Every cake needs icing...

Greetings from Honduras!

Well, this has been our last full day here in the country. We've had a chance to share our stories, we've had some side-splitting laughs, and we have certainly cried our share of tears. I'm going to save some of those stories for a few more blog entries, but I have one that has to be shared today. It all has to do with a man named Umberto.

We have had so many blessings come our way during this trip and one has been the excellent service of our bus company. Our trip was designed so that we each had assigned buses and drivers, and our driver for the week was Umberto. Umberto was quiet and reserved, he didn't speak English and as we learned early on in our trip, he was not a Christian. One of our team members, Philip, upon learning that news confidently said that Umberto would be a Christian by the end of the week. So we prayed and we waited to see what God would do.

I was also blessed this week to be in a bus with a lot of fun people - Philip and his wife M.J. were two of them. What a blessing, those two! Our bus had the most interesting rapport with Umberto, especially on roads with speed bumps. Philip and M.J. always rode in the back of the bus and whenever Umberto guided us over a speed bump without sending them flying out of their seats you would hear them say, "Gracias, Umberto" in this great elongated tone that got us all laughing. Soon the whole bus was doing it, and with every speed bump that was not so skillfully traversed we'd all say "Uh oh, Umberto" in the same elongated drawl. It was so sweet to see Umberto smile at oncoming speed bumps. He was getting into it, too.

Now I know that sometimes traveling in a group such as this might find people thinking that kind of behavior was annoying, but no one that I know of on our bus felt that way. I think that was by God's design. Somehow, in some very special way, our fun-loving antics and the spirit of God broke through to the deepest part of Umberto's soul, and the gate to his heart was opened wide.

Friday evening at dinner, before Philip and M.J. had to fly home, Philip felt led to approach Umberto and share the gospel with him. He enlisted the help of Abraham, a member of the Compassion Honduras staff and a pastor, to interpret and pray with him as well. All we saw from the other end of our restaurant were three men talking and bowing their heads in prayer, but what God saw was another heart wanting to come home. Umberto gave his life to the Lord at that restaurant table and we were overjoyed.

Philip talked to us later about his exchange with Umberto and how Umberto had said that in our presence he felt so unclean. That's a profound thought - especially considering the language barrier. All Umberto had for evidence was our love for one another, our love for God and the Christ in us to know that he needed something better. He needed to be the new creation that God longs for us to be and I am so blessed to have been part of the plan to see him come to the Lord. I have been thinking about that all day today and I have to ask myself this question: Are there others that God will place in my path, for even a short time, that need to know the love of God and need to receive the Son? My answer is of course there are. I pray that my eyes are open to those opportunities. I was privileged to travel over two thousand miles to witness one of the most beautiful things that can ever happen in a person's life - a person surrendering their heart and life to Christ. Now the way I see it, if a person has cake - and one of the yummiest cakes one can possibly have, I might add - you have to have icing, too. Umberto's salvation is the most delicious of icing on the cake that is this trip with Compassion International. And all the praise goes to God.

My roommate is giving a beautiful handmade bookmark to Umberto in the morning. On it are the most important three words the world: "Cristo te ama." Christ loves you. Jesus loves you. He always has, and He always will. Now I'm definitely ready to eat some cake.

Tomorrow is our big travel day home so I won't have a post for you until Monday. Like I said, I have a few more stories I'd like to share with you about this incredible experience and I will share them on a few future blogs. I appreciate your prayers as we all make our long journey home tomorrow. Thank you, be blessed, and I'll write again on Monday. Gracias!!!

In His love,

Beth Crosby

http://www.kinshipradio.org/

P.S. That's me and Umberto in the picture at the top. We joked that we had to include the name of the bus company in the photo "for advertising." I think God got the greater glory, don't you?