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Since we left the states a year ago today for Central America I thought it would be a good opportunity for us to check in and email about life here on the farm. We’ll try for some lighter fair after the heavy tone of my last few emails.

Michael’s new vocabulary – Thursday night Michael and I walked home after dinner and I let Michael in while I was collecting some stuff from the porch. I came in and was confused why Michael was staring at the back door. Looking up, a very loud “Holy crap!” escaped my lips as a tarantula the size of an orange was on the back wall. It definitely qualifies as the biggest tarantula I’ve seen (and I’ve seen many) and scooting Michael outside I quickly dispatched him with the machete I keep up on the shelf in the kitchen. So of course you all know the end of the story, when last night Michael was sitting next to me he jabbed my leg and yells “Holy crap, Daddy, look at that spider!” He could learn worse phrases I guess, and at least he’s using them in the appropriate context.

More creepy crawlies — Erika had a baby scorpion (1/2″) crawl on her forehead as she was falling asleep. There’s really nothing else to say, so I just sit here and giggle.

Mariposas – So we’re caught in a butterfly migration. Yesterday going to morning prayer at 5:45am I walked into a swarm of literally thousands of butterflies migrating. Not sure where from or where to but it’s been going on for a week now and it’s totally beautiful.

Fat lady – Erika’s pregnancy is progressing nicely. Baby is active, healthy, growing and all that good stuff. Erika says her lack of ice cream is a challenge but she wants you all to know she’s surviving. The week of no power and no fans at 90 degrees was not the greatest but baby managed to sweat it out. We had an ultrasound done in Ceiba a few weeks ago and everything looks great. We have appointments with midwives in Chicago the day after we get home so we’re on our way. For the record, in utero we’re calling the kid “Pollito” (pronounced poy-ee-to) which means “little chicken.” As for real names – we’re still duking it out.

Homeward bound – We’ve got our travel schedule for the next few months. Here’s the brief rundown.

We would love to see as many of you as possible. It looks like our parents will be setting an open house in each city so I’ll pass on that info as soon as things are firmed up.

Spread the word – One of our hopes while we’re home is to have the opportunity to share our experience with schools, groups and churches whenever we have the chance. If you know of a parish or a group who might like to hear a brief presentation about our time in Honduras please drop me an email and we can hopefully work out a date.

New kid update – In the last email I told you about Oscar, our newest addition to the farm. Just before Oscar we also ingressed a family of 5 kids ranging from 7 months to 12 years old. I’m proud to report that all are doing great and flourishing in their new environment. The word ‘fat’ has been thrown around for the littlest ones (Oscar included) but that’s probably better interpreted as well-nourished. Pretty amazing stuff.

Newbies – Since we left for language school a year ago it means it’s now that time of year when a new crop of Finca volunteers sets out on their journey to the Farm. We have 11 new volunteers starting language school right around now and scheduled to arrive on the Farm October 1st. We are especially excited that among the new group is another family. Matt and Kim were friends of friends in Chicago and we managed to talk them into joining us down here along with their son Jeremiah (3) and daughter Bella (2). They’re pretty awesome people and we’re also excited to have another volunteer family. We are converting the other half of our house (formerly storage space) into a second house for them so we’ll share a porch amongst other things. Please keep them and all the new vols in your prayers as they set out.

New school, new building, new cars – Since the June meeting of our board of directors we have a very busy next few months on our hands. We got approval to permanently open a middle school (7-9th grade) which has been operating this year on a pilot basis. The story of our new middle school is fascinating, frustrating and amazing but I must leave it for another time. With the new school we needed new space since our primary school is busting at the seams, so we will be starting construction any day now on a multi-use facility for our middle school. Throw in new cars to replace some dying landcruisers, replacing roofs on two houses and three classrooms buildings and we have a very full construction schedule (not to mention fundraising schedule!). The race is on to finish everything before rainy season hits in November!

New job – The above school stuff is particularly interesting to me because I’m starting to transition into my new job as the head of the education department here on the finca. What does that mean? Roughly I’m the new principal of a PreK – 9th grade school.

Anniversary – Erika and I were proud to celebrate yesterday our fifth wedding anniversary. I got lucky on Thursday and was scheduled to preach at a communion service so I had a great opportunity to reflect on the readings from our wedding. It was a really great time for me to think back over the past five years. People laughed and some almost cried, then a bat fell from the ceiling and died. I tell you, I really bring down the house. I’ll leave you with the first reading from our wedding which pretty much says it all. At my wedding I remember jumping around shouting “This is what we’re going to do!” The past few days I’ve been jumping around telling anyone who would listen, “This is what we’re trying to do! And it’s working!” Enjoy.

In peace,

Michael-John