we have been home on furlough. Zach sent a couple of pictures on to me so I thought I would share them with you.

The first is of our Isuzu pickup. We have a Land Rover Discovery that we have used well but it never has been what it was suppose to be. About every time or at least every other time we made a trip into the city we had to make a trip by the mechanics to get something checked or fixed. We began to pray and look and a church down south provided enough money to purchase this new Isuzu Pickup. It is suppose to be economical, it is one of the least stolen vehicles in Honduras and replacement parts are reasonable and readily available. It was purchased back in February but we have been waiting on the camper to go on it. Zack was able to take it by the other day and have the it installed. The camper will help keep things dry through out the rainy season.

A Much Needed Blessing!!!

Pickup with new camper

Also back in November of last year we decided to try out a new project. We planted around 7 acres of field corn which they eat as sweet corn, make tortillas with or use for making chicken/hog feed. This was a first for me and boy has it been a learning experience. This project was started to help give work to some in the community but also provide some field income. The project went well and out of the 7 acres we ended up with lots of sweet corn to sell and then around 9000 pounds of corn which is being sold to make animal feed. Our Bible School students helped in the cleaning of the corn and also with taking the dried corn off of the cob. It proved to be quite the process.

Bunches of corn - lots of work! ;-)

Ohio Update

Time seems to be flying so quickly. Since the last entry we have driven may miles and done many things. We spent a week in Tenn. at the Smokey Mountains which was really fun. We were with my parents and grandparents but were the only ones sleeping in a tent - 8-). We were only around 7 yard from the river so the sound of the river was very relaxing each evening as we went to sleep.

Camping in Pigeon Forge

Vacation never last long enough though so we are on the road again. We have visited two churches in Spartinburg, SC, two churches in West Virginia and after tomorrow night we will have visited three churches here in Ohio so far on this trip. Keepen the road hot ;-).

Tiffany, Boys and Mamaw in the Kitchen to make fresh Strawberry jam

Tiffany and the boys are doing fine. Tiff is having to slow down a good bit after the running and late nights we had this last week end. She is having to do some catch up on her rest. I believe she is really starting to feel pregnant. As for the boys they are having a ball getting to know their cousins. On our way north we met up with my cousin Jonathan and Rachel Linch and their children at a national park. We purchased a Subway sandwich and took it to the park for lunch so the 2nd cousins could play - boy did they have a ball even if it was only for 3 hours. Then on to Ohio where Kendrick and Kaleb joined up with their cousins Andrew and Katie Swartsfager for many more days of playing. Kendrick is growing up so quick. We almost let the time slip up on us but he will be starting school this year. His 5 years have just gone by so quickly.

Kendrick, Uncle Isaac and I went fishing. I have been promising Kendrick that I would take him fishing for some time. Tiffany's dad is a pastor but also works at a 4-H Camp where there is I nice pond and plenty of fish just waiting to be caught. It was a lot of fun!!

Kendrick with his first catch

Visit to Grist Mill

Another day is gone and we have had a very enjoyable day at an old grist mill. It is located a couple of miles from where we lived before leaving for Honduras. There are always lots of ole' timers there showing how to do many old trades by hand or the hard way. The mill is a very neat attraction where they grind corn into flour, corn meal and grits. We had a great family day and really enjoyed the relaxing sound of the stream that flows through this historical site.

Kendrick and Kaleb in front of large water wheel.

Tiff and boys in front of where a man was making brooms.

Kendrick watching craftsman cane an antique chair.

Dad and Kaleb taking a break on porch of old cabin.

Ole' Grist Mill

Tomorrow is the Lord's Day so we will be back on the road, but thankfully we don't have to far to drive. In the morning we will be in Chesnee, SC with Rev. Kenneth Rice and church. In the evening we will be in Boiling Springs, SC where Rev. Dan Parker is pastoring. We pray the Lord will give us the words we need to share how the Lord is working and blessing in Honduras.