Seek The Lamb

January 2012 Conchshell Chronicles

 

A Special Edition of Lamb Bleatings

from the heart of Laura

“Thank you”.

“My pleasure.”, comes the response of our trained Rio Coco servers as they hand out food or drink at the Café’. I believe it gives God great pleasure to give to those He created and loves.  I think it blesses His heart when we take the time to thank Him and express our love for him. 

We think it is equally important to thank many of you who have been a part of our incredible walk of faith.  God is bearing much fruit through our collective efforts, obedience and sacrifices and we are grateful.  The Lord continues His wondrous exploits on the Rio Coco with His people…our Miskito friends, leaders, students and teachers are making steps toward greater effectiveness for His Kingdom.  We are in the process of consolidating many efforts and making it work more efficiently as we step forward into 2012.  May God grant His wisdom to us all as we do.  We need Him and you more than ever.  We desire to engage in more discipleship and the furthering of His purposes in the Miskito Culture.  Tom and Nutie Keogh are a huge asset to the overall workings of the bringing to life much of what we have desired and worked toward for years.  We are excited.

After the opening of the Seek The Lamb outreach on Utila Honduras this summer, and the Rio Coco Café here in  Vero Beach, we are convinced that God is in the middle of something super big for His eternal plan and purpose.  Already many people who would never darken the door of a church have entered our “church disguised as a coffee shop”, and we have had many specific conversations about our Lord Jesus.  It is an amazing dynamic!  There has been much hard work and sacrifice put in by many, but more than anything the prevalence of God’s amazing hand of power has made it all seemingly effortless in light of all that has been accomplished.  It has been miraculous and inspired.

I myself have been inspired most by my husband who worked through each phase as an engineer, plumber, electrician, carpenter, Roman sidewalk maker, roaster, painter, sander, designer, mover, installer, accountant, hanger (pictures), texturizing, supply/food buyer, etc…  Many new and exciting first time experiences (God seems to do this a lot doesn’t He?).   He was used greatly and efficiently to accomplish what most would consider impossible.  Consistent perseverance and obedience leads to eternal fruit.    We are able to watch and experience many who come into our midst be touched and changed for His glory and pleasure and it has been pleasing to our souls.  I feel His pleasure as we walk through the day and relate to all those God brings into our midst.  It has been a beautiful thing.

The blessing of having our children involved fully has been the bonus of His plan and purposes for their lives, our lives and the future.  We feel His eternal fruit being made as we walk it out together.  Our moments have been sweet and precious and we are grateful.

Mikaela and Lukas began college again.  Arielle and Moselle are doing the Florida Virtual Schools as homeschoolers.  We all work hard to keep the balance of the Lord in our lives as we do ministry together at the Rio Coco Café.

Michael and I are still charged with the responsibility of raising funds for the  various missions of our Seek The Lamb Endeavors.  We would really appreciate it if you would take a moment and ask the Lord how it is He wants you to be involved with us in this next season of harvest.   We believe we are in significant times in our lives which will be full of His fruit and eternal blessings.  We continue to live by and do all things by faith and the vision that God gives to us. Here are some thing s for us to consider as we begin this new year:

-To complete our financial obligations to our teachers in Nicaragua for 2011, we are having to pay our teachers a rather large sum of money to comply with a new law of the Ministry of Labor: The sum for this $21,000. 

-We are also getting our Waspam Discipleship Training up and running for a more focused ministry training this year.  We are grateful for many who have given toward this grand effort.  It is another huge miracle of God.  Our first project is a verbal translation of the Old Testament in Miskito, using trained Miskito readers to bring to life the Hebrew Scriptures. With Tom Keogh leading this effort, we have the greatest chance of success! This is why we need to complete the recording studio room.  We also want to expand our Bible training in that facility by hiring two young Miskito men who have been faithful volunteers for Seek The Lamb.

-We have a “lease-to-buy” agreement on the Seek The Lamb Team House on Utila.  The price of the house and waterfront is  $200,000 and we have until June to pay for the house. Our monthly rent is going toward the purchase price.  Our outreach café is located below the house, and the facility is located between five dive schools and hundreds of European, Israeli, Australian, and American young travelers who come to this island.  We have put in much sweat , time and money to bring our outreach center to completion and fruition.  Already many have heard the Gospel, and we have had our first baptism! Please please consider what the Lord would have you do to help us purchase this property. We are also opened to your suggestions as to how to get this done…we realize that some of you are experts in this field.  It is an area that we feel lacking.  The only thing we are quite sure about is that God said, “Do it…This is My Project.” 

It has been done and we know that it is indeed His project . We are confident that He will provide for all that is His .

2012 marks the 24^th year that I have been with Michael and the project in Central America. It is his 28^th year!  We have seen God do some incredible miracles through our combined efforts.   Girls like these three washing dishes in the river would have little chance for education and spiritual encouragement without our help.

This is a time when we could sit back and rest on our laurels, yet God is calling us on to even greater levels of influence, and impact on a world which sorely needs Him. He has always required us to step ahead with a lot of faith.  We did it with the relief project in the early 80’s, when we began Project Ezra in 1986, when we began our work in Israel in 1997, and with the launching of a fundraising business in 2004. We are pretty amazed and I know that many of you are as well.

We are confident that you will do your part as we have been faithful to do ours.

Pray for God to move in all our hearts.                                                                    Laura 

 

Random Notes

                      from Michael

 

  January is named for the two faced Roman god Janus: one is looking forward and the other backward.  January has been a time for reflection on the past events, and resolve for the future. What did I learn in 2011?

• To be more actively responsible for the things that God has given me: my family, our ministry, and the associated projects & trusting my pastors and in their areas of responsibility.
• That God’s plans far exceed our own.  Look at how He began the outreach on Utila and in Vero Beach using a good cup of coffee!
• That greater faith is required for greater fruit. This is not blind wishful faith, but knowing that God is calling us forward.  We desire to have a great impact on this generation here in the U.S and in Central America.
• That my most pressing daily need is to cultivate the presence of God in my life.  The challenges of these new ministries have been overwhelming, yet God has shown me that if I pause as I consider the steps ahead each day, and allow Him to lead, the day is much more productive, and less stressful! 
• That I have a wife who gets more amazing every year.  She grows more beautiful as the days pass, and her passion for the things that God has called us to is truly inspirational.
• That I have a family that is multi-talented, and whom I love spending time with.   They are my favorite people on the planet!

What about 2012?

 

• Project Ezra begins its 26th year this month.  A new Nicaraguan law requires that we pay all our teachers their retirement pay now.  In the next few months.  We are handing off one village to the Nicaraguan government, and will begin the year as the community school in six villages. Initial enrollment will be over 1000 kids.
• We are organizing teams for Utila and Nicaragua.  Please let us know real soon if God is calling you to join us this year for an exciting adventure in Ministry!
• We count ourselves blessed to have you on the Team!                                        Michael

 

 Donations are Welcome!

If you would like to make a donation to support your "Rio Coco Kid" this month, or one of the Seek The Lamb Missinaries (Kate & Dustin Insley, Nutie & Tom Keogh, Lanie Bishop, Danilo Cunningham, or Laura and Michael Bagby), or contribute to the school project in Nicaragua, please click here to go to our secure Pay Pal donation page.

Your contributions are extremely helpful in allowing us all to to the work God has called us all to!

Thanks!

Donations

Rio Coco Beans Coffee

Enjoy some of the most delicious coffee and help us educate children in Nicaragua as you do!  Click here to see the latest from our online coffee store.

 

Christmas 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

Harvest

 by Thomas Keogh

 

Year end. The rice is in, school is done. On the Wangki River, it is time to set our burdens down, to give thanks, to celebrate, and to reflect.

We are thankful that God blessed the people with a bountiful harvest. Danilo won the sweepstakes this year; his field produced 7 tons of hulled grain. Almost everyone did well. Kites made from colorful plastic bags with coconut fronds for ribs are aloft in the blue, declaring a joyful spirit in the cooler November air.

Christmas will soon be here, and food will be plentiful. Tingki Dawan. We have reason to rejoice over our labors also. We have consolidated our system of record keeping for our schools. Each student has been accounted for; the teachers know that we care and are keeping track. They have believed that this project will be blessed according to its fruit, rather than in response to some natural disaster. They have shown us a teachable spirit.

We bought a bale of bed sheets and had it sent from Managua. Painstakingly, Nutie divided them into 55 individual bundles and gift wrapped them with poster board and colored ribbon. We each pared down our wardrobes and toiletries in order to include something personal in as many gifts as we could. We placed them in plastic tubs and took them downriver in a driving rain which dripped through holes in our plastic tarp and somehow managed to penetrate the tubs, soaking those on the bottom. Once in Sawa, Nutie carefully dried them out and rewrapped them. Again this year, we bought a hog, prepared it, and shared a feast with our teachers in the little church beside the school. We worshipped, sang Christmas songs, taught God’s word, and prayed over them. Afterward, they in turn gathered around us and prayed over us, thanking God for our help and asking Him to return us to them next year. It was simple, heartfelt, and very touching.

It was so good for us to savor the sweetness of our celebration, since my natural tendency is to focus on the great need before us. There is still so much to be done. Even the blessing of bountiful harvest had its downside: seasonal truancy spiked as every spare hand was needed in the field. The drop in the children’s grades toward the end of the second semester served as a sharp reminder that these are a vulnerable people, wholly dependent upon their subsistence lifestyle even as they strive to learn and to gain access to the global economy. We dodged another bullet this year as torrential rains on the Pacific side of the country caused a great surging flood to wash over our villages just as the people were bringing in the last of their rice. So many horse carcasses floated by that the whole river stank for several days, but these were “Spanish” horses, not Miskito ones. We heard radio reports of more than sixty people killed and countless missing elsewhere in Nicaragua, Honduras, and El Salvador, but not here. We were very fortunate this year.

We lost some students. In Sawa, 35 children dropped out of school this past year. Many of them will be back in 2012, but some, at the tender age of 12 or 13, have already begun their life as adults in the community. Sodelma Colomer, for instance, whose date of birth is listed as July 2, 1999, left 3rd grade to start a family. Even so, it is not necessarily the end of the world for her, contrary to what our culture would suggest. The truth is that most of these school children will live out their lives as mothers, fathers, and subsistence farmers in their native villages. The important thing is that they know how much they matter to God, and that their relationship to God matters to them. Hopefully, they develop this understanding during the years they do spend in a Seek The Lamb school, however many they may be.                                                              Tom 

 

 

 

Lamb Bleatings

By Laura Bagby

 

 

 

(Photo: The opening day of the Rio Coco Cafe Vero Beach: L to R  Mikaela, Lukas, Arielle, Nutie, Tom, Pastor Buddy, Laura, & Moselle)

 

“Balance…focus….hit (5^th  position).”, I reminded Moselle as she executed a pirouette beginning in 4^th position and ending in 5^th.  She has been dancing around the house for a while now and presently has the opportunity to be involved in a ballet class and perhaps even a dance troupe at Christi’s Fitness.  She is now letting me know that this is an “exclusive invitation only” kind of thing and we should feel blessed just to be asked.  There is very little that doesn’t excite her or float her boat in gratefulness and enthusiasm.  Michael said, “She ain’t gonna be the caboose of THIS  train, now is she?!”  “Nope, not of any train I don’t think.”

God uses this little spunky life to show us many things about prioritizing and balancing out the important things of life….the art of loving life and people and being able to relate in such a way that she hits the right “position” very frequently with joy and passion.  I am pleased with her balance, focus, and sense of rhythm in her “dance of life”.  She inspires us.

“Mommy, do you think that is good for them?”, Arielle often asks this question in observation of those around her doing, reading, or listening to  certain things.    I love discussing life with her in this way as she figures out what is BEST.  She is developing her skills, discipline and attitudes that guide her and focus her in the right direction.  She is impressive and we are all inspired by her being and her sense of personal and familial responsibility.  She has been developing into our personal administrator, taking messages and helping us to balance out our time with people and all that is going on right now.   She is sensitive to the needs of the moment and is able to hit the right position and hold her ground with a whole lot of balance.   She continues to develop her sense of rhythm in life & focus...keeping the main thing the main thing.  She is also our most conscientious house cleaner and is learning the art of doing many things at once.  Mikaela has passed on many of her cleaning and organizing traits to Arielle.  Love it.  She  most shines in her ability to care for others.  It’s a beautiful thing.  She has been making herself indispensable in many ways within our family unit especially since she makes the meanest Rio Coco Latte’ ever and developing well at  home,  school, business, ministry,  karate (soon a black belt), dance, physical  & spiritual disciplines.   A wise, mature soul.

 Lukas  began discussing with Michael and I a testimony of one of his friends that really had an impact upon him.  We have been talking through many of the issues of life that bind up people and cause them to “stall out” and eventually fall.  I let him know that I felt like the Lord has been telling me how each person MUST get their own revelation in life.    His eyes got real big and he asked me to repeat myself so I did.  He told me that the Lord told him the exact same thing.  I asked, “What did God say to you?”

“He said that I need to get my own revelation from Him and I couldn’t ride on the coat tails of my parents.” I nodded in thanksgiving.

We, as a family have been going through a transition and growth spurt in our lives together as an entity.  We are encouraging, pushing and inspiring Mik and Luk’s journey into adulthood.  They are learning to take their respective responsible positions in the family, in our ministry and in the business.  All three aspects are woven together by God in a brilliant manner.

They have been a part of the ride in  Honduras & Nicaragua with our Miskito friends who we are still actively serving via all of our fund raising efforts (Make a Disciple, Rio Coco Coffee, jewelry, etc)  Our children have become our best volunteers and missionaries on many counts and we are thankful.  Before God and man, I believe this is very good.  Together we will make an impact upon this community as well as in others.

We opened up our Rio Coco Café’ ministry here in Vero Beach and it has been a joy to see each one of them take their part.  Mikaela sets a high standard for each one of them in her work ethic and attitude of being a part of a team…grateful  for her opportunity to work with us and have the blessings of that but not all the responsibilities.  She has lightened our load substantially and brings a bunch of delight to the table.

We continue to thank the Lord for our beautiful faithful right hand, Lanie Bishop.   She has been caring for our accounting & administrative hassles for the last 15 years.  We celebrate her life with us more and more each year.  Thank you Lanie.  You inspire  us with your grit and faithful obedience unto the Lord.  We do all things for no other reason than to please our Lord and Savior.  He has led us right for all these years...from one act of obedience to the next..... Each step being deliberated before Him and  then the actual leap of faith which feels always so boundless and out of control.  Invigorating, yet if I don’t keep my focus and balance ever before Him, my skin literally begins to crawl with stress. I choose faith.  Thank you  to all who are living it out with us.           Laura

 

 

Unlikely Faces & Places  

 by Michael Bagby

 

Christmas is here, and once again our culture is reminded of God’s coming to Earth in the form of a baby. Most of us know the story. It’s an incredible one really, and the essence of this story is expressed as much in the characters as well as the location of all the action.

(Photo: Dr. Randy Smith teaching us about the Christmas story from a cave home in Nazareth below the Church.)

 An angel tells a young girl named Mary from Nazareth that she is going to get impregnated by the Holy Spirit, and her child will be the Messiah. Her husband Joseph has a hard time believing the story, but an angel tells him in a dream that it is true. They travel to his hometown in Bethlehem where she gives birth to the child in a cave home, and the angels appear to shepherds in the field that night to announce the arrival of the Savior of the World.

They come to the cave home, followed a few weeks later by astrologers from Persia who have seen the stars aligning in a certain way, and follow them to the cave home. They stop to tell King Herod that they are looking for the new born king, and Herod waits a few weeks and sends soldiers to Bethlehem to kill every baby under the age of two.

(photo: inside the cave home where Jesus was born in Bethlehem- Arielle standing by the candels)

Before that happens, Joseph and Mary present their newborn to the priest at the Temple in Jerusalem where two of God’s people, Simeon and Anna, greet the child, and proclaim great things to his parents and all around. Joseph is then warned in a dream to flee with his family to Egypt, to save the life of the baby Jesus.  After Herod dies, Joseph relocates his family back to his home in Nazareth, where Jesus grows up as a constructor.

I am often struck by the “not so obvious” of the Christmas story. For example, to whom did God tell about the arrival of His Son? There were many Old Testament prophecies about the coming Messiah, which included the location of his birth, which were common knowledge to the educated class. Yet God sent angels to an unlikely audience.

King Herod was the most important political figure in Israel. The second most important man in the nation was the High Priest. He and his council of Sanhedrin were the learned leaders of the nation.  Yet God sent his messengers not to the educated, wealthy, and powerful, but rather to the smelly, uncouth, under-educated men who cared for animals and slept with them at night in the fields- shepherds.  These guys would never be invited into the king’s chambers, yet God made sure they knew how important they were to Him, by personally inviting them to see the newborn Savior.

There were others in a far away land who had knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, who were very interested in what God was doing. When they discovered a message in the stars announcing the arrival of God’s chosen instrument to save the world, Himself in a human body, they traveled many days to bring gifts to honor this special baby. Only seven miles away from the Bethlehem cave home were hundreds of priests and temple workers who had dedicated their lives to God, and following His commands to the minutest detail, serving at the Temple. Yet these “godly men” were so concentrated on obedience to the rules that they failed to see what God was doing in their own backyard. While the foreigners were attending the Baby, God’s own people were oblivious to the incredible event that was changing human history forever.

 (Photo: The location of the Temple from a hill on the road to Bethlehem)

In accordance with the law, Joseph and Mary presented their child to the priests at the Temple, and could only afford two small doves as their “Shalom Offering”. While the priest went through the motions of accepting God’s own Son into the nation, totally ignorant of who they were dedicating to Yaweh, two older saints, who heard the voice of God, were suddenly made aware of the Baby’s identity. They were faithful people who had followed the voice of the Lord for many years. God made sure that those who had been listening with faith to Him were made aware of this great event.

I am also struck by the geographical setting of this birth. King Herod had a palace only a few miles away from Bethlehem called the Herodian. It was quite deluxe for the time. 

 

The Temple which Herod had built for the nation was slightly further north, and was a grandiose structure, in the style of most of Herod’s projects.

(photos: The man-made hill of the Heriodoan with the remains of the palace at the top of the hill.)

In those times that I have sat on the steps of the Temple, on the walls of the Herodian, and inside the cave home in Bethlehem, I have always been astounded at God’s choice of the location of The Event. Very few people could have gone to Herod’s palace- security was heavy, and you had to be “somebody” to get inside. Only Jews who had all their body parts could enter the Temple courts- no non-Jews were never allowed, and if you had for any reason lost a finger, arm, eye, or ear due to an accident or you were just born that way, you were not allowed in either.

Yet God chose a cave home in a village away from the hustle of the royalty and religious elite where anyone, foreigners included, could come to worship the true King- even Ethiopian eunuchs, and others who were not considered “whole and acceptable” by polite society.

Christmas is for everyone! It is meant to be celebrated not just in the Holy Places, but in the obscure corners of our cities and nation. Although most of the power elite of our world know about Jesus, most have closed their hearts to Him- they are content with their own resources. Yet there are so many who God is inviting to share in some intimate moments this Christmas Season. He will use you and me to extend the invitation. He will use us to tell the real story of Christmas.        Michael

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

“Man plans his way but God directs his steps”  Prov. 16:9

We live by this principle. God is the one who knows what we are to be doing with His time!  For many years it has been evident to us that part of our mission has been fundraising for Project Ezra in Nicaragua, and you are reading our principle fundraising tool– this newsletter. Another element of the Bagby Family ministry has been to reach out to whatever community we find ourselves. A family functioning along God’s principles is a powerful witness.  It happens when we are working in Hawaii with our church Hope Chapel; it happens in Nicaragua with our extended community along the Rio Coco; And it happens as we travel along the way. Once a Lufthansa fight attendant stopped us on a flight back from Israel and asked us if the four kids sitting in front of us were ours.  “Yes, we confess they are” not knowing why she asked.  “Well, they are the most well behaved children I have ever had onboard.  They treat me with such courtesy and respect.”  I told her why...it had to do with our Lord and His ways. We have had many such opportunities with our family over the years.  God wants visible witnesses for Him and his ways, to the world around us.  Many of you have families as well who are these witnesses, through your actions, relationships, as well as your words.  We think this is a most effective manner to proclaim the blessings of a relationship with Jesus! The world longs to see Christianity that actually does work! 

Amazingly, our fundraising for the school project and family evangelism efforts have combined into something we would have never expected a few years ago: a ministry disguised as  a coffee business. The Lord has allowed us to open two Rio Coco Cafés this year.  Both are paying their expenses, and we will start 2012 with contributions from the Rio Coco Cafés being added to the child sponsorship money, and other contributions to Project Ezra.  In this rather exciting economy, the Lord has given us another source of teacher salary and school ma terial money. But He has given us more! So many who come into the café in Utila Honduras, and are beginning to come to RCC Vero, are one who would never enter a church. I had a conversation with one this morning as he sipped on a cup of Nicaraguan Dark. I asked if he was a Christian, and he said that he was not sure. That was an open door to an encouraging word to investigate during this Christmas Season.  There will be many more in the days ahead.

Our family and Kate & Dustin Insley are working the cafés as volunteers right now, which is why we can begin to make contributions to the school project so soon.  We want the Lord to use our hands to provide for our students, as He uses our caring words to communicate His Love to those who come to us.  It is a bril liant strategy really, one that has been used by many missionaries since Paul was making tents in Corinth to support his ministry.

Thanks for being with us in this new adventure! We need your prayers, and your continued help in making it all happen. Our time in these next months will be focused on a restructure and new strategy of our school project in Nicaragua, as well as training new volunteer missionaries to work the crowd at the cafés in Utila and here in Vero.  Let us know if you have a desire to serve on our Seek The Lamb team in 2012.  We have need of engaging and passionate followers of Jesus who want to be stretched in their faith and fruit. 

We are blessed to have a faithful team in Nicaragua who carry on the day to day work with over 1200 children.  Tom & Nutie, Danilo, Truman, Onofre, and Augusto are a quality crew who know how to cultivate the spiritual fruit that the Lord desires. Our Project Ezra teachers are making a difference in the lives of their students! Together with you who are providing the prayer support, financial aid, and volunteering your time to help, God has a very effective tool to change lives and eternal destinies.  That is what this Christmas Season is all about, and we are very happy, content, and excited to be involved with you in an eternal work.

  Merry Christmas From all of us in Seek The Lamb! 

May the New Year bring us many more opportunities to work  Together, Making Disciples !

 

Make a Significant Donation to Seek The Lamb!

We are in the month where we pay the “13^th” month salary to our teachers as required by Nicaraguan Labor Law.  All gifts this month are very significant to us.  Please Click on this link to get to our secure Pay Pal donation page, where you can contribute to our school project, or support the missionaries of Seek The Lamb. Our outreach in on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua, on the island of Utila in Honduras, and our teaching ministry in the U.S. is bearing much fruit, due to your prayers and support, and most importantly the Lord’s leading and provision.

We appreciate you who stand with us in this work.  We will all stand together one day before the Lord where we who gave will receive the most cherished words we can possibily hear from our King:  “Well done my servant, enter into your reward.”

Make A Donation to Seek The Lamb

 

Tags:

Seek The Lamb, Rio Coco, Thomas Keogh, Nutie Keogh, Dustin Insley, Kate Insley, Michael Bagby, Laura Bagby, Rio Coco Bean Coffee, Rio Coco Cafe, Nicaragua, Miskito Indians

November 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

Tragedy and Triumph 

 It was a few weeks ago that a tragic accident in   Waspam Nicaragua happened that has changed the lives of all of us.

One of our leaders of Project Ezra is Onofre Zamora, who over the years has become one of the best Bible teachers in Central America.  His weekly radio show, his job as one of the pastors of one of the largest congregations on the Rio Coco, as well as his work with our 1200 students and Project Ezra teachers have made Onofre one of the most effective Christian ministers in the entire region.  He is impacting his culture and making a difference. Lives are being changed as a result of his willingness to say “Yes” to God, in spite of cultural conflicts.

His wife Sonia Fenly Zamora is the organist at the Moravian Church, and one of the pillars of the Christian Community in Waspam.  Sonia suffers from a heart condition that causes her to get dizzy and have to sit for a while.  We love these two saints and are privileged to be on their team.

Obviously when you are effective at making disciples, you become a target for the opposing forces.  On the Rio Coco, those forces are known by name, and are very active in the Miskito culture. Laura and I have had them come into our home there often. They have appeared hovering over my bed, and afflicted me with pain, which one time lasted for weeks until my family in Florida prayed for me.

Onofre’s has a son named Crisler, age 28, who went to college and became a trained agronomist. He was hunting with his brother-in-law when one of the rifles went off unexpectedly, and Crisler was shot in the face.  His death was very untimely, and has affected the entire community.

Since then, God has been moving, and there appears to be something positive that is coming out of this tragedy.  Yet the enemy is attacking, and the battle is furious. We know that God will give us Triumph from such a Tragedy, if we allow Him to work through us and the circumstances. Yet it is difficult.  Indeed it is though many hardships that we do enter the Kingdom of Heaven as Paul declared to his friends in Acts 14.

Today, I received this letter from Onofe. 

Dear Friends,

I recieved your letter of condolence; thank you very much for thinking about us. We really need your prayers, as well as the prayers of other friends and churches who support Seek The Lamb.

I implore you to help us by praying for complete deliverance in the Zamora-Fenlyʼs, because the enemy is trying to wrest control of my family with the events surrounding the death of my son Crisler.

One of my sons has visited a spiritist, according to his account, to seek protection from spells and incantations. This action served to open a door to the enemy, so that he could enter into the family to destroy it. A sister from the Bethel Church in Waspam dreamed that a demon came for my wife, Sonia, demanding her life as payment for his work of protection over my house. The sister visited us and interceded with a prayer of cleansing and deliverance. She also anointed the entire family with oil and told us to ask the churches to pray for us.

 So it is that we seek— that our Christian brothers and sisters would pray this kind of prayer of protection over us. You may include this note in any Seek The Lamb prayer bulletins. May the Lord Bless you.

Your brother in Christ,            Onofre Zamora M.

 

Grateful & Thankful         By Laura Bagby 

 I awoke this morning thinking about the many things I have to be grateful for.  I thought of many of you who have come alongside of our God given journey of faith and adventure.  It is an exciting ride….like a roller coaster…twisting, turning, dropping, jerking, high, low, exhilarating, heart pounding and a whole lot of fun.  

Some of you got on with us and have been riding ever since…we appreciate you as do the many who we have served and given to along the journey.  They are countless and I am sure that you, like us, will greet them on the other side and know instinctively that you took part in their lives.

Personally, I want to thank some of you who recently gave to The RIO COCO Project…

Our Project Ezra schools along the RIO COCO…Thousands have been educated through you… better followers of Jesus,  husbands, wives, children, teachers, leaders, government officials, Pastors and professionals have been raised up through our humble system which has been in operation for over 25 years.  Thank you for joining our Make a Disciple Child Sponsorship Program.  Thank you also for those of you who specifically give to our Teacher’s fund on a monthly basis.  We have used your dollars wisely and faithfully and we believe you will receive your eternal dividends in your investments.

We have watched many organizations come, help and go over the years, but because of your faithfulness we have had a lasting and eternal impact upon our Miskito brothers and sister’s . 
Tom and Nutie Keogh are significantly used to bring an even more personalized impact for the Kingdom through many of their personal relationships they are growing.  God is putting His people in place to have their part and we thank you for taking yours right where you are.

 Tim & Lanie Bishop, our office manager, has handled your gifts and generosity with a heart given over to the cause of Christ as well.  She has served with us and been a part of our lives for at least 16 years.  She is an unpaid servant of the Lord and does it for His glory (and perhaps some sympathy towards us…we can be so lame and pathetic at times).  She has been a right and left arm to us and truly a God given friend.

Our RIO COCO Café/Utila…began with some of you supporting the beginnings of such a grand God appointed endeavor.  A miraculous, life changing opportunity for all who serve in it or walk through it….God has undoubtedly been in our midst and His eternal affairs are being well taken care of and we thank you for taking part with us.  Dustin and Kate Insley are the resident missionaries who carry on the mission with intensity and joy as a newly married.  They thrive as does the ministry.  We will send “disciples” back to their respective countries altered for eternity because they came through our midst and yours.  Our presence is also impacting the Utilian community in a big way so we thank you for joining us for this part of our journey.  We need your help.  It is another faith endeavor which will involve many hands like yours participating with us.

Our children have begun their journey of participating with us by faith as well.  Some of you gave to their “missionary” cause as they traveled to Utila to get the project off the ground.  Thank you so much for your help.  Not only did we get it off the ground, we began to work it and they had their chances to give of themselves to those coming through and the team that came to serve with us.  Beautiful moments for us as a family.  Thank you for your contributions to us so that we can live and serve.  It is our daily desire to Live for Christ and to serve His cause alone.

As a family, we are endeavoring to serve him together in the opening of our next RIO COCO ministry center….The RIO COCO CAFÉ/Vero.  We had to move our roaster.   Our very generous friends, Richard and Joyce Mills aided us greatly at their Truss Factory providing us with some space to roast when we first began our roasting operation here in Vero.

The time has come for us to enter this community via our efforts in a Rio Coco Café/roasting room/bible study gathering place.  We will retail our coffee and sell by the cup.  The concept is to train “workers” as missionaries here and allow them to participate at the Rio Coco Café/Utila where they will be able to talk with the internationals with ease.  We can’t do abroad what we are not doing at home so we hope to share the powerful concept of taking seriously ministering right where they are….mmmmm what a eternally biblical thought.  It is a wonder how few think about that one!

My children are beginning to think in that direction as they serve and give of themselves through this ministry/business/family affair.  The two older ones actually declared their college major in business.  The two younger ones are IN businesses (dolls, bags, bikinis, pouches, jewelry, mixes) of their own making and they have also been a tremendous help to the various Rio Coco projects going on.  The rumor is the youngest member of this tribe IS the CEO.  A guy at the gym told Michael last night, “Hey, I saw your CEO today…she looked very busy!”         A sign in her work room says, “Wish it, Dream it, Do it.”  Next to her bed is a sign I bought for her which reads, “JOY”.  This is the best thing Moselle brings to the table wherever and whatever she may be doing or not doing is joy (during the kitchen chores she is known to do her ballet  or dance moves which doesn’t bring much joy to her other siblings.  They tell her, “Stop dancing Moselle and do your work.”)  I am with her…why work when you can dance?)  Or better yet I think just WORK AND DANCE at the same time.  She is an intense, fun, articulate, ambitious, sometimes deaf blend of utter creative genius with occasion slips into laziness.  Well loved for sure and picked on by her siblings (I do believe it keeps her humble).

Arielle is still 13, but she acts like a loving caring mom who loves to give care to all…especially her siblings.  Thus, her appropriate nickname with her family is “mom”.  She has become the family nutritionist and a kind of health nut which we love.  She doesn’t just talk about getting into shape or eating right…she actually has the grit to “do it” and stick to the things she decides to do.  It is a truly distinguishing factor of which she has gained great respect for.  She has initiative and takes her responsibilities seriously.  I love having her by my side to accomplish life with….she has become one of my greatest blessings & work out buddies.  She also has taken the responsibility over Padi, who is an unmotivated Kat and has begun to train her into a well groomed Kitten.  She even has her eating better.  Her new project is Latte Art…trying to make designs on top of the milk foam.   She is learning the art of taking charge over her life and willing to take all the necessary steps to get where she needs to go.  It is a deep blessing to have someone so close take so much initiative in all the areas that make our lives run.  She has been a willing vessel of great service and love.  I feel like she really “gets it”... A life dependent and led by the Spirit….a good useful life for sure….unfortunately she has a sick sense of humor (like the rest of us).

Lukas has been growing into manhood and taking on more responsibilities.  He has become our chief roaster and production manager and is presently being discipled by Mikaela who needs to get away from burlap sacks (she is allergic).  He has been busy making shelves, painting, cleaning for The Rio Coco Café/Vero project…the self sacrificing work has been impressive.  He is learning the art of dying to self.  A very hard one for us all, but necessary to true Life….it is a transition from thinking more of God than self and serving others more than self.  A process for life…for all.  He is making that cross over into responsible adulthood and truly coming to life.

A milestone for parents is to begin to recognize that your children are becoming more like you in those traits that are from Him.  It brings us joy to see them take responsibility over themselves and to care for one another.  They get along well and have their occasional Kat fights which is quite amusing.

Mikaela is coming into her own and has been owning the vision of our lives with the many facets of Rio Coco.  She is well respected by her “co workers” (Luk, Air and Moz) and friends.  She has a sign in her room that I found that describes her, “Delightful”.   She keeps us laughing when she is in the moment.  If she is in her task mode (like someone we know), I say, “Shall we ignore each other ?”.   I have learned that I hate talking to anyone who is not giving me eye contact.  I tell her my time is too valuable not to get full attention…her time is getting too valuable herself not to give or receive full attention.  She does walk with quite a bit of wisdom for a 20 year old.

 However, we, her parents, have together 50 years more life and wisdom inducing experiences than her and Lukas (19).  At times, we tire of “discussions” and the two little girls ask, “Why don’t they just say, YES?”  As they age, they do begin to have more opinions and ideas.  We love it and hate it.  Sometimes I just want to give ‘em slaps.  I don’t, of course.   I just “feel” like it and Michael and I have our own personal ranting and raving parties (mostly me ranting…Mrs. Emotion with deep passion…I swear I am going crazy…but he assures me I am not)

We are doing well as a couple,  parents,  team,  partners,  friends, lovers, servants, missionaries, business associates, fellow carpenters, etc…It is a sweet spot in life for us all and we intend to max it out.  Thank you for being a part of our journey.  We like having you on for the ride.  Your presence as been stabilizing to us and we are grateful for you.                  Laura

 

My New Refrigerator Magnet

                                                          by Michael Bagby

I remember this day well.  We had just finished walking through 7 miles of mud and chest high water to get to the Coco River. I was tired and cold. I hadn’t had anything to eat all day.  We arrived on the riverbank, and I tossed my backpack down for a few moments of rest before unloading the horses carrying our outboard motor and boxes of school supplies. It was then that the wife of our friend Trano walked up and handed me a bowl of hot, steaming rice.

Somebody took this photo just as I was ready to take my first bite.  It was incredible! I have never tasted a bowl of anything more delicious! And as I sat there enjoying the moment, I was so thankful for God’s provision for me.

These past few weeks have been filled with strange things happening around us.  We had a rock thrown up from the weedwacker which hit the sliding glass door and shatter it.  In a few days, the septic pump stopped working, and the house filled with odors of sewage.  Grass in our yard began dying in five places around the house. Arielle and Moselle’s computer, which they purchased with their wages from selling coffee, got knocked off the table, and stopped working. Light bulbs in the kitchen began burning out – three in one day! In Nicaragua, we have had truck breakdowns with costly repairs, light poles on our property fall down, and other “unexpected” events that are trying all of us. The repairs have been costly.

Laura and I realize that we are under attack, and the enemy is trying to discourage us as we plow ahead with the building out of the Rio Coco ministry here in Vero Beach, and work with the kids in the Project Ezra schools.

The reality of a Christian is that life is often difficult.  I know that many of you are saying “Amen” as you try to balance the checkbook each month, and deal with personal and business setbacks.  Relax!  Its not nice, but it is normal. 

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. But while the disciples stood around him, he got up and entered the city. The next day he went away with Barnabas to Derbe. After they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying, “Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.”                                    Acts 14:19-22

    The challenge for me is to remain in the presence of God in the midst of these “tribulations”.  This is the lesson that the Lord is attempting to teach me in this season- that He is there and together we can walk through anything. I’m a slow learner, but by golly,  I’m starting to get the picture. And here it is: He’s right beside us in every circumstance!   Pay attention to His voice as you walk it out. He is there to guide us, comfort us, and provide for us!  This is the great stress reliever of our faith.                                              MB

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are fully engaged in the Rio Coco ministry here in Vero Beach, as we move the coffee roaster and prepare the café for ministry.  Already the Lord is showing us that He has a plan that is bigger than ours.  Last night we were working with our friend Brad, cutting wood and preparing countertops.   Suddenly a young man appeared inside the front room– it was 8:30 pm, and our door was open, and the lights were on.  He asked us for directions to Route 60, because he was walking to Inverness, which is about 4 hours away by car.  He was holding a Mapquest page with directions, and said that “It says that it will take me 2 days and 14 hours to get there.  I have already been walking two days.” After talking to this boy, we discovered that he was 15, and running away from home. His father was being too harsh, and he had to get away.  He had been suspended from school for 10 days, because he cut out of classes one afternoon. 

We told him that it was a dumb plan to walk across the state of Florida to Inverness, especially through the swamps west of Vero at night. Brad began talking with him, as Laura and I began praying.  It turns out that the boy had been part of a youth group in a church in his hometown, and that he knew about Jesus.  He was in rebellion against his father, who was divorced from his mom.  After more talking, Brad called the father, and in two hours the father and grandfather arrived.  It was then that Brad got a word for the father: “You are holding on to bitterness, and it is affecting you and your son.  He is a good boy.” When the father protested that his son was not, Brad turned to the grandfather and said, “The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.  Was your son like your grandson?” He nodded “Yes”. The father was shaken.  Brad prayed for them, and together, three generations drove home together, pondering how God showed up and met them at the Rio Coco Café.  We gather inside and rejoiced at what God had done!

What an encouragement for us!  We know that this coffee ministry in Utila and here in Vero is reaching people who will never walk inside of a church. We are a week or two away from opening for business, yet God showed us that He is already Open, and ready to touch many who walk through the doors! Pray for us as we walk through this process of opening this ministry location. Ask God to provide all that we need to get everything in order, and that we will have extreme favor with the communities on Utila and here in Vero Beach.                                                                                                    Laura & Michael

 

For Christmas this year,

give a personalized gift

that will be  enjoyed by all!

“Your Private Label Coffee” 

 

Imagine the joy of giving a bag of

coffee with your special photo as part of the label knowing that as you give, children on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua are being blessed with education.

 

We make it Easy and Fun to create

    your own “Private Label Coffee”:

 

1) Choose a name for your coffee, and give us a logo or photo; send it to us at lambagby@cs.com

2) We will design a label for your coffee; (included in the price!)

3) Choose any of our Nicaraguan coffee: Altisimo, Altisimo Dark, or Negro Fino, Los Dos, or our Esmeralda Mexican Decaf.

 

Ten    8 oz. Bags    $99.⁰⁰           20 bags          $189.⁰⁰

Ten    12 oz. Bags $129.⁰⁰               20 bags                    $239.⁰⁰

 

For more information please contact   Michael Bagby at lambagby@cs.com or tel. (772) 633-6808

 

Voted “Best Gift” last Season by the A & M Coffee Club!

Your Donation is Welcome!

Many of you are switching to our secure online donation page to make your monthly support for your Project Ezra student, Seek The Lamb missionary, and contribute to our building and education fund.  Thanks for your faithfulness! It is only through your gifts and prayers that we are able to accomplish all that has happened over these past 27 years in our adventures along the Rio Coco in Honduras and Nicaragua, our study travels to Israel and Greece, our outreach on the island of Utila, and our discipleship ministry in the United States.

Thank You!

Click here to make your donation!

 

Thanks for taking the time to be with us this month!

 

Seek The Lamb, Nicaragua, Miskito Indians, Project Ezra, Thomas Keogh, Tom Keogh, Nutie Keogh, Dustin Insley, Kate Insley, Laura Bagby, Michael Bagby, Utila, Rio Coco Bean Coffee, Rio Coco Beans, Rio Coco Cafe, Rio Coco Cafe Utila, Honduras, Christian,

October 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

  

A Man Who Made A Dent

                                                          by Michael Bagby 

 

There are few people who leave a dent on their world.  One who did was Keith Larkin, who passed on last week to the rewards of eternal life with Jesus Christ.  He died on his birthday at age 88.

Keith was a WWII Air Force Pilot who flew almost every plane in the Air Force inventory. After the war, he became       famous as the inventor of the light weight headset.  His company, Plantronics, was very successful, and Keith  bought property in the Sierra Mountains and founded a camp, Deer Valley, for underprivileged kids, which he ran for many years until his profits from Plantronics were gone. It was then that he and his wife Cynthia began  another company in their kitchen which they called ACS, manufacturing lightweight headsets.  Another fortune was made.  That is when I met Keith.  It was 1985, and he had purchased a ship from the Canadian government, loaded it with food, and was setting sail for Haiti. I rode up on my bike, walked aboard the “Good Samaritan”, and began a conversation with Keith that lasted for the next 20 years.

When he ran out of the ACS money, I watched Keith begin another company in Ft. Pierce manufacturing     fiberglass campers that turned into houseboats (brilliant design!).  Laura was actually the model who sat on top of the “Otter” when it made the cover of “RV News”.  He and Cynthia also were making flights to Haiti in their   Seneca, delivering many pounds of food, medicine, and other supplies to the many needy families. Over the years, “Air Care” supported many ministries, including our school project along the Rio Coco. It was Keith who flew young Laura Uyeda to Honduras before she married me, to check out if she really was ready for Fourth World living. It was during that flight over the Western Caribbean that I realized just what an outstanding pilot Keith was- we both began dozing off after a big lunch at our fuel stop in Cozumel Mexico, yet the altimeter never wavered more than 100 feet off our assigned altitude. He could hold altitude and heading better than an autopilot, even while half asleep!

The fiberglass business didn’t turn over the millions, so Keith started another headset company, “Pro Tech Communications” and again made it big, before a      technology partner pulled the plug.  Keith was a man who was always thinking, dreaming, and planning his next business success so that he could again have a bankroll to fund the next ministry. It happened often at a   restaurant, where he would suddenly get inspired and begin drawing on a napkin.  He had a file cabinet full of those napkins. At the same time, he would do things like show up for dinner at our home wearing two different shoes. “Nobody will notice” he told Cynthia.    10 Seconds after walking through the door, Lukas said “Uncle Keith, did you know that you have on two different shoes?”

Keith had some major accomplishments for a man who dropped out of high school at 17 to join the Army Air Corps.  He designed every headset used by NASA from the Mercury project through the Space Shuttle. The first words heard from the Moon came through Keith’s invention. He also fed thousands of kids in Haiti, and around the world. He funded pastors in India through his friend Danny Lehman, the director of YWAM Hawaii.  He started the Great Commission Bible School in Oregon in the 80’s.  The kids camp in the Sierras, Deer Valley, touch many who were positively influenced for the Lord. His efforts helped us educate thousands of Miskito Indian children.  Until he ran out of steam a few years ago, Keith was always active in missionary projects.   He was an    inspiration for all who knew him. 

How many people do you know who made a million dollars and gave it all away- twice!

What can we learn from Keith’s life? 

• We are all given talents and abilities by God, and if we are persistent in using them, then He can accomplish much through us. If there was one characteristic that Keith displayed, it was persistence.  Although a natural at design, he had many “electronic” challenges to overcome to make Plantronics, ACS, and Pro Tech Communications a success. He persisted and many were blessed!
• We are only conduits for the Lord.  What He gives us is for His use, for His purposes. He owns it all, and when He tells us to direct His resources in a certain directions, many good things will happen. When I met Cynthia, she was driving a  snazzy white Jaguar yet within a few months, she had sold that, along with her jewelry, to fund ministry.  Cyndo later became the queen of TJ Max and drove a Buick and had fun doing it! What an     attitude she and Keith had about their resources.
• It is okay to make mistakes in the Kingdom, as long as we learn from them. Keith had many ideas that failed – like his scheme to fly fresh strawberries from the Central Valley of California to Las Vegas. The market was simply not there, and the overheated strawberries stunk up the cabin of his airplane for months!
• We must have childlike faith that God will lead, and God will provide- in all circumstances.  Keith hated paying aircraft insurance premiums.  He considered that a lack of faith that God would not take care of God’s airplanes, even if there were accidents.  His “nose gear stuck-in-the -up-position”  landing at Georgetown in the Bahamas was a classic.  He shut both engines down on final approach, and had the presence of mind to hit the engine  starter buttons to get the propeller blades horizontal before the touchdown and skid on the nose down the runway.  God did provide a repair for that accident, and Laura and I actually helped him rebuild the nosecone.

Keith and Cyndo had one objective in life- make money through their business and use it to fuel the    ministry of the Kingdom.  Keith is the real inspiration  behind the Rio Coco Bean Coffee business. 

Thanks Keith for setting an example for us all! 

 

Believer or Living Witness

                                                      By Laura Bagby

Actions do speak louder than words.

“Do you believe in God?”, asked Arielle in a conversation at our bbq party during our last week on Utila.

“No, I believe in myself and doing it on my own. “, replied a kind, capable dive instructor from the shop next door.

“Why?”, Air  asked wanting more specifics to this mystifying answer.

“Because I believe I can take care of things by myself and I don’t like asking anyone for anything.  I believe in MY SELF.” she replied confidently.

Arielle quickly spoke: “Oh, well,…..when you run out of your “Self” and doing things by yourself,  just know, God will be there for you.”

Arielle is very matter of fact in her approach to people and issues that come up around her.  I made a comment of gaining some weight after not working out as hard as I needed to on Utila.  She glanced at me and said in her most logical tone, “You can do something about that.”

“Yes I can… will and already starting doing.”,  I said, so glad that I had made my decision to begin doing and not just complaining.

The difference between being a Living force of influence and an entity that simply “believes” is in one’s  willingness,  surrender and actions that follow.

 I have watched my God be there for Arielle on countless occasions where she surrenders her will for the good of others.  She is continually a willing vessel coming under our authority and doing what needs to be done for the greater good of others.  I am thoroughly blessed by her existence in my life.  I feel like the Proverbs 31 woman when it says, “her children rise up and bless her.”

On my 51^st birthday and 23^rd anniversary (day after birthday) I found myself feeling the blessing  of having a God that loves me, a husband that adores me, my children who rise up to bless me, parents that are still involved in our lives and friends that express kind encouragement to me….all of these having a treasured influence in my life at this juncture.

God has been there every time I “run out of my self” on every occasion just as Arielle declared to one of our friends on Utila, an accomplished woman teaching others how to dive.   Because of Arielle’s own unique experience living a surrendered life, she could express without hesitation, God’s presence & faithfulness.  It is common knowledge around here that we all “run out of ourselves” and have a true need beyond our own capacity to do, to be or to become.  The more we see who God is, the more we sense our dire need of Him.  He is perfect and complete lacking in nothing.  With Him, all things are possible.  Without Him, we can do nothing of eternal value. 

Dustin and Kate, married, September 18^th are back in Utila living the surrendered life of hearts wanting to see others come into the fullness of Christ and true relationship with God.  A beginning of a whole new era.

We faced the passing of an era with one of our dear friends and inspirations, Keith Larkin who died September 28, 2011 on his 88^th birthday during the reading of Keith’s favorite Psalms 23 by his son, Kevin.  Keith was one of our heroes of the faith who we had the privilege of knowing, enjoying and learning many basic principles of life from.  He was a genuine genius, full of life, creativity and inventions that would be first penned out on napkins at restaurants.  Michael says he was the best pilot ever and he was absolutely driven to make money just to give it all away.  He did so by the millions.  A great man of God.  He suffered with Alzheimers in the last seven years…the last two being his hardest.  He passed with his family surrounding him peacefully into the arms of the One He served.  We will miss him on this side of heaven.   Yet we will continued to be inspired by his life and his everlasting gift to us…we are but conduits of God’s life, resources, gifts, talents and money.  Money, to Keith , was only a commodity that was to be used for eternal work and we are only the hands and servants that this resource passes through.  I am sure he is receiving his just rewards from the King Himself.  He lived LARGE and I smile just thinking about him and his beautiful wife Cynthia.  Our regards and prayers to you and your family, sweet Cindo.

We also suffered the loss of the son of Onofre and Sonia Zamora, our Project Ezra Bible teacher, friend and partner along the Rio Coco.  His son, Crisler accidently died when a gun discharged while removing a scope when he was hunting with his brother-in-law.We are mourning with our friends.  Thankfully, Tom & Nutie and Whitney who understand loss of this magnitude are right there for the family and friends at this time in Waspam.  God is using them greatly and we are thankful for their  loving presence amongst our Miskito family.

