Our new home: Honduras

So here's the scoop on our move from Costa Rica to Honduras. After saying goodbye to our friends at Language school, we packed our suitcases and boarded a plane to Tegucigalpa. Our international paperwork went smoothly when we landed, so we waited for our bags at the carrousel. Unfortunately, we were waiting in the wrong place and by the time we found our suitcases, one had already been stolen. I think God wanted to teach us from the very start to hold very lightly to "our" belongings. We were greeted by about a dozen people from our new church, Iglesia Impacto. We were warmly received by Hiroshi and Ana, members at the church. They opened their beautiful home and told us we could stay until we found a house. For the first week in Tegucigalpa, we ate lunch and dinner with a different family each day and attended nearly every meeting at the church. And all of our conversations were in Spanish. We were exhausted, but very quickly got to know new Honduran friends. The people at the church were driving us everywhere and dedicated a lot of time to get us settled. Meanwhile, we were looking for a house and a car. We visited many houses and condos, but our new Honduran friends kept asking us to look for safer neighborhoods. And then God provided above and beyond our wildest dreams. We were prepared to live in a tiny houses with surrounding concrete walls, barbed wire and electric fencing. I had been praying that God would allow the kids to have some access outdoors, maybe a little patio or open garage. What God made available to us was the last rental house in a neighborhood less than a half mile from Iglesia Impacto. Because of the tight security, kids can play in the street, and in a park 4 houses from our home. There are no bars on the windows because there are guards with guns at each block, and visitors can only enter if the homeowner provides verbal permission. Since city water only is provided two days a week, each house has a huge cistern under the house which pumps water to the house every day. And our reasonable rent includes the water bill, garbage collection, street cleaning, yard maintenance and the parks. Additionally, several families from the church live only a few blocks away. God provided as only He knows how. Once in our barren house, we began to borrow and buy furniture. A man who works for a furniture and appliance store, personally accompanied us to make purchases so that we could use his generous employee discount. And then the car. We looked for a vehicle with good gas mileage. Gas is nearly $5 a gallon here, so this was essential. Also, the bumpy streets of the city make high clearance a wise choice. After looking at many vehicles, a mechanic at the church offered to review some cars for us. And he picked out a 2004 Honda CRV for us. We are very thankful for the incredible help that we received in the first two weeks in Honduras. We are now ready to turn our attention to learning and serving in our new country.