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TEN years?!?!

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This month marks our anniversary of when we left the US to live in Central America for “three years.” The days turned into years and those years somehow turned into TEN YEARS. Can you believe it? When we left the US we were a family of four, serving alone and have now grown to a family of 5 and a team of 10. If you had asked the younger me if I would still be living in Honduras, I would have laughed. Of course not. I would miss my family, Dr. Pepper and convenience. God lovingly chose to tell me what he knew I could handle. I couldn’t understand the bigger picture and my Father knew that. And so he walked me through the day to day things until I could accept the larger plan He had in mind. He held me as I grieved not living close to my family and gave me friends to comfort me. He provided Dr Pepper through supermarket owners and fabulous students who tried (and may have succeeded) in bribing me. And I am pretty sure FaceTime is a miracle, created just to make family seem a little closer. While I would never have dreamed I would still be here, I couldn’t have hoped for a better place to call home. 

For you guys who agreed (ten years ago) to support us for three years, we are so very thankful for your friendship and your prayers. We would not have been able to stay here without you. We would not have made it through the hard times without your constant prayers. We would have no one to share our joys with (or read our blogs) without your friendship. Thank you. 

As I was reflecting, I looked back over some of my first blogs. I might have cried a little as I remembered just how much God has done for us. I for sure laughed a lot and thought I would share some of things that made me giggle in our first months overseas: 

A couple of weeks ago Emma was not happy about school and made plans to “buy a guitar, start a band and move back to Teague.

Last week we watched a movie in my class. When the kids complained that it was in English I explained that our school is an English speaking school and therefore our movie had to be in English. Josep, one of my newer kids, responded, “The school is not in English, only the Mrs. is.”

Emma just informed us she was going to the porch to “show off”.  We found her later sitting outside, “waiting for peoples to walk by so I can show them gymnastics tricks.”

Tyler has learned to scale the 8 foot wall separating our house and our neighbors. A useful skill I am sure!

Tyler was most excited at the end of the school day to show me a lemon tree he had found.  I however, just wanted to continue the half mile walk home. God is teaching me to slow down and smell the roses (or lemon trees in our case) and to see the little things as a gift from Him. 

I was about to buy “fresh fruit” at the ferria this week but then noticed the apple in my hand was imported from the USA.

After mispronouncing a word in English Tyler said, “Well, I guess that a start.  I have to start speaking bad English to learn Spanish.”

I was explaining to one of the kids in my class that she needed to speak English more. Her response, “Oh, since you speak bad Spanish, you need me to speak English.”

When asked by her teacher what the acronym for United States of America would be, Emma responded, “Texas.”

Back at it

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I’ve been back in Honduras for a little over a month now. Within this month we have added two new families to our team, Honduras has been hit with two severe hurricanes, and Thanksgiving looked a little different than usual. It has been a wild month for sure.

The two new families have been such a great addition to our team. I am excited to work with new people and learn from their experience in life and ministry. To learn more about them, check out their personal blogs on our website (Jimison’s & Holloway’s).

Jimison’s Holloway’s

Hurricanes Eta & Iota

Honduras was hit by hurricanes Eta and Iota within the span of 2 weeks. Major devastation took place in the large city San Pedro Sula. Gracias, where I live, was impacted by the second hurricane more than the first. Many roofs and homes were broken or destroyed. 61 Isaiah and other missions organizations within Gracias have teamed up to help the people in our area by assessing home damage and putting together construction crews to rebuild homes. These crews will be made up primarily of Hondurans so that they can be paid during this time and continue providing for their families. Other areas near us were impacted through loss of crops. We are creating food packages to send to families through Christmas to get them through these months post hurricanes. After Christmas we will reassess the need.

  • House in one of the villages
  • Road from Gracias to Santa Rosa

It has been awesome to see the different missions organizations within Gracias come together and serve. I have enjoyed meeting some of them for the first time and reconnecting with others. I hope this is the first of many joint efforts.

Thanksgiving with ALCS

Although most things have looked different this year because of COVID, such as online school, Abundant Life Christian School still provided our yearly Thanksgiving dinner. I have always looked forward to dressing up, going to the fancy hotel, and eating one of the absolute best meals of the year. However, I wasn’t sure that was going to happen this year since most of the North American teachers are still in the USA. But, ALCS came through and created a prudent atmosphere for us teachers. It means a lot to me that they choose to celebrate a foreign holiday with us every year just because it’s important to us. It truly exemplifies the meaning of walking with people, and I am very thankful to get to walk with ALCS.

What I’ve Learned in November

Overall, November has been quite eventful. But honestly, I didn’t expect anything different. Okay, maybe not back to back hurricanes… I mean it is 2020, so is it really that hard to believe? But for real, I have gotten to experience God’s protection and provision unlike ever before. I have few defenses against natural disasters or worldwide pandemics. I can prepare and try my best to prevent, but what it really comes down to is I don’t have the ability to fully control or fix these massive problems. My job is to trust the God that does have the ability. Then when things don’t go the way I think they should, my job doesn’t change. Trust still. Pray. Struggle. Trust. Struggle again. Keep praying. Keep trusting.

Adoption Awareness Month

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Today is Isabella’s 10th birthday which appropriately falls in Adoption Awareness month. I always wonder if her birth mother thinks about her on this day. Does she wonder where she is? Does she look at each little girl she passes wondering? Is she curious about how she has grown? Does she wonder if they have the same eyes?  I can not imagine the pain and despair she must have felt when she gave up her baby daughter. And yet, I am beyond grateful. I would love to be able to hug her and whisper, “our daughter is loved.” And she is so very, very loved. Our family was not complete until we had this bouncing, joyous, VERY TALKATIVE child. In all honesty, our family would be very boring without her. The following are statements straight from Bella just so you can enjoy her as well. 

