September 2008 Conchshell Chronicles

A Killing in Klampa

Benjamin Felipe escapes with his life!

One of our longest serving teachers on the Rio Coco is Benjamin Felipe, from Klampa.  He is a former Yatama soldier who began teaching for us in the late 1980’s.  He was one of our “least prepared” teachers, but he had a good heart, and worked well with the children.  Benjamin had something pretty incredible happen to him in the mid 1990’s while he was attending a teacher conference in Puerto Cabeza.  An angel appeared to him one night and announced that God had a special work for him, and that he should be baptized “right away”.  Since there was no pastor around, he went to a well, drew a bucket of water, and poured it over himself.

A few months later, I saw Benjamin and he was a changed man.  Normally quiet and reserved, he was so excited about what had happened, and he was willing to tell everybody about the angel’s visit.

Some years passed, with Benjamin faithfully teaching classes in Klampa.  Two years ago, Benjamin began leading a prayer group in his church, and eventually they selected him to be the pastor. People began to actually ask Benjamin to pray with them to receive the Lord.  They began confessing their sins (something hard to do in Miskito culture), and asking Benjamin to baptize them.  He did, and the church began growing! He even began to perform marriages.

This past year, Benjamin and his friends were able to build a very nice chuch building in Klampa. We visited this church in July, and it was the highlight of our downriver experience. It is very very alive! Benjamin and his ministry team are now  being invited to other villages to share what God is doing.  It appears that there is a for-real move of God happening!

Whenever there is a move of God, we can expect a counter-move by our enemy.  It happened this past month.

It was a normal day at the Klampa school with Benjamin teaching his class when suddenly a man showed up with a pistol, shouting that he was going to kill Benjamin right then and there.  This guy was a local bad boy who was involved in cattle stealing, drug trafficking, and many other crimes. We later discovered that he had 37 accusations against him at the police office. This guy had been particularly singling out the Felipe family and slandering them, and stealing many things from them. It appeared that on this particular day, he was under the influence of either drugs or alcohol.

The man began firing shots at Benjamin, with the children around.  Benjamin ducked out of the school and ran to his home and found his hunting rifle.  Benjamin’s older brother heard the gunfire, ran to his home and grabbed his machete.

Benjamin ran back to where the man was still firing shots, and shot him down. Benjamin’s older brother whacked him with the machete, and in a few moments, it was all over. The bad man was dead, and nobody had been hit by the many shots he fired.

Within the hour, our school Superintendent Augusto Vicente arrived on a routine supervision visit. He got the first hand account. Many in the village, including the judge, had witnessed the event from start to finish.  Still, because of the killing, Benjamin and his brother had to go to the police station in Waspam, where they were taken to the jail in Puerto Cabeza for investigation.

This could have gone in the wrong direction for the Felipe brothers, because of the manner of the machete wounds on the dead man. However, in a few days the police released them both, noting the many crimes of the deceased. It appeared that they were grateful to the Felipe brothers for handing the event as they did.

We can draw many conclusions from this event. 

·         Your years of prayers and support for our school project in Nicaragua are bearing good fruit!

·         Benjamin is part of a genuine move of God that includes many of our teachers and staff members.

·         Your prayers for our teachers each month do have an incredible effect!                                                                                                                       Maik

Lamb Bleatings

The Great Plunge

Our family had the opportunity to visit our old friends on the little Honduran island of Utila.  We were invited to spend some time with them after all of our summer activities with our Deep Water Discipleship and discipling efforts with our Miskito friends.  Since our friends own a dive shop, we decided that it was a good opportunity for the kids and I to obtain our dive certification.

We were invited to stay in our friends apartment that overlooked the water, boats and a dock.

On the dock over the water, there stood a 20 ft. look out.  A look out that is perfect for sitting, reflecting, feeling the breeze and perhaps reading a book and enjoying the beautiful ocean view.  My children and husband often maintain another perspective.  They enjoyed the upper dock area as a high platform that served as an excellent jumping off point to plunge into the water.  From the balcony of the apartment, I witnessed, videoed and photographed them working on “their tricks” and executing them repetitively.  When they began their back flipping round, I noticed our foreign neighbors who were also taking photographs of the “event”.  We would all be especially amused when the two little pip squeaks got up as high as possible, on the rails to do their thing.  Moselle set a back flipping record at age seven. Lukie admitted that she inspired him to get up as high as possible and do the same…..he could not have a seven year old show him up.  I later heard him complimenting the girls on their supremely brave efforts saying, “I don’t know ANY ten or seven year old who would do what you did from that height.  I’m proud of you.”  Their 47 year old mom, however, was a different story.  I say I don’t like heights, but I do like the exhilaration of an adventure.  I don’t ever seek the rush but being in a family like mine it seems to always seek me.   

