June Newsletter

An Unreached Group
If you attend most Honduran churches, one of the most striking things you notice is the abundance of women and children and lack of men, particularly young men. Most young men view church as something for women with no practical application in their lives. Because of the kind of construction work the hospital has to offer, there is great opportunity to reach this unreached group. In order to offer jobs to more people, the hospital employs laborers on temporary 5-week contracts. As Josh has worked with these young men, he has been struck by their interest in the gospel, but their complete distaste for “church.”

In the past couple years, God has moved several very real, very strong Christian men into the area, and interestingly, all of them are reaching out to young men through their work and businesses. A man named Luis moved here in 2005 and runs a woodworking shop in Balfate. He seeks out and employs young men with the intention of witnessing to and discipling them. Silvino is one of the hospital’s two full time construction guys. He has a tremendous heart for the Lord and a gift for connecting with the young men who work at the hospital. Several of the contractors who have worked at the hospital in the past year have been Christians employing and witnessing to young men. It’s been neat to see the Lord providing workers from within the culture to reach this group.

This spring, we read the book “God’s Smuggler,” which is the story of a Dutch missionary working in Communist countries during the Cold War years. It was very encouraging to us, and Josh though it contains lots of content that would be very applicable in a young men’s study. So, he plans to facilitate a group to go through this great book. We are praying that God will be working on the hearts of those men He wants to be a part of this group.

Construction
Every morning Josh heads off to work on his motorcycle with a general plan of what he wants to get done, and it pretty much never works out as planned. As one of two people in charge of fixing stuff, he is constantly getting called to repair plumbing, look at dead cars, work on the water system, and such. The past couple weeks, most of the calls have originated from Staff Housing, which is a large building with dorm rooms for temporary folks and apartments for some of the nursing staff. The plumbing supplies sold in Honduras are cheap at best, and as Staff Housing ages, its plumbing suffers more and more failures. So Josh has spent quite a bit of time finding and fixing leaky plumbing in the dorm room walls.

Aside from that, the construction on the Children’s Center is moving along. Last week, a crew poured the second floor. We got a kick out of the giant stairs they built to use in the cement bucket brigade.

Browning Briefs
With school out for the summer, I have been busy getting some planning done for next year’s classes and getting things ready for our upcoming trip to the States. Of course that is all in addition to keeping up with Guildy, who turned 2 on the 13th. Like most 2-year-olds, Guildy is quite the handful. She talks non-stop and is constantly discovering new adventures, like jumping off increasingly high objects, riding her little bike down hills, and climbing anything with a toe hold! She also loves reading, drawing, Dora the Explorer, and taking pretend trips in her car. It’s such a fun age!

In other Browning news, we will be headed for the States in just a few days. Actually, we are going to Cancun, MX first for a Browning family reunion. Cancun is only about 250 miles from us, so we are taking a boat to Belize and then buses up to Mexico. Should be a fun adventure. From Cancun, we will head to Montana for a few weeks of visiting. We are definitely looking forward to it. Hopefully we will get to see as many of you as possible!!


Prayer Requests
A few specific things to be praying for:
1. The hospital needs another IT/computer person, as well as an anesthetist.
2. Hospital funding is always a need.

3. The American doctors must be licensed by the Honduran government. This is a sticky beaurocratic situation. Please pray that the doctors would be able to get their licenses.
4. Please pray for continued effectiveness for the hospital at reaching people with the Gospel and facilitating discipleship for those who become believers.
5. Please pray for our safety as we travel and the ability to effectively share all that we see God doing here with the people we will spend time with in the States.

In Closing
Thank you all so much for supporting us! We couldn’t be here without you! Let us know how you’re doing and how we can be praying for you!

In Christ’s Love,

Josh, Linzy, and Guildy

Support for the Brownings may be sent to:
CornerStone International
PO Box 192
Wilmore KY 40390
1-800-859-4578
carla@cornerstoneinternational.org

www.cornerstoneinternational.org

Guildy's 2nd Birthday

Although Guildy won't officially be two until Wednesday, we had a little party for her today with our neighbors, the jolly Scots Iain and Liz, and our friend Mike (left to right). Josh barbequed a chunk of tough-but-tasty Honduran beef and some much coveted salmon that Iain and Liz got in San Pedro Sula (a.k.a. The Big City) yesterday. Instead of cake, we had flapjack with cream cheese frosting. Flapjack is a delightful British dessert sort of like a granola bar....and it's gluten free!

Iain and Liz's son Samuel helped Guildy unwrap her presents. An interesting cultural note....the two Honduran girls who live with Iain and Liz didn't hang around to watch Guildy open presents because Hondurans consider it rude to open presents in front of other people. They view it as a flaunting of material wealth. It seems so odd to us, because in general, Hondurans constantly try to impress each other with their stylish clothes, cell phones, etc. Hmmmmm.

Guildy was pretty excited about her new Superman thermos.....and her new giant crayons and miniature Magna Doodle and her first Paint with Water Book:o)

And after opening presents, Guildy and Iain had a great time wrestling in the grass. Iain and Liz have a grandaughter in Scotland the same age as Guildy, so they enjoy having a toddler nearby.

A Trip to El Toro

We hear all the time about the little towns up in the mountains that have no car traffic and are only accessible by foot or on horse. So, on Saturday, we decided to set out in search of such a town. We were looking for one called La Naranjita (The Little Orange), but the directions Josh had gotten (from a guy who lived there nonetheless) weren't right. So we ended up in another "town" called El Toro, which was a steep hour and a half hike from the main road. We use the word "town" loosely, because El Toro consists of about six houses scattered over a couple acres on the side of a hill. We talked to one old lady who lives there, and she said she goes down into Balfate maybe four or five times a year. Other than that, she is content to stay up in the mountains.

It was interesting the contrast between the houses and people there and those we see every day in the villages on the main road. There was very little plastic garbage. Although made of adobe and thatch, the houses were in good repair and very neat and clean. They had fields of corn, plantains, and bananas. We concluded that this little group of people who essentially live "off the grid" probably have a better lifestyle than their more worldly counterparts, simply because they aren't trying to compete in an economy that just can't support them. It makes you think about "progress" and what Westernization does to people who aren't accustomed to western thinking.

A few pictures from our journey......

Guildy and Josh taking a little break. Guildy has definitely outgrown her little backpack, but she was a trooper.....and so was Josh!

Of course, this isn't a bull. It's one of the Brahma cross milk cows that everybody has. But since we went to El Toro (The Bull), I thought we needed a picture of a bovine.

As we got higher and higher up, the view of Balfate and the Caribbean just got better. And, best of all, it got COOLER!! Down by the coast where we live, this time of year is miserably hot, but apparently a little elevation makes all the difference. We were actually cold, which was a pretty nice change!

On our way back down the mountain, we were overtaken by a string of four horses and mules hauling lumber down. Josh knew the guy from work because the hospital has bought lumber from them in the past. They cut it up in the mountains, mill it down with a chainsaw, and pack it down with horses. Pretty labor intensive logging operation! This particular batch of wood was headed for Luis, the carpenter in Balfate.

This horse had lost his load and was being repacked.

On the main road on the way home, we passed these guys with their load of plantains. It is high plantain season right now, so this is a very common sight.

And that, in a nutshell, was our Saturday adventure!