Larry and Allison's Traveling Thoughts

News from February

2012-01-29T16:52:00.000-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Discipleship Group Retreat

Due to many circumstances, this year we had a Discipleship Group retreat rather than a mission trip to the southern part of Honduras. It was a perfect opportunity for us as a Group to get to know one another better as we shared testimonies, two baptisms, meal preparation and clean-up, and a week sharing the same home. We spent one day working as a team on the latrine we are building for Dario and Maria (who's house we built last year). The rest of the days we had sessions in the morning about prayer and meditation, and in the afternoons we practiced what we learned. For nearly every Group member, it was the first time they spent an hour at a time in prayer by themselves. After we prayed alone, we came together and shared some of what we heard and received. We rejoiced with God and one another as each one of us heard something specific from God. We also spent time in the afternoons discussing some topics that they chose like: "What does a Godly dating, marriage and sex relationship look like?" (this took up most of the time!), and "How do we not let embarrassment or feelings of inferiority stop us from pursuing God's call on our lives?"

Some highlights for us were: sharing testimonies, as we heard the extraordinary brokenness from almost each young person and the way they were finding God as the only stable place to trust; Bayron, a 17-year-old, who cooked (with enthusiasm!) for the first time in his life, on a team with two girls; the baptisms where God gave us a special gift of his presence; and most of the cooking times where everyone gathered in the kitchen to help, not limiting it just to those who were scheduled to cook that day. At the end of the week no one wanted to go home. We rejoice in the work that God did in us and among us and pray that his glory would continue to grow in us as we seek him together.

Julia returns home; a talk with her and Heidi

A few months ago we wrote that Julia, one of the almost 13-year-old twins we help care for, was taken to live with her mother (who left her with the Grandmother at 18 months). Julia turned into the cook, housekeeper, clothes washer and neighborhood babysitter. We prayed and spoke with the Grandmother about our concern for Julia's safety in the more remote location and with a step-father with a history for alcoholism and violence. The Grandmother's response was that "the mom is the mom" and she can take her if she wants. However, last week Julia came running and crying to her grandmother's house with her step-father close behind her. She had spilled the coffee when she tried to save her cousin's baby from tripping (who she was caring for along with her half-brother and sister), and the step-father got so angry that he tried to hit her. He chased her for about 300 yards in a rage over the spilled coffee when he wanted to drink some. With this the Grandmother said Julia was staying with her and that she would not return to her mother's house. We thank God for protecting Julia.

This last week we were also able to take Julia and her twin sister Heidi to town with the expressed purpose of buying their grandmother a present for her 70^th birthday; but we really wanted to talk with them about their entering adolescence. Two weeks ago, a 13-year-old girl in their community snuck away from her family's home at night to "elope" with a 22-year-old from the neighboring community. So basically, our talk with them was not too soon. During the conversation Larry told the girls that if any boy started bothering them that they should talk with Larry and he would talk with the boy. Heidi nodded in understanding. Praise the Lord that we can be a part of these girls' lives where He is the one who protects the fatherless. We pray that they will believe and value themselves as his daughters to keep themselves for the one man God has chosen for them.

The Smoaks

While we weren't able to have a week away as we planned, we are thankful for a few days of rest and time with friends.

Eva, the cutest of us, is at such a fun stage (we will probably write that every month). She is walking all around and is using her new skills to feed her curiosity. She has learned to climb stairs, a bit on the shelves, and open doors and gates. She keeps us alert, but thankfully, not at 4:15am anymore; she has been sleeping until at least 5:30 every morning. She is using more sign language, is repeating words, reading books and playing with dolls. She laughs all the time and is a joy for us.

Larry has continued to struggle with an ear infection. He had two rounds of oral antibiotics and now drops for the fungus in his ear. In one of us his visits to a specialist, the doctor was in a hurry and apparently sliced the eardrum. It has been quite painful. After the cut he has experienced more dizziness and nausea. Pray for complete healing for his ear and protection from any further complications.

Allison is in her 17^th week of pregnancy and everything is going well. "You're getting a lot bigger" is a comment I am hearing a lot lately, so we are glad everything is progressing as it should. We plan to have an ultrasound in a few weeks to be sure the baby is developing healthily.

Praise to the Lord for:

-A great Discipleship Group prayer retreat where we grew in our relationships with God and with one another

-Julia returned to live with her grandmother after her step-father tried to beat her

- The opportunity to talk with Julia and Heidi about their value as God's daughters and to wait for the husband He has for them.

-Eva's developing well and the joy that she has and shares.

Pray to the Lord for:

-The DG members would continue to grow in their desire to seek God and to receive from him

-the Acosta orphans and the twins. It has been a hard month with them as they are in their teen years of testing. Pray for Mario, Gerson, Walter, Jimmy, Julia and Heidi to find God as their source of security and life.

-Larry's week of teaching with a YWAM Discipleship Training School in La Mosquitia, February 13-18.

-Larry's ear to completely heal and for no further complications.

Trusting in the Father to the fatherless,

Larry, Allison, Eva, Joel and the rest of the household

"Love never fails."

News from December

2011-12-30T15:00:00.001-06:00

Christmas in the Chicken Hutch

About a year ago we bought five hens, a rooster and ten small chicks, and relocated them to our newly built chicken hutch. The first comment of nearly everyone that came to see them was "Look at the size of that rooster!" I've got to say, he was pretty impressive. He must have weighed ten pounds, had a tall red comb and strutted on powerful, thick legs with deadly sharp spurs. His crow was so loud it hurt your ears up close and could be heard from hundreds of yards away. He kept his harem of hens in tight order and none escaped his desire.

Well, the chicks, as they usually do, grew up, and were full grown at about 8 months. Out of the ten, we ended up with three roosters and the rest hens. At first they all knew their place: out of the big rooster's way. But soon, in their adolescence the three young roosters began to risk courting one of the hens when the Big Guy wasn't looking. They would catch a hen trailing the flock, would fluff up their feathers and dance their little dance around her, hoping that she, so impressed by their show of masculinity, would let them mate with her. But usually the dominate rooster would run them off with a flap of his wings and would reclaim his hen with a show of his own male prowess. Around the feeding trough he was truly a tyrant. Whenever a young rooster tried to eat he pecked and chased him, leaving bloody wounds and forcing him to return to the roosting poles. Only at dusk after the Big Guy and all the hens had gone to roost for the night were the young roosters allowed to eat.

This power struggle went on for several months and the young roosters responded in various ways. One day we found the boldest young rooster dead. He had bloody wounds all over his body. Apparently the dominant rooster decided that his competitor was getting too strong and so he eliminated him. A second young rooster, who was a little scrawnier than the others, simply cowered at the approach of the dominant male. He would stay out of his way as best he could and when he couldn't he was always ready with his "Yes sir. Right away sir." The third youngster played it smart. He didn't go head to head with the Big Guy, but each night he would be the last one to roost in order to get enough food to grow. And he did grow, little by little, in the shadow of the dominate male and grew to be quite an impressive rooster himself.

Just a couple weeks before Christmas I heard a riotous flapping and squawking coming from the chicken hutch. I ran over, wondering if a raccoon had broken in and was astounded at what I found. The dominate rooster, the Big Guy, the Cocky Gallo himself, was pressed up as tight as he could into a corner of the chicken hutch with his head so far down in the manure-sticky beading that I couldn't even see it. And the up-and-coming rooster was strutting around behind him, with an arrogance in his eye that made me shiver. If the once dominant rooster even twitched there was a violent peck to answer for it. The young rooster had inflicted bloody scars all over the old rooster's neck, comb and head, and his comb had actually fallen, it flapped clumsily on its side almost covering his once sharp eye. His feathers were all disheveled and the color of his skin, once dark red, was a dull pink. How the tables have turned. Now whenever he tries to eat the young ruler is there to abuse him and run him off. All the hens fuss and scurry around the now handsome young rooster. Even the scrawny rooster submits to the new emperor of the hutch. And no one seems to care about the now humiliated, shriveled up, old rooster.

I marveled at the treachery and violence of their struggle for power. Then I realized - our world as a whole isn't that much different than life in the chicken hutch. There are the Big Guys out there, the roosters of roosters ruling the economic, social and political arena with iron clawed fists, like the old- regime dictators that were brought to light in 2011, and the powerful businesses that pay unjust wages, like the drug lords here in Honduras that rule entire neighborhoods through murder and oppression, and like those responsible for the horrific human trafficking and pornography industries. Then there are the little guys who just scurry along behind or bow when someone is looking with a "Yes sir, Right away sir" so that they don't end up dead. In fact who doesn't live by the law of survival of the fittest, no matter what means of survival we choose? It comes down to me thinking about how I can get the biggest slice of pie. Even my smiles and good deeds can be ways to get a step up on the next guy. I realized we really do live in a chicken hutch world!

As I stood there in the chicken hutch, astounded at what I saw, I suddenly realized that Christmas is about God coming into our chicken hutch. He came, but not as a big, strong rooster but as a baby, fragile, vulnerable and dependant. And he came knowing that the dominant roosters, Herod, Caesar, and the Pharisees were poised with their talons sharpened, and were going to kill him. How could he do it? Most of us chickens are looking for a way to escape this treacherous place, but he came in and joined us. Did he get kicks out of being a doormat rooster? Or did he just grit his beak and bare the suffering long enough to get us out of here when we die, because that's what he was supposed to do? There has to be more behind it than that.

God in Jesus came into our chicken hutch, and when we shoved him aside by our busy grasping for more, while we spit upon him by our silent smothering of the weak, as we slapped him by our obstinate denial of the truth and nailed him by our cavalier mockery of what is right, he believed what is the true mystery of Christmas. He believed that by loving love one lives invincible life, even in the chicken hutch. Jesus believed that his Father, who is love, is the Almighty and never fails. So Jesus could risk being a baby in Herod's chicken hutch because as long as he loved love by believing and living all that God by the Spirit in him was, he would be invincible.

What could they do to him as long as he loved love? The more they mistreated him the more opportunity he had to love them. Their violent attacks in attempt to subdue him all played into his own desire to love love by loving them. For what better opportunity to truly love than to love those who will not return the favor? This is pure love, God love, and the love that became a man and entered our chicken hutch world to show us the way to live invincible life. So let's return to, believe and live the true mystery of Christmas this year, yes, right here in this chicken hutch world, because this chicken hutch has become the kingdom of our God.

"The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it." John 1:5

"The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord, and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever." Revelation 11:15

Praise the Lord for:

-Don Victor celebrated Christmas with Jesus this year, with a new body and no more suffering. We praise God that we were able to be with him as he took his last breath on earth and as he entered Life. We thank God for the 11 years we were able to help care for him, three of those in our home.

-Erick, former Discipleship Group and GO Scholarship member, returned to live with his parents and requested time with us to confess and receive guidance in his next steps. Praise the Lord for this heart change in Erick and that we can be a part of his reconciliation process.

-Eva celebrated her first birthday! We thank God for the privilege of loving and guiding to Jesus this sweet, funny and adorable little girl.

Pray to the Lord for:

-Health for the Smoaks. Larry has an ear infection and the stomach flu, and all three of us have colds.

-The Discipleship Group prayer retreat, January 2-8. We will be studying and practicing prayer, finishing a latrine for Dario and Maria, celebrating a baptism, living as a family and growing in our understanding of how to live the life of Love.

-guidance for Erick in these days of intense seeking of God's love and will for his life now.

-continued health for Allison and the baby

-a time away of rest for the Smoaks January 9-13. Pray for the young people who will run Campus in our absence and for us to find physical, emotional and spiritual rest in Christ alone.

Amazed at the Christ of the Chicken Hutch,

Larry, Allison, Eva, Joel and the household

"Love never fails."

December News

2011-12-01T17:24:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Once again, thank you for your involvement in the life and outreach to which God has called Allison and me. Our prayer is that through your participation and ours the amazing person of God is bill boarded before people and all creatures of heaven and earth.

Agua Viva Water Project

Twenty-two of us from three language groups and four countries joined together around our faith in Christ to make up the Agua Viva water project team. What a picture of God's kingdom! As usual, during the days we worked alongside the people digging ditches to bring potable water to each home, in the afternoons we held Bible school for the children and later all community meetings where everyone had a chance to share testimonies of God's goodness and the Word of God was taught. At night the team swung in hammocks by candle light to reflect on what God was teaching us throughout the week. Several snapshots of what God did during the week are: A ten year-old boy named Oscar, who weeks before nearly died of a rat transmitted disease, carries a spark in his eyes and asks when we are going to get to hear teachings about Jesus again. Some of us visit the home of Arnold, school teacher and star soccer player, who asked us to visit his home late at night so that his wife who arrives late from work can hear the good news about Jesus. He asks us to come back and live in his community to teach the Word. Some visit a home and the family's one prayer request is provision of food. Some visit another home where a deaf and dumb girl and several unclaimed children live with their grandmother in great poverty, when faith-filled prayer, the spoken Word, songs of worship and a loving touch clear the air of hopelessness and depression and replace it by peace and joy. We played and laughed and shared each others' company for more than an hour. Jay Substad, the President of Agua Viva who suffered with work-related, debilitating lung damage is prayed over and is healed! Praise God with us for all of this and more that he did during that November week in El Porvenir.

Don Victor

During the past two months Don Victor's health has taken a downward turn, which is to be expected when you are nearly 99 years old. You probably remember that Don Victor is a neighbor and friend whom we have taken care of for more than twelve years and who has lived in our home for three. A man whose strong, capable body once served him to raise nine children farming the steep mountain sides of La Muralla, is now lying frail and helpless on his bed. Just the other day he raised his trembling hand, the one that gripped a machete for all those years, and said in his now barely audible voice "Look, I have no strength in my hand." It looks like Don Victor will soon pass on into the fullness of eternity.

There are challenges of taking care of a completely helpless person that you know nothing of until you do it. Just the meeting of the basic physical needs of that person, which were once second nature to them, is now not only a chore that takes much of the day's allotted time and strength, but a pushing beyond the normal boundaries of privacy and independence. As I helped Don Victor the other day, I wondered if somewhere deep inside he remembered his former strength and wondered how he was now so helpless and dependent on someone who does not even understand his former capabilities. And I wondered at how I, a completely unrelated foreigner and recent arrival now played the role of a dearly trusted son. At first my mind reeled in repugnance at what was asked of me, crying "Why me?" Then that quiet, still One showed me in that same repugnance my own frailty. Suddenly I saw myself in Don Victor, and saw us both in all the mess that we have gotten ourselves into. I realized in a graphic way how terribly helpless he and I both are, and how utterly dependent on a merciful redeemer and friend, Jesus. Then, like a light turned on in the dark, loving my neighbor as myself made sense to me, and so with cries of "God have mercy on us" I helped Don Victor in our time of need.

This Christmas season let's celebrate with a hushed awe, a faith inspired joy and a loving obedience the One who entered into our mess, who took on our frailty and helplessness, who carried our grief and our sorrows, who can sympathize with our weakness and who is an ever present help in our time of need.

Eva

Praise the Lord with us that Eva is eating well and sleeping a lot more! Thanks for your prayers. And praise the Lord that Eva is going to be a big sister!! We look forward to meeting this person that God is giving into our care.

Praise the Lord for:

1. Teaching us about himself through difficult experiences.

2. The good work that he did during the Agua Viva Project in El Porvenir

3. Mario's primary school graduation (the 3^rd oldest of the Acosta orphans)

4. A good visit from Jack Dyer including a Thanksgiving Day celebration

Pray to the Lord for:

1. Allison and I to remember and live the truths he teaches us daily

2. Health for Allison and baby

3. Someone to be prepared and sent to El Porvenir to make disciples of Jesus

4. His Spirit to do a deep work in the hearts of the Discipleship Group members

5. Don Victor to be ready to be taken home to be with Jesus

"Love never fails."

Joel’s Dad died

2011-11-10T18:20:00.001-06:00

One morning I came up to the kitchen at 5:15am (this was when Eva was waking up at 415). I was surprised to see Karla walking toward me, coming from the street. She told me that her mom's brother, Joel's dad, died during the night and she had been with her family at the velorio (basically a wake, where they sit with the family and the body for the 24 hours until they bury it).

I didn't think Joel would wake up before I got back from my walk, so I spent my time walking praying for him, his family and for God to help us tell him.

As we were all holding hands before we prayed for breakfast, Larry told Joel that his dad died. He got a slight grimace on his face and repeated what Larry had said. We confirmed. Then he told us that he had some iron he was really excited to sell with his bottles. So we prayed and started eating. During breakfast we told him we would take him to the velorio in the afternoon where he could see his dad's body and explained how his dad wasn't there anymore and what happens to a person's spirit when they die. Karla told us that before he died, Joel's dad "said he believed in Jesus." Nice that it works that way after living a life of treating your wives and children so poorly, but it may, and it was enough to calm the family's concerns.

It also gave us an opportunity to talk with Joel about what he knows and believes about Jesus. He told us that he "has faith, that God can heal and save, and that one day Jesus is going to take him to be with Him and he's going to have a new arm, a new leg and a new brain." And then he asked, "and I will see my dad?" And we said, "if he has a faith like you, then yes." He was content with that.

At the velorio we went in to see the body with Joel. He made the same small grimace that he did when we told him, but he was content with that. Then we sat outside on the porch and he told us who everyone was. He had a great time seeing all of his brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles and didn't want to leave for the family reunion part of it. But when it was getting late he and Larry walked home.

We picked up the family for the funeral and drove the mile up the road to Las Mangas where they have a cemetery so Joel could be part of the procession and to give a ride to some of the family members. At the funeral, Larry took Joel to see the body one more time and he seemed fine with that. But his brothers wanted him to touch the body. There is some sort of belief that if you don't the spirit will come back to haunt you. (Which is why, incidentally, Don Victor left the light on throughout the whole night after the dad died. "His spirit could come. We have to leave the light on so he won't hurt us…"). So Joel touched the body.

After the funeral I asked Joel if he felt anything when he saw his dad for the last time. He said yes and put his hand on his chest. I thought he was going to say that he felt sad or something, but he said, "The Holy Spirit touched me. I am good. I feel peace." Praise the Lord. What a beautiful gift.

Don Victor to the hospital

2011-11-10T18:19:00.000-06:00

Don Victor is pretty sick. He fell a couple weeks ago and hit his mouth and he hasn't been able to eat. His daughter came two Sundays ago and took him to her house where they have a host (almost literally) of people who don't work outside the home and can help care for him. It is good that he is with family and he is receiving more constant care than he could here.

