Yesterday was my husband Darwin’s 35th birthday, and our foster kids and local students who study in our discipleship-based homeschool program had been scheming for quite some time about the birthday surprise they would deliver to their beloved teacher and father: the classic Honduran tradition (which is typically only done to youth) of cracking raw eggs on his head and filling him with flour.
The day of the surprise attack, Darwin sensed danger as I gathered in a huddle with several of our teens near our front porch, so he snuck out of our front gate, locked it so no one could follow him, and began running away. Two of our stronger teen boys hopped the fence in the blink of an eye (which is typically a big no-no, but on this specific occasion it just made sense), and began sprinting after him down the dirt path.
Well, that was just the beginning of the impromptu fun as Darwin ended up running all over our property in a zig-zag as roughly a dozen teens chased him through the tall grass where our cows graze. He looked like a wild bull who needed a rather large team to corral him! They finally cornered him and gave him his birthday surprise: eggs on his head and flour everywhere, but what they didn’t expect was that he would soon begin chasing them to take revenge!
It was a lovely half-hour or so of wild laughter and healthy fun all over our rural property, which we thank God for because in this country many teenagers do not have the opportunity to engage in safe, loving play (and much less with loving male Christian leaders who teach and disciple them on a daily basis). We see all over the Honduran news devastating murders and acts of extortion; what most people never hear about (and much less experience) is this type of loving camaraderie and innocent fun within the context of God’s perfect will. Most of our teens (both those who live with us as sons and daughters and those who visit our home during daytime hours for school) come from devastating childhoods and never really learned to play (and much less have sustained joy in the Lord), so events such as these highlight a very real joy that the Lord is allowing to flow in our daily activities as we seek Him alongside of these precious teens.
So, praise be to God for this afternoon snapshot of joy in a land replete in despair and violence. Enjoy the photos…
A good group of our students and foster kids gathered around the gate to watch the action on the other side — Darwin had locked the gate and tried to run away so that the teens wouldn’t be able to break eggs on his head and cover him in flour!After Darwin’s failed wild goose chase (he was the wild goose who failed to escape), he started taking vengeance on the students, chasing and grabbing them one by one and rubbing his eggy hair all over their clothes! (In this photo he’s hunting one of our local 16-year-old tutors who serves alongside of us on the far right side of the photo.)I was filming a video of our students’ surprise birthday attack on Darwin!We’ve got the Berlin Wall or the Great Wall of China going on here (and they keep jumping from one side to the other because the gate’s locked and Darwin’s got the key!)Total mayhem!Here comes Darwin after his solid defeat! (But he’s not done taking revenge…)
One year older, and definitely with a more mature look! All 35-year-olds sport raw eggs and flour, don’t they?He’s tired after having run all over the front pasture for several minutes trying to escape the scheming students, but he’s got enough spark left in him to take on one of the leaders of the attack: one of our 16-year-old local students! This will be a good match (and let’s see whose shirt gets ripped)!
It was a tie! Man, what happened to Darwin? He looks like he’s coming back from an all-out war zone! (His belt is undone, his clothes are all dirty and his shirt is un-zipped!)They’re still coming at him with more eggs! (They had buried them several days prior in preparation for the big birthday surprise, so the eggs were especially ripe!)Everybody scram! You might be Darwin’s next victim of revenge!To top off the whole event, our girls start singing happy birthday!This is Darwin posing with Carolina, one of our foster daughters who served as one of the egg-smashing masterminds. After the initial escapade, Darwin chased her down and rubbed his messy hair all over her clothes! Ha!Well, by the end of the ‘birthday party’, there were more victims than just Darwin! Everybody started throwing eggs and flour on anybody they could get their hands on!
Ok, the fun’s over! Now it’s time to do the daily clean-up rounds! Boys, go grab a broom and get to sweepin’!
Now everybody’s cleaning up in our outdoor washing station! Nobody wants to go home a mess!Here’s one of our foster daughters helping a local student wash her hair! We don’t want any parents mad at us because their kids smell like rotten egg!
Ok, time to head home! (Some leave walking; others on bikes; others in our pickup.) Well done with Darwin’s birthday surprise!
Yesterday my husband Darwin went into the city with 6 of our foster children for a day of dentist visits, music classes and errands, leaving me on our rural ministry homestead with two of our foster children. From time to time we like to divide our eight foster kids up into smaller groups so that they get more individualized attention, so this turned out to be one such occasion. A couple weeks ago Darwin took our three boys on a ‘man date’ to pray for the sick and then eat ice cream together, and he took one of our girls on a one-on-one afternoon date in the city not too long ago, which made her feel very special. This time my little group was composed of quite an interesting combination of people: one of our new teen girls who moved in with us about six months ago, and our 9-year-old special needs son who has lived with us over three years.
Thanks to the addition of a new Honduran teacher/missionary a couple months ago who now helps with the teaching, administrative and discipleship load my husband and I share with our small team at the Living Waters Ranch, I’ve been relieved of many of the administrative tasks that used to dominate my time. It has always been a fine line of being an available stay-at-home mom for our kids while also balancing the responsibilities entrusted to me to direct, evangelize and teach in our little mission and the surrounding community. Thus, with the addition of our new team member the balance of service-in-the-home and service-to-the-community has been made easier for me and has allowed me more stress-free time with our kids for God’s glory.
