Troxells in Honduras

Love

2012-02-15T09:28:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, or Dia de Amor here in Honduras. Ashley and I enjoyed a night out at a sushi restaurant. We decided it would be fun and worth it for us to go to a special place and spend a little more money on this special occasion (Yes, missionaries are allowed to do this too.). It was a great evening. We loved the food and our conversation was even better. We were able to spend a few hours (it takes awhile to make sushi) talking about how things are going and our relationship and stuff like that. It was a really fun time for us!

Is this what love is? I think it is certainly part of what love is. The Bible says that love is a lot more than a special day where flowers and chocolates and teddy bears cost three times as much as every other day (the commercialism of Valentine's Day is alive and well in Honduras too...).

Do I outdo others in showing honor? Do I bless those who curse me? Do I never avenge myself? Do I feed my enemy or give him a drink? Do I do no wrong to my neighbor? Am I humble?

Unfortunately, the answer to all of those questions is a resounding NO. In other words, I fail miserably at loving my neighbor. Heck, I fail miserably at loving my wife who is the most important person on this earth to me. Paul says in Romans that loving your neighbor fulfills the law. So, I fail miserably at fulfilling the law.

It sure is a good thing that my eternal life has nothing to do with fulfilling the law. Well, it doesn't have anything to do with my fulfilling the law because it has already been fulfilled for me by Jesus Christ! I do not have to be good at all those things above in order to be loved by the Creator of the universe. However, I have a desire to to do those things because of what Jesus did for me. He humbled Himself as God in order to become man, then He humbled himself as a man to die for others - for me. I hope that I (and you too) do not forget what Jesus did for me and how He SO loved me.

Today is not Valentine's Day, but today is a day to love. Today is a day to show my wife I love her (maybe not with sushi). Today is a day to show others honor and to bless those who curse me and to feed my enemy and to be humble. Why? Because Jesus did all those things for me even though I did not deserve any of them.

First Clinic in La Fe

2012-02-10T13:18:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday Feb. 8, we hosted our first event, a medical clinic, in the community of La Fe. As we were preparing, I was a little nervous and did not know what to expect. We had not told anyone in the community that we were coming with a doctor and we were not sure where we would even hold the clinic. We didn't tell anyone about it ahead of time, because we did not want a line of way more people than we would be able to treat in one day.

It turns out this was a very good idea. In just about 20 minutes after we got to La Fe, there were 40 or so people asking to be seen. One of the community leaders, Odilia, offered the use of her house for the clinic and also helped us to keep order and make sure we saw some of the sicker people first.

Mike helping to pass out numbers to patients.

The setup we had was perfect. We had a place outside where Ashley worked intake and our teammate Erin was able to see patients as was Dr. Greg, who was here with Pastor Mike from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, PA (one of our supporting churches). I got to translate for Dr. Greg and help hand out the medicine that Dr. Greg and Erin prescribed to the patients.

Ashley working intake.

In about six hours, we were able to see over 50 patients! Most of them received vitamins as well as a medicine that helps prevent parasites. We also were able to do a few ultrasounds on some pregnant moms-to-be, because Dr Greg was able to bring a mobile ultrasound machine with him. We even got to tell one of them that they will be having a boy in about a month! Most importantly, each patient received a small Gospel tract and was prayed for both in English and Spanish.

Mike translating for Dr. Greg.

All in all, the event was a huge success! We think it was a great way to introduce ourselves to the community and show that we are here to serve. We hope that through our prayers and actions we were able to point to Jesus Christ as the Great Physician! We are so thankful to Pastor Mike and Dr Greg of Trinity Church for giving up their week to come help our team in Honduras and for helping Ashley and me begin the Lord's work in La Fe.

Home for a Week

2012-02-06T08:17:00.000-07:00

This week we are hosting our first short-term team of 2012. We are privileged to have Dr. Greg and Pastor Mike from Trinity Presbyterian Church in Harrisburg, PA serving with us this week. Greg has been here several times and this is Mike's first time. They are helping and serving alongside all of our team in many facets of the ministry here. I am staying with them in our dorm facility all week.

Ashley and I are excited to have them work with us on Wed. in La Fe. We will have our first 'event' - a medical clinic. We want to point the people of La Fe to Christ, the Great Physician, as we help them a little with their physical ailments.

The dorm room I am staying in with Dr. Greg and Pastor Mike.

Please pray for the families of Greg and Mike that are without husbands and fathers this week. Also please pray that all the work they do here this week would bring glory to the name of Jesus!

Medical Clinic

2012-02-03T14:00:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Ashley and got to help our teammates, Mike & Erin, put on a medical clinic. Erin is a nurse and every week they put on a clinic for the community they are working in. Yesterday we went to help so that we can learn the process because we hope to be able to provide some medical help to the people of La Fe.

Ashley working intake.

Since neither of us know anything about medicine, we learned the two other main processes of the clinic: intake and pharmacy.

Intake is where we take in patients. Depending on age, we take height, weight, blood pressure, blood sugar, and arm circumference. We also find out why the patients are there. You know, What hurts? We also pray with each patient and give them a Gospel tract.

Pharmacy is well, a pharmacy. Erin writes down the medicine that each patient needs and we provide it for them and explain how and when they need to take it.

So, Ashley prefers working intake and I prefer pharmacy which works well. We both learned what to do for each station so that we are able to do it if the other is not available. Yesterday was a great experience for us to help some sick people as well as prepare to help others in La Fe, where our main ministry will be.

La Ceiba Ministry Center

2012-01-30T16:08:00.001-07:00

For over a year our mission team in Honduras has been constructing a ministry center in downtown La Ceiba, Honduras. On this property we are building a high school, a medical clinic, a church, a theological seminary and a center for homeless children.

We are asking you to prayerfully consider giving a one-time financial gift to help us meet the construction costs. Here are two exciting reasons why you should consider giving now:

1) For a limited time a generous supporter has agreed to match every gift received $1 for $1. If you donate $100 we will receive $200.

2) Any financial gift you give is tax-deductible.

To learn more about our downtown ministry center watch our 3-minute video by clicking HERE.

To make an easy online contribution with your debit/credit card to our downtown ministry center click HERE.

Send an e-mail HERE if you'd rather receive information about writting a check.

Please be in prayer that God will provide the funds we need to complete this project. Also, please consider forwarding this information on to your church or friends and ask them if they would be interested in supporting God’s work in Honduras.

Thank you so much your prayers and support.

Admin

2012-01-25T16:56:00.000-07:00

Today was a day that is not normally blogged about. It was not the kind of day we usually talk about with supporters. It was an admin day.

What does that mean? Well, it means that Ashley and I spent the day doing paperwork kind of stuff. I don't know what things were like before computers and internet in missions, but I know now that part of my job as a missionary involves sitting at my computer and filling out some paperwork.

It isn't that this is a large part of my job, but there are certain things I have to do. We have to keep track of receipts, write thank you letters, call supporters, plan future work... So, we have to set aside days here and there in order to make sure these things get done since neither of us prefer to fill in a spreadsheet when we could be loving on some needy kids.

My favorite part of all of these admin jobs is when I get to talk with supporters. It is enjoyable to share with pastors, mission committee chairs, friends, and family what we are doing and how we are doing. It is also great to hear how they are doing as well. We also like to hear how we can pray for our supporters because we know the prayer is important and we care deeply about those who are praying and giving so that we can be here.

Today I wrote a few thank you letters, talked with two pastors and two missions chairmen, filed receipts, (blogged...), responded to a bunch of emails, found out (hopefully) how to get an extension on our visas and Ashley did a lot of similar things as well. I did not speak any Spanish or even leave the house, but it was a productive day. It is certainly worth it to have a day like this every few weeks because we love being here and love the work that we are beginning.

PS. I just saw that this is my 100th blog post! Fun stuff.

Starting from Scratch

2012-01-14T17:37:00.000-07:00

Those of you who like to bake know that sometimes it is better to make everything from scratch. Other times, using a pre-made 'something' will save time and can be just as good. Our ministry here in Honduras is a little bit of a mix of both of these.

We are not totally starting from scratch because (as I shared in my last post) we are joining a team. So, we have experienced missionaries that we spend time with regularly, however, we came here to start ministering in an unreached community.

Our plan is to find the community in which the Lord wants us to work and begin the process of planting a church. What that means for us is building relationships. We do not yet know exactly what that will look like, but we have some ideas. Honduras is a poor country and, because of this, it is very likely that part of our ministry will involve helping to meet some of the physical needs of the community we work in. This, of course, will go hand in hand with sharing the name of Christ and the Good News of what He has done for us.

It is unlikely that we already have a relationship with anyone who lives in the potential communities. In this way, we will start from scratch by talking to people to find out their needs and desires. This will help us determine how we can reach out to them as a community. Please pray for us as this coming week as we plan to visit several communities; that God would reveal to us in which community specifically He is calling us.

Our Team

2012-01-10T14:49:00.000-07:00

When we arrived here in Honduras almost one month ago, we joined a team. That may not seem important to you, but it is extremely important to us. From day one, we have had friends, people we can trust, help in learning a new city, and experienced missionaries to give us advice when we need it. Since I talk a lot about our teammates on this blog, I thought it may help to 'introduce' them to you.

Kate, John, Kathy, Shannon, Erin, Madison, Mike, Ashley & I
Bekah, Evan, Josiah, Abi

The Pettengills - Mike, Erin, and Madison Pettengill started this team here in La Ceiba about 3.5 years ago. Mike is the team leader and Erin is a nurse. They work mostly in a community called Armenia Bonito.

The Clows - John, Kathy, Abi, Bekah, Josiah and Evan have been in La Ceiba since the spring of 2010. John is in charge of all the construction projects and Kathy heads up the scholarship program. They both do a ton of work with the short-term teams that come in the summer.

Shannon Innes - Shannon has been here since May of last year. She is in the process of starting a home for young single moms.

Kate DeFuniak - Kate arrived here only a month or so before we did. She is working with street children and will be starting a drop-in center for them.

We are so glad that we are working with a team and that we will get to know each of these people a lot over the coming months and years! If you would like more information about them, their blogs are on the side of this page in the 'Friends Blogs' section.

We have an address!

2012-01-03T15:23:00.003-07:00

Today I ran a few errands with our team leader Mike (3 guys on the team and 2 are named Mike...). One of them was to check out the Post Office. He had to get some mail and pay for some stuff and I got to buy a post office box! So, we can now receive mail (hint hint).

From what our team has told us, mail takes about 2 weeks to get here from in the US and it doesn't really matter what way it is shipped. In other words, don't pay extra shipping to get it here faster, because it will not get here faster. Hey, we live in Honduras and at least it gets here.

So, for those of you who want to send us something here is our new address:

Michael Troxell
PO Box 916
La Ceiba, Atlantida
Honduras
Central America

As a note, on our team I am generally referred to as Trox and our team leader, Mike Pettengill, is referred to as Mike. I had this 'problem' with the name Mike in 5th grade too, there were 5 Mikes out of about 25 kids.

Christmas in Honduras

2011-12-29T21:46:00.001-07:00

This year was the first time I ever celebrated Christmas outside of the US. There were some big differences and some similarities.

The biggest difference was the lack of family. This was also the hardest part of the holiday season and about living in another country. Also, fireworks are much more popular here in Honduras than in the US. At least for Christmas anyway. It was fun to watch the fireworks at midnight as the calendar flipped to December 25th. (Especially fun from the rooftop porch of our new place!)

One similarity I saw was that people got a little crazier as it got closer to Christmas. We live really close to the main mall in town and it just got nuts in the last few days before Christmas. (Which was hard for us since we were trying to find things for our new house at this time.) Another unfortunate similarity is that Christmas (as well as every other day) is supposed to be about Jesus Christ, but for much of the world it is about me me me.

