Friday, 30 September 2011

It is early Friday morning before breakfast. There are the typical sounds of the city awakening that we have grown accustomed to as I reflect on the last couple of days and consider the significance of today.

Wednesday and Thursday were full days of working on the houses. By the end of the day Wednesday, we had basically completed the exterior walls, built the windows and doors for both houses and completed the roof on one. I believe we would have finished the roof on the second house if we had not run out of gas for the generator and been without power for around 1.5 hours. Most of this was "down time" on the project except for a couple of our team, primarily Mark Griggs, forging ahead by cutting siding boards with one of the worst hand saws I've worked with. In addition to being a bad saw, the siding boards were freshly cut boards that were very full of moisture and pitch! As we came back to our hotel we were all wondering what we would do on Thursday to have a full day of work.

When we arrived on Thursday, the mystery of what we were going to do became clear. When planning our trip, I was told that when we arrived the foundation and concrete slab floor of the houses would already be completed, but when we arrived we began construction on a very irregular foundation without a slab floor poured. Yesterday our job was moving a pile of dirt/sand into each house for leveling the floor for the future slab. This was work that, under the original plan, would have already been completed, and we would have been spending the day completing the interior walls. Because of a new government program, that will supply the slab floor for these homes only after the walls of the house are completed, the project began with the house and will move on to the slab floor after we are gone. Hence, the reverse order from what we would expect in the US. (On mission trips you live the phrase- be flexible!) Well we moved dirt in 5 gallon buckets from the pile up two different slopes and handed them up into the house to another team member who dumped the dirt and returned the bucket for another round trip! So, while a couple guys helped finish the roof on the second house, the dirt was moved and everyone got some time with the buckets of dirt! We agreed that this was the most physically demanding and tiring day of our work so far. In addition to moving the piles of dirt, we had to move the remaining wood for the interior walls, a SEVENTH TIME! (Moving wood has become the "dreaded" job of this work team!)

At the end of the day, as literally the last piece of metal roofing was being installed and the final buckets of dirt were being delivered to the house the rain moved in. There was a beautiful double rainbow! As we sat inside the home with the sound of the rain hitting the metal roof we had this overwhelming feeling of joy that two families, who were presently living on the trash dump and enduring this rain, would soon be living inside a simple home away from the dump and able to stay dry! Praise the Lord, and thank you to all those who helped support this team’s travel expenses and project fees through donations and purchases at the parking lot sale.

Today is an exciting day. We will go up to the work site to finish up any work they have identified and spend some time at AFE with the children. I will travel to the airport mid-morning to welcome two team members, Michael Alben and Don Wallace, who are joining us for the second week, and then we will have the dedication of the houses. The families who will be living in the homes will be present with the team, along with Pastor Jeony and some other members of the AFE staff. It will be a thrill!

After the dedication, our team will be passed off from serving with AFE to working with Proyecto Manuelito. Our first experience with Manuelito will be to go out on the streets after dark to give food and water to the street children. We will see the environment that is the starting place for the children who now live at Manuelito. It will be a heart-wrenching experience as we will be close to and interacting with children and youth who are in desperate conditions and many have destroyed their lives by sniffing glue. It will tear at our hearts, and God will use this experience to continue His discipling process in our lives.

Until next time, God bless you and adios!

Honduras Day 8 – Finished

Friday, 30 September 2011

Well, in my earlier update we really didn't know what work we would do today so here is the update.

First of all we stopped at AFE and spent about an hour playing with the children. So it was soccer (football here), frisbee, kickball, catch and just walking around holding hands. It was cool to see Dan Stewart skipping across the playground hand-in-hand with Oscar.

It wasn't long before we learned that our work at the site today was to do the concrete floor in the first house, the house for Carmen and her four children.

It was hard work and I was very thankful that their were additional Honduran men working with us who led the way in mixing the concrete on the ground. This is the Honduran way and we got the job done. Our team were the "mules" who transported the concrete in 5 gallon buckets and Jenny and I took it from them at the door of the house and dumped the buckets for those who were smoothing the floor. We got the job done in a couple hours and several on the team said they prefered the concrete job above the job of transporting all the fill dirt for leveling the floor in the homes. It was good to finish!

