The 600

10/17/2022

We are thankful for the opportunity that we have had to work with our friend and neighbor building this retaining wall out of tires.

09/07/2022

Enjoyed hosting the fifth and sixth grade class members, Anna and Eva's class mates, last week.

03/29/2020

What if we don’t have enough?

(from: https://the600.weebly.com/blog/what-if-we-dont-have-enough)

This morning I read the Jesus Storybook Bible with Eliya, Isaiah and Joel. The story for the day was from Matthew 6, where Jesus compares us to the birds who don’t have to worry about their food. The questions hit home as we all wonder what Today will look like as the coronavirus infects the world.

“What if we don’t have enough food? Or suppose we run out of money? What if there isn’t enough? And everything goes wrong? And we won’t be all right? What then?”

And then the silly image of birds going grocery shopping was particularly poignant:

“Where do they get their food? Perhaps they have pantries all stocked up? Cabinets full of food?”

How many of us have pantries and cabinets all stocked up right now?

Is God enough? All by himself? Or is God enough all by himself when our cabinets are full?

We just had to teach our kids the meaning of a rhetorical question last week. We are going through Romans 8 and it says, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” They all exclaimed, “Satan!” Well, yes. Technically correct. But compared to God’s great power, Satan’s power doesn’t even matter. So it’s as if no one is even against us.

So I realize that “is God enough?” seems like a rhetorical question. We know the answer is, “yes, he is enough.” But I know it doesn’t always feel that way.

These “enough” questions pester me all day like mosquitoes at dusk during August in Minnesota. It is exhausting to constantly give them to Jesus and say, “I can’t control this.” I know I need to keep slapping at the pests, but it’s not relaxing; I’m always on guard waiting for the next one to pounce.

So in this time of high anxiety and uncertainty for the future, how do we not worry? How do we find rest? Let’s not waste this opportunity of outer chaos to reflect and see if we truly know in our depths that God is enough. All by himself.

The end of this story in the Jesus Storybook Bible was satisfying for me today.

“It [is] the song people’s hearts were made to sing: “God made us. He loves us. He is very pleased with us.”

I can rest in that.

Let’s reflect that truth with our whole lives.

This morning I read the Jesus Storybook Bible with Eliya, Isaiah and Joel. The story for the day was from Matthew 6, where Jesus compares us to the birds who don’t have to worry about their food....

03/09/2020

10/31/2019

We published the latest Culture Z Podcast.
Check it out at http://culturez.libsyn.com/008-famine-in-the-land

We pray that it encourages you along the way, and we would love to hear if it does.

10/03/2019

From September 10-13 we hosted the Great Oaks-Agua Viva Conference 2019. Over the last few years God has been using our Agua Viva (AV) water projects and the full time Honduran AV team to awaken the hearts of a handful of men to himself and the good news of Jesus. For example our friend Sandres, one of the men who came to the conference, told us that he had attended church his whole life but not understood the gospel. Then our AV team member Adolfo came to his village, showed a life of integrity as he worked on the water project and invited Sandres to study the Bible with him after work. As they sat under a mango tree or on the porch at night studying the Bible, God opened Sandres’ eyes to the truth about Jesus.

So this month eight men, accompanied by three women, our six children and Joel gathered at Campus Adullam to study the Bible and listen to what God had to tell us. The central theme of our studies was Jesus’ words about abiding in him found in John 15. We spent many hours each day reading the Bible and talking about what God was teaching us. In fact various planned activities didn’t happen because the men from the villages only wanted to study the Bible and talk about the kingdom of God. Praise God with us for this spiritual hunger. All of us grew in our knowledge of Christ and one of the men made a life-changing decision to forgive.

On the first afternoon of the conference we hiked out to our farm property where I showed and explained the inga tree soil building and erosion control farming system. Several men showed great interest in learning more in the future, and one invited me to his community to work with a group of fifteen farmers who are looking for alternative and sustainable farming methods. On the second afternoon we enjoyed time at the beach. Some of the men saw and swam in the ocean for the first time.

The men returned to their homes and communities equipped with a closer walk with Jesus, a greater understanding of how to abide in him, truths revealed from his Word along with all kinds of edible plants and seed cuttings to plant on there own land. Please pray with us for the Spirit to remind them to plant the “seed” that they received in their daily lives, to abide in Christ and his love so that the promise of “much fruit” will be fulfilled.

09/07/2019

An Actual Lack of Water?

Water Situation: Part 1
We are in a major drought in the northern part of Honduras. With an average rainfall of 100+ inches per year, the daily, hour-long rains usually start mid-May and turn into multiple-day rains by September. This year, we have had only a few short, light rains.

Around twenty years ago, a visiting scientist took measurements of our local creeks and said we could never waste water here; he said there was such an abundance of water that he couldn’t foresee any problems with our water supply. This year, many of these creeks have completely dried up.

