Well, the team started out really early this morning since we were all concerned that we might not get the playground assembled before we left. The morning was cooler because of a wonderful breeze. However, as the day progressed it got very hot with very few clouds in the sky. Thursday the temperature got to 109 degrees and I am sure today was a match. Everyone looked quite a bit redder when the day was done.

Early in the day as we were starting to work on the playground, a 13 year old boy by the name of Eduardo started hanging out and watching. Russ and Johnnie started sharing with him. Jacob and I joined in to share our personal stories of God’s salvation and grace. Eduardo listened attentively and then eagerly prayed to accept Christ. Raul joined us to be sure there would be followup

Dave, Tom, Russ, Josue, Jacob, Alec, and i stayed on the project for the entire day. Dave had opportunity to talk with one of the workers, Antonio, again today. With Julio translating, Antonio was able to hear about Christ’s love and forgiveness. He prayed for Christ’s forgiveness and became a new creation!!! We broke for lunch at about 1 pm but ate at the project.

Briane, Shanon, Kristin, and Anne joined us mid-afternoon to give us much needed help to finish assembling the playground equipment. They had been working at the nutrtion clinic all morning cleaning and preparing meals. Anita has been so thankful that she has had such wonderful help with getting the basic needs of the children met. My hat off to these ladies for their patience and dedication to such a wonderful act of service.

As the afternoon faded. we began to see the probablity of completing the assembly of the playground equipment. The two towers were positioned in place. The bridge was lifted into place and secured. The rope ladder submitted into it’s proper place. The regular slide was a breeze. But then there was the tubular turbo slide–that was another story! Patience almost ran thin as several of us struggled to discover the way it should be assembled (many times in this project the assembly instructions have been less than helpful)–nothing a hammer and crow bar couldn’t fix. With much work we managed to get the tub slide in place. Then there was the beast of the I-Beam for the swings. Got it done!!

It was now after 4pm. Excited kids were starting to gather (more like a mob or wave since the get out of school about 4pm). Now we discovered that the monkey bars were not going to assemble the way they were supposed to. HAH!!

Waalaa!!! Out with the skill saw, a couple of greengos and Hondurans, and it was in place. As we were finishing and cleaning up, a lot of people were gathering outside the gates. Tom and Julio were sharing with a circle of kids that had gathered at the gate. Christian, a 12 year old boy who had been hanging around all day, decided it was time to open his heart to Christ and followed Tom and Julio in prayer. Tom returned to the play ground to get a group photo. As he went back out to be sure Raul connected with Christian, Leonardo, a 30-year old who had been listening, came up to Tom and said he wanted to accept Christ also. Wow, what a demonstration of God working. Leonardo actually lives in Choluteco but rides the bus out to Ciudad Nueva every day to work. With Raul’s help he will be able to start attending the Choluteca church this Sunday.

As the sun was setting and dusk approached, the entire team, Raul, Pastor Giavoni and his wife, and David our coordinator gathered for a special prayer to dedicate the playground project. We prayed that God would use the work as a testimony and opportunity for the building of relationships in the community that would lead to spiritually changed lives.

What a week!!! What a day!!! We are all excited about completing the project that God had led us to be a part of. Thanks for all of the support and prayer from you folks at home. We will be seeing you very soon.

Paul

French Fries for the team from the hotel restaurant… 640 Limpiras; 1 bag of sweet bread… 5 limpiras; 1 home made rake…. 1 Limpira (of materials); 15 people hearing the Gospel and 3 prayers of Salvation…. Priceless…

Today has been a day of answered prayer and Divine appointments. As we listened to the story of Ramon the future administrator of the Casa Hogar Vidas (the guy in the previous entry) we really got to understand how big of an impact this will have in the lives of the AIDS victims. Ramon’s story is one of powerful conversion. His life was so miserable that he was going kill himself and his children because they also are infected. While in this depression he met the pastor of the Church in Choluteca. He heard the Gospel and accepted Jesus. He is so full of joy and hope and power now!

A divine appointment awaited us on the road back to Ciudad Nueva from Casa Hogar. The special police had set up a check point and were stopping cars looking for… something to help the problems go away. Ian the English missionary who will be overseeing Casa Hogar was driving in front of us. His tag expired yesterday so he was stopped and his car was impounded. Our bus was a few minutes behind so we stopped while they were talking to him and inspecting his car. A few of our translators and Josue got down to help talk with the police while we pulled ahead in the checkpoint and waited. After close to twenty minutes and at least one visit from a policeman we decided we needed to pray for the situation. We asked God to help Ian and to accomplish His work. After agreeing in Prayer we looked up and soon after the Policemen closed the hood on Ian car and the Translators began hugging one another. The policemen had lost interest and told Ian to get a new tag in the city! Thank you God!!

