Honduras - Day 6

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Thursday - August 14

Stopped at hardware store to get handles for Tina's house. Also got machettis for Eric, Caleb, and ourselves. Got to house and "installated" (Kevin's word) the handles & curtains. Deb got video of Tina at her old house - Extreme Makeover Home Edition style. Got everyone together and shouted "Mueve eso bus!" (If I spelled that right, it's "move that bus" in Spanish.) Finished the video and then prayed for the family.

Started prayer walk a little after 9. Roads very muddy. Hit several roads and headed to school at 11. Waited, and then went back to pastor's house. Sat and waited for other team to get back. When they came, went in and made peanut butter & jelly sandwiches.

After lunch (and watching some of the Olympics in Spanish and playing checkers), we went to Tina's house to sign a part of the wall. Prayed for Ana's headache (which went away) and then continued on the prayer walk.

Prayed for so many with aches & pains, and those with children in the United States. (The moms were very worried for their children.) Invited everyone to church - several showed up! Finished a little early and went back to Pastor's house and waited for the other group. Headed back to the hotel early - very hot day! (Even the Honduras people thought it was hot!)

Started to rain on the way back to the hotel. Julie, Gregg, Shannon & Grace got caught in the rain in the back of the truck! We stopped at another hardware store to get a lock for Tina's house. Got to hotel and showed housekeeper leak in our ceiling. Manager came by later to look at it. We weren't changing rooms again.

Took long hot shower & got ready for church - last service of the trip. Pastor & family came for dinner.

Got cake for Steve & Debbie's 4th anniversary. Pastor Roberto gave them a bowl for a gift.

Kevin gave Samuel a "Golden Screw Driver Award" for leading the team with the most trips to the hardware store. After dinner we all got our clothes together to donate to the church.

Storm cooled things off! So many people at church in long sleeves and jackets - and we were still hot. Jason chased Junior all over, while Junior figured out how to sneak up on Jason when he wasn't watching.

Julie & Steve gave their testimonies. Kevin did sermon about outreach - which I think the people really got! Pastor Roberto even challenged the people to start a food bank.

Said our final goodbyes. People were yelling "Noviembre" (November) as we were leaving. (The medical team will be going back in November.) I started crying (along with Kathy).

I can't believe I'm not coming back with everyone. Ana asked if we were coming back in November and I told her I hope not - that I hoped to be pregnant by then. At church, when we were praying for people, I had my hand on a woman's shoulder and I felt a small hand grab my finger. Her baby had a grip on my fingers. Later she asked if I was pregnant (no idea why) and I asked Ana to tell her "not yet." They'll understand when I don't come back for awhile. Still makes me so sad.

Got to room and got everything organized and packed. Got to bed late - around 11pm.

Honduras - Day 5

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Wednesday, August 13

The day that everything went wrong (and the silver linings - with some pictures to highlight the day).

- grumpy people (but no one was sick).

- truck wouldn't start, had to get everyone into the van & no ladder (turns out we had enough room and we didn't need the ladder).

- turns out tarantulas live around the house we were building (makes for a cool story later).

- had to carry everything back and forth between pastor's house and Tina's house (but a good reminder that we're just "asses"* that carry Jesus). *See story at the bottom of the blog.

- measurements were wrong & things had to be done over and over (but we all were good humored about it and we got creative).

- what should have taken hours took the entire day (easy to build a plain house in a day, takes time to put the details and care into a home).

- screen doors turned out to be our biggest challenge, ended up with Plan D (if we're doing something, we're doing it right - no matter how long it takes).

What went right -

- finished shelter for kitchen.

- got windows & doors put on with screens that look nice.

- got to interact with people in the village.

- kids found us, had good time playing with them, watching them building houses with the blocks.

- tilapia for dinner - I finally got to try tilapia in Honduras. Good, but I didn't eat it all. (Didn't get a pic of dinner.)

- town square at night, so fun, so memorable.

- Baskin Robbins ice cream (Steve & Debbie treated).

- was so so so thankful for my wonderful husband!

Ready to go home though. It's been a rough week.

* Ambassadors Serving the Savior (ambASSador - King James Version):
It was the first Palm Sunday. Here came Jesus, riding into Jerusalem on an ass.

Great crowds began to shout, "Hosanna! Hosanna!" Some threw down their coats on the road. Others spread out palm branches.

The ass perked up his ears. "Well" he said, switching a fly off a mange patch. "I had no idea they thought so well of me!"

Get the point? If anyone comes to you after you have sung a song, preached a sermon, or done some kind of noble deed, and says, "Wow! That was terrific!" They're not actually saying Hosanna to you.

You're just the ass who carried Jesus.

- Unknown

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.)