This year, Christmas Eve was a very special day. We spent it with our new team here in La Ceiba. Our time together started with a good old fashioned traditional Christmas dinner. It was delicious and fun as we got to hear about some things that are family traditions of our teammates. After that, we had the 'gringo church' Lessons and Carols service where Ashley and I got to light the final advent candle. We also did a small gift exchange that was a lot of fun. We took turns passing gifts out and laughing together. It was a great way for us to start to get to know our teammates better and was a lot of fun for all of us!

As for Christmas day, Ashley and I spent it in our house relaxing and being together. Nothing too exciting, but it was a good day for us to think about the amazing gift we have received of Jesus Christ and the life that He has given both of us. We also got to Skype with many of our family members which helped a little in the missing of them. We hope that you had the chance to dwell on the love of God and the immense gift of His Son this Christmas!

We are in our house!

2011-12-23T19:46:00.000-07:00

We are so excited to share with you all that we moved into our new home on Wednesday! Eight days after we arrived our house was ready for us to move in (kind of). We have had some repairmen in and out of the house and at least one of them will be back (supposedly) next week. We had been hoping to be able to get into a house before Christmas so that we could have a sense of home and the Lord provided!

It has been a little crazy these last few days. We moved in and needed to do some shopping for furniture and household necessities. We have found some and will continue our 'settling in' after Christmas. We had a little set back yesterday when we lost power for about 6 hours because a vegetable delivery truck pulled down a power line just around the corner to our place.

We live pretty close to the mall of La Ceiba, so everything has been kind of intense the last few days with Christmas getting closer. The traffic is busy all day and people seem to be in the I-Still-Need-To-Buy-Christmas-Stuff 'spirit.' We are looking forward to getting moved in and getting to know our neighbors and our city a little bit better over the next few weeks.

Welcome to Honduras!

2011-12-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

We made it! We are in Honduras!

Ashley with our bags outside the airport in Honduras.

On Tuesday December 13, we flew from Costa Rica to San Pedro Sula, Honduras then took a two and a half hour drive to our new home city of La Ceiba, Honduras. Our flights and bus ride were easy, no problems with luggage or anything else. Our teammates helped us move into our temporary house and we got to spend some time with Shannon and Kate (teammates) for dinner.

Since getting here about three days ago a lot has happened! We found a house! This is something that just doesn't really happen here in Honduras. On Wednesday morning, we looked at an apartment and two houses with a realtor and the second house we looked at was perfect! It is bigger than we need, but is under budget and is close to a lot of things in this little city. Yesterday we signed an agreement saying that we will be renting the house and we are hoping to sign a contract and begin moving in on Monday! (We know that there are many things that could come up between now and then that could change that, but we are praying that we will be able to be into our new house before Christmas and will be able to use these last two weeks of the year to start making the house into our home.)

We also got to go to the Christmas show for the school that all of the kids on our team attend last night. It was quite a cultural experience. It was about 2.5 hours long and the lights went out about halfway through. The kids of our team did great and we got to cheer them on as they performed.

We are so thankful to be in the place where God has called us and to have such great teammates to serve alongside!

Can I graduate?

2011-12-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

The answer is YES! We did graduate!

On Friday morning we graduated from The Spanish Language Institute. We have spent all of 2011 here in San Jose, Costa Rica studying Spanish. Four hours of class each day, five days a week, for about 11 months and we are now finished with our formal studies. We will continue to learn more and more Spanish as we live and minister in Honduras.

Before the ceremony with the Honduras flag.

I got to carry the flag into the ceremony!

Ashley singing Solo Cristo.

With our diplomas.

The Graduates.

Hae Su (classmate), Lissette (teacher), Mike (me)

All three down.

2011-12-09T12:02:00.000-07:00

In my last post, I said I was finished with two out of three 'tests.' On Sunday I finished the third.

I got the opportunity to preach the Gospel to the people of ICRICEN (Iglesia Cristiana de Centroamericana) this past Sunday. This was the first time I ever preached in a church service and it was in Spanish! I will admit that I was quite nervous, but the Spirit gave me the words to say and (I think) clarity and (mas o menos) the correct pronunciation.

I am so glad the Lord gave me this opportunity to learn how to write a sermon and also how to do translation and also how to share a message in front of a group. I feel like I learned a lot and look forward to having this opportunity in the future. Although I am not going to be a pastor in Honduras, having the skills of writing a message and delivering it I think will be very useful in our ministry.

Mike preaching on Philippians 2:1-11.

I spoke on the importance of unified community and that it is only possible through humility and because of how humble Jesus Christ was for us to come to this sinful world and to die on the cross in order to save us.

Two down, One to go.

2011-11-30T15:29:00.000-07:00

This week has been a busy one. On Monday we had our ECO, an oral conversation/exam. It was a 30 minute conversation with a teacher we never had before to test what level we communicate. I think it went well and that the conversation I had with the teacher was pretty representative of my ability to speak in Spanish. On Tuesday we had the ECG, which is a written grammar exam that tests everything that is Spanish grammar. We had three hours to finish (of which I used about two). I tend to do really well on paper and I think that I did well on this test. I think we will get our scores back sometime next week. in reality, the scores are not what is important to me, it is more about knowing what I know and what I still need to work on.

Also, I am going to be preaching on Sunday, so I have been working a lot on writing a sermon and translating it into Spanish. This is not an easy process for me since I have never written a sermon before. I feel pretty confident at this point that the Lord will give me the words to say. I have had some help from a friend who has been a pastor for a number of years and also from my teachers here for the Spanish aspect.

So, its been a lot of Spanish this week! Which is a really good thing, but we are getting very much excited to move to Honduras so it is hard to keep our minds here. Our teammates have started looking for a place for us to live and have sent us some pictures, so that makes us want to be there even more. We fly to Honduras is 13 days!

Christmas in Costa Rica

2011-11-17T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it is not actually Christmas, but the season is upon us here in San Jose. Thanksgiving is not a holiday here, so there is nothing holding back people and stores from putting up and out Christmas supplies (not that Thanksgiving stops many places any more in the US...).

Today at our school we had a special chapel put on by our teachers. They explained to us some of the Christmas traditions here in Costa Rica (like getting together as a family and making tamales), sang some traditional Christmas songs, and even gave us some homemade Christmas cookies! It was a great time.

The teachers at our school singing Christmas Carols.

The only negative was that it made me think a little more about this upcoming Christmas and I realized that Ashley and I will not be spending Christmas with any of our family. This I think is going to be hard since I have always had a chance to spend time around the holidays with my family.

We are so excited that we are going to be moving to Honduras is less than a month and we are looking forward to getting to know our teammates and learning some of their Christmas traditions, but we know that we will miss seeing our parents and siblings and nieces and nephews and all our other relatives and friends as well.

One month until Honduras!

2011-11-13T16:33:00.000-07:00

One month from today, we will move to Honduras. 30 days!

That is not very long, but we still have lots to do here before we can begin the next phase of our lives and begin a new ministry in Honduras.

1. School:
-4 weeks of classes,
-2 grammar topics (so that we will finish the book our school uses to teach Spanish grammar!),
-2 grammar exams,
-1 language exam (presentation),
-the ECO - an oral conversation test that will show us what level of Spanish we have achieved in conversation,
-the school's (3 hour) written grammar exam that tests our knowledge of all things Spanish grammar.

2. Other Stuff:
-Thanksgiving Lunch with our entire school - a chance for us to share some USA culture with teachers,
-Christmas party for a local orphanage that the students of our school Host,
-Packing,
-Saying goodbye to friends we have made.

Also, I have been asked by the church we are attending to preach a sermon on Sunday, December 4th. This will be the first time I ever preach a full sermon, and it will be in Spanish! This means that I have a lot of work ahead of me over the next 3 weeks to write a sermon, then 'translate' it into Spanish. Please pray that the Lord will give me the words to share with the congregation and that I will trust Him in my Spanish ability. I am so excited to have the privilege to share God's Word with a group of people and I praise HIm for giving me the ability to do this in another language!

Winter

2011-10-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I severely underestimated the 'winter' here in Costa Rica. I say winter because that is what they call this season here. The year is not broken into four seasons here but into two (no, they are not hot and really hot like they are in Phoenix). The seasons are dry season and wet season. We left dry season a few months ago and the wet (or rainy) season has not been so bad. Yes, we have had a lot of rain, but it has mostly been in the afternoons after beautiful sunny warm mornings.

This has changed. Dramatically. For the last 10 or so days, we have not seen the sun. It has rained almost constantly. I looked for rainfall amounts, but did not find solid numbers. From what I have heard, we have had somewhere along the lines of 2+ inches of rain each day. This is something that I have never really experienced before, obviously not in Phoenix.

It has gotten to where I am 'cold' a decent portion of the day. The temperatures are not really cold, but the lack of sun and the wetness make it feel cold. As I am writing this, I am wearing a jacket (since I do not have any sweatshirts here because I thought I wouldn't need them). Another odd thing about this season is that most of the sidewalks are covered in moss since they have been wet for a solid 10 days.

I am ready for rainy season to end, but I hear it will be here for about another month. I guess I will just have to study extra since there is pretty much no reason to leave the house and go out into the rain.

VBS

2011-10-05T20:21:00.000-07:00

Our team is looking for some help!

Our team wants to organize a Vacation Bible School for the five missionary kids on the team. We have come to the conclusion that it would be better for the kids if we have someone from outside of our team do it.

We are looking for you! We would like to have a friend or church come to Honduras and put on a small VBS for the kids on our team December 19-22, 2011. Would you or your church like an opportunity to serve the families of some missionaries? Did your church put on a great VBS this past summer that you could reproduce in another country?

There are 5 kids from the ages of eight to fifteen. Our team will provide lodging and meals for the VBS organizers.

If you or your church would like to come to Honduras and put on a VBS for five missionary kids this December please contact Mike Pettengill through email (mikepettengill@yahoo.com) or US phone (916.273.8776).

We will be arriving in Honduras on December 13 and would love for someone we know to come and minister to these missionary kids and their families. If you have any questions, you can also ask me.

In Honduras

2011-09-29T09:45:00.000-07:00

This week, Ashley and I are in Honduras. We are here for two reasons. Firstly, Ashley is taking part in the first Team Honduras Women's Retreat. Secondly, I had to leave Costa Rica again in order to renew my visa, so I felt it would be best for Ashley and I to be able to travel together.

We arrived in La Ceiba on Sunday morning and got worship here with most of our team in English, then went to a Honduras church to worship our Lord in Spanish. Monday morning, the ladies headed out of town for their retreat. Ashley, and the four other women on the team, are taking this week to relax, get to know each other, learn how to better work together, and study what the Lord says about important topics relating to women on the mission field. Each on of the women were given a topic to share about, Ashley shared about prayer.

Meanwhile, back in La Ceiba, I have been able to spend some quality time with the men of the team and help out a little with the kids. It has been great for me to talk with Mike (team leader) and John about what it is like living and serving here. Also, I am going to get a chance to look a little closer at a few of the communities in which the Lord may be calling Ashley and I to serve.

This morning I was thinking about how I sensed the Lord's call for us to come to Honduras. We were here in the summer of 2009, and after we left I just could not get the idea of being here out of my head. The Lord may it clear to me in my head, in an indescribable way, that this is where He wanted us. I am now praying the He would do the same thing in regards to what community He would have us to work in.

Spanish, Spanish, and more Spanish

2011-09-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

So, its been awhile. I am still here. I am still studying Spanish in Costa Rica.

