The Honduras Gumbo has made the move!

AHHH! I added a new follower HERE. I have moved to laurieinhonduras.blogspot.com . Over yonder, in the land of new blogdom, I have ONE follower. READ and MOVE over. Most old posts have been added too. 

Why should we bother to help the poor?

Any experiment that can benefit by one hairbreadth any single human life is a thousand times worth trying.

The City Without a Church by Henry Drummond. 

My friend,  Sylvie, is modeling a blue jean purse made out of scrap material. Two ladies are helping the women near the clinic learn to sew with sewing machines. The ladies' faces were lit with joy when I watched them model their new creations. 

Well, it's just scrap material. And it's just a few ladies. And how much a difference can this project be? Well I chose to side with Henry Drummond who wrote that nice quote above. And I saw the faces that were beaming with pride. 

The Great Reversal

But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first. Matthew 19:30

One of the things that annoys me on trash day is the sound of trash pickers. My windows are generally open in the early morning hours. At dawn, twice a week, the people who make a living by picking through curbside garbage bags are on the make. Crunching aluminum cans, popping plastic bottles, and sorting through litter, they often disturb my early morning hours.

The above passage is the conclusion of Jesus' remarks to the rich young ruler. Jesus challenged him to give up all of his wealth and give it to the poor. Of course, he did not. And Jesus made that statement in the caption. So how do I know who has greater rank in God's eyes? A well-educated and relatively prosperous American lady doing "good works" in Honduras, or a humble trash picker working in the early hours of the day in order to feed himself and his family?

People who work in church circles can easily assume that they are the special ones, God's inner circle. In reality, God is out in the marketplace, looking for people everybody else tried to ignore, welcoming them on the same terms, surprising them (and everybody else) with his generous grace. The earliest church needed to learn that lesson. Is there anywhere in today' s church that doesn't need to be reminded of it as well? Tom Wright, Matthew for Everyone.

I commented yesterday to a fellow blogger that we live in the now, and the not yet. We see outbreakings of His Kingdom rule and justice, but in reality there is still much in this world that reeks of injustice and poverty. And we need to be mindful that it's not easy to see what's important if we don't use Kingdom values as our viewpoint.

When God's kingdom comes in fullness, there will be a great reversal.

Peace, Love, and Snowballs

Wouldn't life be nice if all were peace, love, and snowballs? I love snowballs, especially with the shaved ice of New Orleans, enveloped in coconut syrup and condensed milk. I favor peace and love, too. On my last trip to New Orleans in May, this guy was sitting near the Mississippi levee. He did a rendition that wasn't so bad of Summertime, Where the Livin' is Easy. I threw a dollar in his music case. Because the living isn't easy in New Orleans.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone had a truck like this? With yellow and red rims? Advertising the best food in the world? Come to think of it, wouldn't it be nice if everyone just had a truck. Most people I work with daily never had one turn behind the wheel of a car or truck, much less own one.

Yes, indeed. Peace, Love and Snowballs. But we know it's not. There's a spill in the Gulf that's the size of Central America. And the beaches and marinas where I grew up are closed for the summer. Grande Isle, Lousiana, where I spent days on end with family, boyfriends, and whomever wanted to take the hour drive. Cocodrie, where my family launched boats for the barrier islands for some of the greatest fishing in the world.

I snatched this photo off Facebook. It's for the fan page from my hometown. Last time I visited, there was solid ground in the city. I don't know now. It's appears fairly liquid now. Where's Dupont's Department Store? Fakier's Jewelry Store? Is this coastal erosion? Levees failed again? Whatever the cause, New Orleans and the surrounding areas just ain't right. Or course, neither is the rest of this planet, is it? However, I sneaked a peek at the end of the Book. There's a rider on a white horse. The rider is called Faithful and True and he will judge with justice. His eyes are blazing fire. And... well read it for yourself in Revelations 19, 20 and 21. Because Revelation 21 tells us that God will dwell with his people, and wipe away all the tears. And even death will be gone because the old order of things is passing away, even as I write these words. Sounds good, huh?

According to another verse in the Good Book, Peace and Love last for eternity. No matter what else is destroyed peace and love are keepers, And I imagine snowballs, too.

This post has been submitted to Communal Global, featuring posts honoring "Today." However this post is about yesterday, today and forever, Forgive me, folks over at Global. I was thinking about all kinds of times today.