God surrounds us with what we need in life...not always what we think we want or care to have, but He gives us what we need and does so without fail.  We walk forward knowing that He knows best and wants only the best for our lives regardless of how we may feel or think.  He is Sovereign and in Him alone do we place our trust and our hope. 

It seems like the older we get the less time we feel  we have.  All these death and life experiences cause us to once again focus on the important, the impacting, the influencing factors that lend to the eternal…..not just for the here and now.  The Bible says, without a vision, my people perish...it implies “allowing opportunities to slip through our fingers” as we hold our hands out not taking the time or effort to close the spaces up in order to catch the opportunities that pass.   We want to be people of action for His eternal plans and purposes. Not our will , but His be done for His glory and honor.  We pray that you will continue to join us on our journey.                          Laura

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We made a road trip of 3380 miles this past month from Florida to Michigan to participate in the wedding of our dear friends Kate & Dustin. It was well worth the drive.  The manner in which these two made decisions and followed God’s leading in truly inspirational. From their meeting in Nicaragua in February 2010, they both knew something was going on to bring this Maui boy and Michigan girl together. They made Godly decisions along the way as they attended the Great Commission Bible Institute together, where they were not allowed to have a “relationship”.  So they focused on the education and experience, and God worked out the details. Now they are husband and wife, and our Team Leaders for the ministry on Utila. It is a beautiful thing when young people submit themselves to God’s ways and plans.  The Best!

We are here in Vero Beach for these next weeks moving our coffee roaster to a new location, and making arrangements to open another coffee ministry location here in Vero Beach. In this economy, we are trying to be creative about fundraising for the school project in Nicaragua (Keith Larkin Legacy!).  We are quite amazed at what the Lord is doing with the coffee evangelism model that He has presented to us.

In the near future, we are traveling to meet with our teachers in Nicaragua.  All is well there except for the  health of our project director Truman Cunningham, who is suffering from diabetes related illnesses.  Unfortunately health care in Nicaragua is very expensive outside of the government clinics which are understaffed, and very very slow.     Truman needs a lot of medical tests and treatment in these next weeks, and is asking for prayer and help.  Please keep him in your prayers.  Truman is the leader of the project in Nicaragua, and the enemy would love to sideline or eliminate him from the playing field.  Once again, your prayers and support are essential to the literal health of the project. We thank all of you who have been so faithful over these decades to keep things moving!       Laura & Michael

 

This Month again we are giving away Free Coffee!

Join the A & M Coffee Club this month and receive a free 12 oz. bag of our Nicaraguan Altisimo Coffee.

Incredibly Delicious Coffee Delivered to Your Door Each Month At Fair Trade Prices! 

 

Here are Four Very Good Reasons why you should join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club.

1) 10% off our retail prices!

2) Free Delivery for orders over $50!

3) A monthly letter from Arielle and Moselle explaining things you need to know about coffee, life, etc.

4) You may change your order or cancel at any time!

Sign up is simple– 

Call Arielle and she will take your order and payment information.  

Call Arielle @ 772-766-6033!

Remember, your monthly purchase of Rio Coco Bean Coffee will help us educate  hundreds of children along the Rio Coco in Northeastern Nicaragua.

We have some very special prices this month on our coffee webstore. You owe it you yourself to check our this page.  It will help you sleep at night knowing that you took advantage of a great opportunity.

Click here to order Rio Coco Bean Coffee!

 

We Welcome Your Donations!

We have operated on the "Team Concept" for over 27 years, and through all of us doing our part as God assigns us, we have together accomplished many notable things.

1) We have educated over 15,000 children in our primary schools along the Rio Coco in Honduras and Nicaragua;

2) We have constructed many school buildings and provided many children and adults with books and learning materials;

3) We have hosted numerous pastoral training conferences in Honduras and Nicaragua;

4) We have hosted a weekly radio show on the "Rio Coco FM" station featuring Onofre Zamora, one of the most capable Miskito Bible teachers;

5) We have sent four members of our Miskito staff to Israel for Bible training;

6) We have delivered tons of emergency relief supplies to desperate families in Nicaragua, Honduras, and Israel.

7) We have hosted Bible training seminars in Centra America, Israel, Hawaii, Florida, and other states.

We know that many of you are now using our online donation page to make your contribution to our school project, missionary support, and child sponsorship program.  We thank you for your faithfulness!

Click here to make your donation for this month.

Thanks for taking the time to be with us.

 

 

 

Seek The Lamb, Rio Coco Bean Coffee, Utila, Rio Coco, Nicaragua, Honduras, Project Ezra, Michael Bagby, Laura Bagby, Dustin Insley, Kate Insley, Tom Keogh, Nutie Keogh

September 2011 CSC

The Conchshell Chronicles

September 2011

The Journal of Seek The Lamb

16 Seconds of Wisdom

                                                          by Michael Bagby  

  At the end of last month, I found myself singing an old Randy Stonehill song “I’m turning 30” as I walked around the Rio Coco Café in Utila. I knew that I was actually turning  “30 x 2” on the first of September.

“Hey it just a number!”

“I have a ten year old daughter!”

“I am wiser and still can run and swim like when I was 30”  (almost)

My friend Jon called me up on my birthday and asked me “So what wisdom can you pass on to me after 60 years on the planet”

To which I replied to my young friend who has yet to see 50:

 “Jon, you are not ready to hear what I have to say, besides it would take 16 hours to tell it all.”

To which Jon replied: “Mike, stop walking around in the cow pastures, clean off your shoes, and give it to me in 16 minutes.”

So we reached a compromise based on the amount of wisdom I had to impart which amazingly coincides with Jon’s attention span:  16 seconds.  

  (Jon & I & Paul the Apostle share a sarcastic streak at times!)

So here it is: 16 seconds of wisdom from one who has resided on many places on this planet since his parents brought him into the world in 1951:

Know what God has given you, and be diligent to manage it well. Each of us has been given an area of   responsibility that we are in charge of.  God wants us to lead and manage within the boundaries that He has established for us.  When we step outside our  boundaries, we are to defer to the proper authority established by Him.                   

(That took me 16 seconds!)

 May I pass on some practical application of this all important principle of life?

I have two churches that I am accountable to: one in Maui and one in Vero Beach.  In Maui, Craig and Jason lead Hope Chapel; In Vero, it is Buddy and Larry. These four are long time friends who have been given the responsibility for the running of those churches.  I am to defer to them in church matters and serve them in my capacity as a teacher and small group leader.

A few years ago, Craig asked me to speak at the Sunday morning service. He told me that I would have 45 minutes to speak.  I responded “What if the Holy Spirit tells me to take more time?” Craig quickly said: “The Holy Spirit already told me that you have 45 minutes to speak.” I thought about it for a moment and concluded that he was right. The Holy Spirit had already given him the plan for that Sunday morning service.

Recently there was an issue of church discipline that prevented me from accomplishing an important task for Rio Coco on time. I was thankful that I could trust my pastors in this matter, even though I  didn’t know all the details. There is so much freedom in not second guessing your spiritual leaders in areas where they rule. I trust all these guys, and as my spiritual   shepherds, they have my best interest at heart, even if on rare occasions they might make the wrong decision.  My role is to follow, period.  And give my advice when asked.

May I take this principle a further step?

Husbands, lead your families.  You are the one God has given the responsibility for your wife and children. It will be you whom He asks on that final day about what you did with that beautiful woman and children that He gave you. Be diligent to lead in a caring and understanding manner. Tell your wife in private what you need from her to help you lead your family. Set the spiritual and daily agenda for your children and follow through with your decisions.  Don’t let past failures keep you from present challenges.  In the Kingdom, we have permission to fail on occasion, as long as we learn from our mistakes.

Wives, let your husband lead the family and assist them when you can.  When you have something to say about his leadership, speak to him in private, never in front of the kids.  He will listen and decide. Devote yourself to the care of your children, and together with your husband, manage your household. Know that he will make occasional mistakes.  The bigger error would be to challenge his leadership because he is not perfect.

Children, give honor to your parents.  Follow their advice. Conform to their standards as long as you are under their roof. Assist them in the management of the household economy. Care for your home and property as if it was yours. It is!

In ministry, know that God has given the responsibility for that ministry to an individual, or couple, or group of “elders”. If you are the leader of a ministry, lead by example. Be diligent to work it fully, allowing yourself to attend to all the details at least once.  Never ask a team member to do something that you have not done yourself. And never give responsibility for a ministry that God as assigned to you to another.

When you volunteer to serve on a ministry team, discern what your leaders are doing, and fit yourself into their plan, and follow. Always play your part on the team. Helpers who come alongside the team with their own agenda will often do more harm than good.

Many problems in families, churches, ministries, and business come from not recognizing your boundaries, and stepping across to pick up something that is not yours.  When we recognize what we are individually called to do, then there is so much freedom and stress-free living.

Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark. 

                                                                          Deut 27:17

I don’t have to worry about my finances.  God tells me to seek His Kingdom and His righteousness, and He will take care of the rest. That is in His area of responsibility.  I don’t have to worry about what strategy my church is using to reach my community, or what is being taught in the Christian Education classes.  I just have to follow my pastors.  It’s their responsibility.  I don’t have to expect that people who walk into my home, or the Rio Coco Café to change their morality or belief system. That is God’s and their responsibility. He gives me my part to reach out to them with love and respect.

I do have to faithfully lead Seek The Lamb, Rio Coco, and my family, and do all I can to make these successful.

That’s It!  And that is my 16 Seconds of Wisdom (with application) for you!                          MB

 

From Utila to America

By Laura Bagby 

 A bittersweet departure from Utila, this island off the north coast of Honduras where we arrived at the beginning of June to begin our coffee ministry.  Utila is part of the Bay Islands. Bugs began to swarm in the last few days we were on Utila, but the fruit and opportunities were difficult to leave.  As I looked on our new dock with our  burlap coffee bags providing shading on our last day, I noticed five new “guests” enjoying the breeze and shade. I thought, I have not met them yet nor had the opportunity to get their names or see their faces.

  I had to finish off my newly designed jewelry and product display table. We were also talking to some of our “old” timer guests who were visiting us to say good bye….many of them were dive instructors from the dive schools that surround us (there are five!).  We thoroughly enjoyed them and their constant visits to us over the course of the two months.

Our team saw the literal transformation of a piece of property on the water with an incredible breezeway for our guest to enjoy.  We felt God Himself brought it all into existence with a group of well functioning team members with great attitudes to do His will and pleasure.  We continually felt His joy as we saw one completion after another with all of us delighting in the results.  

Michael led us in the most incredible group sessions on the Bible that directly impacted and spoke of our intentional moments we were experiencing. It was often revelational and confirming for me.   The team was responsive and effective -even our hired worker, Robert got into the Spirit of things and began to find the joy of the Lord in His handiwork which he took more and more pride and creativity in. 

The shop truly began to buzz with Life and excitement as people began to flow in.  We met people from virtually every country and theme of life.  We attracted the high life and low life of the island.  It was VERY interesting.  I felt continually fascinated by the compassion and insight the Lord gave me for each individual that came through.   Each feeling the specialness of a God breathed entity that was now providing them with a bit of home, hospitality, joy, attention and service. 

Many came and were actually in awe and really appreciated being in our midst to the point of asking us if they can come to “help” just so they can be around us all more.  We had some of our “new” friends volunteering to clean and paint our fences.  Ivar and Anna from Holland were on the stairs and we had Israel (from Spain) cleaning another fence & getting a kick out of Moselle who was learning Spanish from him.  He ended up cooking some ceviche, ahi (tuna) and patata tortillas….Amazing!  He became a disciple and Michael had opportunity to minister the Lord to him before he had to depart back to Spain.  So many beautiful people to love and share true Life with!!!!!  

Elen is a French girl from Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean who is a dive instructor at Deep Blue next door.  She has become a great friend, and had heard about our relationship with our Creator a few times from all these three girls in the photo with her!

What a blast it was for all of us!

Favorite Subject, favorite drink, favorite setting in a favored time of harvest.  Nothing more satisfying.  It was hard to leave for this reason.  We are looking forward to seeing many of our new friends again.

Dustin and Kate will wed on the 18^th of September and will return to Utila as da kine “ministry partners”.  We are rejoicing over this. Michael will be performing their ceremony in Michigan and we will have the privilege of meeting more spectacular people at the wedding celebration!  We are excited.  Many of our friends from Maui will be coming for this momentous event. 

After our mission’s conference in St Cloud in October, we will head down to Nicaragua to see Tom and Nutie and the rest of our Miskito family.  We are looking forward to that as well.  Then we will head to Honduras to continue our ministry on Utila….It is good and right to feel the passion and privilege that we do to be able to serve the Lord in the ways that we do. 

We are coming into our season of reaping some of what we have sown over these years of obedience and perseverance.  He is allowing us more stories to be able to tell of His greatness and wonder.  In the past eight weeks, we all agree that what we saw with our eyes and experienced in our hearts, was more “stories” than most people get in a lifetime.  The miraculous confounds the mind and the “norms”.  It breathes Life, Hope and an undeniable evidence of God fleshed out in us and through us.  It never fails to get the attention of even the darkest soul.  We have shared stories with many.  

We, in Christ, are meant to provoke the world to wonder and by His grace to lead them to the Light of eternity.  I love living out stories worth telling! The eternal fun has just begun.                                                  Laura    

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

Laura and I were walking along the eastern shore of Utila one morning, gazing at the mountain range on the mainland 20 miles away– beautiful peaks that soar above the ocean to almost 8000 feet. These are the mountains that I flew over and around from 1987 to 2000 when we lived in La Ceiba.   I paused and thanked God for being gracious enough to allow us to begin a work in this country once again, where we have relationships with friends from 20 years ago. The ability to see a vision that God gave in 1995 come to reality is truly humbling, and prompts shouts of worship to the Almighty! We give thanks to Him, and many of you who have been with us since those early refugee days when we  began the school project, and others of you who have come aboard to assist in this critical phase of building an           evangelism outpost for a generation which doesn’t know about a personal relationship with our Creator.

I Love sleeping in my own bed– especially after two months living in the natural, non- air conditioned, buggy environment of Honduras. Life on this island is like living on Maui 50 years ago.  Food items are limited and expensive, and the electricity is the most expensive in the Western Hemisphere (26 cents a kilowatt hour!) As an American I have my right to live in a cool and comfortable environment! On Utila, that translates to multiple jumps into the ocean daily to cool off. However there is incredible underwater scenery when you jump in. We did that in the morning at 6:30 for  a morning swim before arriving at the Café at 7:30 for our morning study.

We realized that most of the people walking into the Café were naïve or clueless when it came to understanding the spiritual world. Many had experienced “religion” and most were turned off when it came to the things of God. We so enjoyed our moments of conversation, for me especially with those from Europe and Israel.

We know that some of you have been called to come and participate in these conversations, and discipleship efforts.  Consider a time, and let’s begin making a plan.                                                                                  Laura & Michael

 

 Rio Coco Bean Coffee

This Month we are giving away

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Join the A & M Coffee Club this month and receive a free 12 oz. bag of our Nicaragua Altisimo Coffee.

Incredibly Delicious Coffee Delivered to Your Door Each Month At Fair Trade Prices!

 Here are Four Very Good Reasons why you should join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club.

1) 10% off our retail prices!

2) Free Delivery for orders over $50! 

3) A monthly letter from Arielle and Moselle explaining things you need to know about coffee, life, etc.

4) You may change your order or cancel at any time!

  

Sign up is simple–  

Call Arielle and she will take your order and payment information.  

 Call Arielle @ 772-766-6033!

Remember, your monthly purchase of Rio Coco Bean Coffee will help us educate

       hundreds of children along the Rio Coco in Northeastern Nicaragua.

 

Go to www.riococobeans.com to order coffee.  Click on the "Specials" for tasty coffee at a very good price.

 

To Make a Donation to Seek The Lamb: 

We know that many of you are sponsoring our Miskito Children, supporting a Seek The Lamb Missionary, and helping with the funds for the school project in Nicargua.

Here is a convenient manner to make your donation- through our secure Pay Pal account.

Click here to direct your giving. 

And Thanks for taking the time to be with us!

 

 

August 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

What Do We Need? 

(You will be surprised!)       by Michael Bagby

 We are going for it folks.  Right now, this month of August, we are at work in two corners of Central America attempting to reach out to native indigenous Miskito Indians, as well as the foreign visitors to this region.

Our Objective: To see them all become members of the Family of God and be productive in their lives here on Planet Earth.  We want to help them connect to their eternal destiny as well as fulfill the purposes that God has for them here.

It can be an overwhelming task.  There are many obstacles to success in these projects, yet we are moving forward with faith that God will provide and if we continue to have the courage to do our part, He will do His.  The potential rewards are huge!

Look at these courageous workers!  Ted, Tom, Nutie, Sonie, Karen, Augusto, Danilo, with

In these past months, we have asked you to pray specifically for Project Ezra, and the Outreach to the Island of Utila.  But the question we always have to ask ourselves is:

“What do we really need to do the ministry that God has called us to?”

In our primary school project along the Rio Coco, we could begin our list of needs with money, skilled teachers and administrators, reliable outboard motors, and many gallons of gasoline.  That is our natural thinking. Actually when we began the refugee school project in 1986, we had none of those.  However, apparently we had the two things that the Bible says we need to do ministry. 

Two Things?

In Biblical history, there was a time in the 6th Century B.C. when the Jewish refugees came back from Babylon to reconstruct the Temple in Jerusalem.  One of the leaders of this project was a priest named Jeshua.  For the Temple to be rebuilt, they needed wood, stone, and other building materials, along with food and pay for the workers, military protection, and skilled artisans. However, God gave Jeshua something even greater. Read what the prophet Zechariah, who was part of this team, recorded:

Then the angel showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord. Satan was there at the angel’s right hand, accusing Jeshua of many things. And the Lord said to Satan, “I, the Lord, reject your accusations, Satan. Yes, the Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you. This man is like a burning stick that has been snatched from a fire.”

Jeshua’s clothing was filthy as he stood there before the angel. So the angel said to the others standing there, “Take off his filthy clothes.” And turning to Jeshua he said, “See, I have taken away your sins, and now I am giving you these fine new clothes.”

Then I said, “Please, could he also have a clean turban on his head?” So they put a clean priestly turban on his head and dressed him in new clothes while the angel of the Lord stood by.

Then the angel of the Lord spoke very solemnly to Jeshua and said, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: If you follow my ways and obey my requirements, then you will be given authority over my Temple and its courtyards. I will let you walk in and out of my presence along with these others standing here.    Zechariah 3:1-7

Jeshua was given the two things which would guarantee the success of his ministry:  Authority from God to do the job, and Access into God’s presence for direction.  These are the two required elements for success in     ministry:  Authority and Access.

Authority is what a policeman directs traffic with.  He has a badge given to him by the government that makes disobeying him a crime. Although he physically cannot force an eighteen-wheeler truck to stop or turn, his authority can, and usually does.  When God assigns us work, the first thing He gives us is the authority to work in His name and in His power.  All else happens because He has given the word. Jesus taught us about this authority in his encounter with the Roman Centurion.

And when Jesus entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, imploring Him, and saying, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, fearfully tormented.” Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”

But the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed. “For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.”

Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel.                                                                                             Matthew 8:5-10

The centurion was used to working under authority.  It was only way he could do his job as a soldier.  It is also the only way we can operate successfully in the Kingdom- under God’s authority. Only when He gives it does anything of eternal value happen. It is His Authority that allows favor to fall upon His workers, and supernatural things to happen. He is the one who directs His people to put forth their efforts in a particular direction, using His resources for His purposes.  Many of you who have given, have prayed, and actually traveled to participate with us. This is the result of your sensitivity to God’s Authority over you and all you have.

Once God give us His authority to do His specific work, He wants us to come into His presence to receive direction.  Proverbs 16:9 says:

The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.

Many steps in God’s plan are often not what we would logically think to do. Start a school project in one of the most remote corners of Central America? With nor resources? Or how about our airplane ministry? For ten years we flew a Piper Seneca twin-engine aircraft from Florida to Honduras, and used it to  support our school project.  We never had a budget for this aviation ministry, and logically it didn’t make sense to own such a piece of equipment.  Yet it became one of our most valuable assets. 

We took our three Miskito Indian leaders from Nicaragua to Israel in 1997.  That didn’t really seem like a good use of resources, according to our logic, yet that trip directly resulted in a film abot Israel that has been shown throughout Miskitia, a relief ministry in Israel from 2000 to 2003 that helped thousands of Christians through a difficult time, a book on spiritual life, pastoral training conferences in Nicaragua, a Miskito teacher going to school for a year in Jerusalem, six study tours in Israel, Greece, and the Caribbean, and many classes and seminars in the United States.  What didn’t make logical sense really changed the way we do our ministry.

God’s plans are often far beyond our own.  Access to His presence is the only way we will get direction.

Authority from God and Access to Him are the basic necessities for any work of God.  Without these two critical elements, we are operating on our own strength and wisdom, and ultimately our efforts will result in little or no fruit.

When we first went to Utila in 1989, little did we know what God has planned for us.  We began to get a glimmer in 1995, when we started to sense that Utila would be a great place to plant a church to reach out to the European, American, Israeli, and Australian young travelers who flock to this island.  Now 16 years later, we are here, taking it step by step.  Reaching out to those who God is placing across our paths.  At the same time, Tom and Nutie, and our Nicaraguan team lead by Truman is touching over 1220 children every day in the classrooms along the Rio Coco.

We have been amazed at how God directs us, and allows us to accomplish so much with so little, for such a great purpose!  Yet I have to constantly come back to this principle in the third chapter of Zechariah to remind myself that we already have all the necessary things to accomplish our mission.  We are called by God to reach these children along the Rio Coco and these young people on Utila.  He has given us unique strategies to accomplish His mission.  We are often clueless as to what the next step is, and then He nudges us in a certain direction. It is such an amazing way to live our lives, and if I could only totally relax and enjoy the ride, I’m sure I would still have some brown hair on my head.

Many of you have been with us all the way.  You give, you encourage, you pray!  You are the evidence of God’s leading, and His Authority over all of us! 

Thanks for being so faithful. !                                                               MB

 

 Lamb Bleatings        By Laura Bagby 

 

 Life is all about choices.  We can make them on how we feel at the moment, or what we know to be true.  Isn’t is amazing to reflect back on things we have done in days past, and realize that now we would do it a different way? Maybe its maturity that makes the difference.  Maybe it a greater sensitivity to the Word of God and His Principles in our lives.  Maybe it’s the courage to obey God in the small things of life as well as the big.

We are all about understanding God’s principles, and His will for me, and putting it into action.  Watching our children “grow up” is such a graphic example of this process.  Sometimes they do what we tell them, and things work out.  Other times they don’t and choose their own way, and there are consequences.

I always come back to the Word of God.  It is the cement ground floor of my life, which I build everything else on.  I find when I go with God in a particular direction, things do work out, even if it doesn’t appear like it will at the moment.  Here is one principle that I have been meditating on.  The Apostle Paul shared it with his friends in Corinth long ago.

“Remember this---a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop.  But the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.  You must each make up your own mind as to how much you should give.  Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure.  For God loves the person who gives cheerfully.  And God will generously provide all you need.  Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.

As the Scriptures say, “ Godly people give generously to the poor.  Their good deeds will never be forgotten.”

For God is the one who gives seed to the farmer and then bread to eat.  In the same way, he will give you many opportunities to do good, and he will produce a great harvest of generosity in you.”

Yes, you will be enriched so that you can give ever more generously.  And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will break out in thanksgiving to God.  So two good things will happen---the needs of the Christians in Jerusalem will be met , and they will joyfully express their thanksgiving to God.  You will be glorifying to the Good News of Christ.  And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the wonderful grace of God shown through you.  Thank God for his Son---a gift too wonderful for words!”  2 Corinthians 9:6-15

(Here at the Apollo's Temple in Corinth.)

 

God has gifted us with a life full of opportunities to practice these principles on a daily basis.

In these economic hard times, it seems that the Lord challenges us even more to live up to the occasion of generosity in order to defy the seemingly dire circumstances that life throws our way.  In doing so, we have witnessed God in action enriching our lives in ways one could never explain with mere words.  He is a God of abundance and He does not live in accordance with the rules and limitations of this world.  He makes His own rules and is the only One that can actually follow through with perfection and style.  I really appreciate Him for this and the more “needy” and dependent I become, the more I see His beautiful hand of mercy and kindness reaching out to me just to let me know that He is there and He cares.  He is a Father that cannot let me down and proceeds to find ways to meet me in my deepest darkest places of life.  I choose to worship Him with my life and my being and still at times I do not feel that this is adequate praise to offer up to Him.  He is worthy of so much more, but I strive to give to Him my all, my best and to declare that I love Him as my Lord…the One I put in charge of my Life and existence.  He cannot steer me wrong and I trust Him.

Our prayer is that many of you will come along for the next season of adventures He has for us.  Our Miskito friends, leaders, teachers and fellow disciplers, Tom and Nutie Melrose need your prayers as we continue to give out what God has poured into our lives to use for Him.  Please join us in prayer and in giving generously for His honor and glory so that many will express praise for your cheerful participation.  We are investing in the eternal.  Please consider adding to your eternal reward with us….

On September 1^st, while we are in Utila doing our coffee ministry, we will be celebrating Michael’s 60^th Birthday.  It is  big one for me because I celebrate a life of a person that not only talks about “doing” things for the Lord, but actually gets out there and accomplishes more than I think is actually possible.  In reality, I have seen the impossible accomplished through the Lord and His power working through this willing, persistent, long suffering, consistent man of vision, hope, faith and love.  There is not another who I can say I respect more than my strong, loving husband, solid father to our children and faithful servant to our Lord Jesus Christ….continuously practicing his faith through giving to the poor, strengthening the saints, giving out what he has in Bible studies and choosing to live a life of discipline in mind, body and spirit.      I am blessed to be along for the adventures God grants through him.

Gus Acosta, thank you for your extremely timely word of encouragement.   You really blessed us at a critical moment. Since you have known Michael longer than I have, your words about his life testimony were powerful.

This has caused me to want to ask all of you out there if you could please use the enclosed envelope to give a word of encouragement to Michael for his 60^th birthday.  His language of love is words of encouragement and I know it would bless him to hear from you.  Sharing those words will be the “big” way we will celebrate his 60^th when we return from Utila in September. 

Mahalo……                                                    Laura

 

 

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are in our second month of ministry on Utila.  Have you called us yet on our “Magic Jack” phone?  You can reach us at 772—252– 9545.  It is a free call.  We are usually home in the evenings.

This month, Mikaela and Lukas are with us, along with our friend Joe Miller from Vero Beach.  We have quite the team making a big splash on this Caribbean Island.  Many conversations about our favorite subject– Truly Abundant Life with God.

In the meantime, we are working out the day to day details of a life of ministry.  Just like Paul worked in the marketplace in Corinth, trying to sell enough tents to purchase the food for his ministry team, getting tired, often discouraged, and often he was beaten and jailed, we too deal with the day to day struggles.  That is why I am often encouraged by Jesus words in Matthew 6:

“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God* above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.“

We are blessed to have the call of God on our lives, as are you.  We know he has the plan, and as we follow it, all will work out according to His will. Today we will have issues that will arise.  They may be “relational”, or “physical”, or “financial”.  Can we enjoy the bumps in the road and trust that God will get us through.  The older we get, it seems the more we are willing to not to get too excited about “today’s” troubles.

We plan to be back in Vero Beach on September 3rd.  After that we are planning to be at a wedding in Michagan in September, and a Missions Conference in Florida in October.  We hope to see many of you along the way.                                                                                                                          Laura & Michael

 

Make A Contribution to Seek The Lamb this month!

 

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 Here is one of thousands of Miskito Indian children who have been educated and inspired spiritually because of our efforts these past 27 years.

 

 

 

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Order your today by click here on our special offer page.

You will enjoy a cup of Rio Coco!

July 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

 

 

 

Keeping Your Eye On The Ball

by Michael Bagby

 

There are times when you know that you are on track.  Sometime it is a rather unpleasant confirmation.

We are all suffering illness!  Really!  All our leadership team in Nicaragua is dealing with some physical illness this week.  It started two weeks ago when our project director Truman was hit with severe illness that was connected to his diabetes.  He is in recovery, but progress is slow.  Our school superintendent Augusto just returned from a few weeks downriver has some internal organ issue that requires trips to the doctor.  Our Bible teacher Onofre was hit with a bodily infection that has taken its affect, and this just a few weeks after his wife Sonia, who is the organist at the Moravian Church in Waspam, suffered a heart attack.  Even Tom Keogh got off the airplane trip from Managua last week feeling “really bad”.  I have been suffering from some inflammation in my colon for these past weeks.

Is this a coincidence?  Hardly.  It is an attack from the enemy to discourage us and get our mind off our objectives.

My friend Pastor Buddy Tipton was visiting us a few days before we left Vero Beach, and we began talking about the discouraging events of the past weeks, and how it has taken the wind out of our sails emotionally.  

We have had some financial surprises that have also weighed us down with preoccupation. 

Buddy made an interesting comment to us: “If things are going well, get ready, because things will change.”  Buddy has been pasturing for almost 40 years and speaks with experience.  He went on:  “In Ministry, there will always be good and bad things happening, and these things will have the tendency to discourage and worry you, and take your attention off the objectives that God has given you.  We have to develop the ability to stay focused even when things are happening around us that would normally distract us.  We have to keep our eye on the ball.”

(I often throw bread to the seagulls at the beach and they have to keep their eye on the bread to catch it.)

He then shared a story that was told to him by an older member of our church who was a special forces soldier in the Vietnam war.  It seems that this Green Beret was part of a team that was assigned to cross the Demilitarized Zone, and attack a “sanctuary” base of the Viet Cong which was located inside North Vietnamese territory.  It was supposed to be a top secret mission, but when they began to approach the landing zone in the Army helicopters, the enemy was alert and waiting, and they opened fire with machine guns.  Men were being hit and dying before the helicopters touched down, and once they landed, the soldiers were rolling out and crawling through the grass, terrified of the enemy fire.

 In the middle of this chaos, their Captain stepped out of his helicopter and walked to the front of his men, who were hugging the ground tightly.  This captain calmly surveyed the situation, and then did something extraordinary: He took out a cigarette, tapped it lightly on his Zippo lighter, lit it, and slowly took a few drags- all the while bullets were zipping by him, and bending the tall grass, and kicking up dust. Then he motioned for the platoon on his right to move out, and the soldiers all got up, began returning fire, and took out all the “welcoming committee” that had killed many of their comrades.  The entire team moved out of the LZ and arrived at the base, and completely destroyed it. It was a successful mission for one reason:  Their leader was unfazed by the distractions of the bullets. He stayed focus on the mission, knowing that the lives of all his troopers depended on his ability to remain cool and confident in the face severe distractions.

He was right.  When all the attacks of the enemy come, we must learn to stand firm, and stay forcused.  Listen what Paul says to his friends in Ephesus:

Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.  Therefore, put on every piece of God’s armor so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil. Then after the battle you will still be standing firm.                                                                   Eph 6:10-13

Financial Woes?  Relational Disappointments?     Critical Words Spoken Against You By “Friends”?   Health Issues? Failed Plans?  

These are normal parts of the Christian Life, especially for those in leadership positions.  When they all happen at the same time, as it has with us these past months, you can definitely get distracted and take your eyes off the ball.

This seagull did not take his eye off the ball.

Pastor Buddy is correct. 

When things are going smoothly, get ready, because it will change.  And when you are felling overwhelmed with all the missiles and bullets coming at you, it’s time to stand your ground, because this too will change.

 Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy.  For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be mature and complete, needing nothing.                            James 1:2-4 

Pray for our leadership team in Nicaragua!  We are making some great progress on our spiritual agenda this year.  Our teachers are displaying more maturity, and our students are responding.  This our enemy does not like.  He thinks that the Rio Coco is his place.  He thinks he is in charge. We have had personal encounters with him often over these past 27 years. But guess what? He is defeated, and we are standing firm.  Now please fire your spiritual missiles and pray for good health and protection for our leadership team. 

Pray also that God will provide all the resources we need to make a difference in the lives of our 1227       students and their extended families.                               MB

 

Lamb Bleatings        By Laura Bagby 

 

While at a graduation party, my talented singing and flute playing friend and gifted chef husband told us about a guitarist they had discovered and wanted to share some of his music with us.  We sat and listened and were mesmerized by the accomplished gift of this talented and well rehearsed guitarist (since the age of 4) playing a concert.

I was struck with the glee it gave me to listen and hear my friends rave about this man’s gifting.  I looked at my two friends who are very gifted themselves in the things they are doing and their beautiful sweet hearted family and felt blessed.  I saw in them more of the gifting in them aching to come forth in full force.  The thought I had was, “in due time, it shall blossom in its fullness.”

Gifts are great especially when you give one that suits the occasion and moment and you know that the person you have given to really appreciates what you gave.  It creates joy for me and a sense of satisfaction that makes me feel purposed in my expression of love.

God gave to us many gifts….each one of us are filled to full with gifts from God.  Ephesians 1 declares how we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm.  We lack nothing in the expression of His goodness and fullness through us and as we die to our flesh, He and His specific gifting in us is released.  The world around us then has the pleasure of enjoying those gifts through our lives.

Michael and I find our greatest pleasure in seeing young lives get in touch with God’s gifting in them.  There is great joy in seeing God in action through the gifts that He has so generously given to each one of us.  We are excited to watch the process of God happen in each heart & life with team members and also with the new disciples we will be making on Utila.  Please join us in prayer as we impact the many lives that surround us.                    Laura

 

Now Three Articles from our Maui Girls who are part of the Utila Team.

 These ladies are beuatiful inside as well as out! 

 

 

I could imagine the conversation with the young man travelling to Utila who meets these three at the Rio Coco Cafe:

Maui Girls:  "Would you like a cup of Coffee?"

Italian Young man:  "Yes, Anything from you will be fine!"

Maui Girls:"We are Christians and are having a Bible Study later today.  Are you a Christian too?"

Italian: "I am today!"

 

 

 

God Opens The Doors     By Alex Ebernate 

 It all started two years ago when I began going to a Bible study at the Bagby's house while they were in Maui. I looked forward to every Wednesday to fellowship with all of my close friends and the Bagby family. Each week spent with them, I learned more of their story and was inspired by how they lived solely for God.  I remember watching a video at their Missions auction at Hope Chapel in Maui. The video was all about their Coffee ministry. I was fascinated at how big God's vision was and how the Bagby's listened to what God's direction was for their life.

As high school was ending, I started asking and seeking God's direction for my future plans. I had no idea what I wanted to do, but God opened the door to my Future. This past March 2011 Maik and Laura were at Hope Chapel Maui. Maik spoke that night on how everyone has a God given story. After the service, Maik came up to me and told me about Utila. I knew at that moment that God had answered my prayers for my future.

Now I am on my way to Utila, and I'm excited to be used by God. When I go down to Utila I hope to Incorperate my love for art by painting signs/pictures for the coffee shop and teaching others to do art. The past two years I have been working for Trilogy (a Sailing Company), and have learned usefull skills such as teaching snorkeling and ocean saftey. I have also been Stand Up Paddle boarding a lot in Hawaii with my friends. All these skills are useful in Utila to Teach and reach out to others and draw them into God. I am thankful that all along God has been preparing me for this coffee ministry in Utila. Thank you for all of your love, prayers and support.                                                                Alex

 

  God Planted A Seed     By Tehani Gangini 

 It was November 2009 when the Bagby's were at my house on Maui for dinner. After dinner they started to talk about what they were doing in Nicaragua and Honduras and the new adventure with Seek The Lamb and the coffee ministry in Utila.

I was 15 at the time and God was working in my life and starting to change my heart. Thats when the seed was planted. I'm now 16 and that seed that was planted at my house over a year ago is now growing.

This past January my sister Talia went to Florida and was able to see the Bagby family while she was there. During that time they mentioned how they were going to Utila this summer and encouraged her to possibly come with them. When my sister told me that, I had a deep feeling that God wanted me there this summer. I kept praying about it and kept asking the Lord if this was something he wanted me to be a part of. He kept putting it on my heart so I finally called the Bagby's and asked for all the information and how much it was going to cost. After I officially decided that I was called to go to Utila, I had a month to prepare and I had no money. However God has a plan and we sold many bags of Rio Coco Coffee! He also blessed me through many of my friends.

In the past year the Lord prepared my heart in stand up paddling lessons, and working on the Trilogy because I was able to talk to people constantly and make relationships. I'm excited for the opportunities that the Lord has for me while I'm in Utila. I look forward to meeting new people and also look forward to be able to tell them about Jesus and show them God's love.

I know my experience in Utila will take me out of my comfort zone and I look forward to the opportunities He chooses to use me in ways that will advance his kingdom.

I am thankful that God got me here and that I get to serve with close friends. In Utila I am going to be doing everything I love which is stand up paddling, dancing, designing the Rio Coco coffee shop, and spreading the word of God. 

Thank you for all your prayers and support.          Tehani

 

 Living My Dream        By Whitney Johnson 

 School is out! I can’t believe I graduated from Bible school. Attending the Great Commission Bible Institute for a year was definitely the best thing I possibly could have done with my life. This past year studying the Bible from cover to cover, I have to be honest, it wasn't all fun and games. But it was definitely worth every single second I studied. This past year has prepared me for my life. I feel I have a map of what Gods direction is for me. I have not studied this hard in my entire life.

Being in classes trying to understand and take in everything I possibly could, I felt as my mind was being ripped out of my head. I left class with a bunch of puzzle pieces. I got really frustrating to have all these pieces and not being able to see the complete picture. The more and more pieces I got the more and more I learned that it’s a life journey to put them into their place, and as I keep walking with God the puzzle will be growing and I will see more and more of the puzzle being put together. I have gained a tool chest, I am confident in myself to know that I am capable to attack and wrestle with scripture and be able to put principles in it. I defiantly miss being in school having the opportunity to take time and study the bible. But it is a relief to have time to really process what I learned. I am excited to start putting the pieces of the puzzle together and use all the tools I have gained over the year at GCBI.

 What’s most exciting for me is to start living my dream of being a missionary. Now that I am prepared God has opened so many doors. I am so excited to be used by God where ever He leads me. This summer I get the opportunity to serve side by side with the Bagbys and some of my very close friends.

Utila is full of up coming relationships that God is going to use to tell His story.Tehani and I are going to start a dance ministry with some up coming friends we have yet to meet. I see the coffee shop as a light house, and from there we are going to build relationship to bible studies to seeing the kingdom of heaven advance. The coffee ministry is just the begining of what God has planned to do in the island of Utila.

 Getting the opportunity to use these new tools to those who have a misconception of who God is, is so exciting. Being able to use what God gave me is like trying out my new toys on Christmas day! God is always so good and faithful .There’s no greater joy in life then knowing you are right where God wants you to be and being used by Him in all sorts of ways.                                                   Whitney

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

The weeks have gone by like vapor, yet they have been full!  We are learning so much as we step into new territory, and extend our need for trust in God to come through and do His part of this plan.

The last time we were in Honduras was at the end of April.  We felt the liberty to make some commitments to open the Utila Ministry in July, and that set into motion a string of events to 1) purchase all the items needed to get onto a container to Honduras; 2) finalize the lease on the team house with our friend Dorcus in Texas (she is a Utila native who inherited the house from her father and is kind enough to lease it to us with an option for purchase); 3) prepare our team for the launch of the ministry, and 4) purchase our tickets and go.  All of that is a full time job. 

Add to that the opportunity to do our “Farmer’s Market” coffee service on the pool deck of an oceanside hotel in Vero Beach which began the second weekend in June, and just when the schedule got overwhelming, the sudden notice that we would have to move out of our present building where we roast our Rio Coco Bean Coffee in July or August (when we are in Honduras and Nicaragua), due to the bank taking ownership of it.  Now we are talking multi-tasking!

Laura said to me one morning as all this was unfolding that “God must think highly of your ability to give you so much to accomplish.”  I hadn’t thought of it that way.  I think He knows that I am smart enough to know that if I do my part, He will do His. Fortunately that is where friends like Scott Coffey, Tim Durfee, Kelly Vold, Lukas Bagby, Mikaela Bagby, Lani Bishop and Joe Miller, and others have stepped in to lend a big hand.  You need your brothers! And when you have brothers and sisters like these, you can leave the country and expect things to run smoothly.  This is God doing His part through His People. We are blessed to have friends who will step up to the plate for us and take their swings. That is what this things called Christianity is all about.  Thanks for all of you who are taking your swings with us this month!

Call us on our Utila internet “Magic Phone”.  It is a free call! 772-252-9545          Laura & Michael

 

Give a Gift that will make a difference this month!

Click on this secure link to contribute to Seek The Lamb’s outreach projects. 

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Order now for home delivery.

It is one of the best coffees in this world

 

 

June 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

 

 

We Are Stepping Off A Cliff- Again

by Michael Bagby

 

Our school year in Nicaragua is already half over.  Major strides have been made with your teachers who have spent many days in teaching sessions with Tom & Nutie, and Truman, Augusto, Onofre, and Danilo (our Miskito leadership team). 

All of us are being nudged in a more spiritually focused direction, and we see some shifting of attitudes toward the works of the Lord. 

All this while running our as well as our primary and secondary schools in nine communities. Your 1226 students are being educated and given spiritual direction. 

After 25 years, it is refreshing to feel this “new wind” that is blowing through all the leaders, teachers, and students.  And us as well! 

We launch the Utila Honduras Ministry this next month of July.  

We have four recent graduates of the Great Commission Bible Institute who will be coming to assist, as well as two well qualified friends from Maui.

In the photo are Whitney Johnson, who told me in 2009 that she wanted to become a "Bible Scholar". Now she is! Dustin Insley is a long time friend - we have known him since he was 5 and the son of Kim and Dave Morrel, our coffee expert who spent time at the Vida Joven farm last year.  And the blond is Kate Greenway, daughter of Marilyn and Jeff Greenway, who are the missionaries who manage the Young Life minsitry in Nicaragua - and who grow our Rio Coco Bean coffee. These three are fresh off their trip to Israel with their teacher, our friend Dr Randy Smith, and are very well equipped to begin the ministry on Utila.

Together with all the members of the Bagby Family, we  will have the ability to make quite the splash in these next two months.

 

But we are stepping off a cliff.  However, this is not the first time for such a plunge.   When this photo of Truman and Michael on the Kruta River in November of 1984, we did not know that we were to begin an education outreach to these refugee villages– neither of us had any experience in such things.  Yet in a matter of months, we began Project Ezra which has educated ten of thousands of children and adults during the past 26 years.  We still are!  When Laura arrived in 1988 (photo below), little did we know that she would be learning the Miskito language and starting a child sponsorship project, and raising our four children in a remote corner of the world.  We had never done any of these things before!

We were naïve and hopeful. Actually that is a good place to be when the Lord is in it. When I am faced with a new challenge, of doing something I have never done before, I am often reminded of David’s words to King Saul concerning the giant Goliath.

“Don’t worry about this Philistine,” David told Saul. “I’ll go fight him!”

³³ “Don’t be ridiculous!” Saul replied. “There’s no way you can fight this Philistine and possibly win! You’re only a boy, and he’s been a man of war since his youth.”

³⁴ But David persisted. “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. ³⁶ I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! ³⁷ The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”                                             1 Samuel 17:32-37

Not having done it is not a reason to not attempt it.

So says the experience of many men and women of God over these past thousands of years who have stepped forward in faith to God’s leading, and have accomplished things much greater than they could have themselves.

It’s because the Lord is looking for those with daring hearts who believe His Words, and have the courage to step forward into His Battle for the hearts and souls of this world.

I have had the thought at this phase of my life of the sanity of beginning another outreach project in Honduras, a long way from the Rio Coco. We have a very active project going on in Nicaragua.  Remember the line between brilliance and insanity is very thin. It would be easy to sit back and make my trips to Nicaragua, and not extend myself in new, uncharted territory.  That would be the “smart” thing to do. However, it is very clear that God is leading us in this direction of starting this outreach on Utila.  He placed this thought in our hearts in 1995.  It didn’t work the way we planned. Instead, the next thing we knew, we were working on a project in Israel, which has had a major influence on everything we do!

Now we are back to the original vision, although this time we have a great tool to reach out to the crowds of European, Israeli, American, and Australian youth who come to Utila for Scuba Diving and Fun-

A ministry of  serving a good cup of coffee and using this tool for evangelism is something that we have been doing ever since we began the Rio Coco Beans in 2004.  While providing lots of $$$ for the school project, it has given us quite an opportunity to talk about our favorite things– and we eventually get back to God and what Jesus has done for us.  

A delicious cup of Coffee, and a story that usually turns their head, with a Lord that touches their heart.

We have no budget for this new ministry, but we do have the Lord’s direction, and faith that He will provide, just as He did this past week, when we really needed Him to show up.

Because of our good friend Lorena in La Ceiba, we have the means to get cargo to Honduras safely and at a good price.  Lorena is a dear friend we have known since 1989.  Our kids grew up together in La Ceiba in the 90’s.  We spent a week in Honduras in May, and made plans for Lorena’s container to be shipped in the first week of June.  We began purchasing all the supplies we needed for the coffee ministry, as well as the things for the outreach to the island.  I calculated that we could fit everything into our van and Mikaela’s pickup truck. I didn’t realize that Laura was sending boxes full of sheets, towels, pot & pans, and things needed for the team house that we have leased for this next year. We made plans to meet Lorena on Thursday at the warehouse in Miami.

I took out the seats in the van, and packed the car utilizing almost every cubic inch.  We loaded Mikaela’s truck, and there was still many boxes in the garage. I realized then the extent of Laura’s cargo.  I was happy she was thinking ahead, but it created a “situation”.  I was sweaty and tired, and we decided to rent a U-Haul truck.  None were available that day, and we were perplexed as to what to do.  It was then that my friend Peter called, asking me to remind him what we had ordered to eat last week at the Thai restaurant.  He wanted to get the same lunch special.

Coincidence?  Hardly!  I asked Peter if he had a truck that we could use.  “Yes I do” he replied.  It was the dual axle truck that he uses to pull a horse trailer.  We relaxed, and rescheduled the trip to Miami for the next day.  That evening, we went to pick up the truck, and I noticed a trailer sitting next to the barn. “May I borrow your trailer” I asked.  Peter said: “I don’t know whose trailer that is, but since it is here it must be mine. So yes, use it.”

The next morning, we loaded all the cargo in that truck and trailer.  Since it was a double cab truck, we all road together, taking only one vehicle on the three hour trip to Miami rather than three!

God did provide!  We are stepping off a cliff but God is there to provide.  It is an adventure!

Yes friends, I hope that I never get to the place where I am not willing to step where God is calling, even if it means taking risks, and placing ourselves in uncomfortable situations.

We are stepping off a cliff.  Come join us!  Pray for us! Come to work with us!  Please continue your support of the Bagby Family.  It is a phase of the life adventure that God whispered in our ears over 16 years ago, and is now bringing to pass.  We are going where no Bagby has gone before.  It is a new phase for Seek The Lamb.  We are expecting miracles, and many souls saved and discipled. We know that God has plans beyond our own.

Pray for the courage we need to proceed!  There are many obstacles. There is a reason why God told Joshua four times in the first chapter of the book of Joshua to be Strong and Courageous when he entered the land of Israel.

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”                                                              Joshua 1:9

 

Lamb Bleatings        By Laura Bagby

Life is full of moments that chalk up to memories that last in our hearts and cause our minds to dance with joy or melt in sorrow.  Our lives of adventure have had extremes of both.  Michael and I have chosen a life of faith…intentional choices of obedience that daily involve dying to our own lives in order to implement His.  It has meant being a part of the lives of Miskito Indians from Honduras & Nicaragua for more than twenty years by faith and by the generosity of your efforts and sacrifices.  It has demanded thousands of dollars on a monthly basis to pass through our hands for the purpose of discipling leaders and educating thousands of children through “Project Ezra”.  We are truly grateful for many of you who have been on our walk of faith since the beginning.  You will share in His eternal rewards.