On Monday they asked me if I could drive him and others to the hospital so he could be checked out by a doctor. Apparently he has a hernia that he has had for decades but it is really bothering him right now. Don Victor has nine children but only three of them are making decisions based on his health because those are the only ones who are showing their concern. I heard that it was decided between the three of them that they would take him to the hospital but if the doctor suggested leaving him overnight and/or to have surgery, that they would say no and they would bring him back the next day.

To me, this is obvious. Of course you're not going to make an almost 99yo have surgery! You give him loads of medicine and you make him comfortable. Especially when he believes in Jesus and has told me for years that he wants to go "home to be with Jesus." That's when you rejoice when he finally dies and receives his new body without aches or pains!

As we were getting ready to go I heard one of his granddaughters say, "we'll see what the doctor says," about leaving him in the hospital, while at the same time saying that Don Victor's daughter had the final say. When I heard that the daughter told Don Victor that they were not leaving him in the hospital, I knew my role as driver.

As we were loading him in the car he looked at me and said, "they are going to leave me there, just throw me away there in the hospital." I looked him straight in the eye and said, "Don Victor, I am coming back today in this car and I am bringing you with me. I will not leave you in the hospital." The daughter, not knowing what the granddaughter had said, smiled at my affection for Don Victor and his trust in me. The granddaughter didn't mention anything other than that plan in the future.

I was talking to my mom the night before all this happened and she very gently asked, "what is your role in making decisions in this case?" I told her I knew I had no official position since I wasn't family but Don Victor chose to live with Larry and I when he fell two years ago instead of his daughter, so I do have some "right" to stand up for his best. She agreed, glad to know I knew I didn't have any official say. I was grateful to God for the decision the children came to and that I overheard it all so I could back up Don Victor!

And God shut the mouths of the…dogs

2011-11-10T18:18:00.001-06:00

I will just be honest and say I don't like to exercise. I realize the benefits that it has for my body and the importance of doing it, but I just don't like it and pretty much do what I can to avoid it. However, when Eva was waking up at 4:15am for two weeks and we would push her to 4:45, what else is there to do at that hour besides take a walk?

The first day I told God, "ok, you know I don't like this but I know it's good for me. But honestly, I also don't want it to be annoying. So I will walk until Eva starts crying or until a dog barks at me." When I had walked in the morning before the dog at every house would bark at me, so the entire time I was walking I was being audibly accosted. It made it such an unpleasant activity that I dreaded it every time.

We live between two bridges and the distance between them is two miles. That's a pretty good distance for me, but I admit that I had little motivation that first day. I headed "down the road" first toward the little bridge, thinking that Eva would cry and then I could come home more easily. Total trip to the bridge and back is only a half mile. Again. Not very motivated.

Well, she didn't cry and so I headed up toward "downtown Las Mangas," the booming metropolitan of probably 40 homes. I was just waiting for the first dog to bark so I could head home. I passed all the usual suspects and was shocked as I passed each home without one dog bark. Some of the dogs even watched me go past them, turning their heads from left to right to follow me. Nothing. Not even one bark.

When I got to the end of the big bridge without a crying baby or a dog bark, I laughed out loud and told God he had a good sense of humor. He was kind and kept the dogs' mouths shut for me on the way home, too.

I have hoped for these results again while walking but since I had more motivation the following times I didn't turn back when the few dogs bark at me. But I still laugh.

a few Evaisms and other happenings

2011-11-10T18:16:00.001-06:00

This is the complete post...

Evaisms and a few other happenings

We haven't had internet at home for a few weeks, which means I haven't been able to put cute Eva facts up on Facebook. Here is some of her cuteness, along with a few other things that have happened during that time.

-I know that most babies "dance" to music. It just makes me laugh that she bounces to "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

-Eva has started to eat more lately (praise the Lord!) but I wonder: just how much squash is too much? I think she is going to turn into a pumpkin soon!

-When we were at the internet café Eva would stare at the people seated next to us until they looked at her. Then she would scrunch up her nose and eyes and smile at them showing all of her six teeth. Do you think someone is used to being noticed?

-In her eating, it is just as much of a show for Eva as it is purposeful. She grabs even the tiniest little piece of food and puts it in her mouth and smacks her lips like it is super tasty and she's just finished a huge meal.

-Eva has started to clap more often, so we say "yay" when she does it. However, I have noticed that at times it is also her signal for "all done" and "more." We're learning (both of us!).

-When Eva gets really excited about something she opens her mouth up super wide and cackle/laughs.

-I think Eva realizes her skin is soft and fun to touch. Most mornings when I take off her jammies she starts touching her chest.

-When Eva was sick I think she got a taste for cuddling. It's still only usually when she wants to nurse but there is more body involved than before.

-We went to visit our friends who have a baby boy seven weeks younger than Eva. She kept putting her hand on his back and tried to stand up—which of course pushed him down. Thankfully, the boy didn't mind yet, and Eva's not strong enough to actually hurt him!

-When will Eva stop crying when I put her down for a nap or to sleep? She can be totally asleep or drowsy enough to sleep but she always cries—but only until I shut the door. If her goal is to make me feel bad about putting her down, it's working.

-I love the movie Chicken Run, especially after having chickens in our home. We see the chicken hutch as we leave our room and I always ask Eva where the chickens are. She turns her head toward them and starts whispering with focused eyes and an "o" mouth. Then I say "the chickens…I think they're organized," and then respond with Mrs. Tweedy's voice, "they're chickens, Mr. Tweedy…"

-Eva loves looking at the baby on the baby wipe container so I put on the Babies movie, just to see what she would do. When the baby started crying she looked at me with joy and laughed. She's a very compassionate child.

-when the roosters crow, now instead of being scared like she was when she was very little, she looks at me with big eyes like she is surprised and says "oh!" and then listens for them to crow again (which, of course, they will).

-Normally Eva doesn't like the car seat. But the other day we took Don Victor to the hospital in La Ceiba so she sat in the back middle in her seat and there were two "strange men" sitting on either side of her. She kept looking at both of them and sucked her thumb and eventually fell asleep.

-I know that every parent thinks their child looks like the gender that they are. But seriously, when I dress her in all pink with flowers on her clothes, why did four people walk up to her and say "oh, what a cute little boy!" Oh, that's right. It's because we didn't pierce her ears at day 2. But come on!

-I have been walking through Las Mangas in the mornings with Eva to get some exercise. However, everyone wants me to stop and show them the baby so my heart rate doesn't stay high too long…

-The other day our neighbor came over to say he almost killed our cat today: on purpose. The cat had killed one of his chickens to give to her kittens (teaching them to hunt). I immediately locked the cat up, apologized profusely and offered them one of our frozen chickens as partial payment. He denied the frozen chicken but was glad we locked the cat up. I gave away all the kittens the next day. After two days of them being gone hopefully our cat will stop hunting chickens.

-I think our cat knows that Eva is a baby. She plays with Eva just like she does with her kittens.

-This morning it was so cold when I stepped outside that I thought I might be able to see my breath (I couldn't). Then Luis told me that he thought the end times were upon us because it was so cold. It was 65 degrees…

A few Evaisms and a few other happenings

2011-11-10T18:15:00.001-06:00

-I know that most babies "dance" to music. It just makes me laugh that she bounces to "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross."

-Eva has started to eat more lately (praise the Lord!) but I wonder: just how much squash is too much? I think she is going to turn into a pumpkin soon!

-Eva has started to clap more often, so we say "yay" when she does it. However, I have noticed that at times it is also her signal for "all done" and "more." We're learning (both of us!).

-When Eva gets really excited about something she opens her mouth up super wide and cackle/laughs.

-I think Eva realizes her skin is soft and fun to touch. Most mornings when I take off her jammies she starts touching her chest.

-When Eva was sick I think she got a taste for cuddling. It's still only usually when she wants to nurse but there is more body involved than before.

Smoak news from October

2011-11-07T13:42:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, Larry started to write the update and then our computer broke...again. And then he had to leave for the water project. And for the first day I am able to get to the city to use the internet, the days are ticking away in November. So very briefly:

-This month Joel's dad died from complications with diabetes. Joel seemed to understand and is taking it well. He felt a "touch from the Holy Spirit" (his words) during the funeral. We praise God for his gentle touch to Joel.

-Eva caught the cold that everyone at Campus had and then "it went bacterial." She is recovering well now but lost some weight while she was sick. Thankfully, she is eating more solids now that she is feeling better. Please pray this will continue because this has not been her habit in the past!

-Don Victor fell the last week and then wasn´t eating. I called in reinforcements (his granddaughters who can convince him to do anything) and they got him sitting up and eating soup. His daughter came the next day and she took him to her house where there are four granddaughters and her in the house and two more faithful granddaughters in the community. They are caring for him well but his days with us may not be long. He believes in Jesus and is eager to see him and receive his new body without any pain.

-our very good friend Santos Ramirez died last week after a long battle with a painful and unknown cause. He suffered from shortness of breath and a rapid heart beat with only a little work. We and others helped him get lots of tests to determine the cause but it was never found. Pray for his wife and children after his loss.

-Larry, Joel and two Discipleship Group members joined the Agua Viva team for a water project this week. Pray for God to move among and in them as they bring the Living Water to a community that needs clean drinking water.

Praise the Lord for:

-many opportunities this month to share the necessary centrality of Jesus through real life circumstances

-Joel finding comfort from the Holy Spirit on his father's death

-God's direction and teaching in the Discipleship Group, giving specific words to its members

Pray to the Lord for:

-the family of Santos Ramirez after his death, leaving a wife and six children, ages 2-17

-The Agua Viva trip (November 4-12); Larry, Joel and two DG members will join the US team in southern Honduras

-Eva's health as she recovers from a bacterial infection with weight loss

Thank you for your prayers,

Larry, Allison, Eva and Joel

"Love never fails."

Smoak News from September

2011-10-09T17:45:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

New Roof!

This month we received God's blessing with a new roof on the building that houses our kitchen, dining room and bathrooms, as well as one of the dorms on Campus. A team from Tennessee and Georgia put the new roofs on during their two-week stay.

When Tim and Jenny English were here with their family in December and January (to help us when Eva was born), they talked about bringing a work group from their church. Larry mentioned that our current roof wouldn't make it through another hurricane so they went home and fundraised and put a team together. Tim and Jenny brought three of their children, as well as Ty and Jess Willison, Casey Gumm and his brother Sam. We were thankful for everyone's voluntary spirit, hard work and especially Ty's knowledge of carpentry, as well as some of the rewiring the group was able to accomplish with his direction.

We were also able to put a new roof on the orphans' house, much to their delight. While we had buckets under leaks in our dining room, they had pots under leaks on their beds. The kids were great helpers for the roofing team, too.

Friday Youth Outreach

The Discipleship Group (DG) members are giving away what they have received! I don't know if you remember when, about a year ago, several of the leaders in DG wanted to reach out to teenagers in our village. Well, they organized a time for youth to come to our home and campus from the villages of Las Mangas and El Naranjo. We sing some praise choruses, listen to one of the DG members share a devotional and then play some games. After about a year of hosting this event, there is a core group of about fifteen youth, many of them from very broken homes, who come consistently and are interested in the good news about Jesus and his kingdom. And the DG members are learning to authentically and personally give away the truths they are receiving from God. We are thrilled to see the DG members sharing God's Word from their hearts and loving their neighbors. And we are watching the good news of Jesus being planted in the souls of another generation of young people in our area. Praise God with us for his work in the lives of the DG members and the local youth, and continue to ask him to accomplish his redemptive will among us.

A little Eva update

Eva is nine months old and she is a lot of fun. She keeps us busy as she is always on the move! She is the little star with those who live here, with the Discipleship Group and the kids we spend time with. Everyone wants to hold her or play with her and she loves the interaction. She looks older now with her five little teeth and this helps with her eating more foods. She has started to eat a bit more and is gaining weight at a good rate. She is crawling all over, pulling herself up on everything and then pulling everything down from whatever surface she just pulled up on! She is a constant little talker and has started to play hide and seek with Larry, laughing hysterically when they find each other.

Praise the Lord for:

-New roofs on our kitchen/dining room/bathroom, a dorm on Campus and the orphans' house!

-Eva's continued health and growth

-how well the Discipleship Group-led youth time is being received by local youth

-a three-day rest we were able to take at a friends' house in La Ceiba

Pray to the Lord for:

-God' continued provision for us in body, soul and spirit

-wisdom for us in how to raise Eva in body, soul and spirit

-wisdom in how to love and lead the orphans toward a saving relationship with God

Trusting in Jesus,

Larry, Allison, Eva and Joel

"Love never fails."

red hot chili peppers

2011-09-12T16:59:00.001-05:00

Larry has a lot of peppers planted in our world here because we have almost perfected (if I humbly say so) our hot sauce. And since we live in Honduras and "clean" is so relative, I hadn't cleaned under the refrigerator lately. (ok, so I'm not sure if I would have done that even if I lived in the US.)

On Saturday morning I was baking and I looked over when Eva got more focused (read: quiet). I saw it just as the pepper made it into her mouth, so unfortunately I was right in her face to see the horror on her face as the burning sensation set in, and to hear the howl which erupted from our baby's inner being.

I heard that water only makes the burn worse so I tried to get her to nurse. When she was too upset to do that I tried squirting yogurt from her bottle into her mouth, which, understandably only made her more upset. I just didn't know what else to do.

A friend of mine was with me and we saw that she would cry pretty hard every time she sucked her thumb. I realized that she picked up the pepper with that hand so every time she went to find comfort by sucking it only made it worse. So I held her down and my friend washed her hands but Eva still didn't lower the volume or intensity of her crying.

We also noticed that she had a big red spot on her side and we assumed that she had touched herself there with the pepper juice. When we didn't really know what else to do we thought we would distract her with some cold water (a favorite of hers), thinking that might help reduce the redness on her side, too.

So we stripped her down and set her on a soft cloth on the concrete wash tub we have and started the hose. She almost immediately stopped crying and started playing in the water. We kept her there until she started shivering (which takes awhile since it's about 85 degrees most days), but by then she was chirping and happy again.

We thought she might be cured from thumb-sucking and from putting every single thing she finds on the floor into her mouth; but alas, it has not.

Smoak News for September

2011-08-31T18:05:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Corn and Bean Harvests

As most of you know, one of the ways that Allison and I seek the life of the kingdom of God is through agricultural development. Our hope is that God and his amazing heart and mind and person would be displayed through the way we farm to provide food for ourselves and others. That involves not only the agricultural practices that we choose but also how we relate with each other, with other farmers and the creation in the process of farming. So you can see why we are pretty excited that since May three farmers (Luis, Toyano and Agustin) and I have planted, cared for and harvested a large bean field together. And we are delighted to see our beautiful corn crop growing in a thick layer of leaves and rich top soil built up behind the Inga/Gliricidia/Vetiver erosion control and soil building barriers that I wrote about in June. These events resonate with the longing in our hearts for the restoration of all things to the way they were meant to be. They fan the flame of our hope in the coming kingdom of God.

But between moments in the warm glimmer of hope are long stretches of frustration over the brokenness of our world. We taste that bitter brokenness when we prepare soil, plant sweet potatoes, pull out the weeds for three months and then at harvest time find that someone has stolen all the potatoes. We agonize over the brokenness when we find seed for an excellent variety of green beans called yard long beans that can provide nutritious food for local families, plant rows of them in our garden, build a trellis for them to grow on, and then at harvest time thousands of leaf cutter ants strip the plants bare day and night until they die. We groan in frustration when, after years of establishing two different erosion control and soil building farming systems, and when we are trying to record crop yield data in order to assess and demonstrate the viability of these systems, this year both corn crops which produced exceptionally well were decimated by raccoons. These events remind us that

"the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time" and "waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For [it] was subjected to frustration…in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God." And "we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons and the redemption of our bodies…the Spirit helps us in our weakness," and "intercedes for us with groans that words can not express." Romans 8:18-27

After much hard work, side by side on extremely steep slopes, Luis, Toyano, Agustin and I have a good bean harvest. And our friends at Immanuel Baptist provided some raccoon traps which will soon arrive which we hope will save the remainder of the corn crop as well as help our neighbors protect their crops. So here and now we, with your help, continue living by faith the kingdom that is longed for in our hearts and that is revealed in the person of Jesus and the Bible, believing that even our faith filled, loving obedience is an entrance into that kingdom. Thank you each one for your part in the good news of this kingdom being "bill boarded" through our work in agricultural development.

Roofing Project

Aside from a miracle the tin roof on our kitchen/dining hall/bathroom building would not make it through another tropical storm. So we praise the Lord for his provision through Tim and Jenny English and a team of brothers and sisters who raised funds to buy a new roof not only for the main campus building but also for the orphans' house and one of dormitory buildings the roof of which are also dangerously deteriorated, and to come down and help us replace these rooves.

Praise the Lord for:

1. His Spirit which helps us in our weakness and frustration as we wait for the fullness of his kingdom

2. Allison's health and Eva's increased growth in the last month

3. Brothers and sisters in the Body who have provided for the roofing project

4. Five new Discipleship Group members who are hearing and seeing the Word lived out among us

5. For what he did in summer intern Ben's life during his 2.5 month visit

Pray to the Lord for:

1. His grace to remain in him and the hope of Jesus in the victory of the cross through difficulties

2. Neighboring farmers Luis, Toyano and Agustin to grow in their faith in Christ through our cooperative farming

3. His continued inspiration in the Discipleship Group teachings and relationships

4. Allison and I to be able to have a time of rest in the near future

In Love with Jesus,

Larry, for Allison, Eva, Joel and the entire household

"Love never fails."

Stolen Bible

2011-08-17T16:22:00.001-05:00

While on our bus trip to Tegucigalpa to attend our friend's wedding, someone stole the travel Bible that was a gift to me for my high school graduation. We searched the whole bus to make sure it wasn't just lost, which means that someone took it. My first reaction was "I hope they read it and find Love," but I realized I didn't really have love for the person. And since it was in English, it was unlikely that they would be able to read it.

Then my mind switched to mourning, since that was my Bible through some difficult experiences in my life, through seminary, and the Bible I had when I first came to Honduras. It was all marked up and I can often tell you where a passage is located (what part of the page) if I can't remember the reference.

But God in his graciousness reminded me that while I won't have the writing in my hand anymore, he has written these truths on my heart. And that's what really makes the difference in the end.

