Rise and Shine – What Now?

Well, I gotta tell ya, I never thought it would take us over a month to come home and actually update the blog!  There are so many things I thought this update would be, but it seems it’s gonna be different than I thought.  That’s probably the first thing I will say I learned from Honduras: things are usually NOT going to happen like you imagine.  Our Voyage home was so very different than we expected.  From actually being able to communicate and understand those we came in contact with, to a very RANDOM ride from the bus terminal to our hotel in San Pedro Sula, it was obvious that WE were different in many ways.  One thing is for sure, this summer in Honduras changed our lives, our marriage, our way of life and the eyes of our hearts!  You know the worship song “Open the Eyes of My Heart?”  Well, we are living the lyrics!

There’s not ONE day that goes by for me that I don’t realize how blessed we are to live in a country designed to allow us the privilege of freedom, to protect us from those who would harm us, to provide us with opportunity to prosper and even allow us to balk at the way it’s all managed!  Our worst day here is FAR better than many whose lives touched ours in Honduras. 

Just to give you a brief synopsis of our “NOW,” it’s 5:20 in the morning here in Ridgeland, MS, and like always I am awake at the crack of dawn.  One thing that has changed for me is that I rarely sleep the entire night since we returned home from Honduras.  It was easy to go to sleep at night when you walked everywhere and produced gallons of sweat everyday.  It wasn’t at all difficult to wake up to sunrises that looked like the one above, but it’s just different here.  I can honestly say that I asked God this morning why I was awake and here I am typing!  It’s good to hear His voice in the morning.  I hope everybody will have this experience soon.  It really is a great way to wake up.  You surely don’t need an alarm clock with God.

Like I said, life is different there.  One thing that hasn’t changed about this update is that I wanted to include the people of Honduras.  It’s so funny how you go to be a blessing and to make an impact for the Kingdom of God, but with Him it always seems that you get WAY more than you give!  As you can see from the pictures, we live very differently here in the good ‘ole USA!  Riding in a car (and owning one) is a privilege.  Power, A/C, gas, phones, product accessibility and safe streets are all a luxury these folks aren’t promised.  But if you’ll look a little closer, the faces will tell a deeper story.  They live as best they can.  We didn’t go to Honduras to give them finery, we went to put them under the lens of Christ’s love and see how we can be used to reach them in a more permanent way.  Sure we went to school, learned the language and made some paramount connections with people who are now like family. The deeper story is that we would both admit we’re changed more than the level of change we produced.  Some in Honduras might disagree, but God did a work in us as He did a work through us.  WE CAN’T SAY THANK YOU ENOUGH TO THOSE WHO GOD DIRECTED TO HELP US MAKE THIS VOYAGE.  IT IS THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING THAT IS GOING TO CHANGE LIVES.

So what now?  Don’t we all want to know that?  Now that school has started and things are beginning to look more like normal,  life has taken a new turn for Hope and I.  After two doctor visits last week, it seems Hope is dealing with a flare-up of an auto-immune disease which we battled about a year ago.  Her doctor isn’t sure exactly what is causing the problems, but Hope has struggled with muscle/joint pain as well as some migraine and fatigue issues.  There have been many tests, and a few new medicines to try thus far.  Our pastor reminded us yesterday that “setbacks are set-ups” and that the enemy will surely try to pull you away from God’s purpose.  Since the name of the problem cannot be clearly defined, let me assure you that we both know the name of the solution!  His name is above every name.  He took our sickness and disease before He even died on the Cross for us.  Jesus gave us a covenant promise for healing.  We are standing on these promises right now, and giving God the glory for what He is going to do.  Please pray with us that Hope will remain strong (me too) through the medical processes and that the Hand of God will do what medical practices can’t.  We will keep you posted on the progress of Voyage of Hope (the ministry) as well as on Hope’s progress. 

Thanks for your continued prayers and support.

Grant and Hope Staples