Adventures of faith cause our spirits to soar high and deep and always bring us closer to the heart of God.  Such faith brings with it Hope and causes our hearts to love more deeply the One that we serve.  It draws out the best in us and the worst in us.  We have few dull moments because they are full of relationships and opportunities in many parts of this earth.

 In reference to his newfound walk and adventures with the Lord, our friend Dustin commented his mother : “You can’t make these things up, mom.”  Dustin just completed a nine month study of the Bible with Dr. Randall Smith at the Great Commission Bible Institute.  He is now a bonafide Bible scholar like our friend, Whitney Johnson, who also completed her study with GCBI.  She had informed us in 2009 on Maui that one of her life goals  was to become a “bible scholar”.   Mission accomplished for them and others who just came back from Israel a couple of days ago.  The students went through a rigorous nine month training through the Bible and they completed their “Final Exam”- writing the story of the Bible in their own words citing each of the 66 books.  We attended the graduation last Sunday.  It was a moment worth celebrating because we have seen incredible life changes in many of our friends as they make the transition from “normal” wide-road living to a narrow road of true life and the actual acting out in faith for a bonafide adventure…the kind of “ride” that we can never control or make up.

No reality show or action packed grandiose movie competes with the reality God gives to a person who willingly relinquishes their life for His.  The ride of faith involves moment by moment decisions and hard made choices that frequently go against the normal grain of our world and even fellow believers.  More often than not, it also goes against our own conveniences, comfort and will.  Choosing comes with the gift (or curse?) of “free will”.

Of late, I have noticed that great people that accomplish great things are often people that have disciplined themselves toward a life full of day to day consistent behavior which is displayed in their mentality that says, “I will get the job done.”  After their choice is made, they proceed onward to accomplish what they decided with a host of actions that lead them to the goal.  I have watched Michael accomplish the impossible.  He is a man of action and lots of faith.  He sees the invisible and has been learning the art of bringing various visions to reality.  It is radical being married to a man that has so much to accomplish in one life time.  The world is small to me and my life is humongous…it is the narrow way, but I like it.

I believe we are on our third life time…another faith journey that pulls in all the elements of our combined giftings between Michael and I, our four children and many of our dear friends.  About 16 years ago, Michael and I had a vision that began on the island of Utila, Honduras.  We met our friends Troy and Edith and believed that God had a calling on their lives.  We wondered if God was brewing up a church for the nations.  Many divers from all over the world gathered on this little rock to get certified or simply to enjoy a raw environment & island living.

In 2002, we went on a trip with Craig & Kathy Englert, our pastors on Maui to Europe. Kathy provided “Buddy Passes” and we flew First Class!  On one day, we found ourselves in the old cathedral in Toledo  Spain- a grandiose monument to God built in the 12 century, but now turned into a “tourist attraction”.

It took us a while to find it as we walked around it before we discovered it was always right behind us!

Michael asked, “Craig, what would you do if you had this church?”   We proceeded to talk about serving people coffee, giving them the opportunity for prayer with some worship band playing in the back.”  Michael and I later prayed that God would use us to fill these empty “museums” up with people glorifying God once again and that each one of the huge monuments created and designed to worship God would get back to that very purpose for which it was made.

A few days later we were in Luxembourg visiting Michael’s old school, when we ran into a group of YWAM guys who were singing in the “Place d’ Armes”  in the city center. It gave me hope that God was definitely doing something in those parts of the world.  We  took the YWAM young people to a place for coffee and some sweet fellowship time. It was a moment because God gave us hope that indeed He was doing “something” bigger than our own thoughts and desires. 

In 2008, we wanted to go and see our friends, Troy and Edith again.  It had been ten years.  Michael and I went to Utila and had a sweet time with Troy.  Edith was in the states, God rekindled our relationship and Troy invited us back again.  We took a dive course with our children and had many opportunities to share our faith with the dive instructors, workers, waiters, locals, and internationals from all over the world.  It was the best…Jesus over coffee and dessert.  We shared about true living relationship with Jesus to many and all those we seem to encounter seemed opened to sharing, hearing and listening.  It was beautiful.

We then took our family back with a couple of our friends and really asked Jesus if He wanted us to open up our coffee shop ministry on Troy and Edith’s premises.  “Yes”, was the reply.  We encountered more opportunities of sharing and an equal amount of challenges.  Nevertheless, we were committed and believed God was moving us in that direction.    We jumped off the cliff once again and the pace is fast. God has been showing up on many levels and in many ways. 

We will be receiving our first formal team to aid the process of setting up the Rio Coco Café’ ministry on Utila for the purpose of relational evangelism (over a cup of coffee/shakes/tea, paddle boards, or snorkel gear) and discipleship.  Each of us will be prepared for the sharing of our faith….hearing “their” story, telling our story and then His story.  We have yet to speak with disinterested travelers…the fields are white and ready for harvest.  Anyone with a testimony from God will be effective.  We are excited to see all that He does.  We need Him and your prayers big time.  The road has been rough and draining, but God has been faithful to continue to do His part.  We are doing our due diligence in the process and seeing His results.  Yet there are many more needs in this process to be met and desire to give you the opportunity to be involved with us in this adventure of eternal magnitude.

Some have asked us to be specific so in my effort to do my part so in order for you to do yours… Please pray for these necessities:

1.  A Mission House located between two dive shops (one of our main mission field: divers/travelers)   We hope to offer events for the community as well. This house (two bedroom/bath) and waterfront lot to build on is being sold for $225,000 and the owner is willing to sell it to us for 200,000 and the owner has agreed to rent it to us with the option to buy it within a year (permitting all the rent to be applied to purchase)  We believe this is from the Lord and would love to have some “time sharing” investors like you along for this ride.  We believe this mission will happen by the ministry of many who come and go.

2. Sound System and Video Projector for music and worship and movie evangelism night.

3. People to help with the construction of  the service area and dock.

4. Golf Cart, mopeds, or anything for island transport

5. Your idea’s, giftings, resources and talents to be used to reach this community both local and abroad.

Please take the time to pray for what your involvement may be in this work of eternal significance.  It may change your life as you partake of this faith adventure with us. Dustin Insley will be our onsite manager/missionary, with our other Bible Scholars Whitney Johnson, Micah Olsen, and Kate Greenway, and Alex Ebernate and Tehani Gangini from Maui.  Please pray for their support and opportunities to do the work of the King.                 Laura

 

Making Donations to Seek The Lamb

We have great opportunities for investment in the Kingdom of God.  If you would like to help this month, we would be very grateful to receive your donation.

Please click on this secure link to Make a Differance in the lives of many this month

For donations to help us launch the Utia ministry, please use the "General Fund" category.

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We find our lives being filled with opportunities to grow spiritually.  I notice that we either learn by example, or learn by instruction.  I told a friend recently that I have enough scars on my hands that I am very careful around knives, and power tools.  Consequences teach me lessons. God continually puts us in situations where we can follow Him, or do what we like.  I am finding from my reading of John 14 and 15 that my obedience, and “abiding in His Words” will result in levels of His Presence, His Leading, His Fruit, The Holy Spirit, and Joy in my  life.  It is worth a read to see how Jesus connects our obedience to these important elements of daily living.  Hopefully this critical season of our lives will be one of hearing Him, and Actively Following Him.  I pray that for my children, and all of you who are reading this.

One of the lessons that we are learning is how to better manage His Resources.  We have more opportunity for our “marketplace ministry” and implementing our strategy of a ministry that is partially sustained by a local business.

This is the current “hot ticket item” spoken of at mission conferences around the world.  It is a Biblical model that Paul used, and we are involving our family in many aspects of the ministry/business model. 

It is good to be challenged– at least that is what I tell my kids– although I don’t really like to be challenged myself!  Hey, I am inherently a lazy guy! 

Mikaela is the champ at roast and packaging coffee. 

Lukas is becoming a carpenter. 

Arielle is the supreme foam milk and espresso coffee maker. 

Moselle continues to be the consummate salesman and technical expert.  She IS my daughter after all.

And lets not forget the lettuce crop of this spring!  We had quite the crop! 

We thank you all for being with us in this adventure.  We value your prayers!

                                                               Laura & Michael

 

June Coffee Club Call! 

 

We know that many of you do drink Rio Coco Bean coffee .  We also know that you     want it at the very best price!

So Join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club!

Here are three Very Good Reasons why you should join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club.

1) 10% off our retail prices!

2) Free Delivery for orders over $50!

3) A free gift for signing up.

4) A monthly letter from Arielle and Moselle explaining many things you need to know about coffee, life, etc.

Sign up is simple– just call Arielle and she will take your order and payment information.  She will discuss the free gift options, and take your payment information. You can change or cancel anytime!

Call Arielle right now @ 772-766-6033!

Or you can place your order for Rio Coco Beans Coffee by clicking here!

 

 

 

May 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

In The Slipstream                              by Michael Bagby

 

Sherry Hickman is one of the most effective teachers in the State of Florida.  At least that is what Mikaela, Lukas, and every other student at Indian River State College that I have heard from says.  She teaches Life Science and has authored a book on Sexually Transmitted Diseases. This book has very graphic photos of the results of diseases that are a result of sexual promiscuity and believe me, reading her book will put the fear of God, Satan, and every morally loose young adult in you!

Sherry was over yesterday for Arielle’s Tea Time.  It is the formal gathering for our family and friends around the table for Arielle’s scones and her special teas- all served with panache and Arielle’s personal touch. Sherry had invited a friend to attend the Sunrise Service at the Beach. I was asked to give the message that morning, and we began to talk about our friend’s response to my very-to-the-point message.  In the course of the conversation, Sherry told us how she became a believer and made an interesting comment. “Once I realized who Jesus was and what this thing called Christianity was all about, I just moved into His slipstream and the ride has been pretty amazing.”  

The “slipstream” is what bike riders feel when they get within 18 inches of the rider in front of them.  He is cutting a path through the air, and if you get close enough to him, you start to feel the pull, and you actually have to back off on your peddling to maintain position.  We call it “drafting”. When a group of riders are drafting each other, and changing the lead often (sharing the burden of cutting the air), they can actually go faster as a group than any one of them could go as an individual.

 Sherry said that Jesus has been pulling her along her path, and it is relatively easy to accomplish what she is called to if she stays in position.

What a word for the Seek The Lamb Team! It is obvious that God is pulling us along this season to accomplish some pretty significant things.  Shall I mention a few?

Last week, Tom and Nutie , as well as Truman, Augusto, Onofre and Danilo, spent some days with all of the Seek The Lamb teachers.  It was our second teachers’ conference this year, and again, our team moved our teachers toward a greater awareness of our spiritual goals for the eight communities where the Seek The Lamb school are located. They also equipped them to be able to accomplish these goals. 

In the past decade, our focus has been on education, and we have answered almost every request for teachers in the downriver communities with a “Yes”.  However in the process, we began to overlook our spiritual goals.  The result was a year of problems- including dealing with outright witchcraft against the Seek The Lamb team.  Truman and I were so stressed by this experience that we both vowed to each other that we would never get ourselves into that situation again. This season is a time of getting our teachers back into Jesus’ slipstream. We have been too far behind Him these past years, and it is tough to ride into the wind without a leader to cut the air for you.  That is what the 2011 Project Ezra school year is all  about- Getting into His Slipstream.

This week Laura and I are in Utila, Honduras, making arrangements to open the Rio Coco Café Coffee Ministry.  Last year we spent many days in preparation for a Fall opening of this outreach to European, Israeli, Australian, and North American backpacker/Scuba divers/travelers.  We spent the month of August working very intensely to construct the service area, and position our team for the September launch of this ministry.  However, we soon discovered that we were not following the exact leading of our King.

 As the project leader, I made a few assumptions that were incorrect and missed some critical details of His Plan. That in conjunction of two tropical storms and one hurricane that pasted by Utila in  October/November prevented the opening of the coffee ministry.  Obviously I was not riding in the slipstream of the King.  I was riding out on my own, and no wonder I felt extremely fatigued last fall dealing with all the issues. I am wiser now and I am riding close.  I see His direction, and I feel the pull of His Slipstream.  It is an easier ride this season.

So How do I stay in His Slipstream?  Well, I know according to Exodus 29:42 and many other verses in the Bible that God wants to meet with me daily.  He wants to hear what I have to say, and He wants to give me His perspective on the events of my life.  He also wants to give me my daily marching orders. He is Lord after all.  I know from Jesus’ conversation in the Upper Room with His disciples at the Last Passover meal that if I “abide in His Word”, if I “obey His commands” ,  then many good things will happen:

 John 14:15-16- He will give me a greater measure of the Holy Spirit who will guide me; 

 John 14:21 – He will reveal Himself to me more;

John 14:23 – He and the Father will come and make their home inside me;

John 15:7-8 – He will produce much fruit in my life and work;

John 15:10-11  - He will bring me great joy as I go through my days;

John 15:14  - Jesus and I will be friends.

This is what I call being in His Slipstream.  I have to “abide” in Him.  That word in the Greek is “Meno” which literally means to remain, to dwell.

Sherry is right.  If we dwell and remain in His Slipstream, life gets easier, and many good things happen. We have learned what happens when we get out on our own.

 I hope you will join me in getting in His Slipstream.                   

 We can accomplish more together than we can individually.                MB

 

 

 

 Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby

During a family Bible study of John 13-16, the question was asked to our kids, “What was the main point that Jesus was telling His Disciples?”

Arielle answered,

“Doing things ‘O-MEDIATELY’”. 

We all looked at Arielle, laughed and said, 

 “That’s a very good word you made up.  We like it.”

O-mediately:  the art of obeying Jesus in a rapid manner without hesitating.  Listening and obeying while quickly omitting any bad attitudes.

It was a funny and insightful moment.

I need continual insight from a perspective higher than my own.  I have the capability to get lost in the weeds.   I was literally out pulling some weeds in the yard yesterday.  My mom and dad are coming to visit and I didn’t want my dad to think the “property was abandoned” (as he so aptly put it at one time).  He likes to work in the yard and I didn’t want him having to work SO hard having to pull weeds so I have been trying to conquer little sections at a time.

 Weeding paints a vivid picture on life.  It is the removal of the unwanted pieces on the landscape of our hearts.  The more often we take the time to remove those “pieces”, the easier it is to uproot.   The longer we wait the more effort it takes to get it out from the ground.  If the weed is big and thorny, I   often wait until I get my shovel because even with my gloves on the thorns get me.  Consistent maintenance and the willingness to simply take the necessary action is the key.  Once most of the weeds are cleared, I am able to see & enjoy the beauty of the landscape and valuable plants more readily.  With a clearer perspective, there seems to be more effectiveness in my life and the ability to focus outward and upward.  Of late, I have been inspired by a few individuals around me who seem very successful at what they do.  I study people and have noted that the ones that I enjoy most are ones that enjoy themselves and frequently do not take themselves all too seriously.  They seem to be aware of both shortcomings and their strengths within themselves and are not afraid to admit either.  Genuinely real people are always more attractive to me.   We laugh together, cry together and can share common experiences together.  Sharing moments becomes an experience.

Some of the traits I have noticed in successful life giving people around me are that they are unique individuals who generally….

1.  Take note;

2.  Take action “o-mediately”;

3.  Are doing for themselves and others;

4.  “Likes” to work with others;

5.  Enjoys working with people (both young and old)  with love in their hearts and eyes;

6.  Have the discipline to live by inward rules made for themselves;

7.  Are open, flexible and unafraid of change;

8.  Are thankful and are using their individual gifting to serve others;  

9.  See possibilities and beauty all around;

10. “Weed” consistently.

It has been a season of meeting new people like this.  There are a few of them that maintain the added dimension of the God factor while others have a strong successful pattern of life that has worked well without the eternal dimension.  We thrive on meeting people like this.  As we go about life, business, fund raising, speaking, discipling, and the general market place ministry, we are finding our place in this community, We desire to shine His success in us and through us

We are headed to Utila Honduras and will meet many from around the world.  The mission field is wide open with lots of friends to be made and coffee to be poured.  It is our drink offering that will bring about endless possibilities in relationships.  For now and eternity….

God has been at work … 

Tom and Nutie completed their home in Waspam Nicaragua…a worthy piece of art and welcome to all.  They are involved in countless relationships with our Miskito friends and family.  They are amazingly gifted disciples who are making disciples and truly baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.  They are successful people who are making a difference in their world.  We are so thankful to have them in our lives working amongst us.

  Mikaela, our Rio Coco Shipping director takes charge over many facets of life and has become a true team player and example to her world.

Lukas just landed a sweet job at the gym teaching children to swim.  This was a kind reward of the Lord to him due to his “o-mediate” action to begin his discipline routine at the pool by swimming a few days a week on his own.  Our responses to direction always bears it’s just fruit….

  Arielle & Moselle can pull off from start to finish any event that serves others.  We had an amazing tea time with one of Mik and Luk’s professors from their college.  They are becoming quite the hostesses and total help around the household.  They do make us glad.  They are into serving their Grandma and Grandpa while they visit.  This will be a special time for all of us to share.  Thank you for praying for my mom.  When I went to help them, she did get better and now is here with us.  We are thankful for such a beautiful answer to prayer.

Michael and I are thriving on the faithfulness and care of the Lord in many areas that He has assigned to us to do and care for.  The opportunities abound and we are making the most of our time in honor of the One we serve and love.  Thank you for coming alongside of us in our journey.  It has been remarkable and we do believe that this “second” half of life will be even more effective than the first half.

  Our friend and ministry partner, Ted Lebrecht went home to be with the Lord on Good Friday.  Many of you prayed with us for him.  Thank you.  He celebrates with Jesus now.  We will miss him, but his legacy lives on.                                                                      Laura

 

You Can Make A Difference!

 

This month,  over 1200 children will attend classes in eight communities along the Rio Coco in Nicaragua. They will be taught all the academic subjects as well as a class on the Bible.

  Our 39 teachers will show up each day, and work hard to reach their students. Each month, our team of supervisors will arrive in their village, talk over any issues, teach and encourage them, and give them their monthly salary. 

How does this all happen? Through our Rio Coco Kids sponsorship program, and through your donations to Seek The Lamb.  Take opportunity this month to make a difference!  Use the enclosed envelope and touch a life!

Together we can accomplish more

than we can individually!

 Make a Gift This Month.

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We celebrated Easter Week by joining the production at Central Assembly with our “cardboard testimonies”. This is the end of the Easter Drama, where many in our church display the difference the Risen Christ has made in their lives. The entire Bagby Family was onstage flipping their testimony cards, and it was a powerful witness for all of us.

 My card said on one side “Arrogant, Self Centered Hell-Raiser before he met Jesus in 1981”.  When I flipped the card over, every one could read “Left Maui on a mission trip in 1984 to help Miskito Indians. Started a Christian school project.”  We flipped those cards for five nights, and with the background of very real drama of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection, God touched me in a very deep manner.  He did change me!  I realized all over again where I had begun this journey– in my own self-centered world.  Now He has given me opportunity to work with all of you to change lives for all eternity. And we are finding ourselves doing it more and more as we take opportunity each day to follow His lead, and be obedient to his marching orders.

We have some opportunity this month of May to expand our ministry in Honduras, as well as in Vero Beach Florida.  It all has to do with our coffee ministry, and the Lord seems to be opening up some opportunities to move our roasting operation to a more visible place in the middle of Vero Beach, in a warehouse that will provide Bible study opportunities and greater “marketplace ministry” potential.   In Utila, we are hoping to be open full time in this next month. Both of these locations are prime areas for evangelism and discipleship.  But we need His specific guidance– please pray for that in these next weeks.  We so value your partnership with us!       Laura & Michael

 

 

(This ad is worth repeating)

Four Reasons

to Join the A&M Coffee Club!

 

We know that many of you do drink Rio Coco Bean coffee .  We also know that you     want it at the very best price!

Here are Four Very Good Reasons why you should join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club.

1) 10% off our retail prices!

2) Free Delivery for orders over $50!

3) A free gift for signing up.

4) A monthly letter from Arielle and Moselle explaining many things you need to know about coffee, life, etc.

Sign up is simple– just call Arielle and she will take your order and payment information.  She will discuss the free gift options, and take your payment information. You can change or cancel anytime!

Call Arielle right now @ 772-766-6033!

 

 

 

 

 

April 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

 

Celebrate the Resurrection Every Day!

     And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless. And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world.                                                 1 Cor 15:14-19

 

Why A Recording Studio?

by Jim McCandliss & M. Bagby

 

In the next few months, a team from Maui will travel to Waspam Nicaragua and complete one of the final phases of the Waspam      Discipleship Center:             The Recording Studio.

When we envisioned this building in 2003, we wanted to include activities that would promote Miskito culture, which has been under assault by the modern world.  With the Latino culture first, and now television and the internet, many of the unique qualities of the Miskito culture are vanishing.  Music has always been an integral part of the way if life on the Rio Coco.  The early missionaries used the communication quality of music to communicate many elements of the Gospel.  We designed the building and designated an interior room on the second floor as “Recording Studio”.  It was a typical faith move on our part, yet God has been faithful to supply all the equipment, and now He has supplied us with Jim McCandliss, one of the finest sound engineers in

Hawaii, to come and install the sound insulation, set up the sound board, and connect all the recorders and microphones. 

We met with Jim and his wife Cheryl, who is a leader in the women’s ministry at Hope Chapel in Kihei.  These two have been involved in a ministry in Cambodia during these past years, so they know what working in the Third and Fourth World is like.

Over lunch at Zippy’s with the MCCandliss’ and team leaders Sonie and Will Riedel, we excitedly   discussed the steps required to get the studio operating.  I asked Jim to write down a few thoughts for you all on this project, so that you too can sense the magnitude of what God is about to accomplish.

Thinking about the possibilities that could materialize in the lives of the Rio Coco people through a simple recording studio brings is exciting and humbling.  I'm glad to have a small part in this undertaking.

I've been thinking a lot about the studio, trying to imagine how this technology might affect life in a simple and unsophisticated corner of the world.  Could this technology (this studio) influence the lives around the Rio Coco like the printing press impacted the world?  Maybe it's a stretch…but could these recordings be the vehicle that tells their story.

From what I've read, the indigenous Miskito Indians have cultural roots going back to the 1600's and have remained isolated from the mainstream population of the Americas.  I can only imagine that their culture of music and song is unknown to the modern world and that without some means to record it, would someday become extinct to the current Miskito generation.  Wouldn't it be cool to archive their music for posterity?

Here are some other benefits that I imagine could come from the studio…

1. Creating a means to teach via a recorded curriculum.  Master teachers could prepare lessons for students in other schools…thereby increasing their ability to teach more students in remote areas.  This could be effective for subjects that are especially aural in their presentation.
2. Create programming material for the local radio stations.  Specialist in areas of interest to the river community (such as farming, personal health, family relationships, local events, etc…think "talk radio for the Rio Coco") could be interviewed in a talk-show format and then broadcast,
3. Bible teaching lessons taught by local pastors.
4. Recording Miskito music for radio airplay, distribution, and a cultural archive.
5. Training locals in the technical skills associated with recording, computers, and music technology.
6. Providing gifted musicians and singer an outlet for getting their music heard.
7. Providing worship music for the Christian community…and for outreach via the radio.
8. Provide an income stream to the ministry by selling recording services to local businesses.

Technically we'll be creating a controlled environment with proper acoustics that isolates the recording rooms from outside noise sources.  We are looking for the right insulation material to line the walls with. That may be difficult, but we know that God knows what we need. Since the recording equipment is sensitive to heat and excessive humidity, the studio and control room will require an air conditioning system to keep the equipment operational. This is mandatory for the climate of the Rio Coco.  As with all our projects in foreign places, we do ask for your prayers now for the preparation and while we are there.  This is going to be a huge boost for Seek The Lamb’s ministry in Nicaragua.                                                                                                 JM

Jim is correct!  When we attempted to set up our studio in 2008, we suddenly realized the need for a quiet, dust free, cool place where our team could work. You can see from this photo taken in the summer of 2008 that we do have an enthusiastic team of leaders who understand the value of radio broadcasts, and how this media can be used in our community development and discipleship efforts.

  Please Pray for all the resources needed to finish this job!  See the “Arrows” insert for specifics.                             MB

 

Faithful Is As Faithful Does!

 Here is a significant Biblical Principle:

Just when you think your career is over, many times it is actually just beginning.

This was the story of the famous radio Bible teacher, my friend Dr. J.Vernon McGee, who after retiring from pastoring at age 65 was invited to speak on a local Christian radio station in Pasadena California.  The occasional appearance turned in to a every day of the year “Through The Bible Radio” program that eventually got translated into over 100 languages, and years after J. Vernon’s death, is still heard on every continent every day.

The same can be said of our dear friend Ted Lebrecht.  Ted is a “retired” accountant who began working with his electrician friend Ray Bodie in Lake Gage Indiana as his accounting career was ending. When Ray came to Nicaragua in 2007, he brought Ted, and Ted has been coming back every year since. Ted has spent some of the hottest hours of the day wiring all the rooms in the Waspam Discipleship Center.  When you walk though this amazing building, you will see Ted’s handiwork in every corner! His switches, sockets, and light fixtures will make life easier for us for the next two, three, and four decades.  He has also traveled with us to Utila, where Ted was part of the building team for our coffee business last August.

Ted and His wife Anne have become dear friends and ministry partners with all of us over these past years.  We especially enjoyed spending time with him and Anne at their home on Lake Gage this past fall.

Ted discovered a few weeks ago that he is battling a life terminating illness.  If he doesn’t receive a touch from the Lord soon, he may depart before all of us.  We are deeply saddened by this news, and are praying for Ted and Anne, and their children.  

Please join us in lifting up our dear brother to the Lord.  Please ask God to allow Ted to at least spend a few more years with us so that we can all enjoy the finished work in Waspam together.  

We have really enjoyed these years of having Ted serve so faithfully on the Seek The Lamb team.           MB

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby

 I like exclamation points.

Moselle and I were both sitting in the office and she was working on a story she was writing.  I was also writing and concentrating.  She kept wanting to read me her story sentence by sentence and this was exceedingly distracting to my train of thought, but her enthusiasm was hard to deny.  I turned to her and she read her first sentence,

“Today was like any other normal day!”

Moselle alone would have an exclamation point after that kind of  sentence .  As someone that lives with her,  I could understand why she would use that particular punctuation.  In this story, she was a fictional Spanish character so I told her to take the exclamation out of her sentence and use a period.

Most of her personal moments are lived with great exclamation in virtually every area of her life.  She lives hard and mostly enthusiastically...a real joy to be with, work with and play with.

However at 10, there are a few attitudes that are beginning to creep in that she has tried out, but we are quick to the chase.  She is the fourth and we have grown wise in the ways of non submissive behaviors and the sin that lurks to bite every one of us.

We all battle evil daily.  I hate it, but it is there and a force to be reckoned with if we live in awareness and advancement of eternal affairs.  Each one of us must win our own battles and come to places of deeper greater dependence on the One who has charge over our lives.  To lay ourselves and our wills down is often a painful experience, but necessary in the battle.

One of our friends passed away a couple of nights ago.  There is much grief in the air and lots of prayers are being lifted in our household. Mikaela wrote a quote on Facebook that read: “We all die.  The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”

The memorial is on Friday evening and Arielle and I were discussing how full the service will be because of all the people that loved and respected Bart Simmons.

He was a strong faithful man full of perseverance and good deeds.  He was a great witness for the King and strong influencer of people. He was a beautiful light with a beautiful faithful young wife that will be left to carry on God’s will.  He will suffer no more.  The rest of us here will feel the pain and the loss of his departure, but we will continually remember his impressive exclamation he made upon us through his life and God himself will be glorified even in his death.

How are we at “exclaiming” eternity through our lives?  Arielle said pensively, “I wonder if I am going to have a lot of people at my funeral?”  I told her, “I think you will have a lot of people there to honor your life if you continue to live it well and generously.  You are such a blessing and you don’t just think about yourself.  You have the ability to live outside of your own little world and that is what makes you so mature and influential.  Yep, there will be a lot of people at your funeral Arielle.”

It is good to think about  how we desire to end this time here on earth.  Death teaches us about life.  Life is full of opportunities to  exclaim God’s character through us.  Selfless….loving…..giving...caring.

I purchased a  silver ring that looked like an exclamation point for Mikaela from Nicaragua .  When I saw it, I thought of how Mik makes it a point to bless others as she sees people or makes time to talk to them...especially “forgotten ones” .  In doing so, she exclaims who Jesus is and His life is given out.  I watch her bless others and extend herself out.  She bears the burdens of many and I am quite pleased at her manner of living it out exclaiming the life of Jesus through her choices.  It is good.  She is gaining what I call, “spiritual grit”….the abililty to live beyond her own desires, comforts and conveniences, and to do the right thing for the right reason even when you just don’t feel like it.   One does not exclaim for eternity by simply talking and sitting around trying to understand it all….no, the Kingdom of God is not made up of only words but of power, action, and the freedom to choose.  Then, we live it out accordingly with a sound mind, sincere faith, and lots of under girding love. 

This morning Lukas and Moselle were walking out together.  Luk decided to take his sister to Pet Co.  They talked about it previously, but to see it happening brought a lot of delight to all . Moselle was so proud to be with her brother.  It will be a  precious memory.  Love in action.  Acts of the will that take time. These seemingly little choices of life make up our memory banks of what exclaims the loudest.  God will exclaim Himself through us as much as we allow Him to. Trust and willingness exercised boldly daily. 

There is no perfection in this world, in circumstances or in us.   We are all made of dust.  In all and through all, God is there and cares.  Victory belongs to the Lord & only in Him do we find LIFE.

“Death leaves a heartache no one can heal and love leaves a memory no one could ever take way.”

Walking LIFE out with Him and You.         Laura

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

The pioneer rocker Jerry Lee Lewis said it best in his hit song “A Whole Lotta of Shakin’ Going On”.  The times are accelerating, and people are being tested.  This is a time for “inciting incidents” that have shaken the useless and unnecessary things off our trees.  Indeed, Jesus did tell us that if we were bearing fruit in our lives that God would have seasons of pruning us that that we would indeed produce more fruit (John 15). A whole lotta shakin’ is  going on! We feel it in our relationships, in our economy, in our ministry, and in the physical and political world around us. But be encouraged!  It is we who receive what God is sending for our own good that will come through stronger and more focused on the essentials of God’s plans for our lives. 

I pass that on as a reminder. 

We saw many of you this past month in Hawaii.  Laura was there for over 5 weeks helping her Mom recover from an illness, and she was very successful in her ministry to her family.  She also had the time to reconnect with many of her dear friends from  high school and Christian ministry past times.  It was sweet!  I tried to surprise her after some of my friends supplied me with a ticket to Maui, but we were unsuccessful. Still, it was nice after to three weeks away from my lover to see her again. We met on Maui on Thursday night and the tsunami hit a few hours later! Go figure! And in the next 11 days, we were very well used by our church on Maui, Hope Chapel, to teach at the Friday night and Sunday morning services, speak to the church staff, the interns, our Couples’ Ohana group, and Craig’s discipleship group. We also had a chance to visit our friends and ministry partners at Waipuna Chapel and Kumulani Chapel!  Plus we had many special moments with our longtime friends.  It is always nice to be around folks who love and care for you!  Thanks to you all for giving us such aloha  and caring for us in the way you did!

In these next months, we will be traveling to Honduras and Nicaragua to continue the ministry along the Rio Coco and on the island of Utila. We are organizing teams for this summer. Please stay tuned for details!  We need to hear from the Lord on many many details.                                                            Laura & Michael

 

Three Reasons to Join the A&M Coffee Club!

We know that many of you do drink Rio Coco Bean coffee .  We also know that you     

                                   want it at the very best price!

Here are three Very Good Reasons why you should join the Arielle & Moselle Coffee Club.

1) 10% off our retail prices!

2) Free Delivery for orders over $50!

3) A free gift for signing up.

4) A monthly letter from Arielle and Moselle explaining many things you need to know about coffee, life, etc.

O.K. … So there are 4 reasons.  Even Better!

Sign up is simple– just call Arielle and she will take your order and payment information.  She will discuss the free gift options, and take your payment information. You can change or cancel anytime!

Call Arielle right now @ 772-766-6033!

 

Join Us in The Battle!

 

  It has been 27 years since these two met in the fall of 1984.  Since then,   Michael and Truman have been instrumental in bringing in tons of relief supplies for refugees and hurricane victims,  numerous medical teams, and educating     thousands of children and adults in classrooms  and churches along  one of the most remote corners of the Western  Hemisphere.

It has been a battle, but the life experience of these two  friends has been irreplaceable. Most of this has been made possible by the help of many of you!

This month, you have opportunity to pray for the enclosed “Arrows” and use the enclosed envelope to make an impact on thousands. Please take a moment and consider your part in this month’s ministry efforts.  Your  participation is very important for the schools, recording studio, and lives of our missionary team.

These two and many others need your prayers!

 

Make A Gift This Month!

Click here to make a secure donation. 

Your gifts are very important to us and we thank you for thinking of us in a very special way!

 

March 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

The Lost Championship                         by Terry Borcheller

Champions are not those who never fail, they are those who refuse to quit.

I am a Christian, father of four, and a professional racecar driver. In my life as a follower of Jesus, I have learned a lot, and often God has used my experiences in racing to teach me some very important lessons.

The focus for most racers isn’t just one event, it’s about winning the season championship. A race season has many events throughout the year, and each race awards points for the finishes. A lot of the time in racing you can prepare and do everything right, but you may not win that particular race. In races like this, it is important to keep your focus on the ultimate goal, winning the championship. If you don’t, the way you respond could cost you more than just the one race. It could cost you the entire year.

 Let me tell you about one of the championships that got away.

It was the 2004 Grand American Cup Series. I was driving a Porsche 997 for the first half of the season, and then switched teams to drive the Cadillac CTSV. In this series, each car had two drivers, each taking their turn during the three hour race.  I won the first five races driving the Porsche, then won the 6^th race driving the Cadillac. At the end of the 11^th race, it was a tight championship battle between me and my former co-driver in the Porsche, with one event to go.

The final race was at the Fontana California Motor Speedway. In the opening laps of this decisive race, our Cadillac was severely damaged by a collision with another car while my co-driver was at the wheel. As a result of this collision, we dropped to the back of the pack, and now the car was very difficult to drive. When it came time for my stint, I knew it was going to be a challenge to even stay in the race, much less win enough points for me to claim the season championship.  I was right. The car was a handful and after 30 minutes of driving, I realized that it was impossible to advance our position. The race leader was my former teammate, still driving the Porsche. In my mind winning this race, or getting enough points for the championship was completely out of the picture.

It was at that point that I did something that I had never done in my racing career- I decided to quit.

 In 2004 my career win ratio was 25%. One out of every four races that I entered up until that point, I won.  Many of those wins came on the last lap of the race. I was known around the paddock as one who would find the way to win and never give up.  However, on this day, I had convinced myself that there was no way to win the race, or the championship, and I saw no reason to continue driving. It was obvious to me that my old teammate was going to win the season championship.

 I called in on the radio and told the crew chief to get my co-driver, who had started the race, ready to get in.  I had always finished the race, no matter what. But this day, I wanted to get out. In my mind, it was over.

My co-driver took over, and within 20 minutes, he decided to give up too, and brought the car into the pit. He really didn’t have to come in. The car was drivable, although difficult, but he picked up on my hopeless attitude, and followed my lead to quit.

10 minutes later, the leading car, the Porsche with my old teammate driving, blew up-The engine that is. He was suddenly out of the race.

I was listening on the public address system and heard that the Porsche had blown its engine, and it was then that the Lord spoke to me.  It was not “Daddy” speaking, it was my “Father”. He said very sternly: “Why did you quit?”  I couldn’t answer the question. The reason I quit was I didn’t believe that there was a chance to win.  I had a bad attitude from the moment our car was hit and damaged.  That led to bad decisions on my part.

The next thing He said to me was “Don’t EVER quit.”

God had the season championship all planned out for me but I decided to “lean on my own understanding” rather than trust Him. My focus was all wrong. It was all about this race. In reality I now realize that it was much more important for me to deal with the hardship/trial/disappointment/frustration in a proper godly manner.  After all, I was the closest thing to a church sermon that many of my racing colleagues would ever see. 

God can do anything and He will! When my focus at the race stays right, whether I am winning or not, I am a champion in His Eyes.

A few years ago I took my family to visit the Seek The Lamb schools in Nicaragua. This trip was an eye-opener for my family. We had never been to such a place as a family. Since we had been sponsoring two children through the Rio Coco Kids program, we were anxious to see the schools, and what was actually happening. It was a difficult trip. There was a lot of rain, mud, and bugs. Yet what we saw in the classrooms was very encouraging.  One day while walking through the village of Sawa, we randomly met our sponsored kids. What a nice surprise!

    It is a challenge to educate these kids in such a remote area, and impart true Christian principles to them. There are all sorts of cultural and language barriers to overcome.  If our goal is to see these children become godly adults, and see God impact their culture, we must have a season championship mentality.  I know from my time there that there are days when it appears like we may have lost the race.  But I know there is another race coming up, and we must strive to win the season championship. We must have this eternal perspective on the day- to-day events.

When you are sowing seed into a ministry like Seek The Lamb, we expect to see the fruit immediately. Reality is we show up, do our part, and let God do the rest, even if it seems impossible. I have learned this through my racing career.  God has a bigger plan than I can often discern.  He wants me to do my part, and not quit. That is what makes me a champion.

For me that means keeping myself in good physical shape, and mentally preparing for each race, and keeping my priorities in order during the season. If I win the race at the track but lose my family at home, I don’t consider myself a champion. If I lose the race, but I am faithful to be the man that God has called me to be, I am a        champion.

It is interesting that after the 2004 season, I entered a drought in racing that lasted for many years. It was only in 2010 that I again won- and it was a big win at the Daytona 24 Hour Rolex race.  In this event, I was on a new team, driving a new car.  We were given no chance of winning this “Super Bowl of Motorsports” race. Yet we overcame many issues during the 24 hours of driving, and ended up in second place going into the last hour. It was then that the first place car experienced some weird noise, causing the driver to unexpectantly pull into the pits.  After a quick check, the pit crew determined it was just noise from the tires, and the car returned to the track-- in second place.  We held on for the next hour and finished first!  We were all totally amazed that our new team with no chance actually won the race!

We were the Daytona 24 Hour Rolex Champions, because we never gave up.  Our team received the Upset of the Year Award from the Speed Channel, for all types of motorsport racing. This was a huge honor!

On the racetrack or the Rio Coco, I know that God can be trusted to accomplish His purposes in us and through us. Sometimes it seems frustrating and confusing, and impossible but if we continue to trust Him and obey well will see God move in a very tangible way.

The Apostle Paul had a championship mentality:

I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brothers, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.                                  Phil 3:12-14

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Mikaela Bagby 

 

Life happens quickly - Thing’s take us by surprise - Were constantly being caught off guard

Life is bipolar too. Great events happen that are sometimes immediately followed by heartbreaking  ones.

Sometimes there are so many things going on around me that I forget my goals, my vision, my passions, and become somewhat numb. Doing nothing, saying nothing, just watching the chaos around me. Some things in life happen and no one will be able to explain it, some things we won’t be able to comprehend. Life isn’t pretty sometimes, but it has the potential to be beautiful a lot.

This month has been a challenging one with school, work, family, and friends and it’s been an easy thing to sulk into the sad, helpless, depressed mode that renders me absolutely useless. It’s easy to get into this mode, and a challenge to get out of it.

So the second I may think my day and life just might be the worst day and life ever, I stop and I think.

I think of my family, I think of my two parents that are still married and in love.

I think of the close friends I share everything with.

I think of the good health I’ve been blessed with.

I think of the plans that God has for my life.

All these things that I currently have are things people would kill for because for some, these things just don’t exist or they were taken away from them.

Life is going to happen and things will not always seem fair, but I can’t wallow in the bad situations until a good one comes up to clean me off.

In everyday there is so much potential to be a blessing to someone else and to make a difference.  That is what matters at the end of the day– at the end of my life.

Often I get a chance to do something entirely different and exciting.   Whether is it is walking through the muddy trails of the Coco River, or walking around with my parents on a hot day in Jerusalem, or going to the Roasting Room and packaging coffee, these are opportunities that God has given us to serve and to grow. My life has been full of those moments, and I have a choice to take advantage of every experience, or let it pass through my fingers.

Life isn’t pretty sometimes, but it has the potential to be beautiful. No one should live life in the shadow of their circumstances. Think about what you’ve been blessed with in this moment, and run with it.

Because there’s just no other way to do it.

                          Mikaela

 

Rio Coco Kids

   The greatest concern that these kids will have today is getting a good meal, staying healthy, and doing well in their classroom.  

   Thanks to many of you who are sponsoring kids through our Rio Coco Kids sponsorship program, these four, along with many other children in their community, have an opportunity today to learn practical skills and godly principles for their families.  Thanks for your concern for these kids.

 

 

March Teacher Conference

This week, our team will gather all our Project Ezra teachers for the first training conference of the  2011 school year. 

The conference will be led by Thomas Keogh, who is one of the living experts in Miskito culture, and a very capable pastor and Bible teacher.  He will be assisted by his wife Nutie, and project director Turman Cunningham, Danilo Cunningham, our Miskito Bible scholar Onofre Zamora, and our superintendent Augusto Vicente.

We have an incredible opportunity this week to get the year off to a great start.

Quote of the Month

 

Every life is a story. Whether it is a story worth telling and talking about though, is up to you. People set out with grand dreams of changing the world, falling in love, doing something amazing. But the drift toward the merely acceptable happens almost without notice. That does not have to be your story.                       Donald Miller

 

God is speaking to us this month, on this page.

May we all be not just hearers of His Words.

May we be known as doers.

 

A&M Coffee Club

Did  You forget to sign up for the A&M Coffee Club last month?

The A&M Coffee Club is the only way to purchase our Rio Coco Bean Coffee. 

It’s the best price and best service! And you will be educating kids along the Rio Coco with each cup!

Here are a few reasons to join:

1) 10% off all coffee and products;

2) Free Shipping on orders over $50;

3) Frequent free samples and inspirational photos;

4) Personal letters from Arielle and Moselle;

5) Discount on the Mugly Doll Company products.

6) A free gift for signing up this month!

7) You may change your order or cancel it at any time!

 Can we make it any easier????

Call Arielle at 772-766-6033 to sign up.

She will take your order and payment information on the telephone.

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

I hope that you enjoyed Terry Borcheller’s story of the Lost Championship on page 1.  

When I met Terry years ago, I didn’t realize how famous he actually is– but this guy has his own Wikipedia page.  Until I went go kart racing with him in January, I didn’t really appreciate his skill as a driver! When he moved his family to Vero Beach in 2006, we became friends and soon invited him and his wife Tracy (also a hair stylist) to be part of our couples study. Now Terry and I lead a men’s group that meets every Tuesday morning.  We have grown to love them, and appreciate their gifting.  They have an incredible ministry among the international racing crowd– a group of individuals who have many resources and natural skills, and attitudes similar to Naval Aviators– Very confident with little apparent need for God in their lives. Tracy and Terry are significant role models in this arena!

This past month was full of activities and meetings to get our school year off the ground.  We are planning a work team to travel to Nicaragua the first week in April to install the recording studio equipment in the Waspam Center.  We are also making plans for our summer outreach to Utila.  We don’t have specific dates yet, but please let know if you are interested in helping out in our projects in Honduras and Nicaragua this summer.

What a season we are in! Our government and economic systems are not in the best shape. Turmoil is erupting across the Middle East. Despots who have ruled for decades in that Biblically significant region are falling like dead flies. Democracy may be breaking out, but so could further control by the extreme Islamic factions.  State and Local governments are having to make some hard decisions on their budgets.  We ourselves are faced with hard choices in our project in Nicaragua.  Yet in it all, God is having His Way, allowing these events to move according to His Purposes.  Have you felt yourself being stretched?  Is the Master pruning your branches?  Are you developing the endurance and stamina for the long haul? We are!  Truman and our team along the Rio Coco are.  In fact, we are in better spiritual shape than we have been in years.  It hasn’t really felt good along the way, but we are convinced that God is doing something significant among us and through us.  We thank you who are with us for this incredible adventure!    Laura & Michael

 

This month is the deadline– sign up immediately!

Israel Study Tour - May 2011

 

We are offering an opportunity to travel The Land and study with one of the very best experts on Biblical Culture – Dr. Randall Smith.

This will be a thirteen day trip through all the land of Israel– from Galilee to the Negev. The themes with be the Life of Jesus and the Background of the Bible. Many Biblical sites will be visited.

Since 1997 many of our friends have had the opportunity to study with Randy in Israel, where he lived and trained many of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism guides.  These guides have told us that Randy is the best to go on a site with. We agree! The Bible comes alive!

 

Here are the Key Facts:

Dates: May 19-31, 2011;

Cost: $3700.00 Full Program (including all tips) or

$2400.00 (Land only - you arrange your own flight)

 

Please contact Dottie Smith right away at the Christian Travel Study Programs office for a program outline and all the details.

tel: 863-382-9603    email: ctsp@sprynet.com

 

Rio Coco Beans announces a New Blend:

   Nico Africano 50/50 Half Caf

 

Are you a coffee lover that likes a good cup of coffee but only half the        caffeine?  Then You will enjoy our new coffee creation- a delicious blend of our Nicaraguan Altisimo Dark and Ethiopian Sidamo Decaf.

These two coffees complement each other in a surprising way: Light Spicy Chocolate tones of the Ethiopian with a sweet praline honey taste of the Nica Dark.  And with half the caffeine, you can drink this coffee all day.

Please go to our coffee website to place your order!      

www.riococobeans.com 

 

 Time To Help Out

If you want to make a donation to help our school project, sponsor one of our students, or support a missionary family, please click here to our secure site for giving.

Remember all gifs to Seek The Lamb are tax deductible and really make a differance in the lives of many.

Donate to the School Project

Sponsor a Miskito Child

Support a Missionary Family

 

February 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

        The Conchshell Chronicles                       February 2011

 

Ol’ Jed Becomes a Millionaire! 

 

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed,
Then one day he was shootin at some food,
And up through the ground came a bubblin crude.
Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know ol Jed's a millionaire,
Kinfolk said "Jed move away from there"
Said "Californy is the place you ought to be"
So they loaded up the truck and moved to Beverly.
Hills, that is. Swimmin pools, movie stars.

 

Many of you will remember a television show in the 60’s called the Beverly Hillbillies.  It was the top ranked show for two of its nine seasons. One episode continues to be the most watch show in television history. The storyline was of Jed Clampett, a backcountry man from Missouri who struck it rich through no real efforts of his own, and was transplanted into a foreign culture (Beverly Hills California) where he amazed and influenced the people around him.

As the lyrics plainly explain, Jed was out hunting when a missed shot struck a rock and oil began to pour out.  He had no intention exploring for oil, or making a fortune.  He simply was in the right place at the right time.

    I have often reflected on the life of Jed Clampett. He was a poor, uneducated, unimportant man in the world’s eyes. Then he discovered a hidden resource that God had stored up for him on his property. The remainder of his life was changed by the application of that hidden resource to his existence. He became known as a wise, and influential man.

“The next thing you know ol’ Jed’s a millionaire.”

For many of us, this is the story of us and God.  When we come into relationship with Him, we discover resources that He has for us that we never dreamed of.

Here is what Paul reminded his friends in Corinth:

Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.                                       1 Cor 1:26-29

Paul is describing the experience of Jed Clampett, and many of us.  People looked at Jed and shook their heads. In the Kingdom of God, this is something that happens often– People look at us and wonder how we are able to do what we do.  It is because of God, His plan for our lives, and His resources that gives us to accomplish His mission.

There is one principle in the Bible that stands out: God loves to use men and women to achieve great things. It seems like He chooses those who by outside appearances are unable to accomplish much to do some amazing things. Why? The answer is obvious: 

God wants our achievements to bring attention to Him.

When I traveled to the Rio Coco to work with refugees in 1984, I had no idea that I would get involved in a life-long education project.  After all, if you want to be successful in starting a school project in a remote corner of Central America, conventional wisdom would say to first gather a large sum of money, then hire the qualified professionals, purchase the necessary materials, construct schools, and then begin. In that way, people could see the result of your work and say: “Nice Job.  You applied your expertise, and managed your assets well.”

