Day 6 (Friday)

Today was a bit of a mixed day, with work in the morning,and some time in the mountains in the afternoon.

This morning teams returned to Casa Hogar Vida to complete the concrete work at Senior Santos house and load another 500 concrete blocks to be transported to Limon. Anna and I worked on loading concrete blocks. 500 blocks, each weighing between 30 and 35 pounds (just a guess) took us several hours. Along the way we found a frog with suction cups on his feet that let him stick to the blocks like glue, a scorpion that made it all the way into the truck before we found it, and several spiders.

After lunch and a short time at the hotel to clean up, we loaded the busses for San Marcos de Callo. The is a retreat center in the mountains about 90 minutes by bus from the hotel. We spent several hours enjoying the cool air, the beautiful scenery, and talking in small groups (Anna and I) about our week in Honduras. We ate dinner at the top of the mountain adn ruturned back home this evening.

The church is hosting 100 college kids this weekend to discuss the vision of the church and all of the great projects they have started in the community. Several of the adults, and all of the kids and interpretors went back the church to share this weeks work with the college students.

Day 5 (Thursday)

It´s getting late, so I´ll keep this one short

Today we mixed our teams with Cedar Creek and Elevate working together. Both teams were working to put new concrete floors in homes that currently had only a dirt floor.

Our team worked on a home of a mother of 4 suffering from HIV AIDS. Her family is not aware of her illness, and the kids have all been checked by the doctor and are free of the disease. When we arrived she had been taken to the hospital suffering from a high fever. We had a skilled mason working with us, and we completed the front room and front porch by 4:30 pm when the bus arrived. After lunch we found Christina had been released from the hospital and the team was able to visit with her and her childern as we finished the concrete work. She expressed her gratitude to God and the team for the work we did to support her family. It was very rewarding to know we have made a significant difference in her living conditions. The team from the Great Commision Church will return in the next few days to add a front door, and security bars on her home to make it safe.

Tonight we enjoyed a meal of traditional Honduran foods prepared by our volunteer team from the Great Commission Church. We came to serve the people of Honduras, but the team from the local church has made this week an awesome experience. They are always 1 step ahead of our needs, from transportation, to water bottles, to translators and tonight that had a slide presentation of pictures that were taking all week long.

Wow

Day 4 (Wednesday)

Unfortunately our new Dell computer has developed a memory problem and has not allowed me to update the blog or send out pictures. Must be something in the water.

So, I´m using the lobby computer for tonight´s update.

The past 2 days have been very busy work days for us. On Wednesday the Elevate team traveled to Limon to work in 3 areas.

1) Nutrition Center
2) Day Care
3) Construction

Anna spent the morning working in the Nutrition center spending time with kids being brought back from the brink of starvation and malnutrition. This process can take from 6 weeks to 1 year depending on the level of malnutrition. From the look on the faces of the kids and the volunteers the morning was a great success. The biggest obstacle was that the playground was filled with fire ants. The local kids did not seam to notice, but the Americans were dancing and swatting their ankles.

John work in construction, cutting a trench to build footings for the new english as a second language and computer resource center. The trenching was some of the most difficult work, with the heavy clay soil, the swamp like surface conditions it was like trying to dig a moat in the everglades.

In the afternoon Anna worked the construction site covering the reinforcing bars that formed the corners of the building. She had several new blisters to show for her efforts (she should have been wearing her gloves).

John visited 4 local families in the Limon community sharing the Good News and inviting them to join the small group study at Senior Miguel Gonzallez home. We were swarmed with children looking for candy handouts. One gentelman in particular stood out to me. His name was John, so we had an immediate connection. As we passed by his house, he was working in the back cutting some metal for a home project. Through our interpretor we said hello and asked if we could talk with him. He stopped immediately and was so open and inviting to have the chance to talk to 5 strangers that did not even speak his language. We find this same openness and inviting spirit with everyone we have met in Honduras. It has truly been a blessing to visit this country and get to know the people and culture.

Day 3 (Tuesday)

Today's devotion was presented by Ryan, and it was about unity. Unity as a team at the work site, unity as the combined teams of Elevate and Cedar Creek, unity of mission and purpose. As the newness of the trip begins to wear off, and our day's become more predictable, it will be important to not loose site of why we are all in Honduras.

We loaded the buses ½ hour earlier today than yesterday, (So much for routine). The Elevate teams first stop was the Tortilla factory and bakery. This store front was recently relocated across the street from the Great Commission Church. The Tortilla factory produces about 10,000 Tortilla's, baked bread, cookies and other baked goods daily. The recently purchased Tortilla machine can make 6000 Tortilla's per hour, so production only takes about 2 hours per day. The manager of the story is working on getting some contracts with local supermarkets to increase demand. Distribution and sales of the finished product is keeping sales down.

With all of the heavy rain, we loaded the buses and were taken to the central market area of town to purchased much needed boots. 1 Pair of rubber work boots cost $140 Lumpera (approx. $7.50). Then it was back to Casa Hogar Vida to continue working on the playground. With all of the rain yesterday, it was even wetter at the work site. We completed moving the fill to completely enclose the playground with a border. Then our next assignment was the lift the play structure the construct a new foundation of large boulders to replace the 4x4's currently sinking into the mud. What a challenge.