"Love never fails."

Eva fulfilling her name

2011-08-17T16:21:00.003-05:00

"Eva" is the Spanish version of "Eve," and last week Eva fulfilled her name from the perspective of sin temptation.

I was working in the library on the computer. I took a bunch of toys for her which she completely ignored for a shelf of crayons and bags, but that's fine. However, all of a sudden she saw the blue flashing light on the computer CPU. She crawled over to me and as she reached out to touch the computer I told her "no."

We had been teaching her "no" in the kitchen where there are some cleaning spray bottles. I took the back of the spoon and tapped her arm and said "no" when she touched the bottle. It took a few times but she stopped touching it and now with those bottles she gets close to them, looks at me and I say "no" and she doesn't proceed. I thought this was going to be really easy. (I know all of you parents are laughing.)

Back to the library. I told her "no" and she looked up at me, looked back at the computer (specifically the blue flashing light) and looked back at me and I repeated "no." Well, instead of turning around and not touching it, or instead of going ahead and touching it anyway, she started wailing. I don't just mean crying, I mean sobbing, to almost falling over she's crying so hard. Honestly, I started laughing.

I picked her up and moved her back to all her toys and the shelf of things that make noise when you shake them and then returned to the computer. Right behind me was my little Eva, crawling almost as fast as I was walking, toward the computer. Again, she got right in front of it, looked at me, I said "no" and she started sobbing again.

At this point I called my mom to wish her a happy birthday and to share my laughter and Eva's crying.

Then I moved her back with her toys. She again followed. Repeat scene, except this time in her hysterics she backed into the CPU (therefore touching it) and it brought the tears to an even higher caliber. Oh my dear baby!

But it made me think about Eve and us. Out of all the trees in the Garden, where were she and Adam? Right in front of the one tree they couldn't eat. I think that even before Satan arrived they were thinking about how beautiful the fruit was, were at least contemplating eating it, because if they weren't, why were they there? Even if they were only there to say "this is the tree we aren't supposed to eat from," their focus was therefore on the tree, on what they weren't supposed to do, not on loving God and eating fully from the Tree of Life!

And how often are we thinking about the list of things we aren't supposed to do and trying so hard not to do that. Larry was just sharing in the Discipleship Group about how if we focus on "I don't want to go here," will we ever get to the place we want to go? Of course not! We will always be focused on the place we don't want to go, so basically, we will end up there. That makes Philippians 4:8 all the more poignant.

I'm not sure I can keep my seven-month-old away from the flashing blue light (I mean, there are limits), but I am encouraged to keep my mind on "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable," those things that are "excellent or praiseworthy."

Eva and the puppy

2011-08-17T16:21:00.001-05:00

Eva is crazy for our dog Peppy. Eva sees her and just squeals and moves her body in every way to see the dog and to be near her. This proves to be a problem when the dog also likes Eva!

When Eva was first learning to crawl she made it half way across the kitchen but well out of range of the doorway where the dog has been trained not to cross. Well, all of a sudden Peppy bolts into the kitchen to start licking Eva! Poor Peppy got a spanking but it lit the fire of love between them and now they both seek out the other (although Peppy is smarter than eva at the moment after the spanking!).

To avert this chance meeting, we put a chair down in the doorway so that Peppy can't get in. That worked until Eva saw the cat maneuver the spaces between the legs of the chair. So we put the chair another way so she couldn't crawl through. Yesterday she learned to push the chair to make space for her to crawl through. But even so, she's already an expert at pulling herself up, so really all she has to do is stand up and squeal, and Peppy comes over to her.

Larry is working on building a gate for the front door...

Joel's confusion reveals truth

2011-08-17T16:20:00.003-05:00

Sometimes Joel hears new words and then tries them out. For example, a few weeks ago he learned "horrible" and after a few times of trying it out he now uses it freely.

Well, the new pastor moved in next door a few months ago and he uses the word "dichoso" a lot, which means "blessed." However, Joel heard "dichoso" but used his frame of reference to make it mean "chistoso" which means "funny." So now when Larry teases Joel, Joel will often end the conversation with "Larry is dichoso," meaning "Larry is blessed" but he means to say "Larry is funny."

While we giggle a bit, we all agree that while Larry is funny, he is also blessed!

Joel chose Eva

2011-08-17T16:20:00.001-05:00

Joel loves riding in the car, and he loves riding in the front seat. So one day when I was going to town, I noticed that he was going to El Naranjo to look for bottles. I offered to give him a ride there so he wouldn't have to walk the mile. He said yes eagerly and started to get in the back seat. When I told him that no one else was going with me and that he could sit in the front seat, he hesitated and then said "but Eva is going to be in the back, right?"

I was confused for a second and said, "yes," thinking that he thought that she might be in the front seat and that he wouldn't fit. But as he continued to go to the back seat, I realized that he wanted to be next to her. So I asked him, "do you want to be in back to be next to Eva?"

He shyly said, "yes" and then climbed in.

I thought it was maybe just me. Joel definitely loves me, but he loves Larry more than anything. Well, this morning he was setting the table for breakfast and I had to remind him to get Larry's plate and fork and spoon. Normally he remembers his own and Larry's but forgets mine. I was surprised at this but then cracked up when I saw that he had set out a plate for Eva and her plastic spoon. He got everything ready for her breakfast.

When I was walking down the road with Joel and Eva one time a neighbor who has only spoken with me a few times said "Joel is crazy about that baby. She's all he talks about!" And Eva loves him, too. When she sees him first thing in the morning she squeals and now crawls right over to him. When she can walk we're going to buy her a sack to go up and down the road collecting bottles with him! ok, we might wait a few years, first... :)

more people needed to love more people

2011-08-17T16:19:00.001-05:00

This week I have been overwhelmed even more with the desire for more people to be involved in what God is doing here. There are three little boys who come on Saturdays to play with the orphans and the other kids from their community. They are super (super) small. The twelve-year-old is much smaller than Jimmy who is ten and who is even small for his age because of malnutrition. Those who have visited us from the US think he is about six or seven. His thirteen-year-old and seven-year-old brothers are equally small.

We have been wondering how to help them because they obviously are lacking nutrition and just calories in general, but if both parents are in the home it's more difficult to offer help. We have asked about their dad, but everyone says he's a really good guy who goes to work every day and who doesn't drink. I revealed my bias because only recently I thought to ask about their mom. We found out that she is a "wanderer," never spending time in the house to make food for the kids. She sometimes doesn't get home until 8pm and often the kids only eat one time each day.

How we would love to invite these kids to live with us and to care for their physical and emotional and spiritual needs! Word on the street is that the dad would be in favor of someone taking his kids because he sees they are suffering, but most everyone else in their community is barely making it or are "finally comfortable" and don't want to take another "burden."

We are unable to take them in because we can't always be 24/7 parents with the other things God has called us to do and to be--especially if and when we are able to go back to the US to visit our friends and family. If we had even just one other full-time committed couple, we would be able to take in some of these "least of these" to show them the love of Christ and then be able to cover each other when we need to or are able to take trips or be involved in other ministry opportunities.

But at the same time we are trusting God for our desires for the work he wants to do in this place, as well as for those who we see suffering and who would benefit from others being here to be involved.

News from July

2011-08-03T12:34:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Julissa studying in the US

This coming week, our sister, friend, DG member for six years and GO Scholarship recipient for two, Julissa, will be leaving for the United States to study at a community college for two years in St. Louis, Missouri. Her uncle submitted an application for the scholarship for her without telling her and when she was called to the interview she went, trusting God with the outcome. When she received the scholarship she asked for four days to fast and pray about the decision. She felt God was giving her this opportunity so she told them yes.

Since she found out in April about the potential for leaving, she asked if she could live with us at Campus so she could have more time to study the Bible and be sure her relationship with Christ was solid before she left. We have spent a lot of purposeful time in conversation and prayer and study together with Julissa and God has healed her and revealed himself to her in beautiful ways. There is a freedom and a peace about her that makes her already joyful and inviting spirit even more so, as she is completely surrendered to him and healed from some sin of her own and many sins that were committed against her in her childhood by trusted adults. It has been such a privilege to be a part of her journey, for Larry over the last six years, and especially for us in these last few months when she has been living with us.

Pray for her transition to the US. She grew up in a mud house with a thatch roof "across the river" (which means you literally walk across the river from the road to get to your house, carrying anything you would have purchased above water level). At six months old Julissa was given to her grandmother to be raised. Then her mom left for the US and Julissa has never seen her since. She discovered who her father was around age ten, but while the man accepted Julissa's older sister as his own, he never acknowledged Julissa as his daughter. While living with her grandmother and aunt she was expected to do labor that was well beyond her age capability and punished severely if she didn't complete it. And she was treated as a girl without a father by many people.

Julissa began attending Instituto El Rey (IER) and saw the love of Jesus being lived out through the teachers, and especially the principal, Ester. She joined the Discipleship Group, accepted Christ and began to find some healing. Her attitude changed from bitter and angry to joyful and encouraging. When her grandmother died when she was fifteen, the Group was able to comfort and encourage her. At that time, Ester was a leader of the Discipleship Group with Larry and she told Julissa that she would be her mom. Through the DG Julissa found a family.

We are excited for Julissa to have the opportunity to travel, experience another culture, perfect her English and learn to depend on God. Pray with us for her during this cultural transition, as well as being away from so many who love her and support her in her walk with God. Pray for her host family to be Christians and for her to find a community of believers in St. Louis who will support her.

Our computer situation

We are without a computer with internet at home again because a virus from the students' university website shut down the computer. And our desktop is crippled with viruses but we can't fix it because we lack the Windows driver. We are hopefully getting the laptop fixed but this is the fifth time our computers have been hit badly and/or rendered inoperable because of viruses, despite our supposedly "top-notch" anti-virus protection. Please pray with us for a good solution to this problem.

Praise to the Lord for:

-our dear friend and Agua Viva team member Gustavo who was married to Julia this last weekend, and that we were able to go to Tegucigalpa to share in their joy.

-Eva and the sweet joy she is; that she is crawling and "babbling" all the time!

-God's leading in the Discipleship Group toward the center of his heart, and that we would all receive the truth and apply it in our lives.

-our marriage and the blessing it is in Christ.

Pray to the Lord for:

-Discipleship Group member and GO Scholarship recipient, Julissa, who is leaving this week to go to the US to study for two years.

-Eva to eat more solid food and for wisdom for us in how to facilitate that.

-our lack of computers at home due to viruses.

-the new members of the Discipleship Group to surrender themselves to God and to live his life of love.

Trusting in Him,

Larry, Allison, Eva, Joel and the household

"Love never fails."

How Don Victor got to be 98yo

2011-06-17T20:57:00.001-05:00

We figured out the other day how Don Victor has lived to be 98 years old.

It started with a pharmacy request from him as I was going to town. Could I buy "Alcofar?" Sure, no problem.

Except when I went to two pharmacies, they had never heard of it! The second one I visited is the one where I normally go so they helped me out a bit more than the "nope," I got from the first place.

All three pharmacists were listening to how I was pronouncing it, and were very engaged as I explained that it was a request from a 98yo who said it was for pain due to "air" (a common belief here that air gets in your muscles and causes pain). They know we live in the country so their minds were working with all this information. Additionally, Don Victor said it was a "grain" that you drink.

Well, the closest they got to an idea was "Alcamfor" which is basically a menthol tablet. It isn't something you drink, but we all thought that perhaps I had heard him wrong. Its purpose is to put on your chest in a little bag, mostly in children, to keep sickness away from them (is the belief). I didn't think that was it, but since I could buy three tablets for 3 lempiras (about 15 cents) I went for it. The main pharmacist said "you let me know next week whether I was right or not."

Well, she was right in that that is what Don Victor asked for. Where we live everyone knows it by the name I asked for it by. I will have to let her know. The scary part is, though, that Don Victor put these three tablets (half inch wide and quarter inch deep) into a 16oz bottle, let them melt, and now he is drinking the water! Yep, that'll get rid of the "air" problem--because it's embalming you! Sheesh! He is very content. The pharmacists are going to love this one!

News from May

2011-05-30T19:46:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Well, May was quite a month! Since there was so much I thought I would include it in three categories: the difficulties, the joys and the future.

The Difficulties

- While we are often the recipients of robbery and vandalism, this month has been more difficult in that it seems to be increasing and we have heard rumor that those who are stealing from us are some who are close to us. This is, of course, so much more painful than the frustration of continually repairing broken fences (literally) or the loss of crops or bought goods; it is wearing to our souls, but it also causes us to yearn for the Kingdom of God as we hunger for righteousness.

- We had to travel to San Pedro Sula (a 7-hour round trip with an infant) twice in May to file Eva's US paperwork. What made this very difficult was that we were only missing one document when we went the first time, but learned this as the Consulate was closing, which necessitated another trip a week later. On the first trip, the bottles we were hoping to buy for our hot sauce were not in stock and our dog Latte died while we were gone. It was a tough trip.

- I (Allison) have been pretty tired lately, but it was tough to know whether it is the normal nursing mother tired or not. In learning that my health was not at the ideal level, we changed things so I am able to rest (even more) and we are learning what is really important in how we use our time.

- Larry wrote last month about his cooperative planting with Toyano, Luis and Agustin. The work has been tough but more difficult is that not all the men have shared the same vigor and vision in the work and have not always been faithful to their word to work.

The Joys

- We wrote in the last newsletter that Gerson, the 14-year-old orphan who abruptly left home to go work had returned. While Gerson was gone, however, 12-year-old brother Walter felt his usefulness and capability. Additionally, just-turned-10 Jimmy was then required to become a young man instead of a boy as he started to haul firewood and do some of the more "heavy" work. With Gerson's return, we see a somewhat humbled Gerson who has re-enrolled in school and who seems to be enjoying being a boy again instead of working full-time. And Walter and Jimmy have retained their freedom and confidence in spite of their older brother's return.

- We were able to participate in three afternoon sessions of counseling and inner healing with Julissa, Discipleship Group member who lives with us. God led her to healing of very painful and difficult experiences in her past. Praise God that he was able to use us and our broken pasts to lead her to himself the Healer and to encourage her in her pursuit of him.

- Karla, another DG member who lives with us, invited two of her university classmates to spend the night at Campus with us. During dinner the conversation turned toward spiritual things. At one point, one of the friends said, "I just hate it when people say 'I'm saved.' You just can't be so sure of that!" That started a conversation that led to each of us who live at Campus sharing openly about our faith in Jesus and the confidence we have in his saving grace—including Joel! We pray for these two questioning friends that they too will find peace and restoration in Christ.

- Eva has started to sleep more and gain weight at a better rate than last month. She has also made laughing and squealing part of her daily routine—often during dinner time. She has reached Mobility Level 1 as she turns completely over and can scoot a fairly good distance before she gives up. Tio (Uncle) Joel is a special friend for Eva and it is fun to see how they interact so well.

- Each May a traveling carnival comes to La Ceiba with several fair rides. Unlike many things in this city it is a fun, clean and safe place for families. The DG members who live with us introduced them to us, and we had such fun that we went back and took the orphans. It was the first time those kids had been on any sort of "ride" and tears were only shed by one on the super-fast reverse rotating ferris wheel.

- God has continued to bless Larry's teaching in the Discipleship Group meetings. The truths we are learning are getting solidified in the regular attenders' hearts and minds and are bearing fruit. We praise God constantly for this.

The Future

- June and July are free months from classes for Karla and Julissa because of the way their university schedules worked out. The three of us have agreed to do a Bible studytogether and we look forward to deepening our friendship with one another and our love for God.

- Two young people from the US are going to be spending part or all of their summers with us. We are really excited for Mary-Kate and Ben to be joining us for these months as we learn, serve and grow together in Christ.

- Arriving the 30^th of May is a Sustainable Tropical Agriculture class of university students from the US. We have hosted this group before (formerly from Gordon College) and are excited to share what we have learned of the beauty of God's original design for this earth and how we can replicate that in part.

- In Las Mangas a non-profit organization has started a women's meeting for those in the community to start conversations regarding a potential cooperative micro-enterprise, their role as women in the community and other topics.

Praise the Lord for:

-Our time of counseling and intercession with Julissa and the inner healing she received

-the great times of fun and learning shared with the Discipleship Group and the orphans

-the joy that Eva is to us

-it appears that Eva's US citizenship paperwork has been filed well

Pray to the Lord for:

-our eyes to remain fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith as we daily face challenges

-Allison's health to improve and for Eva to continue to gain more weight

-the university class and the two interns who will be joining us for the summer, that God would reveal himself to us and that we would grow in our love for him and one another

-Karla's two university friends to find peace and salvation in Jesus

By the faith of Jesus,

Allison, Larry, Eva, Joel and the household

"Love never fails."

Babies getting sick

2011-05-16T12:18:00.001-05:00

Out little Eva is growing and doing all sorts of new tricks now like rolling over (both directions) and pulling anything and everything into her mouth! It has been so interesting to hear all of our neighbors' comments with her as she grows.

One of the values here is a fat baby. And because most of our neighbors don't have great nutrition (by either choice of Coke over vegetables or because of a lack of resources), most give their babies milk--with sugar in it. They can't afford formula but milk and sugar they can. I'm not sure why they started putting sugar in the milk but everyone puts sugar in their milk even as they grow older.

So most of the babies here are fat. Not pleasantly plump or cute and chubby but fat. A fat baby is deemed "beautiful." So in that Eva is just a peanut anyway and isn't getting the added sugar-milk, people don't know what to say. "Oh, she has Larry's body: she's really thin." Then the next comment is always "and she hasn't gotten sick?"

The historical reason that people want to be fat is that when you get sick you have extra calories to lose and you won't get super sick and die. So they load up their babies because it is just expected that they will get sick. And when they do, they have their reserves and they won't get so sick that they die. They have a vaccination against diarrhea, too. I am glad that that vaccination is available because it is a real threat to many of the babies here.

So in that Eva is thin, everyone is concerned about when she gets sick. We are so thankful that God got my immune system in order before I got pregnant (through my diet change), so that Eva has a very strong immune system. And because of my good nutrition during pregnancy and now afterward, it's unlikely that she would get devastatingly sick like the other babies have the potential to.

