Lempira's Revenge

Lempira is the Honduran Indian Chief who was betrayed and conquered by the Spaniards. So like Montezuma the Aztec Chieftain in Mexico, Lempira took out his revenge on me early. I must admit I have been a bit overwhelmed the first two weeks. The heat and humidity slaps you in the face as soon as you walk outside the airport terminal. It just seems to sap the energy out of you. I rode around the city of San Pedro Sula shopping with Wayne Ely, the Husband of the school's founder and director Darla. Then the hour and half trip to the farm in Las Varas. The Farm was a mess, leaves, dust and toad turds all over the place and we had to clean it before we could sleep on the beds. The second thing that strikes you is the filth, and third, the horrendous road system. I was not prepared. The first night I laid in bed and Prayed "what have I done?" I woke up realizing I was so distraught the night before that I forgot to take my glasses off when I went to bed and popped a lens by sleeping on them. Again, panic before Pat calmed me down and found a small repair kit and tightened them up. We had not planned on staying on the farm when the teams arrived but Our house was not going to be ready til the end of the week so we moved in with Wayne. His shower heater always popped a fuse so then started a long string of cold showers. Since we have no transportation we depended on someone from Cristo Salva or Wayne to get us around. Tuesday night at the church service (a different church each evening) I started feeling sick. As rain began to fall and Mike Tuttle began his sermon I walked out the back of the church and threw up violently as well as (you don't need to know). At this point things are steadily going from bad to worse. The next day Pat went to the Clinic and Wayne showed me around. We had chicken noodle for lunch and at two thirty I asked Wayne to pull the truck over to the side and promptly lost lunch. I totally could sympathize with the rich young ruler and wondered (whined really) how much more I had to give up. The next day Pat stayed and Wayne took us into the city where we bought our refrigerator, air conditioners, water cooler and washing machine for cut rate prices and we were able to move into our new home. Despite my whining God provided for us in a marvelous way and over the weekend our house became a home complete with internet although no cable as of  yet. I now began to feel like Jonah after Ninevah repented. Perhaps I enjoyed being miserable and lost sight of why I was here and what God was doing. The place we're living is like a tropical paradise with tall Palm trees, people who are friendly and who have gone way out of their way to make us feel comfortable, and the school is excited to have us here. We were going through the book of Acts for our Bible study in Eliot, so I decided to finish reading the book here. In Acts 23:11 an angel appears to Paul and says, "Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome." In the margin I had written God will help you finish His job. It stuck me that now I had to put into action what I believed in my head. The story continues with Paul being shipwrecked, but prior to the ship wreck Paul and all on board ship spent 14 days tossed violently by the sea and not eating anything. I had been here exactly 14 days when I read that and realized I had nothing to complain about. It's not going to be easy but God provides and things are going to be alright. Until next time God bless from Sula, Santa Barbara, Honduras.