As we wind down 2017, it's time to look back on the year. As is evident from the timing and content of my last post, it has been a tough year. If nothing else this year has helped me to understand just how much we rest in our hope of that eventual time and place where there is no pain, death, or tears. Like the scene at the end of Restoration's Journey, I look forward to the day when I kneel at the foot of the throne of God and hear those words, "Well done, my good and faithful servant."

Along those Matthew 25 lines, you all have helped make a difference this year for the "least of these." As a result of your purchases and promotion of In The Image of Man and Restoration's Journey, several more families will have access to clean drinking water for the 2018 year. This doesn't seem like a big impact until you stand face-to-face with the individuals to whom you are providing this life-giving gift. In addition to the wells that are put in, Living Water International also brings the hope that can only be found in Jesus Christ.

As I look forward to 2018, my request for you, my faithful readers and supporters would be to pray that God's good news and compassionate work could continue through our work at Hearts of Compassion Publishing. I would also personally covet your prayers for the renewed emotional and mental energy required for creatively presenting the truths of God's mercy and love in story.

'Til next year!

It's been nearly six months since my last post and it's been a rough several months at that. Many of you are well aware of the challenges our family has faced.

​Only days after my last post, my grandmother passed away. We were very close most of my life. In fact, we lived with my grandparents for the first year of my life after my mother passed away. So this was a tough one.

​Then only a few weeks after this loss, my dad had a severe stroke. We celebrated Christmas with my parents in the hospital and have spent the months since trying to support my dad and mom as best we can. Recovery has been slow, but my dad is now able to talk, eat, and even walk with the use of a walker. It is amazing that a simple little blood clot in a portion of someone's brain can wreak such chaos in these normal activities of life.

​While there is still plenty of rehab left before things get back to something resembling normal for my parents. I feel like I'm finally at the point where I have the time, and more importantly the emotional bandwidth, to resume work on my next book. With a topic like human trafficking, I find I need to be emotionally fresh, just to get through the heart-breaking research.

​If you're on Twitter, I'd encourage you to stop by my profile and check out my #WritingExcerpts posts. I try to post intriguing snippets from my most recent pages, without giving away any major plot directions.

​'Til next time! (And I promise it won't be another six months.)

As so many wait in lines and scurry to pick up their Black Friday deals, we are excited to make another donation of proceeds on behalf of you, our faithful readers, to Living Water. As a result of your book purchases, prayers, and willingness to spread the word about our books, a couple dozen more people now have clean drinking water for the coming year.

After spending a week drilling a well in Honduras, this opportunity to provide even a small measure of assistance brings me great joy. Having seen the smiles on young faces as they played football, futbol, and Frisbee, the looks of pride as teenagers helped dig dirt and mix concrete, and the expressions of gratitude from the leaders at the school where the well was located, I will likely never view this ministry quite the same. The need is real.

As I've reflected on all that I have to be thankful for, I am most thankful for organizations like Living Water that make it possible for someone like me to connect with, and make a difference in, these lives that are so vastly different from my own, and yet so strikingly the same. I pray that each of you will have an opportunity to touch and be touched by someone with such great need in the year to come.

Thank you!

You are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God's very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light. – 1 Peter 2:9 NLT

Today we travel home after an incredible experience. As I write this final Honduras blog post, I can only imagine what God has done through, and perhaps even more importantly, in me this week. As this verse from First Peter says, we are God’s chosen people, His created workmanship, and it is for this reason that I am confident I will have had the opportunity to be a light to the people of Honduras, showing others His goodness. Yet, my fear is that it will end there. That the cares and concerns of “normal” life will become the proverbial basket that Jesus warns us not to put our light under.

Pray: I have no idea what it will look like to keep the light of this experience burning. Perhaps it will be to resume writing novels that communicate God’s love and salvation, as well as selling them to raise funds for compassion-based ministries. If so, then please pray that God will provide the inspiration and energy needed to carry on. Or, perhaps God will have something totally new in store for me. Either way, please pray that I will have the discernment to hear God’s call and the courage to pursue it with abandon.

¡Deja que tu luz brille!

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. – Acts 17:22-23 NIV

Today we become tourists. After a hard week of work, we have the opportunity to relax and enjoy some downtime. And while this break is much needed, I hope to have the chance to, as Paul did in Athens, walk around and observe the culture of the La Ceiba area.
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Pray: After a physically and emotionally difficult week in the community, it is my prayer that I do not walk away the same person as I entered. Please pray that God will continue to give me eyes to see as He sees. That His love, compassion, and pain will flow through my heart for the people I have opportunity to interact with, in Honduras and beyond.