For us it was totally different. Neither I nor Truman were professional educators.  We had no monetary grants or set funding in place.  We had no books and no buildings.  All we had was a request in 1985 from a refugee teacher, Augusto Vicente, to help him begin a class for some refugee kids.

We had a need, and God had a plan. All that was required was a willingness on our part to step forward in faith, and do exactly what God told us to do. 

He sent us professionals to help us get started:  Sharon Washburn, a bi-lingual teacher from Washington, and Victoria Palacios, a professor of education from Tegucigalpa Honduras who brought her new curriculum which she had just published.  God sent us volunteers from all over the world to help build schools. He provoked our friends at home to help us sponsor our students. In the next few years, God did an amazing thing through us all.  And guess what?

“The next thing you know ol’ Jed’s a millionaire.”

   We had a full blown school project!  One that was reaching these Miskito children with not only education, but practical Biblical teaching.

   In 2002, Craig Englert brought a team from Hope Chapel Maui to the Rio Coco.  Craig and I met in 1981, and he played a major part in me getting saved that fall. He has been my dear friend and mentor ever since.  One day after a rigorous day (it was hot and muddy!) of visiting our schools, Craig and I found ourselves standing alone along the riverbank at sunset.  Craig looked at me and said:  

 “This is really a work of the Lord.”

“Why do you say that?” I asked.

  Craig responded: “Because I know you, and you could not on your best day accomplish what we saw today.”

   You see, Craig had witnessed Mike the ice cream scooper with no direction in his life be transformed by God into a useful tool.

“The next thing you know ol’ Mike’s an effective man in God’s Kingdom (through no effort of his own).”

All of us who have been involved in the education project in Nicaragua have been transformed by our willingness to step forward in faith and do what God directs with the many resources He has provided.  He has accomplished much through all our efforts!  This is obvious to all the government officials and development agencies who have worked in projects along the Rio Coco since the refugee days.

    Seek The Lamb is the oldest and only continuous project along the Rio Coco. 

     Since we officially began Project Ezra in 1986, we have been the only school in many communities along the Rio Coco!  Well-funded projects have come, thrown a lot of money around, and departed over the years.  Seek The Lamb is still educating children. 

Next week, we officially begin our 26^th year.

God has taken us and stretched us in areas beyond our expertise.  We have given sacrificially. We have survived a civil war. We have encountered political and demonic opposition and watched God use us to change lives and equip thousands over the years.  We have become wise and effective men and women because of our willingness to allow God to use us for His Purposes.

“The next thing you know ol’ Seek The Lamb is a bunch of spiritual millionaires.”

As classes open on the Rio Coco this week, let’s celebrate our “Jed Clampett ministry”.  Let’s continue to use God’s resources and amaze the people around us!            MB

 

Project Ezra Begins Year 26!

 

Selvin Salazar is one of thousands of children along the Rio Coco who have attended Project Ezra schools since we opened in 1986.   This week we open for our 26th academic year! 

It has been a remarkable adventure.  What began as a relief effort to refugees from the Sandinista War in Nicaragua has resulted in now 26 years of academic and spiritual training for many children like Selvin.

Obvioulsy by the scab on Selvin's nose, he is a hardy player......

Many students like Selvin are now teachers themselves.  Others are active in their communities as leaders, pastors, and Sunday school teachers. Many have gone on to high school and university.  The region has changed for the better due to our education project.

It is only through the efforts of many that Selvin and others now have a greater opportunity in life.      Thank You All!

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby 

 

TIPS

“To Insure Proper Service” 

This weekend was a busy one with Michael and I going to Sebring to help with a fund raiser craft show and visit with our friends. Mikaela and Arielle were involved in a weekend Encounter for youth at our church.  Mikaela was a worship leader/intercessor and Arielle was a participant.

Lukas and Moselle were responsible for the Farmer’s Market where we sell our Rio Coco Coffee by the cup and by the bag.  It has evolved into a “tent making” ministry and vehicle to teach our children many lessons of responsibility and life.  It has been interesting and multifaceted to say the least.

Before going to the Market, Moselle asked me if there was some kind of container she could use to put her sign on so that people could “tip” if they wanted to.  On many occasions, she works the “front” and interacs with people passing by.  By the end of the conversation and a coffee purchase, the customer frequently asks if they can tip her and “how old is she anyway???”  A few have asked if they could hire her for their company.  Of course, we have to let them know that she already has her own company so don’t bother….which starts a whole other conversation and perhaps a doll order or 2 for her Mugly Doll Co.  The question has been asked by Moselle to me, “Mommy, if they hand me the money for tips what should I do…do I keep it all to myself or do I have to share it with Them?”

Well,  “them” refers to the crew (Mik, Luk, Air) who sets up the tent, brews coffee, makes smoothies, puts signs up, etc…. One day, “them” (all three) happened to be sitting on two of the chairs in the back.   Arielle was on Mik’s lap and Lukas was on  the other chair.  They all fell asleep while Moz and I worked the front.  We all wake up at 5:30 am on Saturday morning so one can feel tired.

Someone came to the front and started talking to us and somehow the topic got on “working” properly.  Moselle told this person, “Yeah, I really LIKE to work here a LOT (pause)  UNLIKE some others…”  She and I kind of glanced back at the “others” who were sound asleep.   I started to laugh.  She wasn’t disdainful in her look, but it had an attitudinal edge to it.  We talked about that later and the following week she was humbled because she was the one asleep in the chair for about an hour…God continually keeps us all humble, doesn’t he?  He has his ways for each of us….   

Well, on the day the crew fell asleep, I told Moselle she could keep all the tips given to her.  I was happy to see her interact so effortlessly and joyfully to her world at that table.  I also wanted her to feel the immediate fruit of her actions and the sting for the other crew members when they saw her extra reward.  I wanted to insure she would continue to give proper service and perhaps the others would be a little more motivated on the next go around.

On Saturday, she had her jar marked “tips” and people complied to the tune of about $13.  I was impressed and Lukas told me she did “very well”.  Moselle told me Lukas did really good too.  They are into “insuring proper service” amongst themselves.  Accountability is a good thing.

Brothers and sisters tend to keep one another honest and humbled.  Parents guide them to stay in their proper position.  Kids often forget what their position is especially when they begin to become more adequate and equipped to face their world.  Mikaela, who is being poised to take over an empire (that just sounds good, doesn’t it?), is learning a lot being in college, becoming a leader in her own right, a worker who is worthy of wages and very responsible in many areas of her life.  She has begun to make payment on her very first huge purchase of a truck.  She is realizing how much it actually takes to “own” things and live in this world.  It is good and she appears to be on track in her thinking and actions.  Her abilities in our group are evident, but at times her perspective gets a little clouded when she begins to speak her mind and give her opinions.  I made an announcement in the middle of one of her times of “expression” she was exercising with her father, her boss, her elder and my husband.  Her other siblings were in ear shot so it was an overall “announcement” in order “To Insure Proper Service”.

“In all of your accomplishments, growing and becoming more efficient in all of your ways, I want you to remember one thing….your place and that your father is your boss.  You might be fully capable of doing a lot of things, but if you remember who is in charge it will make your life a lot easier and his.  Do not step out of your line up.”

  I am reminded of how I step out of line all the time.  I lose balance and proper focus and this affects my service to my Lord and my King.  There is a continual realignment and refocusing happening all the time.  The process can be very simple or very complicated, but often it is not lacking in pain and lots of identification with many things that our Lord went through on a much deeper level.  It is the process of eeking our way out of a former life into His Life in us and through us.  We all possess countless “issues” that prevent true freedom and maximum use of who He designed us to be.  We are held back and down by so much of ourselves and by the experiences of life that often haunt us in thoughts, habits, reactions or patterns.

  I am often overwhelmed by my own blindness and “stupidity” (for not knowing better).  I have been walking with the Lord for 33 years and running for about 22 of those, but still at times feel like I am only crawling…. groveling actually, begging Jesus to show up because I have no idea….no clue….no answers…no possibilities of escape from my own head and thoughts that attempt to distract and overwhelm me away from His realities and ways.  I battle to maintain my position in Him, fighting to keep Him at the center and forefront of all things.  Trusting in His sovereignty and grace and manner of working all things for good….believing that He has always our best interest in His dealings.

In all of the challenges, He Himself works in me “To Insure Proper Service”.  He TIPS me continually because He knows very well what I am made of and who I am and what needs to happen within.    I belong to Him and I do declare He is the only “TIPPER” I desire to have fill my jar.  I again realize I am but an earthen vessel made of dust needing His filling and abundant “TIPS” for life, freedom and peace.  LB

 

It’s time to sign up for the

Israel Study Tour - May 2011

 

We are offering an opportunity to travel The Land and study with one of the very best experts on Biblical Culture – Dr. Randall Smith.

This will be a thirteen day trip through all the land of Israel– from Galilee to the Negev. The themes with be the Life of Jesus and the Background of the Bible. Many Biblical sites will be visited.

Since 1997 many of our friends have had the opportunity to study with Randy in Israel, where he lived and trained many of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism guides.  These guides have told us that Randy is the best to go on a site with. We agree! The Bible comes alive!

 

Here are the Key Facts:

Dates: May 19-31, 2011;

Cost: $3700.00 Full Program (including all tips) or

$2400.00 (Land only - you arrange your own flight)

 

Please contact Dottie Smith right away at the Christian Travel Study Programs office for a program outline and all the details.

tel: 863-382-9603    email: ctsp@sprynet.com

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

February is the month to get serious about the new year.  The Holidays are definitely over, and it is time to begin the school year in Nicaragua.  Our project had grown “leaner and meaner” this year due to a time of economic stress and a resulting re-focusing on God’s objectives.  Good times, although we didn't realize that as we went through them!  Many good things are happening that indicate we are on the right path:

1) We have had two of our most profitable months of selling our Rio Coco Bean coffee.  That means more donations to Project Ezra.   

We currently donate approx 24% of each sale to the school project. 

Please consider joining the A&M Coffee Club and have fresh roasted coffee delivered to your door each month. Call us at 772-643-5610 to sign up! It will really help the funding of the school project!

2) We are almost ready to launch our Rio Coco Kids website!  (www.riococokids.com)  This has been a labor intensive project of Tom Keogh and David Wilson to get all our child sponsorship information on a website where it is easily accessible by each sponsor.  This site will allow for a much smoother flow of current grades, photos, and other reports. 

3) We are also revising our www.seekthelamb.org website.  David has designed us a home on the internet that will be more informative and fun for us all. Our new site will be filled with photos, study materials, and information.

We continue to work on the completion of the Waspam Discipleship Center in Nicaragua.  We are  planning a team for April to build out the recording studio. We are planning our summer outreach to Utila as well.  We know that many of you have expressed interest in joining us.  Stay tune for more details as the plan unfolds.

Due to some health issues with her mom, Laura will be flying to Oahu next week to spend time with her parents.  Since we have not spent much time on Oahu in these past years, Laura is looking forward to seeing many of you!  Please don’t hesitate to call her at 839-4476!  She will also be visiting Maui for a few days as well. Laura’s cell:  772- 559-5332.

It is an exciting time for us!  God is moving.  We are paying attention and following God’s lead in our plans and schedules.  We are also ordering our relationships along His lines.  We look forward to a productive year working together to make a difference in the lives of many!  Thanks for being there with us!                                            Laura & Michael

 

Things To Consider

 

• We have many Project Ezra children who need child sponsors.  Please call our office for more details (772-770-2985) and to sponsor a child.
• Laura will be visiting her mom & dad on Oahu this month and next.  She will also spend a few days on Maui.  Call her if you would like a personal report on Project Ezra (772-559-5332)
• We are planning a summer outreach on Utila.  Please call us if you are interesting in serving with us on that island off the north shore of Honduras.
• We have a need for a reliable vehicle in Florida that will get great gas mileage for our travels in the local area. 

Thanks for your consideration of these things!

 

Would You Like to Make a Differance This Month?

Please click here for our online giving page.

Donations

 

 

A photo from 2000 when Moselle was 6 weeks old.

Notice the serious look on Arielle's face.

 

Taken in front of Jaffa Gate - Old City of Jerusalem

 

January 2011 Conchshell Chronicles

We Finish the 2010 School Year Strong!

2010 was our 24th year as a primary school project along the Rio Coco in Nicaragua. It was one of the most exciting!

Why? Because we learned many lessons.  Hardship causes one to consider their ways, spend more time with the Boss, and get focused on His Objectives rather than our own.

We have educators who love to give kids an opportunity that they would not have.  God wants to give them more than just an education, and we are poised to launch the 2011 in February more in line with His Mission. Pray with us this month as we make preparations. It will be a good year!

 

 

 

Naval Aviation and Jesus     

                                   by Michael Bagby 

 

It was the moment we all waited for every day we were out to sea on the USS Enterprise. We gathered with anticipation each evening about 8 o’clock in Ready Room 4 to see the Flight Schedule for the next day.  After all, we were Naval Aviators, whose purpose in life was to defend the United States from all foreign and domestic enemies at all costs- which may include the ultimate sacrifice. We had trained hard, we flew the best equipment, and were confident that we were able to handle all that may come against us. The President of the United States himself had given us our commission of officer rank, with the responsibility to follow all commands from superior officers, and the authority to carry out our mission- even exerting deadly force if necessary.  Each of our aircrews knew that together we could accomplish much for our nation, and defeat any enemy that came against us. 

(Photos are first Michael in the Cubi Pt. O'Club at the Naval Aviation Museum and the second is the 1978 VA-196 Cruise plaque that we hung in the Cubi Point Phillipines Officer's Club and was transplanted to the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola FL- Center column Third name down)

When we saw our name on that Flight Schedule, we knew that we would have the opportunity to launch off the ship, fly around for a few hours, and have an exciting landing back aboard.  If for some reason we were not on the schedule, we resigned ourselves with sadness to stay aboard and take care of our other duties, which included all the jobs related to administrating and operating a squadron of 17 airplanes and 340 men.

I was proud to serve with these fellow officers and gentlemen in the 1970’s. I was overjoyed to see some of them again in Pensacola a few months ago at the reunion of Attack Squadron 196.

Laura told me that she was looking forward to meeting my old friends.

She wondered what it would be like to be in a room full of arrogant “gentlemen” like me. 

For years, Laura has been coaching me on how normal people should approach life, and relate to others.  She has found that some of my personality traits that made me successful in my Naval career have rubbed her (and she speculates some of you as well!) the wrong way.  I have told her that maybe it was growing up on Oahu where there were lots of Navy guys that gave her an erroneous evaluation of that focused behavior.  Maybe it was her Japanese sensitive culture that turned her off to my often direct and assertive manner.  We have been having this conversation in different forms for the past 21 years.

We arrived at the hotel on Pensacola Beach, and it was so nice to suddenly be back with some of my dear friends.  During the next four days, we toured the Naval Aviation Museum, ate lunch in the Cubi Pt. O’Club bar (which was transplanted from our base in the Philippines in ’95) saw the Blue Angel perform their air show, and had many significant conversations.

One evening, my friends Dong Berry, Killer Wahle, and Tank Tingler were sitting with Laura and I, and the conversation turned to the character traits that we all shared.

(The Photo is of Dong,  Bags and Killer standing by an A-6 that we all flew more than a few times!)

Laura expressed to them that she was often puzzled at my behavior and the confident and often insensitive manner I approached life. Without hesitation, Doug, Dan, and Hank began to explain some things to Laura. It was a moment. They all piped in and basically together said this:

“Laura, the Navy trained us to believe that we could accomplish anything we were ordered to do. That was drilled in us throughout Flight School, because you need to be confident when you launch off a pitching carrier deck at night to fly a dangerous mission and then return to land on a very small deck of a ship in the middle of the ocean.  When we reported to our first squadron, we were assigned a job in one of the departments that we had never done before, and after nine months, we were rotated to another completely different job in another department. Each time we changed jobs, it was something new. But we knew that we could figure it out, and do it with a level of excellence.

Now we are out of the Navy and working with others who do not share this attitude, and it is difficult at times.  Many are like lower grade government employees, who cannot and do not want to make a decision. They sit around thinking and talking, but not a lot gets done. “

As I listened to my friends explain me to my wife, I suddenly realized why I have often felt frustration in some of my working relationships over these past years.  Being with my like-minded friends suddenly made me aware that I had been traveling for years in a desert of operational despair. I really did miss being with these guys more than I realized.

The next morning, Laura and I discussed again these traits of ours that she at times admired and other times detested.  Doug, Dan, Hank, and I all considered ourselves “normal”. 

Laura pointed out our “relational” inadequacies. 

These photos are evidence of such behavior.  First the formal lineup.  Next the Moon Shot photo for anyone interested.........

 And the discussion continues.

 It continues......

 

Since then, I have reflected on the attitudes that were ingrained in me as a Naval Officer and an Attack Pilot.

Many of these have carried over to my career as an officer in the Lord’s service.

When I first became a follower of Jesus, I read a verse that changed my life:

 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.                                                                                                                              Eph 2:10

In reading this, I realized that indeed God had a specific plan for my life.  Like the schedules officer in my old squadron who each day chose the missions for each aircrew, and assigned them a launch time, and posted it on the Flight Schedule each night in Ready Room 4, I too have been assigned my missions and launch times. With this assignment comes an authority from God Himself to carry out His mission.

And he called his twelve disciples together and began sending them out two by two, giving them authority to cast out evil spirits.                                                                       Mark 6:7

As Jesus gave specific authority to His disciples, so He does to us for our missions. This is the essential element for a Naval Officer, as well as a soldier of Christ. If God has commanded it, it will be done. God told Joshua to move forward with courage to carry out his mission, because God was with Him.

“This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”                                                  Joshua 1:9

Paul said it this way:  “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.”                  

                                                                                                                      Phil 4:13

Jesus reminds us: “And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”                                                                                                                Matthew 28:20

So what do I do with my Naval aviation attitudes???

I was so pleased to be with my fellow aviators in Pensacola.  Despite the relational inadequacies, they all have many significant accomplishments in their lives.

I have been reflecting how these attitudes should fit into our lives as followers of Christ. I realized that “Yes!” they are important for the Kingdom, and, as Laura has often reminded me, should be tempered with a sensitivity toward others.

For this New Year 2011, God has specific objectives for our lives.

He has already assigned us specific things to accomplish this year for Him and His People.

Are we certain of this purposefulness?

 Do we have an inner confidence that if we proceed, we will have success? 

Do we feel up to the job? 

Are we willing to launch out of our comfort zones and accomplish much for Him?

That will be the question we will have to answer every day this year.  The opportunities are great. God has called us, equipped us, given us His Authority, and guarantees us that we will have success as we walk it out with Him.

What an exciting year we have ahead of us!            MB 

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby 

 

The Scholastic Children’s Dictionary defines Consistent as:  “If you are consistent, you always behave in the same way or support the same ideas or principles.” Webster defines Consistency as: “Cohesiveness, firmness 2. Agreement or harmony in parts or of different things 3. Uniformity (of behavior)”

When I began my journey of faith at 17, I consistently sought to know and become intimately acquainted with God and His ways, his thoughts, actions and his behavior through Jesus.

In my life, I have been a consistent observer in human behavior (my own being foremost).  In college, I majored in Social Work with a strong bent toward counseling others toward holistic health.  I dabbled in the thoughts of working with the elderly, handicapped, emotionally disturbed children and adults.  Ironically, I NEVER had the desire of working with middle school or high school youth.

As a parent with “grown up” teens,  I now understand why.  When foreign attitudes and moronic behavior arose,  I have had a few moments of asking Michael, “Where did we go wrong?!”  As a young parent, I NEVER thought I would have thoughts of such intensity on the other side of love, pleasure and enjoyment.

 I am glad to have Mikaela and Lukas come into young adulthood.  I am really enjoying them and many of their friends.

One of my greatest gifts from God is knowing that He finds pleasure in me, his favored creation.  In turn, because I have received so great of a gift of love, I too cannot help but to love and enjoy the people He has placed around me.  I find great pleasure in seeing people in their gifts, their creativity, their element, their God given specialties and their inspirational choices they choose to make.  I have been inspired by many lives that surround me in some manner or another.

Foremost, by my husband who is quite the inspiration on many levels and in many areas of life & mine in his.  He excels in most things he chooses to do and is a person that gets the job done (in remarkable time restraints) .   He is a man of consistent action and faith and perseveres under the most difficult of circumstances.  When a decision is made, he is one that consistently takes the necessary steps to arrive at the intended destination.  He is a man that lives in relationship and is continually teaching and learning in the process.  One who is willing to come to the end of himself and desires and ultimately does the right thing for the right reasons.  The time element varies (he is head strong), but in the end I have watched him conclude with good fruit and wise judgment motivated by his desire to Love God and his neighbor.   I love and trust him because for 22 years I have watched him develop a consistent  manner of conflict resolution….internally and externally.  I was recently told by a friend, “intimacy” cannot occur without proper conflict resolution.  We have worked through many a conflict….we are always better for it.

My children have been also grasping the concept of “consistency” in their lives.  Regularity with practices in swimming, martial arts, music, chores, daily reading, over eating, working out and every consistent factor of their lives leads to its just result whether good or bad.

Mik inspires us in her consistent joyful work/play ethic.  Air and Moz will call her when she is not with us and ask when she will be coming home.  They adore her and her presence in their lives even when she bosses them around.  She even has Moselle doing “servant” (they call it slave) work in her room for the price of $3.00 a week.  When we all encouraged Moz to charge Mik more (schmucks that we are), Moselle looked at me and whispered, “I don’t want her to fire me !”  Crack me up! Due to the present economy, I think MIk has to lay her off, but knowing Moz, she will find “other work” and be thrilled .   Mik’s consistent time & energy she gives to them is powerful & influential.

Lukas consistently brings logic to the table which has now become a positive factor.  There was a time I thought perhaps something was wrong with the logic department in his head or mine, but we seem to be recovered.  (teenage @#$%&*-)  Now I remind him to kiss me before he leaves the house so he can consistently get into one more good habit.  For each kid we try to add on consistent positive factors & behavior to their lives which hopefully go beyond just the act and into their hearts.   It appears that his is consistently being touched.  He plays music on a regular basis with some quality people and we had a moment with some of them last night doing worship all together.  It was beautiful.

Arielle consistently serves with an amazing mature attitude.  She also is the first to do the right thing for the right reason….like being the first to write her thank you note or to think through for the family what we need to do to foster good relationships. She consistently maintains a calm, non reactive manner in this family which is good for the sometimes very “passionate” & urgent “others”.  She consistently and daily reads her bible all year and now she is the “WINNER” of our first annual “Read through the Bible and journal” family affair.

Moselle consistently brings us enthusiasm, joy and lots of energy.  One could actually “live” off of all the life she exudes.  She tires me at times…..in the best sort of way.  I take breaks when necessary.  She consistently worked her “Mugly Doll Company” and handed me $185 minus $30 (for more material) and let me know that she is working off her “tab” on the dental bill of hers.  When we discovered some cavities and had to have them “fixed”, I showed her the bill.  She could not believe teeth could cost so much!  She decided that she would “pay for THAT!” and she told me that she would take care of her teeth better.  This consistently motivated child is quickly clearing her “tab” & loving life.  She consistently draws me into her fun little world and makes me smile.

In this household, I consistently try to pull all the pieces of the family together and create opportunity for us to enjoy one another.  That is a big part of my purpose for being.

I have noticed that the lives I most respect are lives that have large levels of consistency in many areas of their lives.  By and large they are multifaceted and involved in life to a large and varied degree.  They are those that choose to live for others rather than themselves. . .Those that serve and freely give without holding back.  They are consistently doing, learning, becoming and willing to be aware of the process which involves a lot of self questioning that leads to change and freedom from the old.  They live with renewed inspirations and a greater love of life and people.

I am highly motivated to live like I mean it with great purpose and intent.  I resolve to focus on and engage in eternal affairs with consistent intention.  I want to learn freedom in the deepest way with peace in my heart knowing that I am being and doing what My Creator intended in me and through me.   Let there be consistent congruent action between our thoughts and behavior..our hearts and our heads. And let there always be peace with Love abounding more and more.

                                                                                          Laura

 

Things To Consider

 

• This month we are sending out all the grades for our Rio Coco Kids sponsors.  This would be an excellent time to make a difference in the life of a child along the Coco River this year.  Many children need sponsors for the 2011 school year.
• We have a need for a reliable vehicle in Florida that will get great gas mileage for our travels in the local area. 
• Tom & Nutie Keogh are travelling to Maui this month to encourage our support team there.  Please keep them in your prayers as they visit our friends.
• Truman and our leadership team in Nicaragua need to know how many teachers to hire for this year. Please ask God to specifically lead them in their decisions.
• We desire to travel to Nicaragua and Honduras very soon.  Please ask God to provide the time & all that is needed for a fruitful trip. 

 

Thanks for your consideration of these things! 

 For those of you who want to help with any of the above, please click here.

The Bagby Bunch Corner

Laura loves to dance!  She knows that  I am a dancing fool!  Ask Steve Nickens the next time you are on Maui.  Steve knows that I am as legendary on the dance floor as he is at the famous Hookipa surf spot! (We shared the Banana Moon Ministry when we were single guys) So what do you do at a Christmas Ball? You dance!  And we did!  It seems like though every time we dance, Laura spends more time laughing than dancing.  I wonder why???

   Christmas for us was a focused family time.  It was Quality!  We all finished the year strong, which we needed to do.  Arielle & Moselle stayed faithful to our family plan to read through the entire Bible in 2010 and Arielle actually read it all.  She was our very best student! Moselle only missed a few chapters. The rest of us got lost along the way.

   2010 was a year that taught me many lessons.  Issues that I thought were settled were again brought to the table, and the Lord reminded me of my ways and His way.  He even used my notes for a study that I had written a few years ago to convict me of my selfish ways.  I hate it when He does that! Who wrote that lesson anyway?  We find ourselves being sharpened in relationship skills.  My how quickly we slip back into the “comfortable for me” mode!

We have had many conversations with Truman and our team in Nicaragua these past weeks as we figure out what God wants the 2011 school year to be.  We suffered so much economic pressure this past year that we don’t want to take anything for granted.  We want to be on His Page, and not only educating our students, but doing things with them that will benefit their entire lives, and make some positive changes in each community that we are in.  These are the things I am getting from our leadership team, which give me great encouragement that God is doing something very deep within their hearts.  I cannot wait to see them at the beginning of the school year! Laura and I are asking as well what God has in store for us the year.  We are planning trips to Nicaragua, Honduras, Israel, and Hawaii.  We would love to go to North Carolina and Montana as well.  We want to visit many of you who have been with us for so many years (Romans 1:10-12). We make our plans, and He directs our steps. (Proverbs 16:9) He has already told us to focus time on our children, and get His business in order. As we await further orders from the Boss, we remain thankful to many of you who have been praying for us and giving what is needed to get the job done.

                                                                                                      Laura & Michael

 

Israel Study Tour - May 2011

 

We are planning our Sixth Study Tour to Israel with Dr. Randy Smith and our friends attending the Great Commission Bible Institute. This will be a thirteen day trip following the archaeology, geography and cultural insights in the background of the Gospel story. 

Many Biblical sites will be visited. The teaching will focus on the Life and Ministry of Jesus, the Cultural Background to the Bible, and constantly you will be asked the question: "What did Jesus' audience think when they heard Him say this?"  Sometimes it make a differance.

Since 1997 we have had the pleasure to take many of our friends to study on the Bible on location with one of the very best experts on Bible History and Culture who has lived in Israel for many years and trained many of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism guides.

May Israel Trip Details

Key Facts: May 19-31, 2011;

Cost: $3700.00 Full Program (including all tips) or $2400.00 (Land only - no flight)

 

Please contact Dottie Smith at the Christian Travel Study Programs office for a program outline and all the details.

tel: 863-382-9603   

email: ctsp@sprynet.com

 

 

November 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

 

Now Let’s Celebrate Thanksgiving!

by Michael Bagby 

 

It happens all the time…….

Our friends come to Nicaragua, and as they travel from the United States to the Rio Coco, their perspective gets changed.

My friend Tatiana came with her family to the Rio Coco a few years ago.  She was 10 at the time, and she flew on the airlines to Managua.  Then things began to change. She flew by small airplane to Waspam, then by boat to Sawa and the Seek The Lamb villages downriver. She told me a few nights ago that when she returned, she was asked by her uncle what her best and worst experience was.  Her answer “Eating at the Subway restaurant at the Managua airport”. 

This obviously confused her uncle until Tatiana explained:

“When I arrived in Managua, it was really a shock, and the sandwiches at the Subway looked really bad compared to the Subways in America.  Then I went out to the river and spent the next week eating rice and beans and other Miskito food.  When we got back to civilization, we went to the Managua airport and ate at the Subway, and it was terrific! Nothing at the restaurant had changed. The subs were the same as the week before. It was me that was different.  Let’s just say that I had a greater appreciation for lettuce, mayo, fresh bread, and the meats and cheeses.”

Tatiana and her family are seen in this photo preparing for a "Canopy Tour" near Granada Nicaragua.

America is the only country in the world that takes the third Thursday in November and pauses to give thanks to God for the blessings He has given to our country.  We are a blessed nation!  We have freedoms that citizens from other nations have never enjoyed.  We have the ability to freely elect our leaders, and freely remove them from office.  In spite of recent events, our economy has been the world’s strongest in the past 100 years.  Since the War of 1812, and with the exception of some Alaskan islands in World War II, we have not been invaded by a foreign power.  We Americans can generally do what we want, go where we want, and say what we want.

However we often take these things for granted.  It is when we travel outside the United States that our blessings become even more evident. It should anyway.

As we get ready to celebrate Thanksgiving Day 2010, let’s take a moment to get some perspective….. to enhance our appreciation for what we have.

In these past two months, three major storms have formed in the Caribbean just off the coast of Nicaragua, pelting our school district on the Rio Coco with wind and rain. These storms moved  along the north coast of Honduras, striking Mexico, Guatemala, and Belize. Many inches of rain have fallen, and the “no code” housing has been severely damaged by tropical storm and hurricane force winds. With the rain comes flooding on all the major rivers.  The Rio Coco is the longest river in Central America.  It is the main drainage system for the entire region.

Having lived through the 2004 hurricane season in Florida, where five major hurricanes hit our state in a 6 week period, I can understand the destruction these repeating cyclonic events bring. We had FEMA, and our insurances companies to step in and purchase us generators and new roofs.  Those organizations are non-existent in Central America.

Hurricane Raymond passed through our school district in the last few days of October.  Our project director Truman Cunningham called me and was very distressed.  He had just returned from his home in Sawa, and for him, it was the same as the 2008 Wall Street Financial Meltdown. 

You see, Miskito people have their “wealth” in cows, pigs, and horses.  These animals are the only thing of value that they own. Truman told me that many cows and horses (about 200) had been killed; buildings had suffered damage, and his own roof had lost some of its metal panels.  His rice plantation was flooded for weeks, and he lost almost his entire crop.  He and Myrna also lost some of their cattle- the prolonged flooding had simply swallowed up their animals. The rice fields were battered by the winds, and the floodwaters knocked down the ripe stalks into the mud. He estimated that only 40% of the crop had survived.

This is Miskito Financial Meltdown!

This all happened a week after Truman and our leadership team made the decision to forgo receiving their salaries in order to pay the teachers their entire salaries.  It was a noble gesture on their part, one which the 59 teachers appreciated, since the financial situation has caused some delays in sending the salaries to Nicaragua these past months. 

They decide to do the good and right thing, to sacrifice for the teachers, and then this storm takes away their groceries. 

What’s Up With That?

Truman knows that life is never secure. There is always another hurricane or political storm on the horizon.  In 1982, the Sandinistas burned his home in Sawa, killed his cattle, and cut down all his coconut and fruit trees. For him, it is always about (as he simply puts it) talking to His Father in Heaven, and asking Him for protection and provision.

How’s your Thanksgiving Day looking now?  My how that Subway sandwich looks so delicious now that I been to the River!

Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate our relationship with our Creator.  It is a time to acknowledge that our provisions in life really come from Him.  He holds it all in His Hand. Please join us all with moments this month of thanking Him for the great things He has done:

1) In the lives of our families and friends;

2) Through His provision for our personal economy;

3) And through our combined efforts to reach His other children in a region economically, culturally, and geographically far away. 

He has used us all to make a difference in their lives today, and for eternity. 

For this we can be Most Thankful!                                          Michael 

 

 

 

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby 

 

Stains

I was working vigorously one morning scrubbing out a couple of stains.  I worked all the tricks I had with various products plus cold water, hot water, committed brushing and finally running out of time I had to simply throw it in the wash and pray for the best.  I succumbed to the fact that perhaps it would not look like I wanted it to exactly, but I concluded that I would be okay with that.

I pressed start and went on my way.  When I got home I checked the stain and sure enough, it was not completely perfect, but since I decided I would have to accept the results once I pressed start, I felt okay with the disappointing results.

Such has been my life of late…

I think that as we get older we begin to face “realities” more squarely in the face….not trying to make excuses for the realities or even thinking that we can actually begin to understand why things happen as they do or people choose to do what they do or not choose.

On this side of heaven, we are all accustomed to many disappointments and unmet expectations.  When we are close to people, we feel the sting harder and deeper.  Then it is easy to get “stained”, calloused, distant just for self preservation (if there is such a thing).

I have worked with my Miskito brothers and sisters for over 20 years.  Many have become like family to me.  I have seen them grow from a very young child, go through school, teenage hood and then to a full grown functioning, working adult with their own spouse and children.

 I learned from them how to speak Miskito.  One of the first words I learned was the word, “Latwan” which they told me meant “Love”.

As time went on, while working with a medical team, I realized that in asking someone if they “hurt” in Miskito, the word “Latwan” was used.  I was confused and asked the obvious question, “Why would I ask them if they felt love?”  I was told, “the word latwan means both love and hurt”.  I thought about that one for a long time.  

It has become experiential knowledge for me as I have lived and loved and have felt hurt and angered almost all in the same breath.  It can all be a tiring process this loving, living, hurting, disappointing thing called life here on planet earth. 

It is all this, yet magnificently irresistible when we consider all the other elements that make this world go round.  Brilliantly orchestrated and designed by a loving Entity that is miraculously able to take care of every detail of life and give me a love that never ceases….a love that is not bound by my actions, my failures or my bad attitudes.

 No,  He remains the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  Steady and unchanging no matter what the circumstances.  He is the Lover of my soul and through all of my up, downs and sideward thinking and being at times, He remains faithful to me with my best interests.  I love that about Him.

I might be hating on myself or others, but He is there understanding my little tantrums and lets me work through them.  He is there perhaps with a twinkle in his eye waiting for me to get over myself.  His response is direct and telling of where my heart is….My disappointment in myself and others is just another reality….a good one to face and deal with in the Lord’s way and not my own. 

The trouble is when I allow it all to get in the way of His expression through me.  My walls prevent him from coming forth as He ought.   I stand in his way by my emotions and walls I build up in order to perhaps protect myself.   In “protecting” myself,  I tend to keep people at a distance and the Lord lodged within me unable to be “released” to the world around me.  

 I am realizing that I have had “my way” of trying to deal with hurts and disappointments in the midst of trying to do God’s will, but I was failing to really deal with it all in His way.  I really don’t know how to “do life” properly .  I am an amateur at relationships.  I  feel inadequate  in the way that I often handle all that gets thrown into my path...trying to figure out what to do and how….attempting to free myself from my own reactions and to get to the place of  the right response.

I am learning of  godly boundaries and how to balance life and all those who are included in that life.  I stumble and mostly don’t ever know exactly what I am doing or how, but understand more deeply and intimately my deep dependence upon Him.  “Not knowing” is often the beginning of faith being applied.   I also know that His power is perfected in my weakness.

 I do believe that I am living for an unconditionally loving God who has it all in His power and control.    If I am scared to get hurt and disappointed & hold myself back from Him and others,  I am not really trusting in the fact that His Love only has the best for my life, am I?

 I am also held back from really allowing His love to penetrate through my life to others….”I” being the wall of prevention.

I see easily that we all have our “go to’s” to comfort us or to make us feel better or more safe, etc.  The thing I am realizing most in the midst of my struggles is that there is only One solid “Go To” that is for sure and that is The Lord of the universe who knows all, sees all and does all fro

m a perspective that is perfect and complete and lacks nothing.  

 This is what I come back to every single time and my course of Hope is gently put back into place.  Again I must declare, I need Jesus.  He is the only Way, The Truth and The Life and no man, woman or child will come to the Father but by Him.                                Laura

 

 The Bagby Bunch Corner

 Oh the joys of being in my bed for weeks at a time!  Yet tomorrow morning I get in the car to drive to Pensacola for a reunion of my dear friends from Attack Squadron 196, whom I spent some significant time of my life defending the Pacific and Indian Oceans for all you here in the United States.  I sailed with these aviators on the USS Enterprise and the USS Coral Sea.  My last time to see most of these guys was 1979.  I will have lots of opportunity to not be so self-centered as I was in my former days, and I do look forward to enjoying a few days with friends whom I shared many significant moments.  Laura is looking forward to meeting these guys.  She told me that it would be an amazing thing to be in a room filled with arrogant “gentlemen” like me — not the word she used but I’m sure is what she meant to use!

Something is happening on the Rio Coco with our team.  When Truman told me that he and the other leaders had decided to forego their salaries so that they could pay the teachers their back pay, I knew that God was moving.  Then came Hurricane Raymond! Now I discovered that they are spending time together in prayer, asking forgiveness for their mistakes, and asking God to grant them favor and bring forth spiritual fruit in the students as well as our teachers.  When we are pressed, we either can turn to our own ways, or turn to God.  I think our team has made a significant spiritual step.  These three intense storms have only accentuated our need to walk with God, obey Him, and rely on Him to show us the way.  Please keep praying for our team. 

We continue to seek God for His strategy for selling our Rio Coco Bean coffee, in an effort to pay our teacher salaries on time.  The idea of having a “Private Label” coffee was dropped into our lap by a pastor friend from Atlanta.  Already we are private labeling coffee for our friend Kim and her Universal Chastity Education Foundation which teaches AIDS prevention in Uganda and other East African countries. She is using this as a fund raiser for her ministry.  We also have a church in Montana designing their label for their coffee.  We are listening.  God is giving us direction.  We know that we will see the fruit.  Please pray for an increase in our coffee sales, as it will help the teachers on the River.

Thanks for being on the team.  We so value your prayers, and friendship with us.       Laura & Michael

 How You Can Help This Month

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center.  Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed. We are almost finished with this 6 year effort.

3) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary!  Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will help them accomplish the mission in NIcaragua.

Please Click Here to make a donation to Seek The Lamb

 All contributions are tax deductable, and

Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

 

 

 

December 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

 

Christmas is All About Me

     And What I Get.    

 by Michael Bagby 

 

    A few years ago, one of my friends asked Mikaela what she was getting for Christmas.  After pondering the question, she replied:

      “Well, I’m getting Moselle a hat, and I have a cd picked for Arielle.  I’m getting Mommy a basket for her haircut supplies, and I think I’m getting Lukas a shirt that will look good on him.  I haven’t figured out what I am getting Poppy.”

Now, what did we do right for Mikaela to naturally get the concept that Christmas was all about Giving, and not what we get?  In our materialistic world, this season is so much about what we get.  It is confusing. Yet our attitude should be, as the Christmas Drama at our church proclaimed this past week: Christmas- Give It Away!

But say we are not so spiritual.  Let’s say we are all about what we are getting this Christmas.  Let’s indulge ourselves in a bit of selfish thinking.  It isn’t really too hard to do that- it actually comes quite naturally.

What do we get out of Christmas?  Hmmm…..

Let’s say I have an issue with my children.  They are acting like foolish, stubborn Missouri Mules—which by the way was the exact phrase that Vice Admiral Joe Mobley once used to described a young Lieutenant Bagby on his annual fitness report in 1977.  I am frustrated and have reached the end of my rope.  In desperation I turn to God in prayer, and plead for intervention.  A few days go by.  I continue pleading with Him to do something.  And out of nowhere, suddenly a change appears in the heart and on the face of my child.  I continue praying, and in the next weeks, some very profound heart changes occur.  The aliens who snatched my children have left their body.  The kids are behaving as though  they liked us.

So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.                   Hebrews 4: 14-16

It has been a tough year financially for many of us.  Paying the bills is an adventure every month.  You work harder, spent more time on the job, and lay awake at night thinking about the house payments, the taxes due, the dental bills, the repair on the van, and your daughter’s tuition at college. You turn to God and ask Him to do something.  You ask forgiveness for those times of presumptuous living, and ask for help to live within His means.  You ask Him to take the stress off of you.  You get on your knees to beg for a miracle in your finances.  Then suddenly you feel a peace.  You can sleep again without worrying. There is a turn and you can sense it in your spirit.  You receive a payment from an old account.  Someone shows up asking you to buy that product that you have been trying to sell for months.  Someone comes out of the woodwork and asks to rent your vacant house.

 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing?  Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Why do you have so little faith?  So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.  Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.  So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.                                               Matthew 6:25-34

Your mom has been sick.  She is 75 and has lived a good life, helping many people along the way.  The doctors tell you she will not get better- just a slow deterioration and finally pass on.  You ask God to intervene.  You pray for healing.  A few years go by with her confined to her home, and then to her bed.  You spend your afternoons with her, caring for her, talking with her, and enjoying the memories. One night the nurse calls you to tell you that its time.  You arrive to find your mom’s body cold. The next day you begin planning the homegoing celebration.

When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him.  Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.”

Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

“Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

 Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”                                         John 11:17-25

Relational issues.  Financial Crisis. Terminal Illness.

These are events common to this life which we all must face them at some point.  For those of us who walk this life with Jesus, according to the principles written in the Bible, we have a source of strength, comfort, and change. We can face each issue of this life with confidence, because of Jesus, what He did on the Cross, and His invitation to us to become members of His Family.  We know His Promises, and we live above our circumstances with our hope in Him.

And it all began for us that moment in time when God took on the form of a human fetus, was nurtured in the womb of an ordinary woman named Mary, and was born into this world in a cave stable in the small backwater town of Bethlehem. He entered not as a King, but as a peasant, and was laid in the feeding trough of animals.

The photo was taken in the cave home in Bethlehem were the locals say that Jesus was born. Arielle is next to the candel (2006)

He lived His life as we do, working hard, tasting the dust of the workshop, feeling the sweat run off his brow, with bills to pay and under an oppressive government who taxed him heavily.  He eventually ended his life being executed as a common criminal in a torturous manner.  Yet His death paid for our sins, and paved the way for us to enter into the Kingdom of God, not through our own merits, but through His Grace.

Yes, it all began at Christmas.  We got the Big Prize on that first Christmas Day.

If Christmas is indeed all about us (as our culture says) then realize that God too says it is all about us.  He loves us so much that He paid the price for us to be with Him.

As a result, we have an all powerful resource to resolve relational issues- A divine force which causes change to take place.  We have a Heavenly Father who wants to meet all our needs, and who can.  He knows our situation and He cares.  We also know for certain that life doesn’t end for us when we take our last breath here on Planet Earth.  We know that we have an incredible future ahead of us with Him and all the other members of His Family.

And it all began that First Christmas Day.  Yes…..

Christmas is all about us. It’s all about what we get.

Now let’s live our lives by giving Christmas  to others!                                                                                                                  Michael

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby 

 

It is no small feat for a person of any size, weight, stature, and age to reach a level of selflessness so as to act consistently for the good of all.

In our family, Arielle has instituted “Tea Time”.  We gather at 4 pm on Wednesday and talk until about 5:30.  With Mikaela and Lukas in college, our family lunch schedule is more irregular and our daily bible studys  has been less likely to happen altogether.  So as a mom who a high value on gathering our group, I was very thankful for Arielle’s impetus  to start this special time.

She has taken on full responsible for this time and I do absolutely nothing to prepare or clean up.  Arielle and Moselle begin by baking scones.  Moselle gets out the fine china my mom gave us as well as the beautiful tea set and dessert dish she received from Olivia for her birthday.

We started off with just the six of us and then invited a few people on each of the following weeks. Once, after a few misbehaving incidents at the table, Arielle decided she needed rules for unruly people.  The next week she read to us 20 rules that she had created:

Tea Time Rules

1.  ALWAYS say please and thank you’s  whether you are at the table or not;

2.  Do NOT be rough at the tea table. (there is a funny story behind this…ask & I’ll tell)

3.  Please do not play with your food.

4.  DO NOT talk about business at the table (2^nd week mishap)

5.  DO NOT talk about gross things!

6.  Cover your mouth when coughing.

7.  NO FARTING!

8.  NO Burping

9.  Have your napkin on your lap.

10. No clinging spoons on the tea cups or plates.

11. Chew like you have a secret. (for those who are not able to can pass)  She is giving me grace since I have braces and often chew oddly and uncomfortably…I am sure I gross her out since she sits next to me.

12.  Do not announce that you are going to the restroom.

13.  Try not to yawn.

14.  BE POLITE.

15.  No punching or shoving.

16.  NO Spitting.

17. NO making weird sounds with your mouth. 

       (Again, I think this is me)

18.  Please be considerate about how much you eat.

19.  Be gentle.

20.  Follow the rules and don’t be crazy at the table.

   Thanks for following these 20 rules. 

                        Arielle Bagby     Tea Time President

   It is a great picture of how we all need to be taught the “rules of engagement” in life.  When we come to the “table”, there is a way to act and to those around us.  Arielle created an opportunity for us to relate to one another face to face and she realized that we lacked many basic social skills around the tea table.  Thus, her rules….the usual laughter and unnecessary comments ensued.  This was to be expected among this uncouth bunch of people with the common last name that begins with a “B”.

Since that reading, Arielle has invited some nice, well behaved people outside of our family.  My friend Mary, who teaches a class at Christi’s Fitness, owns a couple of restaurants here in town (Ocean Grill & El Toro), and has a great expertise when it comes to tea, culture, and manners.  Arielle let me know that she wanted to invite her for tea time.  She did and we did have a mannerly nice time together….most of us behaving quite well that day.  Sometimes it is good to have “outside” pressure for better behavior in the family. Yet the Bagby reality is that we oten don’t not heed that pressure.   We are what we are and it all comes forth with people around or not.

Perhaps, the practice of having so many people around on a regular basis forces the realization that life is more than just about “me” or “us”. Once we have that straight in our minds we are able to have an effect on a greater scale as we go out into the world.

I notice that Arielle gets the concept of thinking beyond herself and for the good of many.  I notice that she disciplines herself to do the things she needs to do on a daily basis and makes time to do for others.  She reads her bible daily, exercises with me at least 3 times a week for her phys ed;  she thinks about what she is eating, does 8 minute abs daily, has school, chores, her work with Rio Coco. She sews, bakes  and has been nicknamed “MOM” by her siblings because she cares for them.   She continually asks me if I need help and exercises great initiative without much hoopla.

 Where do you get people like this?! 

I love working with her.  She is a joy, pleasure, and ever so useful.

Arielle is twelve years old.  She is inspiring and impacting.  Somewhere she decided that it was okay and rewarding to give herself up…even if it meant more responsibility for her.  In the process, I see her life being blessed and how she in turn is a blessing. 

 It is a beautiful thing to witness and an honor to share our “table” with a true team player who is learning well to do her part.  Yesterday at Tea Time, I found myself “CELEBRATING” her life.  Thanks for taking part in my “party”.                                                                   Laura   

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

Oh what a sweet time we had in Pensacola last month for the reunion of my fellow aviators of Attack Squadron 196.  I had not seen these dear friends since 1979, and it was such a pleasure to catch up with them.  We all looked the same except for some “filling out and falling out”. 

Christmas Time is here. 

What do we do with it? 

Will it be a bluuuuurrrrr of activity?  Will we lose our focus on the Reason For The Season?  I asked Arielle last night why Christmas was so special.  She replied: “We get to spend time with our family and friends.”  I reminded her that we do that every day. Yes, we serve many cups of coffee, tea, and meals to our extended family here at Casa Bagby. It is our lifestyle. But Arielle insisted: “This season is special”.  She’s right! Why? Because we are all aware of the real reason for this season– Jesus coming into our lives, and all that THAT means! Even though as Americans we can get caught up in the gift giving of the season, we still understand the deep significance of this all important holiday– a significance that the world attempts to water down by downgrading the “Merry Christmas” greeting to “Happy Holidays!”  Because when you say “Merry Christmas” you are really saying “May you have a blessed time understanding and celebrating the great gift that God has given each of us through His Son Jesus!” And Happy Holidays?— “Have fun partying with your friends.” 

