Messages from Monte

This blogging idea is a good one, but I have been quite lax in keeping it up. In the last several weeks much has gone on: Loma Larga - Loma Larga is a place just across the river from us. It is accessible by foot bridge (swinging, of course) year round. It is accessible by car during the dry season and by some vehicles year round. We can see this place from our back window. We went there to drop in on some of the locals and invite them to church. We had a couple impromptu Bible studies while there, and invited the children to our Wednesday morning movies. December U.S. Team - The December U.S. team has come and gone. There was much done that week. visit to Chuntrun (I stayed in La Palma), Campaign in San Ignacio, VBS in La Palma & San Ignacio, school graduation ceremonies, many meetings, and much last minute activities. After the visit to Chuntrun we all met in San Ignacio for a meal prepared for the U.S. team (and my family) by the ladies of Chuntrun and San Ignacio. I preache...

Rules for Holy Living When you play a game or work at a job, you have to obey the rules. If you do not obey the rules, you can be disqualified or lose the game and be fired from your job! You don’t want that to happen. So, you follow the rules. When you follow the rules in a game, you have the chance of winning. When you follow the rules at work, you earn your wages and you have the chance of getting a raise or a promotion! These are incentives to keep you following the rules. As humans though, we tend to see how far we stretch the rules or see how many we can break before we get caught. This is for almost everyone at some point in our life. God has given us rules, but he has also given us free will. What does that mean? It means, God has set for us rules for being His children and we have to DECIDE whether or not we will follow those rules. Colossians 3:1-17   1 Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right h...

The supporters of the work here in La Palma put together a shipment of items for the people of La Palma and San Ignacio. These items included things like: wheelchairs, walkers, clothes, shoes, toys, desk chairs, crutches, and much more. I encourage you to go to my Facebook photo album to read through the captions I placed on each photo. Here is a look at the pics via Picassa: Tomorrow promises to be another good day.

I've been very quiet of late on my blog. There has been much going on, but not much in the way of shareable information or headline grabbing material. I've been working on lessons for the young men's classes and also for my young man's class (Nate has had one session so far and it will be integrated into his weekly curriculum). When I was back home in the States, I was a Bible reader. That has seriously increased with my time here. I brought a stack of books with me, mostly on leadership and being a godly man. I have read parts of most of them, but I keep going back to the Bible most of all. Now more than ever it offers me peace, comfort, challenge, and assurance. It is a constant in a sea of variables - or a mountain of variables as the case may be here. So, I almost had a heart attack Saturday. Do I have your attention now? I've mentioned in other posts that I have had some marked physical changes in my appearance and health since we've arrived here. Sat...

Lyrics. Music. Songs. Melodies. Harmonies. Since I was a little boy I have loved to sing. I remember sitting on Dad's lap during worship services as a really little boy and learning to sing bass (even if I was a few octaves higher). I vividly remember Dick Cochran leading Victory In Jesus , and singing out to my lungs capacity. There are secular songs I remember from childhood ( Rhinestone Cowboy comes to mind quickly), but none of them have the impact of some of the lost hymns. On Tuesday nights my family and Teresa have "English service". I started this after realizing that all of our worship now is in a language I barely understand. At first we shared laptops and used PowerPoint to have the words and music for songs and Scripture readings. Then I began work on a song book for us to use - it is still not complete. In the mean time, Marlon brought a stack of song books from storage somewhere. These old blue books with songs glued into the covers and songs with the ...

Last night was wonderful. Hermano Jorge Rodriguez, preacher for the Church of Christ in Ocotepeque, Honduras, came to pick us up in his van to take us to attend worship with the family in Ocotepeque. He picked up the Lalli family and Teresa. We went to his house first, to pick up his family, then we all went to the new building to finish getting ready for the first service in the nearly completed building. We arrived there at 5 something while services start at 7:00. We made final preparations while listening to the Spanish equivalent to the vocal group Acapella - as did the neighborhood. Nathan had an "interesting" (translated: near death) experience, that nearly gave his mother a heart attack. He and I were admiring the newly welded bars in one of the windows. I reached out to see if they had anchored it yet, as last we were here they had not. It still was not. Realize, I am a "big 'ol boy" and have further developed muscularly since I have spent time...