Both Ashley and I have had some great opportunities to use our Spanish over the last few weeks. I got to help out some friends at an event called Super Match. I worked alongside missionaries with Palabra de Vida (Word of Life) here in San Jose to set up for an afternoon of crazy games in which about 200 Costa Rican youth participated and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ preached. I was able to communicate (in Spanish of course) with the other helpers to coordinate the games and help make sure everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing.

A few weeks ago, a family from our church invited us over to their house for lunch after the service. We spent 3+ hours eating, talking, laughing, and getting to know this family. It was such a fun time and it was all in Spanish. We didn't even have headaches when we got home!

Just this past weekend we visited friends of ours who are living and working on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica. It was great to get out of the city and to see friends who were in our classes in our first trimester here. We used the public bus system to get there and back and on our return trip, Ashley sat next to a Costa Rican woman who has an abusive husband and a super cute 2-year old son. Ashley was able to listen to this woman share about her difficult life and was able to describe to her the hope that is found in Jesus.

These are just 3 short examples of opportunities we have had over the last few weeks to use the Spanish we are learning to communicate on a deep level with people we have come in contact with. This is all in addition to our everyday life of going to the store, paying the bills, and getting to know neighbors.

We feel so blessed to have this time to concentrate on learning Spanish and to learn more about the Latino culture. We are so excited to use all this the Lord is teaching us when we get to Honduras!

Friends and Food

2011-08-28T19:00:00.000-07:00

We moved into our apartment about 2 weeks ago. It has been great to have some of our own space and to have more freedom to do what we want, when we want. We are very thankful that we have this opportunity to live in an apartment for our last trimester of language school.

Friday night, we had a Costa Rican couple over for dinner. We enjoyed eating together, getting to know each other, and some Phase 10. All in Spanish, of course! It was very encouraging to be able to spend an entire evening with guests and be able to communicate in Spanish with them.

Also, in just 2 short weeks, I have realized that I like to cook. It's not my favorite thing in the world to do, but I do enjoy it. So far it has been pretty basic stuff, but as I get more chances to cook I think I will try new things and experiment with some different combinations. Costa Rica is home to lots of different fruits and vegetables, and I look forward to using some of them over the next few months here.

2 down, 1 to go.

2011-08-20T14:23:00.000-07:00

We are 2/3 of the way done our language study here in Costa Rica. Last week we finished our 2nd trimester. It is amazing to think of how different our lives are now as compared to when we got here about 8 months ago. We have learned so much Spanish and also a lot about this culture. We have also been able to build relationships with many other missionaries and Costa Ricans as well.

Unfortunately, many of the people we were really getting to know well finished their time here and are now back home or in new homes in one of the many Spanish speaking countries. This, I think, is one of the hardest parts of our lives at this point. We are here temporarily with others who are also here temporarily. That makes building strong, deep relationships hard because you know those people won't be close by for very long.

We said goodbye to some really good friends, and we also said goodbye to our Costa Rican family. We will see them, but we have moved into an apartment in order to have some more space and privacy and also to get the opportunity to experience this culture in a new way. In addition to both of those, our language school had to let go of a third of its teachers because there aren't enough students. It was definitely a bummer to hear that one of my favorite teachers will not be back next trimester. I pray that the Lord would comfort these teachers and help them to find new jobs.

Since we are in the middle of trimesters, we also have new students coming in! Tonight, Ashley will go to the airport to pick up a family and about an hour later, I will do the same. We are 'big brothers' to two different families (we help them find a place to leave and show them around a little when they get here). We are excited to meet and get to know some more people who will be serving the Lord using Spanish!

For His Glory

2011-08-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

July was not an easy month for our team in Honduras. They have gone through a lot - burglarized house, broken down cars, camera stolen, sickness, hours of time and energy after these events, stress, firing 12 Honduran workers due to lack of funds....

This sounds like it has been an awful month, and in some ways it has been. However, this team is not working for this world. In fact, it is the God of the universe that is working in, on, and through this team. They are tired, yet God is giving them love for each other. I don't want to make the people, our teammates, look great, (I like them all and look forward to working alongside them all!) because they are just people. It is God who is GREAT! It is Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we can even imagine! It is the Lord who is working mightily in La Ceiba, Honduras!

In Philippians, Paul writes that it has been granted to us to not only believe in Christ, but also to suffer for him. It also says that the reason for this is for His sake. So, I am thankful that our team in Honduras is going through tough times because it is all for the glory of our Savior! I know it is not fun, and I pray that the Lord will continue to pour out His love and His peace to all of them through this time. I also pray that the Lord would give me His love, His peace, and His joy in every situation in my life.

9 of 15

2011-07-27T16:35:00.000-07:00

In the curriculum at our language school, the subjunctive mode is split into 15 rules. This week we started studying the 9th of these rules. This specific rule has to do with opinions and how you can convey doubt in something you think/believe.

This rule is going to be the last one we study this trimester. We are going to take the last week and a half of classes reviewing important information after we finish studying this rule.

It has been a little more than 3 months since we started into the big, bad, ugly subjunctive mode of speaking and somehow I am still sane. I will admit that I am getting a bit confused about which rule is which and when I use subjunctive and when I use indicative and when I use infinitive and when I just stop talking. The encouraging thing is that the everyday conversations are getting to be easier and more natural.

9 of 15. That's like almost half isn't it?

In other news... Ashley's parents are coming for a visit! They will get here Saturday morning and we are going to go see one of Costa Rica's most active volcanoes. Should be a great time with family and an awesome chance to see a different side of God's creativity.

Back in San Jose

2011-07-16T20:13:00.000-07:00

Today we ended our time, for now, in Honduras. We were able to see the CovCom team off, help clean up the dorm rooms (another team arrived about 8 hours after ours left), and spend a little more time with the long-term team before we had to go to airport and return to our current home.

I-Know-I-Am-Not-In-the-USA when...The woman behind me (and others as well) brings her cups (yes, plural) of coffee through the security checkpoint in the airport. I guess security figures that people here in Central America are too serious about their coffee to mix explosives into it.

Now that we are back home, we will dig back into our Spanish studies. Both Ashley and I had a very different experience in Honduras than we did two years ago since we were able to communicate much more with the Hondurans.

See ya later, not goodbye

2011-07-14T21:56:00.000-07:00

This trip has been a lot different from the trip Ashley and I came on 2 years ago. The teams (short-term and long-term) are both larger. We are staying in the dorm facility, that doubles as a construction site. We are able to speak Spanish.

The biggest difference to me is that, even though we are here for only a week, we are able to tell the people we meet that we will see them later. We can tell kids that we are coming back in December. While some of them may not see it as much of a difference now (maybe more so when we actually do see them later), its feels very different for me.

I am able to share with these people that I am taking time to study their language in order to come and serve them. This is very surprising to many of them. They do not understand why I would leave a place that is so "great" to come here where live is so much harder. I hope that I will soon be able to convey (in Spanish) to them that the Lord actually used them to change me and to change my life. The truth is that is doesn't make sense and that it isn't really logical, but it is what the Lord wants and that is all that matters.

See ya later!

Spanish in Honduras

2011-07-12T20:15:00.000-07:00

Over the last few weeks I have become more and more encouraged in my speaking of Spanish. I am doing really well in my classes and am learning lots of Spanish grammar. I also have some friends / acquaintances that I speak to regularly in Spanish and it seems as though every time I talk with them, I am able to understand them and communicate with them more clearly.

This week in Honduras has been a little more difficult. Lets just say that I am glad we have another 5 months of language school, because I am not ready yet. Don't get me wrong, I have learned a ton, but speaking with new people (that have a slightly different accent) I have realized that I still have a lot to learn. I know that even when I finish language school I will not be finished learning Spanish. The language learning process is a long and tedious one, but it is one I am enjoying very much right now.

In other news, our team did construction on 2 sites in the morning, hosted a medical clinic that saw 45 patients, and led a Kid's Club with about 40 Honduran kids! We are all doing well, a little tired but enjoying serving the people of Honduras! Click here to see our teams Facebook page with lots of updates and pictures!

What does this pedal do again?

2011-07-10T21:14:00.000-07:00

Today, I drove a car for the first time in over 6 months! Actually, it was a big van.

I got to drive to the airport to pick up the team from Covenant Community Church that we are working with this week! It was so much fun seeing them come through the door after they went through customs.

After picking them up, we took them to our home for the week, the new dorm facility that team Honduras has been working on for quite a long time. There are a few in the group that came last year, and they all say the housing accommodations are a huge upgrade and are so nice!

Next, we went to the Clow's house for 'gringo church,' orientation, and dinner.

As per usual, there were lots of not planned things that happened today. 1. Mike Pettengill, our team leader, woke up this morning sick. 2. La Ceiba had a 'we are going to turn off the power for some reason' day, so we did not have electricity from about 7:45 am - 3:00 pm. 3. The Pettengill's house had a leak that I got to help John Clow fix.

Tomorrow we start really working (medical clinic, construction, and ESL class).

I got to fill in for our sick team leader in leading the devotional for 'gringo church'

Thank you all for your prayers! Please pray that our team leader, Mike, will be healed quickly.

Mid Terms

2011-06-28T13:51:00.000-07:00

We are now at the halfway point of our second trimester, which also means we are at the halfway point of our time of language study here in Costa Rica. This year is flying by. It does not seem like we have lived here, in a foreign country, for 6 months... but we have.

This week is Spiritual Emphasis week at our language school. This means NO HOMEWORK! Oh, an also that we have a chapel time twice each. So far, the chapel times have been great! A group from the Atlanta area, Proskuneo, who specialize in multicultural worship, have come to lead our week.

Each morning we have a short worship service that is conducted in both English and Spanish since the faculty of the school is invited, and for most of them Spanish is their first language. The songs we sing are in both English and Spanish and sometimes we sing in both languages at the same time. It has been a neat experience so far and, to me, shows the power of God that He can understand so many languages and hear them all at the same time!

On Monday, we also had our mid-trimester progress reports. Each teacher talks with each student 1 on 1 and lets them know how they are progressing and in what areas they need the most work. It was really encouraging for me to hear that both my teachers feel I am learning a lot and moving forward really well. My biggest need is to be able to get more fluid in my speech. I still have days that I feel somewhat lost in Spanish, but for the most part I am getting more and more comfortable in the language! I am so thankful to God for opening my ears and my tongue to these new sounds and words and to all of you for your prayers!

In 10 days we leave for a week-long trip to Honduras to work with a team from our home church!

Skype

2011-06-13T20:49:00.000-07:00

This past Saturday, Ashley and I got to take part in a fund raiser at our home church in Arizona. Covenant Community Church, is sending a team of short-term missionaries to La Ceiba, Honduras in July. We are going to join that team and work along side our friends for the week. Last Saturday evening, the team hosted a dinner and evening of entertainment in order to help raise funds for the team to go to Honduras.

We had the opportunity to 'interrupt' the entertainment and say hi to our friends and family who were there! We did not get to see them, but we heard some laughing and were able to be interviewed by the emcee of the event. It was so much fun for us to be able to take part in the evening and to say thank you to our sending church as well as many people who pray and financially give towards the work we are doing.

We had a blast and hope to do it again sometime! We are thankful for the technology that allows this type of thing to happen and that makes it easier for us to keep in touch with those we have left and those who have sent us out to serve the Lord and the people of Honduras.

Subjunctive

2011-06-01T15:01:00.000-07:00

This week we started into the next phase of Spanish - subjunctive.

