Go Fly a Kite!

Last Saturday, we spent the day with Mike and Peggy Yost, another missionary couple. Josh and Mike work together, and for some time, they had been discussing kite construction. So, the guys, plus Guildy, built a couple impressive flying vessels out of some scrap wood, wrapping paper, and the classic orange and white striped plastic bags that are used everywhere in Central America.

We ventured down to the beach, about a 100 yard walk, to try them out. Unfortunately, the wind at the beach was a bit too strong, and the kites didn't get to far off the ground before they self destructed. But it was fun while it lasted!

Hadley and I photographed the event. She wasn't as interested as the rest of us!

January Newsletter

Happy New Year from Honduras!
Happy 2008 from the Brownings!! As most of you know, we finished off 2007 with the arrival of our beautiful daughter, Hadley Sue, on December 21st. She is now six weeks old, and between her and Guildy, there is never a dull moment at our house! Guildy is doing a good job of being a big sister, and we think we have resolved all the questions she had about the arrival of the new baby. For example, she wanted to know if our baby was going to be white or brown like the Honduran babies. And with having the baby at Christmastime, there was some confusion about whether or not it was Baby Jesus in mom's belly:o)

We are very thankful, after several weeks and many trips to the civil registry office, to have finally gotten the correct form of her Honduran birth certificate. The next step is to go to the embassy in Tegucigalpa next week to get her registered and apply for her passport. Please pray for our safe travels (Teguc boasts the most dangerous airport in the Americas) and an expedient passport process. Below is Hadley in her classic wrist sucking pose.

The Folks We Work With We have been blessed beyond words to live in and work with an amazing missionary community. In 2007, nearly 1,000 patients per month came through the doors of Hospital Loma de Luz (http://www.crstone.org/ – Check out their newsletters. They’re a lot more exciting than ours!). All of them had the opportunity to hear the gospel, and over 350 received Christ as savior. Countless others were saved and discipled though outreaches outside the hospital ministry. Only when Christ and His Kingdom are central can approximately 60 people from all different cultural (yes, there are lots of different cultures among Americans), denominational, and experiential backgrounds be so humbly used to achieve such amazing results. Below is the annual Loma de Luz missionary community photo.

Construction
The biggest news on the construction front is the completion of the Children’s Center roof. This huge, open-beam roof took nearly 5 months of steady work to complete, all during unpredictable rainy season weather. The remaining finish work, which includes doors, windows, tiling, and a loft, will be completed when funding becomes available. For now, Iain and Liz McKenzie operate a scaled down version of the Children’s Center ministry out of their home, which is right next door to us. They currently have 3 Honduran children needing care for medical or social reasons, in addition to their own son. Fortunately the new building is just up the road, so we won’t have to miss them too much when they move!

Browning Briefs
As we move into 2008, we are preparing for our return to Montana in May. When we came to Honduras in May of 2006, we planned to stay for only a year. Now, at the end of two years, we’re not sure how that time went by so quickly. We’re excited to see what the Lord has in store for us in the next chapter!

Prayer Requests
A few specific things to be praying for:
1. 2007 ended violently in our area with murders and robberies that impacted several of our Honduran friends. Please pray that forgiveness and reconciliation would replace vengeance and violence in this culture.
2. Bob Lillard, an 81-year-old missionary here at Loma de Luz, suffered a heart attack several weeks ago and has basically been in a coma ever since. Please pray for his family (his wife, daughter, and son-in-law are missionaries here as well) and for God’s provision of staff necessary to care for him.
3. Several missionary families are planning to return to the states in the coming year, so please pray for God’s provision of people to continue the work here. This includes an IT person and several doctors.
4. Health, safety, and protection for us and the other missionaries here.

In Closing
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Wherever you are in your relationship with Christ, we pray that you will be seeking Him with a whole heart.
In Him,
Josh, Linzy, Guildy, and Hadley

Grandma Linda and Aunt Cooper

Grandma Linda and Auntie Coops are here visiting for a week, and we are having a great time, especially Guildy. Nothing like a visit from Grandma to get all caught up on reading books, swimming and pretending! Below are Guildy and Grandma in the tent/car/library:o) Cooper and Guildy enjoying the mid-January weather.

Cooper was in school in India last semester, and she brought back this traditional northern Indian dress for Guildy. It is all hand sewn, including all the embroidery and tiny mirrors.EXHAUSTED after so much playing!!

3 Weeks Old!

Hadley is now 3 weeks old. She has gained a whopping 2 pounds since she was born, and she has started giving a few real smiles...the kind where she is actually awake and looking at us. Right now, the smiles are kind of few and far between, so we'll just have to settle for regular pictures:o)

We are continually amazed at her feats of baby strength. She loves to lay on her belly on a pillow and hold her head up to look around. Today during pillow time, she even managed to roll from her belly to her back. (I've also discovered that bad lighting can be remedied by changing the picture to black and white:o)

And the favorite pillow is a great spot to take a rest after all the work of looking around!

Our beautiful little girls!

The Video

Charity made a great video of the events of her first week here. Isn't technology amazing! Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/sistroll

2 Weeks Old

When Guildy was little, we took a picture of her every week and put the photos together in an album. I know how underdocumented second and subsequent children tend to be, but we're going to try hard to take weekly pictures of Hadley too. So here she is yesterday at two weeks old.

She frowns alot. Not a big fan of bright lights.

Hadley holds her head up like a champ. She and I were having a good visit last night.
And here's Guildy busily unpacking her toy box after Dad helped her pick them all up this morning. Oh well. Toys are meant to be played with!

Happy New Year!

Here are a few pictures from yesterday, as we were "ringing in the new year"....kind of.

Home Improvement

Since New Year's Eve is a holiday, there was no work at the hospital. So Josh, Samuel (Charity's brother), and Kristel (another gal from Bozeman) worked on various projects that have been needing to be done for months on our apartment. Here is Kristel slaving away painting.

Ice Cream

We've had the Yost's ice cream maker sitting at our house for a year and a half and have never used it. Since her arrival, Charity has been on a mission to produce successful ice cream, and last night, after one disastrous try and much discussion and research, everything came together. So here she is displaying two of our biggest accomplishments of 2007.....Hadley and the ice cream:o)

Cowgirl

Even though it hasn't been below 75 degrees in weeks, it's still winter for us, so here is Guildy bundled up in her warm cowgirl jammies. She was busy telling everyone how she is a cowgirl and Dad is a cowboy. Then she turned to me and said, "That's cow-mommy!"

A Scottish New Year's Eve

In Scotland on New Year's Eve, everyone gathers at their neighbors' houses at midnight for a meal. Since we weren't going to make it till midnight, we went over to Iain and Liz's (our Scottish neighbors) at about 9 and enjoyed a Scottish/Honduran meal of haggis (yep, that's made out of sheep lung, and it's great), fried plantains, and potato salad. Below is Iain in his Holiday Hot Stuff hat.

Charity and Lizzie.
Yason, Samuel, and Ana. Yason and Ana live with Iain and Liz, who run a children's home for kids and families needing short term help. Samuel is their son.

So, while our New Year's Eve didn't include confetti or champaign or even consciousness at midnight, we were with great friends eating haggis, and that's hard to beat! We are so thankful for God's blessings in the past year and are looking forward to seeing Him work in the next. Happy New Year!!!