The afternoon we headed to a real supermarket to purchase some staples (rice, sugar, beans, lard, pasta, salt etc.) to give to the families we were to visit in the afternoon. We were told the supermarket was owned by Walmart. With the donations collected, the team purchased 33 bags of staples to be distributed. We went back to the same neighborhood to support the Senior Toshee's new small group being formed. Our team visited 2 families. We returned to a family we visited on Sunday, to talk with them again and give them some much needed food. Several of the children looked like they were showing signs of malnutrition. The second house was an older couple that had a real connection with Tom and Betty, since both couples had children from previous marriages and were not remarried. After finding out that they had already been invited to the small group meetings, our interpreter took command of the dialogue and we just sat back and watched.

After dinner we tried to Skype with Julie as a team and were somewhat successful, but we lost internet connection and bandwidth continues to be a real problem for us. Everyone got to at least say hello before we lost the link.

Day 2 (Monday)

Mail from home is such a great way to start the day. Thanks to the family and friends that provided daily notes of encouragement and inspiration. The candy is nice too.

We started our day at Casa Hogar Vida. This 75 acre community is being developed by the Great Commission Church to provide housing for families and orphans along with a medical clinic for people infected or effected by HIV AIDS. The culture in Honduras is such that once individuals are infected with HIV AID they are cut off from society. Families can't get jobs, men very often commit suicide, leaving widows to raise children. Currently 10 individual family homes, of 70 planned have been constructed. The orphanage currently consists of 2 homes supporting 7 children each, with 8 more in the planning stages. The medical clinic should begin construction by the end of 2010.

To provide income to these families, the women manufacture jewelry, purses, and bracelets that they sell locally. The compound also has a concrete block factory that supports the construction projects at Casa Hogar Vida, and also other organizations in the area building homes.

This tract of land must have been purchased during the summer season, because when the rains come (May to October) the land turns to swamp. Our job today was spreading fill soil (i.e. rock, stones and pebbles) in an area near the playground. Besides the water soaked soil, we also found several fire ant mounds. We moved just over 2 dump loads before lunch. There was also time to play with the kids and help feed lunch at the orphanage.

During the afternoon, we visited the site of the Coffee Factory, Nutrition Center, Day Care, and Elementary school opened across town in a area built by Samaritans Purse following hurricane Mitch. Over 700 homes were built to relocate families previously living in an area flooded during the hurricane. This compound is designed to save children at risk of starvation in the local community and provide not only support for the children, but also education and counseling for the families that often don't understand the basic elements of nutrition.

The afternoon clouds and storms once again hit the area during our tour. The rains poured for several hours adding more water to the already soaked soil. Many of the team threw their socks away, rather than bring them back to the hotel.

Travel Day and Day 1

With the very busy travel day on Saturday, this is my first chance to update the blog. Our trip started out with an unexpected lesson in international travel. Many countries, including Honduras require passports to be valid for 6 months beyond the scheduled date of departure. Julie's passport expires in September, 2010. She was told as we were getting our boarding passes that she would not be allowed to enter Honduras. With some tearful hugs we said goodbye to Julie, and Anna and I boarded the airplane.

Our trip to Honduras was uneventful, but the landing in Tegucigalpa, Honduras was not for the faint of heart. I'm told if you go on Youtube you can find videos of this very difficult landing in the mountains.

The 3 hour bus ride to the Choluteca mission site was a beautiful ride thru the mountains of Honduras. Clouds covered some of the mountains, with streaming sunlight hitting others. As soon as we arrive we had 30 minutes to get changed and ready for church. The service reminded us of the Elevate and Cedar Creek formats with everything in Spanish.

Day 1
We spent the morning at Iglesia Gran Comision church (our sponsor) for orientation and information about the work they are doing in the community. Some of the stories of malnutrition, living conditions in the area, and the lack of informed and educated parents was difficult to watch. The stories were heartbreaking. However, the story of the impact this small church is having on the community is inspiring.

After lunch, and a brief rain shower, we went door to door in small groups with interpreters sharing the Good News and inviting them to join a small group in their community. The hospitality and willingness of the people of Honduras was amazing. Can you imagine what your response would be if a group of 5 Spanish speaking Hondurans were to walk up to your door and ask to spend some time talking with you. Not one family closed the door on us or asked us to leave. We planted a lot of seeds, it's all up to God now.

Packing suitcases

Anna and Julie helped with packing donations to be taken down to Honduras. Thanks to everyone that has donated clothes, toys and medicine. Anna wanted to make sure she was going on the trip!! Aaron assured her that they bought her a plane ticket. It was the biggest suitcase we had ever seen. Too funny!

Packing Party

The team is coming to our home on Sunday July 11 for a packing party. We are going to be taught how to pack for a week in just a carry on bag and a back pack. Each of us will be carrying a 50 pound suitcase filled with clothes, medicine, and toys to be distributed to the families of Casa Hogar Vida.