Humility; a desireable virtue

 

Humility...Humbleness...not Prideful.

noun: 

the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one's own importance, rank, etc  Dictionary.com

I write another blog besides this one. Not many people follow it, but several months ago, before we moved to Honduras I wrote the following post on the virtue of humility. Living here these past five months, my need to pursue this virtue of humility further in my own life has become even clearer and more important to me. Although humility is often tied to a religious sentiment, it should not be seen as exclusively so. To me, there is nothing more desirable in any individual than this virtue of humility. Here, where all Americans are in the top 10% of the wealthy...even if only by perception, true humility of character makes a difference.

Below is my original post, with a few corrections and additions.

In my lifetime I have met many very successful men. Men who have accomplished great things. Men who have accumulated vast amounts of wealth and power. The ones who have made the greatest impression on me are the ones who have been down to earth, regular guys. Those who have not been overly impressed by themselves, their wealth, intelligence or success. The ones who have taken a genuine interest in me and my life. In other words, the ones for whom humility was a character quality. As John Ruskin put it, "I believe the first test of a truly great man is in his humility." I couldn't agree more.

This character trait of humility is one of the most desirable qualities a Christian, or anyone for that matter, can posses. It is one which, sadly, I often fail to exhibit. Think on this quote from St. Augustine for a few moments or a few days...or maybe a lifetime.

"Humility is the foundation of all the other virtues hence, in the soul in which this virtue does not exist there cannot be any other virtue except in mere appearance." Saint Augustine   

 In A Book of Psalms,  Steven Mitchell beautifully adapts from Hebrew the 15th Psalm in this way.

"Lord, who can be trusted with power,
    And who may act in your place?
Those with a passion for justice,
    who speak the truth from their hearts;
who have let go of selfish interests
    and grown beyond their lives;
who see the wretched as their family
    and the poor as flesh and blood.
They alone are impartial
   and worthy of people's trust.
Their compassion lights up the whole earth,
   and their kindness endures forever."

I want to be that kind of man. A man who can be trusted with power, who considers the poor as flesh and blood, who has a passion for justice and has let go of selfish interest. I want my compassion to light the world around me. From the very bottom of my heart, that's who I want to be.

Residency!!!!!!

Today we became official residents of Honduras! (Not to be confused with citizenship) This means that we do not need to leave the country every 90 days to renew a visa. It also means we can: get a Honduran drivers license, have a bank account, have our own cell phones, etc.

Three and a half months after being inscribed we now have residency. That may be close to a record! An hour and a half at the Honduran Immigrations office in Tegucigalpa today and two hours at Applebees to celebrate the occasion. It was a good day.

Many, many thanks to John and Adrianna Mattica and Honduran Fellowship of Missionaries and Ministries for all you do for us, and not just with the residency process. You are making a difference.

The Week in Review

Team NGF at Baile Brea elementary school after installing a water purification system 

Puro Catracho: a commentary

Only in Honduras

So how long does it take a group of STMrs to become puro Catracho? (That's what Hondurans call themselves.) My answer...one week! Let me explain.

At the beginning of the week:

Team leader is Richard.

Everyone was particularly unhappy with the early bird behind the hotel. This rooster, as most roosters do in Honduras, lives in another time zone. They live by the old beer drinkers motto, "It's 5 o'clock somewhere." Of course these roosters mean 5 am, but somewhere in the great time zone of life, they have lost the idea that crowing should happen at daylight.and should be synchronized with that. Instead they merrily begin crowing as early as 2 am. But hey, it's 5 o'clock somewhere.

Driving here is a bit different than in the States. There are a lot of slow moving vehicles which translates to a lot more passing on short distances (that's why I love American V-8 power) and a lot of other people passing towards you at very, very short distances. So on the trip from the airport there were lots of third party brake stomping, awh ohhs and then sighs of relief.

The language barrier at first seemed insurmountable. Just ordering a coke required an inordinate amount of effort.  Forget trying to ask for an extra room key or hot water to be available at 5 am.

Seven days later:

Team leader is now known as Ricardo.

Everyone sleeps through the early morning cacophony. Catrachos or just too tired to care? Don't know. If Richard, perdon...Ricardo, gets a rooster for his own back yard in Florida, then definitely Catracho.

On the way back to the airport the team is cheering as we come in to a blind curve and find cars passing three wide at us. They urge me to, unsuccessfully I might add, pass on a blind curve also...just so we'll fit in.

In one short week, my team became fluent...in sign language. Sometimes it felt like we were playing at charades. But it didn't stop there. By mid week "buenos dias'" filled the morning air and each night we parted company with tired but confident "buenas noches". I even heard a few "alohas" thrown in for good measure.



