Put Up The Sails

One of my favorite faith stories is about a missionary named Hudson Taylor. On a trip from England to China, back in the 1800’s, the wind stopped blowing for three days and the ocean’s current was taking his boat closer and closer to an island inhabited by cannibals. As the boat approached the beach, the captain, knowing that Hudson was a missionary, went to Hudson’s cabin and asked him to pray for wind. Hudson agreed to pray, but only if the captain would put the sails up first.

The captain not wanting to be embarrassed or to make his men work needlessly, wanted to wait till the wind started blowing. Hudson wouldn’t back down. The captain, with no other choice, ordered the sails up and Hudson began to ask God for help. It wasn’t too long after Hudson began praying that the captain returned asking Hudson to stop praying. The wind had been blowing so hard, the sails were actually beginning to rip.

Many times in life, Hope and I have found ourselves in a position where we have no idea what to do except pray. It’s so hard sometimes to keep still in those moments because the tendency is to want to rush to do something. It’s almost like you believe that prayer isn’t really enough, or like you kind of believe that God is listening to you but just in case, lets do this…whatever that this is. We are learning that if you wait for God to move, he will always give you clarity and wisdom in order for you to be able to know how to put up the sails. Always. Sometimes that clarity and wisdom comes instantly; other times it comes after some time…sometimes after a long time.

But it always comes.

For a while now, my Mom has very graciously allowed us to live in her very nice, spacious house. We did this with the purpose of getting out of debt. However, after lost jobs and many months of trying to keep our heads above water, what was only going to last for about six months has turned into more than a year and a half. Thankfully, God has given us stability and we have been able to make significant advances in getting out of debt. As a result of our moving here, all of our couches, chairs, dishes, etc. have been sitting in storage.

On Saturday, September 19th, we will be putting up the sails.

We will be having a garage sale and everything must go. Everything. We will be selling our couches, our chairs, our table, and what ever else we thought we would need to stay here.

We don’t need them anymore. God is moving us to Honduras.

We are learning that faith is not only about knowing how to pray and be still. Faith is also about knowing how to act on what God tells you to do, even if what he asks you to do goes completely against all reason.

If you’re going to be in Tulsa on September 19th, email us at the address to the right of this post and we’ll give you directions to the sale.

Raise the sails!

A Different Kind Of Support Letter

What have we learned in the last two and a half years about how God provides?

When we left Mexico and didn’t know where we should go, God showed us that we needed to go to Tulsa. Remember? We put names of cities in a hat, said a prayer and drew one out believing that by doing so, God would tell us where we needed to be. God knew where we needed to be. We trusted him to tell us and he did.

When I lost my job translating books into Spanish, God showed us where I should work. Knowing full well that I would not have a job or a paycheck in less than two months, I purposely didn’t job hunt. I believed that God wanted me to wait. I believed that he would lead me to the job he wanted me to have. Through prayer and a fortune cookie, without lifting a finger, God did just that. I’ve been interpreting at the OU Pediatric Clinic ever since.

It isn’t by chance that we were led to read books about God’s faithfulness. Books like The Treasure Principle and the biography of George Mueller have inspired and challenged us to stop living “normally” — as though it was all up to us to meet our own needs.

So now I sit here preparing to write a support letter and something just doesn’t feel right. It’s almost like I am slipping back into “normal” again…like I’m ignoring the lessons of the past two and a half years. So the question now is, with all that we have learned, is it wise to just go back to doing things the way they have always been done? Should we write a support letter and send out packets of information to hundreds of people and then just see how things work out? Or is it possible that we can choose to recognize our powerlessness in this situation and choose to believe that if God wants us to move to Tegucigalpa, he will lead supporters to us? Could it be that God is calling us to trust him again to do something that seems so backwards: Do absolutely nothing?

The thing is, we’ve done things the other way before. We’ve taken the well-traveled support raising route and and though God certainly worked through it, I believe that there is a better way.

I believe the better way is to do absolutely nothing — to let God work it out.

I believe that God already has supporters lined up for us. I believe that he knows exactly who they are and I believe that he will lead us right to them.

The past two and a half years of my life tell me that.

Moving to Tegucigalpa is not our plan, it is God’s. It is not up to us to come up with what we need, it is up to God. While we certainly have a part to do, coming up with our support is not it.