The subjunctive mood/mode is used to describe things that are more abstract. This is the part of the language that we heard about before we started classes. The part that is important to learn to be able to share feelings, emotions, and desires. It is also used to describe situations in which there is some amount of doubt involved and to express disagreement or denial.

Before this week we learned 9 different ways to conjugate every verb and now we are adding 4 more. It is a lot to learn and to keep separate in our minds. Please pray that the Lord would continue to bless us with success in learning this language. We desire to know Spanish in order to be able to share the love of Jesus Christ with the people of Honduras, and learning this mode of speech will help us to do that!

Rainy Season

2011-05-19T12:43:00.000-07:00

When we arrived here in January, San Jose was in the middle of dry season. The weather in January and February was just awesome! We had high temperatures in the mid 70s and tons of sun, and when it was cloudy the sky was beautiful!

Things have changed a little. March and April got a little hotter and with May came the beginning of rainy season. It rained a few times in the first 4 months we were here, but since we started May it has rained almost everyday. I tried to find the actual rainfall amounts for the past months and especially for the past 2 weeks or so, but was not successful. However, on average, San Jose gets about 3 inches of rain between the beginning of January and the end of April. Then, in May the average jumps to about 9 inches.

In the last week it has rained all but 1 day (I think) and we had big time serious thunderstorms on both last Thursday and Saturday. Saturday we even lost electricity for about 2 hours. We are going to have to get used to being wet because May is just the beginning of the rainy season and the rainfall is higher still in Sept. and Oct. The rainy season doesn't really end until mid-November and we will be leaving here in the early part of December.

Thank you, Lord for umbrellas and raincoats!

Video & Team update

2011-05-09T15:22:00.000-07:00

Since we had some time off from classes between our first and second trimester, we decided to make a short video showing a little bit about what we have been up to since we arrived here in Costa Rica. Click here to check it out: http://www.troxellmissionaries.com/videos.html

I have also included a picture of what our team in Honduras looks like today. Well, at least what they looked like a few days ago when this picture was taken. As of right now, our team has 7 adults and 5 children. We cannot wait to be a part of this team and serve the Lord beside these awesome people!

The team that is currently in Honduras.

2nd trimester

2011-05-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

This week we started our second trimester of language school. Both Ashley and I have new teachers and we now only have 2 classes - grammar and conversation. From just the first week, it looks like we are going to be moving pretty fast this trimester. We have already studied the simple future tense and are continuing to move forward!

Our first trimester was great! We learned a lot and enjoyed our classmates and teachers. However, I think this change came at a great time. New teachers and some different classmates mean that the classes are a change and we will hear Spanish from new people in slightly different ways. In my opinion, this is a good thing. Talking to new people tends to be harder for me because everyone sounds just a little different and not everyone uses the exact same words.

This is the same with teachers. Each teacher I had last trimester was different and each taught using their own techniques. I can already tell that my new teachers will challenge we in new ways, which I am excited for!

A new trimester also means new students! Today we had a "welcome-the-new-students-party' which was a good chance for us to meet and talk with new people.

Semana Santa?

2011-04-21T12:03:00.002-07:00

Living in San Jose, Costa Rica these last 3.5 months, I have gotten used to pretty much always hearing all types of loud noises. Almost constantly, I hear car alarms, birds chirping, air brakes on trucks, fireworks, dogs barking, or all kinds of other random noises. I have actually gotten used to it so much that I don't really hear much of it anymore. Ashley will say something about a car alarm that has been going off for 10 minutes and then I will notice it. Well, this week things have been different.

It is Holy Week (Semana Santa in Spanish). Holy week starts on Palm Sunday, includes Good Friday and culminates Easter morning when Christians all over the world celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Well, in Latin American countries like Costa Rica, Semana Santa is a HUGE deal. This partly has to do with the Roman Catholic influence in these areas that has been here for a decades, even centuries. However, Semana Santa has become one of the only times of the year where the people get multiple days of work and are able to travel.

Here in Costa Rica, the government, including all schools, is closed down all week. Thursday (today) and Friday of Semana Santa are obligatory holidays for private companies as well. This causes everything to slow down and come to pretty much a halt by today. Unfortunately, this has caused this week to become the easiest time of the year for everyone to leave their homes, go to the beach, and party for a few days (or a whole week for those who are 'blessed' to have off from work).

Here in San Jose, the feeling is something like a ghost town. It is eerily quiet. We don't hear the car alarms and the trucks. For us, it is peaceful. Since we don't have school (we finished our first trimester on Tues!), Ashley and I have a chance to relax and spend time together without all of the hustle and bustle of 'regular life' around us. We will probably only leave the house to take a walk. Pretty much everything is closed and everyone is either at home with family or at the beach.

This sounds great, and for us it is, but in reality is it sad. It is sad that these special days have been turned into days to get drunk and party for so many people. Please pray for the people of Costa Rica (and many other countries, including Honduras) that they would understand in their hearts the meaning of Good Friday and the meaning of Easter. Praise God, that Jesus came to this world, humbled Himself beyond belief just to become a man, and went so far as to die for me and for you. And Praise God that Jesus' death was not the end of the story, but that He beat death and evil and rose again and lives now and that we now have a way to come into His presence.

Juan Santamaria

2011-04-15T14:08:00.000-07:00

This past Monday, April 11, was a national holiday here in Costa Rica. Juan Santamaria Day is a day to honor a hero of Costa Rica.

It was a great day for us (we didn't have school) because we were able to learn a little more about this country we are living in and we had a chance to go into downtown San Jose during the day.

On Tuesday, between classes, we had a little "assembly" where we learned a little bit about who Juan Santamaria was and what he did to become a national hero. In addition, Ashley was part of a group of women who did some traditional Costa Rican dancing as part of the celebration. The group has been learning the dance moves and learning the meaning behind them for a few weeks and did a great job in their show!

Here are a few pictures of the ladies in their traditional dancing outfits:

Honduras update

2011-04-07T13:12:00.000-07:00

Our team in Honduras is going through a lot of changes.

Last week our team said goodbye to the McCanns (Sean, Lindsey, and 3 little girls). The McCanns had been in Honduras for over 2.5 years. Sean has taken a job with their home church in the states as they begin a new stage of their lives. We thank the Lord for using the McCanns mightily over the last years in La Ceiba.

Also, the Pettengills (Mike, Erin, and Madison) have been in the US for the last 6 months at home on Home Missionary Assignment. They have raised some more support and shared with lots of people the great things the Lord is doing in Honduras. They are currently about halfway through their drive from Phoenix, AZ, USA to La Ceiba, Honduras (Yes, they are driving. They are those kind of people...) Please pray they finish their trip safely and are able to readjust again to life in La Ceiba.

In addition, we will say goodbye to Shannon and she will move to La Ceiba. She is currently in Costa Rica in language school with us, but is just a few weeks from finishing her schooling and moving in order to begin her ministry with young girls/mothers in Honduras. Please pray she continues to learn Spanish even as she arrives in Honduras and that she will be able to say goodbye to her friends here in San Jose and quickly get settled into her house (She is moving into the house the McCanns lived in. Isn't God great in His timing?)

As for us, we will finish our first trimester of Spanish here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We have learned SO much, but we still have a lot of Spanish still to learn. Thank you all for your prayers and encouraging words over the last 3 months. Please pray that we will continue to learn Spanish well and that the Lord will begin to open our eyes to the specific work He would have us to do once we arrive in Honduras.

Opening Day

2011-03-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

If you are a sports fan, you probably know that today is opening day for Major League Baseball (even though the Phillies don't start until tomorrow). Its a new beginning where all the teams feel like they have a chance to win this year. Well, maybe not the Pirates, Royals, and some other teams, but every team starts with the same record of no wins and no losses.

I had a similar feeling this week in studying Spanish. Not the same, but somewhat of a new beginning. After studying and going to class for almost 3 months, my class finally started to study past tense! In the first 2/3 of this trimester, we have studied a lot of different topics in Spanish, but all have been in the present tense.

So, we have expanded our ability to communicate a ton by now being able to use the past tense in a conversation. If you think about many of your regular conversations, you do not say too many things in the present tense. We had to start there to get a solid foundation for our language, but now we are moving forward as we prepare to share the gospel of Jesus Christ in Spanish to the people of La Ceiba, Honduras!

Border Crossing

2011-03-22T15:03:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we headed north to Granada, Nicaragua. Since we live in Costa Rica on a tourist visa, we have to leave the country every 90 days, in order to get a new visa. This is part of our life here in Costa Rica, and will be as well when we get to Honduras.

Looking down a main street in Granada.

Our drive to Granada took us about 10 hours. This included an hour long stop for dinner as well as a 2.5 hour stop in order to leave Costa Rica / enter Nicaragua. The trip back on Sunday was about a half hour shorter since the border crossing process only took about 2 hours. I tell you this not to complain, but to share about some realities of Central America. It was somewhat of a joke that it took this long and the border officials barely looked at each person with their passport.

Ashley on the 'beach' of Lake Nicaragua.

Granada is a beautiful and interesting city. It was the first city set up in the new world way back in the 1500s. Much of the architecture is still the same as it was when the Spanish settled there so long ago. We really enjoyed to atmosphere of the city and also had a chance to relax!

Really old church across the street from our hotel.

The only somewhat annoying part of the trip was having 3 types of currency (US Dollars, Costa Rica Colones, and Nicaragua Cordobas) in my wallet and remembering what the conversion factor should be in order to know how much I was really spending for something.

A volcano with Lake Nicaragua in front.

Nicaragua

2011-03-16T20:00:00.001-07:00

Tomorrow afternoon, Ashley and I will be heading to Granada, Nicaragua for the weekend. We are required to leave Costa Rica every 90 days in order to renew our visas. Our language school sets up trips for students every trimester since so many of us have this issue. There are about 50 of us going and we will return Sunday evening.

We are excited for this opportunity to see a new place and to get a short break from our classes. We also will have the chance to spend time with other missionaries who are going through the same things we are. Even though we are going to many different places, the Lord has put Ashley and I here with so many other families who also love the Lord and are serving Him in many ways.

Hopefully the roads will be open and we will have safe travels and be able to rest!

We will share some pictures of our time in one of the oldest cities in the 'new world' after we get back.

Basketball

2011-03-10T15:04:00.000-07:00

Every Monday and Thursday evening I play basketball with other missionary guys at our language school. Usually there are somewhere between 8 and 14 guys who show up to play. We play for two hours each night.

I go to play for two reasons. First, I love the exercise. I do not enjoy just running, but for some reason running while playing basketball is much more fun for me. In addition to being a great workout, it is a time to build friendships with other guys who are going through much of the same things as I am.

Learning Spanish (or any language) is tiring. It is not easy to go to classes and live amongst another language all the time. Don't get me wrong, I am loving it, but it is hard work. So, playing basketball with other 'gringos' is time where we can turn on minds 'off' of Spanish and put our bodies to work. All of us are studying Spanish, living in a new place, missing family and friends, and some are married and have kids as well. Playing basketball is a way to rest (from all those other things) and burn some calories as well.

In between games we take a few minutes rest and can catch up on how others are doing, talk with someone we don't know well, find out someone else's plan for after language school, and of course get a little water in preparation for the next game. Also, every week we start by asking for prayer requests and praying for each other. I am so thankful for the group of guys the Lord has put here together in this time.

It's Thursday so I get to go play some ball tonight!

Spiritual Emphasis Week

2011-03-01T12:58:00.000-07:00

We are studying Spanish at The Spanish Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica. The Institute is a language school especially for missionaries. There are a few students who have come just to learn Spanish, but almost all the students will be missionaries somewhere in Latin America.