Sorry Pastor Steve, not sure how this got in here, but...

So I promised in my last post not to tell about zip lining, but I can tell you that some of the more daring, and need I say younger crowd, did go behind the waterfall. I chose not to, not because I'm too old, but because I'm a non swimmer. Those that did go reported back that it was awwwwesome!


The following four days included visits to schools, mornings spent preparing for VBS and the actual VBS in Oriente with Pastor Allan and Nicole. This part of the missions trip was a joint effort with Community Church in Orange, TX. As I was not with this part of the group much, I can only say that everyone had a great time. Harriet and her mother made over 200 hand sewn soccer balls to give to the kids. They really where a work of art as well as love.

My half of the group, with the help of Paul Hosier, installed a water purification system at a public school up in the hills on the other side of town. This ended up being a great "hands on" project for the men in our group. I will write more about this project and our desire to continue it, but all I will say for now is that this is a great project for a family to fund raise for and then come down to help install it. The entire system is very reasonably priced at just over $1000 and the health benefits of providing perpetual clean water to schools and communities, priceless.

Building a shed around the tanks, moving a lot of concrete blocks, installing the system, purifying the water and then drinking water from the system was all part of a job well done. Lauren and Emma where even able to go into the classrooms and give a brief explanation on why drinking purified water is important to health.

 

 

Author's note: Although all facts in the author's commentary are based on truth, the author may have used a storytellers right to embellish or exaggerate slightly.

 

 

 

Goodbye Team NGF

Team NGF 2013

 

There really is a pickup under there somewhere

 

When I dropped our first short-term missions team off at the airport this morning, Pastor Steve asked me if seeing everyone leave was going to be a downer. I laughed and told him I'd let him know later on as this is all new to us. On the ride back home, alone in the early morning light, I got my answer -- yeah, it's kind of a downer.

We had a great week...no, it was an awesome week! All of us, the team included, are exhausted, but it was so worth it. Now, after all the excitement and busyness of the past week, life will return to normal again.

I spent last night with the team at Hotel Casa Blanca in El Progreso. It's close to the airport and they had an early morning flight. As we sat in a group and debriefed, one of the questions that was raised was whether or not the trip had met, missed or exceeded expectations. For me, it exceeded my expectations. We had a number of changes in the original plan. We had several inconveniences, you know, the kind that happen on missions trips like roosters crowing outside your bedroom window at 3 am. We all got tired. We all got wet. We all got muddy. But, I am proud to report that this these guys passed all these test with flying colors. All the pre-trip training and team building paid off...and it showed. Thank you guys!!!!!

Playing pato, pato, gonso at VBS

I'm especially proud of my family. Because we split the team in two, Barbe had to transport half the team to one side of town while I spent time with the other half on the complete opposite side. Her first time driving here included the city and mountain roads. Not only did she do all that, but she made lunches, did shopping and helped prepare for VBS. Our boys also stepped up to the plate and hit home runs. Helping to translating and working everyday at the VBS, playing soccer with the kids in Oriente and just hanging out with old friends from Florida and new friends from here...they had a blast.



Several nights, a good friend of ours along with her daughters, cooked dinner for all of us, even going so far as to cook for our entire team plus our home fellowship group one night. The meals where delicious. When asked for a favorite meal, half chose the chicken and the other half chose the pupusas. Me...I liked'em all. 

One of the changes we had to make was that instead of drilling a well, we installed a water purification system at a grade school. In my next post I'm going to highlight this new project that Go and See Ministries will be working on with guys from two other organizations. We're pretty excited about this. I am still planning on drilling the well in Oriente, but the permit to do so was delayed. All in all, the change in plans worked out really well. Special thanks to Paul Hosier here in Sigua and Parkwood Elementary in Jacksonville, NC who really came through for us and helped make this project happen.

So stay tuned, after I've sorted through hundreds of photos and taken a very long nap, I'll write an entire post on what we did and are planning on doing with water purification here in Sigua as well as highlights from our week with Team NGF. Not to worry guys, I won't say a word about zip lining. What happens in Honduras stays in Honduras.

 

A Selfless Act of Kindness

I had the privilege several days ago to witness a selfless act of kindness. There were no drum rolls, no histrionics, just a simple gesture of compassion. The participants in the act were not even aware they were being observed, and yet it will remain one of my most vivid memories because of it's simplicity.