For great photos of New Orleans, check out billieblog. Billie made an online photo book featuring a recent trip to New Orleans.

Answers: Honduras FAQs

Seriously, folks, this quiz was a no brainer. And Zelaya's anniversary was wimpy, too, thus far. Today marks his one-year anniversary trip to Costa Rica, courtesy of the Honduran military. The weekend's marches were a dud, and hopefully today's protests will be just as feeble. I need to do some shopping near one of the old rallying points for the left, and I can't afford to be surrounded by a group of red-shirted Zelaya die-hards.

Here are the correct responses:

1. FALSE. Honduras is a Carribean island. Just a few islands belong to Honduras near the northern coast, collectively called the Bay Islands.

2. TRUE. Honduras is somewhere south of the United States. Duh!

3. FALSE. Honduras shares borders with Guatemala, Costa Rica, and El Salvador. Corrected it would read Guatemala, Nicaragua and El Salvador.

4. TRUE. The president of Honduras is Porfirio "Pepe" Lobo.

5. FALSE. The president of Honduras is Mel Zelaya. He left office last year rather abruptly.

6. TRUE. The country is mainly mountainous. Even if you don't READ my blog, but stare only at the pictures, you should know this one.

7. FALSE. The country is mainly flat, ample farmland, and densely populated. Complete falsehoods!

8. TRUE. Honduras has a low population density. The two largest cities are densely populated, but as a whole, the 7.5 million inhabitants have quite a bit of elbow room.

9. FALSE. One of the main sources of income is cocaine production. Nope, Honduras serves as a a landing and refueling center for narcotraffickers, not production.

10. TRUE. One of the main sources of income is gifts from expatriates from the United States. Remittances account for 22% of the GDP of Honduras.

11. TRUE. Typically, Hondurans eat beans and rice on a regular basis. Red beans to be precise.

12. FALSE (corrected). Typically, Hondurans eat tacos, nachos and spicy jalapenos on a regular basis. Despite American's ignorance, Honduras is not a part of Mexico.

13. FALSE. Honduras is safe for tourists who know little Spanish, wear expensive jewelry, and trust taxi drivers. Maybe this is true in Roatan, I don't know.

14. TRUE. Honduras is notoriously unsafe for tourists who know little Spanish, wear expensive jewelry, and trust taxi drivers. Sigh, some people never learn.

15. FALSE. Honduras is poor because the people are lazy. If that were true, why do they work so hard when reach the United States?

16. TRUE. Honduras is poor because of the lack of arable land, poor infrastructure, and political corruption. This country is not called a banana republic without cause.

17. FALSE. I looked up my answers on Wikipedia before answering this pool. Actually no one admitted to this except me. I took the poll, too. Ha!

18. Why would you choose a blank spot: 2 of you answered this blank spot? Hmmm.

Honduras FAQs Quiz

For your trivial pursuit, I am offering a quiz on basic facts about Honduras. Your answers will be anonymous, so resist the temptation to look up the answers on Wikipeda, and answer the questions as best you can.

Grap a cup of coffee, or head to the nearest Espresso Americano (only available in Honduras!) and answer away.

Correct answers will be posted in a few days. So take your quiz while you can. If you receive this blog as an email, you will have to click on the link to see the quiz.

Prizes? None. I am a missionary in a third world country. What did you expect? A new BMW?

This quiz is being offered for a limited time only as an anniversary tribute to the anniversay of Mel Zelaya's offing to Costa Rica last summer. Happy anniversay, Senor Zelaya!

Got MIlk?

A reader asked about "bags of milk" that I wrote about last week. In Honduras, milk is expensive, and regular folk don't have money to buy milk. Children typically drink coffee or Coca Cola as soon as they are weaned. Yes, I know. Scary. However, if you can afford it, milk is available in a number of containers. There is the carton, pictured above.

Then, there is the shelf stable milk for those who lack access to refrigerators.

There are bags like this, which is the cheapest way to buy milk. Incidentally mayonnaise, ketchup, salad dressing and even refried beans are sold in bags, too. Powdered milk is available but since the water is unsafe to drink, that's not a cheap option, since one must buy water, too.

Or you can go to the source. The choices are only limited by economics, dear readers.