Honduras - Day 4

From the journal...

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Tuesday, August 12

Naldo & generator went back to Canchias. Eber & different truck came out. Jason, Debbie, Kathy and I built windows (shutters) and doors for house. (Ran out of wood so didn't get to finish 2nd door.) The rest of the team worked on leveling the dirt inside the house and then put cement down. During lunch Pastor Roberto added red powder to the top layer. Started on awning out back for kitchen area. Will finish this tomorrow along with putting in windows & doors. Should then be done!



After lunch (peanut butter & jelly sandwiches) a group of us stayed at the house and changed the phone number on 300 flyers to be passed out when going door to door. (Turns out we didn't get all 300.) Rained about 20 minutes and cooled everything off. (Gregg had actually asked for this.) Didn't do much the rest of the day. Helped Gregg & Samuel finish cutting and putting last door together. And then played checkers with Lee and Yoni (he's pretty good).

Rode in back of truck back to hotel. Crazy! Hot shower when we got back. Leg really hurts (some kind of bug bite). Michelle trying other things (other than antibiotic ointment). Finally am taking Keflex, an antibiotic. Hope it helps. Jason also prayed for my leg - it should be alright.

Church was a prayer service. We prayed for them, then they prayed for us. Then we prayed for people to receive healing. Lee & Shannon did testimonies. Shannon started off my saying "Buenas Dias." (Good morning.) Got a lot of laughter. We sang "Lord I Lift Your Name on High" and "Open the Eyes of My Heart." Julie had kids in back keeping them busy. Went through all 200 pages of a coloring book and all the crayons.


Before church I started showing the kids the album we had put together.

We noticed three of the guys had the same shirts on, so we decided to have some fun with them...

Long day, but a good one.

Honduras - Day 3

If you're just joining our program, you might want to scroll down and read the Overview, and then the blog about Days 1 & 2.

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Monday, August 11 - Breakfast, devotions, then off to El Quebracho to build a house.

A little bit of background about the family we're building the family for. The parents are Francisco (if I spelled that right) and Clementina (Tina). Francisco has helped us with previous construction projects and Tina and her daughters have helped make meals for our teams over the past few years. Pastor Roberto picked this family to receive the new house because of their faithfulness to the church. And also because they rent the house they live in now and had no extra money to save up for their own house. (I believe they bought land, but couldn't put a house on it.) They have been praying for years that God would somehow provide a house for them. We believe that we were that answer to prayer.

(I've gone back through all my pictures from my last two trips to Honduras and have quite a few of Clementina, Francisco and their three daughters. I was going to post some of them, but there are just too many. Maybe that's another post for another day. In the meantime, here's a picture from when Deborah surprised her family Sunday night...)

Deborah, Clementina, Francisco, and Wendy (Nosly, their other daughter, is married with a baby and wasn't there that evening)

Back to the journal entry... We jumped right into our project and was over half-way done by lunch. After lunch we had a few kids visit us, but not as many as previous years. We were done with the outside of the house by 4:00 pm!

Tomorrow we plan to put screens on the windows & doors and put down a floor. We went back to the hotel and had time to relax for an hour. We had dinner and then crashed for the evening.

Here's what we got done today...

Clementina standing in front of the house they rent. (She's laughing about something.)

Honduras - Days 1 & 2

As I've done in the past, I'll just type up my notes from my journal and then go into detail at the end if there's something more to share.

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More pictures (Day 2)

Saturday, August 9th - Early or on time all day! (Includes showing up at the airport, and all our flights.) So easy to get through customs in Honduras with luggage. (Had to wait forever, and we only had one checked bag each this year.) Big group meeting at the airport - several teams all riding together. Not happy about riding on the "jump seat" the whole time. Until I saw the last team in the back of the trucks - sitting on luggage.

Flat tire on the bus (large van) not too far from San Isidro. Just pulled into tire place & got new tire. Quick service and back on the road in 20 minutes. (See pictures below...)

