By Special Request

Allen was reading old blog posts, and he asked me to repost this piece, from last August, about the monthly Bible Training School for pastors. There were a lot fewer people reading my blog back then, so perhaps this will be new to many of you.



The week of the monthly Bible Training School is a busy time for our family. Now that we are having the fifth session of the school, however, things are running quite smoothly. Here is what is involved:

Ahead of time, Dr Julio, who teaches the classes, chooses the training materials, and gets them to us. We make enough copies for all of the students, and punch holes in the pages, so that the students can add these to their notebooks. Russell makes sure that all of the registration information is updated from the previous session, so that he can be prepared for the current registration. A team of ladies from town purchase the food supplies for the meals they will cook. All of this takes place before the school session starts.

On the second Tuesday of each month, the school opens. The pastors, pastors-in-training, and church leaders travel to Gracias from the departments of Lempira, Intibuca, Ocotepeque and Copan, and even from the north coast cities of San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba. One regular attender travels 12 hours by bus to come each month. Several of the pastors who live far into the mountains start their trip on horseback, from areas where there are no roads, then stable their horses with friends and finish the trip by hitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck.


Some of the students go directly to the school location, a retreat center owned by a local denomination, situated just outside of the city of Gracias. Others gather at one of the town churches, and we shuttle these pastors out to the school. We also make sure that the styrofoam cups, coffee pots, and coffee supplies are in place, for these students love their coffee!

At the school, Russell registers the arrival of each student. We are excited about the attendance we have been having - approximately 80 students each month. Dr Julio usually has time for a short morning teaching session before lunch the first day.

In the late morning, Allen (or Russell - he's 18 now, so he has a Honduran driver's license) picks up the ladies who do the cooking and the food they have prepared, and carries them out to the school, along with disposable plates, cups, and silverware. They stay for lunch with the pastors, and afterwards bring back the ladies and their dirty dishes . . . so that the ladies can get to work on supper!

At home, sometime during the day on Tuesday, at least one or two pastors will arrive who got to town too late for the morning shuttle service (this month, there were four late arrivals). We serve them coffee (of course) at the house, and either have them wait for the next scheduled trip out, or give them some money for a taxi. The road out to the school is pretty bad, and we've decided the cost of a few taxi fares is a better use of our money than the extra wear on our vehicles from additional trips!

At the school, classes go all afternoon, with only a short break for coffee, relaxation and fellowship, in the beautiful mountain setting.


The students are extremely serious about these studies, and there is a lot of interaction during the classes. Dr Julio is a lot of fun, and a good teacher, and everyone has a good time, while covering a lot of material.

Back at our house, during the afternoon on Tuesday through Thursday, Rachel, Bethany, or I make cakes for the evening dessert. This month, we sent out 4 cakes each evening. Around 4:30 Allen (or Russell) picks up the cooks and the evening meal - and the cakes - and heads out to the school. They only forgot the cakes once . . . now, I think the students remind them!

After dinner, they bring the ladies and the pots back to town. Usually there is an additional class session after dinner, and then some time of fellowship, impromptu worship sessions, etc.

On Wednesday and Thursday, this schedule continues, except that Russell has to leave the house at 7am to take the ladies out with the breakfast, in addition to the other meals. The class sessions go all day on these days. On Thursday, Allen goes out in the afternoon, with a large selection of the Bibles and Bible study materials that we have for sale. He sets up a table so that the students can shop during their breaks from class. The book sales are subsidized, so that the prices for the books are actually less than what we pay to purchase and ship them. We tease Allen that his business degree didn't teach him much, since he seems to be setting up his bookstore to intentionally lose money!

On Friday, breakfast is served at the school, and then the pastors depart. Many stop by our house before leaving, to look over the books some more, or just to visit. Some bring us small gifts. They all tell us how extremely grateful they are for the chance to come to this training.

The pastors do not pay anything for these classes, or for the food and lodging during the school session. But they are all sacrificing as they pay the cost of transportation, and as they miss most or all of a week of work. None of these pastors is paid a salary by their church - they all work a secular job, usually in agriculture.


We keep pretty busy during the week of the Bible Training School, but it is exciting, as well. Even though Allen and I are not trained pastors or Bible teachers, nor do we have good enough Spanish to teach in the language, God has allowed us the privilege of starting this school and running it each month. We are able to use the funds from our donors, our vehicles, and Allen's ability to orchestrate the logistics, to help with the things we can do, and that the local Christians would not have the resources to do. God provided the teacher, and placed the desire to learn into the hearts of these pastors and church leaders.

Lists and Maps and Timelines

We are in major preparation mode for our upcoming mega field trip!

This morning we had a 'walk ourselves through Early American History' discussion, followed by the project of creating a timeline of major events. I was sent to the computer several times by children who had a sudden yearning to be reminded of the details of certain points of history. (I googled "Shay's Rebellion," "The Treaty of Ghent," and "Bleeding Kansas.") It was fun to have them so excited about history!

Yesterday Rachel and Bethany created maps of the east coast states, with labels showing the major stopping points on our trip. Since we haven't lived in the US for so long, this map work isn't as familiar to the kids as I would like it to be. I'm looking forward to introducing the children to some of the places I remember so fondly, as my childhood was filled with field trips to Williamsburg, Philadelphia, the Mall in Washington, the Smithsonian, etc.

