Blessings (A)

The last two weeks have been amazing. After spending a nice weekend down in La Ceiba indulging on the internet, we returned to begin preparing for our final short term group and cleaning out a storage unit to transform it into a community library.

The work was hard. The hours long, and the last 20 minute scramble before the doors opened felt like something straight out of HGTV. The two hour grand opening fiesta felt like a miracle. Over half the village came – adults as well as children – and although they enjoyed the crafts, games and piñatas, they POURED over the books and continually asked for more stories. Twenty minutes after the fiesta was supposed to have ended the children's corner was still full and you could hear the low hum of children sounding out words. This was their first experience in a library – for many, it was their first taste of recreational education. I can not thank you all enough for your prayers and support. For those of you who gave us money for ministry before we left – know that you bought those book shelves. We know that this is just the beginning as we hold twice weekly story times, craft times, train librarians and more . But the Lord has blessed so far, and we know that it is in his hands. Please keep your eyes out for Spanish books – as you can see – there is plenty more space to fill!



The space AFTER a week of cleaning and sorting and BEFORE a week of AMAZING team work that transformed it to:




A place of joyful learning.



The group who made this happen (Minus my amazing husband who was the everything handyman for this project and the driving 'can do' force behind it. ½ because he wanted the community to have a library – and ½ because he wanted to move the community center out of our house!)



2 ½ hours in...



Vicki, Jude, Delmis, and Seyli enjoying the reading nook Vicki created. Jude stayed there for over an hour!



Standing room only at story time!


Along with participating in the library miracle – his last group built us a walking path and STEPS!! In four months we have gone from a trench to castle like luxury at our back door.


Building the path between the houses



Blowing bubbles on the 'stoop'.... the luxury of a stoop – where once stood mud!

This group was amazing and encouraging. The Lord's work here in hearts and lives is apparent. Our life here is beautiful and fulfilling. But the count down to the unknown begins... 10 weeks to uprooting once again.



P.S. Lucy is up to about 5 signs and a dozen words these days – including 'chicken'. She spends most of her time walking instead of crawling. Her fascination with shoes continues... and last night she threw mine in the toilet twice (It makes you really wish you had doors to close). Thankfully she picked up that bad habit after the team left with all of their shoes! Here she is in Pastor Paul's shoes... although she seemed to favor Vicki's bright pink Crocs.

Some more pics and Videos

Here is the new puppy Rocky. Jude and Lucy love him. We will feel better about him when he quits barking at our door in the middle of the night.


Jude is learning to swim. Here is a video from today in the pool... without waterwings.


Lucy blowing kisses to you all.

State of the unit

So, we sit in a posh seaside villa soaking in the internet through three computers and an I-pod (obviously we needed a break from the vogue 'ideal' no?). It's been over a month since I have had access to a reliable internet connection for an reasonable amount of time and it seems that this trend may continue. I hope to be calling several of you this weekend, so to eliminate any small talk on my end and get to the important stuff (like me hearing about your family) I'll just say - “read the blog.”
The family unit is well. I'd say an A.

Jarod
His homemade chocolate is becoming a community favorite – and a continual point of discussion among us all. He will be starting in soon on coffee roasting ideas, which should also be highly entertaining. He has been building stuff, fixing stuff, hauling stuff, planting stuff, and reminding me it is a good idea to sit down every once and awhile and enjoy the quite of our home. Reminding me to go for walks and take pictures... just because it is enjoyable. Because where we live is amazing. Besides finding great joy in the natural world around him and the many things to learn on a daily basis, he is building a few friendships and enjoying his Bible Study with our friend David. He is dreaming about 'what to do next' and tonight we learned he needs to look for a job based on a (ROWE – you can look it up). Or I guess maybe he wants to move to Wisconsin to make cheese – or Canada to tap maple trees – to Oregon to audit classes – or Kansas to fix wind generators... but only if he can ride his motorcycle. So yeah – he's the same. And here is his favorite mushroom shot - these come up over night and vanish by mid day. We are pretty sure it is poisonous.




Jude
We all agree he is doing well. Weird but well. He is a strange little guy with questions about, “why are family is white,” and repeating words like 'horchata' again and again – just for the fun of it. He still asks almost daily about when we will go back to Kansas or when he will see grandpa or play at Izaac's house, but even more frequently he asks when his friends are coming over or when we are going to the river to swim. He is learning to read and loves working on school with me and going to school to teach English. He is joy and he is trial – he is the reason that I have been spending my few free seconds reading a parenting book.