(I love this one - the guys with their opinions)

Vineyard ladies stayed in Esther House - third year I've been in that house. But this time all 7 of us are in the same room. Half were supposed to do showers at night, the other half in the morning. We split up, but then all of us ended up taking showers that night. Did I mention there were no lights in the showers or toilets? (Cold showers feel better after a long day than first thing in the morning - even in the dark.) I think there was a creepy crawly in mine - salamander?

Spam for dinner!

Our group did dishes after dinner. All 13 of us working together, having fun. What a great team! Tomorrow all 3 groups, about 60 people, up on Ambassador Mountain. Wonder how that will go. (In previous years we came in on Friday or Sunday and didn't go up the mountain with other groups.) Our group will probably go slow to stay together. If we're the last up the mountain, will we get to sit on benches or end up in the dirt? (Bad attitude...)

Sunday, August 10th - Hike up Ambassador Mountain with 57 people. We were last group up, but still waiting on Miguel, so no one was waiting on us. We got seats, many men stood, we all fit! Started off with singing - beautiful with so many voices singing together!! Mostly hymns, and ended up "God is so good." Miguel tried to teach us a song, but forgot the words. So much more fun with a bigger group!

Miguel's words reminded me, it's not about me, it's about Jesus. I'm just the ass (donkey) Jesus has chosen to carry him. So this year my rock (that we threw off the mountain) had ego & pride on it. I'm not great, God is.

Tour around village was good - took long even though most of us have been there before. (Half of us have been there more than once before.) Have to share a couple of my favorite pictures...

See the littlest girl? Dr. Michelle (the one taking the picture) did an ultrasound on her 2 years ago. Pretty cool!!
This little boy was getting a drink of water. The look on his face was too cute...

The only way to get over to the dairy - right now. A team will be building a bridge to make transporting milk & cheese so much easier.


Got to see new dairy, skipped the school this year. Took crazy truck ride with German Pinel. Went across creek (in the back of the truck) and had to stop. Guys had to get out and walk up the road. Girls rode in back of the truck and went another (slightly smoother) way. (See pictures below.)
Up to tilapia ponds and chicken farm. Didn't get out of the truck this year (had a headache) but saw them get some fish out - which we later tasted! (See pics below.)


Pineapple for lunch (I believe German got it for us so that we'd have some before we left), peanut butter sandwiches & BBQ chicken, I think. Surprised Deborah about her family's new house, she was so excited! (Deborah is a student at the School of Discipleship. The house we built is for her family.) Just figured out that I can upload the video...

Deborah rode out to El Quebracho with us so she could see her family. (She went home the next day.) Got to hotel & got showers - got ready for church. Our tub filled up (wouldn't drain), the window in the bathroom was open and wouldn't close (it's hot & humid and they were burning trash outside the hotel). When we got there we had no towels and no toilet paper. Frustrating! Got to dinner late with everyone waiting on us. (We ended up getting a different room the next day.)

Deborah wanted to surprise her family so she waited in the van at the church. We got her mom, dad, and sister together and told them we had brought something for them from Deborah. And then she came out of the van. They were so happy to see her!! She hadn't been home for 3 months and they weren't sure when they'd see her again. She only got to stay with her family for one night, but that was enough.

So wonderful to be at the church again! We remembered so many kids' names. They remembered us too. (A few remembered my name, which was just awesome!) The kids wanted so badly for me to take their pictures. I got them all against the wall and got some pictures. They wanted to see the viewer & so many had their hands all over my camera. I was completely surrounded by kids and I wanted to talk to some of the adults, so I got their attention and said "sientense" - and they all ran and sat down! Amazing!

Church started and they brought out kids holding a sign for us that said "WELCOME SISTER CHURCH"

Then 3 kids did a dance to a song on a CD (that ended up skipping, so they had to end it early). We did some worship (they've improved so much since last year!!) and then Kevin preached. Many came up for prayer. Then they had offering & announcements. After church we went back to the hotel and crashed.

Pics & Overview

Okay, they're just some favorite pics and don't really show you what we did, but that's another post.

At the Heart to Honduras compound - first day. (We all wore matching shirts.)

Jason working hard.

Holding down the boards. (They were warped and they didn't fit together.)

A must for sun protection - a big hat that protects your ears, neck, and FACE. (In the background is the house we built.)