Take a moment and think how our Christian Brothers and Sisters along the Coco River in Nicaragua are celebrating this season. With the devastating floods of this fall, and the loss of most of the bean and rice crop, how are our brothers celebrating this month?  As Christians, Christmas is the most meaningful holiday for them. Yet when you are faced with not having enough food for tomorrow, how much “celebration” can you do?  I hope that we can really pray for them in these next weeks, asking God to provide an economic miracle for them. Please pray for our project director  Truman as he makes some significant decisions on our schools for next year.  We need God to direct us and provide for all our needs in this coming year.

Thanks for being on the team.  We so value your prayers, and friendship with us.   Laura & Michael

 

Study in Israel  in  2011!

 We are planning our Sixth Study Tour to Israel with Dr. Randy Smith and our friends attending the Great Commission Bible Institute.

This will be A thirteen day trip following the archaeology, geography and cultural insights in the background of the Gospel story.  Many Biblical sites in Galilee and Judea will be visited.

Since 1997 we have had the pleasure to take many of our friends to study on the Bible on location with one of the very best experts on Bible History and Culture who has lived in Israel for many years and trained many of the Israeli Ministry of Tourism guides. Randy is the best when it comes to understanding Biblical culture and studying on location in Israel.

Key Facts: May 19-31, 2011;

Cost: $3700.00 Full Program (including all tips) or $2400.00 (Land only - no flight) 

 Please contact Dottie Smith at the Christian Travel Study Programs office for a program outline and all the details.

tel: 863-382-9603   email: ctsp@sprynet.com

 

 

Give A Gift This Month That Will Touch Many!

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Join the Support Team of a Seek The Lamb missionary.  Nutie & Tom Keogh and The Bagby Family rely on a personal support team to help them accomplish the ministry in Nicaragua.

3) Help Finish The Waspam Discipleship Center. Due to more urgent needs, work has slowed on the WDS. However we are close to finishing this 6 year project.

 Click here to make a donation.

 All contributions are tax deductable, and

Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

 

 

October 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

 

 

 

Measuring Impact           by Thomas Keogh 

 

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

-Isaiah 55:10-11

They say a watched pot never boils. That's not true; I have watched it plenty, and it does boil, eventually. Most people just want to know when it's done, so they go do something else while they're waiting. God watches the pot; not in doubt or anxiety, but in patience and lovingkindness. He makes it happen.

Nutie grew up the daughter of an Englishman, eating boiled eggs in little porcelain egg holders, with toast and jam. Wanting to delight her, I learned to cook them, and in the process discovered that the secret of the perfect 3-minute egg lies not in quickly answering the final bell but in perceiving the moment to set the timer after you have placed the eggs in a pot of cold water. How long does the water take before it boils on a Miskito wood stove? There are so many variables involved that I can't just walk away and come back later. I stay by the stove, tend the fire, watch for signs. At the proper time I say, "Three minutes from right now I'm taking these puppies out." Learning to read the signs is very important because I can't just look inside the egg and see how the yoke is doing. My desire is to please Nutie.

We find ourselves checking constantly to see how our efforts are doing on the Coco River. Our desire is to please our Lord. He promises that His word will have impact everywhere it falls on this earth. Not every seed sprouts at once, not every molecule of water reaches 212℉ at the same time, but the pot will boil. We need to watch it. We need to keep tending the fire and pay attention to the individual bubbles rising to the surface. When enough bubbles are coming up, that's when you can set your timer.

We see more and more children each year coming up from their communities to attend high school in Waspam. Some are going to college in Puerto Cabezas and Managua. There are now around two hundred young men and women from the Seek the Lamb villages presently attending such institutions of higher learning. In a collective society such as this, those who have gone on tend to help their family members come up, just like heated molecules of water move to help each other reach the boiling point. These are all good signs. Nevertheless, we are not just engaged in an academic enterprise; this is first and foremost a spiritual one, where educational success goes hand in hand with spiritual growth, but isn't necessarily conclusive evidence of it. How can we gage our spiritual impact? We can't look inside the egg to see if the yoke is just the way God likes it. But it's not just hit and miss; with people you get a feel for it if you spend some time with them.  

Yesterday Nutie and I had a lengthy conversation with Veda Luz Washington, a junior at INOS, the  public high school in Waspam. She's dark, with the slim, athletic figure of the Washington's who trace their ancestry back to Africa through Jamaica and the Miskito villages of the coast, yet she has ojos achinados--Chinese eyes of the first settlers of the Americas. She is a typical Miskito, a beautiful blend of race and history. Like most of the kids that come up to Waspam for school, she and her brother Jerry, also a student, live with a cousin and his wife, who are already established  here. She remembers her years in the village school. Veda Luz is very aware that she is “Hope Walking” for her three little sisters back in Sawa. Her presence here is bigger than herself.

Her parents are subsistence farmers. They went to school some, read and write a little bit, but never gave much importance to their children's education. They didn't understand its value. In the first grade, Veda Luz went to school of her own accord, slogging through mud up to her knees and balancing on log bridges in the rainy season, stopping leisurely to look at ants along the trail and picking fruits off the trees with her companions in the dry season. Once in awhile they just went swimming in the river and never made it to school. To Pablo Suazo, her teacher, this was normal. ( Photo of Pablo teaching in Sawa)

None of the kids went every day. She doesn't quite remember if she ever understood what her teacher said in class, at least not when he spoke in Spanish.

Something changed in the third grade. Even though her mother encouraged her to stay home if the  weather was a little rough, she forced herself to go daily to class. She saw something in her teachers that made her want to be like them one day. The idea of distinct subject matter emerged out of the fog of talking and writing on the board and turning pages of books in a foreign language. She could not only decode symbols and make sounds ... da-de-di-do-du ... but she began to see that these were messages, and she could understand some of it. She especially liked the class where they talked about the natural world--they called it ciencias naturales--because she could observe the things that were being taught. Her teachers showed her writings from the Bible that explained how an all-powerful God had made all of it. When it came time for the rice harvest she didn't go to the fields like many of the other children. She had discovered a thirst for understanding.

Veda Luz recalls that she wasn't the best student in class--there were at least two boys ahead of her--but yes she was among the better ones. It's harder for a girl, she's got more chores. Hauling water, cooking, cleaning, shelling rice and cutting firewood while carrying baby sisters on her back. Could she possibly make it through? She remembers memorizing Luke 1:37: "For nothing will be impossible with God." An angel had said that to a girl.

Larry Suazo was the son of Veda Luz' first grade teacher. Larry taught her both fifth and sixth grades.  He was from the refugee generation. Seek the Lamb was Salt and Light back then, and gave him an opportunity to study. He'd graduated sixth grade in Sawa and gone on to school in Puerto Cabezas. He went further than his father and understood more about how everything works. Veda Luz really liked Professor Larry. She could understand almost everything he taught, and when she had a question, she felt confident to ask. Professor Larry was patient and gave individualized instruction. Veda Luz says she didn't really learn Spanish until fifth and sixth grades. (Photo of Larry and his wife Brenda- both teachers and Sunday School teachers)

  Life in Waspam is different. Veda Luz wears a smart-looking top with a brand name written on it. In the village kids wear old clothes that smell like wood smoke and have banana sap stains from carrying bunches on their shoulders; kids here are fashion conscious. They are especially self-conscious in school. Students from the villages get teased in class when they can't speak Spanish well. Veda Luz is very thankful for Larry Suazo's teaching; she says it wasn't a hard transition like it is for kids from other small villages along the river. It's her fourth year here; even though her father worries that she's lonely and lets her know it's OK to come back home, she lets him know that she's comfortable.

   A dream is a very private thing for a village girl. It is like beginning a wall around a city. When the dream first arises, you go out and examine it at night, all by yourself. You tell nobody. When you take your first steps, you are subject to mockery, as Nehemiah was when he began to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem . "Even what they are building--if a fox should jump on it, he would break their stone wall down," said Tobiah the Ammonite. There is no lack of Sanballats and Tobiahs in Waspam, so Veda Luz holds her dream close to her chest. She wants to be a doctor. When she told this to Nutie and I yesterday she spoke cautiously; she wasn't used to saying that out loud. What kind of doctor? Nutie and I wanted to nourish her dream, to help her to flesh it out. I noticed she didn't respond to words like "orthopedist" or "obstetrician," but smiled when she considered helping old people with achy bones and young mothers in childbirth. Her gaze drifted over to the right corner of her "chinese eyes," as though the dream was stored somewhere on that side. Then she relaxed and smiled. "I'd like that," she said.

Veda Luz identifies the strongholds that would prevent her. Right now she can't see herself going back to work in her village. It's still too close, the pull of the old way too strong. Most of her girlfriends from school who stayed in Sawa have babies with the boys from class, and now live the same way as her Mom and Dad. It's freaky. Girls get as far in school as their first baby. Her sister Anabel is a Seek the Lamb teacher. She's an exception; she has worked very hard after having a family and is now close to finishing her in-service training. But normally you only go as far as your first baby. In this new world order boys can get away with it; leave girls pregnant and continue on in school. For them, education does not require godliness, but for a girl it almost certainly does.

The desperate need for godliness is her gain, boys' loss; she's up to the task.

She memorized Psalm 119:9 in third grade in a Seek The Lamb school, and it serves her well. "How can a young man keep his way pure? By keeping it according to Your word." Veda Luz is active in her youth group at church, and in the choir. She knows where her strength comes from.

Nutie asked her where girls can get godly counsel. We've noticed that youth groups are mostly about singing, playing musical instruments, and listening to a sermon, but have seen very little personal mentoring in the churches. After thinking about it for a moment, she said, "Mostly it's been my teachers who have given me practical advice on how to live. They spend more time with the students. Some of the teachers are Christians. That helps."

"My father is a campesino," she said. "I know he's not going to be able to help me in college, but I'm ready to work and to do whatever I need to do. Where in Psalm 119 does it talk about God's faithfulness? ¿Que PERMANECE? (That remains forever)  I like that one."

Nutie whispered in my ear. She wanted to give Veda Luz a dress I had given to her for Christmas just before we were married. I said it would be OK. She went and brought it up out of a suitcase ... Nutie forever living out of a suitcase. She handed it over and then we prayed for her. After she had gone back to her house I looked up the verse she was thinking of- Psalm 119:90.

"Your faithfulness continues throughout all generations; You established the earth, and it stands."

That is a Word for all of us, from former Seek The Lamb student and future doctor Veda Luz Washington. It is a good one!                                           Tom

How Can You Help the School Project in Nicaragua?  Click here.

 

Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby 

 

Milestones

    A friend told me the other day, “We spend the first 50 years of our lives trying to accumulate (wealth, a name for ourselves, material goods, etc.).  Then, we spend the next 50 years letting go of them.

     I was also reminded that 50 is the year of Jubilee…..the past forgiven and everything starts all over….debt free with a new beginning.

I like the one that says 50 is the new 30.

For me, being 50 somehow felt like a big deal.  Like somehow, I finally attained to adulthood….enough sense  & wisdom to feel momentary “thriving” in my life (however brief the moment), yet not enough to take myself too seriously.  It appears that I see deeply who I am and the reality of both my potential of evil and of good.  Perhaps, I feel more responsible because I can recognize more freely the operation of these natures within me that so frequently get “let out” in spurts thoughout my life.  The truth being easier to see, easier to admit and maybe easier to come to the point of adjustment primarily because I realize that life is getting shorter and, “do I really want to waste my time on the foolishness of my heart or stupidity of my ways.”

  “Is that part of me worth keeping?”

The theme of my life is  “Give it up….”

My own expectations often prove to be worthless….my beliefs often erroneous….my thoughts slightly off on many aspects of life…my ideas of “how it ought to be” incorrect by God’s standards (although often seeming so right and good)

I think “I know”, but I really don’t.

I make myself laugh a lot…..especially in those moments where my head is just not connecting with my body…happens in dance class or an exercise routine where my mind is saying one thing but my body does something different.  I find that amusing for some reason.  It is somehow a good reminder for me of how much I need to have God make my connections even in the slightest of detail….within my own body and also in the larger scope of the world around me….add to that the element of relationships and it can get all jumbled and disconnected.  

I need God more at 50 than I ever have and am deeply grateful to have a strong hold on Him.  My grip on Him seems to get tighter when the world around me seems to come undone and out of control…when I am let down by my circumstances, by people, by my own standards, thinking and behavior.  I YELL loudly inside, “Isn’t there anything I can trust and depend on anymore????!”

The soft answer I receive from a deep place within me is, “No….can you even depend on yourself?  Who and what are you looking to for such stabilization? Who? Because you know its not gonna be What?”  There is but One and indeed He has not stopped controlling the universe and life itself.

It is a time I cry out to the only Perfect One in whom there is no change or shifting of shadow….One who is Faithful, True and able to rise me up out of myself so I can see clearly as I ought so that I can live in the freedom of His mercy, grace, peace and overcoming love even in the midst of turmoil.

In the middle of really wanting to say, “I am done….I am tired…I can’t….”, there always exists those supernatural moments when someone says or does something that totally reaches in and lifts me up.  Somehow unburdening me as I listen to a song given to me that is declaring melodiously, “Hold On”….despite all these circumstances, pressures, hardships….”Hold On.”  Christ endured humiliation, shame, pain, torture for the joy that was set before Him….He held on, accomplished His purposes and  now lives to continue to accomplish what He started out in you and in me.  Big thought. 

And I am smaller than I think in the scheme of it all….May I continue to decrease as He increases in me to disperse His goodness, His love, mercy, grace,  power and freedom.

Milestones

-Lessons of freedom and the responsibility involved in attaining the blessing of it…choosing wisely at this point of my life who and what I am involved with and how.  Time is precious and getting more difficult to waste.

-Michael turned 59 ….growing in grace, peace and mercy

-Lukas turned 18….growing up,  college classes, “deciding” responsibility, learning the choices and they all come with a price…He has been quite the joy to have around the joint.  Growing in the area of “relationship” and what it takes to excel.

    -Moselle hits double digits (10) and excited as ever in every possible way.  She is a happy trip…she still starts off a little slow in the morning but once she gets going…there she is! Her Mugly Doll Co. is coming along and she inspires me

   -Arielle has become a young mature lady beginning a cell group tonight, baking high quality desserts, sewing gifts, our most consistent “reading through the Bible” student, and has a knack for taking care of others (thus, the nickname, “mom”)  She earned it. 

-Mikaela becoming a viable player in our Rio Coco Coffee business and definite coveted and sought after worker by many.  A joyful blessing wherever she might be.  We can’t seem to get enough of her here, but we try.

   -Luke and Carlie Broadhurst hit the big city (CA) with a Dream Job for Luke and the opportunity to be near family…it is hard to see great disciples and followers of Jesus fly the coop so to speak.  Their going away party was a true testimony of their effectiveness as I met all of their neighbors and others in their sphere of influence.  It was a beautiful thing.

-Michael and I letting go of a couple of huge responsibilities  and feeling quite liberated and complete in the lesson of taking on and keeping only what God gives to us ….no more and no less.

God comes to unburden and never to burden.

-I am 50  and  am feeling ready for hearing and doing what God tells me to more passionately than ever…My body parts are functioning well, my brains work most of the time and I am surrounded by inspirational people almost all the time.  My husband loves me and my children rise and bless me. Life is good. I am grateful.                                              Laura

 

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

 We are on a mission from God………

This month, we are on the road to visit our friends in Indiana who have travelled many times to help with the construction of the Waspam Discipleship Center- Ray and Marianne Bodie, Ted Lebrecht and our friends at the Presbyterian Church of the Lakes near Angola.  What could be more beautiful than a drive across America in the fall! And to see faithful friends and ministry partners! And to have the privilege to give them a word of encouragement— after all the encouragement that they have given us!

In a few weeks, we will get the opportunity to voice our opinions and vote in the Congressional elections.  I believe that this is one election that we all need to participate in.  Regardless of your politics, we all should get out and vote.  We who are connected through the Spirit of God must flavor our society with Godly government officials who know the difference between right and wrong.  I believe it is our duty according to Romans 12 & 13 to participate in our governments.  Please register and vote this November!

Yes, it was fun to surprise Laura on her birthday.  She was totally had! Rarely have we pulled off a complete surprise like this one.  We had hula hoop contests, limbo contest, coffee tasting contest, and a lot of good words spoken over my wife.  She is amazing, and her braces only make her look younger.  We are all blessed to have her inspiring us each month in the Chronicles, and her words reflect profound wisdom from a woman close to God’s heart.

We seek God’s plan for the 2011 school year, and with our economy as it is, we need to hear from Him. Please pray for guidance for us all as we ask Him for what He wants to do in 2011 along the Rio Coco. Tom’s article on “Measuring Impact” affected me profoundly.  So often we work and persevere not knowing exactly what is happening.  But we know that God told us to be there, and bring His words into the Miskito culture.  He has always told us that if we remain faithful, He will bring the fruit.  I have known Veda Luz since she was in the kinder class in Sawa.  I have taken her photo many times for our child sponsorship program.  Many of you have been praying for her, and indeed, God has done a work in her.  I must confess that when I read Tom’s article, I was in tears, with great joy that we are making a difference!  God is doing a great work among these people!  It is moments like this that I live for, when God’s Spirit floods over me and encourages me to press on– that there is more fruit than we know of.  Imagine the impact of our 200 former students who will soon become college graduates! They understand the Biblical principles for living and will be the agents of change for their communities! Just as Pablo Suazo and his son Larry have been.

Thanks for being on the team.  We all share in these rewards.                              

                                                                                                                                                          Laura & Michael

 

How You Can Help This Month

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center . Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed.  A little goes a long way.

3) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will help them accomplish the mission in NIcaragua.

 

Purchase Rio Coco Bean Coffee!

We import green coffee from Nicaragua, Honduras, Indonesia, and Ethiopia

We roast it fresh in Vero Beach Florida.

We use the profits to educate these students above in Nicaragua.

It is some of the best coffee you will ever taste!

September 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

Are They Worthy of Your Prayers?

 Dear brothers and sisters, we ask you to pray for us. 

                                                                                2 Thess 3:1

 There is a time in every Christian’s life when we need the prayers of our brothers and sisters.

Prayer is the one resource that we all have to assist any situation, anywhere in the world. They are our spiritual missiles that can impact any situation.

Life is demanding, and time is our most precious resource. To take a moment out of your schedule to pray for somebody is a real sacrifice. What makes the difference of simply thinking about a situation, or taking a moment to change it?

It is worthy of your prayers?

We employ 59 Miskito Indians as teachers for our project Ezra schools.  They work in demanding conditions, with little comforts, at a subsistence level salary. They work in a region where there are increasing drug and crime issues, and many times their lives are in danger. We had an attempt on the life of one of our teachers recently. Often it is our teachers who are the true Christian disciple-makers in their communities. They are the ones that make a stand for righteousness, often in the face of cultural pressures.  Most of them have been in Project Ezra schools since kindergarten. The others have worked faithfully for over 20 years.

Are they worthy of your prayers?

 

Pray that the Lord’s message will spread rapidly and be honored wherever it goes, just as when it came to you. Pray, too, that we will be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone is a believer.                                                                                                                                                        2 Thess 3:1-2

 

There are almost 1800 Miskito children attending our Project Ezra schools.   They are like children everywhere, with smiles and a future.  We have the opportunity to give them some valuable tools for their lives: Education, and a knowledge of God and His Plan for their lives.

Are they worthy of your prayers?

 

And you are helping us by praying for us.

                                                 2 Cor 1:11

 

 

Tom Keogh has professional credentials that would land him a high paying job with many development agencies. His wife Nutie left her home in Maui to serve the Project Ezra schools in 2003.   Both are volunteers to our project.  They receive no salary.  They are very effective in their calling, and some of the best cross-cultural ministers that we know.  We are very fortunate to have them with us.

 

Are they worthy of your prayers?

 

Pray for us, too, that God will give us many opportunities to speak about his mysterious plan concerning Christ.                                                                                            Col. 4:3

 

 

Truman Cunningham is one of the founders of Project Ezra.  He has worked with us since 1984. God has given Truman an incredible anointing as a spiritual leader.  He served as a “senator” for the Autonomous Regional Government of the Atlantic Coast North for eight years. He didn't run for a third term because he wanted to give another a chance to represent the people of the Rio Coco. He is a highly regarded among the Miskito people and could be employed by many high paying projects. Yet he chooses to serve with us to make disciples on the Rio Coco. 

Onofre Zamora is one of the best educated men in the Miskito nation. He worked for many years with the Ministry of Education, and at one point was the “Boss” of over 100 schools. He has attended courses in Israel and at the Haggai Institute on Maui.  He is one of the best Bible teachers in Nicaragua.  His friend Augusto Vicente is also a well educated teacher, who is one of the founders of Project Ezra.  Augusto also studied in Israel, and served in the Autonomous Regional Government of the Atlantic Coast as the number 3 man who signed all the laws and decrees.  These both are highly trained and respected individuals. Their hearts are to see many on the Rio Coco come to Christ, and understand the meaning of a personal relationship with God.

Danilo Cunningham has many professional credentials: professional teacher; Attended high school in Maple Valley Washington; Attended the School of Worship in Jerusalem Israel in 2000, followed by training in Children’s Ministry at Hope Chapel Maui in 2001. Danilo has a heart to serve his people in truly discipling the children of the lower Rio Coco. 

 

Are Truman, Augusto, Onofre, & Danilo worthy of your prayers?

 

  Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart.                                                                Col 4:2

 The situation along the Rio Coco is in need of your prayers this month.  We are feeling pressure from the economy, the demonic forces, the drug lords, and those opposed to Christian presence along the river.  We desperately request that you consider what Paul asked his friends in Rome a few millennia ago:

   Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.  Romans 12:10-13

      You all have the power to make a difference this month with your daily prayers for our situation on the River, and in the personal economies of our teachers, our staff, and our volunteer missionaries..

 

 The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.                       James 5:16 

 Please take time today, and every day this month, to bring our situation before the King.  That will be our starting point.  Nothing happens before prayer.

  Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 

                                                                                1 Peter 4:6

 I have been honored to have you as my friends, and ministry partners these past years.  Together, we have seen many victories in our spiritual efforts in Nicaragua, and elsewhere.  I don’t expect anything less as we devote ourselves to God and His purposes this month. Here is what I will be praying for you these next weeks:

  I am praying that you will put into action the generosity that comes from your faith as you understand and experience all the good things we have in Christ. Your love has given me much joy and comfort, my brother, for your kindness has   often refreshed the hearts of God’s people.     Philemon 1:6-7 

 One final request:

   And pray for me, too.           Eph 6:19                                          Michael 

 

 

 

How You Can Help This Month

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center . Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed.  A little goes a long way.

3) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will help them accomplish the mission in NIcaragua.

 

Please click here to make a secure donation.

  All contributions are tax deductable, and Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

Lamb Bleatings      by Laura  

 

“For God So Loved the WORLD….”

 

There is no limitations when God does something….He is complete, perfect and boundless in His character and in His actions.  The God who has no boundaries and yet encapsulated Himself in human form to Love the world. …to extend Himself out to ALL.  Who am I to receive such amazingly magnificent love?  Love that literally altered the history of my life and the life of my children and their children’s children (I am exercising faith here).  God so loved without prejudice or restraint…without holding back….with total committed abandon….gave it all completely…including his very Life.

It is a love that made me feel especially selected,  heart picked out of the ordinary into a life I had never known or dreamed possible…purposed, free and secure….for now and the future beyond this physical existence.

In all of the “everyday” stuff, trials, blessings and challenges of this life, I feel His abundance and the specialness of His favor and love undergirding us and pursuing the many avenues in my heart (that need pursuit, adjustment and plain forgiveness of the evil that lurks within).

We are all still processing our return from Utila, Honduras.  It was an exceeding success on many levels .  We accomplished both spiritually and physically a great deal.   We had opportunity with many from all over the world as we always have and we had the privilege of seeing the fruit develop right before our eyes.  And we made some great friends along the way and gave care to the ones we have already established….Norway, Ireland, Israel, New York, Spain, Honduras, etc…Fascinating people from all walks of life and belief systems with one thing in common….the desire to know true Love and Life…to find their Way and to be acknowledged for who they were created to be.  Throughout the trip I did feel the Lord affirming me as He had in the past “The fields are ripe for harvest…..now begin praying for the workers to come.”  It was nice affirmation and I was grateful to hear the Lord continually speak to me in the quietness of my heart.

We lived in community with Tony, Olivia and all the Bagby’s.   We had our other team of 7 (led by Will and Sonie Riddell) that graced us with their presence in the beginning of the trip who also worked in Waspam, Nicaragua right before coming to see us.   We also had continual “guests” who drank coffee, visited, worked with us on the project of building out the coffee shop to open for the business of ministry.  There were moments of the work that many felt the woes of the heat and grime of being outside in oppressive humidity and heat.      Olivia led the team for landscaping, designing and daily workouts as the personal trainer to the gang.  Her life & testimony shining brightly in between and throughout in daily interactions with many.  

Our kids were helping with the landscaping, painting & misc. duties. Mikaela, Jill and Lukas helped lead us in worship.  We truly had some sweet moments.

Daily, Tony led his personal “cell group”, work team of local guys who came to do the job on the coffee shop.  Michael organized getting supplies from the dock and hardware stores and making lots of calls & new friends in between. 

Jeanne began her work with Edith & Troy (our friends of many years) in the Dive shop and the various businesses they own.  

Jill helped with everything from making coffee, to painting, landscaping, taking the most amazing photographs & giving love and compassion to strangers who we then got to minister to later.

I pretended to be the group chef.  I have these secret ambitions that come forth every once and awhile…I loved it despite the severe toothache I had going on for a couple of weeks.  I want to also note to my children that their mommy jumped off the dock.   

In the hospitality of life in our quaint apartment  we lived in….we had many come in and through and stay to eat with us.    We live on a faith budget….meaning, we are not sure if the money will actually be there, but “knowing” that if he asks us to do something, we obey & he provides.  When we do His business, he takes care of ours. 

I am still always careful with what I purchase and learn prices of things so I can be a wise steward of His resources.  Needless to say, I did try to “stretch” out food and the budget.  When projects begin, it is natural to see how much resources are going out and not being taken in so this determines a bit of the felt pressure for us.

In the process of working through these thoughts and pressures,  I found myself at times feeling a bit hesitant when new guests would arrive and the pressure of having to feed more people would come up unexpectedly.  Should we extend ourselves to these new people?   Should we hold back because of the limited resources?  How should I feel about this?  Don’t I get to choose  who I want to be at my table or not?  When I asked this last question, I felt a strong sense that my answer wasn’t the one I wanted to hear.

    “Do you think you still maintain the right to choose? Or did you relinquish that right when you chose my Life over yours? My responsibility is to provide…yours is to obey and do what I ask….sometimes you just don’t get to choose….”

   “But, Lord, I thought I always have a choice?”

   “Ahh, hah….your way or MY WAY…..It is always a choice, but since you live for Me….LIVE…not your will but My will be done. “ 

    Wow, what a concept.  Sometimes I hate that….this dying to myself stuff.   Reminds me of Moselle’s red little face running up to me in the middle of the hot humid day after weeding with the work gang, sweating and huffing and puffing as she plopped her body on the counter where I was cooking,

   “Mommy, (sigh) I JUST don’t seem to have a PASSION for WEEDING!!!!”

  In the middle of my processing of dying to myself, I thought this was hilarious.   I just laughed and said,

   “I know what you mean!  Sometimes it’s good to do what you don’t want to do, Moselle.  That’s good for us.”   

   I could tell she really wanted to feel the “love” and the passion over the weeds, but just could not muster it up and she was a hilarious cute sight….sweaty and red and not feeling like she was in her element.  I have been trying to explain to my kids that this is when we learn to gird ourselves in the Lord and depend on Him for strength…when we don’t have it to give it out…..He does.

     We are praying that many of you would have the “passion” to come alongside of us and play your part.  We are going forward with God’s plan and we need help in every way. We have no “tangible” resources and have no salary to make or to give.  We are doing because God calls us….

    Would you consider your part?

“God so loved the world that He gave ...  He loved and He gave all.  So, we, with His divine help and dependence, can do the same….                                                                                

                                             Laura

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee 

   We could say that it is organically grown, ethically traded, and environmentally friendly.  Our coffee is that! We could also say that drinking it helps educate children in Nicaragua.  It does that!

But the bottom line is our coffee is some of the best that you have ever tasted.  Go to www.riococobeans.com and order some today.

 If you don’t like it, send it back to us.  We will drink it ourselves, and replace it if you like.

 It is that good!

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner 

 

 We had such an adventure in Central America this summer!

First it was our teacher conference in Waspam on the Rio Coco in July. It was raining, with lots of bugs present. Also present was the Holy Spirit teaching us many new things to equip us for the work ahead.  For me, spending time with our teachers is special. They are the front line soldiers, and we are honored to work with them.

 

Then it was a trip to Honduras– through the Honduran Miskitia and on to La Ceiba.  I had not taken this route in over 10 years.  I was happy to encounter many of my friends from that side– pilots I flew with, our jewelry maker Jose, and other missionaries.

 

Our time in Utila was filled with construction of the Rio Coco Café and conversations with new friends from Israel, Switzerland, Holland, England, Ireland, and Honduras.  This island is full of people searching for the answers in life, and we have them.  We are already serving coffee and will fully open for business within the next few weeks.  It is a step outside our box– God is really stretching us on this one– but already He is bringing us His Team to do the ministry.  We are already seeing the fruit. Pray for these friends in the photos from Ireland, Holland, & England. They all became our friends and felt His Love.

With all of this, we are encountering serious issues that need plenty of prayer this month.  We are feeling the economy as we extend ourselves, yet attempt to stay within the means that God provides.  We need your prayers for the school project and for us. 

I hope that the article on page 1 struck chords in your spirit.  Nothing will happen this month without your prayers.  That is all we are asking.  We know He will move through our petitions to Him.                     

We hope to visit our friends in Indiana in October, followed by another trip to Nicaragua and Utila.  Mikaela and Lukas are enrolled at Indian River State College, and are actually learning things I have been trying to teach them for years!  It is good.  Our plan is to be on Maui in January to do our work there.   We make our plans in faith that God will direct our steps.  Along the way, we love working and being in relationship with you!                                                                                                        Laura & Michael

 

 

 

 

 

August 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

Right Thing, Right Reason, Right Time

 

This past month, I was handing out our July newsletter at church when I saw my dear friend Olive. As I gave her the Conchshell Chronicles, she said: “Maik, I am so happy to get this!  It makes me sleep very peacefully after I read it.”  I replied: “I know that I have that effect on a lot of people. That is why I serve strong coffee when I teach.”

Olive blushed and said laughing: “You know what I mean!”

Each month, I find myself asking the Lord for His Words to pass on to you.  It is my opportunity to take some of my lessons that I have learned by my experience working with the Miskitos as well as our travels in the Bible lands, and pass them on to many dear friends like Olive.  It is me playing my part in the Body of Christ, and this body of believers that God has given us relationship with over the years.

So this month of August, what shall I pass on to you?

 My excitement at the time with our teachers in Nicaragua this past month? It is hard to believe that we have been working with these same guys for 26 years, and this year are finally at a place to see fundamental changes in the way our teachers and students think about God and their place in His Kingdom.

Our Coffee Shop / Church on the island of Utila?  This project has been years in the making- actually since 1989 when we first visited Utila and became friends with Edith and Troy Bodden- 21 years ago.  We sensed then that God wanted to do something, and in 1995 we took some exploratory steps.  But it wasn’t the right time.  Now it appears that it is.  We have a good coffee source in Honduras, and we know how to prepare and serve coffee.  We have the first part of the team who are committed to the vision.  Others will come over these next months, and we will see God’s plan unfold, and we will see fruit that will be great than we are even imagining now. This month of August we are on Utila, serving our Rio Coco Beans coffee and making friends. Through our efforts, God is making friends, and people are being brought from misunderstandings about religion  to  a personal relationship with the Creator.

I am reading a book on leadership now, and one of the definitions of a good leader is a person who does the right thing, for the right reasons, at the right time.

Think about it.  We could have done the Utila ministry in the ‘90s because we know that God wants to save souls, and we like living on an island that is like Hawaii 50 years ago.  Right thing but maybe the Wrong reason.  Perhaps that is why things didn’t work out then.

At this point in our lives, we really don’t care to live on a slightly rugged island, but we know that He is calling us to do this, even though we really don’t have the time in our schedule.  Time and time again in these past three years of our visits, we have had significant witnessing opportunities with young Europeans, Israelis, Americans, and Australians who would never go to a church in their homeland.  We have even seen some receive Jesus.

The Right Thing for the Right Reason.

In 1995, we had no “vehicle” for a “friendship ministry” on Utila.  However, due to no real plan of our own, we started Rio Coco Beans Coffee in the fall of 2004, many due to the efforts of Mike Remedios and Scott Snyder of Hope Chapel in Raleigh NC area, and with the help of coffee roaster Larry Larson (of Larry’s Beans).  I felt like an “innocent bystander” as all this was happening.  Six years later, we are truly in the coffee business, with our own roasting facility, and officially registered with the FDA as “coffee importers”, and with over 25,000 lbs of coffee in our warehouse ready to be roasted and sold. We have four high quality coffee sources (Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Honduras, and Indonesia) that are “Humanic” from the fields to the cup to the classrooms. It is amazing what God has done.

Right Thing for the Right Reason, at the Right Time.

I find this principle works in my parenting as well.  I have general principles to apply to my relationship with my children, but God has taught me to check my motives, and wait for His green light for action, words, and consequences.  My “programmed” strategy now has a very personal touch that is reaping relational rewards with my children.  And also with my wife, who is very worthy of me taking care of her in a Godly manner.

    Are you getting sleepy yet Olive?

   This Right Thing—Right Reason—Right Time principle works well with our business.  I have realized this especially with our coffee project.  Integrity in business practice is everything when you are doing your business for the Lord.  Opportunities that seem “appropriate” may not be the right move.  God has a plan, and in our business, He has made it very clear that it is all about the relationships with our clients who drink our coffee.  We have an opportunity through our business to show that we are indeed are His disciples, and that will eventually give us an open door through the relationship to speak into their lives. But we speak the appropriate thing, for the appropriate reason at the appropriate time.

I spoke to Olive’s son Jeff today, and he laughed when I said I was writing about what his mom said.  Then he paused and said, “Well, I keep your letter on my nightstand, because I do get inspired, and it’s a good time to pray for you and our friends in Nicaragua.”

I hope that this is the case for many of you.  We have a small mailing list.  We know almost all of you well.  We value our relationship with you and your input into our lives.  We can’t make it without your prayers, and your help.

So if I am providing a non-prescription sleeping aid in  return, well then so be it.                                                          MB

 

Lamb Bleatings

By Laura

Constant  Scraping…..

 

In the last few years, I have experienced quite a bit of rubbing and scraping away of my flesh on many levels.  New evils continually being discovered and dealt with on a pretty regular basis.  Through all of my discoveries, tantrums, misbehavior and other negative traits that blare forth in bold letters (and sometimes in foreign words), I recognize deeply the truth,

“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  Romans

I, for one, have become acutely aware of my own sin and the impact of my own wrong thinking, believing, and acting.  I am like the deaf and blind man that needs continual healing and restoration in my life in order to bring me to the place that I am hearing well and seeing well from God’s perspective and not my own or the worlds.  This is a constant challenge…..my will, our will or His will.

Ultimately, I see myself choosing His will over mine, but in the process I frequently squirm, I wrestle, I protest  and finally come to the end of my stupid little self and give in to the Almighty, all knowing hand of the Living God who cares for me and knows me more than I know myself.

My own evil and self will cause me to fight it almost every time. 

I have had years of practice…..in the most awkward and unappealing environments …..an extreme lifestyle  that many say, “I don’t know how you do it.”  Truly we don’t either, but Only by the grace, love and power of the God we serve.

Extreme conditions and environments….intermingling the complications and elevations (the height, the depth, the joys, the sorrows) of personal relationships all along the way…..Life is big. And ever so overwhelming causing us to desperately trust in the Only true Salvation and redemption I know.  Without which, I would sink to the deepest levels of my own depravity. 

There is great freedom in knowing how low I can actually sink.  To know my weaknesses and my strengths and not to hide behind some kind of holy façade that causes me to look better than I really am.  I have come to know who I am to a large degree and I mostly like what God does and accomplishes in and through me.  I have stood firm in moments that I wanted to quit. I have watched as I committed myself to others even when it cost me in order to benefit them.   I have observed myself do the wrong thing in the wrong moment, but I have also examined more my tendency to do the right thing for the right reason when it came down to the action by the holy grace of God and upon trusting Him in that moment of need.

I have been a part of a great many wrestling matches that demanded me to submit.  After a good fight, I end up losing and finally dying to my own flesh.  I like that part about myself……The dying part because I know as I decrease……..Christ can increase in and through my life.

My goal and ultimate satisfaction is knowing Christ and His powerful love for me.  As I change and alter in becoming more like Him, I become more and more effective to do and be for His eternal glory and kingdom.  Without life giving alteration in my own life, I cannot impact another…..We are designed to impact the world by who we are….not necessarily by what we do, but really who we are in Christ.

Due to teeth shifting and scraping in my mouth, I (with the help of my parents and a kind dentist, Kay Betancourt)  placed a set of intrusive, lip rubbing braces on in order to hopefully “fix” the numerous painful problems & shifting, and a lot of pain.

When I arrived home from the dentist, it was the talk of the family (since we had been deliberating about it for months) and Arielle looked at me and said,

 “Ahhh, poor Mommy!  Does it hurt?  Ahh, I am soooooo sorry.”  Geez, I was thought???? Is it THAT bad?!

Then sweet little Moselle came up to me and asked excitedly,

 “Can I see Mommy!?   AWWW, Mommy!    Whoa, You look like a nerd now!”

I said, “Oh, so now I can be a REAL nerd, huh?!”  One of my “pet” sayings to all of my children and anyone who gets close enough to me is the word, “NERD”.  It has many endearing connotations in my book and covers a lot of ground in the communication process without saying too much…..mostly defined as not “being up to par.”

Mikaela was a little more refined and asked, “Oh, mommy, does it hurt?”

I went to show Lukas who was about to go to sleep.  As I talked to him, I asked, “don’t you notice anything different about me?”

He looked at me hard (as I made sure my teeth were showing) and said, “No, what mommy?  What happen?  Is it on your face?”  I flashed a bigger smile and he said, “Oh, wow, I didn’t even notice!”

Somehow, his comment was the most comforting of all of my children.

The shallow husband and wife team just wondered how it would be to kiss…..

The kids asked, “will it hurt?” 

We assured them it would be okay.

        Back to the spiritual point….

    Since acquiring this new appendage in my mouth, I have drawn many positive life thoughts from this brace experience.  I feel like I am in prison…with many liberties being cut off from my life.  Because of the pain on all of my teeth, I am unable to eat foods that I really enjoy. My diet is being completely altered to soft mushy things that get stuck in between the grids….it is gross.  I love texture and crunchiness, but have had to curtail those fun events…No it is not a big deal in the scheme of life, but to have the continual pain, scraping and annoyance going on is never enjoyable.  It has reminded me of this thing we call, “dying to the flesh and living for the greater hope and glory of things to come.”  The process is not easy, but the results, by faith, should be better than the present state of affairs.  Am I willing to pay this temporary price for the greater good and function of my teeth?

   I am ever aware of this thing in my mouth when it acts up and starts scraping some of my lip away.  It is a momentary light affliction that will hopefully lead to a place of greater joy if maintained and cared for properly.

   It demands me paying the price, allowing the process to take its course and believing it will be better.

Christ paid the ultimate price to buy our freedom so that we would not be a slave to sin, our issues, our way, our agenda, our past, our time, etc.  We are victorious and free to live for Him. 

Will it hurt?

Will we feel humiliated and totally dependent?

Will it be inconvenient and uncomfortable?

Will we feel sorry?

Must I die so He can live?

Affirmative on all counts, yet, the promises remain and there are many which declare His constancy, love, faithful forever presence in all and through all and the one thing God cannot do is FAIL.

 He is trustworthy on all counts and able to do exactly what He said He would do in your life and mine.  The question is, “Will we let Him?”  That, is a moment by moment question that demands the appropriate action that is dependent on Him, for Him and by Him.  We can do nothing without Him…and without faith, it is impossible to please God.         Laura

 

Just Be Straighforward! 

By Mikaela Bagby

When my brother’s friends all graduated this past year, their main “motto” after graduation was, “just be straight forward”. No matter what the situation, you tell it like it is, even if it costs you something. My brother and his friends would say it ALL THE TIME. At first I thought it was silly because they would always say it jokingly. I didn’t pay much attention to it, but that was before I ever thought to apply it to my life and my relationships. 

Over the past few weeks there have been certain events that have caused me to think about that “just be straight forward” statement. I found that I started to see the fine line between relationships that were either “straight forward” or they were just a front to mask something that didn’t want to be seen.  I started to see the difference in people that were REAL and people that were trying to hold a faultless image in place. 

When you’re a Christian constantly trying witness to others, it’s easy to get caught up in that whole perfect image, do no wrong thing. There are a lot of times I catch myself feeling like I have to be painfully… bright and shiny. Just so I can impress a non-Christian or even a new believer.         But then I see my parents and the relationships they build and I admire their “non-religious” way of operation. They’re not afraid to show there faults, and they’re certainly never afraid to admit their having a hard time. Being “straight forward” is all about telling it like it is, and building relationships on something more than just squishy bright facts. Being perfect doesn’t exist, nor will it ever, and being a Christian means we have something to live for, not something that gives us a right to lie and say were “fine” when were really not. People don’t relate to that kind of stuff anyway. Their usually attracted to people that have gone through the same things as them. Life is too short to hide behind some kind of made up image. God gave you a testimony… so use it. Don’t hide it.                                                 Mikaela

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We in Honduras this month, beginning a ministry on the island of Utila, where Mik and Luk learned to swim many years ago.  Who would ever think that we would be here, sharing the the Good News with Europeans, Australians, and North Americans.  It is a good thing that we like people (generally) and enjoy coffee.

Relationship are what the Kingdom of God is all about, yet we find that often we have to work through the issues to enjoy the fruit.  Our study in the Book of Acts confirms that often bad things happen in relationships so that later very good things will occur.  I have learned that when conflict arises with friends and “not-so-friends”, if I am patient, hold my tongue, do the right thing for the right reason at the right time, I can expect that I will come out of the situation better friends with my “conflictees”.  It takes patience, and an ability to trust in God for the solution, even when you want to make it happen on your own.

This month, we are with our friends Troy and Edith Bodden, who are native Utilians, and have been our friends since 1989.  They were just starting out their dive business that year, and since, God has allowed them to have a major impact on the island.  Both are known for their integrity, and their kindness.  We are blessed to have them as our friends, and ministry partners,  Pray for them, their sons Trevor and Troy Boy.  This couple will have a major impact on our ministry efforts in these next months.

We are launching a study on the Book of Acts which will be via an email study of  what has become the ministry manual for our outreach on Utila.  We will read significant passages in each chapter and discuss the principles.  Already we are benefiting from timeless principles we are discovering. If you would like to participate with us over these next months, simply e-mail us (lambagby@cs.com) and we will place you on the “roster”.

You notice that we have ued photos from our trip to Montana in June– with snow.  It may help abate the heat that you and we are probably experiencing this summer.  We love you all.  Thanks for being with us!                                  Laura & Michael

 

Coffee Roasting Notes

 

To the Dark Side

“Luke, we are taking this to the dark side” I said a few weeks ago.  I was at the Roasting Room with our master coffee roaster, Luke Broadhurst.  I had decided to roast our Honduran Marcala coffee much darker.  I felt it needed something and agreed to keep it in the roaster a few more minutes.  We were right! The dark side of this bean is deep vanilla-honey choco flavor. And it is smooth. Look for “Honduras Libertad”.

“We’re going to the Light side!” I said as we poured in our Colombia Manizales coffee.  Chef Daryl Mackin had recently tested this coffee for us, and he called it Cinnamon bark aroma, with a cinnamon, floral flavor.  He declared it to be one of the smoother coffees that he had ever tasted.  Roasting this Colombian lighter brought out these delicate flavors even more.

Chef Daryl also tested our Papau New Guinea coffee and called it “woody, earthy, with a soft lime flavor”.  We light roasted the last batch of that as well to bring out these tones.

You may purchase these coffees at our website: www.riococobeans.com

 

How You Can Help This Month:

Here are some suggestions for you get personally involved in God’s plan for education on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua:

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors for the 2010 school year.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center . Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed.

3) Help Nutie & Tom build their home.  The roof is on! Now we have to build the interior walls and finish doors and windows.

4) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will go a long way!

Please use the enclosed envelope and response insert.  All contributions are tax deductable, and Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

 

July 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

Rio Coco News 

This month will be a busy time for us all in Nicaragua as we continue our finishing work on the Waspam Center, and construction on the apartment for Nutie & Tom. We have builders traveling from Indiana and Hawaii to do the work.

July is also the time for our annual Project Ezra Teacher Conference.  It is our time to gather our teachers for a week of training and just spending time together.  Every year, this is a time to encourage our staff of over 60 and train them for specific educational tasks. This year, due to the challenges of Colombian drug traffickers passing through our school district, and the discovery of very pointed campaign of witchcraft against Seek The Lamb, our efforts have been to better equip our teachers in their spiritual work.  We are spending more time helping them understand what the Bible says about the pertinent issues of life on the Rio Coco.  What are God’s principles for parenting my children?  How do I live in community with my neighbors?  What does God say about managing my economy?

Along with more understanding of the issues, we are helping them in their teaching and communication of the Bible to their students.  We are fortunate to have an experienced leadership team in Truman, Augusto, Onofre and Danilo.  These four have all spent time studying in Israel, and have become good communicators of the Gospel in their culture.  In addition, Tom and Nutie Keogh are provide specific training to our leadership team on how to approach “cultural issues” within the Miskito community. 

We have a great opportunity to encourage and equip this month. God is doing a great work, and much of it is because of the prayers and support of many of you.

Pray for these events this month, please!                       MB

 

Lamb Bleatings   by Laura

This afternoon Moselle and I were discussing her Mugly Doll Co. because she wanted to open an Etsy account to further sales.  I find this both inspirational and frightening all at once.  She is nine and has more motivation than most people I know. But, like I said, she is nine and often her skill level may not have reached the maturity level she projects.  Thus, when she shows me her work, I have made comments to “improve” some of the little issues and imperfections that are obvious.  At the same time, I rather enjoy (as do many of our close friends who are placing orders) the issues and imperfections that make her work unique and roughly“handcrafted” by a nine year old.

In our discussion, we began to talk about how we could cover up some of the blunders or even accentuate them to make them look like scars….the creative process is a fun one, isn’t it?  Then, after thinking it all through, I told Moselle that perhaps the Mugly Doll Co. should have a message that declares acceptance and love despite the issues and imperfections.  Afterall, God does that for us, doesn’t He?  He loves and accepts us as we are and as we read this morning (2 Timothy 2:13), “…If we are faithless, He remains faithful;  for He cannot deny Himself.”  We decided that that was a good message for her company to propagate…..the message of love and acceptance …how God did it for us and how we should be willing to give it to others.  With all of our issues, imperfections, hang ups, misbehavior,  and ugliness, He loves us anyway.  I am happy that my little CEO, president, owner, manager (read her flyer…you will understand..) kind of person is still open to suggestions…..If not, it could get frightening and ugly all at once…..So long as she remembers, she is nine, our child and under our care.  Again, we are reminded of how important it is to know our role and the position that God has us playing.  Seems to be a theme around this joint these days….