  • Fog is really just sleeping clouds.
  • The Cowboys are my favorite team. They aren’t great, but they are good. 
  • I AM SOAKING COLD!
  • What in the planet?!?! 
  • I forgot to hold up my other finger to make the peace sign. (she actually held up a number one)
  • Social studies was so hard. I had to write sentences. Like teenage sentences that were long. 
  • I am going to hangronize my closet (a mix between organize and hanging)
  • I am conculating numbers. (while using a calculator)
  • I think I see the horse! Oh wait, that’s just a chicken. 
  • Do you have check-up for the french fries? ( aka ketchup)

And as I reflect over the last seven years with her, I would do it all again. I would hold this child as she screamed for her “other mother.” I would hug her as she shut down.  I would dry those tears and rejoice when they turned into a smile.  I won’t pretend it has been easy. But it is worth every bit of heartache because I have gotten to be Mommy to this sweet child. She lost everything and we gained it all. Please consider completing your family with one of the thousands of children waiting for their forever home. You may just end up getting sweet messages from your child like the one below. 

From Isabella this week

Micah & Lindsey Jimison Join the Team!

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There is no shortage of material to write on to introduce y’all to Lindsey and I for one as verbose as myself, but if you want the long version of this story you’ll have to let us brew you a good mug of coffee sometime. The quickest way to explain why we have decided to leave the God-blessed state of Texas for Honduras is that we both fell in love with Jesus early in life, and that sort of pursuit has a way of making life interesting. I can’t speak for Lindsey as well as Lindsey can speak for Lindsey, so I’ll let
her explain what God was doing pre-handsome intelligent husband.

As for my own testimony it’s one of those boring ones…then again, if you want the crazy parts we will need a few good mugs of coffee. Suffice it to say I was saved around five years of age when I accepted the altar call of my pastor father, while even then being a bit stubborn. Mom, the hero pastor and mother of five, was holding me by the soundboard in the back of our little Indiana church because I was being bad. When dad asked us to come forward something clicked in my little red head. I wanted to follow Jesus just like my dad did. Ever since, I have wanted to go into some type of full-time vocational ministry like my parents.

As a boy growing up in Indiana I wanted to be a farmer, but when we moved to the mountains of northern Arizona to pastor a new church plant I felt a different call. At twelve I read about the great reformers of the church in America and I decided the U.S. was ripe for revival. I had a plan to pursue this revival through joining the U.S. Army Special Forces, but at fifteen I felt called away from that vision of mine. All the while I still loved ranching and farming, but my spirit thirsted for revival and I would
pursue nothing else. At fifteen I felt a call to Pro-Life ministry, and I believed by awakening the church to the atrocity of abortion we could revitalize the American church and spark revival. That may still be true,
but God was using that desire to bring me to Texas. I went to Houston Baptist University in the hopes of pursuing a newly developing degree in Bioethics, but that program never got off the ground. In lieu of a
Bioethics degree I pursued a degree in Philosophy with a minor in Spanish while founding a Pro-Life club on campus. I believed I needed to know Spanish to effectively teach on Pro-Life issues in the States, not
even remembering Honduras existed at this point. My involvement with my club got me a paid internship with Texas Right to Life, and until my last semester at HBU I believed I would be working full-time there right now. But I’m not because, like I said, loving Jesus has a way of making life interesting.

The most interesting thing to date was realizing I loved Lindsey on a night when I had a date with another girl the next morning and was actively trying to set Lindsey up with one of my best friends. That night, after being unsure about the date with my buddy, she realized the same thing as me and crazy started for real. By my last semester I had worked two summers on a ranch pulling 60 plus hours a week to buy Lindsey a ring and we were engaged. But let’s let Lindsey catch up.

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15 Day Prayer Guide

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Praying for the harvest and the workers through COVID-19

Prayer is important. Prayer is powerful. It is in times like this when we must pray. We must stand in the gap for others. For this is the confidence we have in approaching God; that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us (1 John 5:14). So we encourage you, we challenge you to pray along with us for the harvest and the workers these next 15 days.

Many of you have been praying alongside us at 9:38 everyday for years. You have been consistent in praying for the harvest and asking God to provide workers. Thank you for your commitment to praying for them, for us. We have created a 15 day prayer guide to give you more specific topics to pray over in regards to what is currently happening in the world. We invite you to join us in praying over these topics at 9:38 everyday for the next 15 days.

  1. Day One: Pray for the containment of COVID-19.
  2. Day Two: Pray for the government to have wisdom in decision making.
  3. Day Three: Pray for those who are currently infected by the virus.
  4. Day Four: Pray for the workers to have wisdom on how to continue with the harvest during this time (Matthew 9:38).
  5. Day Five: Pray for peace to overcome fear.
  6. Day Six: Pray for the wisdom, protection, and energy of medical workers.
  7. Day Seven: Pray for the church to be the piercing light in the darkness (Matthew 5:14-16).
  8. Day Eight: Pray for relational restoration within the homes that people are contained in.
  9. Day Nine: Pray for those who don’t know God to knock and ask for the door to be opened (Matthew 7:7-8)
  10. Day Ten: Pray for an abundance of resources (1 Kings 17:7-16)
  11. Day Eleven: Pray for societal reformation as a result of this virus.
  12. Day Twelve: Pray for those who are away from home during this time.
  13. Day Thirteen: Pray for those who are unable to work during this time.
  14. Day Fourteen: Pray that society would use social media in a positive way.
  15. Day Fifteen: Pray for yourself to be proactive in using this time for conviction, restoration, and healing.

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