Sis Maria meets the need (light blue shirt)

..serving, at risk children,most will go home to dirt floors.

2008 Christmas caroling at Las Glorias...

K-4 taught by Mrs. Maria Rivera,the children feel the holiday excitement... ...Maria with her children...and they do like to huddle about!

...they call out "Tee-chur"...they come ready for what the day will bring...

...the poiensettia tree with full color call out the winter season, in Central america...

...the students helped us celebrate my birthday, we had cake and coffee, pics of today's events are included. We had a thick fog today that covered Lake Yojoa Bilingual School, the poinsettia tree is showing the color of the season, the rains announce December in Honduras, it is so beautiful here, but the poverty is huge and the workers few, but i feel that the future holds blessings as our time and goals unfold, i do not feel as old as i am, accept on cold days like this week has been, we are knitting relations and strong ties with the "catrachos" (Hondurans) as they treat us like family, today our beloved Emely and her mother Ana made banana leaf tamales for us to eat, they were wonderful! THANK YOU Maria, my wife,for the sweet things you do for me...

Pray with us as we pray about "opening doors" with our next door neighbors: "Friends of Barnabas Foundation" , you can learn more about them at www.fobf.org. An opportunity to reach out to recuperating children of genetic defects, has been presented to us at CCPena Blanca. The foundation would like to sponsor "Art Therapy" for children healing from heart and other surgery. Once a week, working with Calvary Chapel Pena Blanca, we could have up to 20 children w/parents doing art projects which in the "words" (paraphrased) of President and Founder, Linwood G. Cook, "speed the healing and recouperation of our little patients and parents! Linwood, met with Eulogio and I today asking us to prayerfully consider opening a wing of our childrens ministry to them and in exchange they help us set up childrens minisrtry and furnishings, I looked at Eulogio and asked him if he was ready for such an undertaking - as he stands along side me, in this mission field, he knods the affrimitive. We are excited, and anticipate the opportunities that will be availble to those whom I send this e-mail to, "Barnabas Clinic" also has plans to build a 100 bed hospital on a purchased site in front of the present location! It seems as though "neat" things are happening...in HIS service...chris and maria rivera

...three new members to our mission family are...chickens, we went to deliver support to the only day care center in El Tigre, the center is run by the very precious Sister Maria,the only requirements of the children are...that they will bring a piece of dry wood to help cook the food that they will be eating (mostly soups and corn tortillas), she saw the need for small children at risk, parents leave to work or other kinds of distraction and often enough the oldest child is left in charge of the household, and that child may be only 5 years old...children at risk are many in number in the outer villages and pueblitos, Sis Maria, oversees 90 children at this point and the numbers only grow more...we at CCPena Blanca have told the story of Sis Maria and have gotten the attention of some private donators, and so we hand deliver the support when we can,many times the people we help, wish to show graditude to us, in this case we were given 3 live chickens;.. a rooster and two hens, we accepted them as they were available and did not wish to offend or hurt... so Eulogio, Leah and the other Leah, were glad to take on the challenge of making a pen, and habitat, as now the rainforest will provide many of the bugs and creepy critters that our egg layers will begin to consume a little song came to mind as I gazed at the birds (the tune of Old McDonald it goes like this "ole McChubins had a farm Leah, Leah, Loque", we do get a little creative out here must entertain ourselves!...as an extra note, the fire flys are big as neon green jelly beans and at dusk they come out and float about in the dark, sometimes decorating these huge trees of the rainforest like Christmas Trees!

...it has been record cold here in Pena Blanca, towards the evening we slip on our "sweats" to stay warm, we continue to make lots of relations and friends, Pena Blanca is a very small town with lots of people, and tons of teens, and as we go into planning our prayer is that we will "fit" into the spiritual needs of the youth' we bring to the table a very experienced trio of youngsters that "slow but sure" are gaining the approval of the wonderful people we/they work with and stand with. We are very excited to see what the Lord is going to do here. As I have explained to others, I feel very much like the opening act of the Southwestern "Rodeos" , horse show, barrel race, calf roping and bullriding it was all so grand back in the late 1960's BUT the opening act featured this "retired" grayhound and on the dogs back, in a tiny saddle, mounted securley, was this little monkey dressed in an "cowboy" outfit, hat chaps, the works and this pair would open the Rodeo by doing laps around the arena...well I feel like this monkey hanging on to this speeding animal as I am in control of nothing, and awsome situations unfold before me and all I did was hold on tight...

...they came and went back to ABQ

...well one more team of serving men came to help get our church and community house closer to finished but we still have a long way to go. we hope to build a cafe and open mike service, something that will cater to the next generation of people up and comming. it was just amazing as the work team from sunny new mexico came, so did the sun! as they left the rain came right back! here we are once again slippen and sliding in our lil mitsubitshi truck, we are thankful that it is 4x4. can't wait for the next team to come as i observe most have a great time of ministry and leave with a complete feeling and an urge to come back. hope they do and our prayer is that the support in prayers and finances will occur thank God.

once again..

we live in central america, far from the life we were used to, far from loved ones,far from home...but we are not alone, the host family that invited us to come and teach, has adopted us as their own in many ways. we do feel accepted, the cultural barriers are not to unlike our own, as we have latin based roots, but the language was not our own. the basis for coming is because we speak english, and in english we teach. we planned that my wife would lead the way in the teaching arena, and i would build relations one person at a time, with the goal in mind of building a church that would be set up as a classroom, teaching only the bible, verse by verse, and in so doing create a fellowship hall where one could sit and sip coffee, or eat a homemade cookie, while listening to christian tunes, or watching a life changing drama with a message, even listen to a speaker at an open mike.... the idea is to have a bi-lingual church, serving the community with the finished work of Jesus in mind and heart.

What were we thinking ?

If you asked me 10, no, 5 years ago, what I would be doing, I would say I am thinking about a place to retire, it is coming up you know. So now I say to myself, alot of people retire "South of the Boarder". When the invitation came up to teach English at a new private school, in Pena Blanca, Honduras, we rolled it around in thought. (my wife and I). And so now a year and a half later,here we are. We sold our house, truck, and what we could not sell we gave away. All we own is what we got here, in our lil' cabana on a strip of orchard, in the middle of rain forest and coffee crops. We are no more than 2 kilometers from the Great Lake Yojoa. If you come from the Southwestern part of the states, where many parts are arid and dry, one finds the "green" of the rain forest over whelming. The food is much more healthier here, it seems less processed by far. It even seems food cooks alot quicker too.
The amazing amount of beautiful birds certainly catches the eye and curiosity, my favorite are the Toucans, that live in a very tall tree in our front yard. The call of the night birds are erie yet somewhat soothing as they stand watch in night time rain forest.