Daily Updates | Honduras 2010
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4:12 Honduras Mission Update Six |Thursday Night 3/18/2010
It’s hard to believe that we’re typing the last update for our trip – at least while we’re on the ground in Honduras. This week has flown by. By the time this is posted we’ll be getting ready to load up and head to the airport for our return home.
Today we were able to complete the last three of our 15 houses! God is Great! Knowing that this was our last work day for this trip, we all headed out with a desire to get the most out of the day. We worked in 3 different areas today. Each site had its “opportunities” for creative craftsmanship – but that’s what makes it fun. Once again, we were able to interact with wonderful people as we worked. Stan’s team built for a wonderful older lady named Maria in an area called San Francisco. She’s an active member of the Church in Mateo. Ethan’s team built for a man named Louis and his family in a place called Nueva Capital. They had a sweet little boy who interacted with them throughout the day. Ryan’s team built for Abigail, her husband and their three children. One of the children was a 2 month old baby girl. As we made our way back today – it was neat to hear the stories from each team of their special interactions with these wonderful people. Even though it was a long and hot day, everyone had smiles on their faces and felt great about the day and week!
Tonight we were able to enjoy dinner with about 20 of our Honduras friends from the Mateo Church – most of who have worked with us off and on this week. We had a wonderful time visiting with them and sharing a meal. It was a very special time for our team to have some fun social interaction with their Honduran peers. After returning to Villa Gracia (our Honduran home), we had a wrap-up devotional and closed out our last night for this trip.
Tomorrow morning, we pack up and prepare to leave. Our plan is to make a quick visit to El Picacho (The Jesus Statue) as we head down the mountain and then make our way to the airport to catch our noon flight. We should be in Miami around 4:00 Nashville time and are set to arrive in Nashville about midnight.
While we are ready to see our families and friends, we can tell you that we’re all sad to be leaving. It has been a great week, a productive week and a life changing week. God blessed us with the ability to build 15 houses that will be serving families that were desperately in need! God has also used this week to touch each of us in the ways we needed to be touched. Our prayer is that the work he has done in our lives this week will continue on. While we came to help others, we can all honestly say that we’ve been helped more than what we could give.
Thanks to you for making it possible through prayer, support, encouragement and sacrifice. As we move through this last 24 hours and travel home, we covet your prayers for us. Please pray for our safety as we travel, and please continue to pray for the Honduran brothers and sisters we leave behind.
God Bless – Stan & Ryan (for the entire team)
4:12 Honduras Update Five | Wednesday Night – 3/17/10
It’s cool on the mountain tonight and we’re enjoying it! Today was cloudy off and on which made it a great day to work on the mountain in Escarbadero and Guajire where we completed 3 more houses. Each team is really hitting a stride and working so well together – which is making the building process very fun and rewarding! Only one more work day – and that is starting to sink in.
Everyone really worked hard and the attitudes of the team continue to amaze me! This morning, we purchased the water to go with the food packets we prepared last night and made our way to the city dump. It was an experience that one can never prepare for. While we have been to the dump on previous trips, we found today’s visit to be very disturbing once again. There seemed to be more people there and their anticipation of the simple gifts we had to offer was almost overwhelming. From the minute we entered the dump area and began seeing the hundreds of buzzards flying overhead, the faces of everyone on the bus began to change. The stench was hitting us in the face at that point as well. As we drove into the area where the trucks dump the trash, literally hundreds of people were visible milling around the area digging through the trash. The bus was silent and I know there were some very anxious folks sitting there. As we got off the bus, the people were lined up at the truck – and we actually had to move the truck forward a couple of times to give us room to work. While we found some of them to be aggressive, we also found many of them to be very kind and thankful for our brief interaction with them and for the small gift we had to offer.
Before we headed out this morning for the day, we challenged the team to remember that the people we were going to be interacting with today were children of God – just like us. We reminded them that it’s often easy to go to a place like this to “see” them. But we needed to do more – we needed to show Christ’s love to them for a few brief moments. Even though the circumstances they live in are very different, in His eyes, they are just like us. Which means, in our eyes, they should be seen as God sees them. While these folks today – women, men, children, babies – live in the most deplorable circumstance you could ever imagine, you’ll be proud to know that our team interacted with them with the utmost love and respect. In our brief time with them, there were conversations had, hands shaken and tears rolling down cheeks. And these children of God affected us! Even in such a tough place – God was at work.
As we’ve debriefed tonight, we’ve all realized that God uses every situation to bring about His purposes – and our prayer is that we will all be open to allowing His purpose to work in our lives both here and at home.
Thanks for allowing us to share our rambling thoughts – we’ll plan to share more tomorrow night.
Thanks for your continued prayers!
Stan
412 Honduras Update Four | Tuesday Night – 3/16/2010
Another Great Day! God has given us the ability to complete Nine Homes so far!!
We just returned from grabbing some dinner at the mall and buying items for our day tomorrow. As we write this, we’re watching our team sort and put together 300 food bags to be delivered in the morning to the City Dump. Before we build tomorrow, we’ll go visit with those folks and give them much needed food and water. I’m sure we’ll have much to share about that tomorrow night – as it will be a first time experience for about half of our team – and it is life changing.