So when the water pressure in our home started to lessen, we assumed the creek was low and this was going to be our new reality. Larry and I started to be careful with our water use and taught the kids how to use less to get the job done. We went from sometimes taking four showers a day (because it’s just.so.hot) to one shower. We used one bowl for rinsing all the dishes before soaping them, and figured out the washing machine really does use a lot less water than washing by hand.

Three-year-old Isaiah, who’s first love is water, has had a hard time understanding why he can’t play in the shower during home school time. His prayers for rain may be among the most fervent.

This lack of water pressure went on for at least two weeks. The pressure got so bad that we were only using water from the gallon jugs we keep filled. We used the water from the jugs and then Isaiah or Joel would fill the bottles while we had home school. On average, it took two minutes to fill each gallon jug.

(Point of reference, my graph-loving mama and numbers-loving dad filled several gallon jugs at their house in Minnesota and they were consistently filled at 19 or 20 seconds.)

Then one day, the water went completely out at our house. But this time, the water pressure at Campus was back to its original pressure: we could fill gallon jugs in just ten seconds!

Campus is on the same water system as our house, but on the opposite side of the street. With this glaring difference, Larry started digging up the pipe and making cuts to figure out the problem. Now we knew we couldn’t blame the drought; something else had to be the cause.

The problem was in a place the community’s Water Board is responsible to fix. They did so within hours of being informed of the blockage, and now we have ten-second-fill pressure at our house too.

**
When we considered the lack of rain in our area, we understood and accepted the lack of water and took it as our inevitable future. But when we saw a home right in front of us, getting its water from the same source, and we saw abundant pressure when we had none, we knew the problem didn’t have to exist.

How often do we accept sin in our lives because we accept these truths: “we live in a fallen world,” “we carry around these sinful bodies,” and “Nobody’s perfect.”

But then we see someone living well, someone who shows compassion and exhibits joy, or someone who has patience with those who drive us nuts. We see the dichotomy between the Love “pressure” in our lives and in others’. It should drive us to look for the problem, to find our areas of unbelief or unforgiveness, or patterns of living that bring death instead of life.

I’m not preaching the health and wealth gospel here. There is still a drought! Sin and death still exist! But we have access to a Source that is strong enough to give us joy overflowing in the middle of it.

Are we accessing Him? Are we asking him to clean out the sin and selfishness in our lives? Or is our pipe blocked and we are just going to succumb to a low-pressure existence?

08/09/2019

In twenty-five years I have never seen the Cangrejal River Valley so dry! Creeks are drying up that have supplied water to families for generations, crops and livestock are suffering and most people are quite alarmed. The subsistence farmers’ margin for covering loss is so thin that drought drastically affects them. Centuries of slash and burn agriculture on steep slopes, with high rainfall and heat, combined with more recent population growth and agro chemicals has left the soils degenerated and intolerant of drought.

The inga alley cropping farming system that we helped develop in our area and promote helps restore soils and buffer the affects of drought. This month we were able to work in the fields of two local farmers who are wrestling to implement the system, even as they suffer the effects of the drought. Toyano, who worked with us in agriculture for about ten years as we developed the inga system, now at 74 years of age and with chronic pneumonia, has begun to implement the system on his land. Unfortunately his wife and children believe this is a waste of time and are not helping him. Amy, Caroline and I spent the day with Toyano and Pablo (a fellow Inga farmer, neighbor, friend and Inga Foundation employee) marking out the contour lines of his field. When sufficient rain falls, we plan to return to help him plant his inga trees.

We spent a second day in the field of Toyano’s neighbor. This time Eva and Anna joined Caroline and I, along with five volunteers who were visiting Instituto El Rey, a mission school up the road from us. Eva (8) and Anna (7) seemed to bounce up the two mile-long mountainous trail and brought joy to all of us as we filled about 1,000 planting bags for an inga and fruit tree nursery. They even made friends with the two daughters in the family who were just their ages. It was great to see how God’s joy in loving through us was contagious among our group and the family we served. Please pray for rain and provision for these farmers.

07/13/2019

"She gives hugs with love."

On July 12th we celebrated Anna’s 7th birthday. During dessert, we each shared the special ways we see how God created her, how he uses her and what we appreciate about her.

Joel said, “She gives hugs with love.”

This broke me.

I am a very task-oriented person. In seminary I took a Strengths Finder inventory and the counselor said, “you get stuff done, don’t you?” I do. I’m good at knocking stuff out, juggling many tasks at once, and meeting deadlines.

But I’m also really good at bulldozing people in the process, of choosing a bad attitude so people get out of my way and leave me alone so I can finish all the blessed tasks.

I realize consciously that this isn’t loving—but I have stuff to do, people! Get out of my way! Can’t I just say that Acts of Service is my love language, or say I have the Gift of Helps and call it holy?

No. I don’t actually fool myself into believing my task-completion-without-love is right. Sort of like a clanging cymbal. In the end it is all worth nothing.