We then went down to AFE, had lunch and waited to go back up for the dedication of the houses. The dedications were a wonderful experience and I'm sure we will not soon forget the looks on the families faces as they received their home, expressed their thanks and we spoke and prayed a blessing over the families. Some pictures will tell a bit of the story that words cannot express.

We are getting ready now to have supper and then it will be off to the streets to encounter the children and teens who have no home and just roam the street. As I mentioned earlier, this will be a hard experience on all of our senses.

P.S.- Great news, Michael Alben and Don Wallace arrived safely for our second week of ministry.

Honduras- Day 13

Wednesday, 05 October 2011

Sorry that there have been several days since I was able to get anything typed and up on the web. Thanks to Dave Arndt who is now taking our prepared articles and putting them on the website for us. Way to go Dave! I appreciate what you are doing.

Since I last wrote, we are in the city of Talanga which is about 45 minutes out of Tegucigalpa and the location of Proyecto Manuelito. We traveled here on Sunday late afternoon. In the morning we attended the church of Pastor Jorge Pinto who is the founder of this ministry. We learned that their church has seven daughter churches and a ministry to the poor elderly and children around their church, besides helping to start Proyecto Manuelito. The process for the children, in most cases, is to be rescued off the streets or from jail. They spend about a year in a transition ministry in Tegucigalpa where they can get used to living away from the streets. They are able to work through some personal issues, so that they are more ready for the environment of Manuelito. There is a lot of violence on the streets, and they need to make sure a new member of Manuelito will not be a danger to the children already out in Talanga.

We have had a great time with the children. Roberta, Steve and I are back for a second time so we recognized children and they recognized us. Everyone else is making new friends and, since there are new children here, we are all making new friends. The on-site directors are Mauricio and Helga-Ruth Flores. They are an incredible couple who left professional positions as teachers to come and serve these children. They are doing a great job with 31 children who range in ages from 4-17, and several with difficult learning challenges, and many with deep emotional scars from their treatment on the streets and by parents. We trust that our time with them will be encouraging for both the staff and the children.

Our physical work has consisted mainly of hauling large rocks/stones, 5 gallon buckets of sand, water and bags of cement. Then the cement, sand and water went into the mixer (praise the Lord we didn't have to mix concrete on the ground) and then 5 gallon buckets of concrete and the large stones were used to build a foundation for the porch to the medical center and, today, for the base of the support columns for the porch roof. Today was dry, but Monday and Tuesday were a wet mess and kind of like carrying buckets of sand or concrete on a slip-and-slide!

Everyone is working hard and glad to be serving this community of children and staff. The team is working wonderfully together and we will always share the memories of this experience together, but for most, we are getting lonely for home, family and friends. Thank you for your prayers, as we compete our time here.

Hopefully another update tomorrow. Until then- grace of the Lord as you Live Love!

Pastor Tom

Honduras - On the Way Home

Saturday, 08 October 2011

It is Saturday morning and we just finished our final breakfast in Honduras. This has been an incredible trip and the team has served together powerfully! On Thursday night the children of Manuelito presented a program for our team and, in the midst of it, a child came and took the hand of a team member to include us in a traditional dance. We were each drawn into the festivities and it was fun! That evening was filled with countless hugs and many tears as we said Adios to children and staff. For each of us a part of our heart is being left with the children! We invite you to join with us to pray for the ministries we have encountered in Honduras at AFE and Manuelito.

In about an hour we will be heading to the airport and the flight to Houston and on to PDX. We will look forward to an opportunity to share pictures, video and stories with our church family. Until then I would invite you to catch up with any of our team members and get a personal story of their experience. With this article are a few pictures from our construction project at Manuelito and the children. In the weeks to come I hope to upload many pictures and video so that you can check it out online.

Until then- Grace,

Pastor Tom