So I suppose you could call this our support letter. We are in need of almost $4,000 in monthly support and even more in one-time costs in order to have what we need to make the move.

God will provide.

Good Call

Perspective

The following is a rather lengthy but worthwhile read. It was written by a man named Mitch, who lives in Roatan (a Honduran island) and was forwarded to me via email from a friend whose church is connected with some missionaries who live in Honduras (this email actually originated with those missionaries). With everything that has come out in the press regarding all that has happened in Honduras over the past week, I thought it would be worth it to pass on something based on truth, rather than bogus reports and empty rhetoric from US journalists and politicians who probably couldn’t find Honduras on a map if they tried.

Pass it on.

______________________________

I don’t profess to be an expert at Honduran politics or constitution, but I have been here a while and stay pretty involved with what’s going on in Honduras and especially Roatan. For those that don’t know me, I’m an American investor that has lived in Honduras full time since 2002. I’m very active on several commissions and have met with minister level executives of the Honduran government many times in the past few years.

There have been a lot of comments, descriptions, and hypothesis over the past few days. I’ve spent a LOT of time reading Spanish and English reports, talking to a lot of people on the islands and on the mainland, and listening to the local politicians. I’d like to present my take on what’s happened. This is especially for Nick who’s been posting on the Roatan Tourist discussion group, but hopefully it will help clarify some points for others as well.

Mel Zelaya was elected 3 years ago with an underwhelming 49% of the vote. He was seen as a fairly conservative member of the liberal party. The general feeling when he was elected was that he wasn’t the greatest pick, but his background as a wealthy logger and rancher coupled with his more liberal social policies would probably be OK.

Almost from day 1, Mel started shifting Honduras policies to the left.

• Remember when he tried to nationalize the oil industry forcing all fuel distributors to buy from 1 company so that Mel could control the price? The US rightfully reminded Mel that the US oil companies had a lot invested here and the confiscating of those assets would not be a good thing. Mel changed his mind a couple of days later.

• Mel gave away the fishing rights to an area that Honduras has been fishing for decades if not a hundred years. He gave those rights to Nicaragua for nothing or at least nothing that was ever publicly reported. Mel forgot to mention this transaction to anyone in the country, let alone the fisherman. Guess how the fishermen found out? The Nicaraguan Navy confiscated several boats over a period of a few weeks. The crews on these boats were detained from a few days to a few weeks. Some of the boats were eventually returned to the rightful owners after paying fines. Some of the boats even had the electronics and gear still on board when they were returned to the owners. The Honduran government did absolutely nothing to repatriate these boats.

• Mel wanted Honduras to join ALBA, a collection of countries that was formed by Cuba and Venezuela to counteract NAFTA/CAFTA from the US. When this was announced, there was a lot of concern especially from the business community. I was in a meeting with the local congressman less than a week before it was ratified. The message being sent was that this was just a way to get cheap oil from Venezuela. The congress wouldn’t consider ratifying this treaty for 6 or 8 months and by then Mel would have the oil that he was after. Again, less than a week later Mel got the treaty ratified by the congress.

• Not too long ago, the minimum wage was raised from L. 3,500 per month to L. 5,500. That’s about a 60% increase. I’m not saying that the minimum wage didn’t need to be raised, but this huge increase was 3 times more than the labor unions were requesting (20%) and 6 times more than the business organizations had offered (10%). These increases caused tremendous layoffs on the mainland. Many maquillas (garment factories) began to move to Nicaragua because the cost of business in Honduras had gotten too high. This was another huge drop in jobs. I’ve not seen the actual number of jobs lost because of the 60% increase in minimum wage, but it was staggering.

• The Honduran constitution says that each year the President presents the annual budget to congress for approval. If the approval is not obtained by a specific date (I think its the end of January, but am not 100% sure) the budget from last year will be used until the new budget is approved by congress. Mel never submitted a budget for 2009, hence the Congress cant approve it so Honduras is operating in 2009 on 2008’s budget.

Now, why would a President not submit a budget? Who knows for sure but one of the possibilities is that 2009 is an election year. Mel would like to stay in power past 2009. The budget in 2008 didn’t include an election, so in essence there is NO money available for the 2009 election because we’re operating on 2008’s budget. There are other theories about hiding graft and corruption, but I would assume that anyone that becomes President in Honduras wouldn’t be concerned about hiding corruption and theft in the budget. He certainly didn’t mind doing it the previous 3 years!

