Robbed

Mark had a really great time back in the States. Walking into the airport and seeing him there was awesome. It is good to have him back.

We left the airport around 7:15 and drove into San Pedro Sula. I had a part to pick up for the well drilling rig and we decided to swing into the McDonald's just before downtown SPS for a quick breakfast. It's an area of fast food restaurants and shopping plazas, all which have guards and fairly secure parking...or so I thought.

Locking the car, we left Mark's suitcase loaded with necessities from home and his back pack with his brand new computer in it as well as passport and iPod in the back seat behind heavily tinted windows. Twenty minutes later we came back out, opened the door and...everything was gone, even Barbe's camera. We were in shock for several minutes, then pissed off and then...

Apparently, according to the surveillance camera, two cars pulled in shortly after we parked and within two minutes had punched out the door lock, cleaned out the car with the exception of a bag of bananas and were gone, politely closing the door after themselves. I'm pretty sure they followed us from the airport, watching for their chance. Fortunately for us, that chance was while we were not in the car. These guys usually don't worry about killing people.

I kicked myself for not parking in front of the windows, for not setting the alarm, for not having Mark bring his backpack in with him...for being to trusting, for being to slack. Kick, kick, kick.

Can I have one of those honest moments with you again? Yeh? Thanks. You know what one of the hardest things for me was/is? Seeing my son so happy to be back, having just had a really awesome time in the States...a place where he would really rather be...and 10 minutes after getting here being robbed of literally everything he owns. Seriously, he has the clothes on his back left. I could see the tiredness from the all night flight hit him, the disappointment, the hurt, and me, still being his Daddy...I wanted to shoot someone, or at the very least break some one's nose. I planned all kinds of sting operations, ya' no, like flash cash in the airport and then sit in the back seat with a shotgun and wait for them to open the door into eternity. Shockingly unrighteous stuff for a quasi missionary.

Another missionary who has been here for a long time said this to me when I talked to him about these feelings, "Mike, Honduras can really beat your kids up." Personally, I don't think it's just Honduras. I think Kenya, or South Africa, or Brazil or...any place that's not your home can do this to you. I hate the possibility that he could be right.

So, our innocence is gone. The reality of life in Honduras has finally hit home. This kind of stuff and worse happens here a lot, not so much in Sigaut, but in the cities, and these guys are almost never caught or even pursued. But here's what I've been thinking over. There's a several ways I can go with this. I can say that the toll on us isn't worth it, the risk to my family isn't worth it and head for home. Or... I can do what I see so many others here do; get really cynical about the culture, the government and people and hide behind walls and not go anywhere or do anything, you know, let the fear control me. OR... I can learn from this, be more on my guard and realize that if we are going to live here, then this comes with the territory.

I can tell you this; I don't want to turn cynical, stop loving people, stop reaching out, stop trusting. If I allow that to happen I might just as well go home because I will be of no earthly or heavenly use here. I can't allow one or two bad guys who I never even met face to face replace in my heart and mind the thousands of kind and caring people I have met here.

If God has called us here, and everyday that goes by I am more convinced of that, then I must come to terms with the fact that things like this will happen. It's part of life here and you can only protect yourself so far, the rest is up to God. And really...that's true no matter where you live. 

Drilling for Water

Ben running the drill rig.

For the past week and a half my drilling crew and I have been in Oriente. Ben, Thomas, Trey Russell and Alexis have worked hard keeping the Bentonite flowing, changing drill rod and bits and running the rig. I haven't had much time to do anything else, like blog, because the men of Oriente are posting a 24 hour watch on the equipment while it is there and I really would like to get done asap so they can go back home. We did take Sunday off and will take tomorrow off as well as I need to go to San Pedro Sula to pick up some parts and Mark who is returning from the States, but I am in hopes that by Thursday we will have drilled as deep as we can and can pack up the rig. Trusting that it will be deep enough and that the well will produce water. Of course we won't know until after we develop the well.

I've got some great pictures and will blog about all of this soon.

I just love this little guy. His name is Alfredo and he's like Oriente's village burro. He just wanders around and visits here and there. I had to close the pick up door because I thought he was going to hop in.

A Whirlwind Last Few Weeks

The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity. As a matter of fact I would place last week as possibly one the most productive weeks of my life, certainly one of the most interesting.

Between hosting a business partner from the States, several days spent in both San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa in meetings with top government officials and businessmen, meetings at a hospital, two children's homes and evenings spent with some very unique individuals, there was very little time for anything else.

This Monday we finally were able to begin drilling a well in Oriente, a much anticipated event. I'll do another post on that as it has been interesting, to say the least. We are praying that we will hit water, as the community of Oriente only receives water every eight days at most, and then only a pila full.

Oxen pulling our trailer into the well site as it was inaccessible by pickup.

The weather has been superb here in Sigautepeque. I don't know what other years have been like, but so far I love the "rainy" season. Usually the days are beautiful, but about 6 o'clock a storm will roll in to wash the sky and the streets of dust and to turn the hills a verdant green. Temperatures have been in the high 70's to low 80's, surprisingly mild, as we are further south and closer to the equater than Miami. Of course the higher elevation has something to do with that. Down on the North Coast or in San Pedro Sula it's an entirely different story. Far hotter and much more humid.

A beautiful day filled with adventure.

The small Bible study we do every other Sunday afternoon in Cerro Azul , a small village at the end of the road far up in a narrow valley between mountain peaks, has been a real blessing to us. Last Sunday, as I sat on the front porch where we meet, relaxing, listening to the sound of the river as it rushed downhill over huge rocks, a gentle breeze making the afternoon idyllic, I realized that after all the hustle and bustle of the past week, all the important meetings and events, there really was no place I'd rather be at that moment than right there studying the Bible with these people who have become friends.

Everyday I am so thankful that we have the awesome privilege to be here, doing the things we are doing. living a life that few people will ever live. Jesus says in the Gospels that if you lose your life for His sake, you will find it. Before we came down here, as I was letting go of the things we had, my business, America, family and friends, I thought a lot about this Biblical principle. I wondered if it was really true. I can only say this; in the six months I have been here I have experienced life in a way that I have never before experienced. In another place, Jesus says that He came not only to give us life, but He came to give us abundant life. That is the way I would describe our life here....abundant.

A friendly little burro who wanted to be petted. I think he would have hopped in the pick up with us.