Isaiah 58

By Katie

A member of our church recently delivered a sermon in which he quoted from this text. The chapter begins with the Isrealites complaining that God isn't listening to their dutiful fasts and sacrfices; God responds with examples of what is much more important to him in the following verses. I hope it inspires you as it has inspired me as I've re-read it over and again in the past few weeks.

Isaiah 58:6-12
"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the prisoner free
and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--
when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say:
Here am I.

"If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
The Lord will guide you always;
he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land
and will strengthen your frame.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like a spring whose waters never fail.
Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins
and will raise up the age-old foundations;
you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls,
Restorer of Streets with Dwellings."

May we all find ways to be Repairers of Broken Walls and Restorers of Streets with Dwellings in this world.

Holy Week in a mix of styles

By Katie

I already mentioned in the last blog that we got to do some traveling during Holy Week. It was quite a week of mixed styles of worship for us. We started the week with Palm Sunday in Nicaragua with the other folks living in Central America and working for CRC ministries. So our Palm Sunday service was probably a lot like whatever yours was in North America... and in English :)

Skip ahead to Good Friday where we spent the day in Copán and got to see some of the Catholic traditions that give honor to this important day in the Christian calandar. All through the night on Thursday teams of people were hard at work creating this carpet of colored sawdust near the Catholic church and central park. Each square had a picture of something Christian made by patting the colored sawdust over stencils. On Friday night a parade passed over the carpet, ruining it.



Also on Good Friday in Copán we saw a live reenactment of the Stations of the Cross. It was really fun to have Tanya along with us during the stations since she is Catholic and we could together decipher what was universally Christian, what was specifically Catholic, and where Central American culture had influenced the event. In the first picture, you can see some people doing a reading with a very social justice theme at one station.



This video was taken at the next station after the reading and as the actors were playing the part of giving Jesus the cross to carry to the next station. It was a very touching scene that left many dumbfounded at what happened to Jesus.

By Sunday we had picked up another friend of ours, Jenny, and were at the Resurrection Day (Easter) service at the river. It was the annual joint service of the Christian Reformed Churches in Olancho.

The Catholic/Protestant mix of my week continued strongly into this day. Both Jenny and Tanya are Catholic. Unfortunately many "Evangelicals" (as Protestants call themselves here) are very openly opposed to Catholics. We heard a mention in the sermon scoffing at the way Catholics do things. Another person came up to ask me if my friends were Evangelicals. I said they were Christians who are Catholics, to which the response was "Oh, but how are their hearts?". I am continually disgusted at the Evangelicals for thinking they are so justified in openly belittling the Catholics. While I don't know the history that brought these feelings about, I can't help but think that if we continue into the future with such an us-vs-them attitude that we will never bring about healing.

On the other hand, there was some really exciting things about the service. Every year this is one opportunity that new Christians can be baptized in a truly beautiful setting.


Two of the youth in the Sunday school class that we teach were baptized. Here is Lucía being baptized by our pastor Isidro.



In the end, no matter how you celebrate, it´s a beautiful thing to know that Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins on the cross and has risen from the dead. Happy Easter, everyone.

Copán Ruins

By Katie

Many people travel during Holy Week here in Central America. We got to do a little of that ourselves this year since we had the week free from work. My friend since childhood, Tanya, came down and the three of us went to the Mayan ruins of Copán in western Honduras.

While you might not expect this photo of an ugly barren mountain to be the first on a blog post about the ruins of an ancient civilization, really this is the most important picture for us today. The most popular theory about why the Mayans at Copán fell is that they had deforested the surrounding mountains, over-populated them and over-farmed them to the point that the rains stopped coming and the land became useless. From the looks of it, not much has changed since Copán fell around 800 ad. Maybe we modern humans need to learn a little from history.

We toured the ruins on the date of our four-year wedding anniversary :)



Honduran first graders learn the Mayan numbering system since it´s a great introduction to learning to work with fives. In this picture you can see the glyph of King Rabbit 18, so named after the month he was born in and for being the 18th king of Copán. The three bars on the left side represent fives and the balls represent ones. 3 fives plus 3 ones = 18



Immaturity break!



Tanya and I had learned about the ancient Mayan people as little elementary school kids together, so it was fun to go there with her. Of course, what impresses you most as a kid is the Mayan ball game; a soccer-like game in which players need to hit the stone bird heads with a heavy ball. The winner of the game is sacrficed to the gods, a high honor. A very memorable history lesson!



Tanya and I in the ¨locker rooms¨ of the ball stadium, naturally.



Nestled in a hillside among the ruins is a very impressive sculpture museum housing many of original pieces that were taken out of the ruins to be preserved. Also in the open-air museum is this full-scale replica of one of the first temples in Copán. When it was unearthed they found it to be brightly painted as in the replica here.

It was an amazing trip, and a destination that Honduras can be (and is) very proud of.