Rain, car repairs, ministry, and the beauty of nature

It’s raining – and has It been raining. The rains have been intense, mostly at night, but some come during the late afternoon.

Yesterday I returned home from a car repair adventure and found that the wind that came with the rain had knocked over two planters and even found a way to sneak into my bedroom. We need the rain, but sometimes I wish it were a little less fierce.

Yesterday I was going to help with the work on the parish coffee fields. I was transporting 15 sacks of fertilizer when I heard this awful noise and then couldn’t move. The differential. I called my mechanic who arrived about 3 hours later and got the job done in two hours (in the midst of a downpour.) Not cheap, but a friend told me it was a very good price. Today I’m in Santa Rosa to get the car checked out better, to get money from the bank and to do some work.

A few days ago I was talking with a few young guys and mentioned that I needed someone to chop the weeds by the house. All they needed was a machete and they worked until night fell. They came back the next day and finished the job. The first day I offered them twenty lempiras each and they refused it. I am taken aback from this type of generosity – time and time again.

Monday was a day of funerals. After getting some car repair work in Santa Rosa in the morning, I accompanied Padre German to a funeral in San Agustín. Sunday, during the early hours of the morning, while we were in Mass for the vigil, a young man, whose sister was a catechist, was brutally killed. I don’t know the details – but it appears that alcohol contributed to the killing (on the part of the killers). So sad.

Later I went to a funeral in the nearby village of Candelaria. A young woman with a very ill child had died, perhaps of heart problems. Her husband is in the US. Padre asked me to preach. So hard.

Tomorrow I am off to La Lima, Cortez, near San Pedro Sula, for a workshop on Social Analysis, sponsored by Caritas Honduras. Several others from here are going and I’ll be giving two of them a ride. An earlier workshop was good – but was just a start. We’ll see how this one was.

I will miss the National Catholic Youth Encounter here in Santa Rosa this Friday and Saturday. I won’t be sad to miss the all-night vigil – I’m getting a little old for all that. But I would have liked to be with the youth of our parish who go. But I hope to hear more about this later. I also think that what is really needed is more work in the villages and cities.

Next Monday and Tuesday I’ll accompany Padre German for the Saint Anthony feast day celebrations – in about 10 to 15 places. He’ll probably ask me to preach in a few places. This will be a great way to celebrate the tenth anniversary of my arrival in Honduras on July 13, 2007.

God is good.

And, if that’s not enough, here are some photos of flowers from around the house.

a very large grasshopper, on my rain water barrel

and this morning's view from the terrace.

God is great.