News for May

2011-05-02T16:25:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Christian Heritage Academy Student Group

In April we hosted a group of eight students from Christian Heritage Academy and four leaders. The leaders happened to be our friends Gustavo Lepe, Jay and Susie Substad and the terrific principal of the school Gail Wolf. Throughout their week with us we were able to slip them into various scenes of life in a broken world where much of the "insulation" was taken away, in hope that they might get a small taste of the effects of sin on everyday life for all of us, but especially for the poor and the oppressed. For example we spent a day hauling rocks and digging an 8-foot deep hole for a latrine that our friend Dario in his wheelchair was struggling to accomplish himself. Another day we hiked up the treacherously steep and narrow path to our neighboring farmer Luis's bean and corn fields. We saw how his crops are not only grown on slopes so steep that we could hardly stand up, but are also shriveled up for lack of rain and money for irrigation equipment. We sat in his field and wondered "What do I do with this situation as a believer in the self-sacrificing God who is love and justice?" In the evenings we spent time discussing the day's experiences and what God says to us in the Bible about them. God helped us walk with these young people through a week of confronting the reality of our broken world and seeking the heart of the Compassionate Redeemer about it. Many of them made commitments of loving surrender to God at the end of the week. Pray for each one of us to grow and remain in Christ that we might participate with him as light in this present darkness.

Easter with the Discipleship Group

This year we included more of the Discipleship Group (DG) in our remembrance and celebration of Jesus' death and resurrection. On Thursday night Allison prepared a meal that replicated much of what Christ and his disciples ate on that final night before his death. We ate homemade unleavened bread, green onions, mustard and sweet potato greens from our garden, roasted chicken (we couldn't find lamb), and a ground raisin and almond paste. Having done some research, Allison explained to us how each of the foods represented an event in the rescue and exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. Then we spent the rest of the evening reading the account of the Passover and exodus from the Bible and talking about the parallels with the rescue that God provided for us in Jesus the Lamb of God.

Allison and I, and those in our home (Joel, Karla, Julissa and Luis) spent all of Friday reading and remembering the sufferings of Christ for us. On Saturday night we continued remembering when the rest of the DG joined us and we watched the "Jesus" film which is taken from Luke's account of the life of Jesus. The youth spent the night in our home so that on Sunday we could all get up "early, while it was still dark," as John writes that the women did so many years ago, to celebrate the resurrection. With homemade banana bread and coffee we sang and looked in the Word, remembering. We remembered how Jesus was ridiculed and mocked because he claimed to be King of the Jews and yet would not save himself from suffering and death. And how God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name above every name just because he did not come down off the cross to save himself. We looked at Revelation 5 where the millions of millions say that the Lamb that was slain is worthy of all honor and glory and riches and power and asked why does his not coming off the cross make him worthy of all. It was a good time. Then we enjoyed a big pancake breakfast together. Thank God with us for the opportunity to grow with and mentor these young people into a deeper walk with Christ.

Gerson's Return

You may remember that Gerson, the 14 year-old of the six orphan children that we help left abruptly at Christmas with a local man to work in a distant region of Honduras. Grandma Petrona and we were very concerned about his spiritual and emotional well being. Well, Gerson returned last week. We found out that he had been working on a ranch belonging to a drug dealer and they left because the man who took him there lost his sight in one eye. Please pray for Gerson to return to school and to find what he is longing for in Jesus. Pray for us to love him with the love of God and point him to his faithful heavenly Father.

Cooperative Planting with Farming Friends

This month Toyano, Luis, Agustin and I are preparing land for a bean field which we are planting cooperatively. This means days of clearing steep forested mountain slopes with machetes, planting beans by hand, praying for rain, several days of weeding by hand and hopefully days of harvesting and hauling the beans down out of the mountains. Even in light of the very hard work, we are excited about the opportunity to grow in partnership with these men who are friends and professing believers in Christ. Pray for us to grow in faith in Jesus and practice of God's kingdom through our striving for the common good together.

Family

Four month old Eva is doing well. She recently discovered that her big toe reaches her mouth and is nice to suck on. Allison and I are delighted with her and thankful for the grace God is giving to raise her day by day. Thank you for your prayers for us as parents.

Thank you each one who participate with us through prayer, giving and encouragement. We are truly interdependent with you, members of the one Body who is Christ, displaying the glory of God on the Earth.

Praise to the Lord for:

-his mercy on us to include us in his mission on the earth, using even our mistakes

-the fruitful week with the CHA students and our neighbors

-Becky and Mainor, new members in the Discipleship Group

-Gerson's return

-the chance to farm beans cooperatively with Toyano, Luis and Agustin

Pray to the Lord for:

-grace to see circumstances, relationships and people from God's point of view

-Gerson and the rest of the Acosta orphans to find the love they seek in the Father

-Strength and eternal perspective during work on the bean field

-his continued inspiration and guidance in teaching and mentoring the DG members.

To, by and for the glory of the Lamb that was slain,

Larry for Allison, Eva, Joel and the whole household

"Love never fails."

getting ready for Holy Week

2011-04-15T17:14:00.001-05:00

In Honduras everyone goes on vacation for "Semana Santa," or Holy Week. No one has school and very few people work. (This, by the way, makes grocery shopping oh so much fun...I always forget to do two weeks' worth at once!)

Sadly, most of the traditions and activities that people have for this week are "vacation"-oriented and don't have much to do with the reason for this week of celebration: to remember the suffering and glory of Jesus in the week before his death on the cross and his subsequent victory over death by his resurrection. So when my neighbors tell me to "get ready for Holy Week," they mean I have to clean my house and make everything outside look nice. This is in part because thousands of people will invade our river valley during this week to swim in the river, grill meat, drink Coke and sit under the shaded dwellings that our neighbors have made with four poles and a thatch "roof." People want to make a good impression for our community.

So apart from the fact that I have not re-mudded my wood stove outside, the city has paid some young men to chop the boulevard all along the community and the school kids are cleaning up all the garbage. Joel is loving all the bottles people are bringing him as they clean up their homes. Joel will fill about 50 200 pound sacks in three days from all the people who will be in our community drinking Coke. That's a lot of bottles!

Beginning Thursday of next week, the official report is that 800 junior high and high schoolers will come for a weekend retreat at the Church of God property across the street from us. They bring lots of screaming kids, a (generally) awesome rock band to lead worship, a few trumpet things that you can hear for a literal mile with the mountain behind us, and really big speakers. They go until about 11pm and get up at 5am. This always involves microphone use. Unfortunately, they do not bring ear plugs for the community members who are not participating in their retreat...

However, this year we decided to take advantage of these youth who leave trash all over our property as they go down to the river. We decided to make cupcakes to sell. We are going to pay the orphans to be at the table on our property selling the cupcakes and then we are going to use the money we earn to pay for some of the home repairs needed at the orphans' house.

We see this as a benefit all around. It will give some money to the orphans and their grandmother for their work (we are giving them a commission on what they sell so that they stay focused...), it will provide money for the orphans' house, it will give a business sense to the orphans who will very likely not continue studying and who may decide to join us in one of our microenterprise ideas, and it will provide a somewhat better snack for these youth who would otherwise buy chips loaded with hydrogenated oil (ok, this really isn't my main concern but it is a factor).

So today I made an altered banana bread recipe and a yellow cake recipe. We enlisted several taste testers (someone has to sacrifice) and asked for advice. The official word is that with a tiny bit of frosting on top everyone agrees that we can definitely sell the cupcake for five lempiras each (about 25 cents). We will make more than 100% profit if it sells for that price, and we're pretty sure that they are tasty enough that they will all sell.

So the plan is to make 500 cupcakes. It's a conservative number, considering the crowd that is coming, but it'll be a good start for the first year. And next year we can plan to have someone bring down cupcake papers since they are about five cents each here. Hopefully they will be so tasty that next year we can make and sell 1,000.

I have also been looking up Holy Week traditions through the Catholic and Episcopalian churches, as well as researching all that is involved with a Seder meal. We are looking for lamb meat to buy, but know that next year our friends who bought sheep this year will have some one-year-old males to slaughter. If we can't get things organized this year we will for the next.

News from March

2011-04-02T14:38:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Agua Viva Trip

This month, Larry and Joel were able to travel to the southern part of Honduras once again to join the Agua Viva group with students from Bethel University to help install a clean water system in a village without clean water or latrines. Larry, who has done about thirty water projects, said it was probably the hardest project he has ever done work-wise because of the very rocky terrain. However, God not only gave him physical strength, he gave Larry the gift of his Spirit during the teaching times. The people of the small communities, El Chingo and Las Peñitas, were very attentive to the true Living Water, Jesus Christ, during the afternoon teaching times. We praise God for his presence with the group and we pray for the people in the communities to accept the love of Jesus daily as they daily use the clean water they now have. As a bonus for us, Andrew McNamara—who spent the fall with us—returned to Campus after participating in the project. We have enjoyed having him here as we deepen our faith together.

Discipleship Group

Last fall, the Discipleship Group members decided to start a youth gathering each Friday to reach out to the local youth and to encourage them to follow Jesus. They have organized and led it, and there are about twenty young people who come each week to experience the Truth of God's love, receive a short teaching, sing songs of worship, play games and enjoy a snack together. It has been encouraging to see the Discipleship Group members take leadership and share the knowledge of Christ that they have received. It has also been pleasing to see them care for these (mostly) young boys' hearts to be turned toward Jesus. Many of the boys who come are from very rough homes, with either absent fathers or fathers who do not give the example of godly living to their sons. We pray that in all our interaction with these young people that they feel and respond to the love that Jesus came to show to them.

The twins: Julia and Heidi

We have written many times about the orphans' cousins who were abandoned by their mom at the age of two. We have always included them as we talk about the orphans, since they have always been under the same grandmother's care since the orphans' parents died in 2004. We have a good relationship with them: I have been able to talk with them about their changing bodies, and they made Father's Day cards for Larry (celebrated March 19^th here). Now that they are twelve and are maturing, care for them is changing. I would guess that 99% of the girls and women who they know have not graduated from elementary school; and if they did, many of them either "got married" or became pregnant soon after. So while they are only in fourth and fifth grade, the culture and norms around them tell them their future is to find a man who will support you financially, keep his house and raise your children by the age of sixteen. There are already boys who have shown interest in them and without a dad to protect the girls from boys/men, it is a difficult situation. Larry does this from afar, but it is not the same. We know that God has put us in their lives to love and lead them to Jesus. Pray with us as we seek him in how to do that as we trust God as their heavenly Father.

Eva Christine

Our own little girl is doing well, and, as we pray about the twins' situation, we are sure we are going to lock Eva up when she gets to be about twelve and release her when she's about twenty-five! But for now it is fun to see how she is changing and growing. She is now smiling and babbling a lot, reaching out for things (my hair, dishes on the table, her thumb, etc.), and for about two weeks she was sleeping for five hour stretches during the night. We hope that returns soon! We are enjoying each day with her and thanking God for the blessing that she is to us.

Praise to the Lord for:

-a great Agua Viva trip for Larry and Joel where the community responded to the Living Water, Jesus

-the way God continues to teach us about his Fatherly love for us during the Discipleship Group times

-more young people being attracted to following Christ and wanting to make the commitment to attend and participate in the Discipleship Group

-Eva Christine's healthy development and the blessing that she is to us

Pray to the Lord for:

-the restoration of former Discipleship Group member Erick to Christ and His life

-direction and guidance in helping to raise/guide Julia and Heidi, 12-year-old twins who live with their grandmother

-Eva's clogged tear ducts to clear up

-continued guidance in how to organize our time with so many "good things" so we can do God's best

-Discipleship Group member and GO Scholarship recipient Julissa will be moving in to live with us on Campus this week. Praise him and pray for good communication and for Jesus to grow us as his body.

Believing in the Son,

Larry and Allison Smoak

"Love never fails."

"Dry" Season

2011-03-30T11:27:00.003-05:00

Dry season officially starts in April, but it came early this year. Wow. It's "only" 90 or so degrees, but combine that with loads of humidity and a tin roof to kindly bake all that lays beneath it, and it's pretty toasty. We really have to be diligent at drinking with as much as we sweat--baby included. Here are some of the highlights:

-the sun is often so hot it stings. The farmers call that "sol de agua" because it's supposed to rain after that. Well, I think we just forgot how hot the sun is because it hasn't rained and the farmers aren't usually wrong when it comes to weather.

-In the rainy season I fretted over each diaper that Eva wet because I didn't know if I would have enough diapers (of the awesome kind) because it would take sometimes 3 days to dry because of the constant rain. Now, I only have to wash once every two days because the diapers dry in about seven hours. Now I challenge her: make more diapers! (ok, not really...)

-clothes dry in even less time. I don't have to get up and start washing clothes before breakfast in order to get them on the line early to have the maximum drying time--and then have an afternoon shower where I don't get the clothes in to foil the whole plan!

-there are some gnats that live in the grass that are abundant when a) it's really dry, or b) they are stirred up by lots of action. Last Friday when the youth came over for the Discipleship Group-led youth time and they played in the grass after a super hot day, we were all diving for the bug repellent. We don't like to use repellent each day because it goes on our skin and to have that chemical each day isn't ideal. However, I got probably 75 bites in less than 30 minutes before I put the spray on. Seriously. Now I just have to not scratch. Interestingly, Eva didn't get any bites. We wondered if God made breast milk to be a bug deterrent.

-the farmers can burn their fields to prepare for planting. This, of course, is not a good highlight, in that it ruins the land and erodes it over time, creating a horrible future for our environment and their welfare, but it is one of the things that happens.

-you sweat pretty much constantly, which I hear is good for your pores.

-the "drought" gives the plants the opportunity to flower, which later produces all the fruit. The bogenvilla is especially gorgeous in dry season!

-the dirt road is so dry and people burn their fields so there is a haze of dust in the air.

-you learn how to walk in the shade as much as possible

-cold showers are now welcome. I didn't even heat up the water for Eva's bath the other day and she was ok with it! She's a little heater (way hotter than me) so I am wiping her down with cold water as she dons only a diaper all throughout the day

-people here drink hot coffee when they are hot, since most don't have freezers to make ice. By drinking the hot drink it makes them sweat, which then cools them down.

Yeah, those aren't all that positive! But thankfully here we only have three months of dry season (where it still rains every two weeks or so), in comparison with the southern part of Honduras where they have deforested almost all of their land. There they have a solid six months without rain, and therefore only one harvest. In that, we are fortunate and rejoice in the three months of dry season.

"Dry" Season

2011-03-30T11:27:00.001-05:00

-you sweat pretty much constantly, which I hear is good for your pores.

-the "drought" gives the plants the opportunity to flower, which later produces all the fruit. The bogenvilla is especially gorgeous in dry season!

-the dirt road is so dry and people burn their fields so there is a haze of dust in the air.

-you learn how to walk in the shade as much as possible

-people here drink hot coffee when they are hot, since most don't have freezers to make ice. By drinking the hot drink it makes them sweat, which then cools them down.

“All North Americans read a lot”

2011-03-14T13:33:00.001-05:00

I was telling a few of the Discipleship Group members the other day that I read something about how babies grow and develop and how we were going to be conscious of that as Eva grew up. One of the young men in the Group has spent a lot of time with our friends who have an orphanage up the road who are also from the US.

When I mentioned what I read he said, "All North Americans read a lot." I asked him what he meant and he said that our friends are always reading and applying their knowledge and now he saw that I was too. He didn't say it in a judging way but more as a fact.

I have been thinking about it and he has a good point. It is our tradition to research and become educated in something before we act. Whereas here, the tradition is "see what everyone has been doing and figure out what works and what doesn't and go for it."

His comment has made an even bigger impact on me because one of the things I struggle with most is "just living" and not trying to figure everything out first. I have a brain that likes to analyze things, but often it is to the detriment of me actually living or doing whatever I am analyzing.

So I have been taking the wisdom of the Bible that acknowledges the step of faith that is always required at some point and the comment of this young man to help me just live—with the knowledge that I have and that I will attain, but not forget to do something with that information!

Apparently Eva is chubby!

2011-03-14T13:32:00.001-05:00

When Larry and I were talking about diapers for Eva, we looked at what our neighbors used. They use cloth diapers but no plastic pants so every time the baby urinates it goes all over whoever is holding the baby or whatever the baby is laying on. We didn't think that was such a great idea, but we at least got some plastic pants for her.

We also learned of a diaper grant for missionaries. The diapers have a pad insert that fits in a waterproof cover. When we learned that there were only fifteen diapers with the grant, we knew we would have to buy some more since we learned babies use like twelve diapers a day and we have rainy seasons where things don't dry for days.

I mentioned the diaper idea to my mom who went on a hunt for something similar so we wouldn't have the whole urine going everywhere fiasco. She found the gPant diapers and we tried them out. It's the same idea as the diaper grant, but a better fit because they come in different sizes. The gPants have a small, which worked well for our 5 pound 7 oz. baby. The diaper grant diapers still don't fit her and she's almost 10 pounds.

Anyway, we've so appreciated the diaper and have liked them in every way—until the last week and a half. We only had periodic leaks before and then it started to be every time she urinated we would be changing hers and our own clothes. I was really bummed and thought the diapers were just kind of wearing out or something.

So I checked out the website for any tips or for a place to ask someone advice. It said that if you are having leaks that you have to be sure that the liner is tight against the top of her leg and that sometimes the baby's fat rolls get in the way.

I laughed really hard because Eva is pretty long and lean and has only just recently developed a small roll in her legs. It's also funny because she is really thin in comparison to most of the babies here who are force-fed formula or milk with sugar in it because fat (like, super fat) babies are seen as healthy and not in danger of dying. But, I thought that perhaps this tiny roll that Eva has was causing the problem so I tried to move the insert over. It worked. She hasn't had any leaks since I made sure that the liner is over her roll. So today I've been calling her Chubs.

Eva's officially Honduran!

2011-03-09T15:49:00.001-06:00

Larry just called me from the city to say that he got Eva's birth certificate today. Here you have to go and register your baby after it is born. Since we had Eva at home things were a bit more complicated. We had to get a letter from the president of the community leaders for Las Mangas (the community we live in that has about 40 homes) to say that he was vouching for the fact that we were residents of the community and that Eva was born at home. Larry took that document with our residency cards and marriage certificate to the registrar today.

Now, the tricky part is that we had to put my name as Allison Heimkes because here women don't change their names when they get married and so the babies have the last names of both parents. When a baby only has one last name it means there's no dad in the picture. And we learned, when our US friends went to register their baby, without the documentation that showed the wife's maiden name the government workers gave the baby the same last name twice, since they said when a father shows up they have to put two last names even though our friends requested that only one appear. So instead of appearing to not have a father, the baby looked like his parents were related. (They were able to get it changed by bringing a marriage certificate within 24 hours.)

