Living at the Arevalo household

We have officially moved to the Arevalo household. We have been here for two weeks now and it has been great. I met Kelley about 8 years ago through a mutual friend and she became like a sister to me. The Lord has blessed me with a beautiful friendship in her. We are now both married to two amazing and godly men and have kiddos of our own! Pretty amazing!

Kelley and Abner pastor a small church here in La Ceiba and they offered to let us stay at their house while we were here for Matt's school...they did not know what they were getting themselves into :) They have a two year old little girl and a 8 month old baby. Their house is about 1,000 sq ft (and no AC) so there is not tons of space to move around, but we have somehow managed to get along well...God is good! :) They have been so generous and selfless in that they even gave up their own bedroom for the 5 weeks that we will be here. They are amazing and godly people! We are so excited to be here.

Kelley and I usually take turns cooking. We plan meals for the week and usually go grocery shopping together every week. It is fun having a cooking partner and having extra hands to help out with the kiddos. We are usually busy all day taking care of all the kids, making meals, disciplining, getting ready to go somewhere, cleaning up play-doh, holding crying babies...etc. There is never a dull moment :) Evenings are great because we usually get to sit and talk without interruptions after the kids are all asleep. Many times we pray and share about current parenting issues, marriage issues, etc. and it is great to be able to challenge and encourage each other.

All in all we are doing really well. God is teaching us, breaking us and humbling us as we all live together and live to serve and honor him. The girls are growing and learning to share and just learning to get along and love each other. It is hard for them, but it is good practice for them too. They are doing better each day! God is good. We joke around that by the time the girls are done with this time, they will be able to get along with anyone :) We shall see...;)

Pictures to come!!!

Para Devin y Colby...

Some time ago, our good friends (more brothers than friends, really) were asking me to explain when to use "por" in spanish and when to use "para". In english, we only have one word, "for" when we want to say, "the gift is for him" , or "I bought this for $10", or "I slept for 8 hours"... in english, the word, "for" can mean many different things or have many different applications. In spanish, there are two words that apply in different situations.

Well Devin and Colby (and I am sure there are others out there who would like to have this cleared up), here is your answer. See below for the 3-page exlanation!

There are some frustrating moments...

God is so good and gracious to us! He truly has given us an amazing life with Him here on earth. There is always joy and peace even in the hardest of times. Being here in Honduras is no different than being somewhere else...there are hard and frustrating moments.

Not having your own place and the four of us sleeping in one bedroom makes for some frustrating times. Mornings are sometimes especially hard because one of the girls is usually up in the middle of the night (one wakes the other up). We try to keep a good attitude, but to be honest, it's hard sometimes.

We have lived in three different places since we moved here. This coming weekend we will be somewhere else and then we will be with our good friends, Kelley and Abner, and we will be with them for five weeks and then we will be traveling some more.

Rebekah has been especially hard sometimes...just trying and testing us and it is hard having to discipline her all the time. The heat also gets to all of us and it drains all of our energy.

This might sound like whining, but it's not...it's the life that we are living right now. We are so happy to be here and grateful for the many opportunities we have had already to share about our Lord with our family and those that the Lord has placed in our path. It has been neat to see the Lord work in and through our lives. God's work is so amazing...but it does take some sacrifice sometimes as we lay down our lives for Him. We would not have want it any other way though.

Please pray for us when you think of us. It will be your prayers that will refresh and strengthen us when we are weak and tired. We love you all so much!

Three month old Essie and our big girl Kita

Esther is now three months old. She is doing well. She has been pretty healthy for the most part, but at times she gets a little desperate with the heat here in La Ceiba. We try to keep a fan on her most of the time to cool her off. She is smiling a lot lately...her whole face just lights up when she smiles...it is cute. She notices things more and is just much more alert.







































Kita is doing well too. She does not seem to be fazed by the heat. She likes it a lot here. She likes being mostly in her underpants. She loves the food too so that makes a mama happy. She is still very active...always doing something or wanting to do something...or sometimes getting into things that she is not supposed to :) Overall she is doing great. In the pictures below, she is holding some of the biggest avacados I have seen. They weighed about 5 lbs each!

More opportunities!

Lidia and I have had several God-given opportunities lately to share Christ with her aunt and uncle. It is very exciting to see the opportunities open up and then very exciting to take the next step and be faithful to share what Christ has done in our lives.

Last night, Lidia and I had several hours of good conversation about the Lord, the problems of the world, the cause of pain and suffering, etc with Lidia's uncle. Her uncle doesn't know the Lord and we were able to talk about lots of different subjects, all revolving around life in Christ and a Christ-centered world view. Her uncle struggles with all the pain and suffering in the world and why God would allow that if He is indeed real and good... So we talked about how much pain and suffering is caused by our sin and selfishness. We talked about how God has better plans for us and can help us to respond to the pain around us to make a positive difference in our circle of influence. It was a really good talk and Lidia and I were very excited as we went to bed that night.

