Comfort in the Waiting

When I spoke of waiting in my last post I never relized we would still be waiting for many things. Yes, a lot has been accomplished but there has still been a lot of waiting. We are still looking for a home to rent and, hopefully, when Roberto gets back soon our wait for money will be over. We have had restricted access to our U.S. bank account, but our first check should finally be cleared today and pave the way for a simpler process next time!

Elizabeth began school today and Maria began yesterday. We decided to home school Maria since there wasn't an opening at the school that Elizabeth is attending. It has been a rough decision and it seems we have probably made a mistake in planning too much for Maria. The last few days have been very stressful and I woke up at three this morning feeling very overwhelmed by everything. As I lay awake for a few hours I felt the burdens piling up. God seemed so far away. Finally, I was reminded of David and the Psalms. His frustrations over a long period of time and yet even in his calling out to God in desperation he would still sing praises to God. My focus was all wrong...I needed to sing praises to my God instead of wallowing in my frustrations.

Interestingly (but not surprisingly) my Bible reading the past several days has been in Romans. Today's section was Romans 8:28-39. Only 12 verses, but listen to some of these well-recited verses:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose."
"If God is for us, who can be against us?"
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?"
"No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
What comforting words!

Waiting

Well, we have been in Honduras for a little over five days. We arrived in Tegucigalpa on October 1st around midday and have been quickly reminded about waiting. In September we completed our 5th year of working toward this move. It seemed like an endless wait (with lots of preparation in between.) We arrived and started with waiting again since Roberto's family was not at the airport to meet us. Since then, we have done a lot of waiting. Things move at a much slower pace here and it is definitely taking time to accomplish things. We have cell phones now, but have not accomplished much beyond that.

We are waiting for the school situation to get settled, to look at homes to rent, to get residency paperwork, to get drivers licenses, to look for a car, and to get a bank account set up. A continued lesson of dependence on God. He has been good to us...we have been able to see Roberto's family, we have a great place to stay, have had our own personal 'chaffeur', and we have been able to enjoy some time of rest.

Maria is eager to learn about Honduras and Spanish. Elizabeth has enjoyed sharing the sights and sounds of Tegucigalpa with her friends via facebook and has enjoyed our adventures in the city. Both seem to be happy to be here but are beginning to get a little stir crazy since they want to be in their own home and free to be a little wild. Our adventures the last few days have been to accomplish tasks so it hasn't been all too fun (more waiting), but we did go to the mall for lunch yesterday. Elizabeth enjoyed Subway, Maria had Popeyes chicken, and I had Burger King. Of course, Roberto chose Honduran food (tacos and pupusas)!

We did find out that there are three malls that have been built in the last several years. All very nice, but it actually is a bit strange to me. Many stores are American, or at least American in style, and are very expensive. I'm sure the majority of people in this city, including me, could not afford the items in these stores, yet there are a lot of young people in the mall. I think there are probably a lot of discontented young people, hoping to be rich or acting like they're rich. The mall was a great reminder about the importance of teaching contentment along with the business development skills. Our goal is to reach people with the gospel through programs to help improve their economic situation, but we need to be conscious of meeting needs, not creating greed.

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." Hebrews 13:5b