After returning to Ciudad Nueva from Casa Hogar we were surprised and encouraged because in our absence someone had moved all the playground equipment from the Center to the work site. This was such a blessing because we were unable to work on the project in the morning, and moving the pieces was going to be very difficult. We were able to make a lot of visible progress on the playground in the afternoon. We are hopeful that we can finish in the morning if we get an early start.

While the men were working on the playground, the women had a change to go visit more home. These were families of children who are candidates to be in the malnutrition center. We did it the day before where the culture and expectation took us off guard. Today, Kristin was not feeling well, so I (Anne) being ill-prepared felt stretched to share during the visits. But God was gracious and when it came time to share the gospel, Kristin felt better and did an amazing job. We lead a mother and daughter to Christ with the help of Leon, a staff at the Center and our translator, Hector. The second house we visited was of a 70 year old woman who has a mentally and physically handicapped 35 year old son, who she takes care of all by herself. The church has helped and visited her many time before. Upon this visit, Leon shared the Gospel with her and she accepted Christ. We had an opportunity to share and also pray for her and her son during our visit. She has been an amazing example to mothers here. Even her sister told her, the only thing you still need is Christ. And today we shared in her joy of having Christ in her life. Dave also got to share the Gospel with two of the workmen at the playground. He has follow-ups with them tomorrow. Johnny, one of the Hondurans, also shared the Gospel with one of the workmen while shoveling dirt. These were high points of the day. God even showed mercy and answered my (Russs) prayer for shade (a cloud!) and a breeze.

After work, we went to dinner at Pastor Giovannis home where we also met the team from Cedar Creek, Ohio. “They had some really good hot pepper” says Russ. It was a good time to see how the mission teams are impacting Honduras in they own way. The church in Choluteca really made us feel at home. Its good to see that no matter where we are, we are surrounded by the body of Christ.

Today seemed to be a day where God’s hand was evident. We hope to see it even greater tomorrow.

Russ Caldwell
Anne LeongSon
Honduras Mission Members

This morning we drove out to the land that was purchased for the future “Casa Hogar Vida” project. It will eventually consist of a residential area (that will help fund the relief work), a farm that will provide the orphans with work and skills, and about 8 - 12 “foster” homes where the children left orphans by AIDS will live with 2 “Aunts” or a foster parents (couple).

There is pretty much nothing but overgrown land, some dirt driveways (VERY muddy by recent rains…a dump truck was stuck in the mud when we arrived) and a lot of vegetation. There was a man clearing the land by hand with a machette, and the foreman (who is a member of the Gran Comision church and who has AIDS) and his men where laying the foundation for the “administrator’s house.” Its exciting to have had the opportunity to see this place right at the start. There are going to be SO MANY serving and evangelism opportunities as this project starts taking shape. We spent some time hearing from Ian, an English missionary who is part of the team on this project, from Oscar–a forestry engineer who is responsible for the farm and agricultural aspects of the project–and from Ramon, the foreman who has AIDS.

I won’t write more because someone else from the team will be sharing more about it. Please keep us in prayer as we work on the final stretch. Pray that the weather holds, pray for cool breezes, and pray for the team’s health. We are all looking forward to sharing about this whole week this coming Sunday.

Today is day 5 in Honduras, but it really feels like day 8. To start off our day we had bean tortillas, bananas, peanut butter, and cereal for breakfast. After breakfast we drove to our working areas. Then we got to work. We have gotten most of the way done with the playground. The girls went to help with the kids at the malnutrition center, while the guys were working on the playground. During our lunch break we ate steak (it was impossible to cut) and some veggies and then some of us went swimming. After our break we took a trip to the city in the mountains a.k.a. San Marcos. While we were there we explored the city and got some ice cream. On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a farm. At the farm we ate dinner, rode horses, and watched a thunder storm. When we got back to the hotel we had a meeting about all of the things everyone did. Around 9:00 (our time) some of us went swimming. It was a looong day.

Our first day in Honduras did not feel much like a mission trip as far as the work, but we have more than made up for the light first day in Tegucigalpa with all the work, heat and sun. The mission trip has been a learning experience for me as I work to help organize the daily schedules and communicate with everyone on the team. Our team of translators has been amazing examples of service and dedication, coming along side us in the work, sweating as much, and even working as hard. It’s been a great encouragement to everyone. By the way, it has been real cool to see our three Evergreen teen’s being a great example in words and deeds through their hard work and tenderness towards the childen. I have yet to hear one single complaint from Alex, Jacob or Brianne — They are truly living out I Timothy 4:12.

