This Week...

Here are a few random pictures from our week.

Last fall Josh rescued some air plants that had fallen out of their trees after a storm and wired them to our porch posts. I'm not sure how plants in the tropics discern spring from any of the seemingly identical seasons, but apparently they know because they were blooming last week.

Slip and Sliding is a timeless favorite....

Hadley loves being on her tummy!

Our friend Darwin has a pet baby squirrel.

March Newsletter

Super Tuesday
A couple weeks ago at the missionary community’s usual Thursday night fellowship, several of the missionaries were sharing things God had been doing. Josh leaned over and commented that all those things had happened on the previous Tuesday, sort of like Super Tuesday for God. So here are a few vignettes from that Super Tuesday list that might answer the question of “What’s God doing on the North Coast?”

The Alpha youth group has been drawing about 60 youth from the surrounding communities twice a week. On this particular Tuesday, 5 older teenage boys who had been casually attending Alpha sort of “on the fringe” approached one of the leaders to ask questions about salvation and relationship with Christ. After the discussion, each received Christ. About a week earlier Josh was able to lead 3 teenagers who were working for the hospital to the Lord, and a vacation Bible study in one of the neighboring communities saw 8 young men of similar age accept Christ. Honduran churches tend to be full of women and little kids, so it is an answer to prayer to see God working in the hearts of these young men.

Often times if there is a particularly pressing medical emergency at the hospital, one of the docs or nurses will “CQ” everybody in the missionary community on the ham radio system to ask for specific prayer. On Tuesday, a 3-month-old twin named Jesi was in surgery to repair a bowel obstruction. The docs weren’t sure what went wrong, but her temperature dropped dangerously low during surgery, and after the operation she refused to warm up or wake up. Finally, after several very scary hours and much prayer, she began to stir and came out of it just fine.

Although, this event didn’t happen on Super Tuesday, it is worthy of mention. About 3 weeks ago, our neighbor Goyo was using a machete to cut some tree branches away from power lines during a planned power outage. The planned outage ended sooner than planned, and he received what could easily have been a fatal shock. He came away virtually unscathed, losing only a finger and suffering some electrical burns, but most importantly, God has used the event to turn a back sliding believer into a powerful witness of God’s sovereignty. Goyo and his wife, Blanca, are pictured below. For a first hand account of this story, click on Rene Kusler's blog on the list to the right.

Construction and Teaching
The Children’s Centre, which has been the main focus of construction efforts during the past year, has finally reached the finish work stage. Tile is going down, paint is going up, and power has been run in from the road. A few weeks ago, the project had completely run out of money, but in accordance with His good timing, God provided the money, and it should be done in the next couple months.

The school year is actually starting to wind down a bit. The beauty of home school is that students can move at whatever pace best suits their needs, so several kids are nearly done with their math books, and the seniors finished physics this week. I will probably be done with all my classes early in May. Below are the chemistry kids: Hailey, Gabe, and Nate. Browning Briefs

As most of you know, we are planning to return to the Bozeman area in May. We are excited to be back but also sad to see our time here coming to an end. We are praying for the Lord's leading as we make the transition back into life and ministry there.


No newsletter is complete without pictures of the kids! Guildy is growing like a weed. She can ride a bike with training wheels, swim all by herself (with a floatie, of course), and recite most of The Cat in the Hat word for word. She responds to every statement, command, and question with "Why?" Hadley is a charming little baby and keeps us entertained with her grins and "talking." She had her first swim in the Caribbean last week and loved it!

Prayer Requests
A few specific things to be praying for:
1. Bob Lillard, an 81-year-old missionary here at Loma de Luz, suffered a heart attack several months 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.
2. Wisdom and clarity for us as we return to the states in May and seek how He would have us serve Him there.
3. Effective evangelism and discipleship through local churches and missionary outreaches.

In Closing
Thanks so much for supporting us and the work here. Please keep in touch and let us know how we can be praying for you!

In Him, Josh, Linzy, Guildy, and Hadley

Babies!

Between us and the Children's Centre next door, there are 9 kids in our building ranging in age from 5 weeks to 18 years. Here are a few picturs of our youngest residents.

The newest addition to the Children's Centre is Baby Juan. A few blogs down there are pictures of a little girl named Maria, and Juan is her new brother. Their mom is mentally handicapped and unable to care for them. In the past week that Juan has been here, he has gained 18 ounces. So the picture below is the chunked up version of the poor little guy! The teeny tiny Nemo outfit that Guildy and Hadley wore as newborns is still huge on him.