This afternoon, each of the children will be choosing a particular aspect of this broad historical period to study in depth, to share with the rest of us when we are actually in that general region. I'm guessing Chris will choose a civil war battle, but it will be interesting to see what the girls pick.

Many different plans are coming together for this trip, but our liveliest conversations generally involve the wonderful foods we will eat during our travels. Recent salivations have been initiated by discussions of: salad bars, 2% milk (that tastes like 2% milk, and nothing else), cottage cheese, lots of other varieties of cheese, fresh strawberries, baby carrots, filled donuts, seafood (we had wonderful seafood when we lived on Guanaja, and we miss it now), store-bought bagels, deli lunchmeats, and so many other things!

Chicken Pox - Round Two

David/BucketBoy just showed me his torso, which has acquired a large collection of small, itchy bumps.

Let the good times roll. Sigh.

Swamped!

In less than three weeks now, I will be leaving for the US, taking three of the kids on a major American history field trip. We are just crazy with preparations.

Bethany and I need to finish her school work for the year, and then I want to go through a quick review course of American history through the end of the civil war with the three participating children, so that it will be fresh in our minds as we visit the relevant historical sites.

We are also working through everyone's closets, to see what needs to be purchased, in the way of clothing, while we are in the states. Underwear and socks, of course, but what else? Christopher is growing like a weed - the new clothes bought for him this past fall no longer fit him. We have no clue what the styles are like in the US right now, so we hope to manage to look "classic" rather than "dated." Oh well. We'll probably just fail on that one!

I need to purchase a month's supply of the medications I use, as they are so much more expensive to purchase in the US than here. The kids are also planning to get haircuts here, because we can get a cut for under $5 in Gracias. We don't need to talk about what haircuts would cost us in the states!

I'm grateful that my oldest daughter is still at home, and she can take responsibility for a lot of the general work around the house while I'm gone.

Last night in my living room

We had guests last night. Russell's girlfriend, Iris, and her family came over for a visit, to bring us a gift of homemade tamales. I am guessing that tamales are a traditional Mother's Day meal, although I happen to know they are a lot of work to make, and the men are NOT making them for the women. Seems to go against the North American idea of how to celebrate Mother's Day.

I had a fun discussion with Iris' mother, about how we celebrate this holiday - how the mother is not supposed to do any work that day, how she can sleep in later than usual, and be served breakfast in bed. We don't necessarily do all of these things (this year, I did sleep in very late, though), but the main idea seems to be that the mother's contribution is appreciated, and , if she is lucky, the mother gets a day off. In Honduras, the celebration involves a serenade of the mothers at daybreak. This is often done by stationing cars with huge speakers at intervals throughout the city, and then blaring the music from the radio. Hmmm, not my idea of the start to an ideal day.

Iris' family are all musicians. The father is the worship pastor at their church, and all of the family are involved in this. They also play music for other occasions, including having been hired by a number of families to serenade their mothers on Sunday morning. Russell told me, that as my Mother's Day present from him this year, he decided NOT to have me serenaded at dawn. I really liked that present.

So, as I mentioned earlier, last night Iris and her family (that's her father and three brothers in the photo, the camera-shy girl peaking out behind them is Iris, and the seated girl is the girlfriend of one of the brothers) came by bringing a gift of tamales. They also, at my request, played and sang for us. All of the men in the family play several instruments and sing. The two sisters and the mother play no instruments, but all sing. It was the first time I've heard Iris sing alone - she has a very lovely voice.

Oh, do you want to see a better picture of Russell's girlfriend? Well, as I mentioned, she is quite camera shy, but we managed, over the course of the evening to sneak a couple of shots. Here you go:

Oops, no good - she managed to hide her face in that shot. You can see, though what beautiful hair she has!

Okay, here she is, still not looking especially happy about the picture taking, though:



We're having great fun getting to know this family . . . and who knows what the future may hold - someday they may be relatives!

Have I mentioned the bad roads?

Yes, this really is a road. Click on the picture, to get a closer look.

At the bottom of this picture there is a ford, currently dry because we are at the end of the dry season. Within a couple of weeks, as rainy season gets underway, this ford will be impassable.

Currently there is a walking bridge, made out of twisted strands of barbed wire and rotten wood, which is the only way to cross this spot once the river rises. You can imagine, as we cross these swinging bridges, how much we want to hang on to the wires along the sides. But that isn't advisable when the bridge is made from barbed wire. This makes the crossing of this type of bridge a little extra-memorable.

This is another location where we have been asked to help build an improved bridge.

Blogging Bugs

Our visiting team has now departed, but they left behind some fun pictures! Here are a few of their encounters with the bugs of Honduras.

More about that bridge

Yesterday I posted a picture of several people posing on this bridge. The team did not have to cross this bridge to get to their ministry site. However, Allen told me that the children in this area do cross this bridge to get to school. When the river is low enough, they can ford the river instead of using the bridge, but during the rainy season their choices are to cross this bridge or to miss school.

Allen is working on several fronts to try to replace some of the very dangerous bridges in Lempira. So far he has collected a large quantity of cable, and he has worked on developing working relationships with some other groups who do this kind of project, including Engineers Without Borders. It's been a slow and frustrating process, but Allen is stubborn persistent. I feel confident these projects will come together eventually.