After a long day of testing and working through dive information, Moselle and I decided to go to the dock and I had the inkling to get up on the very top to plunge into the deep blue.  Moselle finally “asked”, no insisted that I come up with her and take the plunge.  She assured me, “Mommy, it is sooooooooo fun and easy.  You can do it.  Come on.”   I knew that the moment would come when they would all begin “begging” me so being with Moselle alone was better than ALL the familial pressure.  I knew that if I paused in any way to look down I would definitely falter and if the other adventurously pressuring family members showed up, they would give me heat that would cause me to simply be paralyzed.  Sure enough they all started to appear and I was stuck amidst all the chiding and encouraging…then the boat came to pick us up and we had to leave. “Ahhh, Mommy, why didn’t you jump?”, they all inquired.  I said, “Because, your mommy is a chicken!” 

I thought about my fear on the boat ride.  How it interrupts in the process of faith…of taking the actual leap into unknown territory.  I knew in my mind that it would be alright to jump, but I couldn’t get my body to do what my mind was telling it to.  I also knew that I would actually enjoy it, but the first step, the actual stepping off…Whoa!  My entire body was in conflict and no resolve.  What prevents us from the actual leap of faith?…we analyze, contemplate, rationalize and get ourselves stuck and unable to move.  Jumping off that dock was not a big deal, but I would have made Moselle’s day and even now as I sit to write this, I find regret within that I did not plunge in to meet her in the water.  I regret that I had to admit defeat and confess my chicken attitude to my family and now to you.  Bummer.

Every year we invite young and old alike to take a plunge of faith into Deep Water Discipleship where many of them discover profound life changing truth and beauty.  These revelations of eternal wisdom are often hidden amidst their normal clattering, noise, and circumstances of their every day first world comfortable life.  It is an effective time of pulling ourselves away and to have significant moments of hearing from the Lord and actually practicing countless principles of the Bible in real life situations.  Those who give themselves over to the process are eternally changed, but those who simply stand from the top looking down, never jumping remain never fully experiencing the exhilarating adventure of the great plunge.  We had a group that all decided to jump and it was an extremely worthy process for all involved.

When we dive into life, relationships and all of its processes, we are bound to experience the anxieties, trials and tribulations of living out a passionate existence.  The highs and lows, the power and the suffering, the feelings of extreme love/joy and the feelings of total disdain and perhaps hate.  They are a part of our plunge into a life of obedience and faith.   God made it eternally clear that we are to be involved fully into relationships…with Him foremost and then with others, loving them as we love ourselves.  We love because He first loved us.  He demands that our lives be filled with Love.  God is described as Love and in Him there is no darkness only light.  Often it does take a lot of wrestling to work through our emotions in order to remain pure and unblemished by the world and those around us.  Everything is not as we want it to be…nor is everybody all that we want them to be.  We have friction in the process.  We have hurt, anger, and the sense that we are misunderstood.  Yet, there is God who says that He never leaves us nor forsakes us and in Him we know that we have His understanding, His identifying power for our sufferings and His never changing love. 

We are changing and unstable all the time, but He never is and He always has the victory. If we give ourselves over to Him in the process, we too find victory and can remain unstained by the matters of life that attempt to rip us off and perhaps rip us apart. We will always be challenged most in this area of relationships because it is the only thing we will take with us into eternity.  Relationship with God and relationship with people. 

In relationships, we are designed to function together as one unit each playing a specific viable part. We all have a place before God.  We as a part must appreciate the differences and savor the fact that we are not designed to do all and be all.  The pressure is off.  The fact remains, we need God and we need each other.  Fundamentally, we as human’s do not like to “NEED”, but deep true fulfillment will never come unless we establish the facts.  We were designed to be dependent.  It is with this humility that we live our lives most effectively…humbled, knowing that we live not just for ourselves but for an Entity much Greater than ourselves and we live for purposes that we ourselves know we cannot possibly accomplish by ourselves. 

We live our lives for the Lord by faith.  Thousands of dollars pass through our family and ministry to be given in support for others.  Many of you have been willing participants in the ministry of the Lord in and though our lives.  We have counted on you and you have come through and that is how thousands of children have been educated and countless lives changed in the process.  You will stand with us on that Day of reckoning.  Our lives have always been a God group effort.  Total dependence on our heavenly Father to do what He wants to do and lining us up and everyone else to do it.  What he begins and wills, He promises to end and complete.  It has been a solid 20 years watching Him do that.  Yet, human doubt and reasoning always have a way of seeping into the flawless unpredictable ways of God.  It has been interesting watching myself go in and out of anxieties that creep up every so often.

We have been trying to instill in our children their sense of responsibility and living their lives out in faith and trust.  They are learning stewardship of their finances, their time and resources.  They are realizing the cost to live in this world.