So now that Eva has this document, we have to wait for the government office to make a written out document based on this one. With that, we will go to San Pedro Sula to the US Embassy to file the paperwork to make her a legal US citizen. To do that, we need the birth certificate, the written out one, our marriage certificate, our passports, tax returns and W2s to prove that we lived in the US and pictures of me pregnant in Honduras and pics of me right afterward to prove she is our child and that we actually had her here. I think the picture of us weighing her in the grain scale with the forest/jungle in the background will be a good example that she was not delivered in your standard US home!

burping, not spanking

2011-03-09T15:34:00.001-06:00

The other day Eva was a bit squirmy and whiny and so I figured she probably had gas. So I put her over my shoulder and started patting her back. Joel, sitting across the table from me looked at the situation and then said "so you're spanking her, huh?" I choked back a laugh before replying that I was burping her. He seemed relieved. Sweet protective uncle that he is!

a clash of cultures

2011-03-07T11:45:00.001-06:00

Larry and I are spending Monday at a friend's house in La Ceiba to rest and be together a bit before he goes on the water project this weekend. We brought our laptop to catch up on some emails, a few good books and our laundry.

I was sick this week with a pretty bad cold and our friend who washes "the tough clothes" (I do the delicates) was also sick with the same cold. Because of this, we and Joel had a literal mountain of clothes that need to be washed before they leave for the trip on Thursday. And since Rosa comes to wash on Thursday, that meant a lot of laundry for me. And with a little one who doesn't like to be put down and rain coming, we thought we'd better take advantage of the washer and dryer that our friends have in their home.

As I was separating the clothes into like-color piles I realized I haven't done that in years, since soaking clothes in detergent and cold water doesn't necessitate different piles/wash loads. I also realized how much I felt like a "real wife" and mom as I was separating my husband's and kids' (Joel's and Eva's) clothes. Somehow that still seems more "real" to me than washing those same clothes on a concrete wash board. Funny how those original understandings of life stick with you even though I am so confident of the life God has called us to in Las Mangas.

However, the culture clash came when I was looking through Larry's pants pockets before putting them in the washer and I found a .22 bullet. That doesn't quite match the suburban house wife image I have!

News from January and February

2011-03-04T17:05:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

So life changes a little with a baby! Our life has been quite full and overflowing with changes, activities, challenges and adjustments during the last two months; thus the lack of a newsletter last month. We want to give you the run down.

Eva Christine

The arrival of Eva on Christmas Day, as all of you parents know, has been a huge change and adjustment for us that takes a lot of time and energy to walk out. We are delighted with little Eva and are amazed at God's gift of life. At the same time we are learning how to communicate with someone who speaks only 'Baby,' how to function on less sleep, how to prioritize the use of our time, energy and resources in light of Eva's constant needs, and how to love one another through it all, including Allison's suffering with mastitis and a cold during the last month. We are feeling the challenge of being first time parents at 31 and 41 years of age. Please keep us in your prayers.

Dario and Maria's House

In January we were able to finish the construction of Dario's house! After nine months of taking the Discipleship Group (DG) youth to work there once a week, we poured the floor and a ramp allowing Dario to enter the house in his wheel chair, and lined up the remaining river rocks to form a flower bed along the front of the house as the final touch. Two weeks later we held a dedication celebration at the house. We sang together and then listened to Dario and Maria tell their story about God saving him from living in a cardboard box on the street to giving his life to Christ being given a family and now a house. Maria said "Every time we lay down to go to sleep we look up at the tin roof, down at the cement floor, around at the walls and ask 'How did we get here?' Then we thank God for all that he has done." We spoke about Jesus' story of the Prodigal Son's awakening to the fact that in the Father's house there is "abundance of bread" but away from him we die of hunger. And then, just before we enjoyed a delicious lunch together, we all prayed, praising God and thanking him for his love which we see in Dario and Maria's house, in the opportunity to bless one another through working together and in his provision for the house through many of you. Praise God with us!

Erick

One of the most difficult experiences that we have been through in our ministry occurred in February when Erick told us that he was "tired" of following God and wanted to go his own way. We encouraged and counseled him but to no avail. We are really sad to say that later we found out that his motive for leaving the Discipleship Group, the GO Scholarship program, his university education and our home was to live with a girl that he was secretly seeing for the last number of months. Please pray for him to return to the way of life in Christ. Pray for us to continue on in faith, hope and love as we relate to him and others. Pray for the rest of the Discipleship Group youth to press on in the faith.

Karla

As we wrote in January, Karla heard God ask her to go to El Palito (a village in southern Honduras where we have done extensive work and where she herself has been involved in the past) during her six week vacation from University. Karla, a long time member of the DG and a GO Scholarship student studying nursing in the public University, decided to follow God's call to go to El Palito despite her own lesser desires, the concerns of her parents and all else that she would "miss out on" during her vacation. She stayed for two weeks with our friends Enemecio and Gloria and spent most of her time visiting homes throughout the large community that is located on the opposite side of the country from where we live. Karla measured the blood pressure of someone in nearly every home in the community. Without her help they must hike at least an hour on a mountainous trail to get to the clinic. Of course by that time their blood pressure is quite high and their comfort level quite low. Karla not only served the people with her budding medical abilities but also took the chance to remind people of the good news of Jesus and held a day long VBS for the kids. When she got back she told us that she learned so much about herself, about being a nurse and a missionary, and that God communicated with her personally on various issues where she is seeking to walk in holiness. Praise God for Karla's loving obedience to God and all that he did in and through her. Keep praying for her.

Gerson

Another sad circumstance was when Gerson, the almost 14 year-old Acosta orphan whom we have helped raise for over six years was lured to and/or decided to travel to La Mosquitia, a pretty rough region of the country to find work. His grandmother with whom he lived was especially heartbroken. Please pray for his spiritual, emotional and physical protection, and that he would decide to or be brought back to his family, home and education.

Significant Visitors

In February we enjoyed a visit by my (Larry's) older brother Thomas and his co-worker with Action International, Rex Carlaw. Thomas enjoyed as much time as he could holding his new niece and he, Rex and I celebrated his birthday on Honduras's Roatan Island. Also Allison's parents, Mark and Pat Heimkes were able to visit. Eva was practically glued to their arms for a week. (: Mark and Pat, We are so glad that you got to spend a week with your newest granddaughter and we could enjoy time together.

Thank You

In the face of the difficult and good things that have taken place these months, we are thankful for your prayers of support and encouragement for us.

Praise the Lord for:

-Eva, the gift that she is and her healthy development

-the completion of Dario's home!

-Karla's relationally and spiritually successful visit to El Palito during her school vacation

-God's continual teaching to the Discipleship Group of His love for each of us

-great visits by Thomas Smoak and Mark and Pat Heimkes

Pray to the Lord for:

-wisdom in raising Eva and for the sleep we do get to be restorative

-DG member Erick, to return to following Jesus

-Acosta orphan, Gerson, to return to his home and to resume his elementary school education

-encouragement for us and the Discipleship Group as we look to God as our perfect heavenly father who has all things in his control

Looking to Him,

Larry and Allison

"Love never fails."

The Rooster will not be Eva's favorite animal

2011-02-03T16:48:00.001-06:00

I think it is safe to say, even though she is only one month old, that the rooster will not be Eva's favorite animal when she grows up.

Every time it crows, even if she's not asleep, she startles. And if she doesn't startle in her body her eyes get really big and (at least she looks like) she gets scared.

One night (or morning, rather) at 3:15 I was up with Eva and the roosters kept crowing so much that she couldn't get to sleep. And since I was then up, I also heard the almost ceaseless chorus that our four roosters were proclaiming. I talked with Larry (in the moment, because since Eva wasn't sleeping she was groaning) and asked him if it was normal and we had just gotten used to the crows, or if it was especially exciting that night. He thinks we've just gotten accustomed to it. I just hope that happens for Eva sooner than later!

incarnational nursing

2011-02-01T09:49:00.001-06:00

In our life here we often talk about living "incarnationally," the way that Jesus came among us and lived as we do "in the flesh." That is why we don't paint the concrete walls, as I explained to a 4yo from the US yesterday when she asked "I don't know if someone is going to paint your house." I told her that we don't have it painted on purpose because our neighbors can't afford paint and we want them to feel comfortable when they come to our house; also, we want to "miss" painted walls a bit to remind us of the life that they have that we can only understand and feel in a small way.

Well, when we found out we were expecting a baby, I joked with Larry and said "but I am not going to nurse like they do here." He joked back saying if living incarnationally was one of my values that I needed to be just have everything out there and visible to all. In our serious times of course we talked about not doing that and continuing to have modesty and value for the body as a value that wins in this case.

However, then I had the baby and there were 13 people living here and we have a baby whose small tummy requires nursing quite often. So if I wanted to be a part of life at all I needed to learn to nurse in public at least. However, Eva doesn't like things touching her face, so a blanket over us isn't all that practical. We have found a modest compromise for public experiences.

We have noticed, though, that whenever I am nursing Eva Joel comes over and sits by me and wants to talk. We wondered at first if it was something we needed to be concerned about. He only has the mentality of a 4 or 5yo, but he also has the body of a man and we wanted to be careful for both of our sakes. However, upon watching him and through prayer, we have seen his innocence and attraction to nurturing--something he never received. It also gives he and I time to talk about his day, which I may not have taken as much or as focused time before.

Baby Culture

2011-01-25T14:50:00.001-06:00

I am learning a lot about the local culture with this sweet newborn of mine. Here are some interesting facts about life here with a baby:

-when you visit a house where there is a newborn, you have to hold it. This is not an option. It doesn't matter if the baby or the mommy is sleeping (unless your kind husband boldly and brashly defies culture and doesn't wake up the tired mommy). If you don't hold the baby, someone might "ojoiar" them. This literally means "eye" them; kind of like give them the "evil eye" and then they can get sick and possibly die.

-when you are holding the baby for the first time, you have to make a cross out of spit on their foreheads. This ojoiar business is serious.

-every newborn (until age 1, I think) needs to wear a red bracelet or red clothing (preferably both) to, again, ward off "the eye." (That is why our little Eva is prohibited from wearing red until she is confidently walking around by herself to show the falsity of these claims!)

-you have to say the baby is big; even if your baby (ours) weighed 5#7oz when born, you have to say "she's so big;" at the very least "she's going to be big."

-after a woman has a baby she has to eat chicken and cheese for several weeks after the baby is born--and not much else beyond this. Maybe chicken soup but no vegetables, beans, eggs or rice. My neighbors were horrified to hear I was eating eggs and beans; most of them said "well, this was your first pregnancy." Not sure how that justifies it but they felt better so I dropped it.

-if your baby has hiccups, cut a tiny piece of red cloth and stick it to the baby's forehead between their eyes with spit and the hiccups will stop. (All this red business, I feel like I'm stuck in M. Night Shamylan's "The Village!")

-babies under 2 months shouldn't leave the house

-people often don't name their babies until they are 2+weeks old; they don't name them in case they die, then they won't be that attached to them. And while I haven't hear it said, I have seen that people don't often hold/talk to/engage their babies until they are about 3 months old for the same reason. They feed them and then put them on the bed inside the house

-you should put your baby in the morning sun each day

And my favorite from pregnancy:

-you shouldn't have your belly wet (more than one quick shower per day) because if you do your baby will be born with a cold. Ha!

One example:

Karla's parents came over to visit us and to see the baby. They brought her a present (a sweet dress "to go to church and worship God in") and spent about an hour holding her. It was a really sweet and special time. As they were leaving, Karla's dad stuck his finger in his mouth and started to put the cross of saliva on Eva's forehead. Larry said "no, you don't have to do that. We don't believe in that."

He apologized and said, "I'm sorry, but if I went to someone else's house and didn't do it, they would come back and make me hold her and do it later!"

We all laughed about the silliness of that and then Karla's mom said "she is covered in red; she is covered by the blood of Jesus Christ." Larry and I looked at each other and rejoiced at her confidence in Christ, as we had thought of that "red covering" that she has, too. We were so excited to find someone who trusted God more than legend/culture.

So we started to talk about some of the beliefs of the culture and I thought everything was going so well. Then Karla's mom said, "I don't believe any of it. I mean, when Kahlin (her son) was a newborn we took him to town and all these [people of African origin] were around and he didn't get sick at all!" Maybe she meant it in the sense of "look at all the things people believe and we overcame it," but it felt more like she was relieved that she had tested it and come out clean. Either way, it was cool that she got the "covered in red" as we did.

News from December

2011-01-03T10:43:00.001-06:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Eva Christine Smoak

Well, this month has its obvious highlight: the birth of our baby girl, Eva (pronounced Eh-va) Christine, on Christmas Day. She is a healthy and calm baby, weighing 5 pounds 7 ounces and measuring 18.5 inches long. Her birth was a wonderful time of dependence on God and seeing his faithfulness to and love for us.

In our preparation for her arrival, we prayed about the how and where to do it. While neither of us was very excited at the thought of delivering in the local hospital (for many reasons), we were ready to go if God directed us. We kept feeling peace with the decision to deliver at home while being attentive to God's voice if he would direct us otherwise. We felt his desire for us to trust him completely.

Larry's sister, Lori, has been trained in delivering babies, and she agreed to come down to participate in the birth. Eva's due date was December 25^th, and Lori was able to arrive on the 24^th. We figured that since this was our first baby it wouldn't arrive on time. Well, Lori arrived to Campus without her luggage at 10:30pm on the 24^th. In her luggage she had "the essential supplies" for the birthing process, so when Larry woke her up at 2:30am to tell her my water broke and my contractions were about three minutes apart, her first thought was about her missing luggage. However, we all felt a peace about God's provision and sufficiency and we proceeded.

Together with Jenny English (she and her husband, Tim, and five of their children are here for December and January to help us continue the ministry while we focus on Eva), we had a great birthing team. Accompanied by Handal's Messiah, Larry, Lori, Jenny and I felt God's presence and peace in a tangible way. Each of us had our part to do and we did it by God's strength.

After only four hours of contractions, I started to push. One hour later, Eva was born. We praise God for this "easy" first delivery! She cried enough to clear her lungs and to let us know she was healthy, and then she calmly looked around with wide open eyes for two hours. It was a wonderful day of celebration for us, with the whole Discipleship Group coming to visit her. The next day we had a time of prayer and dedication together with the Englishes, Lori and the Discipleship Group. Praise God for his faithfulness, love and peace!

Karla

Karla, a member of the Discipleship Group and a GO Scholarship recipient, is studying nursing at the public university in La Ceiba, and has vacation from the middle of December until the end of January. Normally when she is not studying, she moves to her parents' house. This time, she told us she wanted to spend her vacation at Campus until Christmas so she could focus on reading her Bible and listening to God. This was a huge encouragement to us, as we have seen her responding to the teachings in the Discipleship Group with an open heart and a willing spirit. In her first week of focused time, she told us that she heard God tell her to spend her vacation in El Palito, a village in the south where Agua Viva did one of its first water projects and where Karla has visited three times on various work projects with the Discipleship Group.

Her response was that she knew God has spoken to her and she would obey even though she had reservations. Her obedience encourages us greatly, as she is putting God's desires above her own comfort.

She plans to go to El Palito this coming week and spend 2-3 weeks there. Please pray for her to hear God's voice, to know his love for her during this trip and be used for his glory.

Praise to the Lord for:

-a safe home delivery and a healthy baby girl, Eva Christine, on Christmas Day

-Lori Lindstrom, Larry's sister, who arrived just in time to deliver Eva

-Tim and Jenny English and their family, for their service and participation in life and ministry at Campus in December and January

-God speaking to Discipleship Group member, Karla, and her obedient response to his call

-an almost completed house for Dario and Maria

Pray to the Lord for:

-Discipleship Group member, Erick, as he struggles with some family and spiritual issues

-direction and wisdom as our daily activities are changed with Eva's arrival

-continued good health and development for Eva

-Karla to hear God's voice and direction during her trip to El Palito during her vacation from school

-God to continue to lead us in the Discipleship Group and as we lead others in the way of Jesus' life at Campus

Praising God together,

Larry, Allison and Eva

"Love never fails."

Introducing Eva Christine Smoak

2011-01-01T20:28:00.001-06:00

Official stats:

Eva was born at 5:34am on Christmas Day at home. She weighed 5 pounds 7 ounces and was 18.5 inches long.

We had a great team of people to help in her delivery and she and I are both doing well (although I'm a bit tired after a week of nursing her every 2-3 hours, but my body schedule is adjusting!).

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-21T18:04:00.001-06:00

Merry Christmas Friends and Family,

we miss you so much this time of year as families get together to remember the birth of Jesus. We hope you have a terrific celebration with your loved ones.

Attached is a letter expressing a few of our thoughts as we expect the arrival of Baby Smoak any day. Allison and Baby are well. Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love, in Christ,

Larry, Allison and Baby Smoak, along with Joel, Don Victor, Erick, Karla and the rest of our Honduras family

PS Let us know if you have problems downloading or reading the letter

"Love never fails."

Christmas cookies with the kids

2010-12-18T16:13:00.001-06:00

We had the orphans & co. over on Tuesday to make Christmas cookies with us. We pre-made and pre-chilled the dough and then provided lots of cookie cutters and decorating tools. Eight kids came (age ranging from four to nineteen) and we made a lot of cookies. Granted, many of them were tiny (to make the dough go farther and to give them more to do) but still...lots of cookies.

Before we started we had a mini-lecture on hand washing and on not touching anything besides the table and the cookies with their hands (since their clothes are always dirty too), after washing their hands--with soap. I got giggles at the serious nature of my tone but they heard what I was saying, too. I let the girls (ages 11-12 and who have baked with me before) wash their hands in the bathroom unsupervised, but I had all the boys (ages 4 to nineteen, where the seventeen and nineteen-year-old are mentally handicapped) wash their hands in the kitchen with me and then go directly to Erick who dried their hands with a clean towel. Then they all stood around the kitchen table with their hands on the table awaiting more instructions. It was actually pretty cute.

We made a generic sugar cookie and then a Dutch spice cookie that are made to be cut-out cookies. Larry and Jenny taught the kids how to roll out the cookies with the rolling pin (I should have taken lessons but my station was with the decorators). Then the kids painted them with an egg yolk/food coloring mixture, and I provided the sprinkles. (Last year we let the kids put the sprinkles on themselves but a good portion ended up in their mouths, which required a lot of post-eating hand washing and we also ran out of sprinkles.) We also made oatmeal cookies to supplement our goody bags that we made for our friends and those we buy food from in La Ceiba. The older girls who have helped me in the past helped me mix up these cookies and drop teaspoon fulls on the cookie sheets.