• Somewhere along the way, Mel decided to take a lesson from his mentor (Chavez) and arrange it so that he could remain in power for as long as he wanted. There was a little problem with this: The Honduran Constitution, enacted in 1982, has 378 articles. 6 of these articles are cast in stone, meaning that they can NOT be changed. These 6 articles deal with defining the type of government, territory claims, and presidential term limits. They are the basis of the Honduran democracy.

One other tidbit from the constitution: Article 42, Section 5 says that anyone who is found to incite, promote, or aid in the continuation or re-election of the President would face loss of citizenship. Remember this one later on in this saga.

Mel didn’t think that the congress would go along with his ideas of staying in power so he decided he’d call his own referendum. He doesn’t have the authority to do that (remember that constitutional changes can only be done by the legislature AND the term limits are one of the articles cast in stone) but he goes ahead and calls one anyway. The Honduran Supreme Court says, “Sorry Mel, you cant do a referendum. That’s not within your power as president.”

Mel, or more probably one of his advisers, figures out that if a referendum cant be done, we could probably do a survey or a poll instead! Great idea! Nobody will figure out that the poll that were now going to do is exactly the same thing as we were going to do with the referendum.

Damn those people on the Supreme Court! They figured out the ruse! They ruled unanimously that regardless of what you call it, if it acts like a referendum the president can’t do it. If it looks like a duck, and walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck . . . .

Mel continues to talk of doing the poll on June 28 regardless of the Supreme Court. The Congress looks at the poll that Mel wants to do and gives an opinion that the poll would be illegal and they will not support it. (Remember that Mel’s own political party is in control of the congress.)

The Attorney General also analyzes the poll and determines that it is illegal. Over the course of the weeks leading to June 28, the AG reiterates many times that the poll is illegal and anyone participating in the poll would be committing a crime and could be arrested.

Mel runs into another logistical snafu. He needs some ballots printed. The entire political structure of Honduras (except him) has ruled that the poll is illegal. Its a pretty sure bet that he can’t get the government to print the ballots for an illegal referendum so he asks his buddy Hugo Chavez to print the ballots. Of course Hugo says, “No Problem Comrade!”

The rhetoric in the 2 weeks before the poll gets tense. Every legal opinion in Honduras says that the poll is illegal. The Supreme Court reaffirms its ruling that the poll is illegal. The Attorney General keeps saying that the poll is illegal and that anyone participating is committing a crime. Mel’s own political party says that the poll is illegal. There literally is not one legitimate group in the country that is siding with Mel about the poll.

Traditionally the military handles the distribution of the ballots and voting materials. The head of the military, Romeo Vasquez Velasquez says that the military will not participate in the poll because the Supreme Court is the entity that determines what is legal and what is illegal in Honduras.

The Supreme Court has determined that the poll is illegal, so the military will not participate.

Mel Zelaya promptly fired Romeo Vasquez.

The other heads of military (Navy and Air Force) as well as the Minister of Defense resigned in support of Vasquez. The next day the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Vasquez was fired without reason and demanded his reinstatement. Zelaya refused. The ballots arrive in Honduras (from Venezuela on a Venezuelan flagged plane). The Attorney General demands that the ballots be confiscated and held at a military installation.

Mel decides that if the military wont distribute the ballots, he’ll get his own people to distribute them. Mel gets a couple of buses and a few cars full of supporters. They drive to the Air Force installation that was holding the ballots. They forcibly entered the installation and took the ballots. Not only was this breaking and entering it was a complete betrayal of a lawful order of the Attorney General.

The Attorney General says that the President has committed treason and asks for him to be removed from office. The congress created a commission to examine Zelaya’s actions and determine if removal from office is appropriate.

A side note here about removal from office. I’m in no way a Honduran constitutional expert, but from what I understand, there’s not a clear means to impeach a sitting president. In a lot of constitutions, the impeachment of a president would be done by the legislative branch. In Honduras, there’s no such structure. There could be criminal charges brought against the president and the trial would be handled by the judicial branch, not much different than anyone else accused of a crime. I’ve not heard of any provision to temporarily remove a president from office until the criminal charges were adjudicated. What would you do? Let a man accused of treason remain as the sitting president until the trial was completed? That would be insane, but that may be the only choice.

