This month I took three of our girls — Sandra (16), Jackeline (12) and Josselyn (12) — with me on a three-day trip to the nation’s capital as I signed the final papers to officially receive my Honduran residency after nearly four years of active waiting. We had a wonderful time together as our girls travelled out of our immediate region for the first time in their lives. We visited a zoo, a national park, Honduras’ first children’s museum, and the national university in addition to meeting together each morning as a family in the small hotel cafeteria to study God’s Word together. [The photos included in this post were taken on our trip.]

After the murder of Darwin’s brother and the death of his mother earlier this month (See: Worshipping Death: What Happens When We Reject the Life-Giver), a couple weeks ago the young men and women in Darwin’s youth choir piled into our truckbed and headed for the memorial service. Under Darwin’s direction, they sang songs and hymns of praise as they sought to worship God even in the midst of tragedy. The majority of Darwin’s family members are not believers and have been deeply shaken by the sudden loss of two family members. We thank God that Darwin has taken the initiative to speak words of life and Truth into the lives of his brothers and sisters as they seek to cope.

Last week Darwin hosted an open meeting for the parents of the students who study at the Living Waters Ranch as ideas were exchanged and plans were put into prayer for the following year. It seems that the parents who attended the meeting are very pleased with the results they are seeing in their children and are planning on keeping them enrolled in our discipleship-based program next school year, which begins in February 2017. Please pray with us as many decisions are involved as we continually seek God’s will and direction for the program.

After a period of discernment with two of our Honduran teachers, we were able to change the weekly ‘flow’ of activities to allow Darwin and I to both teach one day per week in elementary (8 students) and one day in secondary (13 students). In prior months our time had largely been consumed with errands and administrative work, which took away from our hands-on time with the students. Praise God that two of our teachers now spend two days a week helping out tremendously with the errands and office work while Darwin and I are able to get our hands dirty in the classroom, loving the children and teaching them God’s ways. In the 3-4 weeks since we have made this change, we have seen very positive results as God is allowing us to bring new energy into the classroom and we are deepening our relationships with the kids in our program for God’s glory.