After three and a half hours they went home, satisfied with a good time (augmented by the colored Christmas lights in the kitchen and the goofy [yet awesome] Muppets Christmas album with John Denver), and were pleasantly pleased with the two cookies they got to take home.

Although, let's be honest. No cookie made it home. I think they were consumed before the truck left the driveway!

diaper wounds

2010-12-18T15:54:00.001-06:00

Larry and I have been searching for diaper options for this little one to come and we have several different styles. We received a grant from CottonBabies.com for missionaries and the Agua Viva team brought those down in November (Thanks, guys!). They're a cool idea of an outer pant with an insert that collects the liquid. The only problem is that you have to wash the outer part every time too, because the insert goes inside (so the outer part is stained each time). So with that problem in mind, my mom found a "gPant" diaper with the same idea but you only have to wash the insert each time.

We are pretty excited about this because here everyone just uses the one-ply cloth diaper, but without the plastic pants to go outside of it. So every time the baby urinates, you have to wash the diaper and your own clothes. We have some of these traditional diapers as well, but my family and some friends have also sent us some plastic pants. However, the benefit of these other kinds is that they are breathable. And since we live in the very humid tropics, it will be nice to have a breathable diaper rather than a "keep all moisture inside" plastic pant option!

The bummer about these cool cloth diapers, however, is that they have to be washed 6-7 times before their first use "for maximum absorbency." One of my friends has these diapers and she said "seriously, you have to wash them that many times. You don't want to try it without washing them."

So I have been washing and hanging up diapers for a month now, feeling a little silly as my neighbors come by and see my line of diapers hanging and my belly still growing.

Today was a tough day, though.

We have had three days of sun in a row, which is somewhat rare in typically rainy December. The first day we all scrambled to wash clothes and get them in the sun to dry. Since diapers are not yet priority in drying, I washed them and hung them inside where the wind gets to them but no sun. They were dry yesterday afternoon. When I woke up this morning and it was still clear (and since my due date is in less than a week) I decided I needed to try and get wash number 4 underway. So I washed the 54 "fancy" diapers that we have in hot water (half with detergent, half without), but then realized that I hadn't washed the 24 single-ply diapers yet. So I took half of them and washed those in the already hot and soapy water. (We don't normally wash our clothes in hot water but the diaper instructions say it is necessary in this pre-use process.)

So with the hot water to soften the skin on my hands and then wringing out 64 diapers, I got blisters on both of my hands but didn't notice until one of them popped. Ouch. Normally when I wash clothes I don't wring (it stretches the clothes out a lot), so my hands aren't already calloused for this job. But with diapers, it's ok if they stretch a bit and since they are so absorbent I want to extract every drop of liquid possible from them since they also take so long to dry.

I'm glad that tomorrow is Sunday because I won't be tempted to wash diapers again if the weather remains clear. I don't think my hands could handle it!

"if it´s not a baby, it´s a girl"

2010-12-08T14:12:00.001-06:00

Our baby is due to be born before the end of December, "si Dios permite" (if God permits--a common phrase here but a good reality to remember as well!). So as the baby (and I) continue to grow, its arrival is becoming more of a focus of our thoughts.

Yesterday our friends the Engilshes came to be at Campus to help out before and after the baby´s birth. What a blessing they are and will be! We are excited to both spend time with them and to have a little maternity/paternity leave as well.

The Discipleship Group members and Joel are also very excited about the baby´s birth. A lot of our neighbors are asking Joel what I´m having. We have had three ultrasounds (free, thanks to friends!) and each time the baby was "hiding" so we couldn´t tell its gender. We are excited for a surprise, though. However, everyone each has their theory. All those in the States say I´m having a boy because I´ve carried really low; all those here say I´m having a girl because "I´m really fat." We shall see.

A few months ago someone asked Joel if I was pregnant. He came home and told us that. I asked him what he said. He got very serious and said "I said, no, she´s not."

I, a bit puzzled, said, "Joel, do you know that pregnant means having a baby?" He smiled as if a little bit embarrassed and I explained that it means the same thing. So if someone asked that again, I explained, he could say yes.

Then we talked about how he would be the baby´s uncle. (see this entry for the delineation of each of our roles: http://allisonstravelingthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/09/and-youre-aunt.html) So now he goes around telling everyone that he´s going to be the uncle. And when mean people tell him that he won´t "really" be, I told him to just ignore them.

The other day Joel´s brother asked him "what is Allison having?" Joel´s answer?

"a baby."

A frustrated brother said, "ok, but a girl or a boy?"

Joel said while shrugging, "if it´s not a baby, it´s a girl."

Well said. We will let everyone know "if it´s a baby or a girl" as soon as we know!

turning the lights out on Halloween

2010-11-01T20:19:00.001-05:00

In Honduras, they "celebrate" Halloween on the 30^th instead of the 31^st. I put quotes around celebrate because as a country they have decided that "it's not from [their] culture so it's not a holiday that should be celebrated."

So at about 4:45pm on Saturday the 30^th, the power went out. It's not normal for the power to go out on a Saturday night. It's normal for it to be off all day on Sunday, but not on Saturday. So we thought that a branch fell on the power line or something.

However, a friend of ours called that night and told us that the power had been turned off in the whole country so that people wouldn't celebrate Halloween. I guess they think that those are worship the devil are going to go ahead with their plans no matter what, but those who are just doing it to have an excuse to party will be thwarted by the lack of power.

Here they see it as much more of a spiritual holiday where devil worship is the purpose and point of the holiday. And they reject (for the most part) kids dressing up in costumes because it confuses the point of the holiday. The only place kids dress up is in the bilingual schools which follow the US calendar.

I read a commentary in the paper where "it's not our culture" was the main reason for not celebrating. People responded to the commentary and every one of the ten replies they printed was in agreement that they did not celebrate it and that it isn't their culture. Two mentioned that they didn't think it was right for the nation to prohibit it since "Honduras is a democracy and we have the right to celebrate what we want," but even these two said "but I'm not going to celebrate it and I personally think it is wrong."

a day at the beach

2010-11-01T20:17:00.000-05:00

September 10^th is the "Día del Niño," the Day of the Child. We have made the tradition of taking the orphans, their cousins and a lot of the other kids from their community to the beach for the day to celebrate. We take our two trucks, 100 baleadas (a flour tortilla with refried beans and cheese), four gallons of water and juice, cookies, a soccer ball, frisbees and inter tubes and head out to the Caribbean Sea.

There is a great beach about fifteen minutes out of the city that is fairly clean, has soft sand and almost no other people. This year we had a somewhat smaller crowd with only 30 kids and four Discipleship Group members in addition to the two of us. We arrived at the beach, gave the kids the "be careful and don't go too far" talk and let them loose. We had a great time.

The traditional conversations are, "my eyes are burning," "who put the salt in the water?" "this water tastes yucky," and "I'm so thirsty!" Even those who have come with us for four years now forget that you can't open your eyes under water in the sea like you can in the creek that we take them to each Saturday. And that you can't drink it. Maybe we should add that to our initial "warning" talk to remind them from year to year.

It's fun now that the kids are older and more aware of how comfortable they feel in the water. There is only one boy who is mentally handicapped who we have to keep an eye out for and remind him to come closer to the shore. The rest of them now know how far they should go and don't cross the line. It is fun to be able to just hang out with them instead of being on high alert with all 30 of them (although it's still a high alert situation when you have 30 kids in the sea with a current and waves!).

My favorite memory of the day, though, was when four little boys came over to us with something in their hands. They said "Allison, look, we found a baby pig." I'm afraid I didn't hide my girly squeamishness and germ-freak and said "that is dirty! You need to put that down and stop touching it!" Then I calmed down a bit and asked them where they found it, what they were going to do with it, etc. I told them to put it in the bushes so that it could fertilize the plants. They decided instead to bury it in the sand. I watched these four 9- to 10-year-old boys dig a hole, carefully place the pig in the hole, cover it up, and then they all bowed their heads. Then they searched for some sticks and made a cross at the burial site. As I gave them some hand sanitizer, I asked them why they all got quiet after they buried the pig. They told me, "we all said a prayer." These kids see death in ways that are far too graphic for their soul's comprehension, but they were still soft enough to give it a proper burial, understanding it was a living thing. I learned from them.

We end the day with a piñata, the traditional party game for the day's celebration. This is always a time of utter chaos. You have a dizzy blindfolded kid with a long stick swinging wildly and 29 others around him getting as close as they can without getting hit so they can dive at the candy. It's as bad, or worse, as you are imagining it.

Larry's job is to swing the piñata and pull it up and down so the hitter swings all the more wildly, and I try and keep the other kids from getting in the way. We also usually ask a bigger kid to help the smaller ones get candy, since the smaller ones are more intelligent and stay out of the way of the swinging stick.

This year Karla helped Joel get some candy. He was a little excited about his haul.

Fixing the Road

2010-11-01T20:16:00.000-05:00

We live on a dirt road that is 20 miles long (officially for cars). The road is "maintained" by the city, but it usually gets pretty darn bad before they start to fix it.

Sometime in August the mayor held a community meeting in the Cuenca (what we call the river valley where we live). He invited community leaders from all of the 31 villages along the road (including those that are off the road) to basically come and share their desires and complaints. The mayor has two meetings like this each year in the whole metropolitan of La Ceiba, and before the meeting he told people to "dream big."

There were two big requests by all: fix the road and put in more police posts/be more of a presence against crime and violence. While the government doesn't have enough money to sustain more police posts, we have seen police trucks up and down the road more consistently, and they have responded to calls much more quickly than before.

However, they did have money for the "one time" cost of really fixing the road well. There were rumors at first that they were going to pave the road. This may have been the actual request by the people. But the only reason the government would do that is if there would be some payout in the end. Our valley is a common tourist place, both for people within the country and for those without, but to pave the entire 20 miles when almost all of the tourist organizations are within the first 5 miles seems ridiculous. People also don't have a clue about how their property tax would increase, forcing many of them off their land and to the city slums for lack of funds.

However, I digress. The transportation department did start fixing the road almost immediately after the meeting. This encouraged everyone. They worked diligently for "the first of three legs of the project:" the first 5 miles. They grated the road below the deep potholes and trenches that had been formed by water run-off. Then they put a new layer of dirt down, then they packed it down with the big rolling machine. (In Spanish it's called the planador. I never had to learn that word in English.) They repeated the dirt and rolling steps and the road was beautiful. Before you could drive about 10 miles an hour because of all the potholes. After their work you could cruise at almost 30! It was great.

Then they stopped working.

People's attitudes quickly turned from gratefulness at quick action to disbelief that they would ever continue working. I noticed the difference in our opinions. Almost everyone I talked to said "they're never going to continue. They just did it past the tourist places. They will never keep working. They've forgotten about us."

My perspective was, "they said they will fix it. They will. I don't know why they've stopped, but if they said they will fix the whole road we just have to be patient and wait."

I noticed the default response and could see it from years (decades, generations) of expectations. Those who live in the countryside here have always felt forgotten by a corrupt government who barely cares for its wealthy, and doesn't care at all for its poor. They allow their hope to be encouraged when they are shown attention, but quickly resume their neglected mindset at the first sign of being forgotten. After four years here, I can see that there is some truth to their thoughts.

I saw my own experiences say that even though our US government isn't perfect, and politicians make lots of promises and don't hold up to them all, a lot of times they at least try. And if they start a project they almost always finish it. I saw the beginnings of work. I figured they had to finish it.

But then the rains came and they didn't return.

With the rains, the layers of dirt that they put on the road turned into mud. I was glad for my years of driving in snow, because I could somewhat easily navigate through the mud as the car threatened to slip and fishtail. I told Larry I wasn't sure which was worse: potholes or mud, because we resumed the 10mph trek to La Ceiba. Gone were the days of the smooth bliss of 30mph!

But after almost a month of straight rains (and lots of depression on people's parts since this isn't even the heavy part of the almost six months of rainy season), the work crews came back. They scraped off the muddy areas and put down a layer of gravel on the affected parts (which everyone agreed was what they needed to do over all the road in the first place).

At this point, even I had lost faith that they would continue the work past the five mile mark where they had already fixed the road. I thought they were just fixing the five miles they started with, but they certainly weren't going to continue.

However, yesterday I went to pick up the orphans and their cousins for a play and swim time, and there was the road crew, fixing beyond the initial point. Selfishly I rejoiced, believing that if they started there they would surely continue to at least the three more miles through our community. The community members were all out on their porches with their plastic chairs watching the huge machines scrape, haul dirt and flatten it out. The kids were in heaven as the machines roared by, as they breathed in the exhaust and saw that their road was now flat. Those who have bikes brought them out and coasted along the "smooth" dirt road, riding up and down just because it was now easy and fun. The two-year-old cousin to the orphans who never talks kept patting my face and saying "Allison, look at the machines!" and climbed all over me to get a better view of them.

We'll see this week how far they go. I'm optimistic. Right now my neighbors are too when the workers keep coming. We'll see.

News from October

2010-10-31T22:10:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Dario's and Maria's Faith in "Hopelessness"

Background:

Dario has been a friend of Larry's for many years. He was a drug addict and alcoholic. One night after a lot of alcohol, he was lying in the street and a car ran over him, leaving him in a wheelchair. This kept him in a depressed state of mind and he continued in his drug and alcohol habits. He began making a living by begging on the streets of La Ceiba, but he lived in El Naranjo, a community about six miles from the city. He got there most days (and returned most nights) by wheeling himself up and down the mountainous dirt road that is most often filled with potholes and trenches caused by water run-off. About five years ago he started going to church, met Maria and she began praying for him to stop drinking and smoking and to trust Jesus with his life. He did. Now they are together with an almost-four-year-old boy and a seven-month-old girl. They live in a "house" made of rusted sheets of tin for the roof and three walls, with the fourth being a tarp. And each time we visit them, they encourage us with their faith in a faithful and loving God.

Current news:

October was a very rainy month, which makes begging (their only source of income) more difficult. They have enough money to eat but no money for anything else like formula or vitamin supplements for their baby, medicines or clothes. But they thank God for each lempira (the Honduran currency) they receive and trust him to provide for all their needs.

When Larry goes to their house, he takes some wood for the construction. Because he has to get a permit for each load of wood, Larry makes sure he takes enough for the day's work. (The idea behind the permit is to keep people from deforestation, but it doesn't really work because those who do it illegally just pay off the soldiers who check.) Sometimes Larry isn't able to do all he planned and some of the wood is not nailed down for the house. Larry leaves it at the house (because they can't bring it back without a permit), covered by tin so it isn't ruined by the rain. However, at night, people come and steal some of the wood. Dario told Larry he wants to go out and confront the thieves, but Maria won't let him because they will just beat Dario up. He feels helpless as a man because he cannot protect his family or his things. But he trusts God to protect and defend him and his family.

When Larry told me about the robbery I was outraged. That's just so low. Even for those who have no morals, you just don't steal from a guy in a wheelchair who is faithful with the only source of income that he has access to since he can't read well or write. Larry explained that those who steal from him are poor too, so they will take every advantage they can get, even if it's taking from those who are weak.

But through all of the injustice, Dario and Maria know that God loves them and is faithful to them. They believe that God is their protector and provider. They watch for his faithfulness and they see it. They praise him when he provides for them and they praise him when they have nothing because they are waiting with anticipation for the way that he is going to provide for them.

When their house is built it will be built on a strong concrete and rock foundation, above the line where the flood waters have risen in the past. But even if the house wasn't solid and the flood took their house, their foundation is secure in Christ.

Praise to the Lord for:

-Dario's and Maria's faith in God and their friendship and encouragement for us

-Allison's and Baby Smoak's continued health throughout the pregnancy

-the Discipleship Group youth's leadership among local youths in a new weekly gathering

Pray to the Lord for:

-Larry, Joel, Andrew and the Agua Viva team from Minnesota as they are in southern Honduras for a water project, October 29-November 6. Pray that God would give them strength and unity in Him, that they would be a blessing and a physical representation of the love of God to the community.

-Allison's residency renewal paperwork to be completed quickly and for the lawyer who is working on it

-the heavy rains to hold off until Larry and others can finish Dario's and Maria's house

"Love never fails."

September News

2010-10-01T15:10:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Toyano's House Dedication

Maybe you have been following the progress of our partnership with Toyano in the construction of his family's new house. Well, this month the Discipleship Group youth and I hiked up (and UP, therefore Allison and Baby Smoak stayed home) to join Toyano and his family in dedicating the house to God. This humble, sixteen by twenty foot adobe block and tin roof house, a structure smaller than the typical garage, is a really big deal for Toyano and his family, and for us. Their accomplishment is bigger than you or I can imagine.

You see, Toyano and his family live on the same land where he was born 63 years ago, and where Don Victor (the 97 year-old who lives with us), Toyano's father, was a pioneer settler about 75 years ago. And for generations Toyano and his ancestors have lived in homes made of wooden poles cut from the forest, tied with vines and packed and plastered with mud. This type of house is practical and quickly built as long as there are enough saplings in the forest to cut down (each house takes over two hundred poles). But in eight to ten years the poles rot, the walls crumble, and the house has to be rebuilt. Can you imagine having to rebuild your home every eight years? Plus the roofs are made of poles covered with palm thatch which rots out and has to be replaced every three years. And of course for these families have never had a cement floor.

Now, after about sixteen months of very hard work Toyano and his family have a house made of adobe (sun-baked mud and straw) blocks, with a tin roof and a cement floor. For weeks Toyano and his five children hauled sacks of dirt on their backs to make the adobe blocks and gravel for the cement floor. You might remember us writing about joining them for some of those days. And for eight months Toyano saved up what he could spare from his wages, sometimes at the sacrifice of basic supplies for his family, to pay for the adobe mason, rough milled lumber, cement and tin for the roof. You along with us helped him pay for some of these materials. And finally the day arrived when the house was finished, cement floor and all, and we hiked up to celebrate.