On Saturday, June 27, Mel got most, if not all, of the ballots distributed around the country. The polls were set to open at 7am on Sunday.

The Supreme Court voted to remove Zelaya. The Congress decided to remove Zelaya. The Attorney General stated many times that Zelaya was committing illegal acts and in fact committing treason. The military determined that the poll was illegal and that their responsibility was to uphold the constitution as opposed to supporting the president.

Early Sunday morning, about 6am, the military went to the president’s house and removed him from the building. He was put on a plane to Costa Rica. This was done to enforce the ruling from the Supreme Court.

This is where Article 42 of the constitution comes into play. The way that I read that article, Zelaya should have lost his Honduran citizenship at this point.

Once Mel had been removed, the President of the Congress (Roberto Micheletti) was sworn in as the new President of Honduras. This was exactly the person that is indicated by the constitution. It was a proper and legal succession of the presidency. The first thing that Micheletti did was confirm that the regularly scheduled elections would be held in November.

His post is temporary until the new President is duly elected.

It has been said all over the press that Mel was arrested in his pajamas. I personally don’t believe that. In an hour he would have been at some polling place to vote and also to motivate those that showed up. This was the biggest day of his life. Id be amazed if he slept at all I know I wouldn’t be able to. There was one report that Mel was actually in suit pants and a crisply ironed white shirt when he was arrested and he asked to change into other clothes. Quite frankly, I see this as more likely.

I believe that this is an accurate depiction of the events that led to Zelaya’s expulsion on Sunday. If I’m wrong on a any points, I don’t think I’m off by much. The salient points are certainly accurate. I personally think that it would have been better to arrest Zelaya and hold him somewhere in the country. He was removed from Honduras in the interest of public safety. The feeling at the time was that if he was held within Honduras, his supporters would take violent actions to release him from captivity. It would be a difficult decision and I’m sure the powers that be did what they thought was best.

I have been disgusted at the world reaction to these events. It’s like they only looked at what happened on Sunday morning and ignored what events led to that day. I don’t understand how the removal of Zelaya was anything less than a small country demanding that their country remain democratic. Their constitutional process worked exactly right to remove a rogue president with an agenda that was detrimental to the Honduran constitution and society.

While the actions of June 28 would fit some definitions of a coup, it was certainly a legal and CONSTITUTIONAL coup. There have been several articles written that state that it was a MANDATORY coup. That’s a very difficult concept for most people from the first world to understand, but there are some coups that are good and even required.

I’ve read so much over the past few days that I cant remember where I read this, but the author was talking about the events in Honduras. He concluded by stating quite simply that if you find yourself aligned with Castro, Chavez, and Ortega you should REALLY look at where you’re standing.

I think that the Hondurans should be honored for what occurred. I know that I’ve never been prouder of a group of people than I’ve been of Hondurans the past several days. Instead of being isolated from the world and denounced as being anti-democratic they should be lifted on the shoulders of all free men around the world. I’m sure that there are plenty of people in Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea that would LOVE to hear the story of what a small country can do to ensure democracy lives in their society for their children to enjoy. That is if the people in those countries ever hear of the great accomplishments of a small third world country with ideals and principals larger than the democratic showcase of the first world.

Mitch
Paradise Computers, S.A.
Roatan’s #1 Technology Provider Since 1997

We’re Still Moving

So exactly one week after we got home from Honduras there was a coup. Go figure!

We knew of the political tension in the country before we went on our trip and the coup (which apparently was technically not a coup) did not come as a complete surprise. Needless to say, I have been following the news out of Honduras with much more intensity than I have the current Free-Agent signing period in the NBA (which is a BIG deal…and the Thunder should sign Marcin Gortat!).

We have been asked multiple times how the current events in Honduras will effect our plans to move to Tegucigalpa. Coup or not, we are pressing on with our plans to move. It is impossible for us to know what is going to happen in the next six months politically or otherwise. What we do know is that we believe that God has called us to move to Tegucigalpa and we must continue in that direction. At this point, the only thing that would keep us from pressing on with these plans would be an all-out war.

We are praying for a quick and safe end to the situation in Honduras and are excited to see how God will show himself in the midst of the chaos.

God is really good at that stuff.

Details are coming very soon.

Leaving On A Jet Plane…

We have 2 days, 14 hours, 26 minutes and 32 seconds until we leave for Tegucigalpa.