Abre nuestros ojos, Señor!

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. – Psalm 100 NIV

Today will be a day of celebration. Lord willing, the well and pump installation will be complete. This is the day I have most looked forward to on this trip. The community will gather to thank God for the well and for His provision of clean water. This will be an opportunity to praise God together with those whose lives will forever be changed by His provision. If you know me well, you won’t be surprised to hear that I suspect there will be tears in my eyes as I reflect on the way that God has used my weakness to demonstrate His strength and provision for these new friends.

Pray: There is always a possibility that our efforts to drill the well will not succeed, at least on this go around. Please pray that God will bless us with a successful drill and that we will have the opportunity to join our hearts with the members of this community in praise to God. Also pray that the impact of our actions will bring changed hearts and lives that will last a lifetime, both within the community and among our team.

¡Gracias a Dios!

He [Jesus] also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” – Luke 21:2-4 NIV

Today, if all goes well (yes that was intended), we should be finishing up the development of the water well. And while it may feel great to be able to help out this community in a much needed way, I believe it is important to remember that we give out of the abundance with which God has blessed us. However, as we have worked among these people, whom the world would call poor, they have shown us great kindness and generosity. They used what little they have to feed and bless us. I must wonder, as Jesus said of the poor widow, if they are the ones who have given more than any of us on our team.

Pray: It is important for those we serve to not feel like a project. Pray that God will use us to both meet the physical needs of the community and also to help to see the value God places on them as His creations—created in His image and loved enough to send His Son to die for them. Also, please pray for the women of the community who served us meals with such great generosity.

Amado por Dios!

Now he [Jesus] had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. – John 4:4-6 NIV

Today, like Jacob who dug that well in Sychar, we will be spending our day drilling the well in our assigned community.

I’ve always found this passage interesting. Jesus “had” to go through Samaria. Why? There was certainly another route—one most of the Jewish people always took. No, Jesus was compelled to go through Samaria. It was through the Spirit’s guidance that Jesus found Himself tired, thirsty, and in the heat of the noonday sun. Right where He needed to be to provide the gift of “living water” to this Samaritan community.

I believe that is exactly why God has me in the heat of the mid-day sun in Honduras. There is a need for physical water, like Jacob provided, and a need for spiritual water, which Jesus provides. Whether God’s purpose is that I help meet those needs here in Honduras, or to prepare me for the ministry to which He has called me beyond this trip is yet to be seen. 

Pray: In the midst of the physical labor and the challenges of the work, pray that I will see the people of this community the way Jesus saw the people in Sychar. He wasn’t so preoccupied with His mission so as not to see the needs around Him. I can get task focused. I want to be heart focused. To seize the opportunities to know and love the people God has led us to serve this week.

Con el corazón de Dios!

Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” – John 7:37-38 NIV

Today, for the first time, we head to the community where we will be drilling a well. We will have the opportunity to walk and see where the community currently gets their water. I don’t really know what to expect. It may be that they walk to another community to get water from their well, in which case, they have access to clean water. However, can you imagine walking even a mile each direction every day for clean water? And it may be that they don’t have a clean water source at all. Many communities get their water from dirty, contaminated sources. We will also begin work on the well today.

Pray: As we see the great difficulty present for the community to get water, please pray that I would also see the spiritual needs within the community. Despite any communications barriers (I basically don’t speak Spanish, which is the native language in Honduras), I pray that my actions and attitudes would communicate the love of Christ for the community. Please also pray for my and our team’s health as we begin to work in a very different climate. (As I prepare this blog post, the forecast for Monday, and basically the time we are here, is 86 and a heat index of 108. It also looks like we are likely to experience brief thunderstorms each day around 2:00pm)

Gracias por sus súplicas!

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. . . . And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” – Revelation 7:9-10 NIV

Today we will be attending a local evangelical church in the area. I am so excited for the opportunity to worship together with the local Living Water team, their families, and other followers of Jesus here in Honduras. This will be an opportunity to get just a small glimpse of what we see in Revelation 7. After church, we will eat lunch and relax for a bit, before relocating to a different hotel nearer the community in which we will be working.

Pray: This day will provide an opportunity to better get to know those I will be working with throughout the week. Please pray for a Spirit-filled unity among our team and the local Living Water team. We will be known as Christ’s servants by our love. As we love one another and those we are ministering to, His love will be made known. Also pray that God will begin to prepare the hearts of those we will interact with on His behalf this week.

¡Gloria a Dios!