We, including Joel who hiked courageously the mountainous 4 mile round trip, left just after dawn and were able to spend most of the day with Toyano and his family. We played the guitar and sang, we studied and discussed part of the Apostle John's first letter and we prepared a big lunch together. Then just before we ate lunch in the new house we gathered in a big circle and prayed together. Toyano prayed first. In a quiet but oh so deeply passionate voice he thanked God our Father for the strength, resources and house that he had mercifully given him. I don't think I have ever heard a more beautiful, humble, heart-felt prayer of gratitude in my life. Toyano prayed with a thankfulness deeper than I have ever experienced, that like gold has been refined by fire, and is a pure and lasting treasure. We felt a warm tingling up our backs. It was one of those sacred moments when time seems to stand still. Several of us followed in prayer, and then we enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

After the meal we all sat around on the new cement floor laughing, talking, singing and playing together for several hours. The children enjoyed their first experience of a clean, smooth, cool, red colored cement floor so much that they pushed themselves across the floor on their backs from one end of the house to the other. Then someone pulled out a bag of marbles and we had so much fun rolling the marbles across the smooth floor. We all lingered in the sweetness of simple and pure joy until late in the afternoon when we hiked back to our home in Las Mangas.

Toyano's house is worth celebrating, perhaps as the widow's mite was commended by Jesus. And yet, we weep over the sinful condition of our world in which a house, smaller than a two-car garage, for a family of seven is such a huge accomplishment. Pray for us as we wrestle through these issues daily, that we would "do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God" (Michah 6:8)

Other News

Allison's and Baby Smoak's health are good entering the 3^rd trimester
We finished the framing for Dario's house and construction has begun on the roof.
We had a blast taking the kids to the beach for Children's Day (see photos)
We harvested a good crop of corn from our field of erosion control/soil building barriers and made charcoal from the larger branches pruned
The Discipleship Group has decreased in numbers but increased in closeness of relationship, participation and sincere desire for God.
Friend, Andrew is serving with us for 3.5 months

Praise the Lord for:

1. his mercy to include us in and teach us through his loving of the poor

2. Toyano and family's new house and the privilege of celebrating with them

3. the chance to love and be loved by the Acosta orphans and other children at the beach

Pray to the Lord for:

1. Allison's and the baby's continued health and for our preparation as parents

2. Continued revelation from his Word and spiritual growth in the Discipleship Group

3. Preparation for the Agua Viva water project the first week of November

4. Mario, Gerson, Walter, Jimmy, Julia and Heidi – the orphans and twins, to come to saving faith in Jesus

Thank you each one for your part in our life and work through prayers, encouragement and giving.

Looking to Jesus, running the race,

Larry, for Allison and Baby Smoak

"Love never fails."

"And you're the aunt?"

2010-09-24T17:34:00.001-05:00

When we first told Joel we were expecting a baby he got really serious and said "no, I don't want a baby." Now, he loves children in general and especially babies. We know that he will be excited about it when the baby arrives but his reaction at first wasn't one of excitement.

A couple months ago we told him "when the baby is born, you're going to be the uncle, 'Uncle Joel,' they'll say." Then he got to get excited. In this culture when a aunt/uncle/grandparent sees a child for the first time that day they say "Bendiga" which is like a blessing. He said "when the baby says 'hola Tio Joel' I will say 'bendiga.'"

In the last few weeks my belly has been growing a lot and more people are noticing that I'm "really pregnant." One day Joel said "when the baby is born, I'm going to be the uncle, right?"

"Yep, you'll be the baby's uncle," I confirmed.

"And you'll be the aunt?"

I paused and held back my amused smile. "No, I'll be the mom." And then, just to be sure he understood, "and Larry will be the dad."

The sweet half-smile that only Joel can make creeped to his lips and he said "you're going to be the mom and Larry's going to be the dad?" I confirmed it and he walked away really cheerful.

Well, yesterday Larry and Joel went into town to sell Joel's bottles. On the way to buy some "work socks" for Joel with his earnings, Larry stopped to price some baby bottles. In looking at the bottles, Joel said while laughing, "Allison says you're going to be the baby's daddy."

Larry smiled and affirmed our all-around status in regard to the baby. Joel was content knowing that he was included--and I think to know that Larry is going to be a dad. They have such a fun friendship.

we never thought we'd say "thank God for text messaging"

2010-09-21T15:50:00.001-05:00

Larry and the Discipleship Group continue to work every Friday on our friends Dario's and Maria's house in the slums of La Ceiba. Two weeks ago Larry took a lot of wood that we someone cut on our property in Las Mangas (we hired them to, although often people enter our property to collect firewood without asking) to Dario's only to find that two of the corner posts were an inch too short. So he brought them back and needed to take two more last week.

Now, to transport wood in a truck you have to have a permit since the forest behind our property is a protected national forest. It's a temptation for people to cut it down and sell it. But even on your own property you have to get a permit to cut down a tree--even if you planted it--and then pay taxes on it. These rules, by the way, do not really help the deforestation that is going on since very few of our neighbors ever get permits, and when they pass by the soldier guards they just pay them off.

To obtain a permit you have to go to a government office (which is basically only open two days a week) and schedule a visit to your property. It takes them several weeks to come out since they only do field visits once a week. Then you have to go back to the office and fill out a form and take it to two different offices and get signatures. Then you have to pay taxes to two different branches of the government (these being in different buildings on opposite ends of town). When you only go into town one day a week like we do, this process takes a long time, but ironically it is still way cheaper (financially, at least) to do this run around with taxes and everything than buying milled and cured lumber.

So Larry had done all of these requirements and had the permit for the first time he took the wood. But he didn't want to do all of that just for the two corner posts last week. We know that we didn't illegally cut down the wood but often the soldiers try and hassle people they think they can get bribes from. So Larry brought the former permit, ready with his explanation and tied the wood in a way that the soldiers wouldn't see it until we passed them. And then we prayed for God to blind the soldier's eyes.

As we got to the bottom of the road (read: entering La Ceiba; you go "up" the road as you go up the mountain and "down" the road as you go down the mountain), we prayed again that God would blind their eyes, calling upon the Holy Spirit "Force" and then joked about being like Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars using The Force: "you don't need to see his identification [or wood permit]. Move along."

As we got closer to the soldiers each one of the five of them was looking intently at their cell phones. Even after we passed Larry looked in the mirror and none of them even glanced up to check the car. A new long-term member of the cuenca, Mark, was with us as well. He married a friend of ours who works at the clinic in Rio Viejo and has a lot of construction and framing experience. After we passed the soldiers Mark said "Thank God for text messaging!" Thank you, God, for blinding their eyes in a way we never would have expected!

Don Victor colors

2010-09-15T11:56:00.001-05:00

This morning Don Victor (97 years young) came in to the kitchen and started looking through one of the coloring books we have for the kids. He said "look at that snake!" I asked him if he wanted to color it. He said "I can't." I grabbed the crayons and showed him how the color on the outside of the crayon is the color that comes out on the page. He kept saying that he couldn't but I put the crayon in his hand and encouraged him to try. He did, continuing to say he couldn't.

By the time I had his breakfast ready he had drawn lines with different colors on the body ("to differentiate it from the head," he explained). I told him to take a break and to continue when he was done. He said he was tired and couldn't do anymore. But I placed the sheet in front of him while he ate and sure enough, as soon as he was done eating he picked up the crayon and pulled the book toward him. He finished the snake and then told us he was tired and that he was going to go lie down. But we did manage to get a picture first. (Note how he is trying to not smile and be proud of his drawing...) He is the most proud of the tongue that he drew in "because it's a snake." Too fun!

they didn't believe I was pregnant

2010-09-11T17:47:00.001-05:00

When we told the orphans and their cousins that I was pregnant I was about 10 weeks along. One of the 11yo girls, Heidy, asked me how I knew. Realizing she probably didn't need the full explanation, I told her I took a test and it said I was pregnant. Her twin sister Julia said "yeah, but did a doctor tell you you were pregnant?" Her wise sister said "yes, she went to the doctor, took a test and found out she was pregnant." Julia, taking her sister's words, said "I bet you were so surprised! You go to the doctor and find out your pregnant!"

Sure.

We realized that since I wasn't really showing at all they wouldn't know of any other reason that would tip one off that one might be pregnant. But since I see them 2-3 times each week they saw my stomach growing slightly and started to believe us more. Another factor for them is that their mom and aunts are all quite overweight so you don't even notice they're pregnant until they're like 7 months along. So when we said the baby would be born around Christmas in May, they didn't really know what to do with that.

However, the twins weren't the only ones who didn't believe us.

Our friend Angel is a farmer in La Muralla and I usually only see him about once a month. When he came this last week he said "now I can see that you are pregnant. Before Larry told me you were pregnant and I believed him, but I couldn't see it. But I thought, Larry is a brother in Christ. He wouldn't lie to me! But I still wasn't sure. Now I can see that you are pregnant."

I laughed pretty hard at that.

Then last week I talked with Rolando, our friend who is crippled and who watches our car in the grocery store parking lot. He said "I knew you were pregnant but now you can see it. Soon we're going to be holding a baby!"

Apparently now it's "for real!"

sometimes you just can't joke with Joel

2010-09-11T16:47:00.001-05:00

Joel is a very organized and detail-oriented person. Larry does a good job of moving something "out of its place" or using it for another purpose (putting Joel's cup on top of Larry's head and calling it a hat, for example) to which Joel cracks up, says "no no no" and jokingly does the "crazy" symbol to others in regard to Larry.

I, however, have a hard time pulling it off. I think it's because I catch more of Joel's lack-of-reason idiosyncrasies and try and get him to be aware of those.

For example:

Every night when we are going to bed he tells me "Allison, in the morning I'm going to put on clean socks. I took off my socks before my shower (they were so dirty) and I put them in my clothes basket." To which I respond, "good idea, Joel. Good night." Then he either tells me "see you tomorrow" or "el viejo [a mythical figure] is going to eat you in the night." Kind of like the boogy man, I guess.

I just think it's weird that he chooses socks to focus on. In the morning he also always brushes his teeth, washes his face, and puts on his shoes all before seeing me. Why the socks?

So one night, I beat him to it. I said, "Hey Joel, in the morning I'm going to put on clean socks." The poor guy didn't know what to do. He started back at how in the afternoon he took a shower, took off all his clothes ("they were so dirty") and put them in his clothes basket. Then he took a shower and put on clean clothes [at which point he referred to the clothes he was wearing] and put on deodorant and cologne. And then he got to "and in the morning I'm going to put on clean socks." And then he threatened "el viejo" on me.

When I got down to our room I said to Larry "I just can't joke with Joel." Larry's response? "You were joking? I wasn't sure." So maybe the real problem is my sense of humor...

News from August

2010-09-04T08:50:00.001-05:00

Dear Family and Friends,

Luis' Bean Field

One day Larry and three of our young female visitors (two in high school, one mid-twenties) hiked 2.5 hours up to our friend Luis' bean field to help him harvest his beans. They came back and told me the stories: the field was so steep they were literally holding on as they pulled up the beans; the soil was so vulnerable that it eroded under their feet; and each of them fell several times, sliding for many feet. The tragedy is that from all his work in planting the field to weeding to harvesting, Luis will only profit enough beans to feed his family for a month. This is supposed to be his cash crop but he didn't even harvest enough to sell. This reality of the consequences of sin hit me so hard as I learned this. People shouldn't be farming beans on these mountain sides in the first place! And then their soil is low in fertility because of over planting and obviously, erosion. And then the rains come (when they're not "supposed to") and wash out the whole field! I could only say "I'm so sorry," to his "it is what it is." Then our friend Toyano (whose own bean field was eaten by his neighbor's cows) said, "and in this we give thanks to God." That's right. As Jesus, Mother Teresa and Toyano the not-even-subsistence-farmer say, "when you have food you give thanks and when you don't have food you give thanks." They know that in a way that I have never known. Give me faith like theirs, God!

Maria and Carolina

A neighbor of ours has been coming once a week to help me wash clothes. This is a huge help to us, and we have really enjoyed deepening our friendship with her. Larry met them in 2005 after a terrible storm literally collapsed their home. They have a now seven-year-old daughter named Carolina who is adorable and is in first grade. Maria and her husband Santiago are very poor, but they are hard workers. They plant papayas, pineapples, yucca and corn and then sell their harvest to their neighbors in El Naranjo and Las Mangas. When we first asked Maria if she could come one day to wash she thanked me for asking her to work. Then she thanked me when she arrived. She thanked me when she was done and she thanked me twice after she received her pay. Her thankfulness humbled me. She has continued to come every Monday morning and she and I have been developing more and more of a friendship. While she washes her daughter grabs a broom and sweeps the kitchen, the dining room, the porch…and then starts over when she's done! In our working together we are learning more about each other as people and we are enjoying each other as friends. She enjoys when I teach her daughter new games or give her easy books to read. I appreciate learning the skills she has, like how she gets Larry's work shirts so clean and how to install a new metal sheet on our outside wood stove. Pray with us in our growing friendship with them.

The Orphans and The Exodus

On Tuesdays I have been bringing the orphans to Campus to do VBS-type activities. For a month we focused on Moses, starting on the burning bush, with one week on the plagues and the next week on crossing the Red Sea . For the last week we watched those snippets from The Prince of Egypt (with the story review beforehand and my translation at times since our version doesn't have a Spanish language track). It has been fun to have them come each week and to review what we learned and to hear their enthusiasm and excitement about this important story. I have been encouraged in that they aren't just remembering the story but they are remembering the personal application point, too. When we talked about the Red Sea we pretended we were the Israelites fleeing Egypt with Pharaoh and his army chasing us (we may have been going a bit faster in our car than the Israelites did on foot with all their cargo, but the kids still got the idea, I think!). We ended up at the stream where we take them swimming. I took them to a deeper part where they hadn't swum before and I asked how we could cross it, imagining that we couldn't see the other side that was indeed fifty feet away. We had a good time talking and learning together and then enjoyed swimming in this new swimming hole since I had purposefully only brought a few of the older ones. We are thankful for the opportunity to be a part of these kids' lives, and that we have the hope, which is the only hope to offer them.

Praise the Lord for:

-the opportunities he is giving us with the orphans who we help care for and their cousins to share with them about God and growing up to be Godly men and women

-so many wonderful friends and visits this summer

-a good time of mourning and celebration for Allison's dad and family at the passing of her 95-year-old grandmother who loved Jesus

Pray to the Lord for:

-real working solutions for slash and burn agriculture and for the farmers to be open to these new ways

-the growing friendship with our neighbors Maria and Carolina

-continued good health for Allison and for Baby Smoak's good development

-physical strength for us with all the work we are called to do

Looking to Christ,

Larry and Allison Smoak

"Love never fails."

Hummus Making: The Experience

2010-08-27T15:24:00.001-05:00

I thought hummus was basically just ground up chick peas. And essentially it is. But when you live in rural Honduras and make certain choices in lifestyle, it becomes a much bigger deal than opening the can of chick peas, putting them in the blender and serving them. I will start from the beginning.

Fridays are Family Night at Campus since Erick has class every night but Friday. We get together to sing and pray and share what is going on in our lives. It's a great time and we all really enjoy it. Well, I've sort of made it a "rule" for myself that I would make fun or different meals on Fridays to help in making it a "special" or "set apart" day. It's also nice to have a time to be a little creative or to divert from our rice and bean base that we have for most of our meals.

So in order to buy chick peas in the first place I adjusted the food purchases this week to buy two pounds of chick peas (since they cost double what our normal red beans cost). But that wasn't that big of a deal. Then yesterday I talked with my neighbor about coming this morning to help me replace the sheet of metal that goes on our outdoor wood stove since the one we were replacing was literally going to cave in it was so rusted out.

So this morning Maria came with her 7yo daughter Jessica. I had already cleaned the chick peas and had them soaking in preparation to be boiled. Then Maria and I started by taking off the old metal sheet ("lamina" in Spanish...I can't think of a better way to describe it in English, never having needed this vocabulary in English before!) and unpacking the dirt to accommodate the new rectangular lamina because the older was round. We were also going to install the chimney so we dug that hole out and figured out how to best put it on. That took almost an hour.

Then we put the new lamina on and it became a one woman job. So I let Maria do it (because she does a WAY better job than I would!) and Jessica and I read part of the kids' section of the paper and I taught her the game Guess Who. While she somehow beat me once she still hadn't mastered the concept of "if you know I have brown hair you don't need to ask if I have white hair." But that's probably the first time she's ever needed logic or deduction skills, since the teachers are on strike (again). That's a whole nother topic that I can't even go into...

After a few games Jessica and I went out to see how Maria was doing. The stove looked beautiful. I am so thankful for her help.

After washing her face and arms and legs (laying mud is a dirty job!), Maria and Jessica went up the road to spend the money they had just earned and I set to make a fire in the newly-renovated stove. Using bamboo I was able to start it without too much difficulty, but it's still a process for me.

With the chick peas on the fire I just had to be attentive to the the fire every 5 minutes or so (it's amazing to me how a blazing fire can be ashes in five minutes if I'm not attentive!) so I did a few small jobs while waiting the hour for them to be tender, like finding a hummus recipe, and roasting the sesame seeds and garlic.

With the garlic and sesame seeds ready to go, I squeezed a lemon and put that all in the blender with some salt. Then I put in the chick peas with the water they were cooked in with a little bit of oil. I blended that all up and was shocked at how much two pounds of chick peas was. I put it on the stove to simmer all those yummy flavors together. I am glad that it is tasty because man, do we have a lot of hummus now! But it's a food that I can eat and it will be a good snack...and it freezes well!

So for dinner I am going to cut up some other veggies and make something in between a tortilla and pita bread for people to put the hummus on. The process took six hours. I hope it's good!

chocolate chip cookies and strawberry jam

2010-08-19T19:18:00.001-05:00

A blog to remember my grandma:

My grandma passed away on Tuesday morning. She was 95 and she loved Jesus, so while I am sad to not have my father's mother on earth anymore, I rejoice in that she is now free from pain, her mind is right and she is praising her Father in heaven. Hallelujah!

I have been having fun in the last week thinking of all of my memories with her, knowing that her end was probably coming soon. She was a funny grandma with lots of quirks--as any good grandmother should be! I have a "prime" image of her in my memory that I carry of who she was to me as a grandmother. It's her, around 1990 around hers and my grandpa's 50th wedding anniversary. She was about 75 and was volunteering at the food shelf and the blood bank several times a week--walking over the mile into town each way to do so. She challenged us with her 8 gallons of blood that she had donated in her life, and she wooed her three sons and eight grandchildren with her cooking.