In the hotel after church one night. (They had matching shirts on.)

Baby tarantula. We didn't see the mother, thankfully.

At the cathedral square in Comayagua. (You can see the spider bite on my leg.)

Yes, that's a tractor on Jason's shirt. And the blue thing is my pedometer.

Kissing on the other side of the fountain. :)

Jason and Junior before church

Lake Yure - beautiful!! This is where they're putting the kids camp - International Extreme Camp.

Last day, ready to go home.

Honduras Overview - Just really quick -

Saturday (the 9th) - at the airport at 4:30 am. (Yes, seriously.) Flights were on time, maybe early, and everything went smoothly. Got to Honduras and had to wait for last group to show up - three groups were traveling together to the Heart to Honduras compound in Canchias. Had a flat on the way, fixed within 20-30 minutes. Rest of the day was relaxing, lots of time to sleep.

Sunday - breakfast then hike up Ambassador Mountain. Then tour around village and then off to Comayagua to check into the hotel. Got ready for the evening, had dinner and then went to church. Wonderful to see everyone again. (Jason got hit on by a couple of girls who could speak some English. Hee!!) Discovered I had a bug bite - thought it was a mosquito bite. Wrong.

Monday - started house in the morning, and by the time we were done for the day it had walls and a roof. The staff guys were amazed we got it up so fast. We had a great team and we had a fun time working together. Decided it was a spider bite, NOT a mosquito bite.

Tuesday - made doors for the windows and doorways. Got those "installated" (Kevin's word). Put awning out back for kitchen area behind the house. Church service where we prayed for the church members, and then they prayed for us. Kept the kids occupied with coloring books & crayons. Spider bite was looking really bad, doctor on our team gave me antibiotics.

Wednesday - added screens to windows & framed them to cover edges. Built & put up screen doors. Didn't open very far, so had to figure out how to put them on the house. Then "reinstallated" screen doors. Area affected by spider bite now huge and purple. Also very swollen, hot, and painful. More antibiotics! That night went to see cathedral in town and then hit a Baskin Robbins for ice cream. :)

Thursday - did prayer walk through town. Women had to wear skirts - fun fun with the muddy roads. Got to pray for just about everyone and invited them to church. Very hot day, even the Honduran people complained about the heat. Spider bite was smaller, swelling went down, pain gone. Still purple though. Last night at church and several we visited came to church. So sad to see everyone for the last time.

Friday - Went to Lake Yure (2 hour drive) to see site of new camp. Amazing!! Several of our kids from El Quebracho went last year. Here's the video:
International Extreme Camp on youtube.com Then went to Power Chicken for lunch, food was delicious as usual. Then to the market where I got some great finds. Then checked into the bed & breakfast for the night. Beautiful house!! Dinner was wonderful!! Played Uno and two of the kids who lived at the B&B played with us. The 3 year old sat on my lap and was a force to be reckoned with!! (As Grace found out.)

Saturday - at airport by 7:45 am, flight took off at 11:55 am. Got to Houston for 4 hour layover. Flight to Dayton then delayed. Got in at 1:30 am Sunday morning. Spider bite turned pink - things are going to be okay.

Overview - wonderful team, had so much fun, I don't think I've laughed so much in a week. Spider bite was scary and put a damper on my trip. I'm okay with not going next year. Went to Urgent Care and got more antibiotics and as long as it looks better by Wednesday, it should be fine. Jason fell in love with Honduras, he gets it now. :) Building the house was the most rewarding thing I think I've ever done. Saw glimpses of God working everywhere.

Unlike previous years, I don't want to sell everything and move down there. This year I just want to sell everything and send the money down there. I feel like I own too much, that I've wasted so much money on stupid things. I've taken so much pride in what I've acquired and it really counts for nothing. The lives that are touched is what's important. Not just in Honduras, where the need is obvious, but here in Dayton. I help physically, but am I touching emotionally, spiritually? Do I serve people and then walk away not remembering their faces or their needs? Do I really CARE or am I just helping out to make myself feel like a better person? There's a difference. Not sure why I didn't think about this before.