Sunday--A fruit-filled day

Sunday--June 27

Today we had a busy and fruit filled day! Our morning began with our morning devotions lead by Karen from John 15:4-9, 16. “I am the vine and you are the branches…” We were reminded that we must abide with Christ to bear good fruit. Our focus should be on abiding in Him – not the production of fruit, because that is the natural result of abiding in Him.

After a breakfast of fresh fruits and toast, we had a very spontaneous hour of creative efforts to launch our team’s production of “the prodigal son.” As you can see from our pictures later in the day this was great fun for everyone, and we even managed to get our audience involved in the action. Our first fruitful service of the day was with Martha’s Sunday school.

If you have not heard, Mrs. Martha Scarlet Thompson puts on one finest Sunday Schools in all of Honduras. She is a great encouragement to all the participants, and there are lots of participants. If you ever have a chance to visit, don’t be surprised if you are given a front row seat – like in front of all the children. Her lesson included how we use the 4 crosses – time, talent, treasure, and testimony--to bear fruit. After all the students were given a chance to eat, our team spent time with the students with activities similar to the previous days VBS including relay races, playing with the parachute, making cross necklaces, and handing out stickers and balloons.

After Sunday school, we had lunch back at home base which included not one, but 2 fruit juices: watermelon and pineapple. We hurried through lunch, so we could open the 2 BioSand Filters (BSFs) molds that were poured yesterday. This was a great opportunity to begin discussing the efforts to build a BSF with Gary and Martha, who stopped to watch the action. Next to mixing cement and tapping the mold to remove bubbles, the cleanup is probably the most fun part of building a BSF. The rains stopped yesterday evening, so I’m guessing we had a 90 degree day at 90 percent humidity – just like SC, but with no AC!

Our next stop was at Sra. Umanzor’s kinder for the weekly Agape Promises children’s program. This was probably my favorite time of the day. We were able to help serve the participants a meal that included pastelito and tamarinda juice, which we think resembles fig juice. This is one fruit drink not yet on our list of favorites, but I think it keeps away the bugs because the folks drinking this juice did better than the people wearing insect repellant. Did anyone mention that some of the bugs bite? I’m the most fortunate so far, but I heard one victim mention 82 bites tonight. Somehow, it seems that even our bug spray is no match for the local 6 footed creatures. OK, back to the “Prodigal Son.” We did our second showing (and final – sorry you missed it) for the younger AP children and were a great hit! I’ve included a couple pictures from the show to give you just an inkling of how exciting this show was for us. We then spent time with our AP family enjoying the afternoon. God is doing great things with the AP program!

Believe it or not, we made time to clean up before a 2 and a half hour service at La Cosecha (“the Harvest”). The fruit of the Spirit was evident even for guys like me who cannot understand many Spanish words. We were blessed by the incredible time of worship and a brief visit with Pastor Zaldivar following the service. We learned he bakes cakes during his day job in Quimistan, and he promised to bake us a cake some day! We hope to return for next Friday evening’s service…,no not just because he promised us a cake!

To top off the day, we had dinner at local restaurant called Don Fermin (better known to us HAF folks as “Goyita’s” for the owner) and shared the meal with a couple of our AP student family. Knowing the day would be full with no time for supper until late, we had given Gloria and Sandra the evening off to rest.