There is a lady near El Centro who sells tamales from her house. As I was walking towards her house to buy several tamales for dinner, an older man, dirty and unshaven, obviously a drinker, stepped to her gate and said something to her I could not hear. Without hesitation, she reached in her basket and gave him a tamale. Although I do not know for certain, my impression was that this was not the first time he had stood at her gate and asked for something to eat.

As I to stepped to the gate, I asked her if she had indeed given him a tamale. Instead of answering my question, she said, "He likes to drink". There was compassion in both her voice and her words. There was no judgment or condemnation, no questioning whether or not she was enabling him to continue in his lifestyle. Just tenderness and compassion for a fellow traveler through this life who had made mistakes...too.

Two people received a blessing that day from this woman's quiet generosity. I was one of them.

I Have Lost Your Email Addresses

Some of you know that recently my old computer died. (Yeh, I know...should have had a Mac). Although all my files were backed up on CrashPlan, my email contact list is either; not there or beyond my limited intellectual capacity to locate it.

So, here's a great opportunity for me to rebuild my email list with relevant and updated contact information.

If you are still interested in having your name on my email list, please send me an email at wolfeent@copper.net  with your name and email address.

If you know how to find a Windows Live Mail (previously on Windows 7) file and can help me with that...that would also be greatly appreciated.

If you could come to Honduras and actually do this foe me on my new Spanish Single Language Windows 8 OS, I would be forever in your debt.

 

Preparing for Our First STM Team

On Saturday our first Go and See Ministries short-term missions team will be arriving! Our home church, New Generation Fellowship in Jacksonville, FL is sending 10 people to help us with a water project. Half of the team, as well as Barbe and the boys and a few other friends from here, will also be doing some other projects and a VBS in Oriente, one of the aldeas near Siguatepeque.

Joining together with our team will be another team from the great State of Texas. Somehow, two teams were booked to the same location for the same week and Mark Fittz and I decided to join forces and unite the two teams. I really think that this is going to be a God send, no pun intended, because I will need to concentrate the majority of my time on the water project and wouldn't have the time really needed to devote to the children's work. Some of his group will also be helping us with the water project.

Hotel rooms have been booked, a lunch and dinner menu prepared and the projects readied. The boys and I, especially Benjamin, have been going through the well drilling rig. After setting for over a year, (the last time it was used was when we drilled over a year ago near Piña Blanca), the carburetor had dried up and the tires had rotted on the pump chassis, but we got it all running again.

Although the guys from Wisconsin who built the drill rig did an awesome job, the "slip" left something to be desired. One of things I have always loved doing is improving on someone else's design or just designing my own widgets from scratch. I have often in the past bought a new $70,000 trailer and sent it immediately to the fab shop to be cut and welded on. Robin Harnden, at Robin's Welding in Wilton, Maine, is an artist with a torch and a MIG welder. Fortunately here in Siguat I have found Wilmer, at Industrias Metalicas Matta. He takes the same pride in his work as does Robin. I give both of them my highest recommendation. So anyway, I gave Wilmer my new and improved slip design. I had to tweak it a time or two, but now we just need to test it to see if the designer knew what he was doing. It should be much safer and efficient.



"\Slip" on the well rig.

We are really, really looking forward to seeing our friends from Florida. Can't wait to spend a week with you guys here in Honduras!
  

Toilet Talk

I googled "things to do with a used toilet" and apparently, using your old toilet as a flower pot is the most common thing people do with the old pot. Below are few examples of this.

 

 

Not too long before we left Maine, I received a call from a friend who asked if me and my boys could come and help her load her used toilet into her car so she could take it to the dump. As soon as I saw the toilet I knew we had a use for it.

 

Some of you may remember that last year when we came here to Siquatepeque to study Spanish at the Spanish Language Institute for two months, we helped repair a friend's house whose adobe wall was beginning to crack and fall away. Many of you who were following my other blog at that time generously helped us with this project. Well, the one thing we were unable to complete was the bathroom. Although the owner of the house obviously had a bathroom, when we rebuilt the walls of her house we made room for another bath in a corner of the bedroom. 

 

My friend Pam was elated to know that her old toilet would end up in Honduras. It was one of the first things I loaded in the trailer and eventually, after getting settled in here, we were able to install it.

 

A good friend of mine who seems to be showing up in a lot of my blog post lately helped me put it in. Actually, as he is very handy and I am not, it was the other way around.  Ok, to be really honest, I watched as he put it in. Anyway, I am not going to post his name here out of consideration for his feelings, but some of you may recognize him.

 

And to our friend Pam back home, I'll bet you never dreamed that old toilet of yours would actually make it to Honduras. Thanks!