Not that I’m counting or anything (and yes, that is accurate as of the time of my writing!).

I am writing to pass along the website we will be blogging on for our trip. Click here to enter! Check often, as different people from our group will be writing reflections after each day’s events unfold. We will also be posting pictures and other things as well. Please leave comments! Your words of encouragement mean a lot to us and keep us going.

Only 2 days, 14 hours, 14 minutes and 9 seconds to go…

Overhaul…

It is amazing how quickly time is flying! We have spent the better part of six months getting ready for our trip to Honduras this summer; we will be leaving on that trip in just two and a half weeks. All of our efforts this far have been focused on getting everything up and running for our summer trip and once we get back, our focus will shift full-time to our move to Tegucigalpa in January.

As a result, there are going to be some changes. The most immediate change is that I will stop blogging at this site. As a matter of fact, I have been writing at other places — sort of shopping around, as it were, for another place to blog — and I have found my landing spot. You can find my new blog here. You might remember a couple of weeks ago that I left a link to a post at that site. It was my test run to see how I thought it would work out. I really like the new place and how simple it is to post there. It’s nothing flashy and it won’t be; just a place for me to muse (I have a rapidly-filling notepad of thoughts that need fleshing out and I actually think I’ve found the time to do it!). I might only get to write once a week, or perhaps twice a week, but I will write.

As for this site, it will be exclusively used for our efforts to move to Honduras. You can get all of our news and a list of our needs here, among many, many other things. The site will be frequently updated as this will become the “Headquarters” for our communication about the move. I will put a link to my new blog site with all of the other links at the right.

As always, please pass our site on to others whether they be individuals or groups of people; word of mouth is very valuable to us and the more people who know about us, the better. We want to be as connected as we can be. Any questions can be sent to us at our email address (hondurascalls@gmail.com) and any comments can be left directly on any blog post here.

Pulling Off The Scab…

I was doing some writing on my laptop today and saved my files in the wrong folder.

They were supposed to end up in the folder I keep all of my writings in. Instead, they ended up in the Windows generic death-pit known as “My Documents”. I don’t know about you but I have a lot of files in my “My Documents” folder. It’s pretty much my catch-all for things I don’t know what to do with but don’t think I should throw away. Most of it is from our time in Mexico; things like our old newsletters, documents that we needed for our visas, scanned receipts, and other things.

As I was searching for what I had written, I came across some old letters that I had saved. To be honest, I’m not sure why I still have them…I had forgotten that they even existed. It would have been just fine with me if I hadn’t found them ever again.

A lot happened during our last year in Mexico. Not much of it was pleasant. Things didn’t end well there. We came home hurt and angry, among other things. And as I sat and read through those old letters, all of those old feelings came back in a flood.

Embarrassment.

Anger.

Shame.

Inadequacy.

Rejection.

And in the space of about twenty minutes, I found myself seriously doubting us. There was a flood of questions. When we came home from Mexico, we were unsure as to whether we would ever feel called to mission work again. Now that we feel called to Honduras, I began questioning if we are sure we should go. Would people want to support us again? Why would they want to? What if we get to Honduras and then have to come right back home again? Did we learn what we needed to learn through everything that happened in Mexico? What if we haven’t and we end up hurting someone else?

It’s hard. I try not to dwell on things like this for longer than I need to. Certainly it’s important not to forget your past, especially the hard stuff. And in the end, we are still called. Which means that if we are called, God will supply what we need to complete his calling.

Where we are inadequate, he will be more than adequate. Where I have anger, God is giving me peace, understanding, forgiveness and mercy. Where we have embarrassment and shame, God will cover us with love. Where we have been rejected, God has given us acceptance.

Going to Honduras has never been nor will it ever be about us, our abilities or our past. It has always been and will always be about God, his abilities and his pleasure.

Yeah, What He Said…

Just wanted to pass some things on. Good stuff.

Click here, here and here.

What I’m Reading…

So my wife and I are reading “Pagan Christianity” by Frank Viola and George Barna. It has been a very, very interesting read, to say the least.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it but you should know that you will be extremely challenged. If you have read the book, I am dying to know what you think.

I think lunch with Mr. Viola would be a great way to spend a couple of hours. So, Mr. Viola, in the event that you are ever in Tulsa, lunch is on me. Seriously. I have lots of questions!