It is a really cool thing to be able to study language at a place where pretty much everyone is a Christian. We begin most of our classes with prayer or use Scripture as text for practicing our pronunciation. As we progress, we will prepare Bible studies for our homework and learn to share our testimony in Spanish. Praise the Lord!

As a result, our language school feels it is important for us to not put learning Spanish ahead of our relationship with Jesus. They feel so strongly that every trimester they have what they call Spiritual Emphasis Week. During the week (this week) each class is a few minutes shorter and we have chapel everyday in the morning and in the afternoon. Other regular activities (sports, tutoring...) are cancelled so that we can spend time in fellowship with friends and 'working' on our relationship with the Lord.

So far it has been great! We have a guest speaker for the chapel times who is a PCA pastor from Philadelphia (go Phillies) who is sharing about change and how, with the help of the Holy Spirit, it is possible for us to change and grow closer to the Lord. So far he has talked about how the 12 apostles, Jonah, and David have gone through major changes in their lives and in their walks with the Lord.

It is great to have a small break in the intensity of language learning halfway through the trimester. We ask for prayers that the Lord would guard our hearts and cause us to focus on Him for everything, even learning Spanish.

Here is something our speaker shared with us this morning:

The Gospel tells us that:

we can do nothing to cause God to love us any more than He loves us!

we can do nothing to cause God to love us any less than He loves us!

Fonetica

2011-02-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

Greta le agrega grandes grosellas al postre.

Today in my Fonetica class I think we repeated this sentence about 15 times. The main point of this class is to learn all the sounds of the Spanish language and be able to say them correctly. That doesn't sound too hard, but there is actually kind of a lot to it.

Not only do we have to say the sounds correctly, but we have to put the accent on the correct syllable and run the words together in the right spots (Yes, there are rules for that). We do this so that we can speak and read and actually sound similar to a person who speaks Spanish as their first language.

While we will never be perfect at this, we can try and put the time and energy into learning the language well enough not just to get around but to be able to have deep conversations with people and not have them cringe at every other word.

We know that God can use us even if we mess up words and put the emphasis on the wrong syllable, but we also feel that one way we can show the people of Honduras that we love them (and God loves them) is to put the time into learning their true, heart language.

By the way, that sentence at the beginning means: Greta adds big berries to the dessert.

Directions

2011-02-16T14:35:00.000-07:00

Over the last 6 weeks, I have noticed a lot of things that are different here in San Jose than they are in Phoenix or any of the other places I have lived. Different does not mean better or worse, just different. Some are small and don't really affect daily life and others are quite major and are really important to know in order to get around or not insult others.

One thing that stuck out to me is that most of the roads around here do not have names and numbers. This surprised me since San Jose is a city of 1.5 million people.

Without road names and numbers, giving directions is not so easy (its not easy in Spanish for me at this time either). So, people use landmarks to give directions or, in some cases, landmarks that are not even there anymore.

Last week, I had to go to the bank to exchange money. So, when I got to the counter I had to give them the address where I was living. What this really means is that I had to give them directions to where I am living. So, here is what I gave them:

De la Capilla Catolica del Bosque
100 este y 75 norte
casa amarillo con portones cafe a mano izquierda

Translation:
From the Bosque Catholic Chapel
100 meters east and 75 meters north
yellow house with large brown door on the left-hand side

NOTE: This is not a mailing address. If you would like to send us something, let me know and I will give you the correct mailing address. :)

Bautizo

2011-02-10T04:58:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Ashley and I were able to experience and be a part of a special day in the life of the church of our Tico family. Sunday morning, we got up early and drove about an hour and a half over the mountains to the north and east of San Jose. It was a scenic drive.

We arrived at a beautiful river for this exciting event. There were about 15 of us, 7 of which were there to be baptized. Most of those being baptized were teenagers, but there was one woman, Ileana, who we have met before at the Bible study that meets at our house on Thursdays. We got up earlier that morning than we do for school, so we were a bit tired. Not Ileana. She said she woke up really early because she was so excited about what the day meant to her.

The 'service' was amazing and almost brought me to tears. These 7 people who were baptized were so excited and the others were rejoicing and praising Jesus for His saving power. We sang a song each time someone came out of the water.

One of the teenagers just after being baptized.

We enjoyed this experience and it was awesome to see that though our cultures our different, and our languages are different, our God is the same true God who sent His Son to this earth in order to die for our sins and to conquer death for us!

Bible Study

2011-02-05T13:44:00.000-07:00

On Thursday afternoons, our mama Tica hosts a small Bible Study in her home. The pastor of her church comes as well as 3 or 4 others. We have been so blessed to be able to become a part of the group since we arrived. It is not the same as any Bible study I have been a part of before.

These Bible Studies have been a great time for me. For one, it is a time to interact with more people in Spanish. We get to read God's Word in Spanish. We are able to hear and experience how people in another culture express their love and gratitude to our Savior. This time is a great time to see how small I am (I don't understand much and completely butcher His Word when I read in Spanish) and how huge God is!

I wouldn't say these studies have been times for me to understand the Bible more, but I am able to see, hear, and enjoy Him in new ways! I look forward to when I can understand more (already starting a little) and can even contribute more of my thoughts and beliefs with my brothers and sisters in Christ in Spanish.

1st day of school

2011-01-11T18:58:00.001-07:00

Today was our first day of real Spanish classes. We got here to Costa Rica just over a week ago. Since then, we have been getting accustomed to our new home, getting to know our Tico family, attending orientation for school, and lots of other things.

This is why we are here in Costa Rica. To learn Spanish. We have already had lots of opportunities to butcher the language (taxi, shopping, church, birthday party with our Tico family), so we are ready to begin these classes!

We will each have 3 classes each weekday morning - grammar, language, and phonetics. The language and phonetics classes are each an hour and the grammar is 2. Our classes are in Spanish (obviously) and some of our teachers speak only a small amount of English. This is good in that it will force us to not rely on our English, but it is also frustrating at times.

Mike and Ashley just before the first day of classes.

Our afternoons and evenings will be filled with homework, studying, and we are hoping to find a way in which we can serve people here in Costa Rica using the talents and gifts the Lord has given each of us.

Costa Rica

2011-01-06T12:43:00.000-07:00

On January 3^rd, we arrived in Costa Rica in order to study Spanish. Our flights went well and immigration and customs were much easier than expected.

The Spanish Language Institute in San Jose, Costa Rica is where we are attending classes. Yesterday we had our first day of orientation. We got to meet about 30 or so other new students and got an idea of what our classes will look like. The most exciting (and stressful) parts of the day were the placement tests. We had both a written and an oral ‘exam’ which will be used to place us each in a class with 3-4 others that are on our level.

Here in Costa Rica, we are living with a Tico (Costa Rican) family. Our Tico mama, Dulce, is a sweet Christian woman who cooks our meals for us and is already helping us with our Spanish as we talk with her over these meals. Her 2 children are both adults (probably in their 20s) and live here as well.

In just 3 days since arriving, I feel much more confident and am remembering some of the Spanish I learned in high school.

Limited Time Opportunity!!!

2010-12-20T18:38:00.000-07:00

Since January the mission team in Honduras which we will be joining has been constructing a two-acre ministry center in the super poor community of Armenia Bonito. On this property we are building a high school, a medical clinic, a church and a covered soccer field.

We are asking you to prayerfully consider giving a one-time financial gift to help us meet the construction costs. Here are two exciting reasons why we are asking now:

1) For a limited time MTW strategic funds has agreed to match every gift received 1:1. If you give $100, $200 will go to our project.

2) Any gift you give is tax-deductible. Giving before December 31st will help your 2010 taxes.

Honduras has the 2nd poorest economy in Latin America. The average Honduran makes only $3,000 a year and the unemployment rate is above 30%. The people of Armenia Bonito cannot afford to take a bus into town for medical care and only 1/3rd of the kids attend school beyond the sixth grade. This ministry center will greatly address the physical and spiritual needs of this 3,000-person community.

There are two ways you can make a onetime contribution:

1) On-line:
Use your credit or debit card at this address:
https://www2.mtw.org/donations/donate/default.aspx

Please make sure you enter 92410 as the designation.

2) Check:
Mail your check to:

Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
Attn: #92410

Make sure you write "#92410" in the memo of the check.

If you would like to learn more about this ministry center you can watch this 3 minute 20 second video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rVhcsf-yYs

Travels

2010-12-12T21:35:00.000-07:00

It has been a busy last few weeks. Here is a quick recap of some of our adventures:

Nov. 21. - Share at New Valley Church
Nov. 21-26 - Thanksgiving and vacation with Ashley's family in northern AZ
Dec. 4-5 - Sierra Vista, AZ - share with Grace Church
Dec. 11-12 - Las Cruces, NM - share with Grace Covenant Church & University Presbyterian Church

In between these events we have been meeting with individuals, saying good-bye to friends, enjoying our home church's annual progressive dinner Christmas party, and preparing to move to Costa Rica for language school.

We will be traveling to PA between Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve to spend with Mike's family. After that we will have just a few days back in AZ before heading to language school.

Support still needed

2010-11-17T21:24:00.000-07:00

We still need more financial support to get to Honduras. We have been approved to go to language school in Costa Rica, but we must have all of our support before we can go to Honduras.

We currently sit at 74% of our monthly need. We still need about $1500 in monthly pledges. This is our biggest need and we ask you to consider being a part of helping us hit 100%!

If you would like to join the team that is sending us to Honduras, please let me know. Here is our website that has more information about financial support.

Praise the Lord for the 74% that has come in already!

I've got two tickets to

2010-11-13T21:24:00.000-07:00

...Costa Rica! Don't think its paradise (although I have heard it is beautiful) and we don't leave tonight.

We have been accepted to language school in Costa Rica and tonight I booked our flight to get there! We leave Phoenix on January 3rd and orientation for school starts on the 5th. We will be living with a Costa Rican family and will be fully immersed into the latin culture and Spanish language.

17 more days in Nov. + 31 days in Dec. + 3 days in Jan. = 51 days till we move out of the US.

Another Good-Bye

2010-11-04T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today we said good bye to our house: our home of almost 3.5 years.

It was an odd feeling as we drove away. Not sad. Not overwhelmingly happy. Hard to describe.

We loved our house. It has been a house and a home for us for most of our married life. It helped bring my brother Jake here to Arizona. It allowed us to take care of 5 kids for a few months.

This is a huge answer to prayers! We put the house on the market in April and got an offer at the end of May. Since it was a short sale, the bank had to approve the sale. That took longer than we thought it was going to, but the sale of the house will actually go through tomorrow and we will be one step closer to heading to Honduras!

Thank you for everyone who responded and offered to help with our living situation! We found a great place here in Phoenix to stay until we leave for language school. Unfortunately, we have not yet found a home for our dog Trippy. If you are interested in an 11 pound Chihuahua with lots of energy, please let us know ASAP!

Addition to the Team

2010-10-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

I had a plan for what I was going to blog, but things changed...

We went to dinner with some friends and when we got home I had an email in my inbox that had some exciting news. Another church has joined the team sending us to Honduras! New Valley Church has approved supporting us. Amen! Thank you God and thank you New Valley Church!

This is the second church that has pledged to support us monthly (our home church was the first). In the last few months especially, we have been calling/sending information/emailing/visiting lots of other churches. It is awesome to see God use the work we have put in and surprise us with this support.

I was going to write about school supplies in Honduras, but just had to share this good news! I may just have to blog 2 days in a row.

I will love them freely

2010-10-22T22:04:00.000-07:00

I will love them freely. -Hosea 14:4

"This sentence is a body of divinity in miniature. He who understands its meaning is a theologian, and he who can dive into its fullness is a true master in Israel. It is a condensation of the glorious message of salvation which was delivered to us in Christ Jesus, our Redeemer." -C. H. Spurgeon

I was greeted with this message this morning. It was a great way to start my day.