God does accomplish His work among us through our efforts together as a team, but unless there is understanding that is based on love, the dynamics begin to break down and we become less effective.  True power is motivated by a heart of love and divine initiative.  In our lives, we have established relationships among us which declare the power of God because of the love and commitment we share.  The Bible proposes that the world will know us by the love we have one for the other.  Religion is dead.  Jesus hated the religious because they had no life …..only rules.

 People crave Life and at the core of every heart lies the desire to be loved and accepted. The trait crosses over every cultural and national barrier among the human race.  It is common to man of every kind no matter what language, creed, nationality, religion, or political background.  Love, the common bond that hopes all things, believes all things, and endures all things.  Love,  that magical eternal ingredient which the bible declares, “never fails” .  God Himself is described as Love which acts out in genuine, pure, unadulterated motives that reach out and attract naturally without much effort.  God gives us this gift first and to the degree we receive what He has given freely, we are able to then give it out to others with as much bigness as we have opened ourselves  up to Him.  He is a boundless God and has held nothing back from us.  There is total safety and security with Him.  His love inspires.  It is what motivates and inspires me to do what I do to be more like Him.  The eternal gift I have received so freely causes me to want to give it out because of its sweetness and freedom in my life.

My own issues, fears, hurts, insecurities and imperfections prevent me from the kind of “boundlessness” God has offered to me.  My treasure is finding out what gets in the way of my ability to love and enjoy freely as God has loved and enjoyed me so boundlessly and without condition.  He is unconditional with His love.  I am not, but desire to be because my effectiveness rests in my ability to be like Him in this way.  His Love is the power that needs to work within me and be let out without me getting in the way.  My anger, my issues, my way, my thoughts, my being, my walls, my life, my agenda, my time….etc limit me in His Life being manifested through me and in me.  His power is perfected in my weakness if I am willing to let go of my weakness and my life in exchange for His.  Every time, it is a choice.

I have been asking Jesus, “at what point does my anger become sin?”  The Bible says, “be angry, but do not sin….do not let the sun go down on your anger…..the anger of a man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”  First, it is obvious that anger will be in the human element in relationships.  Unavoidable.  Yet sin happens the moment I decide to have my way, using my weakness, or my judgment to interfere with God’s unconditional love & acceptance for that person.  Sin is when I put up that invisible wall that silently says, “I am going to protect myself from you and limit myself from my interaction.”  Fear takes over which lacks trust which then lacks perfect love….the very element that casts out fear.  It is the age old divisive tactic the enemy uses amongst the body of Christ to divide and conquer.  If we don’t have love…..”How will they know we are His disciples?”  And if we don’t have life at our Party, “Why would they want to come?  If we keep putting up our walls, how can Christ be the head of a body that is disjointed and disconnected?  How can a disconnected body be appealing to anyone?”

I tell my kids all the time, we bring the “Party” if we have hearts that desire to bless and give and not consume and take.   With Christ, we are the party full of His life & love working in us and through us. If we are being His loving disciples then the world will have something to be attracted to and provoked by.  There is so much power in divine relationships based on love and non negotiable commitment to one another.  The world longs to see that kind of healthiness in lives.  They are drawn to that kind of life & acceptance.

We are preparing to have “life giving parties” full of His presence and love on the island of Utila where we know people from all over the world with all walks of life  will be drawn to come and be touched and healed by God through our lives & the ultimate friendship drink (Rio Coco coffee).

    But in the meantime, we find ourselves often in the middle of the same kind of activity right where we are with whoever we are with……I overheard Moselle (on the  phone) inviting Olivia to our house…Olivia asked, “Why, what are you doing?”

She said, “Well, you know, the usual………it’s a party…..you know how we are…..Come….”

I told Olivia, “Yea, things started to develop…..as we went along.”  I realized that that’s how it often works in our lives, “As we move along in life…..things develop and happen and  it all gets bigger than we could have ever imagined it and God forbid if we could actually handle it ourselves without Him”. His will and ways are so much more than ours and we NEED Him and His power, love and grace. Without it, there is no party at all. Laura

 

Do I Get Out of The Car?

Last month we spent some days in cool Montana for a speaking engagement at Real Life Christian Church near Bozeman and to attend the wedding of our dear friends Kirsten and David Nickisch, our Seek The Lamb teammates. It was rainy and cold many days. But then the sun came out and it was glorious!

On Sunday afternoon, Laura and I went for a drive up the Gallatin River canyon.  There is a peak which protrudes above the river that I have observed many times driving along the river.  We saw the sign to this peak, “Storm Castle” and turned onto a bumpy dirt road. After a few miles, we came to the trailhead for Storm Castle, and parked the car.  Yes, the peak was there, far above us.  I wanted to take some photos, so we opened the doors and climbed out. It was a gorgeous day! After a few photos, we saw a couple with their dogs walking down the trail.  “Was it a nice hike?” I asked.  With nods and smiles, they both said “”Yes!” “How long does it take to get to the top?” I asked.  “Oh, about an hour,” they said.  Their dogs looked tired.

I looked at Laura.  I was suffering from a very sore Achilles tendon that was a side-effect of an antibiotic I am taking for an inflamed prostate. I suggested to my mate: “Let’s just walk up the trail a ways and get a few photos.”  She nodded, and off we went; Slowly and Gingerly on the right foot. With Snow capped mountains in view, blue skies above us, and cool temperature, how could we resist?

After 15 minutes, we came to a “viewing stop” above the Gallatin River.  Nice!  A few more photos.  The tendon is tender, but holding on. We decide to proceed for a few more minutes.  Soon we are walking across a meadow, with more mountains to the east.  Bright flowers dotted the trail. We kept walking.  Then we entered a forest as we snaked up the mountainside. It was then that we heard a very strange calling sound originating from a dark shape on the rocks above us. “It’s a bear!” Laura shouted. Whoa! I suddenly realized that we were in the Rocky Mountains in Montana, which is the native habitat of the grizzly bear, the largest land-based mammal. We didn’t have a pistol or “bear spray”.  Grizzlies are dangerous.  We stopped. We watched the dark shape hop over the rock and onto the path in front of us. He entered a sunlit place, and we saw the spread of black tail feathers that identified this animal as a rather large wild turkey.  He ran up the trail and disappeared into a thicket. We looked at each other and with a laugh, continued bravely ahead…

Soon, we came out of the forest, and could see Storm Castle peaking out above the rocks in front of us.  We had walked almost an hour, and it was much closer. The tendon was sore but still good, and we pressed on with more enthusiasm, now committed to going all the way to the top.  We entered a steep slope strewn with rocks that made my careful walking even more careful. The views were getting even more spectacular. The trail was now zig-zaging up the mountain, very steep now. But it seemed that we were even more energized by the challenge. Finally we zigged the last zag, and entered a flat wooded area covered by delicate yellow alpine flora. Just a few more yards now and we would be at the rock outcropping at the top.

“Be Careful!” Laura shouted as we ascended the rocks, and I climbed close to the edge of the vertical dropoff. “Don’t drop the baby!” I teased, reminding her of former times when she had spoken the obvious. We both stopped and took in the panorama of snow capped mountains, blue sky, white clouds, and a tiny river in the canyon below. We were speechless. Now it was time to sit and contemplate, and sip on the water I carried in my pack.  God’s Creation is very thought provoking, especially when viewed from the top (7200’).

It took us 1+45 to get to the top. It was about 3  to 4 miles. As we sat there, we both realized that we:

1) had not planned to come on this hike;

2) almost did not get out of the car;

3) just intended to walk a few minutes for photos;

4) were very glad that we made it to the top.

5) accomplished something extraordinary because we got inspired and pressed on.

After a half hour of photos and pondering, we packed up and began the descent.  As we walked down, we asked each other: “What if we had stayed in the car?”  We would have missed some excellent cardio exercise, incredible scenery, moments with each other and our Creator alone in His Creation, delicate flowers along the trail, and a sense of being just where we needed to be! 

   Then we compared our decision to get out of the car to many of our decisions these past decades to “get out of our comfortable car and venture out into God’s adventure.” Like Laura agreeing to marry me in 1988, and moving to a refugee village where there was no electricity, no running water, and only a few others who spoke English. And she had to fly in a flimsy airplane which was tossed around by the wind, inducing reverse peristalsis (that’s a nice phrase for “projectile puking”) on literally every flight. Laura has always been willing to get out of the car, even if it is going to cost her something, like comfort, or identity, or a personal agenda.  She is totally given over to the adventure that awaits us as we step outside that vehicle wherein everything is as we like it.

   How about even that first decision I made in 1984 to help with the Miskito Indian relief project and then to decide to travel to Honduras to help distribute the supplies? I could have stayed in Maui and prayed for the Miskito refugees.  Yet I felt God calling me to step out for more of an experience with Him. Those first decisions to “Get Out of the Car” set a trend that has taken us to many places, where God has used us in so many ways that we could not even have imagined.

While on the descent from Storm Castle, we discussed the reasons why we often don’t step out into God’s Adventure.

Fear of the Grizzlies or other very real issues: That’s were faith comes in. If God is calling you, He will take care of the safety issues, and provide all your needs.

Soreness of my body or other reasons to feel incapable: I have realized again and again that God’s strength is sufficient for us to go the distance with Him. The more we walked up to the peak, the more energized we felt!

Accepting Mediocrity: I am naturally inclined to sit in a comfortable cool place and vegetate. Having realized that, I have learned to ignore that very real feeling when I sense God inviting me to go with Him to the High Places of this life.  He has not designed me to accept less than the best. 

I have to cultivate a willingness to “step out of the car”.  It often doesn’t come naturally.  This is a discipline that does lead to great rewards in this life, as well as the life to come.

Step out of your car today! Watch what God does!      MB

Utila Coffeehouse Church

 

We are taking the next steps in our outreach on Utila, one of the Bay Islands in Honduras. We plan to spend the month of August setting up the coffee ministry.  

Utila is a dive mecca for many young Europeans, Australians, North Americans, and Israelis. These “adventurers” are searching, and we have the answers.  It has been made clear that our “coffee ministry” is the key to building relationships that will lead to discipleship, which will lead to these believers returning home to began ministry. 

Call us if you want to come help in August!

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

The hot weather is here, and it has been heating up in the spiritual realm as we make preparations for our time in Nicaragua and Honduras this summer.  The enemy must not like what we are planning as we are experiencing a “higher than normal” level of opposition as we  work through the details of a new ministry in Honduras, and a new focus on spiritual training for all our teachers along the Rio Coco.  I have been studying and teaching on the Book of Acts these past months here in Florida, and it seems that such opposition and hardships are to be considered “normal” when you are involved in the work of the Kingdom.  This week I felt a lot like Paul and Silas who in Acts 16 had their clothes torn off, were beaten with sticks, and then thrown inside a jail with their feet in stocks.  Yet soon after, God miraculously intervened, freed Paul and Silas, and people began to get saved in Philippi.

We too are seeing God’s miraculous intervention, and details are being sorted out according to His plans. I am awaiting further miracles, expecting them, as we are facing some definite obstacles.  “Lord please let us operate within Your means and provide us all that we need!” is our prayer.  He has the plan, and we cannot afford to walk in our own steps.

I am really looking forward to spending concentrated time this month with our Project Ezra teachers. This is my time to give to them, as well as to our leaders.  I have so many long term relationships with our staff, many of whom I have known since they were 5 and 6 years old. Please pray that God will give me the words that they need to hear, and I can really help them grasp some needed Biblical concepts.  We are on such a good track with our leaders, especially with the full time presence of Tom & Nutie.

Utila?  We have some general concepts, but God is now giving us very specific direction for our outreach there.  Pray for many conversations with these young international searchers. Pray for many salvations.  Pray that God will send us the ministry team. This is an adventure right out of our 1980’s ministry playbook– which actually didn’t exist– it was just a step by step walk with the King who definitely knew what He wanted to accomplish. Laura & Michael

 

Random Notes

Utila Ministry Manual– Join Us!

We are launching a study on the Book of Acts which will be via an email study of  what has become the ministry manual for our outreach on Utila.  We will read significant passages in each chapter and discuss the principles.  Already we are benefitting from timeless principles we are discovering. If you would like to participate with us over these next months, simply e-mail us (lambagby@cs.com) and we will place you on the “roster”. It’s our way of giving back to you.

 

2011 Israel Trip

We are planning our next study tour to Israel in February of 2011 with our friend Dr. Randy Smith,.  Many of our friends have joined us for a life changing experience with one of the best!  Our focus will be understanding Biblical culture and how that helps our study of The Word. Please call Christian Travel Study Programs at 888-880-8538 for more details.

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Our new web site is in service and awaiting your order.  We will accommodate your church or Bible study group so that you can serve our 100% Humanic Coffee Ò. Please join us at www.riococobeans.com

 

June 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

Unrest On The River

The “Climate” along the Rio Coco is changing.  Since the beginning of the year, there have been three drug airplanes which have crash landed along the river, loaded with cocaine. This has caused an even greater presence of drug gangs attempting to recover the cargo. Apparently the drug trail from South America to the U.S. is now passing through our school isolated district. 

In addition, the political alliance between the Sandinistas and the Yatama which has controlled the Regional Government is unraveling, with the former Miskito army members now demanding the “13 points” Daniel Ortega promised them to purchase their political support. This past week, Truman was unable to pass through the blockades on the road to Puerto Cabeza to pick up our June teacher salaries. This could get very ugly.

All of this has again highlighted our strategy this year of teaching Christian morality to our 1800 plus students in a  more culturally relevant manner. With the drug and corrupt politics, it is mandatory that we instill in our communities a sense of God’s principles for what is right and wrong, and the path to blessing and prosperity.

Here you see our answer to the Drug Lords and corrupt politicians:  OU\ur leadership team in Nicaragua. We may not look like much, but God's power is very evident in these guys!

Please pray for Truman, Augusto, Onofre, and Danilo as they conduct the monthly training  sessions with our teachers.  Please pray that Tom Keogh and his wife Nutie will be even more effective in sharing their Bible lessons with our staff.  We are in a very good position to make a difference this year.    MB

You can make a differance in our efforts to educate Miskito Indian Children in Nicaragua!

 

Lamb Bleatings   By Laura

“Indestructible”, was the chorus Moselle repetitively sang while we built a sand wall uphill from the crashing waves.

Arielle had a “castle” she was protecting with her body.   When the waves would crash, she would lay her whole body in front of it to protect her carefully constructed “building”.   She would exude her little girl smile that I love so well. 

I just dug the sand with my feet and also “helped” the girls with their construction projects in the sand….screaming with them when the waves would break.  It was fun and I did like Moselle’s Indestructible tune (in the beginning).  I admit I started to tire of it and even wanted to tell her to change the song after she repeated herself for the umpteenth time.  I refrained and listened to how many ways she could actually sing one word.  I was surprised that her sister didn’t say anything so I figured if she could put up with it and not get annoyed, I certainly could. (I can just hear Moselle saying, “MOMMY!? You mean you didn’t like my song???” You know she is going to read this when she sees her name right on top. I’ll deal with it-should be a lively discussion)

It is curious to me at times how persistent and deeply in the moment kids can be and how they love us to just “come with them to play”.  Once there, I never regret the moment, but getting there is often an issue with all that is happening around me and in me.

The moment in the sand made me think about how illusive the concept of something/anything being indestructible.  Perhaps that is where my irritation was coming from as I watched the sand wall crumble every time the wave hit it, but on and on she sang and believed herself and had a jolly good time at it too.  Meanwhile her mom was analyzing and wondering just what was indestructible in life really…..this sand wall surely wasn’t in that category!

There is but one indestructible….Only Christ, the Rock and indestructible fortress of victory.  Nothing and no one can bring that down ever.  There was comfort in that thought for me.

When everything around can appear to be coming undone, I have my Savior and He is there and He cares.  Our friend, Randy Smith teaches the depth of that word “joy” - the resolute understanding that God knows my situation and cares. ( Note:  We will be traveling with their school , The  Great Commission Bible Institute to Israel in May….let us know if you are interested…make your plans early)

I have been finding myself going to that place of peace….trying to find my Lord in the midst of a lot of “stuff” that tries to destruct my peace, love, joy and my “moments”.  It is a continual battle and I realize that it never ends on this side of heaven try as I might to make the perfect environment or conditions.  No, life is chaotic and destructible ….plans,  expectations, even the people that I love and count on.  For me,  there is but one hope and one Source of Stability and refuge.  All else will be like that sand wall we were building….only that which we build on the Rock will remain and stand firm.

I am convinced that this is the only kind of “work” I like being involved in….the kind that will remain for eternity.  God is into giving us those kinds of indestructible moments .   I open up myself completely to Him in this regard.  The adventure has continued to provide us with the preciousness of lives all around us.  Lives that are dedicated to the same “work” of the Kingdom….  Lives that are innovative, creative and attractive because of who they are and what they bring to the table….Lives that are full of eternal success. ..God seems to continually surround us with such inspirational people and we feel blessed and appreciative for we know that these are the true indestructible lasting treasures of this world and the next.  I love doing what God calls us to do…it is always so good and right and anything he does never will go away.  Indestructible…..wasn’t such a bad tune after all, Moselle….it played out well in the end.

Thank you to all of you who come alongside of us to grace us with your prayers, help and support…many of you have been faithful over many years and we are continually inspired by you and through you.  We know that your reward will be eternal as we have watched the Lord use what you have so generously given over these years.  It has been a beautiful thing.  Thank you for being a part of it all.                Laura

 

Playing My Part  by Maik

Tonight I was driving home from church with Moz and Air in the back seat.  As we approached our left turn down 4^th Street,  I moved over into the left lane and prepared to move into the turn lane, which was another 30 yards ahead.  It was then that one of my cute, sweet girls said from the backseat: “Popi, don’t you think that you should get over and turn down 4^th street?”

I replied: “I am turning, and will get into the turn lane as soon as it begins.”

She replied: “Oh, I thought we were going past the turn lane.  Sorry.”

For some reason, that comment, and what it implied bothered me. So I asked her after making the turn onto 4^th Street: “Have I ever missed this turn?”

“No.” She replied. I continued…

“Do I have a habit of missing turns?”

“No.” She said quietly.  I asked another…

“When was the last time I got lost driving with you?”

“I don’t remember one.” She answered.

 Then I asked her: “So what is the reason that you have decided that you needed to lookout for the driver of this car instead of just sitting back, enjoying the ride, and letting me do my job, and play my part in this journey home?”

Silence.

A theme in my life these days has been a simple, specific, and straightforward: “Play Your Part: Nothing More, Nothing Less”.  It has been a pervasive and permeating mandate into my role as a husband, as a parent, as a leader, and most importantly as a follower of Jesus Christ, my Lord.  We all have our roles to play in our lives here on Planet Earth.  My experience these past months has convinced me that my levels of happiness, satisfaction, productivity, and personal growth are all affected by how I view my role in a relationship or situation, and how willing I am to play that role; Just that role; And Only that role.

I’m in a stage with older teenagers where sometimes it is easier to let things slide than to play my role as a parent.  Indeed, I have notice that many parents, because of the frustration, conflict, and unpleasant situations, tend to give up trying to affect needed change in teenage attitudes, because the cost to family harmony and friendship relationships is just too high to pay.  We often think, “Well, they will have to learn the hard way…” At a time when our teens need us most, we are unwilling to step in and play our part the last chance to mold their lives as adults, and for eternity.

I’ve also noticed that when I step over the line and begin to play my teen’s role- like pick up after them, give them money without them earning it, etc) I am actually enabling them to remain an adolescent.   Many of us have “enabling” relationships with siblings, parents, spouses, children, and even ministry partners.  I have become more aware of what happens when I do jobs others are responsible for. They never grow into being more responsible.

Our coffee business began in a conversation with Mike Remedios over a cup of coffee in Waspam Nicaragua in 2004.  In those past five years, it has taken many hours devoted to many specific tasks of procuring and importing coffee, website design, designing  labels and packaging, setting up the roasting and production operation, and  developing roasting profiles for each coffee.  All of these things I have personally done, some with help from Scott Cooley, Lanie Bishop, Scott Coffey, Luke Broadhurst and a few others.  Now we are moving into a new phase of our business/ministry.  We have a new website, a new business plan, and a new coffee outreach on the island of Utila (Honduras) scheduled to open this summer.

 In this process, something amazing has developed. We have key individuals who are taking over specific aspects of the coffee business and outreach. I don’t have to do it all anymore. In all our conversations these past months, my teammates are all asking me to “Play My Role”, and in the next breath “not to play there’s”.  It took me a while.  I am a creature of habits. I am a pioneer who is used to doing whatever it takes to get the job done!  But finally I got the message.  I must play only the role that God has assigned me.  I must give them the freedom to play their part.

I am in relationships where God has used me to mentor others.  He has brought key individuals across my path, placed me in long term relationships with them, and made it obvious that I am to give them all that God has given me. But sometimes that is inconvenient.  I have my schedule, and interruptions can ruin an agenda.  However, God has placed me in relationships were other men are mentoring me. I see the value of the time that they have given me over the years, this compels me to make it my priority to give my time away when it is needed.  I play my part in the lives of my disciples, and in the process, a multiplication of my efforts occurs.

Tonight at church, our friend Naomi Hamilton spoke about her work in the Philippines.  She is a nurse and midwife who has worked there for over 7 years. In addition to her baby care, she is now operating a “Safe Refuge” for young Philippino girls who have escaped from the sex-slavery rings which operate freely in that part of the world.  Young girls who were sold by their parents at age 10 to be prostitutes, are now being cared for by Naomi and her small operation.  It is a desperate situation, but Naomi is making a difference. As I watched the photos of her “girls”, I was asked by God to pull out my checkbook, and play my part in Naomi’s ministry.

Our school project in Nicaragua has taken a very nice turn this year due to last year’s financial pressures.  We were forced to re-focus our efforts, to place more emphasis on spiritual growth for our teachers and students along with our high goals that we have had for education.  I learned years ago that Truman, Augusto, Onofre, and Danilo could teach and disciple Miskito Indians much better than I ever could. As the “Jefe” (boss) of the ministry, I could make myself responsible for many and all aspects of the project. That is a typical missionary strategy- become indispensible!  However, years ago I decided that it would be better if I backed off and give our Miskito leaders more freedom to make their plans, to let them lead, and in the process to make it their ministry.  But along with that, I had to give them the freedom to make mistakes.  Somehow, I was able to recognize my part in this complex cross-cultural ministry. Our leaders and the project are better for my decision to only play my part, and let them play theirs.

   My part in the Nicaragua project includes thanking all of you who have been with us over these years, and been so faithful in your prayers and financial support.  Since we began in 1984, we have educated thousands of Miskito children and adults. We have brought in tons of emergency relief after hurricanes, droughts, floods, and war disasters. Most importantly, many have crossed the line from knowing about God to actually knowing Him and having a personal relationship with Him.  

   There is tangible spiritual growth happening this year, especially with our dear and longtime friend Tom Keogh participating more and more in the spiritual development of our leadership team. He is proving to be the effective tool in our discipleship efforts.

Recognizing and playing our parts is the key element in the advancement of the Kingdom here on Planet Earth.  God is very specific about our roles. Hear what He is saying to us:

 For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.  Eph 2:10

Good things; Specific things; Things we were designed to do by the Master. We are His work of art, created for very particular purposes. After pursuing a life of fast airplanes, fun, and many other paths of this life, I now know that my level of joy, peace, and satisfaction in this life is wrapped up tightly around my participation in His plans and purposes for me.

I am learning To Play My Part. I know that many of you are with me on this road as well.                                     Maik

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We moved this past month up the East Coast.  It was our first road trip since last summer.  Guess who drove all the way to North Carolina?  Yes– it was the team of Mikaela & Lukas.  I enjoyed sitting in the back, reading, and watching movies.  Hey , I am learning my part!

I also attended a reunion in Washington DC of my classmates from the Miami University Luxembourg campus  1971-72 school year.  Yes, it was 38 years since I had seen many of these friends whom I had lived in the Grande Duche and traveled with through Europe that year. Since I was remembered as the guy who insisted that we purchase a bottle of wine for each of the 86 students for the Christmas party that year, I know that many were surprised at the “trajectory” that I am now on.  It was a sweet time to reconnect and tell some of our stories to a somewhat unbelieving crowd. 

We also reconnected with our friends Bob & Kathy Rexroad and their 5 kids (photo on page 3), and the Remedios family in Cary N.C. These two families have been long and faithful friends and supporters of the school project in Central America, and have visited and worked with us numerous times.  They are working their jobs, raising their families, and actively involved in the advancement of the Kingdom among the Miskito Indians in Nicaragua.  We love us all playing our parts together!

Now we are enroute to Bozeman Montana to visit our friends at Real Life Christian Center, and attend the wedding on June 12th of our teammates David Nickish and Kirsten Melrose– both graduates of Deep Water Discipleship and the Great Commission Bible Institute.  By the way, if you have a year to study the Bible, check out ww.gcbi.wordpress.com.

  We are making plans for the Utila ministry in July & August, as well as the Rio Coco.  Please call us at 772-633-6808 to discuss any details.  If God calls, please do your part.  We appreciate you all! Laura & Michael

 

Random Notes

2011 Israel Trip 

We are planning our next trip to Israel in May of 2011 with our friend Dr. Randy Smith.  Since our first study tour in 1997, Many of our friends have joined us for a life changing experience studying with one of the best!  Please let us know if you are interested.

 

Muglys  -  Pillows That You Can Count On!

Moselle Bagby would like to announce the formation of her manufacturing company. She is the C.E.O., designer, and salesman. Pictured here are the first three models: Shrimpy, Tike, and Necky.  For more information and to order Muglys, you may call Moselle and her business manager Arielle at 772-776-6033.

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Should you be serving our 100% Humanic Coffee at your church or Bible study? We think so! Call us at 772-776-6033 for information on our volume ministry discounts. Order our coffee at: www.riococobeans.com 

 

Donations are welcome and secure by clicking here!  Thanks.

May 2010 CSC

Content or Disappointed?

He was the greatest songwriter of his time.  He had a gift for plucking the strings, adding deep lyrics, and impacting his audience in an extraordinary manner.  His life began as outdoor worker, and through his time alone in the fields, he cultivated an intimate relationship with the Creator that was reflected in all of his songs. Many of his songs came from “unfortunate” experiences in his life.  Because of his willing heart, God used him to do things that no others could do, and his fame spread over the entire region. We still sing his songs today.

As he rose in prominence and power, he began to set his own agenda in life, and disappointment followed. A long spiritual slide began, and his relationship with God suffered. He suddenly found himself in a place where he could indulge in adultery and commit murder, without any remorse. Heavy consequences resulted, and the people around him suffered.  The final stages of his life were filled with sorrow, and most of it was self induced.

‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.”

God describing David in Acts 13:22

(photo- Valley of Elah where David killed Goliath)

David was the greatest king of Israel.  He was their most famous military leader.  During his reign, the Kingdom of Israel occupied the land from the Sinai to the Euphrates River and included both sides of the Jordan River. God did mighty things through this lowly shepherd boy.

As a musician and worship leader, one of David’s greatest desires was to build a permanent home for the Tabernacle, and provide a place where all could come and worship Yahweh. In 2 Samuel 7, David asked God if he can build the Temple, and God said no.  God had another plan for David’s life. He also had his reasons for not allowing this military commander, famous for the slaying of thousands of the enemies of Israel, to be the one to build a place of reconciliation for God and his people.  At the end of the talk with God, David expressed thankfulness that God would establish his throne “forever”. He said nothing about his disappointment in not being able to build the Temple. 

In the next three chapters, we see David acting out the part of great military leader and gracious king, yet something is not right in David’s soul.  Chapter 11 opens with a revealing statement:

In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites.  2 Sam 11:1

David decided to neglect his responsibility as the king, and let his general lead the war effort. What follows is his sudden interest in the wife of a noble soldier named Uriah.  David impregnates Bathsheba, attempts to deceive Uriah, and finally has him killed in battle. He hides his actions from all, but then God appears, speaking through the prophet Nathan.  Because he has brought reproach on God in a very public manner, David suffers the death of his son, and eventually the rebellion of another son Absalom, where David narrowly escapes Jerusalem with his life. Even though Absalom dies in battle and David is restored to the throne, his latter years were very different because of the choices he made with Uriah and Bathsheba. All this I believe came because of his disappointment in not being allowed to do something he felt he desired and  was destined  to do.

This historical account is in the Bible for a reason- that we may learn from others mistakes.

One saying from the famous book of cowboy wisdom, “Don’t Squat With Yer Spurs On!” is this:

“Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment”.

God gives us the opportunity to be content with our lives. It is a daily occurrence. We get to choose the things we do, and at the end of the day, we have a sense of peace and well being, or we sleep in frustration and disappointment.

When I volunteered to go on a “two week” trip to help the Miskito refugees in 1984, it was for two weeks.  That was my plan.  I was in the middle of a photography business in Maui, and life was good.  I was part of a thriving church, and I had many quality people who were part of my life.  My life was filled with most of the things I desired.  Suddenly I found myself caught up in beginning and developing and then managing a school project in a far-away-corner of Central America.  Yes I could see that God was doing truly amazing things, but in my heart, I was a reluctant participant.  I wanted to get back to Maui and get my life “back on track”.

Two years into this adventure, on a flight back to Honduras the day after Christmas of 1986, the Lord tried to reassure me that I was not missing out on anything when he gave me this Scripture:

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sun and our shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right.   Psalm 84:10-11

“No good thing?” But we were living in a muddy refugee village, eating rice and beans and then beans and rice, and with people who spoke a very different language than me.  All my “professional goals” were impossible here.  I had plans to go back to school or pursue my aviation career and become an airline pilot.  None of that would be happening living in the Miskitia with people who didn’t even know that men had landed on the moon

Over the next years, I began to have a strong desire to attend the Institute of Holy Land Studies in Jerusalem, and get a master’s degree in Near East archeology. I got on their mailing list and regularly received their catalogue of classes.  Each time I considered the possibilities of attending, my work with the Miskitos would simply not permit it. It was another “disappointment” for me that I was not fulfilling my destiny. And it happened again and again. Anybody out there listening?

I finally resigned myself that I was going to be where God wanted me to be, and do the things he wanted me to do.  I think it was reading again and again Jesus’ words in Matthew 10 that finally did it:

 If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine. If you cling to your life, you will lose it; but if you give up your life for me, you will find it.  Matthew 10:38-39

The secret of contentment is to do the things that God has planned for you to do.  Have you noticed that often these things are very different than what we plan for ourselves? To “take up my cross” does not mean to simply wear a nice gold cross around my neck.  In First Century Jerusalem, the only guys who were “taking up crosses” were those condemned prisoners where were on their way to their execution. They had no rights, no agendas. A modern version of Jesus’ command might be “Take up your lethal injection gurney & follow me”.

It’s funny what happens when we lay our plans down, and let God be God in our lives. He is God after all! That does demand a particular response on our part- one we are often reluctant to give.

Here’s how it worked out in my life.  I threw away the catalogues from the Institute in Jerusalem. A few years later, miraculously I was in Jerusalem with my Miskito teammates and my pastor from Maui, traveling the country with one Doctor of Comparative Religion from Hebrew University with a specialty in Rabbinical Literature and Near East Archeology.  His name is Randy Smith, and he has spent almost 20 of the last years working in Israel, leading study tours and training the Israeli Ministry of Tourism guides. How God worked out getting us to Israel is an incredible story. It was the start of a fulfillment of a desire in my heart that went much further than my simple plan to attend the Institute for a nine month course.

Since that first trip in 1997, Randy and I have spend hundreds of days working together and teaching Biblical culture in Israel, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and other places.  In God’s humorous ways, we have even co-authored a book together called “Living In The Spiritual World”.  I have had guides from other tour groups approach me on a site and tell us proudly that Randy was their professor and we have the very best teacher available. They are correct.

“The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right”

Don’t let disappointment or frustration from your own agenda keep you from the peace of walking in God’s plans and purposes for your life.  Be vigilant in your attitudes.  When you encounter disappointment, ask the Lord what His plans are – or were.  Let God be God in our lives. David’s life gives us a good example of what happens when we do not guard our hearts, and commit our lives fully to God.

We are working together in a muddy, buggy, remote corner of Central America. It may not be our plan, but it is obvious that we are caught up in something much bigger than ourselves.  Our efforts are impacting lives for the present, as well as for eternity. God always gives us the choice to stop, lay down the cross, and proceed on our own.  Remember David if you get to this juncture. MB

 

Lamb Bleatings    by Laura

The Trenches……..

Every once and awhile it becomes difficult to function and be what you want to be and act how you would like to act or even respond in the way you want to respond.  I watch myself and others often go to the customary habitual “go to’s” and distraction that life is so full of just so we don’t have to deal with the present condition of our hearts.

Ultimately it is best to bring ourselves to the place of inspection and grace and seek the wisdom that God wants to impart to us in order for us to climb out of the trenches of our deep dark hearts.

Children are a gift from the Lord.  They bring so much revelation and joy to our hearts by their ever present wanting to just be with us and play with us.  They easily get into the moment and “make” fun happen.  They are generally so carefree and innocent.

Moselle was working on the computer when my dad walked by and heard her laughing.  He asked, “You’re pretty amused with yourself, aren’t you?”  As she is looking at the video of her funny facial expressions, she agreed with her Grandpa, “Yeah…..I like myself, Grandpa.”  She feigns no humility at all when she speaks.  She just says what is on her mind.  I encourage their pleasure with themselves.  We should “enjoy” ourselves and others as our Creator enjoys us.

If I am not filled with that perspective in the process of my life with those around me, I begin a process of ”Trench work”.  It is where the battle happens and victory is determined by our willingness to stand our ground and wrestle it out until the results are in.  It is the victory that yields true treasure that causes our hearts to soar.  Victory that leads to real forever freedom, enjoyment and security.

It takes a lot of enduring and simply waiting.  It demands us standing our ground….seeking higher ground to stand on so that our perspective would be altered from darkness to light.  It is imperative that we learn the art of wrestling…

...not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers , against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the full armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand firm. Eph 6:12-13

To fight for the higher ground…..obtaining the wisdom of God in our situations and understanding ourselves and our hearts and coming to the place of yes, “liking the creation of who we are and not just tolerating ourselves or others.”

God is love.

Love endures all things, hopes all things, believes all things…..

AND Love never fails.  I LOVE THAT PART!

We are all so lost and need so badly to be found by the only One who can really “find” us.  The One who knows us intimately and saw the past, to the present to the future and still loves us.  He died to redeem it all for us and declared that “it is finished”.

Our only job is to work through with Him to see the end point for ourselves…to be willing to do the “work”, to be open to being knocked around a bit and engage ourselves on the battlefield.  We risk being shoved, shot at, wounded, and ultimately “killed” in the battle, but the reality is in the death, we find true life.  When we come to the end of ourselves and our way and thinking we find Life, the Way and the Truth.

It is always a painful process, but imperative in our sanctification.

Along the way, many stop the process because the pain is too great to bear and the battle too intense.  Many live in that place of mere survival and mediocrity because of unwillingness to volunteer themselves for the field of engagement.

Life is full of opportunities to engage ourselves and we learn from our responses and reactions to life, situations, and people.

Are effectiveness is determined by our willingness to engage and conquer and so much of that battle happens in the trenches…. Laura

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are busy this week preparing for our trip north to Virginia and North Carolina.  We plan to spend the weekend of May 7 thru 10 in Leesburg, where we will spend time with our long time friends Kathy & Bob Rexroad, and hope to see many of our friends at Christian Fellowship Church. The following weekend, we will be in Cary N.C. visiting our ministry partners Alice & Mike Remedios, along with many of our friends at Hope Chapel Apex.

In June, we will be attending the wedding of our long time team mates Kirsten Melrose and David Nickish, both of whom have spent considerable time with us in Nicaragua.  They will be married in Bozeman Montana, and we will be speaking at their church, Real Life Christian Center on June 6th.  We hope to see many of our friends during the week that we are there.

Our vision for the “church disguised as a coffee store” on Utila in the Bay Islands of Honduras is taking shape! Our first two team members, Jeanne and Jill, have arrived in Vero Beach from their churches in Seattle area, to prepare for the summer launch of this “out of the box” project.  For this coffee store, we are in need of equipment, and building supplies.  We will also be needing a few builders to help us put it all together in these next few months.   For the ministry, we will be needing some video projection and sound equipment, and You may follow our progress at seekthelamb.org/utila.  Please let us know if you are interested in participating with us in helping with these materials, or desiring to be part of this team.  Read the story of Philip and the Ethiopian in Acts 8:26-40 for the inspiration of this mission. We feel like we can send people back to their homeland to begin works, just as that Ethiopian did. The work he started in the First Century is still in existence!

We thank all of you who have been praying for our financial needs.  Your prayers are working!  Please pray as we ask God to supply us with many more child sponsors.  Pray for open doors as we travel this month and next!

  And finally, on the 2nd, our eldest daughter Mikaela turned 19! A great joy for us all! Laura & Michael

 

Project Ezra Nicaragua

 

In April, we conducted two meeting with our teachers downriver.  On both occasions, our  leadership team spent hours helping our teachers prepare Bible lessons, and focusing in on personal spiritual issues.  In the photo, Tom Keogh is teaching a practice lesson to some of our students in Sawa. 

You will find the link to Tom’s personal description of this event on the home page of www.seekthelamb.org.  It is labeled “Spiritual Physics” and is full of cultural insights to the challenge of our work to train and disciple our teachers and students.

You may help this month by using the enclosed envelope and making a difference in the lives of our students along the Rio Coco.  If you would like to make a secure donation online, simply go to  our home page  (www.seekthelamb.org) and click on the “You Can Help” at the top of the page. Thanks for standing with us.

Random Notes

2011 Israel Trip

 

We are planning our next study tour to Israel in May of 2011 with our friend Dr. Randy Smith,.  Many of our friends have joined us for a life changing experience with one of the best!  Our focus will be understanding Biblical culture and how that helps our study of The Word.

 

Living in the Spiritual World

We have copies of our book which we co-authored with Dr. Randy Smith available here at our Seek The Lamb office.  This resource will help with understanding the basics of our Christian faith and practical applications of Biblical principles.  Use the enclosed form for your order.

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Our new web site is in service and awaiting your order.  We will accommodate your church or Bible study group so that you can serve our 100% Humanic Coffee Ò. Please join us at Rio Coco Beans Coffee

 

April 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

Go Fly A Kite                                 by Maik

I found myself at the beach last week flying a kite. I know, people pay thousands of dollars to come to Florida and hang at the beach, but that is not my style.  We had friends from out of town, plus we decided it was time to get our stand up paddle boards out.  Still, I had lots to do to take an afternoon and go to the beach and fly a kite.

Our time in Nicaragua last month was monumental.  We have been faced with budget cuts since my last trip, because donations had dropped significantly in the fall and winter.  We had to do something, and more importantly we needed to know what the Lord was doing. I sensed that God was going to show us something during this trying time, and He did.

It is interesting how we react to economic pressures.  Our “reactions” tells us a lot about what is going on inside. We all have felt the effects of our “Great Recession”, and we have had to make adjustments.  When you are dealing with 59 teachers and their families, it is not easy.

First we were late with the salaries for November, but it came in early December, as the school year was ending. That was also the time we normally pay December salary, along with the “13^th month” salary that Nicaraguan Labor law requires us to do.  It wasn’t until the middle of January that we were able to send that down.  These delays prompted reactions on the part of some of our teachers.  Most who have worked for us for years were patient.  They understood that we receive donations and sell coffee each month which pays their salary.  God has been very faithful to us, and we have never missed a payday for our teachers.

Other teachers became angry, and thought that we were somehow withholding their money, or as one proclaimed over the local radio station, “Truman and Maik are stealing my money”.  That began months of slander by a few of our teachers, which was surprising.  Nevertheless, the Lord was showing us who was with us spiritually, and who wasn’t. In the midst of the pain of public slander, God was doing something significant.

After many discussions on the phone at the end of December, we decided that a solution to our economic woes was to withdraw from four villages and lay off 19 teachers. We took the opportunity to layoff those teachers who were not with us spiritually, as well as some others whom we had hired only a few years ago.  It was a tough decision, as the hearts of our Leadership Team is to help the children of the Rio Coco with something that has always been difficult- education. It is one of the most remote corners of the Western Hemisphere.  They all know what it means to be able to read and write.  They know the value of teaching God’s Word each day.

As we planned for schools to open in February, we received word from the Nicaraguan Ministry of Education that they would not be able to put teachers in those villages.  They were out of money too.  It appeared that many of our kids would be without teachers and education for 2010. So our team decided that it would be best to reduce their pay and the salaries of the remaining 40 teachers by 15% and hire back ten of the teachers so that we could have complete schools in 14 villages.  It was a necessary strategy, and our other teachers agreed to this cut in pay.

It was at this point in March that Laura and I arrived in Waspam.  We spent a week in meetings.  I asked some hard questions of our Leadership Team.  “Are we here to just educate kids, or are we here to make disciples and teach Biblical principles to these families?”  In all the pressures of making a school project succeed in this past year, it seemed our focus had shifted to just education. We talked about each of our teachers, and what we could do to help their economic situation, and provide them with the spiritual training that they desired and needed.  In our discussions, God began to move and we all got excited about heading in a new direction for 2010.

For Laura and I, this was the best time (but not easiest) with our team in Nicaragua in the past 10 years.  So what does this all have to do with kite flying? Returning to Florida, I was faced with having to take care of many details of the ministry. Our donations for March were low. My external hard drive with all my documents and photos had died during my absence.  I had backed it up in January, but I was lacking many needed files. It was going to cost over $1000 to recover the data. In addition, there were relationship issues that had suddenly confronted me. The coffee business was demanding time and decisions.  My family needed to catch up with me.  There was a lot to do.  And then I was informed that we were going to the beach.

Sometimes we have to put out faith right out front. I mean when Jesus says not to worry (Matthew 6:25-33) about food clothes, or other things, but to seek first His Kingdom and everything else would be taken care of, well, can I really believe and apply that to my life?  Could I leave it all in His hands for a few hours, and enjoy my family and friends?

One of the kids had a Spiderman kite. The wind was blowing and Moselle and Arielle were flying it, but they only had about 10 feet of line out, and it was wildly diving on the folks behind us. I took the string in my hand, and decided to see how high I could get the kite.  Within a few minutes, the strong wind had the kite up over 100 feet above our heads. Soon, the entire roll of string was completely deployed, and  this kite was dancing in the stratosphere above the beach.   

You might not be aware of this, but there are many styles to kite flying:  I first demo-ed the Statue of Liberty style (a bit boring); after a few minutes I switched to the “Surf” mode. It is all about arm & leg movements, and the position of the string to make the kite move with you. My finale was the Rastafarian “Smooth Grove” kite stroll down the beach.  This drew looks from people walking on the beach who had no idea that there was a kite attached to this crazy guy making strange moves. My wife will be the first to tell you I am naturally gifted when it comes to stepping on the dance floor.  Stylistic Kite Flying is simply an extension of my natural dance talents. I was the sight to behold.

When I got back to the office later that day, the situation had not changed, but I had. We still were facing financial needs and battling technical issues. But I had a definite peace going on inside me.  I had confidence that God was going to take care of all the situations. I was more assured that this year would be one of the best for our school project in Nicaragua.  I knew that He had all the details of the coffee business worked out.  All I had to do was remember that He is in control, and we only have to play the parts that He has assigned to us.

I think I will add more days of kite flying to my calendar.  Heck, with my talent, I may even go pro.  Whatever it takes to keep my mind and spirit focused on my Lord, and His plans and purposes in my life.

Shall we organize the 2010 Seek The Lamb Kite Flying Invitational?

 

Donations are Welcome! You may support the school project by clicking on this secure link: How You Can Help

Lamb Bleatings  by Laura

Thank you to all of you who have been faithful to do your part in God’s calling upon your lives.  Many of you have willfully and faithfully taken part ihe many lives we serve along the Coco River and on the behalf of my Miskito friends we all say, Tengki pali (thank you).  We appreciate you deeply. 

Over the last couple decades, we have seen a lot of growth and change in the culture we have served in.  We have also lived through many disappointments and heartache that comes with working with people we grow to love.  On a few occasions, we have even had the sensation of “what am I doing here? And why do we do what we do anyway? Are we making a difference in the eternal scheme of things?”

A long time ago, God assured me that if I took care of His business, He would take care of ours.  I have watched him do quite the spectacular job of living up to His part of the bargain.  He has taken care of detail after detail without me ever having to try to “figure it all out” and “make it all happen” by myself.  He continues to inspire in me the importance of having a giving, open mentality which never has the right to “hold back” or shrink back into the way of worldly believing and contemplating. He continues to encourage me to live large and take in my moments as they come and to never be afraid of stepping forward into the unknown. 

The unknown is often what we encounter in our lives and it demands faith to step forth frequently and boldly.  We can never take credit for stepping forward because mostly it feels like we are simply being placed in a position to succumb and trust lest we die and fail to see the hand of God do His usual thing. 

We have come to the place where we hunger and thirst to see God and watch Him do His thing.  His thing is always better, more, and altogether beyond all that we could ask, think or imagine.  I can never go back to “normal”.  Normal would mean to live in a state of continual angst, striving, dissatisfaction and overall discontentment. (like bad tasteless coffee)

Following Jesus has been the goal for us in all and through all.  Is He being glorified?  Is He doing what He wants through us and our efforts? The challenges of us raising money for Project Ezra and our friends has been pressing and a matter of concern for us. God has called us to be givers.  He has allowed us to be human sieves for His resources to pour through our lives.  It has been an honor and blessing for the most part. The past year and a half has been hard. I have personally come to a couple of points in time of asking Jesus (in a human and grumbling sort of way) about the people I serve and love.

Every once and awhile, when you work in another culture or even in your own, we find there to be many frustrating differences in the way we handle things, say things, do things, receive things and maneuver through things.  We always strive to go with “Bible culture” and not ours or theirs, but God’s culture.  In the process of working toward His culture, we engage in many frustrating moments of coming in agreement.  Sometimes even hurtful ones which humanly have a way of causing me to want to run and no longer do what I do and be who God made me to be. 

In the end of every process, I come to the place of having to choose ”His way or My way?” I wrestle my way through to the end of every process and come to the place of submission to Him.  Not easy, but thankfully with every wrestling match in this life, I tire and lay myself out before him limp and incapable of the fight and declare, “not my will, but yours be done.  Help me. I am yours.”  It often hurts so bad and for me it is hardly ever without deep wrenching emotions.  I both hate and love the process.

I would never want to come to a place in my life where I say, “No” to God.  In the little and big ways of life, I have observed many come to that very place of determination where they do say, “No, I don’t want to or I don’t think I need to.”  It is the place where the fence is built and they begin to straddle it and maneuver through life part way in and  out.  That, to me, is the broad way (Matt 7) and leads through a life of judgment and lack of true eternal gain.

A life that is full of activities and acts unauthorized by the will of the One they ought to be serving.  A conflicted life led by many sources gaining for self and flesh, but not for the eternal

We are attempting to relay to our children, our friends on the Coco river, and all of our disciples the importance of “Choosing wisely” in the moment by moment decisions we make in life.                                                   Laura

 

Good Coffee or Bad?  By Lukas

 

This season of my life has been an interesting one to say the least. There have been a lot of blessings and struggles throughout this year but I’m thankful for all of them because of the opportunity to grow from the experience.

I recently read the book of Ruth in the Bible. I didn’t think much of this book until my dad put the meaning behind this book into an analogy that I could really understand. The story of Ruth is one consisting of a few characters, mainly Naomi, her mother-in-law. In the beginning of the book Naomi faces hardships in losing her husband and her sons. One may ask why would God allow this to happen?  Well this is where my dad’s genius analogy of the situation came in.

He asked me if I thought that the coffee I am serving at the Farmer’s Market here in Vero Beach every Saturday morning was average coffee or very good coffee. “It’s excellent coffee. Our customers love it.” I replied.

He continued: “Say you buy a commercial coffee which was roasted and ground months ago and has been sitting on the grocery shelf for months getting stale, and brew it. Now you are sitting at the table with a full cup of this old tasteless coffee and I come along with a fresh pot of fresh roasted Rio Coco Bean coffee and offer you some. Can you receive it?  No, because your cup is full of this brand x coffee.  You have to first dump out the old coffee before you can fill it with really good coffee.”