Today we built two houses within walking distance to the church and one house in a very populated area called San Francisco. Each was a unique situation and each team walked away with tired bodies and huge smiles. One team added a room on to a home for a family with a special little boy named Daniel. Daniel is 11 years old and has severe leg problems. He can’t walk and has had 9 surgeries so far to help correct his problems. His big smile left everyone’s heart feeling so proud of their ability to spend the day with his family. Another team built for an older woman that is a member of the Church in Mateo that is instrumental in teaching and leading the sewing and cooking classes at the church. She is a true servant in the Church and in her community – always putting the needs of those around her ahead of herself.
Children were around a lot today – and we were blessed to have the ability to play some baseball (with a stick, big rubber ball and rocks for bases), kick around the soccer ball and simply play chase, tag, etc.
We continue to be impressed with our team – they are all working so well! But the best part is watching them interact with our Honduran Friends! You would be so proud of them and the way they are sharing the Love of Christ in a very real and tangible way! They are amazing!
Keep us in your prayers tomorrow as we spend the time visiting at the dump and as we then move on to build 3 more homes for special families. It will be an emotional day and another hard physical day as we build on the mountain beyond Mateo.
The reality that we only have 2 building days left is starting to sink in – but we’re trying not to think about that!
We’ll try to update you again tomorrow night!
For the team – Stan
4:12 Honduras Update Three | Monday Afternoon, 3/15/2010
What a great day! God blessed us with good weather (Hot), our safety, and the energy to get it all done. After a great day on Sunday worshiping with our brothers and sisters in Mateo – and then taking a little down time at Valle de Angels, we were back to our work today.
As we tell the kids – “It’s Honduras” – which means, nothing ever goes quite like you expect it. We thought we were going to be all building close together today, but some of the wood hasn’t been delivered. So, we ended up modifying the plan and building where they were prepared for us. We met up with some of our Honduran friends near the American Embassy – off loaded Ryan’s team to ride with Ryan (in our 4 door truck and with Leopoldo – and they headed off to a site in a different part of town to build for a family that had 14 people living in their house, the youngest of which was four months old. The site was tight, but they knocked the work out quickly.
The other 2 teams rode the bus to Mateo Church to meet with more of our Honduran friends who would be working with us. The bus dropped off my team near the church and we hiked up the mountain for about ½ mile to our site. Carrying in our tools and water, we found out quickly how out of shape we were…but we survived. As I’ve said before – we often find ourselves building in some areas with beautiful views. Today was another one of those views. We built for a man named Marlon and his family. They are active members at the Mateo Congregation and Marlon actually worked with Ryan’s team on Saturday building a house for another family. Our team worked hard, but also had a great time sitting in a shady spot for lunch and just visiting with our hosts – teaching a little English and learning a bit of Spanish.
The bus then took Ethan’s team up the road a bit and dropped them off by the chicken coops. The bus couldn’t make the turn to take them further, so they ended up having to walk about a ½ mile to their site on the side of the river. Along the way, they encountered locals washing their clothes and bathing in the river….which is a daily necessity for them. It’s good for us all to see the “real” daily living conditions that so many of these people experience. They built for a single lady with 4 children – teenage and down. The lady jumped in and helped as she could and Ethan said she couldn’t stop thanking them and “blessing them” as they completed their work and said their goodbyes. Her oldest son actually carried one of the heaviest tool bags back to the bus for them and the mom and her children walked the team back to the bus.
God is really blessing us – and now 6 families have homes to live in. We are so proud of the team! Every one of them is finding their place and is humbly servin….and they are all working hard. Other than a few scrapes, blisters, bruises and a bit of sunburn – were all doing well!
With 2 of our building days behind us – we can’t wait to head back out tomorrow to do it all over again!
Please keep praying for us!
Blessings – stan
4:12 Honduras Update Two | Saturday Night
What a day! We drove about an hour past the Mateo area today to work in La Paterique. It was a long, curvy & bumpy ride – but it was well worth it. We were able to see some beautiful mountians and then end up in a valley where farming is the main stay. Most importantly, we were able to build our first three houses of the trip for wonderful families!
Our teams did a wonderful job today – working well together to accomplish the building tasks, but also taking time to really interact with the families. It was awesome to watch them play with the kids, hold the babies, share all the food they had with others and simply love on the families.
All in All – a great Day! Three families now have their own roof over thier heads – and God touched all of us in his unique way.
Tomorrow we get to worship along side our brothers and sisters at the Mateo Congregation – we’re really excited about that!
Please keep us in your prayers- and know that you are in ours! More later –
God Bless, Stan
4:12 Honduras Update One | – Friday Afternoon
Hey from Honduras!
We are safely on the ground in Teguc! After a day of travel, we’ll have dinner here at Villa Gracia, unpack our group bags and get things ready for our first day of work. Tomorrow, we plan to head out to La Paterique to build our first 3 houses. This is an area where the Church has been planted and we’re excited to be helping grow the work in that area. Please Pray for a productive and safe day! We’ll try to post another update tomorrow night.
God Bless – Stan
Hola! Well – Spring break is almost here and once again we’re off to Honduras with a team of 30 folks from our Campus Ministry. We’re planning to build 15 houses and spend time with our brothers and sisters at the Mateo Church. Please be praying for God to use us during our time there. We leave Friday March 12th at 4:00 am and return at midnight on the 19th.
We’ll be trying to put updates on this page throughout the trip, so check back often to keep up with us.
God Bless!!
Stan