God loves freely!

Housing Need

2010-10-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

We are moving closer to selling our house! The bank has approved the sale and we had an inspection and an appraisal. We should know in the next few days when our closing date will be. It looks like it will be sometime between October 26 and November 5. A lot of it depends on how fast some paperwork can be done.

We are so thankful that this sale is finally going to happen. It has been quite a long time since we first put the house up for sale and also from when we got the offer.

This does however present a challenge for us. We do not have a place to live from when we close on this house until we leave for language school in January. We are asking the Lord to provide for us a place to live here in Phoenix. If anyone reading this has a place where we could stay or knows someone who may be able to help, please let us know.

Praise the Lord!

2010-10-06T18:35:00.000-07:00

The sale of our house has been approved (verbally)! We have been waiting to hear from the bank for about 4 months, when we initially got the offer. We should have documents by the end of the week and will soon have a closing date!

It looks like we will be closing sometime around Nov. 15th. This is a huge answer to prayer and a big step in our moving to Honduras!

Thank you for your prayers regarding this matter. We appreciate it so much!

Wheeler Peak - Great Basin National Park.

Google Reader

2010-10-05T10:47:00.000-07:00

We are closing in on a year since we fist got accepted by Mission to the World to be full-time missionaries to La Ceiba, Honduras. In that time, we have met a lot of other missionaries. We have spent time with many of these people at some of our different training conferences and some we saw almost every day of July in NYC.

The people we met at these events have been at different stages of their journey to get to the mission field. Some have now left for the field and some are still traveling all over to raise support just like we are doing. Some of the families started the process long before us and some after us. We have been able to build relationships with other missionaries and hopefully those relationships will be long lasting.

One thing I realized today is that I follow/subscribe to a lot of blogs and/or monthly updates from a bunch of different families. This is great because I can 'keep up' with them and know what is happening in their busy lives without actually seeing or talking with them. There is no way I could call or meet with all these people regularly (especially since lots of them are in other countries/continents/time zones), so I am glad to get an email once a week or month in order to know how to pray for them and what the Lord is doing in their lives.

There is a negative to this as well. I subscribe to the blogs of all my teammates on my google reader and so I get to see what is happening with all of them. That doesn't sound so negative, but part of it is. Two of my teammates, Shannon and Bethany, are in Costa Rice in language school. Yay for them! It is sometime hard to read about what they are doing because I really, really, really want to be there learning Spanish so I can make the next move to La Ceiba. It can sometimes be discouraging for me to not be there and to see that they are getting closer and closer to being in Honduras. Don't get me wrong, I am so happy for them. It is just that they are where I want to be.

I know the Lord is in control and that He has a plan for Ashley and me. I know that His timing is perfect and there is a reason why we are here in Phoenix a little longer than we hoped. I can see this clearly with regards to our house. We have been praying, and asking for prayers, that the sale of our house go though. The Lord has planned for it to happen when he wants it to happen and not us. If the house would have sold when we thought was a good time, we would not have a place to live right now. He has provided us a comfortable place for us to stay! Praise the Lord!

I love technology and the internet and skype and blogs. I love being able to keep in touch with so many people that are in so many places all over the world.

The sun setting over Lake Tahoe.

I took this on my road trip across the country. It was just one of the incredibly beautiful scenes I was able to see.

The Loneliest Road in America

2010-09-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

Last week I helped my college roommate move from Philly to San Diego. In other words, I kept him company (and drove A LOT) for the cross-country road trip. We had an awesome time. We saw lots of stuff and here are some thoughts on some things I saw/experienced:

   1. Philly and San Diego are far apart.
   2. Detroit is underrated.
   3. Portable DVD players are great.
   4. So are easy point & click digital cameras.
   5. 10 days are too many to be away from my beautiful wife.
   6. I get goose bumps when the Penn State football team runs onto the field.
   7. I wish I saw my family more. (especially the nieces and nephew)
   8. Iowa and Nebraska are very wide states - seriously, look at a map.
   9. Great Basin National Park is really cool.
   10. A windshield takes a lots of lives. (we hit a lof of bugs driving 3000+ miles)
   11. Colorado is a beautiful state. (not so much the eastern part that looks just like Iowa & Nebraska)
   12. Hiking in the Desolation Wilderness is awesome.

Those are just some off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts. What I really want to share is that we are made to be in community.

Might be an odd thing to say after a road trip, but it is one major thing I am taking away from my last 2 weeks. God is 3 persons and we are made in His image. I think that shows clearly that we are made to be with others. I found out I like to be with others while driving on US 50.

As you can see from the sign, US 50 has the name of the loneliest road in America. Well, it lived up to its name. It could be partially that we had been driving for 4 or 5 days, or that we were about to get to Lake Tahoe, whatever it was - the drive along this road was not fun. We were on 50 for about 600 miles I think. Some of it wasn't too bad. Well - the part in Utah wasn't too bad anyway. In Nevada, it was LONELY. Over a 300 mile stretch, we drove through one town. I use the word town, because I have a small vocabulary. This "town" was tiny. We passed a car every once in a while.

Anyway, all that to say I do not like being alone too much. Like most people, I need some good alone-time, however I much prefer to be with people. I was VERY glad I was not making that drive myself. It was good I had my old roommate (and Arrested Development) to keep me company.

Where's Mike?

2010-09-15T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is what I will be doing for the next ten days or so.

Well, its the plan at this point anyway...

I am (mostly) ready to get on a plane tomorrow morning and head to the east coast. My mom will be picking me up from the airport and I will get to stay with my parents tomorrow night and hang out with them all day Friday. I will also get to spend some time with my brother Matt and his family. My nieces are going to be a lot bigger than the last time I saw them back in April.

Friday evening, Brent Glova (my college roommate) will pick me up and we will head to State College: home of Penn State. I will go to my first football game since graduating from Penn State in December of 2006. We play Kent State and better win! I will get to spend some time with another brother, Josh, and his family. They live in State College.

Sunday morning I will share with the adult Sunday School class at Oakwood Presbyterian Church (see the note about the guest speaker!). It is RUF Sunday and I get to share about how the Lord is calling Ashley and me to work in Honduras!

After church its ROAD TRIP time!

Sunday - State College, PA to Detroit, MI.
Monday - hang out in Detroit - Windsor, ON Canada maybe - attend KC Royals vs. Detroit Tigers in evening
Tuesday - Detroit, MI to Lincoln, NE
Wednesday - Lincoln, NE to Denver, CO
Thursday - Denver, CO to Baker, NV (click here for a laugh)
Friday - tour Great Basin National Park then Baker, NV to South Lake Tahoe, CA
Saturday - hike/hang out/enjoy nature in Lake Tahoe area
Sunday - South Lake Tahoe to San Diego, CA

San Diego is where I will meet up with Ashley and we will stay there Sunday night and head home (Phoenix, AZ) sometime Monday.

I am excited to see a lot of the US that I have never seen. It will be a great time for me to catch up with my college roommate and enjoy the road.

Road Trip

2010-09-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

Ashley and I have been spending a lot of our time doing support raising things. As I have written about before, this consists of lots of phone calls, emails, get togethers, and stuffing envelopes. We have not seen a big increase in actual support, but we are getting the chance to share with lots of people.

Just in the past week or so I talked with church leaders, met with 2 potential supporters, set up meetings with 2 different churches, and got a verbal commitment of $50/ month from someone I just met the first time!

In other news...

This Thursday I will be flying to Philadelphia to help my roommate from college move from Philly to San Diego. In other words - I will be road tripping it with him all of next week! In the process, I will get to see family (including 3 nieces), attend a PSU game (fist as an alum), spend time with an old friend, and see lots of places across the country I never had before. I will also get to share about going to Honduras with the church I attended in college.

September

2010-09-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

We are now into the 9th month of 2010. This year is moving along quickly. It has been an awesome year so far and we are so excited for the next few months as we finish raising support and head out on the field.

Here is our monthly support letter:
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/6/9/0/3690607/prayer_letter_september_2010.pdf

If you do not receive these via email each month and would like to, please send me an email: michael.a.troxell@gmail.com

Still here...

2010-08-26T20:21:00.000-07:00

Quick update.

We are still in Phoenix raising support.

I am now working only 3 days a week so that I can concentrate more on raising support.

Ashley is busy cleaning out our house in preparation of moving.

Our house is still ours...

The bank waited 2 months to tell us we need to do more paperwork.

God is good!

Ashley is going to be a substitute at her old school tomorrow.

We have attended a different church each of the last 5 weeks.

This Sunday we are going to CovCom! (our home church)

It has been way too long since my last post.

We have less than 1/3 of our support to raise.

More NYC Pictures

2010-08-07T15:49:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of things we were involved with during our time in New York.

Mike working on pronunciation in our English class.

Some of the English students practicing what they have learned.

Front door to our apartment.

Ashley waiting for a subway.

With other missionaries after July 4th fireworks.

Sights from New York

2010-08-03T15:38:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the things we saw in our month in NYC.


Times Square

Fireworks!


Subway Trains, lots of them!

Lady Liberty (she's tall)

The Brooklyn Bridge

Chewbacca

That is just a start of what we saw. More to come (soon?).

Broadway

2010-07-27T05:48:00.000-07:00

Before Ashley and I came to New York, we decided that during our time here we were going to work hard and play heard. What we meant by that was that during our down time from training classes and field ministry, we were going to see and experience as much of New York as we could.

This past weekend we experienced Broadway for the first time. On Friday we stood outside in the rain to get discount tickets for Memphis. Memphis takes place in Memphis, TN in the 1950s. It was the 2010 Tony Award winner for Best Musical. We really enjoyed the singing and dancing and the story of forbidden love.

On Saturday, we went to see The Lion King. The Lion King was a very different show, but we enjoyed it as well. We know the story from the movie so it was the set and the costumes that made this a fun experience. We had a great time at each of these shows and were so glad we had the opportunity to take in this aspect of New York City!

Here we are just after seeing The Lion King.

Language

2010-07-22T19:32:00.000-07:00

This week in our trainings, we studied language learning. That may sound odd to say that we studied language learning and not that we studied language. Well, since there are people in our classes that are going all over the world, we cannot really study each language we will be learning. The idea of these classes are to help us to know how to learn a language.

As part of our training, we were put in groups and spent a few hours with a language helper. My group used a few different methods to learn some Portuguese. It was so encouraging that we could remember words and even form some sentences. It has given me confidence that I will be able to learn Spanish well!

Here I am with Alex, one of the students from our ESL class. We are practicing a phone conversation.

I need to remember to get the camera from Ashley because she takes most all of the pictures which means she is not in them.

Teaching English

2010-07-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

We are almost finished with our week of teaching English at Astoria Community Church. We have hosted a week long intensive English class each weekday this week. Students from Russia, Korea, Macedonia, Turkey, Brazil, Mexico, Columbia, Peru, and Spain have learned new vocabulary, grammar, practiced pronunciation, and had a lot of time to converse in English.

Our prayer is that the Lord will use this ministry to impact the community of Astoria and each of the students that attends the classes. We hope we benefit the students by helping them to grasp the English language a little better and to feel the love of Christ through our words and our actions.

Washington Heights

2010-07-11T05:55:00.001-07:00

Ashley and I are living in Washington Heights, Manhattan, NYC, NY for the month of July. We are here for cross-cultural training. I can't imagine a better place to study cultures and to prepare for cross-cultural work that NYC. So far it has been an awesome experience for us.

