Hello from “hot, sweet and sticky” Honduras. It is hot, the food is sweet, and between the hot weather and the sweet food it makes you sticky. Reminds me of an old rock n roll song! I am happy to report that my heavy heart has lightened. As Lisa and I continue to experience all the changes that come with moving to another country, being surrounded by a different culture and our need to learn a new language, we are truly grateful for the one thing remains unchanging – our loving Father who is unchanging and forever faithful in His word and action.
As I reflect back on the emotions I have been going through as shared in my last Blog, the “detox of materialism” and the realization that I had wrongly placed an emphasis of who I was in my business, my career, my accomplishments, my things… self check, it was a necessary experience, one, for me to truly realize that “we” as Christians should have our identity first and foremost in Him. When we receive the Holy Spirit, His love becomes our love, His joy becomes our joy, His peace becomes our peace, and His strength becomes our strength, helping us always to be growing in likeness to Him who has called us. Secondly, we needed to lighten our load in order to step out and understand that though God blessed us with “our things” for a season, there comes a time when He will ask something more of you and me. It was a necessary response to let the “things” go that I was holding on to so that we could more tightly cling to Him. God knows what is needed for the ministry in La Moskitia and He continues to provide for it.
Lisa and I have been surrounded by people who have been able to help us adapt here. Help with the residency process, help with the drivers licenses process, and help with the purchase of a Casa Del Camino ministry truck. Even being blessed by folks Earl and Sharon who have a ministry here and are from Maple Valley! A sweet couple who have been here in Honduras since the mid ’80s and have come along side us, sharing what has worked and not worked in their experiences of working with the kids of Honduras. They learned of CDC when Sharon was back in the states in August and had visited ACTION (our sending agency) and she saw our newsletter so after returning to Honduras they reached out to us. God is faithful in bringing His people together, helping to support one another in every way. We are continuing to learn the language though not speaking proficiently (yet) we are getting the conjugating of the verbs down and growing our vocabulary. Asking for continued prayer with the language.
The truck purchase was an experience all in itself and began with a four-hour bus ride into San Pedro Sula at 4:30 am. We were fortunate enough to have my spanish teacher Danny come along to help with the transaction and he had his girlfriend pick us up at the bus station as we arrived. Alejandra was very sweet and drove us all around to look at the trucks. First truck was supposed to be a 2006 F250 4×4 7.3 Diesel and instead a 2015 F150 4×4 V6 shows up! Apparently the other truck was sold 4 months prior. As I’m explaining they should probably take down the old listing as that was not what they were selling, I had a chance to explain why we needed a rig of the sort we were looking for, and he told us he knew someone who had a big truck they were selling. His buddy’s truck was a Dodge 2005 4×4 big Cummins Diesel with a four-inch lift. When first looking at it I thought it was pretty cool but a little on the big side so we kept looking elsewhere.
After looking at multiple trucks with multiple issues, everything from no oil in the truck to people trying to sell trucks that weren’t theirs, we decided to go with the second 2005 F250, a truck that was owned by the bank and therefore required the transaction to take place at the bank. This is where God stepped in again. The bank was to close at 12 noon this day so we arrived at 11:35 to discover the bank decided to close at 11:30 instead of noon. God’s way of letting me know this was not the truck. As I began to feel this was a wasted trip, the first truck we looked at came back to mind, and the more I thought about it the more I began to see, this is exactly the kind of truck we will need in La Moskitia! We called the owner back and he was happy to show the truck again. We began to negotiate and were able to agree on a price. He had all the paper work notorized and we were able to complete the transaction effortlessly! I must believe God is behind us getting this truck as it was not even on the radar – the first truck we saw and after multiple issues with other trucks and a bank closing early! I mean what bank have you ever heard of to close 30 minutes early? God knows best, that is our story.
Tight truck, mechanically sound, big diesel has us ready for La Moskitia!
Next week we will be visiting the school and housing ministry Earl and Sharon began in the ’90s. Looking forward to gleaning more from them their years of experience and insight they have in relation to the various situations that we are sure to face in the coming years. Photos and more to come.
CDC Update: The construction of the home is winding down as the plumbing is finished. We are waiting still for the door hardware to arrive (purchased and sent three weeks ago) so half of the doors can be installed with the remaining doors still needing to be purchased and made. The outdoor kitchen and dining areas are progressing nicely also.
Lisa and I will be heading to La Moskitia to celebrate our 17th anniversary next weekend! Time flies when you’re having fun! We will be lining up the remaining work to be done at the home before we arrive, with a projected arrival date on Lisa’s birthday, December 1. Praying for the outdoor kitchen and eating area to be completed as well as the mission team rooms to be laid out with rough floors poured and beginnings of walls built before our arrival. It is also time to begin with the transportation of the container from Seattle to Puerto Lempira – the cost of $5500.00 is needed and does not include the import tax of which we are uncertain of that amount. God knows the details of this and we are resting in Him for the successful and smooth shipping of it all.
We give thanks to our God who lets us come to Him as He is our loving Father. Thank you Jesus for saving me, thank you for your daily mercy and patience with me, thank you for the love and support both prayerfully and financially of the people you have chosen to join in and lift up the Casa Del Camino ministry. We pray for each and every person reading this to be in continual surrender to You and your will for their lives God. As they do this Lord, may your Love, Joy, Peace and Strength be a visible sign to this world of the power that is in You – our mighty creator living in each of us. Amen!
I love you and am blessed to call you family, friend, brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you for your continued prayer.
All for His glory,
Mike
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Friday , 26 Oct we rode about 300 miles to Oakhurst, CA. in the Sierra Nevada foot hills day full of picturesque roads. 
Saturday, 27th was long day 430+ miles, off hwys. Until 125 miles out of San Diego via Bikersfield California, where we entered the rat race and experienced the thrill of being overtaken by hundreds of motorist traveling nearly twice our speed. It was a first for me and didn’t particularly care for that part of the trip so far. Amazing to think of all the oil we get from this area, there’s black gold in them there hills. (1000’s of oil rigs, really a sight in and of itself)
Guys doing what we enjoy doing when we in the middle of nowhere!
grateful we grabbed an quick visit with my beautiful girl Taylor and our son-in-law Bryan. Blessed and loved.
entering Mexico on Sunday at Tecate getting all paper work, insurance took a couple hours time but necessary.
awesome fish tacos! We rode about 280 miles and we stayed at a church where Matt came to serve when he was 17 yrs old. That was also the youth ministry where he really began to feel called into missionary work. Needles to say very special moment for Matt to revisit and quite coincidental that they had some good worship going on as we pulled up on a Sunday night. 
Monday we road just under 400 miles to Santa Rosalia. Up at first light and road 400 ish miles to La Paz. We arrived at the boat terminal at about 5pm to discover the 8 pm passengers ferry was not operating until Saturday and we had one option that left at 6pm. That option was a Barca de carga so we raced around getting weighed and loaded on boat. And it was a 17 hour ride
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did catch a cool sunrise and got to share lunch with some old friends from our small group back home and meet some new friends as well pictured below: me, Matt, Tom with back2back ministries, Fred who is involved in a church planting ministry, another Tom, has a couple coffee shops where He disciples 60 employees all at risk kids. Wes and Barb and finally Karen the first Toms wife. All involved involved in ministry and iI was able to glean from their sharing.
we got to stay the night with Wes and Barb (thank you) and we are up now and I’m just finishing this update. Thank you for all your prayer and please continue as we have only about 1500 more miles before we are back into beautiful Honduras! One last thing, wow, it’s HOT!!
chosen2followHim 