He said to me: “Luke, when you’re facing something difficult in your life and it seems hard just think of it this way. God is emptying your nasty cup of brand x coffee and filling it with Rio Coco Bean coffee.”

Now I laughed at first but then realized that this was something that was very real in the trials of our lives. Naomi and her husband moved from their home in Bethlehem to Moab, and then took Moab women as wives for their sons.  Both of these acts are forbidden by God in the Law. He knows that when we mix other cultures with God’s, we will get ourselves in trouble. When her husband and sons die, Naomi is forced to return to her home, where God is waiting to bless her beyond her wildest dreams.

God took away from Naomi what needed to be taken away in order to give her greater blessings. Next time you feel that your life couldn’t get any worse just think to yourself “its time for some better coffee” and your outlook on life can completely turn around and your faith in God will be stronger than ever.                                                  Lukas

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

     Unexpected pain and disappointment has a way of breeding exciting growth provoking moments if we allow the process to complete itself.  How easy it is to inadvertently stop a process for the discomfort alone. 

It’s human and yet God has a way of using every instance to make necessary changes in us for the sake of our freedom.  It is the reason He came.  It is the reason Easter is such a huge deal in so many parts of this world. 

In Central America, virtually everything shuts down during the season of Semana Santa (Holy week)  It is the week of celebrating Jesus’s death and Resurrection. 

Death and Life...two ends of the opposite spectrum.  We often ask the question of ourselves and our kids “What is it that they exude, “Life or death” when they speak, when they work, when they play?  Do we bring with us a blessing or a curse?  That reality rests in the deep places of our hearts and who we are serving and whether we are living out whether Our Redeemer lives in us and through us.

The song of choice for me this season has been, “My Redeemer Lives.”  It encouraged my heart to declare that fact of life for us. 

The kids hid eggs in our yard for the adults to find on Easter Sunday after lunch.   Arielle even put some of her money in a few eggs (hoping to motivate sluggish adults).  Olivia sang her made up song with her stick baton waving happily cracking me up the whole time while Tony tried to steal my finds.  He’s quick! We did have a little untraditional hunting of bags of chips and little Gatorade bottles hidden all over the place for the cousins and “real” kids before the adults went mad….which even Grandma and Grandpa got in on it!!! 

I have come to realize that true life is often expressed in our ability to “play” & work with one another in joy and peace.  This is celebrating the message of the cross and the true life He came to give to us.  It is all about being connected to the Living God and to one another and creating memories that live on.  The tomb is empty...He Lives.                 

   Laura & Michael

 

Rio Coco Beans’ New Website Is Alive!!!

 

It was in September that we decided to update our coffee website.  Enter our friend Tony Assaf who had a vision for the very best coffee website in existence.  He went to work with John Paquette, a web designer friend and together they have created a website that you will enjoy and learn from. There are instructional videos and a film called “Humanic Coffee” by Olivia Assaf that tells the story of Rio Coco Beans and the school project on the Rio Coco. This site will be the source for  all the coffee, French presses, grinders, and mugs that you desire in these next months.We are now a distributor of Bodum products and we will offer the lowest price on their products.

Run to www.riococobeans.com.   

As a special welcome to you readers of the Conchshell Chronicles, there will be a special discount for the month of April.

At check out, type in the code “ALOHA” and receive a 10% discount on your order.

    Remember, our profits educate our students on the Rio Coco through Project Ezra.  Enjoy!

 

On The Horizon-  Utila,   Bay Islands Honduras

 

We lived in La Ceiba Honduras from 1986 to 2000. During that time, we often flew over to the small island of Utila for swimming and diving.  This is where Mikaela and Lukas both learned how to swim.

Backpackers from Europe, North America, Australia, and Israel come here by the droves to learn scuba diving.  Many of them stay for months, having fun. We have always enjoyed our conversations with this International crowd, and inevitably they always get to hear our stories. In the early 1990’s, we thought Utila was ripe for planting a church. We began making plans, but events crowded it out of our schedule.  We returned to Utila in 2008 after a 10 year hiatus, and guess what? God reawakened that vision, only this time with a twist: A church disguised as a coffee store. We could enjoy that!

We spent time in March on Utila, and the Lord confirmed to us His plan.  Now we are praying for the next steps.  Please pray with us.

 

We Welcome Your Donations!

Please click on the secure link below to make a donation to Seek The Lamb.  You may support the school project in Nicaragua, sponsor s missionary, or give to our construction project.  How You Can Help

 

February 2010 Conchshell Chronicles

 

Jesus Plus Something?                By Arielle Bagby

 Today we were doing our daily Bible reading. We were studying Acts 15.

There were some Jewish guys (aka the Pharisees) who said to the Greek friends of Paul and Barnabas, “If you want to be a Christian you have to be circumcised and  obey the laws of Moses.”  Some of these laws say no eating pig or shrimp or lobster. So according to these guys, Christians can't eat these things, but I like to eat hot dogs and I am a Christian. I also like to eat shrimp which my mom makes really good. So you know I can't resist it when it is in front of me.

The law talks about not trimming beards. I don't have one but my dad trims his every morning-he shaves, but sometimes not on Saturday. And another law is “no tattoos”. I don't have one but a lot of Christians that I know do. One of my friends is even a tattoo artist.

As I read it in the Bible, being a Christian is just having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and confessing he is Lord. That’s what it says in Romans 10:9-10. Of course once we have the personal relationship, then we will want to do the things that make him happy.

These Jewish guys in Acts 15 are trying to say to be a Christian is Jesus + something else.  It's like Jesus plus “no piercings”.  Or Jesus plus “reading the Bible every day”. I mean that's not the truth at all.

I have disobeyed those laws many times but I always ask God to forgive my sins and I am still a part of God’s family (aka a Christian). So the Pharisees added more rules about being Christian than Jesus says in the Bible. I am so glad James and his friends decided that we don't have to be Jews because I am part Japanese. I love cheeseburgers, I love ribs, especially how my friend Tracy makes them. And love shrimp- its the best.        Arielle

 

Project Ezra Schools Open on the Coco River for the 25^th Year!

Project Ezra begins its 25^th year this week as classes open in eight villages along the Rio Coco in Northeastern Nicaragua. This primary & secondary project began in the spring of 1986 during the height of the Sandinista War. Due to this conflict, thousands of Miskito refugee children had been without education since the burning and destruction of their villages in 1980 & 1981. During those years, over 60,000 Miskitos were forced to leave Nicaragua into neighboring Honduras, and many were surviving in refugee villages along the Kruta River. It was a lean  time, with a high infant mortality rate, serious malnutrition, and virtually no health care.

Enter a group of young Americans who had a desire to help these desperate refugees. They met a Miskito leader Truman Cunningham in November of 1984, and together they delivered over 35,000 lbs of relief supplies to countless Miskito refugees. It was in 1985 that they received a request from a refugee teacher, Augusto Vicente, to help him begin a school. They supplied Augusto with notebooks and pencils that year, and he and Sofia Borst began teaching classes in Sawa, on the Honduran side of the Coco River. It was the following year, 1986, that Sharon and Earl Washburn arrived from Maple Valley Washington to train teachers, and formally begin four schools in refugee villages in Honduras.

That year, we met Victoria Palacios, a professor of education at the Honduran National University in Tegucigalpa, who was the author of “Coleccion Catrachitos”, a series of textbooks written for Honduran school.  Victoria volunteered to travel to Miskitia and train our teachers, and sold us her state-of –the –art textbook at her cost. With these resources, and financial help from many in Hawaii, California, Washington, Florida, and other states, Project Ezra took off, and expanded in 1987 to include students in 12 villages, teaching grades First & Second.

For the next four years, Project Ezra added a new grade, and more students. Finally we had the complete primary school curriculum along with a Miskito Bible lesson series, written especially for the Project Ezra students. Each year was a miracle in the making, as we had very limited resources, and were attempting something very difficult, in one of the most remote corners of the Western Hemisphere.

Yet, God had His plans and purposes, and we felt like we were riding a truly adventurous wave, not sure where exactly it was taking us. Each year, we were able to purchase school supplies, pay teacher salaries, and eventually buy our own outboard motor and dugout canoe. Along the way we were first given a single engine airplane (1987), and finally a twin engine Piper Seneca (1990) that provided air service for the project until the year 2000.

The Sandinista War ended in the election of a new government in Nicaragua in the fall of 1990, and the following year, we were asked by the new Nicaraguan minister of education to cross the river into Nicaragua and become part of the official government school system. They encouraged us to continue to teach the Bible, as they recognized the value of Christian morality on civic life.

We still teach the Bible every day, along with the Nicaraguan public school curriculum. Most of our 40 teachers are our former First Grade students who attended our schools in the 80’s and 90’s. It has been an amazing adventure, and in the process we have all been changed. How?

1) The level of education has improved dramatically according to official test scores of our students;

2) Public health has improved to meet Nicaraguan national standards according to infant mortality rates and other statistics;

3) Pastors and teachers are better trained, resulting in greater spiritual awareness as well as ability to communicate lessons- this according to government educational surveys of our teaching staff;

4) We on this side have become more aware of God’s plans and purposes in our own lives, and how we can play our part in God’s Big Plan for Humanity.

25 years of Project Ezra has impacted thousands of Nicaraguans and many of us in America, Europe, and Australia who have been involved in this project since its inception.

We have seen the Hand of God move.  We have played our parts. We have been encouraged in our own spiritual growth. We are different because of this experience. And Blessed!

May God continue to use us in the lives of these needy people.  May He continue to pour out His Love through us to these and all others that walk into our lives in this next year.                                                    Maik

 

Lamb Bleatings                          By Laura Bagby

“For we are God’s masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.”   Eph 2:10

It is a very good thing to see people you love coming into a place where they are functioning in the calling of God upon their lives.   When you observe them making an impact upon their world and their surroundings, there is something that is moved within.  I find a fulfilled and contented life inspirational.  People who know that they are loved and accepted by God and have a huge sense of identification with Christ through their life experiences….The good, the bad and the ugly. I am attracted to people who view life through the eyes of Christ and live out His heart.  It is good to find that in those surrounding your life.  Those relationships are gratifying to the soul.  Deep calls to deep…living out relationships in the boundary of the Lord breeds so much freedom and liberty which I am only now beginning to understand.

Security in God and His love for me has led to a lot of freedom.  The more I identify with Him in me, the freer I become to express who He is through my life.

It is good and right to accept who God designed us to be and to function in a way that brings Him pleasure.  I desire so much to please Him not because of who I am but because of who He is and all that he has done for me.  I am eternally grateful.  My faults and failures are ever before me as I go along on this journey of life.  I deeply understand what I have been saved from and to.  I know well my own wretchedness and what I am capable of in this fleshly body I possess.  Without God in me, I truly don’t know where I would be at this juncture of life or whether I would even be here.  Truly, he has saved me from much and divinely protected me and guided me when I needed it most even when I was not acknowledging His existence.  There He was.  When I observe the wretched world around me, I have had the sensation of feeling and thinking, “If He hadn’t come into my life, I would be right there.”

I have seen so much hostility, self-hatred, and insecurities being displayed in the world around me even among parents with their children.   A few days ago as we walked down the isle of a store, I observed a family of three who appeared to resent the existence of one another.  Mom was spewing out words of condemnation to her daughter who looked unhappy and helpless while the father followed looking detached and equally lifeless.  I felt a deep sense of sorrow come over me for them.  They appeared to be all very unhappy with who they were and where they were at and equally unhappy with whom they were with.  When you are not happy within yourself, it is impossible to be happy with those around you.

Thus, many exist in misery and discontentment.

I heard my children discussing the shallow topic of  “if you could choose which actor or actress you could look like, who would it be?”

Moselle said while washing the dishes,

“I would want to look like….maybe…..Kate Hudson”  (Goldie Hawn’s daughter, blue eyed, blond hair)

“You would????!”, I hollered from the bedroom.

“Weeeellllll, maybe if she had brown hair and looked a little more like me…….I’d maybe  want to look like her…..”

We cracked up laughing letting her know that that would not be like looking like Kate Hudson, but…it would look more like Moselle….

“Yea, I guess…….”, she admitted.

She does like being who she is and admits it freely.

I thought how good it is to like being you ….the person that God made you to be.    How good it is to function in the very things that He has called you to function in and find contentment in it all.  How blessed one is to be “there” (wherever “there” might be for each one of us) and know that God placed you there for a purpose.  Often she and I marvel at the sky and the sunset that God seems to put out there just for us to enjoy….To think that we serve such an amazingly creative and detailed God…..We are so blessed to know Him and that He allows us to be able to get to know Him and serve Him. It is good.

We also decided that the creation of flowers are really good to have around for its same reminder of God’s detailed, exquisite nature of creativity and abundance.  We are always looking for the deals on nice blooms….Mabel (Maik’s mom) always used to say, “Buy me flowers NOW and not when I’m in the grave.”

I thought that was an excellent word of advice except I have taken it one step further.  I decided that I wouldn’t wait for someone to buy me flowers if I see the deal….I just go right ahead and indulge myself and take the opportunity to share it with someone else who might need a little day brightener or I will tell my husband, “Hey, look what you got for me today!!!!”  He says, “That’s great!” and I say, “Thank you. I thought so.”  Everybody is happy and then we marvel at the beauty that is displayed.  It’s good for people to feel a part of “good deeds”, don’t you think?                                                                                  Laura

 

 

The Offerings                               by Moselle Bagby

 Hi! it's Moselle! As you know I'm doing the “through the Bible reading plan” and I read about the   offerings today in Leviticus  and they are so powerful! So I'm going to tell you about them.

In the Bible we have: The Burnt offering ,The Grain offering, The Peace offering, The Sin offering, & The Guilt offering.

Let’s start with the Burnt offering. This offering had to be totally burnt up in smoke on the altar. This means that God wants me totally like the animal. So that is every day and not just on Sunday.  The Priest had to clean the ashes of the offering every day in his Holy undergarments! That's special!

And then we have the Grain offering. Aaron’s sons presented this to the Lord. This is a mixture of grain, olive oil and sprinkled with incense. It can be the harvest grain or the young green shoots.  Pretty cool right? This represents that at any season whether you are nine and working at the roasting room or you are receiving your retirement check, just keep giving to God! Whatever you have, and whatever the season of your life-- Give! Give! Give!

Then we have the Peace offering. Peace to God means that everything is in his order. If you were God you would want to have everything in your order right? I mean I would if I were! If God gave you something cool like a motorcycle, you would give him something back right? That is telling God you know where it came from! Right? So anyway that's the peace offering.

Then we have the Sin offering. Again you sin. This I think is even worse! The animal sacrificed here has to be perfect! IT MUST! Because you sinned BAD!! BAD TO THE BONE! Hehe..... Anyway back to the story. So it’s a valuable thing to sacrifice! Right? You know its not good..... you know....... that you sinned against God! But its normal. It’s ok! He will always forgive you, but usually sin will cost you something. That's the sin offering.

     And then we have the Guilt offering.  It’s like the cherry on top of the sin offering. This offering costs something very valuable. So in the Bible they say: give me “the ram” not “a ram” but “the ram”. Because it is the main guy in the flock. He is the one that makes the little lambs and that makes the shepherd rich.  So we know that it will cost something valuable in our future. But for us he might say: (this is just an example) Give me your house! (because that's what’s valuable now days) or your car!

In the Bible they say you “unintentionally” sinned, but I don't know what that means so I'm just gonna put “sinned”. Anyway, back to the story. Because you sinned is why you have to give it up! I think this Guilt Offering means that this kind of sin will cost you something of your future.

All these offerings help you understand what will make God happy with your life. So I hope you enjoyed my “TRUE” story. Thank for listening to God’s word spoken through me!

Bye!  Love,                                        Moselle

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

Since arriving back to Vero Beach we have had a brief moment to breathe before beginning our plans to be with our ministry team in Nicaragua and Honduras.   Time in Vero is also full of ministry opportunities and relationships that God has given to us to enjoy.  Mikaela and Lukas “successfully” (so far) began their college classes and still working through some homeschool stuff.   Since Lukas had a big taste for working and earning his own money with the Trilogy (on Maui), he is eager to also work here with Rio Coco Beans as part of the Farmer’s market team.  We learned that he likes to be generous with his finances and gives really good gifts to those he loves.  He is also good at his savings for the future.  Mikaela will be helping with a children’s encounter at the church….teaching and doing worship.  We are excited for her and the kids that will be attending.  God shows up in a big way on these events.  It was where Moselle let us know that ,”my whole life is changed!!   I am different now.“   Funny thing she does actually consistently demonstrates very strong Christian traits or a true disciple and believer.  She is an inspiration really to us and a joy. Arielle & I went for an interview for her to be a part of the “leadership” team for the kid’s ministry at the church.  It is neat how there are opportunities for them to be able to use their giftings to serve others at church.  We think it is the key to a growing believers life… Love and serving God and others. We enjoy seeing them engage themselves in the process with people.

We will be able to have “Grandma and Grandpa” come for a visit.  Our children get to be with them while we are on our ministry trip.   We are blessed to have them fly from Hawaii to be with us and my brother Todd’s family.  They are so purposed in their relationship with us and we are grateful to have them as part of our lives and our “team” of people we minister with.                                                                                                   Laura & Michael

 

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December 2009 Conchshell Chronicles

And the winner is: O Holy Night'

The international marketing research firm Zogby has released the results of a Christmas carol survey in which participants were asked to vote for their three favorite holiday songs from a list of nine. "O Holy Night" was the clear winner, with 58% of adults voting for it. The online s

Survey included responses from 2,330 adults and was conducted from Nov. 4 to 6. Rounding out the top five holiday songs are: "White Christmas," "The Christmas Song," "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year."

According to the poll, 76% of adults who attend religious services more than once a week said "O Holy Night" is on their top three list.  By comparison, only 25% of people who said they never attend religious services included the song as one of their favorites.

"O Holy Night" is actually a French song, dating from the 19th century. It was composed in 1847 by Adolphe Adam and was titled "Cantique de Noël." It was written during a time when the slave trade had been outlawed in Britain thanks to the efforts of Christian men and women led by William Wilberforce. Yet in many parts of their world, slavery still was legal. Some believe that this song was a ‘political comment’ on one of the great issues of those times.

We took a survey today in our home, and “O Holy Night” was the top choice of all present.  When I asked why, our friend, theologian Will Riedel said: “Because it is the Christmas story and all it represents to us.”

“Us” I guess means those followers of Jesus.  It’s interesting that in the Zogby survey the other four top favorites are “non-religious” in nature, and more a “Happy Holidays” type of carol (devoid of spiritual meaning).  On the other hand, “O Holy Night” is a poignant description of the birth of Christ, its effect on humanity, and the proper response of the Christian community. Hum the melody as you read the following two verses from this powerful song.

Verse 1:

O holy night!   The stars are brightly shining,

It is the night of Our dear Saviour's birth.

Long lay the world   In sin and error pining,

'Til He appear'd  And the soul felt its worth.

A thrill of hope   The weary world rejoices,

For yonder breaks  A new and glorious morn.

Fall on your knees!  O, hear the angels' voices!

O night divine, O night when Christ was born;

O night divine, O night, O night Divine.

 

I like the line: “Long lay the world in sin and error pining,  until He appeared and the soul felt its worth.”

Jesus did come to overcome the power of sin, and give eternal value to every human life.  This was a revolutionary concept for that day, and ours as well. This is where Christianity differs from every world religion.

 Verse 3:

 Truly He taught us To love one another;

His law is love  And His gospel is peace.

Chains shall He break

For the slave is our brother;

And in His name  All oppression shall cease.

Sweet hymns of joy

In grateful chorus raise we,

Let all within us Praise His holy name.

Christ is the Lord! O praise His Name forever,

His power and glory Evermore proclaim.

His power and glory Evermore proclaim.

 

The first line of this verse gives me the actual meaning of Christianity and the guide of how we Christians should carry ourselves in this world. 

“Truly He taught us To love one another;

His law is love And His gospel is peace.”

Our culture talks about love, but few actually demonstrate it.  It is the huge neon sign of the true Christian.

I hope that you will have many opportunities to sing this song over these next weeks, feeling the significance of the words.  Our prayer is that we take to heart the message of “O Holy Night” and allow ourselves to indeed fall on our knees, and proclaim God’s Love, Power, and Glory.

Merry Christmas from Truman and our teachers in Nicaragua, and all of us here on the Team in the United States.                            MB

 

 Lamb Bleatings                                     

                                                             By Laura

 

 “Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord.  Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given to you. As for me, my life has already been poured out as an offering to God.  The time of my death is near.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.”    2 Tim 4:4-7

 

On our first Sunday back to Hope Chapel Kihei (Maui), we were greeted by a few of Mikaela’s friends.  I recognized one of them as familiar and after inquiring, I realized that Whitney was the daughter of one of my long time friends of about 22 years.  Here stood her daughter, who looked and acted just like her mom, Terry Johnson, whom I had first known years ago before I met Michael.

Terry was a pure hearted, loving, kind and joyful kind of person who always lit up the world.  I used to wonder a long time ago whether she was actually “for real”.  Her joy was contagious and truly beautiful...child like and very real.  Her daughter, Whitney, the same. 

We began hanging out with Whitney and decided to begin a bible study for all the girls their age especially after Whitney had told us that she wanted to be a “Bible Scholar” (music to Michael’s ears).  She openly shared how her mom had been struggling through 11 operations on her spine and was ever in pain, but she was open to seeing me.  I wept the whole time Whit had shared with me about her mom (a former dental hygienist and marathon runner - active and full of life).  Now she was always in pain and often on her back...not mobile. 

I began to ask Jesus if it would be alright to go over and pray for her healing.  I so hated her having to suffer and curtail so many of her activities.  It grieved me.  Terry and I played phone tag trying to establish a time to meet, but on one Friday morning I received the news that she had expired the night before and could not be revived.

She passed from this life to the next.  I asked the Lord (in guilt) “Could I have prayed for her healing and made a difference?! I am so sorry I never got to get over there!!!”

I felt the Lord answer me quietly and gently, “I did heal her. Now she is with me.”

We have had the privilege of being with Whitney, a true legacy of her mom, Terry Johnson.  Whit has become a part of our family and we have become a part of hers.  Terry’s life lives on.

A life well lived with honor in the midst of a great deal of pain and hardship.  Whitney had written a paper about her mom about a year ago .  It was a paper on Terry, her mom, who she declared as being her hero.  She spoke at the memorial service reading the paper, a poem she wrote and sang a song dedicating it to her “hero” on this side of heaven.    Powerful moments of honoring a precious life. 

Yesterday we asked some of our kids if they could write something for the newsletter.  Whit joined in the writing….

 

The Bagby’s              By Whitney Johnson

 

When they first came to greet me I knew that very second Michael and Laura had a lot to offer me and to pour out their love and wisdom on me. Their family has impacted my life in so many ways even during their short time here on Maui.

I have learned a lot by observing the way they live and love Christ.

They showed me how to put faith in God under any circumstance.

I am currently attending a girl’s Bible study at their house which Mike and Laura teach.

The Bible study has pulled things literally out of my heart that I never knew was there.

I have learned a lot more about the Bible and how it became “the Bible”.

Mike is constantly testing me and helping my understanding in God grow every time I come over to their house. I see Laura as a second mom, I feel I can tell her anything.

She’s not only a leader and mentor, but she is one of the most passionate woman I have ever met on fire for God. Mike and Laura, they are like fire hydrants shooting with water overflowing out of them. Spending time with the Bagby’s has caused me to really find and search for my God, and under any circumstance to love people and look for opportunities to serve in any way possible. The way they live is a true testimony.

I see them bringing heaven to earth in everything that they do. They are available to God and he uses them to impact many lives, truly making disciples and really changing the world. They have inspired me to do the same thing.           Whitney

 

School’s Out !

 Project Ezra finishes its 23^rd Year

 

Final exams are done! The 2009 school years is over for our 2600 students on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua.

December is our month to finalize all the grades and reports, and begin to make plans for 2010. This is an exciting month, as we have to ask the Lord what HIS plans are for the next school year.  With our economy as it is, these are time of wisdom and faith.

Pictured above are Truman, Onofre, and teacher Jons Dino along with a few of or students. Jons is one of our former students, and knows the value of education. Pray with us for a bountiful 2010. We need your prayers this month!     MB

 

Christmas time is here!

                               By Mikaela Bagby

 

I’m especially excited for this year because we get to spend it on Maui! I’ve never spent Christmas here ever…My Grandparents are going to fly over from Oahu so it should be a really good time.

Always during Christmas I tend to think a lot about everything I’m thankful for…

The main thing that comes to mind is FAMILY, and I think that’s because I see everyone coming home from college, out of town, etc, to see their loved ones during the Christmas break. I kinda dread thinking about not seeing my family on a daily basis when and if I go to college out of state or something. I can’t imagine not seeing them every day and spending time with them. It’s a weird thing to think about for me, and the thing is because I am privileged to see my family everyday because were home schooled and all travel together for this time… I catch myself taking it for granted.

Sometimes I go through seasons where I take it for granted A LOT.

I do things like, pitch an attitude when my dad tells me to do a task, or talk harshly when my sisters do something incorrectly. The list goes on… but my attitude has always been the hard one to control.

 I look back on the many times I’ve done that and I think to myself, wow did I actually say that? Did I say that to a person that knows me just as well as I know myself, and puts up with me every stinkin day of their life?!

Yea I did and still do from time to time, it’s a sad thing, but I’m glad I catch myself more often now. You can never take family for granted…not ever. Because everyday you spend with people you love you need to think of it as a “gift”. At Christmas we get lots of gifts and yea we enjoy them… but the life long gifts… the things that actually matter forever are things like family.

I encourage you to think of your loved ones not just as people stuck there in your life, but as ‘gifts’.

Life is like a vapor, like a wind.

Never take your family for granted.      Mikaela

 

Krismis Lilya!

By Nutie Melrose-Keogh 

Tom and I are sending you, our dear Seek The Lamb family, Christmas greetings. We have just returned from Nicaragua after 6 fruitful months of service on the Rio Coco, and we bring with us salutations and thanks giving from our Miskito brothers, to each of you. God has poured out his blessing on them this Year, amidst difficulties, and they want to say THANK YOU for partnering with God on their behalf.

 As the Christmas season is upon us, we, too, are worshipping our Father in heaven with gratitude and awe for his kindness and faithfulness. It truly is a privilege to KNOW and SERVE JESUS, the King of Kings, Savior, Prince of Peace, Counselor, and our Best Friend! His presence and character have been strong with us this year as he allowed us opportunity to serve the people of the Wangky through teaching, preaching, singing and hands-on loving. It was a perfect way to establish our first year of marriage!

 Now we are preparing to share our first “blended Christmas” with all our children coming to Florida for the holidays. We are in the midst of Tom’s community of faith here at Sebring Grace Church and we feel very full and blessed.

 May God also delight you with His Presence and Goodness this season! We love you all! Merry Christmas!                                        Nutie & Tom

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are in “our season”. It is not about “Happy Holidays”. It is about the coming of our Lord Jesus, and his outreach to all mankind.  It is a time for celebration and reflection. We did receive the greatest gift possible ever– a personal relationship with the Creator and an eternal future as members of His Family.  We get to enjoy it now, and it will never end. This is the message for us to proclaim to all this season. And this is why it is a “Merry Christmas”!

We have so enjoyed our time here on Maui, working with our parenting classes, young couples Bible Study, and Miakela’s high school group.  We have seen God do some incredible thing in relationships, and we have learned so much ourselves.  It is a sweet time for us here. The photo was taken in Haleakala crater with a silversword plant in bloom.  We spent two days there last month. Looks like a Christmas tree to me!

We are already making plans to return to Florida on December 30, and be in Nicaragua at the beginning of March.  We are planning another trip to the Vida Joven Coffee Farm, and a construction trip to the Rio Coco.  Please consider joining us for adventure this year.

Merry Christmas!  May God pour out Peace and Joy as we celebrate!   

Laura and Maik

 

How to Make a difference with us this month.

Would you like to sponsor a child?  Support one of our missionaries?  Make a gift to our school project in Nicaragua?

Please click here for our secure website giving page.

 

 

This Month’s Prayer Needs:

 

December Arrows

This month, please pray for the following:

1)   That we will be able to pay all our teachers in Nicaragua their end of year salaries: by law they receive a “13th month” salary each December.

2)   For God’s wisdom in planning the budget for our Nicaraguan schools next year. We don’t want to cut back unless He tells us to. Pray for Truman as he meets with government and community leaders, and our teachers.

3)   For our dear friend Kelly, who is suffering severe headaches, which we think is due to the fact that she is the leader of the Precepts Bible Study ministry on Maui.  Pray for protection from the enemy.

4)   For a truck for the Bagby Family to replace the one destroyed by fire in June.

5)   For wisdom for Laura and Maik as they plan the 2010 ministry calendar.

 

 We need your  prayers! We know that God wants to provide all our needs, and He wants us to be active in asking Him to do it!

Conchshell Chronicles November 2009

November 2009 Conchshell Chronicles

 

Things We Are Thankful For……

It is the season to remember all the good things God has done in our lives.  We often reflect on the lives that He has given us, and the opportunities we have to impact humanity for eternal purposes.  We also think about many of you whom God has brought on to the STL team that has been educating our children in Nicaragua these past 23 years.  We are amazed to see the progress, and fruit, and we are so thankful that He has chosen us to be involved in this work. Of course we are thankful for our family, our healthy children, and our ability to make it through the days.  God has been good to us, and we are so thankful for all He continues to do!

 

A Partnership                 by Maik Bagby

 

God calls us, then He leads us, and if we are hearing and following, great things will be accomplished!

It is a partnership of efforts between us and God.

Our summer was filled with activities in Nicaragua and Honduras working with our Project Ezra teachers and students.  As we visited schools, spoke with our teachers, and spent time with our long time friends who are leading the project, we were encouraged by what God has been doing.  Many of our teachers have made significant spiritual steps, as have our students.  In addition, they all have advanced academically- our teachers are more qualified to teach, and the students are scoring better on their tests.  All is moving forward.  God is displaying Himself to the Miskito people through our education project, our radio Bible teaching broadcasts, our distribution of emergency relief food, and the love and attention that our teachers show the children.  It is good.

As we worked on the final phases of the Papta Watla (the three-story Leaf Roof House), I was again impressed at the artistry and engineering that has gone into this building.  It is truly a work of art that is very functional in training teachers, and pastors. Our builders, led by Tomas and Truman, have indeed utilized a creative gift from God to construct a building that causes people to gaze in wonder how a little organization like us could put up such an artistically inspired structure.  As I was painting one day, I felt so fortunate to be part of a God project.  It is good.

Our trip to North Carolina was filled with divine encounters where we were used to encourage many of our friends.  At the same time, we were refreshed ourselves, and inspired with moments with our family, at Hope Chapel in Apex, and walking the Cowpens Battlefield.  You read about that Revolutionary War battle in our June issue of the CSC.  Yes, that time was very good.

Coming to Maui at the end of September was a much anticipated event, and for good reason.  We felt that God was going to use us in some new ways to minister at our church here, and He has.  Our Relational Parenting class on Tuesday nights has been profound for us all.  We didn’t choose to teach on parenting, but were asked to by the leaders here at Hope Chapel.  Preparing for the classes has been a very good learning experience for us, and Laura and I have become better parents ourselves, as we study God’s principles for parenting. The teaching times have been very “God inspired”, and we have benefitted the most, although our 30 plus students tell us otherwise.  We are enjoying what God is doing.  It is very good.

At the same time, Mikaela has launched a Bible study for some of her high school friends on Wednesday afternoon, and already there has been deep significant issues discussed.  We are “helping” her, but it is so nice to see her touching the lives of the young ladies.  It is good.

We also launched a Bible study for Young Married Couples on Thursday night, with the idea that this could be a start of multiple Young Married studies.  There is such a need for an understanding of God’s principles for the marriage relationship in our society today.  We hope that our group of five couples will numerically and spiritually grow over the next months, and multiply. It is good what God is doing with our lives here on Maui.

As we walk along this journey of  listening to and following the King, we often encounter natural obstacles, and sometimes supernatural ones.  They often take the form of relationship issues, financial stress, government opposition, and health issues.  We have experienced all of these in our project in Nicaragua this past decade. These obstacles sometimes appear naturally, other times we realized it has been spiritually motivated.

Jesus continually tells us to trust Him as we follow along.  That is often hard to do.  We sometimes feel like the father of the demon oppressed boy in Mark 9:

So they brought the boy. But when the evil spirit saw Jesus, it threw the child into a violent convulsion, and he fell to the ground, writhing and foaming at the mouth. “How long has this been happening?” Jesus asked the boy’s father. He replied, “Since he was very small. The evil spirit often makes him fall into the fire or into water, trying to kill him. Have mercy on us and help us. Do something if you can.”

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

The father instantly replied, “I do believe, but help me not to doubt!”                                   Mark 9:17-24

We believe, but we forget sometimes who we are believing in.  We let the natural circumstances cloud our vision, and the real Jesus, Creator of the Universe, all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present, starts to fade into a less able, further away, less certain god.

Like the boy’s father, we need help not to doubt.

The challenges for the Seek The Lamb ministry are great today.  We are involved in many things that are good; Things that God is doing; Ministry that we are hopefully doing our part.

We know that where He leads, He does provide.

“What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

 

 Lamb Bleatings               By Laura Bagby

 

Our lives are full of opportunities to respond and choose.  Yet, at times, it all feels so completely out of control and out of my grasping abilities.  I struggle to keep myself in the place of calm, peace and freedom.   I strive to remain unstained by the world, events and people around me.   I attempt to find my “steady point” of possessing and maintaining God’s presence and sense of security in the place of faith and trust.  I fail to remain there in my proper place especially when I am feeling like I am NOT accomplishing everything I “should be or ought to be” in light of everyone that is surrounding me.  I give heed to those people around me in the moment and each moment only turns into another one and then yet another one….Each encounter being important and meaningful in its own right.

However, by the end of the day or even during the course of the day, I do wonder to the Lord in thought,  “Am I doing what YOU want me to do?” The second and more important thought is, “Am I BEING who you want me to be?”

I suppose all of us could exchange stories of how busy we really are and how demanding our lives can be, but with each story comes our choice of how we will live each of those moments….whether in peace or in anxiety….whether we embrace those moments for the sake of clinging to God in desperation knowing that we cannot do it on our own or whether we press forward with determined human ingenuity and drive drugged by our own adrenalin and pride.

It is a continual battle….some moments more fierce than others….

Our weeks have been full of opportunities to practice much of what we have been teaching on this island.  Between our bible study teachings, meeting with interns at the church, a Relational Parenting class,  a couple’s study, countless discipling moments with individuals, preparing for sermons and planning a huge event in a few days to raise money for our missions with Seek the Lamb……….not to mention the main priorities of God, husband, children,  Grandma and Grandpa who arrived today, our other friends who arrived a few days ago,  and the host of other people we enjoy and love.  All of these involve time and the struggle to maintain the peacefulness of God reigning in our hearts.

I have had severe temptations to go to that place of stress and angst. And have in fact failed on many occasions.  Yet there is always so much that brings me back to my place before the Lord.

One morning this week I awoke with my skin crawling and thoughts whirling over all that needed to take place.  I called my friend Liz who is helping me with our Sunday fund raising event with our silent auction items.  She proceeded to proclaim the delight she had over saying YES to the Lord regarding her helping us and how the Lord assured her that all she needed to do was to trust, obey, walk forward and do what she could and allow God to simply do the rest.  Her friends told her she was beaming and asked her why.  She said, “Because I said yes to the Lord….”  It was such an encouraging reminder of how when we take care of our Father’s business He makes sure He takes care of ours.”  No worries…Liz and Reta run a magazine company for Real Estate in Maui and have a deadline to meet this week for Maui Property Portfolio.  Yet, there she was stayed in perfect peace, joy and gratefulness doing it all.  I loved talking with her and praying with her on the phone.  She is a joy to work with and do ministry with.  I welled up with thankfulness for her presence in my life.

Right after that encouragement, Moselle came up to me and handed me her “fun” journal notebook and said, “Read this mommy….I wrote it.”  It read like this….

Journey

This is a journey that is Holy

This is a journey of peace

This is a journey to find you to be in me

This is a path that is marked with holiness

This is a path that leads to you

I don’t know where to go but I’m trusting you

I’m trusting you to guide me

I’m trusting you to lead me cause God you love me

And I love you too!

I’m gonna follow you

I know you are going to lead me too.

God this is my journey to you.

                                           By Moselle Bagby

 

“What?!!!!  You wrote this?!!?”

“Yep.”

“You are gifted by the Holy Spirit, Moselle.  You have a gift and I am so encouraged by it!”

I was deeply moved by those words which my heart so longed to hear.  It  ministered to me and gave me the sense that everything was really quite alright.  All I needed to do was keep journeying back to my Lord.

Moselle and Liz helped me get back to reality as God knows it and calls it.

Mikaela and Lukas opened a bank account here and I had the privilege of being there with them as they displayed yet one more act of their adulthood and sense of responsibility. They are growing up and learning to appreciate the finer and deeper things in life and godliness….like the relationships that gave them their jobs…..like how grateful they are to even have a job when many of their friends are looking and not finding, when lay offs are abundant all around us,  when people react so amazed when they share where they are working and what they are doing.  They are concluding on the side of blessedness.  This is always a good landing spot for us all.

I could tell that Lukas felt blessed and thankful to have Grandma and Grandpa here with us.  He drove Grandma and I around to get medication, go to the store and to our bank.  When he arrived home, he made some of his famous noodles for them.

It has been very interesting watching them grow into adulthood.  We have all wrestled between their growing independence, dependence, considerations, priorities, thoughtfulness and the quest to allow loyalty, kindness, and faithfulness to rule our home together.

When we arrived home, Mikaela had already begun leading worship for our girls bible study group we helped her start.  A beautiful encouraging session.  I love sitting next to her in worship.  Her heart of worship blesses me on so many levels.

Our children are learning life lessons in relationships, time and financial management and responsibility.  They are also experiencing the freedom that comes with some of these responsibilities.

Arielle called me one day shortly after Lukas had begun working and let me know excitedly,

“Mommy when Lukas went to the store, he bought me some jeans….isn’t that nice of him?!”

“Do they fit?”

“Perfectly…I’m wearing them to church tonight.”

It was a nice way to see my son using his financial freedom in blessing his sister and having thoughts beyond his own needs which is such a key to the growing up process.  The ability and desire to think beyond ourselves…A worthy goal.      The struggle for us all…..

Trusting that God in his nature gave up his life for us that we would learn how to give up our lives for others.  Knowing that when we take care of our Father’s business, He takes care of ours.                                             Laura

 

 

 

 A Real Job                        By Lukas Bagby

 

This trip to Maui has been so much different in so many ways so far this year. To begin with a lot of my best friends from previous years that were my “hangout” friends all left for California to attend various colleges. This has impacted me in obvious ways such as having to make new friends (which can be a bummer at times) but none the less God has blessed me with a new friends and new opportunity’s on this trip.

One of the most amazing opportunity’s I’ve had so far is getting a job on the Trilogy Excursions boat line. Our long time friend Chris Walsh aka Captain Chris one day soon after we arrived came up to me and simply asked me “so do you wanna work while you’re here?” I said “Sure!” without hesitation.  He then continued to say “Alright. Meet me at the harbor tomorrow morning at 5:15.” The rest is history I guess you could say. I work as the third or second mate, serving food to our guests, passing out fins & masks, and leading them on snorkeling tours.  I have to watch out for the safety of our guests, and already I have gotten a few of them out of trouble.  I also see turtles every day. When we get back to the harbor, we get to clean the boat. It is usually an 8 hour day.

This is my first job I’ve ever had and the experience has been a great one. I’ve been given the opportunity to earn some money but also develop relationships with people from all over the world on a daily basis. When our good friend Terry Borcheller first heard about me getting a job his only words to me were “welcome to the real world buddy” and this is so true! haha.

The thing I’ve been learning the most with this amazing opportunity is that hard work definitely pays off. I’ve come from being a lazy slug to actually a pretty hard working young man.

 On top of this I’ve learned that you can actually make an impact on somebody just from talking with them for a mere 5 minutes.  I’ve had so many opportunities to tell people about my life and the crazy adventures God takes me and my family on.  People are always impressed and I feel like I’m actually doing God’s work just by taking the time with these people!

 I encourage anyone who is reading this that your 5 minutes in someone’s life can make a difference where they will spend the rest of eternity, are you gonna be part of the difference? I know I am.

                                           Aloha         Lukas

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

Our time in Hawaii has historically been our busiest.  This year is no exception.  We have many opportunities to encourage & teach many of our friends and partners whom we have not seen since 2007.  It has been a rich time, especially with Lukas and Mikaela working (she works for Spencer Homes in the office), and both being involved in ministry.  We have enjoyed our time with their friends, and these young people seem hungry for the freedom that comes from a close relationship with God.

We have classes and Bible Studies that we are leading, as well as many moments throughout the week for sharing times.  It seems that each weekend we have had an opportunity to share at a weekend service at Hope, Kumulani, and Waipuna Chapels.  We so enjoy sharing what God has taught us– often through hard lessons.  If you would like to see the video messages please go to the Hope Chapel website (www.hopechapelmaui.com) and click on the “Watch A Service”  and look on the Sunday and Friday menus.  We have taught on “Purposeful Intentional Living”,  “Developing Compassion” and on Friday, “To the Ends of the Earth”.  Take and moment and let us encourage you.

We are in our final two months of the school project in Nicaragua, and we want to finish strong this year.  You probably noticed the theme of our articles this month, which we wrote without consulting each other.  We both are so aware of the good things that God is doing, and we want to play our parts to the maximum. Please pray with us that we will be able to meet the needs of our 81 teachers and administrators, and finish the “Paptal Watla” in Waspam.

We are available for service while we are in Hawaii for any needs.  Please contact us at our cell below.  We look forward to seeing all our friends this season.

Pray with us this month!  Let God move in all our hearts!          

                                                       Laura & Michael  - Cell # 772-633-6808 

 

 

 

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

We have fresh coffee of the finest kind! We import coffee from Honduras, Nicaragua, and Ethiopia, roast it fresh in Vero Beach Florida, and deliver it directly to your door. Then we send the profits to educate our students in Nicaragua.

Please go to www.riococobeans.com to order yours!

 

Do You Want to Help this month?

Here are some suggestions for you get personally involved in God’s plan for education on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua:

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors for the 2009 school year.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center . Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed. We estimate $6300 will allow us to move in!

3) Help Nutie & Tom build their home. We have started making blocks and pouring cement columns. Much is needed to finish this important project.

4) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will go a long way.

Please click here to make a secure donation through Pay Pal.

Your gifts are greatly appreciated!

November 2009 Conchshell Chronicles

October Conchshell Chronicles 2009

Why This All Matters

 

This morning, these girls who live along the Rio Coco  in Nicaragua will put on clean clothes, comb their hair, and walk to the school building near their home.

There, a teacher will read a passage from the Bible to begin the day, and continue math and other subjects for the next four hours.   

Further up river, a young teenager will receive an invitation from the Young Life Bible club at school to attend a week-long camp where he will have an experience with God. On a continent far away, a young Ethiopian pastor will head out from his village to begin a work in a predominately Muslim village, with the goal to share the Good News of Jesus, and establish a community of Christians.

All of these projects will make in difference in our world in these next few years, and they are all connected to you.

Seek The Lamb has 17 schools in “Project Ezra” along the Rio Coco, with over 2500 students attending today.  These schools are being taught by Miskito Indians who were educated by Project Ezra in the last century (1980’s & 90’s). These teachers are supported by your donations, child sponsorships, and profits from our Rio Coco Bean coffee. It is a work that is bearing a lot of fruit.

Rio Coco Beans buys green coffee from the Young Life ministry in Northern Nicaragua.  They grow these delicious beans on a farm that serves as a camp for young students who are members of Bible clubs that Young Life has started all over Nicaragua.  The week-long camp experience is what often cements a student’s relationship with Jesus. This camp is funded from the sale of the green coffee grown on the property.

In Ethiopia there is an indigenous evangelical church movement that is training up pastors and sending them and their families out to Muslim areas to plant churches. This movement is assisted by New Covenant Ministries, who buys coffee from the Christian coffee farmers in Yirgacheffe, and imports it to the U.S. where their “for-profit” company Dominion Trading, sells it to companies like Rio Coco Beans. They in return take their profit back to Ethiopia and help fund the church planting.

These three projects are all having their impact in changing our world, one life at a time.  We have the honor to be involved through what God is doing through your participation in Seek The Lamb, and through your purchase of Rio Coco Bean Coffee.

Can I make a difference in the world? The answer is YES! In your relationships with those in your community, you have the opportunity each day to shine the Light of God to a culture who has lost its moral compass and is experiencing the consequences of life without God’s wisdom and blessings. Through  your donations to Seek The Lamb, you have the opportunity to directly impact the lives of children in a culture where Christianity is relatively new. Through your purchase of Rio Coco Bean coffee, you touch children all over Nicaragua, and families in Muslim villages in Ethiopia.

Be encouraged today!  You have the chance to change your world. Will you take it?                                                                                                        Maik

Seek The Lamb                                                                                        Rio Coco Bean Coffee

                                               

Lamb Bleatings                                 By Laura

We get knocked off our feet in many ways in life. Every now and again we all need an awakening. For some, it may by a swift kick or a hard swat on the “okole” (butt).  Most discipline comes with a price that moves us to change.

My children have often responded well to such discipline.  It wakes them up from their selfish little stupor that overtakes them in their small little world of “me, myself and I”.  We want them to be a joy and a blessing not only to us but to the world around them.  It takes training and discipline to get them to this point in many areas of their lives.   All of this demands a level of commitment on our part to see that they grow into their God given design and function on this side of heaven.  It is a continual challenge and intentional decision on our part to see them through via our training and discipline.

We are sure their precious lives have a destiny to fulfill. My destiny and purpose gets messed with and there are moments that I need a good “spanking” to reality & truth. The discipline of our heavenly Father is sobering and causes us to come to a few senses we would perhaps like to avoid. Yet, the reality is that I, personally, often ask my heavenly Father for His “opinion” over my life.  He never holds back from me and is free to give me His view over the issues in my heart.

In one way, I hate it very deeply.  It makes me mad, sad, disappointed, emotional and at times struck with hopelessness and a tinge of depression.  I have even been known to throw a little tantrum. Bad girl. In God’s kind way, He saves me from myself and the negativity of my emotional state and speaks the right words to me or gives me the perfect kind acts through many of my friends to make light my way and to ease the blow of my chastisement.  It is not fun being “spanked”. 

The Lord Himself could actually say with all truthfulness….”this HAS hurt me more than it will hurt you….suck it up…it is nothing compared to my pain and ultimate death on your behalf…”

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.  Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble, and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed.”  Hebrews 12:11-13

These words breathe life and hope back into my corrupt system and help me to gain perspective from above.  I am in training to yield a result of right living.  I am gaining strength for my weary limbs that I might walk straight on my path of healing and wholeness.  The path of shedding all that hinders and disqualifies me from effectiveness, freedom and blossoming relationships. How can God draw all men to himself if I am in the way?  He must be seen, heard and felt through this vessel if I desire my life to account for anything of eternal value. We are all given to misbehavior.  It is the sin within that drives our wrong behaviors. 

It is interesting that our behavior is mainly evident through “relationships” that surround us.  We practice the things that are in our hearts on others.  It is revealing as we discover our attitudes, feelings and emotions that we display as we interact with our world.  We learn a lot if we want to and are open to such learning.  God our Father is such a great Teacher and perfect parent. As we open ourselves up to Him and others, I believe we are challenged with the unrest in the relationships we have.  Through the unrest we realize God is there attempting to overtake us and our emotions.  We are then encouraged to pursue peace and sanctification if we really want to see the Lord. How we need to depend on the Lord for this and the grace it takes to get through our emotions and human attitudes?! 

If we don’t, we are open to the ugly root of bitterness which has taken over many a life and affected countless more in the process.  A destructive path to be sure….completely out of line and crippling to all who enter such a road… I once heard it said, “I hate consequences!” Hating it shall never erase them. 