We were told that the community of Washington Heights where we are living is 75% Dominican. To be honest, I didn't believe it until Friday night. We have been walking all around where we live to go grocery shopping, to catch the subway, to do everything. We have noticed many people of different nationalities, but it did not stick out as 75% Dominican.

This was until we crossed Broadway. (Yes, THAT Broadway. Although THAT Broadway is really a few miles south.) What we have come to find out is that Broadway (runs North-South) is the dividing line between Washington Heights and "Dominican" Washington Heights. It was amazing. Everything, except the road signs, changed. Spanish is the language we heard. The sidewalks were filled with people. The music was different. The color of skin of all around us was darker. I felt as though I could have been in any large city in any Latin American country.

I cannot wait to go to language school and learn Spanish. I am so excited to be able to speak 2 languages.

Dinner was a fun experience. We went to La Casa Del Mofongo. It was supposedly 'the place' to get Dominican food. We learned that mofongo is plantains and pork mashed together and served with whatever you want. I got mine with cod fish and Ashley got chicken. Good food! Our waitress had to get a helper to communicate with us because we don't speak Spanish and she doesn't speak English.

I know believe that Washington Heights is 75% Dominican. I so much enjoyed our cross-cultural experience in this almost foreign country.

English teacher

2010-07-08T19:04:00.000-07:00

As of Monday, I will be an English teacher. This is a little scary seeing as I really don't know how to speak/write this language correctly. From Mon to Fri next week, Ashley and I (and another couple and a mentor and some interns) will be teaching English to whomever comes to learn. We may have some people who a close to fluent and we may have some that know only a few words.

We are praying that the Lord will bring 20 people from the community of Astoria (in Queens, NY) each day to take part in our free classes. He may bring 5 and He may bring 50. We will teach anyone who wants to learn. We also pray that these people would be open to hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

I will be leading the advanced class. We expect there will be some students who are mainly there to practice their English. This will provide time for us to talk and get to know each other.

Training & Trains

2010-07-04T12:28:00.000-07:00

This morning we were able to go to curch at Astoria Community Church in Queens, NY. This is the church we will be serving during our time here in NYC. This coming week we will be helping to spread to word about their upcoming ESL intensive class. Next week, we will be helping them with the actual ESL class. Fun stuff!

In addition to serving the church, we are also attending classes to teach us about cultures, language learning, team work, and church planting. These classes are mostly in the afternoons and are held at another church in Queens.

Living in NYC is much different than Phoenix (or anywhere else I have lived). It is a very fast-paced city and we take the subway everywhere. So far I think we have taken the A, 1, N, and S trains. I think we will be taking the C train this evening as we head to Central Park for a picnic and some fireworks to celebrate July 4th.

Here we are at the subway stop under Times Square.

Changes and New York

2010-07-01T04:00:00.000-07:00

This past week has yet again brought on some pretty significant changes in our lives.

For one, we sold the 1 and only car I ever owned. It was a 2000 Acura 3.2 TL I bought just before Ashley and I got married. We drove it across the country in the first week of our marriage and have loved it ever since. We hope Jay enjoys it!

Yesterday, June 30th, was my last day of work (at least for now). I have worked at Evans Newton for the last 10 months doing a host of different tasks. I enjoyed the work and the people. I am hoping to be able to go back there some in the fall.

In the mean time, we are going to be in New York City! We are currently awaiting the second leg of our trip to NYC. We will be staying in Manhattan in a neighborhood called Washington Heights. We will be in New York for the whole month of July for cross-cultural training with about 10 other families of missionaries. Keep an eye out for some pictures and most likely some fun stories.

World Cup

2010-06-25T23:33:00.000-07:00

Most of the world is going crazy over soccer right now. The Fifa World Cup is being held in South Africa from June 11 - July 11.

The Honduras national team made it to the World Cup tournament this year for the first time in 28 years! Unfortunately, they did not fare so well. In three matches the team lost 2 and tied 1. They failed to score a goal in their three games.

I have never been a big soccer fan - even when almost all of my high school friends were on the team.

In the past year I have started to pay more attention to soccer and to understand more of the strategy behind what the guys are doing out on the pitch. Soccer is a HUGE deal in Honduras and I cannot wait to get my butt whooped by 6 and 7 year olds when I get there!

PS. The US plays Ghana tomorrow morning in the round of 16 at the World Cup. Lets go USA!

Living in Grace

2010-06-13T21:48:00.000-07:00

Last week, Ashley and I attended Living in Grace, an MTW conference for missionaries that is mandatory before going to the field.

The week was full of teaching, small group time, fellowship, and of course the NC mountains. It was a great time to dig deep into many aspects of the gospel and be challenged as to what our idols are and if we truly believe that the God of the universe loves us.

It was also fun for us to meet other people who are going through the same process we are and will be serving in many different places throughout the world. Many of those we met will also be attending other trainings which we will be a part of. It was a time for us to begin building life-long relationships with other missionaries.

Grace

2010-06-05T22:35:00.000-07:00

Ashley and I are currently sitting in Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix. We about to take a red eye to North Carolina in order to attend our week long MTW training, Living in Grace.

Living in Grace - what does that mean? I guess I will find out this week...

When I was younger I heard something interesting in regards to mercy and grace. Mercy is when we do not get what we deserve and grace is when we get what we do not deserve. How awesome it is that the Lord is not giving me what I deserve and instead giving me life through His Son! Will this free gift affect the way I love Ashley? Will it change the way I think about my coworkers? Will it cause me to react different when another driver cuts me off?

I know I will not spend a week in NC and come out the other side with all the answers. I pray (and ask you to as well) that the Lord will open our hearts and teach us in a new way how we can live our 'everyday lives' for Him and in light of what He has done for us.

We got a buyer!

2010-05-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

On April 22, we put our house on the market. Just this past week we got our first offer (full-price) and accepted it! So, we have a buyer and are moving forward with the sale. Since we are doing a short sale, it is now time for us to wait to hear if the bank will approve the sale.

Please pray the bank will accept this offer and approve the sale in a timely fashion. We expect we won't hear anything from the bank for about a month. Hopefully we will have a closing date sometime in early-mid August.

We love our house, but know that it is time to move on. We hope the new owners will take care of it and enjoy it as much as we have the last 3 years.

What we have been doing.

2010-05-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

When raising support, what is it that you actually do?

I am glad you asked (or that I asked on your behalf...)

It is May 1, the 121st day of 2010.

Ashley and I really started our support raising at the begining of 2010. So, in the last 121 days this is what we have been up to:

Mailing information - over 350 pices of mail have been sent out
Calling - we have made 135 calls
Email - 130 emails sent by Mike or Ashley

(That is more than 1 call and 1 email everyday just pertaining to support raising)

All in all we have been doing a lot in order to go to Honduras. Just this week I booked our flights for one of our trainings this summer!

PS. If anyone is interested, our house is now on the market. :)

House

2010-04-26T12:46:00.000-07:00

It is feeling more and more real as the days go by that we will be moving. In my last post, I talked about one reason this reality is becoming more clear: 50% of our monthly support!

Thursday brought another reason. We officially put our house on the market. This is the place that has been home for us the last 2 and a half years. We love the home the Lord provided for us. We are so thankful that we were able to spend these years in this home. We are also so ready to be in Honduras.

Selling our house is another major step in the direction of becoming full-time missionaries. By no means is our house sold, but we have it on the market and are hoping that the Lord will find a buyer within the next few months.

1/2

2010-04-21T20:51:00.000-07:00

Today is a big day in our support raising lives. We officially hit the 50% mark of our monthly pledges!

I was going to write some more about our time in PA and the churches we shared with..

I guess I still can.

Thank you to:
    ~Covenant Reformed Church - New Holland, PA - we got to share after church on 4/11 and we were 'called back' to share with the leadership on 4/13
    ~Pine Grove Church - Bowmansville, PA - we were able to do our longest presentation yet (about 40 mins.) at the Wed. night Bible study and meet with many people who remembered Mike from years ago when the Troxell family attended this church
    ~Christ Presbyterian Church - we spoke to the adults during the Christian Education time

Did I mention we have half of our monthly support???

Busy week in PA

2010-04-16T20:59:00.000-07:00

It has been great to get back to PA for me. It is where I grew up and where I know a lot of people. Ashley and I flew to PA last week in order to attend my brother's wedding. It was an awesome ceremony and we are so glad Alana is now officially part of the family!

In addition to the wedding, we have been here in PA meeting with churches and individuals sharing about our upcoming adventure into Central America. So far we met with 2 churches and talked with a handful of individuals. It has been busy and relaxing at the same time.

This coming Sunday we are speaking at Christ Presbyterian Church in Reading, PA. After that we will head back home and back to our 'normal' routine.

The Purpose of This Book

2010-04-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

It is Easter morning. It is awesome taking time to reflect that Jesus came to this world and died for me. He not only died, but he beat death so that I no longer have to die.

In reading John's account of the resurrection and the following events, I came upon this:

The Purpose of This Book.
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. -John 20:30-31

I am so thankful that I have the book of John as well as the rest of the Bible so that I may believe that Jesus is the Christ and I may have life in his name.

April

2010-04-01T18:51:00.000-07:00

Into another month we go. April has arrived. We have been looking forward to this month for a few special reasons. For one, my brother, Jake, is getting married in about a week! Since we are heading to Pennsylvania for the wedding, we are going to do some support raising there as well. :)

We are speaking in 3 churches in the week we are in PA! We are also getting together with firends and individuals to share about Honduras.

Today we sent out monthly prayer update. If you are interested, here is a link to the pdf of what we sent: http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/6/9/0/3690607/prayer_letter_april_2010.pdf

Our support continues to come in and we continue to be overwhelmed at how the Lord provides. As of March 31, we have 42% of our monthly pledges committed! We are staying on track with what we feel is the Lord's plan for our departure.

Pennsylvania

2010-03-23T20:25:00.000-07:00

I grew up in southeastern Pennsylvania and we will be heading back that way in a few weeks. The main reason is becasue my brother Jake is getting married! The ceremony will actually be in western PA, but Ashley and I are taking advantage of vacation time from our jobs and staying in PA for an extra week in order to spend time with family, catch-up with friends, and share about our future!

Just in the last few days we have been able to set up meetings with 2 churches! The Lord has encouraged me by setting up these meetings. I have been somewhat stressed about the support raising part of our trip because we were not getting the response we were hoping for. The Lord has His timing and out trip is coming together really well and we are still 3 weeks from going. Thank you, Jesus!

What to say...

2010-03-18T20:37:00.000-07:00

It has been quite awhile since I have posted on here. There are a few reasons for that. We are busy and blogging kind of gets moved down the list of priorities. Also, I am not very good at sharing about the sharing. I am enjoying talking with others about what the Lord has for us in Honduras, but I am not so good at typing out those conversations and making them interesting and followable.

I am looking forward to our month in New York as I am sure we will have a lot to share about our experiences there. Also, language school will for sure bring with it a lot of stories. I am mostly looking forward to actually being in Honduras and sharing with the world the awesome work the Lord is doing through Ashley and me and our team!

Anyway, we are very close to reaching the 40% mark of our monthly support which is just awesome. We are also in the process of registering for the two trainings we have left to do before we leave.

I will try harder to keep blogging and sharing. I know the Lord is working in an amazing way in our lives even now as we raise support. It is for His glory that I even do this. He is awesome!

Support Update

2010-03-04T20:00:00.000-07:00

February was a busy month. For us it was busy in a good way. We have been able to share what the Lord is doing in Honduras with a lot of people.