Arielle, Moselle and I went grocery shopping last night.  They normally grab the receipt so the man at the door can check the receipt and draw a happy face on it.  In the process, the girls noticed the amount and exclaimed, “MOMMY, THAT IS a lot of money!!!  Are we going to run out!?”

I have been expressing to them that we are called to “feed” many people in our lives…to be givers, encouragers, and people who bless.  I also made an analogy regarding our frequent food buying was because we are called to feed others….physically and more importantly spiritually.  We only do what we do in the physical because we are already doing it spiritually from our hearts.  Consequently, we all find ourselves having many over to commune with us and enjoy life giving times of fellowship and God inspired ideas, & conversations, etc. 

When God designs us to do something, we do it naturally and there is a flow that can be only described as God given.  A gift.  Nothing earned or humanly contrived.  It is given and it is free.  No one can take credit for it except the One who gave it.  This too is a humbling gift which causes me to enjoy the process even more.  We love doing what we do.  Yet, it is a challenge to live with the right perspective at times.  A life of faith often demands that you never quite know your actual visible monetary state of affairs.

On our grocery expedition, Arielle told me, “Poppy said we need to be careful how we spend, Mommy.”  I said, “Yes, we do always have to be careful because it all does belong to God.” As we unloaded the cart together, handling each item, grateful for all that we got, Arielle quietly looked over at me and said, “Don’t worry, Mommy….God will provide everything we need.” 

That was a word for the moment for me.  Perhaps she noticed the little crinkle on my forehead …I love hanging out with them.  They keep my frequently drifting perspective in the right place…usually right back to living in the moment and enjoying them and my other relationships fully.  That is the place I like to live…the place that God has me right then and there.                                                  Laura

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are in the middle of hurricane season in Florida.  We just endured days of flood rain from Fay, more rain from Gustav, a drenching by Hanna, and we are keeping an eye on Ike and Josephine.  This is why we like to be in Florida this time of year– to board up our home if necessary. We learned in 2004/5 that hurricane can be so destructive and messy.  Please pray for weakening of all these storms.

September is also birthday month for the Bagby Family.  Maik’s is the first, Luk’s the 14th, Laura’s the 30th, and Moselle likes to remind us that her’s is “only 12 days after Mommy’s”.  We take the time to honor each other, and it is a sweet time for us all.

We are preparing a trip to Indiana and North Carolina to visit our ministry partners there. When we announced “We are going to Indiana!” there were shouts from around the table: “Where is Indiana?”  The maps came out, and oh the joys of home schooling! We get to give the visual driving tour of the eastern U.S.. In fact, one of my birthday presents was the latest Rand McNally Road Atlas.  Please pray that while on this trip, we may honor many who have sacrificed much by coming to Nicaragua and helping on the Waspam Center building project.  We are entering the final phases of this construction, and  need God’s provision to finish the job properly.

We know that gas prices are high, and business is down for many. That makes us even more appreciative for you who have faithfully given to Seek The Lamb, and to not only our personal support, but also to Nutie’s, Peachy’s, & Danilo’s. We depend on your prayers and help to accomplish all that God has called us to do.

For those of you in Florida, please mark your calendar for Friday, November 14.  We will be having a dinner/auction/concert at Central Assembly in Vero Beach.  Please plan on attending, and bring a friend if you like. Call us at 772-770-9772 for more details.

We are making a concerted effort this month to hear from the Lord on our Rio Coco Bean coffee marketing strategy.  We are amateurs at this business, and we need advice from you who are experienced in business and hear from the Lord.  Please!  We are open to all suggestions!  Call me at 772-633-6808 for any ideas that you may have for generating profits from this business for the school project.

Please check out our new website at seekthelamb.org.  There are three photo albums there that will encourage you. Please let me know which words I have misspeled in my frantic efforts to get the website online.  Please let us hear from you this month.                                                                                     Laura & Michael 

Ministry Opportunities 

    Here are Three Suggestions how you can directly impact the school project in Nicaragua.

1)      Help us complete our construction projects.  We are finishing the cement work on our office downriver, the Waspam Center, and the church.  Many materials are needed to finished the job. Please consider lending a hand with this project.

2)      Sponsor a Miskito Indian student.  We have many new photos and new students who need a sponsor for the 2008 school year.  It’s only $27 a month to change a life.

3)      Purchase Rio Coco Bean Coffee.  Profits from this world-class coffee go directly to the school project. You may order at riococostore.com

 

You may also give online through our seekthelamb.org website. Simply click by the “You Can Help!” photo at the bottom of the page.  For many on the Rio Coco, we say “Thank You!”

Another way to make a donation to any of these ministries, click here to go to the Rio Coco Store Donation page. Seek The Lamb Donations

Thanks for being on the team!