I was planning to use the following devotional thought for my next blog post. I will go ahead and use it, though now it holds two meanings. My dad used it as his bulletin article this week. I was touched because of the man who told this story. He was a retired music teacher and rancher of many years. He and his wife were instrumental in my great love for music and especially singing. He was an amazing man who was still running his own cattle into his eighties - albeit on a four-wheeler instead of a horse. Dick was 95 years old. In Loving Memory Of Richard (Dick) T. Steele September 11, 1915 - October 2, 2010 "Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints."    Following the Goat Thoughts by Dick Steele When I was 8 years old I lived in Coffeyville, KS. My grandfather lived in Collinsville, OK and was in the cattle business. There were no local markets for selling livestock in those days. This was before there were trucks to haul livestock....

I really have not had much to say over the last week, but here is a quick update. I was sick most of last week. I woke up around 2:00 AM Tuesday with stomach cramping. I eventually slept a little while longer, but was pretty much up the rest of the night. I got up and made breakfast. Unfortunately, I also ate breakfast which killed my stomach. I ate about a half-cup of soup that night which I very quickly regretted. I didn't eat again until late Thursday night. I am fine now, but wow was that a miserable state of being. The week had some excitement, though, mostly good. Jose had a birthday Tuesday. Central America had a party Wednesday. Nate turned ten on Thursday. Then there was the one thing that put a real damper on the week. Janeksa, a teacher here at the Christian school, lost her husband (31 years old) to a Semi VS Motorcycle wreck. I won't share the details because it is not relevant, but I will say they handle these situations quite differently than we of the U.S....

The last week has again been full of excitement. The week started with some negative excitement, but ended really well. We found out Tuesday that the country of El Salvador was under siege by gangs, sort of. A public bus was stopped somewhere on its route by a gang. All the people on it were forced off, and then they torched the bus. This was actually much better than in June when the same situation arose, but they made the occupants stay on the bus - killing 16. The recent attack came with warnings: if the buses continue to run, more buses would be burned with the people still on or drivers would be shot. This was in retaliation for a bill recently passed by the government (not yet signed by the president) making it illegal (punishable by up to 13 years in prison) to belong to a gang. For some reason the gangs did not like that too much. So we were scrambling about the transportation situation of bringing the U.S. team from San Sal to La Palma. Luckily, the government here has a fed...

Wow, what a week it was. I'll pick up where last I left off. The Wednesday night family meeting did not disappoint. We had 52 people in our house. We crammed as many chairs as we could fit into the large room at the end of the house and were able to seat 44 people there. The remaining 8 were either in seats just inside from that room or standing just outside. The singing sounded terrific with that many exuberant voices in a crowded, concrete-walled room. Harmony doesn't really exist much, but the heart and spirit more than make up for that. We served the cookies and coffee which were both a hit. I believe it was the first time many of them had ever tried no-bake cookies. The night was chilly by their standards so the coffee was also very welcome. By the time everyone had gone we were worn out, but it was all very worth it. I hope it went a long way towards resolving some of the curiosity of "la casa del Americanos." Saturday was also a full day. The ...

A lot has happened since last I blogged about the happenings here in La Palma. I mentioned in a post last week that I had been asked to speak in one of the local schools. It is quite a different feeling to basically give a Bible lesson on parenting at a public school function. I guess coming from Webb City I am more used to biblical foundations in the public schools than some, but it is still a strange concept to go into a school and give a lesson on what God wants from parents. I gave my only credentials for being qualified to teach on the subject to start, "Hi. I'm Monte. I've been married for eighteen years and have a teenage daughter and a son who is almost ten. I am a parent, but not a perfect one. What I am going to talk you about is some of the same things I'm still trying to get right." It was met with a very good reception. Two teachers who also were to speak and the school director during her speech all referred back to what I had said. The director ...

In my last post, I told you that I had something exciting to talk about. Well, I do. We are a little more than 5 years into the work here in La Palma. I'd like to say I was part of it from the start, but I was not. The children in the Sponsoship and Scholarship programs have started graduating from high school. I believe there was one last year and there will be two this next year. This is truly exciting in an environment where as soon as you are old enough to do some kind of money earning work, you are encouraged by your family to help with the family income. We have children in the program that display a dip in their grades, and we find they are putting off study for work as early as third grade. This is a problem, for sure, but these programs are truly having an amazing impact on the lives of many children. These programs would not be possible if not for the generosity of many of you! Now we are discovering a new and exciting opportunity to help these children. Of the two gr...