Fast review, a new garden, a new direction

Since I last wrote, Mama and I have traveled to Honduras and back, plowed and planted a large garden (with Grandpa and Norman’s help) and watched Victoria leave home to start a new life in Florida. Bear in mind, we have only been home for about two weeks. So much happened in Honduras, it is always difficult to summarize. Since Mama and I have been part of the Come Away Conference in Iglesia El Faro for four or five years, we are familiar with most of the attendees each year. Mama and I help where we can during the conference because it makes it more fun to be there when we can support the hosts. The conference is a huge blessing to Mama since it is conducted entirely in English. 

This year we added Marta and John Espinos to our growing friends list. He is native Honduran. She is a Brooklyn Hispanic. They met and married while he was in the states but when he got spiritually convicted about being illegally in the US, he turned himself in to the authorities and was deported. That was five years ago. So during the past five years, Marta will travel to Honduras for a few weeks every other month and return to the United States to continue working here. They are hoping to get John legal entry to the United Stated this year. They were a lot of fun to be around.

We had a great time with Nate, Cori and the kids. We always do. We spent a few days at the beach early in our time there. Since there were not seashells to collect where we stayed, Mama and the kids collected sticks and rocks. I had to figure out a way to get the twelve to fifteen pounds of rocks into our luggage for the return trip, but we made it. I cannot fault Mama for the extra weight in our suitcases, I bought about twenty pounds of leather we had to trim to fit into the largest suitcase. We also had to carry back forty pounds of coffee. Twenty for us and twenty for Victoria. 

Grandpa and Norman had plowed the garden while we were traveling, but renting a large tiller (one that fits on the back of the tractor) to finish working the soil before we could use our normal sized tiller to finish preparing the ground to plant. Renting the tiller seemed straight forward, but the first one they brought home was unusable. It had been broken by some previous renter. Norman and Grandpa had to take that one back to the dealer – over an hour away – and then go to a second location for that dealer to get a working tiller. Five hours in all to return the broken tiller and get home with the working one. But it eventually worker out.

Last Friday we planted six long rows of potatoes, three short rows of onions, six cabbage and six broccoli plants. We will plant more over the next few weeks and eventually fill the entire garden bit the weather is a bit unpredictable this time of year to get too far ahead of ourselves. I am more hopeful of a harvest this year because of the change in location of our garden. 

This morning at 4 am, Victoria loaded up the dogs and headed to Florida. The trip seems to have gone off without a hitch; however, the extended stay hotel where she booked her stay in Pensacola turned out to be extremely disappointing. The room required an additional daily pet charge on top of the money already fronted to a two week stay and the room was filthy. Victoria fussed to the desk clerk and finally asked for cleaning supplies to try and clean the room to an acceptable standard. She has since sent us several pictures of the dirt she cleaned out of the tub and off the bathroom floor. She told us the dogs are whining and laying with their noses at the bottom of the entry door. I guess they prefer the smell of the hallway to that of the room. 

Tomorrow Victoria is looking at an apartment she could possibly rent for a year while she looks around for a permanent home and at a potential mobile home to purchase. We will wait to see how all that works out, but she is safely in Pensacola and has a few days before she is scheduled to start working at the Walmart in Pace, where she transferred to. 

Knowing she is not coming back home is a little saddening, but Mama and I are prayerfully supporting her new direction in life. As long as the Lord is in it, all things will work together for her good and His glory. 

That is His promise to us – and to Victoria.