Lucy
She is walking on her own now, a bit. Talking on her own now, a bit – in both languages. She is dirty. She loves shoes and food. She has weak lungs and a bad attitude – and she is the town of Urraco's mascot. The children love her – the moms love her. We love her... but this parenting book is coming in really handy... and I am telling you that whoever she becomes... she was born that way.




I am continually amused at my daily miscommunications – with my bumpy road as teacher, neighbor and friend. I am enjoying myself deeply... frustrated often, missing the comfort of easy old friendships and learning lessons by the second. I am super pumped that by the next blog I may have put books into the hands of every child in our village and set up library story hours to flood their little brains with my horrible Spanish and the wonder of a little library!

Lest Thou Think Us Vogue

I sat today, giving myself a self-righteous pat on the back for knowing exactly which family each of the food items on my plate came from. What wonderful people we have become.

As our increasingly “Last Child in the Woods,” locavor, yogurt-making family moves out of the mainstream and into the 'vogue ideal' of 'sustainability – I thought this would be a good time to remind myself and let you all in on a few secrets.

We burn our garbage. ALL OF IT. Polluting the world, and specifically the air, right outside of our children's window, with toxic plastic fumes.
I sometimes considering 'going somewhere' just to have an excuse to get away from hand washing cloth diapers.
And yesterday, in a moment of weakness, at a hardware store while Jarod was making keys I spent over $15 on fertilizers and pest control for the garden. I am depressed and dejected at growing things in this climate and am tired of only being able to grow things that are “carne de perro.” I want spinach. After 200 mangos - I want a carrot. This 'local eating' – preindustrial lifestyle is hard.

So, there you have it – we are garbage burning, fertilizer using – cruddy gardeners, energy sucking polluters living on the edge of virgin rain forests, that will in all likely-hood be gone before my kids enter school. Because; here is the secret: The people cutting down the rain forests are not evil monsters who just don't care about humanity. They are people just like you and I. People trying to “make a buck,” “support a family,” or “get ahead.” The people who are still hunting and eating endangered species are my neighbors. And they are just hungry. The world is in the condition it is, because it is full of human beings, like you and like I who can not – no matter the effort put forth – no matter what the new great 'vogue' idea to help our children and save the world is – meet the ideal. The ideal of, “Loving God above all else and our neighbor as ourself.” We can only succeed in getting 'good enough' to become self-righteous in our effort and looking down upon others. We cannot save the world by just 'living simply' – by going back to some made up ideal lifestyle that never has exsited. And this is good news. It takes all the pressure off. Not the pressure to do good. But the pressure of perfection. Because the perfection has already come. The world's salvation is already guaranteed. We are then free to live in grace. Toward ourselves and others. Doing the best we can, motivated by love and gratitude.

We had the joy of being joined by a 'crazy canadian hippy volunteer' for a month this summer, who was continually striving to live with the least footprint upon this planet. She challenged us and laughed with us. She lived as consistently as she could, striving for perfection in herself but being ever gracious with failings and open to conversation. She was an inspiration, but mostly because she never looked to herself as the savior or as having arrived. So here is to you Bethany – may the fuel in your plane to arrive safely at home keep you humbled. :) And here is to you, our granola eating friends in Portland – may you continue to buy food at the local farmer's market – always knowing that it is an act of love – to a world beyond your repair – but never beyond His. Here is to you Olga who still grinds your home grown corn every morning, wash your laundry by hand every afternoon, walk the hill every evening for church, and puts your ever so pregnant body to bed every night. And, here is to me – and all the garbage I burn, until we all find a better way...

Don't look to men for help;
Their greatest leaders fail;
For every man must die.

His breathing stops, life ends,
And in a moment
all he planned for himself is ended.

But happy is the man
Who has the God of Jacob as His helper,
whose hope is in the Lord his God -
the God who made both earth
and heaven, the seas and everything in them.

He is the God who keeps every promise,
and gives justice
to the poor and oppressed,
and food to the hungry.

Psalm 146:3-7
Living Bible



We have green beans that grow this long and yummy... okra too, and cucumbers - at times. That giant thing behind him is a mazapan... a giant fruit you can fry like a potato. Actually - you'd be surprised what fruits you can fry in animal fat :)


Although I may be ready for a change in diet - Lucy will never tire of the mangos - and alas I will never tire of changing her lovely runny diapers. They work better than prunes.