Day 5: I raise my Ebenezer

Today we travelled up the mountain to Rancho Ebenezer. For those of you who don't know this, an ebenezer is a memorial to God saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12). The Ranch is so inspiring. It is a foster care network where families who take in children off the street live. They take in Honduran children and teach them love, responsibility, and about God. There is a school there that both the Honduran children and missionary kids attend. We took a tour and saw the school, the carpentry shop, and the coffee and blackberries that they grow themselves and sell. We played soccer, or futbol as it is called here, with the kids and though we didn't break the curse and win, we tied the game. It was such a fun day! The doctors saw some sick families and were able to care for them.

The Rancho Ebenezer brings to mind the song, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." In the song there is a line that goes, "Here I raise my Ebenezer," and all along this trip we have been raising our memorials to God, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us," and it is so true. God has truly been with us all throughout our time in Honduras, and he will continue to be with us as we finish this mission and go back to the States. Yesterday, the blog was about the Holy Spirit and how we know God is with us because he has given us his Spirit. Many of the team members are not feeling well right now as they are being hit with GI problems and head colds. We are truly being poured out as living sacrifices like Philippians 2:17, "But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." We rejoice that we get to be used by God and led by the Holy Spirit. God is truly doing great things. As we feel a little under the weather, we remember Psalm 73:26, "My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever." God has helped us and provided for us thus far, so here we raise our Ebenezer.

Prayer Requests:

Pray for the health of our team that everyone would be healed. Our God is the God who heals, so we know that is will happen
Pray for Saturday
Pray for brigade tomorrow and Friday that we will be led by the Spirit and be sensitive to Him
Pray for Rich and Craig that they will continue to lead us wisely and fearlessly
Pray for WGO that God will continue to provide and praise him for this organization and what God is doing in Honduras through them

Pray without ceasing. As we tell the Hondurans that come through evangelism, there is nothing God likes more than hearing from his beloved children

A sneak peak at tomorrow: We are going to brigade in an urban area of Tegucigulpa