Well this has been an exciting month here in Costa Rica, some good and bad things have happened since the last time I posted. Start off with some positive vibes haha, couple of weeks ago I got to be part of something really cool, the reason I have a place to stay in the house I am is because the oldest son moved to Germany to marry and be with his new wife. Well getting a ride from the airport to our neighborhood by taxi is about $35-$45 depending on traffic and the process on the bus with bags is literally impossible, so I told the lady that I live with that I would ask my friends if they didn't mind allowing me to use there car and just put gas in it. Well they are super kind people with hearts as big as a house and Courtney was like well lets just all go, there is a place that has this lemonade near the airport that I love. So I had the flight time and company name, so I thought we got to the airport and I start getting messages from the mom asking if his plane had landed and such and I was looking at the flight board and the flight I was told he was on was no where on the board, well there was one but it was like at one in the morning not 7:30pm haha. So about thirty min later she messaged me again and was like oh no I'm so sorry he was on another airline, she had read his message wrong then she sent me a photo. So I am walking around the exit of the airport looking at my phone looking for this dude. All's well that ends well we found him went on to get that lemonade and sat and practiced our Spanish on him. The funny thing was he had been only hearing speaking German and a little English since November. So he was like so weird to see gringos, but hear them speaking Spanish, Not real sure what that says about our progress in Spanish. The best part of the whole adventure was to see his moms reaction when he walked threw the door, its one of the best parts about returning home from being gone I believe my moms reaction will be similar in December when I return. Pedro and I had some great conversations during his time here, I did not get to tell him goodbye because I had a very early departure for Honduras, but hey who knows maybe I'll go to Germany to greet him at an airport haha. Speaking of Honduras that is what I have spent the majority of my month doing. I was there for 10 days and was on the move from the second that I landed. I was greeted at the airport by the director of the mission Sam and after grabbing a quick bite to eat we were off to buy crayons, scissors, glue sticks, dry erase makers and erasers, and other classroom materials that the team that was there wanted to bless the teacher with, she literally had nothing. I worked with this team last year while I was there and it was cool to see some of them that had returned and to meet the new people that they had brought down with them. There approach is so cool and I really believe that it is effective and really beginning to produce fruit and there model is a model that a lot of our teams are starting to adopt. This group has been focused on two small villages for 7 years now, when they first begin to go they said there was such a dark presence in the village. like literally the first year they day after they had there first ministry day in the village that night the people converted the little school into a dance party/brothel upon arriving the next day to work at the school they were taken back at what they found, and being Honduras that can sometimes be difficult. They only fueled their passion that much more and stuck in there. Every year they bring a women's, men's, children, construction, medical, dental, and veterinary team. They have also adopted one of our pastors and his family to minister to these two villages. through there persistent work there are now two home churches that meet regularly. This is the team that I really saw the need to find away to reach the men other than just inviting them to church.
They where also the team that I did some of my first construction with on the ground last year.The next day I was able to get my hands dirty and do a little building. We where replacing a roof that was just destroyed by termites from where the "teja" terracotta shingles had been broken and allowed rain to runs down the rafters causing them to rot and termites just destroyed it. It was good to see I had not forgotten everything I knew about building, though doing the roof system with a house that turned out to be about 7 inches out of square and from what I could tell the walls where about a foot out of level. Regardless the end result was a house that the rain no longer poured into. Funny how in the states we have gotten so far away from practical this was a 20x12 house where five people lived and from what I could tell where very thankful for what they had, I do not think it would hurt us to bad to adopt a mind set like that. Before this team left the country I was already working logistics for the team that was coming. I was in the country to renew my visa, but choose to do a longer trip because this team was breaking ground on the new property. Some of the local men lead by one of my good Honduran friends Ruben had already dug the footers for the foundation to the "bodega" storage building. We are building it first so that we can begin the process of moving our stuff once we have a secure building on the property. They do things a hair different when it comes to footers in Honduras mostly cause there is an abundance of rock and the labor is very cheap. The first time I did footers this way I honestly was like this is stupid, there is such a easier way to do this. After living there and working there I am really beginning to adopt a very different heart which I encourage our team members to have as well and that is, it is not wrong it is just different and if you just give it a chance and not judge it you will see that you end up with the same result. A solid base to build on top of, but basically you lay a inch of mortar and begin to set the largest rocks you can find in the trench and after filling small gaps with smaller stones trying to keep a level work, then fill the remaining cavities with mortar then do the process all over again till you have filled the footer, like I said the end result is a solid base to build off of.
