Honduras Missions

The Ritchie Family / Children's Lighthouse

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Angels watching over...

Just a thank you for your prayers and a brief way they are used. Two sundays ago we baptized in the mountain. One of the young men (20+ years old) who we thought might enter the waters, did not. Several others did not as well. I found out today his father was across the river in the bushes hiding with a rifle waiting for him to enter in to be baptized. Some of the church folks saw him. The father was going to shoot me and the pastor. If I am going to die for something, might as well make it for something good rather than guarding a pepsi truck. He later went drunk to the pastors home and railed against him. The young man still wants to be baptized, but at a different location. We will do it here in the coming months Amen.  Protected round about with angels of our LORD... Please keep the prayers coming... Thank You.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

Water !

The concrete was still wet on the pump house building when the pump arrived. It took all day, but new pump, motor, pipe and control panel are installed in the well. Now to secure it with doors and run all the lines and buy the remaining parts needed. Had it running and pumping at night fall just not plumbed in yet nor does it have things like pressure tank ect. One of the reason it costs so much... all American parts!!! Maybe we will not have to pull it up for 10 years or so. AMEN!(We have pulled the old one 15+ times in 4 years.) Saw it pumping clean, clear cool water, need to test it in a few weeks to see if we can drink it... 



That is the main reason for it.  Amen!

Had an oxcart passing by while working on the well and asked him to pose for a picture. It is a silly photo but shows one of the problems in many churches, families and governments....
The owner of the beat up and abused horse came by looking for it. He showed papers for it and was going to just leave with it. After talking a bit with him and telling him the story and how much in medicine we spent... uh lets just say Julie is now the owner of a currently lame horse... But happy about it.  It seems to be a pattern with us, we seem to collect broken things, broken animals and broken people... cant imagine that being a bad thing.

Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The old grey mare...

 The horse we seem to have aquired Sunday is still making it. The story now seems it might have been stolen and the man whipping it and pushing it down the street ran off after saying a bunch of bad words when a passing truck knocked the horse down. Julie went out got the horse up and put it in our pasture where it collapsed and would not even lift its head. That was when I came home from baptisms in the mountain. All I saw was a big hole I was going to have to dig. The horse has been starving for a long time, worked hard and beaten and how hit by a truck. But Julie listened to good advice of one of our pastors, placing our healty horse next to it and got it standing, drinking and has been dressing it's wounds (doesnt everyone have tri-tetracycline laying around, uknow just in case a horse gets hit infront of your home?) and it is grazing again. The old grey mare aint what she used to be,.. but might just make it.

Our water well project is still progressing. Building the pump house to put the pump controls ect in a secure dry location. Still need to dig 1000 foot trench to lay all the pipe, but soon it will be done. The kia is dead on the operationg table, still looking for a cyl. head to revive it again.Still needs an injection pump too and that is even more expensive. Out treasure hunting for parts.

Directline ministries is sending a Christmas Shoebox container this year, it is never filled by just shoeboxes and there is always room. So if anyone wants to send anything to Honduras large or in volume now is the time. Please contact Paul Deem at 740-667-6166 to make arrangments. He might even be in your area and can pick things up. Always in need of kids items, toys, mowing construction equip, generators, chairs, tables, food ect ect. We can always use help in funding it as well. There are always many expenses that come with importing a container. But the blessing flow for months even years from each one. This one will have 2million tracts on it.

Our good friend Dr Greg Waller From Truthfortoday Medicamissions was asked to go help the typhoon victims in the Philippines. He dropped what he was doing, collected all the meds he could and "borrowed" from that which he was collecting for another missions trip and left on short notice. He is there now caring for the sick and injured. I know he could use your prayers and help as well. He is a great Dr. and a great soulwinner.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

A beautiful thing...

Had a great day in the service of the LORD today. Even though it well may have been costly. Had promised to take a mountain church to the river to baptise. After the preachers meeting yesterday the kia began overheating... today it only got worse. Lots of stops and lots of water but made it through the day hauling 50 folks to the river and back. We baptised 14 in believers baptism in a very beautiful setting. Purple flowers in bloom in the background and the water was clear. The photos do it no service. It is easy to picture it much like the Jordan River might have been 2000 years ago. The pastor in this church just opens the door for whosoever will. (That is after many services explaining baptism, including this one.) I was asked to preform the duty and it is an honor and quite humbling. When I enter the water we are not sure if someone will even step in... But step they did, 14 of them. Including a whole family due to the faith of the youngest child. The preteen boy wanted to be baptised for several months and had asked the pastor.

The boy intern needed to ask his dad. Being from a catholic background they refused. The boy persisted in a gentle way and finally the parents went to see the pastor to find what this was all about... And trusted the LORD as Saviour. As did the older siblings. Today they all entered for baptism... Amen!! Got done dropping everyone off, then finally off the mountain with a boiling kia... OH joy cant wait to see what's damaged this time... A tomorrow job, today is time to just rest in the LORD... Amen
Added notes to the blog... One of the young ladies who was afraid of the water because she could not swim paniced a bit when I went to submerge her knocking me backward down the steep bank. I ended up going under so I could lift her out of the water and place her feet on the ground. It made for a good laugh. She went under scared and came up laughing. The last young man to be baptized waited till the last song was sung and about to go to prayer to close the service before making the decision. He had been watching from up stream, instead of walking in close to me like the others, he dove in and swam to me. Already wet but not baptized... The moment we were done with our solemn service and the final prayer, the folks waiting for us to finish jumped in the water and startled me. One from 20 feet up a tree where he had been watching it all. It was a great time. When we got home we
had to rush to get ready for our service and Julie saw a horse in the street that had been hit by a car and was barely standing. She got it in our field and it collapsed. Wounds look bad, She treated them the best she could and put meds on them. It is now 10 hours later and she has it standing and eating and drinking again. Not sure if it will make it or not.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Preachers meeting / Day of Thanksgiving

We had our preachers meeting and it went well. Not often am I able to get all of our preachers in one location. Considering our guest speaker Osman from the capital was home first, even after a 2.5 hour drive, before I was after taking some of them back to their homes in the mountains. And the kia overheated again... Productive meeting with alot gained and planned and much distributed. The pasters left with a revived fire it seems. It is political season here and it just happened to be today there was a rally by the "traditional" church with 100 deputados and priests and all their families meeting across the road from us...thankfully they did not cause too big a problem. Baptisms tomorrow but not sure if I will make it. Kia overheats in 15 highway minutes... and it is an hour hard ride up. As we prepared to take preachers home we learned while we preached in the Lighthouse, done below the other church gathering across the street...well, someone needed our truck battery more than we did... Little baby Ruth the orphan we placed with one of our pastors has grow much and now walking. Her mother died in child birth and she was born very premature...Hard to tell now... Amen! Mark Antonio is on the mend, Minor the Institute student will soon have the pin pulled out of his collar bone, The preachers have a goal of 20 new church plants by 2020. So even though we are getting older and the loads seem heavier than they once did... we added a bit more. By grace and mercy...Amen!


View Larger Map