Saturday, January 20, 2001

Happy Sabbath,

Thank you for praying for our evangelistic meeting last night. We had about 500 people present. The movie on the Life of Jesus taken from the book of Luke was so capturing that even with that many people, half of whom were children, everyone was quiet. To think that they would be able to sit on wooden slabs for 2 ½ hours and watch so intently, had to be caused by the Lord's Spirit being present. The movie was done is Spanish, so everyone there were able to understand as the gospel of Luke portrayed the birth, ministry and death of Jesus. Gasp could be clearly heard as Jesus was beaten, and eyes became wet with tears as Jesus picked up His cross and began the journey to death for us. Yes hearts were touched and turned to the Saviour last night; nothing will stay the same now. Hosea, who came from Tegucigalpa just a few days ago when we requested an expert at laying corner stone to work for us, had let us know right from the beginning that he had not wanted anything to do with church or God. Hosea was at the meeting last night. This morning at church service, Hosea showed up dressed in his finest, carrying a Bible. Hosea gave his heart to Jesus last night, and is now our brother in Christ. A place is now reserved for him at the feet of Jesus, he will be part of the ones to whom we are able to say, "farewell friend, until we meet again at the feet of Jesus", there will be no final goodbye for us.
After the meeting we handed out 167 Bibles we had brought, and then gave coupons to the rest of the adults with the promise that more Bibles were on the way.
Delores Kellerman received $300 in donations from her friends at church for the specific purpose of buying Bibles in Spanish. Part of that donation came also from Roy's youth class at church. It was a much appreciated and useful donation. Individuals or groups for a specific area of the work made several donations. The Canaan, Ct. S.D.A. church donated $500 for fruit trees to be planted at the compound. Pastor Wagner dug the whole and planted the first tree into a nursery area where they will be tended until large enough to be put safely into each yard. This too was a gift that will continue to give year after year for the well being of these people.

Our church service today was one of the most practical and inspirational I have heard. Pastor Wagner preached on "Freely you have received, freely give" He used the scriptures in there spiritual sense, such as each one of them are able and responsible to teach what they have learned about Jesus, no matter how little they might think they know, it is enough to pass on. And now that they have been helped with their physical needs, it is important to set out to purposely help someone else up and out of the poverty and devastation they have been through. The key to happiness in Christ is to share and to give.
After the service, as we expected, came the tears as we said our goodbye to a people that have become part of us. With tears, hugs, and exchanges of words that couldn't always been understood, one phrase was heard over and over, 'gracias Senor, gracias Senora". No interpreter was needed for this, as the heart is its own interpreter.
As we boarded the bus for the last time, 7-year-old Courtney Rousseau turned to me with a tear in her eye and said she was sad, when I asked her why, she told me she was leaving her best friend. A little girl she had made friends with at the meetings named Foni, had come in to the bus to give her a prized piece of gum as a going away present. As I looked out the window from my seat I watched several children almost mobbing Miles Merwin, pushing and pulling him all at the same time, they were having such a great time with him and did not want him to go. I had noticed the same relationship between Jordan Wagner and the local children the night before. Our youth have made an impact on the children here. Another little girl that was the older sister of Foni, picked up a sweet relationship with Kathleen Stairs, her name was Besie and as Kathy was about to leave they stopped her and gave her a little bag of chips as a present. These are big sacrifices from people that have so little. They will have to go without in order to give even the slightest to us.
Bob Young and several others must now know what it feels like to be a celebrity as people swarmed around to get autographs and also addresses. Bob told them if they wrote to us in Spanish we would find a way to have it translated.
We are all packed and ready to leave tomorrow at 6am for Roatan, Whatever laundry we have received back is packed and ready to go. We paid the wash lady for doing 1,158 pieces of laundry in the last 2 weeks, even though many of our clothes never made it back to us. Pat Hasche is the one who folded all our laundry after it finally dried. The 2 wash ladies had to do all our laundry by hand in their traditional way of using the scrub board and pouring water over each item. It is a very hard job, especially with jeans. Remember there are not any machines to wring out these clothes and only the strength of their hands will do the work. So after waiting a day to pay them in the hope that more of our clothes would show up, we paid them the full price anyway. The price for doing all that laundry by hand came to 1,330 limpera, which is $89 in U.S.A. currency. In the states even the machines would of charged us more than that, and you know how famous our American clothes dryers are at making socks disappear! You put 2 in and never get them both back. So…as missionaries we feel the loss of a few items of clothing will just have to be added to the gift list.

With a merry heart, I send you my love along with a smile.

Jennifer Young