What a great week with the folks from Cypress Baptist church also my second time working with some of these folks. The cool thing is this team has some young guys on it, not to common to find young men with a heart for God, and the things of God. I believe this to be one of the factors to be almost a cancer to the body of Christ, I think that as believers we are missing a huge part of our responsibility. Just like in Titus chapter 2 giving instruction of mature men and women walking with and teaching young men and women, I believe this to be a huge part missing from the body. For example growing up I had a lot of friends who's families went to church every Sunday, but there was no example of Christ the other 6 days a week and today the majority of them do not attend Church because of the false and almost fake example laid before them as children. I faired rather well with my Spanish as well, which was a huge blessing I was able to talk to people that last year was like the awkward three or four word conversations. Also I was able to do basic translating between the team and the locals. I will say there where times when I had no clue what was being said "campo Spanish" country Spanish is very difficult to understand, very little phonetics and education in general basically what ever the parents or grandparents equipped them with is what they have. So you find words that really are just slang made up words for tools and other things, I will only learn this from being with them on a daily basis. As I said to start this month has been exciting good and bad, well the bad is I witnessed a woman being strong armed robbed, I wanted to do something but here is the sad part traffic was so heavy I could not cross the four lane with a center divider to help her. Traffic was so heavy and no one stopped to help her or anything, they beat her up pretty good and stole her purse, although she walked away from it loosing all the cash she had, they got her phone, and she will have to deal with the card canceling and disputing charges process. In reality it will take her a year to recover financially from such an attack. Then just last weekend as a group of us where walking back to our side of the neighborhood we see this man get hit by a car, but one of the locals was like wait don't rush to help, then sure enough his buddy came out of the bushes and helped him to there house like 30 yards away. Turns out its common way to rob people at night, they get the car to stop then a guy comes from out of the bushes with a gun and robs them. Guess the driver that hit him has had this done to him before, and he hit the guy going like 10-15 miles an hour it was only after slowing down and trying to dodge the guy which was very drunk or had been on some serious drugs all day. That's life here though these things happen on a daily basis very common a new intensive student was robbed at gun point just two days ago by three men in a local park. Danger of living the I believe it is all the more reason that we should be here and other places trying to spread light into a dark world. I am a few weeks away from being 2/3 done with my schooling which is exciting, but also very nerve racking because all the planning for the future sets in. Some of this planning is when I return to the states from December 20 till February 15 a very short time with all that I need to get done before hitting the ground running in Honduras. If you are reading this please please please please hear my plea for your help, I would love the oppurtunity to share my needs with as many people face to face in this time as I can. I live 100% on support of other people giving to the cause and well in reality if no one gives then I am not able to do what it is that I feel God is calling me to do. Come next February I will have some very large needs as soon as I step of that plane in Honduras and not that I want be going if the needs are not 100% met but there are somethings that will have to happen. As the time draws nearer I will be post more specific with figures my needs and where I stand. For now please help by sharing these links and post with friends, I am willing to speak with anyone interested my email is coy@ignitemissions.org my facebook is public Coy Houston Davis and I just created a ministry page for folks to follow https://www.facebook.com/coydavishonduras also at the bottom of this page are ways to share please share on facebook or email or google plus it to all your contacts. It doesn't take much to imagine the stress of moving out of your country of origin and trying to survive in a culture much different than the one you spent your life in, then on top of that trying to reach out to people and share the hope of Christ in your second language. I am happy to do this for I know it is the will of the Lord in my life, but with that being said it is much easier when you have people reaching out and letting you know they support what you are doing and they are joining in on what what you are doing. If you do support give and reach out thank you so much you are truly the life blood of my Ministry.
All support is appreciated as this life's work cannot be done with out God and his support through His people. Prayer support and financial support are always in need. If you are able to support financially please visit http://www.ignitemissions.org/#!contact/c175r this will take you directly to the support link. Simply follow the provided directions and add Coy Houston Davis in the memo line. Thank you for your support emotionally, spiritually, prayerfully, and financially.
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