In our re-entry to life in Las Mangas (we arrived late on the 9th), God has been gently showing me how I don’t need to return to the lifestyle of task versus people. There is much work to be done here, but what my family, this community and God’s people don’t need is for me to complete all of the tasks; they need all of me to love all of them with all of myself. Which is put into action. But I know that I can only accomplish that task of loving by abiding in Christ who is love.

So Joel said what we all agree to be true about Anna: she gives hugs with love. I want to do that too.

03/23/2019

I Miss My Papi

Joel loves Larry so much.

It is just so dear to see Joel’s eyes light up when he talks about his “Papi,” his Daddy. For a while, Joel called Larry “amigo,” because Larry introduced Joel to someone in town as “my friend, Joel.”

When Joel’s dad died several years ago, we asked Joel how he felt. He told us that at the funeral he felt God say to him, “I am your Father. Now Larry is your Dad.” After that, Larry was only known as Papi.

In 2013, Larry’s brother and family visited and invited us to go to the island north of Honduras for a family vacation. Larry asked Joel, “Joel, do you want to go with me,” to which Joel interrupted him and said, “yes.” With no knowledge of where, when, how long or to do what, all Joel knew was that he wanted to be with his Papi.

When I told him he needed to pack a bag for this mystery trip, he gave his side smile of excitement. When we pulled up to the harbor, he was giggly. Consciously keeping information from him at this point, we said, “hey Joel, where are you going?” He just laughed, grabbed Larry’s arm, probably snorted and gave him a head nuzzle. He had never seen a sea-worthy yacht, had certainly never been on one, had no knowledge of where he was going or if he would ever return.

But he was with his dad. And that’s what mattered.

When Joel goes on Agua Viva water projects with Larry, he tells me, “Larry and I are going on the project. You’re not going. You’re going to stay here. With the kids,” he adds. Finger pointing emphasizes these truths.

But early Sunday morning, Larry and Joel leaving for the water project. Larry started the car but then realized he forgot something. He jumped out and I jumped into the truck and said, “I’m going to go on the trip instead of Larry.” I pursed my lips and looked at him through my own side-eye to see his reaction. At first he laughed and said, “oh you.” But then looked straight at me and said, “no. My dad’s going. You’re not. Larry.” After the final finger point, he turned away as if to say, “this is not a joking matter.”

Joel loves me. I don’t question it at all. And I know he doesn’t question my love for him.

But I’m not Larry. I’m not his Papi.

So when Larry called me a half hour later to say Joel had two big seizures and he didn’t think he should take him on the trip, we were both so sad for Joel. I drove down the road as Larry drove up, and Larry tried to explain to the post-seizure-foggy Joel that he couldn’t take him on the trip. We put his bag in the bed of the truck heading back home and he got in the truck. All day I explained to Joel that Larry had gone on the trip, that he couldn’t go because of the seizures, and that Larry would miss him.

The next morning he said, “I prayed for you and Larry last night,” which is pretty normal morning Joel conversation. But then he said, “I prayed Larry would come back.”

Not, prayed for him to tell the community about Jesus, not prayed that he would have clear thoughts for his many teachings, not for strength in the physical challenges, or even that he would have a good time. Nope. “That he comes back.”

I am sure part of Joel’s prayer is dealing with abandonment. His parents left him when they left each other when Joel was about thirteen years old. When his mom was alive she would visit her other children in the community, but not him. She sold the property where he was living once she found out he was staying with us. Joel would visit her in town after he sold his bottles and she would send him to the corner store to buy food for them all for lunch. So Joel has some legitimate abandonment issues to work through.

But I really feel like Joel’s prayer for Larry to come back was more than just feeling excluded. I see it with all our kids: they want to do anything that Larry is doing. And Larry is really good at looking for ways for each one to be included so they feel special and loved.

I took Joel with me in the car one day this week because I didn’t want to leave him alone in case of another seizure. I pulled the truck out of the dirt driveway, closed the iron gate, got back into the truck and headed out. He said, “Hoy si,” which is like, “here we go.” But it was immediately followed by, “I miss my Papi.” I felt his longing for Larry as he was heading out on an unknown adventure. He was glad to be along, glad to be involved, but he missed his dad.

Since Joel’s “yes” in 2013 to be with Larry in whatever situation, I have looked at it as an example for me of how I want to be with God. When God says, “do you want to go with me” I don’t want to need any more details. I don’t want to ask when, where, why, how much, or am I ever coming back. I want my immediate response to be “yes”—and not necessarily even a super enthusiastic one. I want it to be a normal and everyday response. Because being with God is what I want.

I want my “yes” to be quick and automatic because I know God. And I know that he is good. And I know that he is love. And I know that he has his best for me. And that there is nothing in all creation that can separate me from him and there is nothing that is more fulfilling or worthwhile than being with him and joining him in the work that he has prepared for me to do.

Give us this confidence, Father, of your love for us and your promises not to harm us. To lead us not into temptation but to deliver us from evil. To bring us to the mountain of praise and to be the one who invites us to be his beloved. Let us say when we feel far from you, “I miss my daddy” and to give you a head nuzzle when we are close to you again.