Honduras Missions

The Ritchie Family / Children's Lighthouse

Friday, May 31, 2013

Busy

Been a busy few weeks. Kia down rebuilding motor again. Needed cylinders, pistons, rings, crank turned, bearings, clutch, water pump, lots of machine shop work, straightening block and head and reworking the injection pump, injectors, ect. But it is back on the road and our bank is empty. Still needs tires. Also trying to finish our multi-functional multi-duty little building. It will be a classroom for kinder, Sunday school class, regular school and indoor playground as well as being a bunkhouse for visitors. It started out as a simple roofed sandbox playground for toddlers and morphed into a building. Pondering at each step,  "Well if I just do this for $100 more I can also use it for that too." After a few of those, poof it is a building.  And while doing that, for good measure, what does one do with an old Kia one ton rear end? Make a merry go round... The kids kept wanting to go to a city park in town to ride one, but we always encountered someone we were suppose to be keeping the kids from while there. Wilmer often would not even get out of the car there because he was afraid of who might see him.(it is one of the places he was abused at). So I thought, I could build one, then there is no need to go there. Amen. When the cement hardens we will have our own.
 Pastor Enemesio was finally able to build a pulpit for the church in Colonia Trapeche. If you remember a year or so ago we cut down a hardwood tree on our Lighthouse property and finally got it dry enough to use. I had a mill cut it into planks and now he can build a few more.
 Have visitors coming next week. One of our pastors called with a praise of sorts. One of the men who had venomously opposed him over the years was now in the hospital dying of cancer. The man called for the pastor to come and talk in the capital (4 hour travel time). When he arrived he had a hard time getting into the hospital for several hours because of a shooting and police had it on lock down. When he finally entered the man was repentant and ended up putting his trust in the LORD to the joy of his wife. If the LORD gives him enough strength, he wants to be baptized and gave the blessing for his family to go to church. Something he never would allow before.  He went in to be operated on and all they did was close him back up because everything was cancerous. The Spirit of the LORD works in the heart of every man and will not limit what He must do to bring us to a saving grace. That is why those that chose to go to hell are without excuse.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Mothers Day

In honor of my mom, who is no longer here on this first mothersday without her. Her wish was I would buy a new truck with the inheritance she left. Instead we welded the old truck back together and used it again to built two places of worship for two churches in the mountains of Honduras…from her vantage point now, I do not think she minds. Thank you mom and 2 churches thank you… Happy first mothers day in heaven… Sorry I wont be sending flowers
this year, but did what I could, hope you got it…

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

White field in green uniforms...

Another productive day. We went to the military base and a new group of recruits were ready to be preached to at 7am. Wilman one of our young men wanting to preach, gave the sermon and 20 plus young men came forward…including their commander.(He was front row center and the first one forward at the invitation). What a testimony of leadership… It is proving to be a white field to harvest. Pray we get some time to disciple them and get them in churches as they rotate out every few weeks. Still struggling with sickness in the house. Just keeps making the rounds. Now our teacher is sick(Jr wife) And Lisa just can’t shake it along with the weeks of allergic reaction to whatever it was...

Saturday, May 4, 2013

His mercy is new in the morning...

We had a Honduras Missions preachers meeting Saturday for both the ones that are and the ones that might want to be. It was a good event. Great preaching and interaction and I sacrificed my Spanish preaching library yet again to get good material in the hands of hungry readers. Better in their hearts and minds than on my shelf. Lisa prepared everything the night before because it was our first breakfast meeting in an attempt to allow our mountain preachers to return on the last midday bus. Rushed them back to town and stopped the bus as it was pulling out, just in time. Pastor Augusto’s wife brought Ruth. The preemie baby we placed with them months ago. She is thriving and has become (we hope) a permanent part of their family. Our Nicaraguan pastor returned from his medical trip to Nicaragua just to attend the meeting. He is already doing much better, but has a lot of issues and will return in a few weeks for more testing. As the LORD does things, the preacher was able to get care at a Baptist owned health care facility 3 hours into Nicaragua. When they found out he was a baptist preacher they gave him all the free meds he needed… Amen. 

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

Kinder

Need prayers. Have a lot of sickness in the house, Lisa and kids, since the last group left, Try as I might, it even got me this past week. The kind of sick you just have to sleep in the bathroom. Lisa went to the Dr and got the right meds for all and they seem to be working. Also out, our pastor in Eyes of Water, is battling diabetic feet and a few other issues. The walking in Eyes of Water has done him in. He could hardly walk yesterday. Since he is Nicaraguan he cannot get social medical care here. I paid for him to return to family in Nicaragua and get their free care while there. His daughter is a nurse. It was cheaper and better than doing it here. So he will be out of commission for while. We are having a preachers meeting this weekend to regroup and plan. We have had the youth preaching this past couple of weeks. Amazing the wisdom found in youth when their heart is after God. After a few years trying, we now have been given a regular permitted time to preach at the big military base rather than just being special guests. Amen. It will be a good place to train the young men mentioned above as well. Trapechee has started 3 service a week since beginning in the new building with a lot of new faces attending. A lot more wear and tear on the motorcycle. Marc Antonio called Sunday morning with a flat in the middle of no where and his patch glue not sticking. So rushed out to help in a sick kia and a sick driver to get him and his wife back on the road. What do you do when the preacher doesn’t show up for Sunday morning?… Just wait, it is Honduras he will get there eventually. We were 5 hours late getting to one church years ago because of a storm and digging the stuck kia out… Where were the church folks when we arrived dirty, wet and in the dark?… Still waiting and expecting us to continue, which we did, amen.


Our kinder class/daycare/bunk room is almost finished. It is only 15 foot squared but it will serve as a daycare/kinder Sunday School class during church and a kindergarden/preschool during weekdays. We are also making a small attached fenced play area. With beds, it could also house a few guests willing to rough it a bit. The Kia…same story: broke, fixed, running. It costs several hundred a month in repairs it seems to keep it running at the pace we need it to run. Needs tires again… those hurt. Also got into a one car fender bender a few weeks ago. Set the brake, didn’t hold, and it rolled into a pole bending the passenger door. I got it to open and close again after a week of the kids crawling in and out the window. Kids did not mind...but Lisa did.
Keep us in prayer, for the spiritual battle continues for the souls of men.


View Larger Map