The Conchshell Chronicles - Our Newsletter

Mirna Cunningham went to be with Jesus. After Truman, her husband, our friend and Project Director passed in 2016, she was sullen and in poor health. She no longer suffers because she is with the Lord.

“For me to live is Christ and to die is gain “   

I hear this for Mirna’s life . Pray for her 8 children she left behind.  Three of their children continue to help us  with Project Ezra where we are now focusing more of our attention on their spiritual gains for Christ rather than just primary education.  Educating the whole community…. Whether it be pastor training or simply equipping the saints for works of service, we want to gain a more focused approach to their relationship with God.

The art of practicing His Presence, living in the moment with intentionality, keeping my priorities straight and  not allowing the distraction of any  person , place or thing mar my relationship with the One that I am serving. Compared to That Eternal Relationship everything else fades like a little  speck that I need to flick off like a piece of dust and get my mind in order with what God says, thinks, believes.  I want to stand and practice His Truth and His World view.  It is the Only Way, Truth and Lif

Even though we as a culture have turned away from a Biblical morality to where we do what is right on our own eyes, we are still enjoying the fruits of our Founders efforts, along with those who have sacrificed their time and lives for our freedoms. We have not been perfect in our national decisions. Many mistakes have been made, and people have suffered- from Indigenous peoples to unborn humans. We have made corrections to our bad decisions, and I believe will continue to.

After travelling and living in 31 or 32 countries of Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Pacifica and Central America in these past years, I can honestly say that America is an exceptional country and the best place in the world to live. Americans are more generous in helping others than any other nation in the world.

Whenever we “do” art of any kind, we must first prep. We get supplies needed. We think about what and how we are going to create our masterpiece. We proceed with a plan always driving us from a place of intent and effort. 
Along the way of this creative endeavor, we may give in to distraction that leads us away from our intended work of art.  Our focus gets lost. We cease to create.
We approach the table of our creative work and then choose a distraction like cleaning something along the way or zeroing in on thoughts, feelings, & reactions. The artwork gets put to the side. Incomplete.
Undone.

We have a new coffee that at our roastery in Vero Beach that actually comes from the Coco River in Nicaragua. Since our profits from our coffee business go toward our school project on the Coco River, this is a very nice connection.

As most of you know, we have been providing education for Miskito Indian children along the Coco River since 1985. This year 2022 is our 37^th year educating children and adults in one of the most remote corners of Central America, where not too many outsiders have come.

.........Like the process of taking hard tasteless coffee seeds and transforming them into a pleasing, nutritious beverage that provokes good thinking along with good others-centered living, we are being transformed as well from self-serving individuals into a community of God’s Kingdom on Earth. For a coffee bean, it takes the application of heat to initiate that transformation. God uses ‘heat’ in our lives to allow us to realize our need for Him, and Him personally, not just the ‘blessing’ that He brings. Be it personal disappointments, relational issues, our economy, our health, or even the cultural climate that we find ourselves, He is the source of all we need and really all we desire in this life.

 

My Youngest daughter Moselle once went to an Encounter at our church when she was still in grade school. She came back from this experience and   declared to us that, “Everything is different now! It’s all changed!” 

Michael and I had a brief second of a thought, “How different can it be for this young little sweet life?!”

From that start until this day, she has led an extraordinary existence choosing the high and narrow road keeping, maintaining and living out the priority of her relationship with God and those around her.

It all started off back in 1985 when a Miskito refugee who had been a teacher in Nicaragua approached us asking help in starting a school in Sawa, on the Honduran side of the Rio Coco. The war which began in 1981 against the Sandinista soldiers and their Cuban, Russian and Bulgarian allies had cooled down, and the Miskito Resistance forces now controlled all of the lower Coco River. 104 villages had been destroyed in 1981-82, with fruit trees cut, pigs and cows killed, and homes and churches burned. 60,000 Miskito refugees had fled to a remote corner of Honduras.

Swirling Waters on the Rio Coco  Thanks for all your prayers for our project director Danilo Cunningham and his mother Mirna. He is slowly recovering from his stroke in December....