Resting and Abiding in Roatan

I love Roatan for several reasons.

The beauty which has still managed to escape the prostitution of major development, the ability to live simply, the sparkling of the aquamarine water, the gentle breeze blowing off the ocean and the lush greenness accentuated by butterflies and hummingbirds all serve to soothe my soul.

And special people like Miss Peggy, who is a living example of humility and service.

All of those things combine to make this the perfect writing spot for me. I am able to leave the challenges of my life behind for the moment and compartmentalize myself in my writing world to recraft a manuscript so that it can honor God and bring hope to tired and worn out moms (I know a thng or two about that...)

I am in a place of rest, restoration and abiding which I pray will be expressed in the recrafted stories.

The manuscript I am working on is, "What the Bible is All About for Moms" based on the work of Henrietta Mears. Let's just say my first version didn't honor or do justice to God or Miss Mears and while many of the stories worked, they read more like downers.

But now I am in that surrendered place spiritually and abiding and restful place physically to hopefully be a better scribe for God.

Being in the presence of servant hearted people who live it and the expression of grace and humility also provide the perfect backdrop, and that is who and what Miss Peggy is and does.

Eleven years ago when she arrived on the Island, word got out that she was a nurse, and people with needs, which were many, started showing up on her doorstep, and her kitchen morphed into an impromptu clinic.

Over the years it expanded and now provides state of the art health care to both the local community and those who visit the Island. Please visit them at: www.clinicaesperanza.com. At the moment, the Economic crisis has also trickled down and affected them; they have two months of operational costs in the bank and only two days ago received their first donation of the year.

May you also find rest in restoration and the peace of abiding with God.

My Honduran Office

I am back in my Honduran office. I have now successfully (I believe) compartmentalized my life and have donned my writing hat and sunglasses.



I arrived uneventfully yesterday and did get marginally organized. I had a fleeting panic attack when I couldn't find my revised MS introduction and had to email my editor to send it back to me. Pathetic.

I am in Roatan, my haven and heaven.

Before the bottome dropped out of the US economy we had invested in a beachview condo at the blue bahia resort here on Roatan. Check it out at www.bluebahiaresort.com. It is rented this week until Saturday, (one of two of 26 weeks it needs to rent to carry itself, so much of our savvy as business investors...) so in the meantime I am staying with the amazing Nurse Peggy who started a medical clinic here on the island in her kitchen eleven years ago. It is like Grand Central Station...but none of it involves me (except for my propensity to get drawn into conversations...) so I am chugging along. Saturday I will relocate to our little haven which will not have the amount of traffic through it.

So currently my office is an outdoor picnic table overlooking the aqua seas and it is warm. I have organized my manuscript and have four to five stories to recraft and revise each day. They were too edgy. I feel the sharpness as I am now re-reading and re-writing them, and again am in a much more dependent and surrendered place and hope I can communicate that softness of hope and being carried as I re write. Please pray for me to this end if you are a praying person, or even if you are not!

I am singularly focused. There really aren't interruptions and what makes it so necessary for me to so totally remove myself from my stateside life are the multiple commitments and roles I have there, which are slowly being whittled down.

It is the simplicity of life and its rhythms that are so appealing to me here, not to mention the beauty and weather. If I can't write here...well, never mind.

May you find peace and beuty in your day regardless of your physical location.