feb. newsletter

February 2009
“Because you have these blessings, do your best to add these things to your lives: to your faith, add goodness; and to your goodness, add knowledge; and to your knowledge, add self-control; and to your self-control, add patience; and to your patience, add service for God; and to your service for God, add kindness for your brothers and sisters in Christ; and to this kindness, add love.” 2 Peter 1:5-7
In this month we announced that our baby is a boy and his name is Josue Santiago, which is pronounced “ho-sway sahn-tee-ah-go” and means Joshua James, but we’ll call him Santiago.
Because we are expecting to go to the States, Beto did not accept work in either school this year, but he has been very busy in the ministry and painting. He has finished four paintings that he is going to sell and was hired by our doctor to paint his new office. He also is finishing up painting the logo at church and other projects. He continues to preach every Thursday at the alcoholic rehab center which is the highlight of his week. Every week men are strengthened in their walk and it is always a great time of fellowship for them all.
Laura finally finished translating into Spanish a 102 page document, which is also a great source of income and convenient as she can work from home. Now that I’m finished, anyone need anything translated?
The ladies at church gave us a baby shower. They came to our house and decorated and brought all of the refreshments. It was a real blessing.
We hired two new girls this month to keep the business going, slowly but surely. One only sells on Saturdays but she sells in bulk, and it is a ministry from us to her and her daughters as well. We also asked one friend from church to come one day to help me bake for Saturday and we ended up hiring her full time. She is wonderful and has been a huge help here at the end of my pregnancy when it is difficult for me to even pick up something off of the floor. She is very proficient in baking and goes out into the neighborhood twice a week to sell goods, and cleans very well too. We are very blessed to have her and also feel that we are able to minister to her as she is in a time of need right now.
We both were called by a missionary friend to be witnesses for her as she had to have a confrontation with a mother of some children in her neighborhood. She has known the family for about 8 years and the mother didn’t want her children in the local school but had them walking 3 hours a day to a school farther away because supposedly it was better, but because sometimes they wouldn’t make it to school, they (two boys) failed this past year. After about an hour of emotional discussion, because the situation is very complicated and the mother is very difficult, she finally agreed to let our friend pay for them to go to the closer school. That was her only option besides having the kids taken from her care and put into government care, because she does not care for them at all, nor does she work. Now the kids are faithfully going to school. We appreciate your prayers for this family and for our friend who works so hard to help this family in so many ways.
One thing we love to do and have more time for now is making house visits. We have visited people who we can minister to who we still would like to see make a decision for the Lord and some who have recently left the church. Please pray for them and for us as we seek wisdom as to how best to minister and pray for them. One friend always comments on how Beto always arrives just at the right time, and they ask, “How did you know we were having a bad day and needed a visit from you today?” That’s God!
Finally, Beto has his VISA appointment for the 23rd of March at 8am. Please be in prayer for us both and that he will be able to get a VISA that is for 10 years. We only plan to be in the States about a year but when we come back to Honduras and then want to return to the States for visits, it would be convenient to not have to go through the whole process again every time.

With love and appreciation for you all,
Beto and Laura