This month was filled with emails and phone calls and even some presentations. We met with some families and got to share with 2 churches outside of our home church. On March 1, we sent our first official monthly prayer update. If you want to see it, click here. If you would like to be added to the list to receive these every month, please shoot me an email (michael.a.troxell@gmail.com).

We also launched our new website! www.troxellmissionaries.com

I will continue to update you all through this site, but we have included much more information about us, and Ashley now has her own blog to share what is going on in her head (if you think you can handle that). :)

It is exciting to see the Lord open the hearts of friends and family, and even of some people we barely know.

We met our February goal of 30% of our monthly pledges. We actually passed our goal and finished February with 32% of our monthly support! We are so thankful to the Lord and to all of you who are supporting us!

God is Love

2010-02-24T17:34:00.000-07:00

For the last month, I have been co-leading a Bible study for high school guys. I was hesitant to say I could help because it is a time commitment which takes away from support raising and 'Mike & Ashley' time. I am so glad I am a part of it. We have been talking about relationships.

A lot of what we've looked at comes back to love. So, God's love has been on my mind quite a bit. I have to admit that it is awesome to have the idea of God's love stuck in your mind.

The last few days especially, the idea of not being able to lose God's love has jumped out at me. Hit me in the face you could say.

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8: 38-39

Nothing in all of creation will be able to keep God's love from me or keep me from God's love. AMEN! Thinking about that makes me want to love the Lord all the more. I pray that I will stay in this place where God's love is 'stuck' in my head.

Divided heart

2010-02-19T17:11:00.000-07:00

I've always seen my job as my mission field.

When Mike and I first responded to God's call to serve as full-time missionaries, my heart was torn. I spend 9 hours a day on my mission field plus an additional 1-2 hours each night planning and praying for my mission field - my class, co-workers, boss... Now God is giving me a new field.

This past November, we were accepted by MTW as short-term missionaries. The tear in my heart grew. Now I began to realize the reality that I would not be returning to my classroom next year. I'm going to have to let it go.

Christmas flew past. January - where did it go? Mid-February.

Last weekend, I began organizing our "stuff" into 3 piles: To Honduras, Store, and Get rid of. Clothing - no problem. Personal effect - sure thing! Then came the school supplies. Dead end. These supplies have been my mission field resources the last 5 years!!

We now have a hallway and extra bedroom stuffed with random educational supplies. Do I part with them? Do I keep them? Do I take them? I can feel God shifting my ministry focus from teaching to the people of Honduras.

I love my job. I love my students. God is sending us. I LONG to go. My new mission field approaches but I know that teaching (and Freedom) will always have a place in my divided heart.

-Ash

Mighty to Save!

2010-02-14T16:07:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs compassion,
Love that's never failing;
Let mercy fall on me.

This morning we worshiped with our brothers and sisters at our home church CovCom which was awesome. Since we are raising support, we do not attend our home church every week.

Everyone needs forgiveness,
The kindness of a Savior;
The Hope of nations.

Both Ashley and I love CovCom. We enjoy the Sunday morning worship service and the various ministries we have had the opportunity to be a part of. Mostly we love the people and the relationships we have built here.

Savior, He can move the mountains,
My God is Mighty to save,
He is Mighty to save.

This morning I realized I will miss our church and its people a lot when we head overseas. I am glad that is the case. We know the Lord wants us to go to Honduras and serve His people there.

Forever, Author of salvation,
He rose and conquered the grave,
Jesus conquered the grave.

I realized my biggest 'sacrifice' will be leaving the people I care about. I may miss some of the things I have here in the US, but giving those up will be nothing compared to leaving friends and family.

So take me as You find me,
All my fears and failures,
Fill my life again.

I pray these words. Lord, take this messed up person and make me whole.

I give my life to follow
Everything I believe in,
Now I surrender.

Laying at the foot of the cross is an awesome place to be. I pray I follow Christ there daily.

Shine your light and let the whole world see,
We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus

For those who don't know, the italicized words are lyrics from the song "Mighty to Save" by Hillsong. We sang this as our closing song this morning. I love this song. I pray the Lord will use these words to draw you closer to Him. Praise the Lord we have a God who is Mighty to Save! -M

Presentation

2010-02-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday, Ashley and I got to give a presentation about Honduras at a local PCA church. This was our first opportunity to do this outside of our home church. Thank you Covenant Presbyterian Church for inviting us! For 5 minutes during the worship service, we shared about our call to Honduras and the vision of our future ministry there. We were also able to mingle with those who attended after the service, handing out prayer cards.

This was a great experience for us and we look forward to sharing with more churches and individuals in the coming months. -M

Haiti

2010-02-06T21:48:00.000-07:00

Our team leader's wife, Erin Pettengill, has been in Haiti for the last week. She is there with Mission to the World's disaster response team. Erin is a nurse and is using her skills and training to help the people of Haiti just as she regularly does for the people of La Ceiba.

Please pray for her and the rest of the MTW team. Ashley's aunt, Maureen Kyle is on her way to join this team for the upcoming week.

We have been able to follow some of the happenings in Haiti through Erin's blog. Mike Pettengill, her husband, has been communicating with her and relaying the information. -M

Support Update

2010-01-30T22:16:00.000-07:00

It is just about the end of January, which means our second month of support raising is coming to a close. Our goal is to leave the US by October 1, 2010 which is 10 months from when we were accepted by MTW. To reach this goal, we need to get 10% of our financial support each month.

I am happy to say that we are very close to our target of 20% at the end of the second month. We have received 17% of our monthly support! We also have over 40 prayer partners! Praise the Lord.

This next month will be fun and exciting for us. We have already set up multiple meetings with individuals and have at least 1 church we will be sharing with.

We'd love to share with you more about what is going on - both in our lives and in La Ceiba, Honduras. Please let us know if you'd like to get together or want more information! -M

Scholarships

2010-01-27T21:20:00.000-07:00

The team that is currently in Honduras, which we will be joining, has just begun a new ministry. It involves giving scholarships to kids so that they may attend high school.

In Honduras school is mandatory only through the 6th grade. After that, all schooling is private, and is no longer provided free by the government. This, coupled with a very high unemployment rate, means that a very low percentage of children go to school after the 6th grade.

Our team has come up with a way to help provide for the education of some of the youth as well as share the gospel of Christ with them. The students who receive the scholarship will have to maintain good grades and also will be required to attend a weekly discipleship class.

If you would like more information about these scholarships, please see here.

Ashley and I are so excited to be a part of this, and many other ministries in Honduras. We ask for your prayers as we prepare to go. -M

Get the word out

2010-01-19T20:20:00.000-07:00

In the last week or so, we have started to become more proactive in our sharing about Honduras. It started with the missions conference at our church. We were able to present about Honduras and our vision for what our ministry will look like to many. We also were comissioned and prayed for by our church leadership!

In addition, we sent via snail mail, over 200 packets of info and would like to provide you the opportunity to partner with us. We are continuing to work on more packets as we acquire more of the contact information for our friends and family.

This past week our team leader, Mike Pettengill, was in town and stayed with us. He introduced us to 2 other churches and numerous people!

The Lord is awesome and has been so good to Ashley and me. We are so excited to have the chance to partner with others and be used by the Lord to further His kingdom here on Earth. -M

House Guest

2010-01-13T22:43:00.001-07:00

So, our future boss, the team leader for La Ceiba, Mike Pettengill has been staying at our house since this past Friday night. He was in town for the CovCom Missions Conference (our home church), as well as meeting up with some of his other supporters here in the valley.

It has been a pretty interesting few days. It started when I got a message saying he needed picked up at the airport. Not a big deal, but we had no chance to talk and set up the details, so we both walked around the terminal for awhile and randomly ran into each other on the curbside.

We have stayed pretty busy, which is good. Ashley and I are just starting our support raising efforts and he is someone who raised support only a few years ago and continues to look for people to support the ministry in La Ceiba.

Mike has made us dinner 3 times already and all three times it has been really good. He was the navigator as we drove to a meeting and told us to "keep going, I think there is another Chandler Rd." (we ended up being about 10 minutes late since we had to turn around after a few miles)

So far so good on having a third person around the house this week. We are very much looking forward to working with Mike and his family and the rest of the Honduras team when we get there! -M

Big Week

2010-01-09T16:09:00.001-07:00

We are now into the first full week of 2010. It is, and has been, a big week in our lives.

1. Our official MTW prayer cards arrived on Tuesday!
2. We finished our first batch of our first mailer on Thursday night.
3. We put the finished mail in the outgoing mail.
4. I picked our future team leader, since he is here for our missions conference. He is staying at our house for the next week.
5. Saturday and Sunday is the Covenant Community Church Missions Conference! We are kicking off our support raising at our church's missions conference.

We thank the Lord for being with us through all we are doing and we thank you all for your prayer and support. -M

Back to "real" life...

2010-01-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

After 17 days of "vacation", I (Ashley) am returning to work. I say "vacation" because it was packed full: Christmas parties, write our first newsletter, print E-giving cards and mailing labels, enter contacts into our database, eat lots of yummy food, go for walks, find a new home for one of our dogs, clean, organize, not to mention shop and wrap gifts... Ah... It was wonderful.
Alas, the time has come for life to return to the steady pace of working each day from 7AM-4PM (and sometimes more). Thankfully, I love my job - my students - my co-workers - my boss... As I've mentioned before, I love where we are. The difference starting tomorrow is that each evening I will be starting my second job - well, our second job. We are ready to find partners to support us and the ministry in Honduras as we go. This coming weekend, we will be speaking at our church's mission conference - our first "talk". We will be sending out our first mailing this week or early next week.
The excitement is building. Anticipation is growing! My favorite verse today: "For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?" -Ash

3 years

2009-12-30T21:31:00.000-07:00

Today, Ashley and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary. We were able to get together for lunch which is out of the ordinary. We also went to the Phoenix Zoo to see the ZooLights. Most of all we enjoyed spending time with each other remembering the things that we have gone through the last 3 years.

We are so excited about what is happening in our lives in our fourth year of marriage. I have attached a few of our wedding pictures just for fun.

Praise the Lord for marriage and for blessing ours over the last 3 years! -M

Christmas

2009-12-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we celebrated Christmas. The coming of God, in human form, to earth. It is amazing to think about how much Jesus gave up to come to earth. I am so grateful and pray that I continue to remember this fact throughout this next year.

We got to spend time with friends and family this week, although we certainly did miss those family members we did not see. We also know we will miss our family and our friends over the next few years, especially during Christmastime.

At our Christmas Eve service at out church, we sang the song Emmanuel by Chris Tomlin. I enjoyed worshiping our savior by singing this song. Here is the chorus:

Emmanuel, Emmanuel
God incarnate, here to dwell
Emmanuel, Emmanuel
Praise His name, Emmanuel

I have enjoyed pondering those words over the last few days and hope you do too. -M

Preparation

2009-12-21T20:28:00.000-07:00

In the past month, Ashley and I have been doing a lot of prep work for support raising. We are in the process of preparing. We are doing 'stuff', so that we will be ready to do 'stuff' come January.

It kinda seems like we aren't doing anything, but at the same time we are spending a lot of time preparing; preparing mentally and spiritually, as well putting together the physical supplies to share with you.

Right now, we really want to be sharing with others our heart for the people of Honduras. Instead, we are figuring out how to say what we feel. We are putting our ideas onto paper.

This doesn't seem (or feel sometimes) too important. However, we will be able to share our calling and our ministry ideas and plans much better if we take this time and get our act together.

The second weekend in January, our church, Covenant Community Church in Scottsdale, AZ, will be hosting their annual world missions conference. Our prayer is that by that time we will be able to clearly communicate with others the excitement that we have about our call and the ministry in La Ceiba, Honduras! -M