The Conchshell Chronicles - Our Newsletter

The Miskito culture is very spiritual, with a host of spirits that affect every area of life– fertility, rice and bean harvest, weather, relationships, and health. Most of our students know the spirits by name and each community has it’s  spiritual connection guide called a “sukia”, who helps individuals manipulate the demons for blessings and curses.

Christianity first came to the Coco River in 1926, and since 1984 we have been the second phase of introducing many in our nine communities to the person of Jesus. We have done this through our primary and secondary schools, through our pastoral training conferences like we had in February, and through the personal teaching and worship ministry of Tom and Nutie Keogh, who are very effective in communicating the essence of the Gospel through teaching and worship.

Our heart from the beginning of our relief and school project on the Coco River in 1984-85 was to help our Miskito families caught up in the middle of a destructive and often    horrendous war to survive and rebuild their communities on a firm foundation. The first step was survival- food, medicine, & clothing. The next step began when a refugee teacher Augusto Vicente asked us to help him start a school in Sawa (on the   Honduran side of the river) in the summer of 1985.

How do you start a school project in a remote corner of  Central America where an armed conflict is raging?

Our heart from the beginning of our relief and school project on the Coco River in 1984-85 was to help our Miskito families caught up in the middle of a destructive and often    horrendous war to survive and rebuild their communities on a firm foundation. The first step was survival- food, medicine, & clothing. The next step began when a refugee teacher Augusto Vicente asked us to help him start a school in Sawa (on the   Honduran side of the river) in the summer of 1985.

How do you start a school project in a remote corner of  Central America where an armed conflict is raging?

I remember as a first grader having “Valentine Cards” that we would sign, and drop in the brown paper bags taped to the chalk shelves under the blackboards. Each bag would have the name of one of my classmates, and in this way we would send Valentine messages to our friends. First Grade is too young for romance, so these messages were all about affirming our friendship with our classmates. After the day was over we would look with  anticipation in the bag to see the cards from those who wanted to be our friends.

Having friends is a good thing. They are the spice of life. The longer I live the more I value my friendships. Why? Friends affirm me. They support me. They are there to help when I need it. When I need to talk to someone, it’s usually a trusted friend that I turn to- a friend who loves me in spite of my shortcomings.

 Friends often correct me, because I have discovered that I can be wrong about some things in life.

I was talking with a friend last week about the post Christian culture that we Americans seem to be in now. How did the church of our youth lose its influence with our generation and the current“ one?”

We concluded that it was because we were offered a watered down, unexciting version of what the Body of Christ should be, or at least what we see     portrayed in the Bible, especially the Book of Acts. The dynamic, Spirit-led group of followers of Jesus grew from a small band to a significant portion of the Roman Empire in less than 300 years. We spread to North Africa, to all parts of Europe, some parts of Asia, and eventually all of North and South America. They were adventurers, willing to take courageous risks to be part of something much bigger than themselves. Their success has shaped Western Civilization.

God's Promises Never End!  Double Rainbow Vero Beach November 2022 Project Ezra 36th School Year Ends Our 2022 academic year has ended for our Project Ezra schools on the Coco...

There is a lot to complain about these days…..

Traffic on my way to work… doesn’t anyone know how to merge lanes properly instead of racing ahead and cutting people off?

Prices at the grocery store are noticeably much higher than a year ago. Filling up my car cost double than it did two years ago.

It seems most of what I purchase is made in China. Our house has had four leaks in our slab. We have had floods in the kitchen, bathroom, and garage.

And the list goes on… and on… and on.

Sometimes my adult children who grew up on the Coco River in Nicaragua sleeping in the bottom of dugout canoes and bathing in a cappuccino-colored river hear their friends complaining about some aspect of life in America and usually the turn to one another and say simply “First World Problems.”

Laura and I often have conversations that begin well, but then we take a side street called “Complaint” and find ourselves lost in a dark hole of negative comments. It’s a rough detour from pleasant conversation.

Interesting, God knows how easy it is for us to get mentally off track, and the damaging effects of letting our minds dwell on  negative aspects of our lives. He tells us often in His Word how to counteract that, and keep our minds focused.

In our fast pace society, it is easy to overlook so much of the process that God is attempting to work out in our own hearts to make us more effective in our walk in this world.  We ought to be a living spring naturally overflowing unto many lives and provoking many along the way to come to partake of Christ in us.  This is the lifestyle of a true disciple.

 The Cistern

A few years ago, we spent a few days in the Negev Desert, in the southern part of Israel.  We were near the Red Sea, in a very remote spot, for a time of reflection after a busy two months of travel and study. We trekked for three days in the Negev with five camels and nine friends along with our guides Shaiya and Yael.

The desert is a good place to go to listen to God. There is an absence of modern noise, and life gets down to the basics.  It’s just you, your camel, the rocks and sand, and God’s creation. We slept under the stars, made bread, cooked over an open fire, and even had a wolf invade our camp one night and carry off three bags.

One of the places we stopped was a waterfall.  Yes, it does rain in the Negev- about an inch a year on the average.  Some years it rains more, and when it does, rivers form in the wadis. This particular wadi (riverbed), called the Wadi Isaron, has a 150 foot drop- to a natural pool/cistern below.