 

Anonymous man sitting on toilet

A Letter from a Friend

I want to share a letter Barbe received after I wrote the post, So...it's been a hard week, I mean month. It was one of several letters and even more fb messages she received encouraging her and letting her know she is loved and prayed for. This friend, who gave me permission to use her letter anonymously, illustrates the point I tried to make in my follow up post, Special Thanks to All of You.

I had no intentions of writing any further on this subject as one of my many sayings is, "The secret to success is knowing when to quit," but when I read this letter, I knew I had to publish it. I did omit some personal comments as requested, but the sentiment remains intact. I somewhat unwillingly (tongue in cheek here, wink, wink) left her very kind commentary on my writing in place. Honestly though, I'm very glad you enjoy following my blog, despite all my many errors in grammar and punctuation. I often say that I use commas like salt from a salt shaker. I sprinkle them on liberally and to suit my taste.

Barbe,

I want you to know that I think about you and pray for you and your family all the time. Of course, as I am horrible about reaching out to people, you have no way of knowing that people back home do care. I enjoy reading your husband's blog and his tell it like it is style. I have often heard that it is harder for the wife on the mission field. Thank you for letting him share his last post. So many times as Christians we are hesitant to share our struggles as we think others will think less of us, at least I know that is how it is for me...

...I have learned that it is okay to have fears and doubts and struggles, but it is what you do with them is what matters. Having a friend that reminds me that God's grace is sufficient and that he will see me through helps tremendously. She doesn't tell me stuff I don't already know, but reminds me of it, doesn't judge me and prays for me and I her. So I am not as good with words as your husband is.... but I hope you get from this that I care and it is okay not "to have it all together" and to pretend that you do causes you to lose out on the blessing of others holding you up in prayer. If there is something that I can do to help you there, promise you will let me know. 

 

PS So after sending this... i see that your husband has a new post and says it so much better than I ever could : )

 

Although I am flattered by your last comment, I have to disagree. I think you said it perfectly. Thank you.

 

 

Special Thanks to All of You

I wanted to take just a minute to write and thank so many of you for telling us that you were praying for Barbe and me or thinking of us. Also, I am always amazed at how many people thank me for the "transparency" with which I sometimes write. They tell me that these post are the ones that are most meaningful to them. It affirms my personal conviction that, religious beliefs aside, each of us wants a place or some one with whom we can be completely ourselves, completely honest.

Some of us are very uncomfortable with that idea. It's hard enough to be honest with ourselves, let alone another person. I personally have sought out through the years a few close friends, men with whom I can be completely honest and who will stand by me even when they see the ugly side of me. Rick, Bob, Jim...you know who you are and the friendships we share have withstood both the distance and the passage of time. Thank you.

It is not always easy for me to write this way. I actually know many of you who follow my blog,. When I write the things which are close to my heart, I never want to hurt anyone. For instance, as I reread my last post I came across the place where I mention the fact that many missionaries that I know struggle with being here. That is not a bad thing. It is not something to be ashamed of or to hide from people. The fact that you are here and remain here says more than anything else about your calling. For those of us who love it here, it is NOT a hardship. We aren't the heroes, you are. If you are one of those who struggle, who miss home...it's okay. Let others know that for you it is difficult and let them know the reason you remain. You will be amazed at the blessing you will be to people here and in the States. Believe me, my hat is off to you.

For the folks back home I want to express this to you. Don't place people like missionaries or pastors on a pedestal and then expect them to be honest about their failures and struggles. It is both unfair and unrealistic to have any expectations of others higher than those you expect from yourself. If you have placed them on a pedestal, give them permission to come down. Everyone will be far happier if you do.

So, in other news, Barbe and I have been enjoying a quiet week together since Wednesday night. The only fight we have had was on the paintball course. And even there we were on the same team. If I remember correctly, we did go up against our sons who fired on us without mercy. This was my first time to play paintball, so much of it was a blur, but I can tell you firsthand that it hurts when you get hit.

It also gave me a knew appreciation for our soldiers. I know that this doesn't even come close to real combat, but as paint balls snicked through the leaves over my head and as I sweated and crawled through the dirt trying to avoid the sting of being hit, I thought of our men and women in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where it is 130 degrees F and they wear body armor and field gear and the rounds in the air are not plastic, filled with paint. I thought also of my own father as a young man many years ago, even younger than my son Mark, in combat in Korea, freezing, tired, scared and wounded.

So, be courageous, be honest and be real. Find a good friend who you can lean on. And for heaven's sake, if you've managed to get yourself on a pedestal, will you please come down? I give you permission to do so and I'm pretty sure there's a whole lot of others who do too.



Our teams, Siguatepeque, HN