I have often heard myself say to parents with younger children….”pay now or pay later…..if you don’t discipline and train misbehavior when they are little, you will pay a higher price later….”  There is a lot of physical energy when they are little, but as they grow older, parents tend to exert more emotional energy.

“But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to another.  For each one shall bear his own load.  And let the one who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches.  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life.  And let us not lose heart in doing good for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary.  So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all men, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. 

Gal 6:4-10

Through life experiences and consequences; -We examine ourselves realistically -We realize what we must alter in our hearts -We keep our hearts right with the strength of the Lord -We focus on God -We give generously to all men especially those who are in the household of faith. Look in, look up and look outward to the needs that prevail around us. We can never stay looking inward and wallow there.  It is all about our focus and perspective right back where it needs to be.

Loving God and loving others. “Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, …...You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin; and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “My son do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, Nor faint when you are reproved by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives.                                            Hebrews 12:1-6

I sense disentangling within my own life by God who is purifying me and setting me up to run my race more effectively for Him.  I count it a blessing to be loved and  received by so great of a Teacher, Friend and Father.  He is good and no good thing will He withhold from those who love him.                                                           Laura  

Drafting                                                    By Mikaela

 

My brother and I go on bike rides with my dad from time to time. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes he has to force us out there with him, but after that fact were good to go. Once I’m out there picking up speed, feeling the wind on my face, I wonder why I give such a fuss about it. It is a top 10 feeling.

When we ride together we try ride into the wind first then come back with the wind at our backs…JUST in case were super tired and need that extra “Umph” to get us back home minus a heat stroke. That plan doesn’t really work out for us. We always end up riding with the wind at our backs on the way out and on the way back the wind is coming straight at us. This happens EVERY TIME!

This is where the art of “drafting” comes in. I love drafting. I love drafting off my father…hehe. As we ride into the wind he is in front and Luke and I are each six inches behind each other’s tires. The wind force is cut at least in half, and it’s a very easy ride for us…compared to my dad.

My dad on the other hand is doing all the muscle work in front, blocking almost all the wind force. Since he is the more “experienced” rider, we always are considerate to let him go up front on the way home… I’m not sure if he likes that or not, but you’d understand if you were in the position. We go into survival mode. The goal is to get home in the midst of the Florida heat. Every man/woman for himself…etc, etc. We give him a better work out so I’m assuming he appreciates our generosity of letting him go first on the way home. That’s just me though.

Without my dad there in front, our ride home into the wind would be very much a difficult thing.

It is like that with our walk with God. Without him there drafting for us we start to get tired, we start to give up. When we have Christ and are actively serving him, we get to draft behind him. He blazes the path for us, all we have to do is say yes. Once we say yes, we can receive his blessings, which by the way are very abundant.

If you don’t know about “drafting” with God, I encourage you to look into it. Because trust me, life without Jesus, is no life at all.

I dislike not having my dad there to block the wind for me, I get tired faster, and my speed declines very quickly, and I do not like it when I’m not drafting behind God. I start to lose sight of the plan he has for me. When I get off course I feel lost, directionless. Once I’m back on track drafting with him, I feel safe again. I feel like I have my purpose. I encourage you to stretch your walk with Christ. Draft with him!                    

Aloha,                                                             Mikaela

 

 

Passion                                 By Lukas

 

Passion is that lasting drive that will get you to the finish line.

I had the opportunity of going for a run with my family the other day. On this run my dad told us that we were going to time ourselves and see how fast we could run a mile. Now I’m not in the best running shape at all. I’m a swimmer. So running a mile without a break is kind of a big deal to me after going so long without running at all.

After starting and coming around the first lap (a mile is 2 laps at the park we were at that morning) I was feeling alright, but by the time I was a quarter way through the lap I just felt like lying down on the ground under my feet and giving up.

This is where I think in life situations everyone messes up and falls short. True character is proven when things get tough, and the people still there after it gets tough are the people with character and a passion in their lives.

I finished the race… and won it as well! With a good time of 7 and a half minutes… not too shabby eh? What I learned that day was that everyone has the capacity to do what they want, but what we all lack sometimes is the brain power to push through. That is why I think it’s so important to be optimistic with the situations life hands to you and to find your passion in life. God’s favor is upon those who find their passion in him, and he in turn rewards them for their efforts.                                                      Lukas 

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are in Hawaii this month and hopefully seeing many of you!  It has been almost two years since our last visit!  Our time in the islands have historically been our busiest, as we so want to connect with you and share many of the experiences of these past years.

God has indeed brought us through many situations where He has been our only hope, and He has shown Himself to be all sufficient. He is taking us in some exciting and faith-stretching directions, and teaching us more about Him, and our life as members of His Kingdom.  These are the “nuggets” that we so what to share with all of you in person.

We are teaching a parenting class at Hope Chapel in Kihei on Tuesday, as well as visiting many of the churches which are involved in helping with the Nicaragua project.  We will also be having other studies on Maui– to be announced. 

We are also hoping to visit our friends on Oahu and Kauai.

We are also planning a Seek The Lamb event on Maui on Sunday November 8th at 7:30 pm at Hope Chapel that we hope you can attend. 

The Seek The Lamb Team has many players scattered around the globe, and we are honored to be your representatives as we participate in the work in Nicaragua and other places that God has taken us these past years.

I spoke with Truman a few days ago, and there is a severe problem on the Rio Coco with food due to the flood in August.  He asked me to ask you all to pray that they will be able to get bean seed for planting a new crop. The flood wiped out 80% of the rice harvest, so many families are planting early a bean crop.  Please lift our families up for this emergency need.  If you want to help, we can get the money to Truman and he will purchase the seed and get it downriver.  As we spoke about teacher salaries, and money to finished the construction of the Waspam Center,

Truman reminded me: “It is through prayers that God meets the needs.” Good reminder from a man of faith. Pray with us this month!  Let God move in all our hearts!                    

                                                                            Laura & Michael  - Cell # 772-63...  

 

A & M Coffee Club

 

A few months ago Moselle and I opened up the A & M Coffee Club. If you are not familiar with The A & M Coffee Club it is where my sister and I roast coffee and ship it right to your door every month.

The main reason why my little sister and I started the A & M Coffee Club was because of all our school kids in Nicaragua. All of the coffee money goes straight to the Miskito Children. It really motivates me as well as my sister to roast coffee more often. I feel very grateful for the privilege to do this for the project.

I want to tell you about the steps we take to make all this happen. The first thing we do in the roasting room is wash our hands and wipe down the counter top. We then weigh the green coffee beans and wait until the roaster is ready and warmed up. While we are waiting we start labeling our coffee bags. By the time we are done with that the coffee roaster is warmed up and ready. We put the green coffee beans inside the roaster and it stays in there for 14-18 minutes, but for our light coffee we roast it for about 15 or 16 minutes.

After the coffee is ready we take it all out and my dad weighs it. Next we start popping the bags open. That’s usually my job and Moselle weighs the coffee and puts it in the bag. Sometimes I help my Dad grind the coffee beans and seal it up. We also put a sticker on the bag, and put it in a box for carrying out.

After we complete all this, we clean up. This includes sweeping the floors, and vacuuming out the roaster. We also wash the bins and pack up the coffee. We make sure to lock up before we go home.

It usually takes us like an hour and a-half to roast one batch of coffee and bag it all up, but when we do a big bunch it takes like three hours. God has been so good to the A & M Coffee Club because he has done so much by providing us a roaster and a LOTS of coffee and giving us a lot of members to support the Miskito Children. Please join the A & M Coffee Club and help support our school project!

                Thank you!                                                                        <3 Arielle Bagby                  A & M

Action Time

Seek The Lamb

Make A Donation to Seek The Lamb for the schools, child sponsorship, construction, and missionary support.

Rio Coco Bean Coffee

Purchase some fresh roasted high altitude coffee and support the Nicaragua school project.

September 2009 Conchshell Chronicles

The Journal of Seek The Lamb   

 

September

2009

 

Free Nuggets of Gold!

Read on for details………

“I’m learning something new all the time,” said the husband married for 18 months.

“I’m learning when to keep my mouth shut” said the husband of 20 years.

The realities of living with a woman are evident for both men. Change is necessary for the marriage relationship to grow; Change on both sides, so that the union will be mutually beneficial.

Life is all about growing, and changing.  In the process, we become different in the way we look, and the manner in which we look at things. We see it in our kids and we see it when we look in the mirror.

The Bible describes this process in detail.  Jesus says in the “Sermon on the Mount”

“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.                                     

                                                                                                          Matthew 5:48.

   Here is the Greek word for “perfect” is  τέλειος - “Teleios”, which means according to the Dictionary of Biblical Languages, “mature in one’s behavior”

   Maturity is a goal of all followers of Jesus, or at least it should be. Maturity means leaving childish things behind, and growing in understanding and responsibility.   Here is how a famous teacher named Paul once described it to his friends:

 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.  Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.  Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.   Eph 4:21-24

We all need renewal in our thoughts and attitudes.  Knowing that is the first step in seeing that “maturing” take place.  If we are serious about walking out this process of maturity, then the Bible says that God will instruct us in “His Ways” and then present us   with circumstances where we will learn the benefits of growing up and doing it His way.

Much of God’s practical instructions are included in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 1 offers us a series of reasons why these divine proverbs are included in the Bible:

To know wisdom and instruction,

To discern the sayings of understanding,

To receive instruction in wise behavior,

 Righteousness, justice and equity;           Prov. 1:2-3

My Key Word Study Bible has an interesting note for the Hebrew word (muwcar) translated “instruction” in Verse 3:

Instruction and discipline come primarily from the father or a father figure such as a teacher, and usually are conveyed orally or may come via the rod (or consequences). Those who are wise receive instruction but fools reject it. The reception of instruction brings life wisdom and the favor of God. However rejection brings death, poverty and shame.

What a profound insight!

This year has been a year of challenges for me personally, and I have received “instruction” from the Lord. Here are a few things that I have learned:

1) Even if what I am saying is correct and proper, the manner in which it is expressed has a lot to do with how it is received. I have discovered the principle that communication is both expressing and listening.  Both skills have to happen if thoughts are going to be conveyed successfully. I have to communicate in a manner that the listener will actually hear what I am saying. This is a huge lesson for me!

2) Raising children is a great responsibility.  Even though both parents are involved, ultimately the father is held responsible for the teaching and training his children.  This mandate demands understanding of each child as well as the mom. A successful father is one who can gently but firmly guide his family through emotional times to the goals that God sets for our parenting.

3)  I am instructed to undertake ministry projects that demand the participation of the Holy Spirit.  If we can figure it out, and ourselves provide for every need, then probably God is not a part of it, and the fruit will be minimal.  God wants us to plan big, so that he will have to do his part for success to occur.

4) I am not responsible for the success of God’s projects.  He is.  All I am responsible to do is  my part.  For example I am not the one who does the fundraising for our school project.  The Holy Spirit does.  All I do is my part- write the newsletter, and let the needs be know. And take care of how the money is spent. These past months, I have agonized over the monthly budget, fearing not having money to pay our teachers in Nicaragua. But I finally realized that He is the responsible party.  We all have to just do our parts.

5) My life is a series of choices based on my value system. Since I became a follower of Jesus, my values have changed. Amazingly, I have now placed relationships above accomplishments. It has not always been that way. For example in the first week in September, I have set aside the writing of this newsletter and the meeting of my established goal to have it in the mail by the eighth of the month, so that you all could have opportunity to read it by the 15^th, get your child sponsorship checks in the mail by the 20^th, so that I can wire transfer the money to Nicaragua by the 25^th, in favor of spending time with family and friends.  It was my birthday on the first, and then Laura’s brothers and parents all arrived for the Labor Day weekend. This past week has been filled with very significant discussions with family members and ministry partners. It was obvious that God had a definite agenda in place. So I can comfortably enjoy the moments without getting stressed out over a self-imposed goal. I’ll be a few days late getting the newsletter in the mail, but God is in charge, and He will take care of it (refer to #4).

6) More than ever, I need to work with people whom I love, and who love me.  Life is too short to have stress in ministry relationships. This is the #1 reason that missionaries return from working in full time ministry.  It is the conflict in their relationships with their team members.  I have experienced that.  No more! Fortunately my current ministry teammates are ones who I love dearly- and I think they love me. That makes THE difference in long term working relationships.

    7) My wife and my children are worth all the attention and care that I can give them.  At the end of my days, it will be them that I will be thinking about.  I must enjoy them each day, each moment.  I am still putting this one into practice.

These are some of the nuggets of gold that I have mined this year.  I offer them to you so that you will not be forced to learn the hard way.

Change is a natural part of human life. We will always have the opportunity to move ahead with God as his spirit works within us. The question is “Are we willing”?

I received a letter from a long-lost college classmate whom I have not seen or heard from since 1973.  He wrote this to me yesterday:

I have heard or read interesting things about you over the years. I remember you as an F-16 pilot in the making.  A military path.  But, the road you have taken is more spiritual in nature than military, no? That's what I recall reading/hearing. I would not have predicted that you would go down that road. This means that either I did not know you as well as I thought I did , or you changed over the years, or both.

 

He’s right! I have left some childish things behind.                                                                 Maik

 

 

Do You Want to Help this month?

Here are some suggestions for you get personally involved in God’s plan for education on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua:

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors for the 2009 school year.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center . Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed. We estimate $6300 will allow us to move in!

3) Help Nutie & Tom build their home. We have started making blocks and pouring cement columns. Much is needed to finish this important project.

4) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will go a long way!

All contributions are tax deductable, and Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

Lamb Bleatings   By Laura Bagby

 

Birthday month!

    Three out of the six of the Bagby bunch celebrate their birthdays this month.  We also have a couple of our very close friends celebrating their birth this month as well. 

Because of the life God has called us to, we would not consider ourselves to be traditional and we don’t really have many sacred traditions we actually “hold on to”.  It is probably why birthday’s are so big in the Bagby bunch.  We seem to always do some particular things on a person’s birthday aside from the usual gift giving, cake eating and blowing out candle thing.  We try to take the time to celebrate the birthday person’s life in words and blessings over them out loud.  We also cut loose to our “birthday song” and go crazy in dance first thing in the morning.  The whole birthday process usually takes a lot of time and preparation before the actual day….the whole gift giving gig begins where we start asking each other about possible gifts and what they will write on that ever precious card.(which they hope to jerk some tears out from the birthday person…that is always rewarding)

I realized how much we have made birthday’s a tradition when one of my friends planned a beautiful dinner on September the 1^st and I without thinking too much said, “that’ll probably work out.”  I was not thinking out my equation very thoroughly because when I got home, I mentioned the dinner and how nice that was to be taken to dinner, etc.…

Well, my family looked at me like I had two heads and one of my wise children said,

That’s Poppy’s birthday….I mean his actual birthday.”  Michael just looked at me puzzled  like, “You are not thinking of going are you???”  I just said that I didn’t think I was thinking clearly at the moment and that probably yes, it surely wasn’t a good idea for me to go….I thought to myself, “Yeah, what WAS I thinking?!”  This is unheard of in our family.  I concluded that truly I was not thinking (a common practice these days for me).  Everyone agreed that my friend would totally understand which she totally did and we ended up celebrating my husband’s life on his “actual” birthday for lunch with family and our “extended” family of a few friends.  I also planned a separate event personally with the birthday boy for the evening festivities.   The whole day was beautiful and ever so meaningful.  Michael thought so too. “

His birthday caused me to think just how much a man of God of 58 accomplishes in a life time.  I began to reflect just how miraculous this life really is for he is a man that has continuously reflected upon God’s eternal plan in him and through him.   He has never waned in his vision for the Lord, his heart for people and the things he is called to do with his life as a husband, a father, a disciple, a disciple maker, a fund raiser for thousands of children and people along the Rio Coco (now going into our 25^th year).    The Lord’s faithfulness is seen through many avenues in his life….wherever we find ourselves in the world, relationships are always being developed and he is pointing people back to the Lord through bible studies or every day interactions.  His boldness and intensity is embarrassing at times, but he does get the job done.  This is what I both love and hate about him all in the same breath….Through all, he has proven to be eternally effective and has accomplished more in 58 years than most do in an entire lifetime. 

Our Miskito friends have seen many “projects” come and go in their life time, but God has proven to them that when God owns a project, He makes it happen and uses the most unlikely people to accomplish it.   Michael has been one of those unlikely, but fervently faithful people to be used most significantly.  Many of you have stood alongside of him and have helped, supported and given generously  through his life.  We are blessed to partner with such quality. 

As a missionary, he has done what many are presently attempting to do in causing a people group to live out the cause of Christ in their own culture with the resources they have.  Our Miskito friends have come to a place where they are “owning” Project Ezra and thinking of ways to look among themselves for ways to provide rather than depending on “outside” help.  They are coming to a place of looking to the Lord who indeed does supply all their needs.  They are learning the essence of every person taking their positions in the Kingdom of God and each playing their own part as we play ours.

   Our part has become serving our Miskito friends by inspiring the involvement of others to come into our fold and partnering with them in their dreams and visions.  The roles have changed over the years as our Miskito leaders & friends have become true followers of the Lord Jesus Christ desiring to hear His voice and walk in His ways.  I have had the privilege of watching my husband (the birthday boy) disciple & impart all that he is and has to these men who are now walking boldly in their gifting and calling.   It is an inspiring miracle.  Each month we continue to send at least $15,000 to our friends for the school project.  We are in the process of working on completing the awe inspiring Waspam Discipleship Training Center and a supporting building in Sawa for teams.  We desire to build an apartment on that property for Tom and Nutie in Waspam.

Still, without any visible means of support, but the ones by faith, we press on even in a depressed economy.  We do not live by the world’s standard, but God’s and we choose to live according to His economy and way.  I have told Michael that he could have been anything he wanted to be…president, doctor, lawyer, Indian chief, yet with all of his capabilities, he chose God and whatever that would bring….all he asked on the day of his baptism was that God would allow him to travel….

Travel he has and used in many parts of the world.  The Bible says that as we are going about in this world,  “MAKE DISCIPLES”….he didn’t specify where, Jesus said that  “as we are going” we ought to be about making disciples.  I celebrate a life that actually is doing what Jesus says to do….

In the midst of change, travel, raising teenagers, discipling, bible studies, counseling and building a coffee business to give more money away,  I see an extraordinary life of a man given over to God and His purposes.  A true life of adventure for eternity. 

I am blessed to say that my birthday boy is about the business of my Father in all avenues of his life and though his life is vast and varied, he always brings it down to the basics of living out his Father’s heart.  It is with great joy that I celebrate this life and acknowledge how much I love following him around. .     

 Top that one, Birthday Boy.                                 Laura

 

A & M

Coffee Club

Well a couple  nights ago me (Arielle) and Moselle had some coffee but it  was a decaf and we made a mocha so our next project may be the  A&M Mocha Coffee drink which will be really good because I don't even like coffee yet!! 

Did you know that coffee is really good for you ? Well a study done by harverd showed that if you drink Rio Coco Bean coffee you will have less  Diabetes, fewer cavities and less chance of colon cancer & Parkinson’s disease. Get the picture??? So we are offering you long life and smiles on your face!

For these and many more reasons you should join The  A & M  Coffee Club.  It is the best price for home delivery! And we love to send our money to Nicaragua for the kids.  A & M

 

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

“A rolling stone gathers no moss” wrote the famous Roman poet Publilius Syrus, and neither does the Bagby Family.  After returning from Nicaragua August 1, we hit the road to North Carolina two weeks later to visit ministry partners and friends in Cary and Hendersonville.  My brother Randy took our kids flying over the beautiful Smokey Mountains! We also walked the Cowpens Battlefield, where the Americans defeated a British force by completely surrounding it. You may recall I wrote about this in the June CSC.  We had many significant encounters! We made progress in plans for our coffee business.

We met new friends and had many opportunities for encouragement. Here is one comment that we received after our return:   Tell Laura that meeting her and having her pray for me changed my entire relationship with the Lord. That was one of the most profound moments in my life : )

We live for moments like this! Now we are making preparations to fly to Maui this month.  It has been almost two years since our last visit, and we are so excited about seeing many you!  We will be teaching a class on parenting Tuesday nights at Hope Chapel in Kihei, as well as other studies during the week. We also hope to visit our friends on Oahu, Kauai, and The Big Island. Our time in Hawaii is usually our busiest ministry time of the year, and much of the support for the Nicaraguan school project comes from Hawaii.  We are not focused fundraisers. We just want to give some of what God has given to us through our experiences in Central America and the Middle East.

We figure that He is has a better strategy for meeting the needs of the Miskito Project, as well as our personal needs. We do our part, and He does His.  That has been the way it has worked for these past 25 years. Even though I get uncomfortable sometimes as I look at the Seek The lamb checkbook, I have to fall back on His faithfulness.  I only ask that He allows us to live within the means of His provision.  Thanks to all you who are sensitive to His nudging, and who supply the funds for our 82 employees and 2589 students in Nicaragua and us volunteer missionaries. We really appreciate  your faithfulness.

At the end of August, there was a significant rain in Central America, and as a result, the Coco River flooded at a very inopportune time, ruining the rice harvest.  Up to 80% of the crop in our villages was destroyed.  

There will be many issues with food over the next months as a result.  Truman will be looking for food supplies to assist those families most affected.  He is very good at finding resources through his government connections. Pray for him, and that we will have the funds to transport these supplies downriver.                               Laura & Michael  

 

 

September

 Arrows

Please pray for:

1) Teacher Salaries; We have 80 employees in Nicaragua who are worthy of their wages;

2) Finish the Waspam Center Construction: We need about $6300 to finish this building;

3) Nutie & Tom’s home: This needed building will serve us well in these next years;

4) Safe Travel for the Bagby Bunch & Open Doors in Hawaii.

We value your prayers!  Please join us in asking God to meet all our needs!

 

August Conchshell Chronicles 2009

Be a Part of History While

Changing Someone’s Future!

 

 

Team Borcheller has returned home from Seek The Lamb’s family mission trip. The good news: we are all still very good friends with the Bagby Bunch!

Myself (Terry), Tracy, Taylor, & Trenten, had an amazing adventure in Nicaragua.  We spent time in Managua, Waspam, the Rio Coco (literally), and three  primitive villages dotted along the river where Seek The Lamb has their 17 schools - Klampa, Boom, & Sawa. We were even able to take the unexpected 1^st class pickup 4.5 hour trek cross country to Puerta Cabezas. We had so many amazing experiences, & met so many incredible people:

1)Visiting a live volcano with our friend Roberto,

2) landing on a dirt runway with mud, cows, & people on either side (while we were landing!),

3) drinking some of the best Rio Coco coffee EVER (I still don’t know where Mike got the water from sometimes, & don’t want too),

4) enjoying a violent midnight storm & lightning show,

5) power outages in Waspam,

6) enduring the genetically challenged roosters that decide to cocka-doodle-doo whenever they feel like it! (2am, 4am, the myth of them doing it when the sun comes up, really doesn’t apply),

7) pondering the paintings of the mission wall on the upstairs wall at Truman’s house (each seemed to tell a story),

8) being very cared for & feeling safe (great job Seek The Lamb locals – Truman’s many family members & friends. Tom & Nutie, THANKS!),

9) bathing with falling rain water,

10) swimming in the creek (that sometimes turned into a river – where did Trent go?), & many, many more amazing memories.

 My favorite moment, if I had to pick just one, came when we met the kids we have been sponsoring & praying for thru Seek The Lamb:  Anelka & Omer. We have prayed for them many times in our family devotions. As a family, we carry them in our hearts! 

 

It was a rainy day and we were walking through the village of Sawa. There they were, Anilka, sitting right in the middle of all her relatives & friends that were just hanging out on the wooden ladder- like-steps in front of her grass roofed home on the muddy bank of the river. She was so beautiful, just like her picture!

I recognized Omer immediately, even at a distance as he came walking down the center of the village, on his way back home. More grown up, handsome, & confident, he was a proud graduate of a Seek The Lamb primary school and is now in the STL high school in Living Creek! It was also a very humbling & proud moment for me.

 It was such a powerful experience to meet them. Here we were, in a very remote, extremely poor, & in some ways forgotten village of Central America. The thought of us playing an active role in a child’s life who lives in this village, & helping to meet what some would say is one of their biggest needs, education, was overwhelming.

 As I thought through the opportunities that Seek The Lamb would give these kids by giving them a school to attend where they could learn to read & write, I was realizing that we would also play a part in forever changing their future, in so many ways. They were going to have a chance to learn to read the Bible, the Word of God, WOW! John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.

Just about everyone in America can afford $27.00/month to give a child an opportunity to KNOW GOD, & that’s what sponsoring a child thru Seek The Lamb will do. This is all it costs to sponsor one child. Please seriously consider sharing this awesome opportunity that Seek The Lamb gives us. Maybe some day you may even get to visit your child, look them in the eyes, & quietly thank God that you made an eternal difference in their life.

Please read Matthew 25: 31- 46 & prayerfully consider sponsoring a child. Those of us that are spiritually full, have a responsibility to feed those that are spiritually starving. Seek The Lamb is feeding these kids that most everyone else has forgotten. My prayer is that many of you will catch the vision of Seek The Lamb & experience the reward that goes with it.

 I want to give a special thanks to Mike, Laura, Mik, Lukas, Arielle, & Moz,. Thanks so much for everything! Most of all your friendship. Thanks for giving us an opportunity to bring hope to so many of the Miskito people. Thanks for your sacrifices and faithfulness to the call of our King. It’s one thing to do something for God, it’s another to keep doing it, & doing it, year after year for over 25 years. Each member of your family is so unique, & you are all an inspiration to us! We love you guys so much!

  Terry Borcheller

 

 Find out what Terry does in his other life at www.terryborcheller.com. It’s exciting!!!

 

Lamb Bleatings             

By Laura Bagby

I have never known myself to be “controlling”.  I don’t think seek control for myself.  I certainly do not strive to be controlled by another.  I don’t suppose I have even thought much about the topic of control until now.

I usually like my life a lot and find myself able to find enjoyment, beauty and positive attributes in any given situation.  On my trip to Nicaragua this time, I found little to enjoy.  I got sick and found myself in a space of such negativity and inability to find beauty or others centeredness in the midst of my utter misery.

The heat was unbearable in my feverish state.  Because of the problems with electricity in Waspam, the simple pleasure of a fan blowing could not be enjoyed.  In the middle of my miserable state, I told the Lord, “I don’t think I can stand this, Lord.  I really hate this….there is nothing I am liking about this situation at all….please….”  At that point, I really must admit that death looked promising.  I was hurting.  Suddenly, as if the Lord were right there, the fan literally turned on and started to blow in my direction.  It was hope and His presence made real in the darkness.  Simple but true.  I really felt him with me.  I had a real moment of thankfulness.

Nevertheless, my time was still a challenge and I reflected on something I had told the children on one of our morning walks around the town earlier in the week, “Beauty is always around us, but sometimes you have to look a little harder to see it and you must always practice looking and finding it even in the midst of all this ‘kanka” (feces of every kind) we are stepping around.”

I was busted as I lay around miserable and purposeless just trying to get better.  I hated feeling like I was drowning and couldn’t do one thing to control my state of affairs.  I was once again out of my element, out of control and out of any kind of ability to make things better.  It was not pleasant to me.   I realized in a way how much I did want to be in control to make myself better, but I just could not.  CONTROL….

In a third world foreign country, there are many aspects that are very different from the average first world “controlled” modern & sophisticated environment.

In Nicaragua, I believe there are many moments that I desire to “control” my surrounding bug infested environment, the ever changing meaning of the infamous“Ten minutes” (which can mean anywhere from  one hour to six), the ever flexible schedules  of the system where management may or may not actually write out your reservations (which you planned months in advance) for a crucial flight with your team, the incredible lack of  dependability of  having electricity and water or not.  There are so many factors completely out of my control….infinitely not even in my reach or grasping distance.

 In circumstances like these, I believe there is positive training for one who longs to be trusting and not in control…knowing that really there is but One that is in control.  It is when we totally succumb to the control of our eternal Creator, the ONE that is divinely & completely in charge, that we experience freedom and peace.

I had the privilege of going to our friend’s gym yesterday (Christi’s Fitness) for the first time since coming back to Vero.    My friend Christi was teaching.  She is a beautiful, organized, direct, thorough, orderly and enthusiastic instructor. She starts on time, ends on time and is always pleasant.  In the midst of the class I found myself feeling so happy and privileged to be there in air conditioning…so comfortable and free…moving about with ease….being told what to do and then my body having the freedom to do it.  It felt so good and I felt so grateful.  I knew there would be an exact end to it and when that was going to be.  Basically before even getting there I knew what to expect and sure enough it was all happening as I had anticipated and I was having so much fun.

I asked myself,” why are you liking this so much?”  The answer was swift, “Because it is controlled.  You really do love control and being controlled.  There is freedom and stability and you like freedom and stability…it’s safe.”  Whoa.  Epiphany.

I really hate when I don’t get my own way.  However, I have had the privilege of practicing diligently the art of acceptance and flexibility in the environments that just don’t line up to “what I want”.   There is only One who truly controls and gives not necessarily what I want, but certainly what I need.

I seem to continually receive ample training to demonstrate just how stubborn I am in my pursuit of something that never belonged to me in first place.  My life IS out of control and I must come to the place of trust, rest and His way, not mine in all matters of life and godliness.

In my fitness classes, I laugh at myself a lot.  I find it most amusing when my body gets out of sync and I feel this sense of being out of control with my movement and the music.  It cracks me up.   I literally laugh out loud.  Such is my life…..when I lose myself, my abilities, my control……..The fun begins and God’s adventure starts.  It deeply renders joy unexplainable.  Laura

 

Waspam Center Construction

 

Amazing Progress in our building in Nicaragua!

 

 

March 2007   >>>>>>>> July 2009

We hosted over 70 teachers at our July Teacher conference in the Waspam Center. Many slept in the second floor offices which are almost finished. To complete the job we need only to purchase more windows, door locks, office furniture, and exterior paint, along with two computers. We are very close to moving in!  We estimate $6300 will cover the costs. 

   When we started construction in August 2006, we only planned to build a two story building with two classrooms below and an an office space above. Our Miskito builders had another vision, and added arched windows, an extended covered porch, and then we added the cement roof that turned into the third floor deck with a traditional and very cool leaf roof.

This building is an inspirational work of art, and we are so proud of Truman and Tomas for seeing a bigger vision that we did.

In July, an organization that is helping us in adult eduction had their "Congress" in  Waspam, and regents from many universities in Spain and Nicaragua attended, including the head of all Nicaragua universities.  They held it on the top floor of our building, because as the director told us "It is the most Miskito and beautiful place to have such a meeting with important people from abroad."

Here Truman is addressing these highly educated regents of seven Spanish and 8 Nicaraguan Universities. Imagine the favor on this man who only finished high school speak to these highly educated folks!

Please keep this in your prayers this month.  Our Team needs this working space, and your prayers. Pray!

Join Tom & Nutie’s Construction Team!

   We are beginning construction of an apartment for Nutie & Tom.  We decided to cut costs and build it on top of the dining hall, which was already built to hold  a second floor. It is the building to the upper left of the Leaf Roof Place.

As of today, Tomas has taken off the roof of the comidor, and has made two columns for supporting the second floor.

We are already making cement blocks.  We estimate the cost for this 1000 square ft.  home to be $20,000.  We ask you to please pray for this, as they need a place to live asap!

 

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are back from a tumultuous time in Central America!  We first stopped in Honduras to visit old friends and plan a ministry event, and were there when the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court voted President Zelaya out of office! He was set on a plane to Costa Rica. When we arrived at our hotel in Managua Nicaragua, the ex-prez Zelaya was there– along with his Venezuelan and Sandinista friends, plotting a return to Honduras.  Read about it at www.supportfreehonduras.com. Americans are not hearing the truth about this process of law that took place in our friendliest country in Latin America.

Our Family Camp was hit with hard rains, but still God was present, and lives were changed. Our family stayed in Waspam for an few more weeks, planning the teacher conference, and working on the Waspam Center. I think Moselle got more paint on her than the walls of the third floor!

We painted it multiple happy colors! Very Miskito! Half of us got sick, and then the electricity went out for over a week in Waspam.  We experienced a private Bagby Family Deep Water Experience that did have profound effect on us all.  Many many lessons learned. We realized what a raw place the Coco River actually is! Yet God was working out many things in our relationships within our team– very needed!!!

Our time with our teachers was precious! We played games with them, and spent five days getting to know them better.  We have a very capable group, who are making progress in their spiritual understanding.  We are fortunate to be helping them educate our 2587 students. Your prayers and support have major impact each month. You have to see their faces to really appreciate that fact.  I hope to introduce many of them to you over the next few months.

We are traveling this month to North Carolina to visit ministry partners, and next month plan to be heading to Maui. Please join us in asking God to specifically provide the listed needs on the Arrows Prayer insert. We so want to be able to move our team into the Waspam Center offices soon!                                                                                                              Laura & Michael 

 

A & M

Coffee Club

Hello my Coffee Buddies!!

Well this month we have a slide show that I and my sister Moselle made about our trip to Nicaragua. We are going to send this to all of our members of  The A & M Coffee Club. So it is free to all members. Are you a member of the Coffee Club? Why not? Its Good Coffee at a Good Price and Great Cause. So if you join this month we will send you our slide show for free. Now that is a deal. 

Send us an email at lambagby@cs.com and we will sign you up today!

We will get our coffee to you and the slideshow.

Hi its Moselle! I hope  you enjoy your coffee that we roast. We work hard to make it the best!  Please join our coffee club this month! Bye!

 

How You Can Help In August:

Here are some suggestions for you to play your part in God’s plan to make disciples and educate children and adults on the Rio Coco in Nicaragua:

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors for the 2009 school year.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center.  This almost-complete building is already being used to educate teachers and pastors. Windows, computers, desks, and paint are needed. We estimate $6300 will allow us to move in!

3) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Danilo Cunningham, Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will go a long way!

Please click on any of the links above to make a contribution.

If you are not yet enrolled as a child sponsor, please email us at lambagby@cs.com and simply say:"I want to sponsor a child."  We will take care of the rest.

  All contributions are tax deductable, and Greatly Needed and Appreciated!

 

July 09 Conchshell Chronicles

Project Ezra Scores High!

Project Ezra Mid-Year Report

Measured Success in our Nicaragua school project.

 

How would you do managing a school district in one of the most remote corners of the Western Hemisphere?

 

We began the 2009 school year on the Rio Coco in February with 2587 students in 17 communities along the Rio Coco in Nicaragua.  Now we are coming to the mid-year reporting point, and the numbers look good. Our students are doing well, as are the  teachers.  Here is a letter I received a few weeks ago from Onofre Zamora, who is our director of Bible training, as well as teacher professional training. Onofre is well qualified to train our teachers and pastors. He is acknowledges as one of the most professional educators on the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, and has spent time studying the Bible in Israel with Dr. Randall Smith.  He is also a graduate of the Haggai Institute Leadership Training Center in Maui Hawaii.

 

Dear Maik,

 

Greetings from the Zamora  family to the Bagby Family. I hope in God that you are well. We are well by the grace of God.

I am writing to give you a brief report of the results of the education project which I turned over to the Municipal Government. They were as follows:

• Students’ pass percentage: 86% (pass/fail ratio: 86/14)

• Percent of students retained in school: 89%

• Desertion percentage: (11% Retention ratio: 89/11)

The reason for the school drops is due to the rice planting season; the students go with their parents to the farm to help with the planting. According to some parents, their children will return to class again in ten days. Some children went along with their parents because they were hungry, but now the World Food Program (PMA) is distributing food to the schools. This might help to maintain the enrollment.

The radio Bible program continues successfully. I now broadcast three times per week.

At the end of May, Tom and Nutie arrived. We went with them to Sawa on Thursday, June 4th to train teachers. On Friday May 5th we gave them a workshop. We stayed in Sawa Saturday, returning to Waspam on Sunday.

• During the workshop the teachers wrote a brief autobiography.

• The principal exposition consisted of an explanation of a project to be carried out by each school entitled “La Historia de mi Pueblo.” (We are collecting all the historical data available on the Coco River).

• Before beginning these activities I presented a biblical reflection about the works that God gives us which we should carry out accepting them as His assignment.

Your brother in Christ, Onofre Zamora

 

As you can see from Onofre’s letter, we are doing many things very well this year. Our emphasis for Project Ezra is spiritual development, with primary and secondary education as the service we provide the community to validate our witness. Jesus said to “Go Serve” one another, and we are doing that in a 60 mile stretch of the Coco River. In the meantime, our students are getting spiritually connected to God as they advance through the grades from Kinder to 9^th.  Our graduating students have gone on to high school, and we have hired 47 of them to come back to their communities to teach the next generation of Miskito children. Many of these are also serving as pastors and Bible teachers in their communities.

It takes many things to make this all happen.  First, a plan from God. He has been very clear about this since we began Project Ezra in 1986 during the Sandinista War. Next we need dedicated “locals” who have a heart to do the work of the ministry.  Our staff of 78 led by Truman Cunningham have been working very well together for over 20 years. Finally it takes many of you to support these workers with your prayers and finances.

We are in serious need this month for you to pray for Project Ezra.  We are asking God to provide all the school supplies, teacher salaries, and construction materials for this month, and the next.

It takes some serious prayer and support for this to happen, that is why we are asking you all to pause a moment, and ask God to provide.

Many of you have been on our team for years, and we need you now as much as we ever had. 

Please ask God to show you what your part is. 

That is all that we are asking.

 

Saying “No”           By Mikaela Bagby

Ed. Note: Last month, we brought you an article from Arielle about her new bicycle and what happens when you say “Yes”.  This month, we bring you another view of obedience in which my #1 daughter gives all the usual excuses we give to God when He asks us to do something!

 

Excuses are for kats (idiots) especially when your father is somewhat of a genius when it comes to speeches and facts.

 My name is Mikaela Bagby and even though I’m eighteen and considered an “adult” I still have times like this morning that I act like a complete moron towards my parents, my father in particular. I know I have come a long way since the early teen days and I can say that I have matured fairly well even throughout these months, but sometimes things comes out, things I call “word vomit”.

My “word vomit” today started when my dad had asked me to move this piece of equipment (a porta-crib for a friend’s baby) out of my room. He asked me in the earlier morning and I said “ok, ok I’ll get on it”, but really in my head I was going to secretly try post pone it a little longer, possibly three days or even a week, but I wasn’t going to push it. After our bike ride he then asked me again while I was sitting on my couch working on the computer. Then suddenly he came out of nowhere to tell me again. It took me by surprise. He can be sneaky when he wants to… I forget that about him.

He  said: “Mikaela, why have you not put this away yet? I told you to do it three times this morning.”

I replied as I looked at the clock (it was 11:58 a.m.) “It’s still morning! And I can still get it done! This is My room. Why do you even care if it is in here?  It’s not like you travel through my room very often.” (My first word vomit, second one is on its way).

Then I said: “I don’t even know how to put it away, and I can’t do it by myself. Plus, I don’t feel like putting it back out here when I need it again so why can’t I just leave it where it is!?”

Without a word he grabbed the porta-crib, revealed the instructions printed on the bottom, and started counting. As he counted he began to tear down and put it away.

It took him twenty seconds to put the dang thing away.

I didn’t say anything after that. I imagined a bewildered look on my face, but I can’t be sure because I couldn’t see myself at the time. He looked at me and said: “20 seconds. The instructions are in Spanish, French, and English. If you can’t understand any of that then we have a problem. So next time I ask you to put it away, I mean PUT IT AWAY.”

I made the DUMBEST excuses today. They came out of nowhere too. But I learned valuable lessons that I don’t think I’ll forget. 

Excuses are dumb, and I believe answering back and not doing things immediately and completely, are in the category of disobedience. I was not a very good example to my siblings today, and all that could have been avoided if I had just put the porta-crib away… right away.

God wants immediate, complete, and joyful obedience from us, just like my earthly father does. My life goes well when I give that kind of obedience to him.        Mikaela

Lamb Bleatings              By Laura Bagby

 

Conditional  vs. Unconditional

What kind of “lover” are you?

When God gave, He gave all and held nothing back from us.   He gave unconditionally and continues to reveal Himself boldly in our lives with a love that is extravagant and totally without condition.  He loves because He IS Love.   We, as humans, love, but often with conditions because of our unwillingness to lay down our lives as Jesus layed his life down for us.  Laying it down is a choice to be reckoned with daily and often moment by moment.  It is pure and undefiled because each act is filled with the presence and character of God as we think of others as more important than ourselves.  Conditions place restraints upon our lives and upon our relationships….”if you do this then…”is the human natural way. 

God’s way is , “I have gone and endured the whole way for you.  What will your response be toward me?”  Out of His unconditional love, He calls out to us desiring our whole hearts given over to Him that we might live out His life through us.  His heart becomes our heart and our response to life, to people and to our situations becomes His acting hand through us.  It is quite the supernatural  process.  It is in fact a gift of the most significant eternal kind. 

 He becomes a living entity in and through us as we walk through life and all of our situations.  It is as real as we are willing to lay ourselves aside completely and unconditionally for Him because of His grace over us.  We love because He first loved us….we give because He first gave to us and as we give ourselves over to Him we ourselves are filled to overflowing so that we can go out and do what He first did for us.

Arielle turned 11 on June 17^th and we had a lot to celebrate over this little life.  People say that she is 11 going on 21 because she seems so mature in her actions and responses to life and to the people around her.  She has gained a favored reputation among many because of her unconditional ways that she gives herself to the service of others.  We are all quite frankly inspired by her and her attitudes within our own household.  She often chooses the higher road even in the simplest of ways and it is bearing the fruit of character in her life. 

I have observed her abandoning her own will in preference to ours with immediacy.  Today, as she ran out the door Michael called out to her mid stream and without hesitation she put her foot brakes on and came running back to hear the command and then proceeded to run again to get the command done.  Then she continued on to her own destination.  She gave no lip, no excuses,   no “oh, but can I do this first or finish that first?”, no, “I don’t feel like doing that right now/may I do it later?”…Her response was immediate, joyful and complete…she unconditionally gave herself to her situation and to her parents.   The fruit of repetitive acts such as these are pronounced and reveal themselves in our lives.  The bible says what is done in secret will be shouted from the rooftops….

In Michael’s celebration speech to Arielle, he made note of how her reputation has gone forth to both young and old because of her decisions of full hearted obedience with a great attitude.  One of our dear friends who our kids consider  an“Auntie”(Olivia & Uncle Tony) said, “Arielle, I was struck by God’s excitement to give to Abraham more than what he was even asking for after Abraham was obedient and willing to give up his only son who he loved.   God was excited to bless Abraham. Because of your obedience, willingness to always be there for people to bless them and serve them, I felt a glimpse of what God must have felt when I was out buying your presents    I wanted to get you everything you wanted and more.  You inspire me to be more of an obedient servant through Christ.”

One can never out give God.  He is always looking to bless his faithful ones.

As parents, we are moved when we see our children being responsive to us as they attempt to give us their best and their most out of their acts of love and obedience.  It is moving and keeps our hearts soft and generous toward them as we respond back in turn.  The more they give on their part, the more we are moved (even in our sinful humanness) to pour over them as much as we are able.  We are compelled to do so.  God’s heart is so much bigger than ours…..the eternal wellspring of life….Unconditional Love pouring forth.  He waits for each of us to lay ourselves down and open up ourselves completely to Him to receive it. 

The only barrier that prevents the flow of God and His fullness is our own wills and our many conditions we possess in this life.  We have had many who have said to us, “I would NEVER go there or do that, I cannot, I would not, That is too uncomfortable, too hot, too cold, too far, totally inconvenient at this time, too much work, too little time.”  We all have our appropriate listing of conditions before the Lord…some never spoken, but yet they are there and every once in awhile they emerge and reveal our divided hearts.

The Lord our God is One God and He is Sovereign.  Supreme.  Unquestionable.  He speaks and it is.  HE has always our best intention because of His unconditional, unfailing love.  In life, we will lack understanding and we will question our unquestionable God with questions that will go unanswered, but yet we must come back to the basic fact of His sovereignty and decide, “Will we yet trust and press on obeying in total allegiance?”  We must choose to be focused on One Ruler in our life and play by His rules.  That alone works.

Our teenagers are growing in their independence and this often brings some tumultuous discussions.  In the end,  they must determine from God’s perspective, what is right and wrong, up and down and cease to waver around in their double minded opinions and feelings.   The very foundation of our lives are based upon God and His word and ways in our lives.  We belong to Him and play by His rules.  He determines our steps and they are designed to follow, submit and often lay their own desires to the side in exchange for the greater good of God and family.  We fight a fierce battle and the struggle is for their souls and their destiny.  There are times that we as parents get our “war paint” on and forge ahead fighting to proclaim within our family the order of God over and upon our lives and theirs.  The victory belongs to the Lord….in some moments,  I must remind myself and them as they (& I) experiment with their own wills and rebellious hearts.  The battle belongs to the Lord. We are one unit, one team intent on one purpose.  I remind them of their place on that team and on the battle ground we share.  You are either in or out….They seem to get the message loud and clear when they are challenged with the reality that they are in fact dependent and their blessings fall through us before it reaches them and they have a choice of receiving that flow or being cut off.  The choice is theirs……they have attempted to make it about us (if YOU..), but as they say in my hometown, “NO CAN DO.”  They must come to the place of choosing for themselves and making it all their own.

But if anyone lacks wisdom, let him as of God who gives generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But, let him ask in faith without any doubting for the man who doubts is like the surf of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.  For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord being a double minded man unstable in all of his ways.   James 1:5-8  

One mind, one heart , and intent upon one purpose….                            Laura

The Bagby Bunch Corner

We are in Nicaragua this month! It is time for our annual Family Camp and Teacher’s Conference. It is also time for Rainy Season, Bug Season, and “Put-on-your-rubber-boots” season!

Our children willingly make this adventure with us, and the effect on their lives is amazing.  We hope the dynamic of serving in remote and often uncomfortable places will build character and discipline for their future ministries. At least that is our hope! In the process, we enjoy these months with them living out of our bags, getting on busses, planes, into boats and canoes, eating a more simple diet, and savoring a cold drink– together!  We of all people are blessed as we go through this experience. And we pray that God uses us with our teachers and students that we work with. It is a life of faith that we have embarked upon, and God’s faithfulness is amazing. We are just trying to do our part.

Work continues on the Waspam Center.  Our carpentry team is working hard to complete this job. It is amazing to watch them do so much, with so little.  Please keep Truman in your prayers.  He is carrying a lot now, and his sense of responsibility for the education and spiritual growth of our students is great.  He is being so effective in locating resources for our schools through his position as an elected “senator” of the Autonomous Region. He believes that God will provide all we need to educate all the 2587 kids! We love him, and are honored to work with him.

   We so covet your prayers this month, as we move forward in our construction project in Waspam, and spend time with our teachers.  I hope that in these past months you have been inspired to pray, pray, pray. God’s presence & provision is so needed now, and prayer will be the impetus  that will make it all happen.                             Laura & Michael 

 

 

How You Can Help This Month

Are you inspired after reading about Project Ezra in Nicaragua and what God is doing? Are you encouraged that you have a part to play in this great work of God?  We hope so, because we know God is doing something, and He may want to use you.

Here are some suggestions for you to play your part in God’s plan to make disciples and educate children and adults on the Rio Coco:

1) Sponsor a Miskito Child.  We need many sponsors for the 2009 school year, and we have students ready to receive your sponsorship.  It is only $27 a month, and it will provide education and special needs to a student in Project Ezra.

2) Sponsor A Teacher:  We employ 63 teachers, most of whom are our former students.  For $90 a month, you can provide most of their food and shelter needs monthly.

3) Contribute to the building fund for the Waspam Center.  This almost-complete building is already being used to educate teachers and pastors. Windows, doors, and paint are needed.

4) Join the support team of a Seek The Lamb missionary! Danilo Cunningham, Nutie & Tom Keogh, and Laura & Michael Bagby receive no salary from Seek The Lamb and rely on their personal support team to cover their living & ministry expenses. Your gifts will go a long way!

Please Click here to goto our secure PayPal page.

All contributions are tax deductable, and

 Greatly Needed and Appreciated!