She always had chocolate chip cookies in the freezer and cans of 7up in the fridge. There was always white bread (I'm not positive that it was homemade but I would bet it was) with strawberry jam to spread thickly on top of it. Only after I moved to Honduras and started making jam with the fruit from our trees did I realize why jam is so good: there is so much stinking sugar in it, how can it be anything but incredibly yummy? She had wide (and incredibly dull) butter knives to spread the jam (or butter, which was a treat because at the "kid table" my parents couldn't advise on my butter consumption) and it was in her house that I began my bizarre enjoyment of drinking out of aluminum glasses. (My husband and friends think I have some vitamin deficiency. It's possible, but it also reminds me of fun times at grandma and grandpa's!)

Thanksgiving and Christmas "dinners" (at noon) were always tasty with ham and meatballs (good German fare...I guess?), with cheesy potatoes, rolls and her special raspberry jello salad with cream cheese mixed with something else on top, with a pretzel crust underneath. And that wasn't even dessert! Dessert was reserved for her best and my favorite: apple pie. I'm sure it was just a normal recipe, but since it was grandma's, it was the best. She had apple trees in her backyard where we cousins would play baseball (the brick garden with the [really ugly] glass frog was first, the flagpole was second and "the pine tree that Paul planted" was third, with the steps leading up to the house being home). She and grandpa would harvest all the apples and make as many pies as would fit in their freezer (leaving room for the chocolate chip cookies, of course), and the freezers of their three sons and grandma's sister who lived next door. With the rest they would make apple sauce. I ate it by the pint jar. Her "secret ingredient" was cinnamon...and I'm sure sugar.

But there's one thing that she really did make better than anyone else, and not just because she was my grandma. Pickles. That woman could make pickles. We found out after she had to hook up to city water rather than use her "artesian well water," that the water was the key. My mom actually found another source of artesian well water after the first fluke year when her famous dill pickles turned out rather ordinary, but it still wasn't quite the same. I loved the metal taste of that water. It's possible I do have a vitamin deficiency...

When my grandpa was alive they would play cribbage for hours every night. According to the stories, grandma almost always won (but I don't think she gloated much. We always heard about her wins because grandpa was so upset). But every day they would also read the Bible together. Every morning after breakfast they had their devotions together, and every Christmas Eve before we would go to church together as a whole sons/wives/grandchildren clan, grandpa would read Luke 2 to us. The one thing I asked my grandma for when she died was her Bible.

She and grandpa were Moravians and strongly supported missionaries in their church. She just didn't support missionaries in the form of her granddaughter. But she explains that because she said she has the gift of worry. And because of that "gift," she cried easily, justifying it by saying she was 90% water.

I miss my grandma with whom I claimed to the "her favorite" because I was "the baby" of the cousins, who affectionately said to me, "you're weird, aren't you?" and who only filled people's coffee cups up half way (whether it was because she would spill it if she carried it, or if that's all she wanted to drink so she assumed that's all others would want too, we're not sure).

I miss her sweet smile and laugh, as well as her to-the-side teeth clench with a smile while she smacked you lightly for making a joke. Because of her falls and dementia I haven't really seen that grandma much in the last few years, but I am glad that she got to meet Larry and "approve of him"--even if she did think he had nine children (she apparently learned about Larry and Don Victor in the same conversation and never got it corrected in her head that Larry's not the one with nine kids!).

I love you, Grandma. I will see you again.

Love, "The Baby"

an Allisonism

2010-07-02T13:38:00.001-05:00

When I was in high school some friends started calling some of my quirks "Allisonisms." Well, I definitely pulled one the other day.

We have had some people tell us they are interested in buying some of the granola we make, so last week I made a lot (ok, a ton). Some Discipleship Group members were here and they helped me put it into bags, some labeled "to eat" (meaning for us at Campus) and some labeled "to sell."

Now, seeing the picture, there could be several things I could blame this on: tiredness, pregnancy, the fantastic aroma of the granola, but whatever the reason, we all laughed pretty hard at this one!

News from June

2010-07-02T09:48:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Toyano's and Dario's houses (follow up from April)

Toyano and his family are living in their new house! The walls are up, the tin is on the roof, the doors are hung. They are now just waiting for the cement floor. Soon we are going to lend our new donkey (see next section) to haul the sand and concrete the three miles up to Toyano's house. He and his family could not be more pleased.

The progress on Dario's house was stalled a bit because we needed to confirm with the city government that they were not going to kick out the entire neighborhood along the river, as the rumors claimed. The government officials said "they have no immediate plans," so we went ahead with the construction. Larry, the Discipleship Group and some of our friends and workers who are volunteering their labor, have gone several days to work together with Dario and Maria on their home, hauling sand and rocks from the river to form the foundation, digging the footer, and pouring the back section. For the walls, we will use the wood we hauled down from La Muralla, and lumber from a tree on our property which we received permission to harvest since people have been stealing the wood when Dario and Maria go to church. Sunday we took our Discipleship Group meeting to them. We sang and prayed together and Larry spoke. We sat on broken plastic chairs, and a plank of wood propped on two river stones without shade and rejoiced to be able to share God's love with each other. The time was an encouragement to all of us in the way we are one body in Christ, and at the victory of God over evil.

Thank you so much to those of you who contributed to help build these homes!

New Animals on Campus

We have a few more sound-makers on Campus now: a donkey, a baby bird, five chickens, ten chicks and one big rooster.

Since his time in the southern part of Honduras Larry has enjoyed donkeys. There was one donkey that was basically abandoned on our road, so Larry contacted the owner about buying it. He agreed (glad to be rid of the burden). We are very excited because she is a gentle animal and she will help haul corn and charcoal out of La Muralla (carrying up to 200 pounds a trip). This saves the backs of Larry and some of our friends who work with us! We are also glad she is with us because she was so poorly treated as a stray donkey. The first few days she would shy away from us or would be easily startled. But in less than a week she wasn't jumpy, and after receiving regular (and nutritious) food and water, her coat was shinier and her whole countenance was lifted. We are glad that even in our animals God is allowing his restoration to take place through his tender love.

About a week ago a few Discipleship Group members spent the weekend with us and found a nest that fell from the tree across the yard. Inside was a very young orupendula (in the oriole family). Alex (summer intern, see next section) has been feeding it many times a day and we have all been enjoying watching it grow in size and grow feathers. We are now discussing how to teach it to fly.

We have been wanting chickens for eggs and meat since last fall when we changed my diet because of health problems, and early this month some good chickens and our ability to care for them all aligned. I have been having fun learning the different calls the chickens make and finding their nests. We learned that you have to leave one egg in the nest or the chickens "lose the nest." And the rooster has a strenuous crow, which he shares whenever the mood strikes him, be it at noon or at 12:30am, or 3:30am. However, one early morning I woke up to a dream where someone was shouting out "Happy Birthday!" only to realize it was how my unconscious mind interpreted the rooster's crow. Others agree, and now it doesn't bother me as much!

June Visitors

During the students' week of vacation, our friend Adolfo and his family came to Campus with the purpose of being discipled. Adolfo has been the engineer for the Agua Viva projects for the last five years, and two summers ago he committed his life to God. Since that time he has had a fire and a passion for Jesus and wants to learn and live all that he can. His wife and four children have not accepted Christ, so for his own edification and for his hope for them, they came to visit us. We had a great week together and Adolfo said that "we are now like family." We confirmed that this was the Holy Spirit binding us together, which encouraged us all.

In the same week that Adolfo and his family were here, friends from Georgia spent a few days with us on their missions vacation. In 2004 Preston volunteered for a few months with Larry and wanted his wife Kerri to visit as well. Their visit encouraged us as we all shared how God has been moving and guiding us, and how God joins us all together in him.

We also have had an intern since the middle of May, named Alex. She is a student at Wheaton College and she will be here through July. She is interested in using agriculture in missions and so has been helping mainly in the agricultural work, but is also ready to help in whatever needs to be done. We are glad that we have been able to live life together for these weeks and look forward to a few more.

Praise the Lord for:

-our friendship with Toyano and Dario and the blessing of/hope for their new houses

-the blessing of animals to care for and that will serve us

-Larry's corn field that has sprouted and the rains that are watering it

-an ultrasound on our second anniversary to show that the baby is developing well

Pray to the Lord for:

-the Discipleship Group; for God to reveal himself to each one personally

-our friends who will be visiting in July, that God would move among us and that we could be a mutual encouragement

-God to continue to prepare us to be parents

In Christ,

Larry and Allison Smoak

"Love never fails."

Watching the World Cup

2010-06-26T18:12:00.000-05:00

Larry and I got to watch the US play Ghana today (bummer of an ending!) in the World Cup. I wanted to share a funny experience that we had:

Background: the way you pronounce Ghana in Spanish is the same as the word for "it wins."

A woman was sitting next to us and she received a phone call. The assumed question from the other side was "what game are you watching?" She replied "Los Estados, Ghana" (The US, Ghana), but it sounded like "The US is winning." Those of us around her chuckled a bit, but then we laughed out loud when she said "Si, Los Estados Ghana y estan empatados." It sounded like she said "The US is winning and they're tied."

We were sad that Honduras didn't make it to the second round (and that the US couldn't pull it out in the second!), but it was a lot of fun to join together with our neighbors and the country behind the Honduran team. It's a pretty cool experience for the poorest country in Central America to be one of the top 32 soccer teams in the world!

It's Baking Day!

2010-06-18T13:58:00.001-05:00

Today Larry and seven members of the Discipleship Group went to Dario's and Maria's place in the slums of La Ceiba to start building their house. We have already hauled the wood down the mountain from La Muralla, and another day Larry and Erick hauled a bunch of sand and river stones to mix with concrete to make a strong base against the flood waters that will come in October and November. They took some food along for Maria to prepare (this honors her) and it was fun to see them all off this morning at 7am with smiles and energy, even though none of these young people would have been up at that hour to work on their vacation if they weren't going to be doing it together!

I stayed back because today is my baking day. To save on propane I started to bake one day every two weeks, to use the hot oven more efficiently. That means that I bake a lot at a time, calculating when to make what because I mostly only have two pans for all of it. (We have plans to make some pans out of the tin we have in the storage area, but that is one of those projects that just doesn't seem to get done...) We hesitate to buy others that they sell here because they are either very expensive and therefore not worth it, or they are such poor quality that in two months we would have to buy another. So for now it's a fun game to figure out how to bake things in the right order.

One bummer today was that at 10:25am I had six loaves of bread (Oatmeal Bread from the More with Less cookbook--yum!) about 10 minutes away from being ready to go in the oven, with four recipes of Oatmeal Cake (MwL as well) in the oven, finishing in 8 minutes. That's when the power went out. Now, we have a gas stove because the power goes out somewhat frequently here, but the oven temperature is regulated by the electricity. So without power, we can't use the oven.

Yesterday the power was out from 3am-5pm so I was quite down-hearted when the power went out. I left the sweet bread in the oven to finish baking (it did but might be a little gooey in the middle) and made sure the sandwich bread was well-covered. I prepared the granola mixture in faith, that even if it came on in time for dinner I could still bake it tonight, even though it's Family Night. Sometimes we have to flex, but since our activity tonight is going to be in the kitchen, I thought it would work out ok (it'll be a hot sauce making party!).

But at 11:30am the power came back on and I jumped into action. The six loaves of bread went into the oven and the grape nuts (just to "crispen") went in after that. The grape nuts are today's experiment. They look like grape nuts. I'll hear the consensus on the taste when Larry comes back (pure whole wheat flour, so that rules out my trying them...).

Right now the 32 cups of whole oats mixed with 10 cups of flour (and I won't tell you how much oil and sugar with spices...sheesh it's a ton!) are baking in the oven for our granola for two weeks. Then it's three more recipes of the Oatmeal Cake (the eight total recipes are for two weeks' worth of snack for the orphans/kids on Saturday after we swim and for the Discipleship Group's Sunday morning meeting) while boiling the chicken and corn out on the wood stove and dinner prep. Normally we just have Larry, Joel, Erick, Karla and I for Friday night Family Night at Campus (Don Victor eats before us so he can get to bed by 6:30pm), but we have an intern named Alex here for a few more weeks, and Discipleship Group members Julissa, Alfredo and our friend who used to live here, Chris, will also be joining us for dinner tonight. It's going to be a blast. So it's Spaghetti Friday with fresh bread and homemade tomato sauce with veggies from the yard. Yum!

On a funny note, Don Victor decided to bathe today (first time in about three weeks, even though we encourage him almost daily to do so) and came back literally shaking from the cold. I had his coffee and breakfast ready for him but he asked for a blanket to wrap around him, even though it's 90 degrees today, plus the sun heating the tin roof coupled with the window shut to block the breeze because it affects the oven function. Yikes it's warm in here. And he wanted a blanket.

After I turn the granola in a few minutes I'm going to go lead our new donkey over to the shaded pasture across the street. What a great day in Las Mangas!

I noticed too late

2010-06-15T15:48:00.001-05:00

The afternoon deceptive rain got me again. Some of the clothes I washed yesterday weren't fully dry yesterday before dusk so I let them be in the sun today. Normally the rains come in the 3 o'clock hour so I was thinking I could send one more email and then go get the laundry and be fine. Then I looked out and saw that not only had the rain already started, but it's coming down pretty hard. Blast. I thought about going out in the rain to get them but decided not to. I'll just let them "bake" until tomorrow at noon and then bring them in. My neighbors will freak out because they think rain water is dirty (you get sick if you are wet from rain water and your clothes smell bad [they say] if they get rained on), but since I've missed getting the clothes in several times now, I know it will be ok.

But seriously, thank God for the rain! It's great for the crops!

Laundry Day!

2010-06-14T15:06:00.001-05:00

Normally on Mondays I wash clothes: mine, Larry's, Joel's and Don Victor's. Fortunately or unfortunately, Don Victor only changes his clothes once a week, so he doesn't contribute a lot to the wash load.

A couple weeks ago it was raining on Monday so I washed the few essentials and delayed until Wednesday when the cold front passed us. That day I washed for three hours straight but in my calculations, figured that I washed five loads of laundry that would fit in a conventional washer. Normally, I think it would take more than 3 hours to wash 5 loads of laundry in a washer, so I was pretty excited--until I realized that in a regular washer you work for 2 minutes piling the clothes into the washer and turning the dial and then you are done for the next 45 minutes. But anyway.

There was so much laundry that I actually inventoried it. I'm not sure if it was to make myself feel better about the three hours I had just spent, but I thought I'd use it as an opportunity to explain my washing process.

First, I fill a big plastic tub with water and dissolve the detergent in it. Then I add the clothes and let them sit while I wash the breakfast dishes. This is the pre-soak cycle.

Then I put it through the agitation cycle, moving the clothes around in the soapy water, making more suds and breaking up the clothes so they get a good general soapiness. Then as I pull out each individual item, if it's not stained or work clothes I merely agitate some more, wring it out (not by twisting--this stretches out the clothes) and put it in a clothes basket on the side. This is sufficient for about a fourth of the laundry each week.

With work clothes, clothes with stains or anything we want to be sure to be very clean, I put it through the heavy duty wash. This means agitating for a few (~10) seconds and then putting it on the concrete washboard (without wringing it out). Then I rub the cylindrical bar of soap over the clothes and scrub it (with varying strengths depending on the fabric and the stain) with an old sack that works as a great scrub pad once I have worn it in for awhile. In washing this way I don't stretch the clothes as much and it's not as hard on the clothes as when people rub the clothes on the concrete to get out the stain. After the heavy duty cycle, I put it through the agitation cycle once again in the detergent water, then wring it out and then put it in the basket with the other clothes.

When all the clothes are washed, I dump out the detergent water (which is usually a lovely gray brown color by this point) and refill the tub with clean water. (Just as a note, on this grand washing day I changed the water with detergent three times.) I then put all the clothes in the tub and agitate again, to get out all the suds. I then dump out that water, refill and reagitate. With some of our "close to skin" clothes, I put those through an additional rinse cycle since even after two rinse cycles the water is still somewhat cloudy with detergent and soap. But it's good enough for the majority.

Then I hang the clothes on our clothes lines (the solar dryer). We hang the clothes inside out because the sun bleaches all the clothes. Our clothes are one color on the inside and another on the outside! My goal is to get it hanging up by 9am, 10 at the latest to get the hottest sun. It's important to get it out earlier these days when we have afternoon showers that generally come around 3pm. The air is a lot more humid, too, so the longer I can have it out the better. We have laundry lines set up in our dining room for the clothes that don't dry before the showers hit, and for rainy season.

We used to have a friend help me wash clothes, but she has moved to another part of the country. After this monster laundry day we asked another friend to help me wash, especially sheets, towels and Larry's and Joel's really tough work clothes. It's a great situation because she is so grateful for the work and it helps me out a lot. When she comes I can't tell you how many times she says "thank you," for thinking of her, for hiring her. Her gratefulness because of her poverty humbles me every time.

On this big laundry day, I washed the following:

-1 double bed mattress pad

-1 douvee cover

-1 set of double bed sheets

-3 pillow cases (one was left behind!)

-1 pair of work out pants

-5 pairs of pants (3 were work pants)

-32 pieces of undergarments

-1 bath towel

-28 t-shirts (9 were non-work t-shirts)

-2 dress shirts

-8 pairs of shorts

-1 dress

-1 running jersey

-1 pair of swimming trunks

-5 skirts

-3 bandanas

-16 pairs of socks (I've never enjoyed washing or folding socks...I think this was really what pushed it over the edge for me!)

"the cat's not crying"

2010-06-11T16:06:00.001-05:00

The other day a friend of ours came over to clean our dorms before we had several visitors. Her 6yo daughter came with her and hung out with me while I cooked. (On a side note, I learned what it was like for my mom when I was younger and was constantly stuck to her side. This girl was so close to me that I almost cut her several times as I lifted up the knife when I was chopping!)

Our cat Ganzo has been "crying/whining" a lot lately and has really been somewhat annoying. Only about a week ago did we realize that he is just over one-year-old and that he is probably calling out for a female cat. He only stays around Campus, though, and his mom isn't responding to his call, so he might be lonely and we might be annoyed for awhile.

Anyway, Ganzo was "crying" the day that the little girl was with me. I told him to be quiet and then "explained" to the little girl that "he's been crying a lot lately."

She looked me straight in the eyes and said "Allison, he's not crying, he's looking for a girl cat."

I looked back at her, nodded my head and said "oh. Right. Thanks." I didn't know the 6yo would know about that, even if it is only on the animal level. Good deal.

Glad she was there to let me know!