So, we enjoyed a completely spontaneous day of agricultural activities and physical work, something I don’t normally participate in (because in recent years I’ve been ‘too busy’). We each slapped on a pair of black rubber boots (the cultural sign of a Honduran who’s ready to work in the field), we grabbed three rusty machetes and began traipsing around our rural property under the blistering sun engaging in untold adventures. There were no schedules and no rush. We were simply enjoying being together (our strange tribe of three) while simultaneously rejoicing in the breathtakingly beautiful creation our Father has placed so close to us. We ended up investigating native plants, exploring the creek behind our property (and I nearly fell into a rather deep part when I precariously tried to cross the waters via a broken tree limb that looked a lot stronger than it was), cooking from scratch in our temporarily-outdoor kitchen on our porch, taking care of our bunnies, planting a few plants, watering them, and doing various physical-labor chores around our property.
It was a sweaty, peaceful day as we truly loved one another and reveled in the beauty of the Creator, much as I imagine Adam and Eve did in the garden so many years ago — blessed, uninterrupted enjoyment of Father God, His creation, and one another.
Near the end of our day together, it occurred to me to take out our little digital camera and take a few photos together. At first they were very shy and unenthused, but after a few shots they really got into it. We even taught Josue how to hold the camera and take (somewhat off-kilter) shots!
Enjoy our rather simple yet joyful photos of a momma called by God and her precious little ones (who aren’t so little). God bless you!
Josue and I posing in front of the little plants we planted near our fence. We’ve both got our working boots on!Carolina (15) and Josue (9)Josue learning to take photos…his finger managed to make it in several of them!
They are such hard workers! (We enjoyed about a half hour together shoveling dirt/rocks in our front yard.)
Time to help momma bunny give milk to her five babies in our living room!The little guy was so enthusiastically drinking milk that his feet were up in the air!
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Josue sure is a lot of fun!Tickle time!Gotta love this photo of Josue’s buttcheeks! We laughed hard when we saw this photo — he was intent on tickling me and didn’t realize that he probably should have been wearing a belt!
Now Josue’s taking the photos!
After balancing Carolina up with my legs, we had a wipe out!Now let’s head over to the mango tree!
This is one of my favorite photos! Absolutely beautiful!Time to jump down! Be careful!
Here come the buttcheeks again! You really do need a belt, Josue!One of the last chores of the day — washing the clothes in our outdoor washing station!
Josue learned how to rake the leaves! Good boy!At the end of the day, I sent Josue to go take a shower to get all the dirt and grime off. As he finished showering and changed into his pijamas, I asked (without seeing him), “Josue, did you shower with soap?” because sometimes he tries to only bathe with water. Carolina, seeing Josue come around the corner, began laughing and assured me, “Oh, he certainly did bathe with soap.” Perplexed, I began to ask how she could possibly know that when I saw the same evidence — Josue had big globs of soap in his hair and ears! He sure did shower with soap!
The latest greatest on our rural homestead in Honduras is the arrival of our five bunnies! Many local friends of ours had recommended that we get involved in bunny care as a way of producing small quantities of meat for our family’s consumption, so we finally did so when a local woman was looking to sell her adult bunnies at a good price.
A couple weeks ago we started off with four females and a male…and we’ve already got babies! The care-taking of our precious bunnies has been a huge hit for our kids, as they’ve been given the task of feeding them several times a day, which includes going out to the pasture to cut grass with a machete for them and chopping up fruit and veggies for their consumption. The bunnies were very skittish when they first arrived and we were told that they couldn’t be held, but our kids have been working hard to domesticate them, and one of our teen daughters in particular has become quite a delightful bunny tamer. She helps ‘milk’ momma bunny so that each of the babies gets enough to eat, and she’s constantly checking to make sure they’re okay. (Our kids consider themselves too old and mature to play with stuffed animals, but cuddling the bunnies is fair game! We love it!)
Here are a few photos!
Our 10-year-old son Jason whom we are in the process of legally adopting squeezed into the bunny hutch! My husband Darwin and I are enjoying having the bunnies on our homestead because their presence is teaching our kids more responsibility, how to gently care for God’s creation, and they are healthy entertainment! (We’ve chosen not to have a television in our home, and our kids don’t have internet access.)Our 14-year-old foster daughter Jackeline LOVES the bunnies! She’s offered to feed them three times per day, and every morning and evening she helps ‘milk’ momma bunny so that her babies get enough sustenance! Jackeline is also very involved in the care and upkeep of our small herd of milking cows and is excited about the pig pen we are in the process of constructing. We are very proud of the new, very mature character the Lord is forming in her as He transforms her with His love.
Here is our eldest, 17-year-old Dayana, whom we are also in the process of adopting. She’s not too fond of the animals, but — fear not! — Jackeline is close by to make sure everyone’s okay.This is 15-year-old Carolina, another one of our beloved foster teens. She moved in with us late last year and is doing extremely well in our household.Jackeline took several portraits with the bunnies!Here are the babies when they were just a couple days old! When our kids first saw them, they asked if they were rats!
Hidden Treasures: Seeking the Kingdom of God in Honduras 