This morning (Sunday) we told the family we wanted to have a little 'church' here at the house and just read and discuss a Bible passage. When we were getting started, the whole family came (uncle, aunt, their 3 sons, and grandma) to join us! This was really exciting, but I was nervous b/c I was going to lead the discussion... in spanish. :) I would have been a bit nervous in english, so I was even more nervous in spanish. It was a good thing though b/c it made me very reliant on the Lord for the right thoughts and words. Lidia also helped me explain things when I was having trouble.

The very interesting part (in which we could see Divine guidance) was that yesterday evening we had decided to do our Sunday study in Galatians 4-6, talking about being freed as slaves from sin and how God frees us from sin and gives us new, godly desires so that we can be free from many of the destructive consequences of sin. I wanted to share this b/c I feel like among unbelievers there is a presupposition that the Lord wants to take all the "fun" things away from us and wants to make us live a boring rule-filled life. This passage in Galatians shows us that those things that unbelievers like, are actually hurtful and descructive. God changes our lives and changes our desires to save us from destruction, not to rid us of enjoyment... rather we will have much more enjoyment (without the hangover...) as we live in the freedom that He gives. The amazing part is that later that night as we were talking, it came out that Lidia's uncle's favorite verse is from Galatians 6:7 about sowing and reaping! He learned this verse when he was a child through some neighbors that would teach the neighborhood kids verses and Bible stories (kind of like our Good News Club). He said that this verse always stuck with him. This confirmed to us that the Lord was leading in our selection of that passage, so this morning I started by saying that I wanted to take Gal 6:7 and put it in context... It was really great and I know that they at least heard God's Word and He can take it from there! Everyone was very attentive and afterwards the boys shared what they liked about what we shared from God's word.

The neat thing about sharing from His Word is that His Word is powerful and alive and active and will never return empty...it will always accomplish what He desires. It is not our job to convince anyone, but to share with a sincere heart from His Word and let the Lord do the real work of drawing others to Himself. We have been so excited for these opportunities that the Lord has given us! We pray that He will give us even more as we live here for the next upcoming months. Please pray for my aunt, uncle and family and pray also for us as we share with them.

A light in the darkness

God is so good to us! It is neat how He places us where we need to be for His glory and purposes. Sometimes it is hard to see why we are where we are, but eventually as we continue to seek and trust Him we are able to see Him unfold His purposes.

I have been able to share times in His Word with Yenni (one of my uncle's maids) and they have been some very sweet times. Yenni is a believer, but a young one in the faith, and I feel like she is really listening and desiring this time in His Word together. We usually meet outside on the front porch after she is done with all the house work and after I put the girls to bed. I have enjoyed "mentoring" her and helping her understand what His Word is trying to tell us. We have conversations about the meanings of passages and how that applies to us today. It has been so neat and my heart is so full after these times together. We end our time praying together and sometimes we just sing praises to Him.

My heart sometimes hurts for people who don't have anything...who are "poor" in material things. Maids here don't make a lot of money (usually about $150 a month for fulltime help) and they work really hard. Most of the time they are treated very poorly and often taken advantage of. What amazes me most though is the servant and loyal hearts that they have toward their patrones (employers).

All this truly makes me grateful for what we have and it makes me more generous. I think seeing how other people live and how they make it makes us want to give more and spend less on us. I also realize that even though these people might not have much materially, they are much more devoted to the Lord and so their hope is in Him. I know that one day we will all be in heaven with our Lord and we will all be happy(no more suffering or pain, etc)...I cannot wait! I love how God is the same and loves all of us the same. He cares about Yenni and her struggles and he also cares about us and our struggles. He is so good to all of us.

Last weekend also as we were talking with my aunt and uncle and they were sharing with me how there was something different about us and they asked me what it was. I told them it was the Lord in our lives. We had been wondering whether we were of any influence in their lives. We realized that we are having an influence because of Christ in us and not anything of ourselves. Unbelievers are always watching us and hopefully Christ shines through us enough for them to see a difference and for them to desire that which we possess. They also commented on how Matt and I relate to each other and the peace that they see in our lives. I was truly taken aback because my aunt and uncle don't open up and share personal things very often, but they had been talking about it to themselves.

God is good! He is faithful. We are willing vessels and we want to serve Him and be a light in the darkness. We trust that He will continue to shine through us and give us more opportunities like the ones He has given us so far.

Our aunt and uncle have been so generous and kind to us while we have been here at their house these past two weeks. They have truly taken us in as one of their own children and have done everything to make us feel comfortable and at home. We were hesitant and did not know what to expect when we came here, but it has been a great experience, especially for Rebekah who has been spoiled more and more lately by her great aunt. They love her so much!

Brain expanding...making room for more.

Last week I was exhausted after my first 5 days of school. I was feeling frustrated b/c I felt like it was going to be very difficult to keep learning. I felt like if I learned anything more, it would get all jumbled up with everything I had already crammed into my head that week.

This week is going much better. Much of what I learned last week is actually still there and instead of getting messed up, it is like a foundation. I just keep adding piece by piece and it seems to be going better so far this week. On friday, I get to learn the future tense so that will be a huge piece of language for me. Tomorrow, we are going to a place near a river and we will be having school out there and then having a barbeque and then swimming. I am bringing Lidia and the girls, so it should be fun!