Hadley has been putting all her conscious energy into sucking her middle fingers. It takes alot of concentration to get it figured out.....

But it sure makes her happy when it all comes together!

A Whole New Level

Tonight, as we were sitting down to supper on the porch, at our oversized coffee table, on the plastic lawn chairs that we permanently borrow from the neighbors (whose dog Josh shot on Monday, the same day he broke the hospital's backhoe burrying a dead stray horse), next to our Emergency Backup Fridge, Josh commented that the tropical climate allows for a whole nother degree of Red Necked-ness unattainable in the colder norther latitudes. At least in the frigid north, you really should keep some of your junk, like emergency backup appliances, indoors during the winter.

Like any good redneck picture, the photo below also contains a dead animal. The Costco-sized peanut butter jar holds a dead snake killed by the gardener earlier today. I have been wanting Guildy to see a real snake up close so she knows what they look like. She was napping at the time of the find, so I saved it for her. I think we were able to instill a sufficient degree of snake fear in her. It reminded me of the time when I was a little older than Guildy that my Mom took my brothers and I out to the highway for an object lesson in what happens to medium sized mammals when they get hit by cars. I was profoundly impacted, as I hope Guildy will be by her snake lesson. Anyway, we thought you'd enjoy a little glimpse of our porch. Too bad our temporarily dead car couldn't make it in the picture too:o)

As a side note, the Emergency Backup Fridge on the porch really should only be there for a few more days while we are waiting to get our Real Indoor Fridge fixed. And the location on the porch is much better than the alternative, which would be smack dab in the middle of the living room.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

With Hadley's brand spanking new passport in hand, we set out for Miami last week to renew our expired visas. Because we were waiting for Hadley's passport, we had been in the country longer than 90 days. The decision whether or not and how much to fine violators of this law is entirely up to the immigration officer, but the lady we got wasn't even remotely concerned about why our visas were expired or that we had tried to get an extension. We were able to get "legaled up" with her just in the nick of time to make our plane.

Since our plane left early in the morning, we stayed overnight in La Ceiba the night before. This gave us a chance to have supper with our friends Henry, Sofia, and Henry Jr., who is 4 months old. We had fun meeing each other's respective babies.

Our travels included a layover in El Salvador. Being the super extrovert that she is, Guildy had a jolly good time charming the family sitting next to us. Although Guildy's Spanish skills are pretty limited, her interpersonal skills more than make up for it. So cross cultural interaction doesn't phase her in the least. She jabbers away in English at anyone who will listen! By the time we left, the oldest girl in the picture had given Guildy her pink hair bow, because she thought Guildy liked it:o) After riding the Tri-Rail train (the railway equivalent of Central America's chicken buses) from Miami, we got to spend several days in Palm Beach Gardens enjoying a good visit with Josh's Grandma Milli and Aunties.Aunt Terri enjoyed dancing with Guildy (above) and hostessing a tasty birthday dinner for Josh. Below are Grandma Milli, Aunt Susi, Uncle Stanley, Uncle JD, and us at Terri's house.
The weather was down right frigid a couple days we were there. It was 38 degrees one morning. Hadley had to get in bed with us to avoid hypothermia. And it was so cold the kiddos had to wear clothes the entire time we were there. In this case, matching clothes:o)

Keeping Guildy from doing too much damage in some one else's house is always a challenge. So we went swimming one morning when the weather was warm enough. We hadn't been swimming in a few weeks, and in that time Guildy had mustered up the coordination to swim around by herself hanging on to a floatie. Pretty amazing. On one of the cold days (by cold, I mean 60 above:o), we went to the mall in Palm Beach Garndens. It was pretty swanky....no Orange Julius or Claire's, more like Sak's Fifth Avenue and Tiffany's gems. Instead of the having self explanatory maps of the building at key places, they had an information desk that looked like the front desk of a fancy hotel. And most important, they had a fun fountain to keep toddlers entertained for hours.

Prior to Hadley's arrival, we had pretty well mastered the art of travelling light with one kid, but the second kid definitely adds a degree of difficulty. We got back home on Saturday, and aside from an acute, family-wide case of exhaustion, we were relatively unscathed. After a good night's sleep and a couple naps, Hadley was ready to charm us with her smiles again.