Tonight, Dave, Tom, Kristen & I were invited to join Pastor Geovani and his wife (from the Iglesia Gran Comision in Choluteca) for dinner with his wife, daughter and another staff member. We enjoyed a nice evening getting to know them and learning more about the AMAZING things God is doing among the people here in Choluteca and Ciudad Nueva. As I was listening to Geovani share tonight, I thought about the Scripture that says God chooses the poor to humble the right; the weak to humble the strong. It is amazing what God is doing through this small church - just about the same as Evergreen as far as attendance. Their compassion for the hurting, their passion for the lost and their commitment to hard, hard work is so challenging!

I wish each one of you could be here to experience it. Despite the intense heat, the stifling humidity, the burning sun, the mud and grime, the hard work, and the saddening poverty, it is all very much worth the joy and the encouragement of being a part of God’s work here.

It seems we are about 60 or 75 percent done with assembling the playground set, and Dave, Russ, and Paul have been putting a lot of back-breaking work on the small property where it will be installed for the children to play. Because of recent rainstorms, the building of a security fence in the playground area was delayed, so Dave, Russ, and Julio (transalator) have been working with the mason to finish the preparations to set up the playground. Today, we split up into several teams. Kristen and Shannon helped the nutrition clinic staff member prepare meal/food portions to give to the moms. A few others in the team went into the community to visit some homes and encourage the families. I’ve been helping with the playground set, planning schedules, and helping with the translations wherever I’m needed.

Josue Sierra
Honduran Team Member

p.s. Shannon added some more pictures to the Picasa account [http://picasaweb.google.com/emailslc/Honduras?authkey=E39Ota5PrL4], so make sure to check that out again today.  Here are just a few:

Well, this experience has been pretty great so far… I came here not knowing hardly any Spanish and now I’m translating for Anne and others and hardly speaking ANY English at all to the little kids!!!! But its not all fun and games… It gets REALLY tiring once you start to work… And the days seem SO long here because of the time difference and one day feels like 3...it also gets MUY CALIENTE (really hot) during the afternoon and I honestly do not think I’ve ever sweated so much in my life… but its still fun… so yea…

Hasta Luego,
Brianne

Today we actually did some work! After a yummy breakfast of cereal, toast, bananas, and hard-boiled eggs (served to give us a more typical American breakfast and not overload us on Honduran food)... we hopped on the bus to begin our projects for the day. The first thing we did was tour the tortilla factory (ok, so it was more like a small room where a few people manage to make 7,000 tortillas per day by using a tortilla machine that was recently donated). Next to it was the bakery (another small room where bread and cookies are made).

After the tours, the women spent the morning at the day care and malnutrition center. Anne and Brianne played soccer with the kids at the daycare center and las dos hermanas (aka, Kristin & Shannon) played with the kids at the malnutrition center. All the kids were very happy to see us and gathered around to give us big hugs and talk to us. We got to use our Spanish to ask the kids questions to find out more about them. They loved our cameras and kept asking us to take pictures of them. Kristin showed them pictures of her family and one little girl wanted to keep them! We helped cook the lunch for the 8 kids at the malnutrition center, and then we helped the staff weigh them (a daily step to measure their progress), washed their hands, and helped serve them lunch. They were very adorable kids!

Meanwhile, the men were digging in (literally) to the playground project. Russ and Dave helped pour the concrete for the foundation for the fence and the others began to put pieces of the playground equipment together. After several hours of hard work, we loaded back up into the bus and returned to the hotel for lunch. Luckily, there was time for a quick dip in the pool, a fast cold shower, and then a wonderful lunch of fried fish and plantain chips (oh, and don't forget the tortillas)!

Then it was back to work. The day care and malnutrition center are only open in the morning, so everyone jumped into the playground project. Today was the first day there was no rain and it was HOT. We put in some good hours and got quite a few pieces put together. We got to put some panels together and had a lot of fun with the electric drill! Kids and dogs watched curiously and we spoke to them through the fence (the kids, not the dogs). The kids love to come by and often yell "Gringo" at us. This area (Ciudad Nueva outside of Choluteca) was created after Hurricane Mitch through volunteer organizations building houses for the poor population that were homeless after the hurricane. It is made up mainly of single women and many, many kids!

We headed home for the day around 5:00 and a few more jumped in the pool to cool off. Then we grabbed quick showers (there is no hot water here but we're getting used to the cold showers). Then it was back to our usual spot of the outdoor bar at the hotel for our dinner of rice and stir-fry vegetables and meat (and yes, you guessed it, tortillas)!! Then we had our nightly debrief and prayer session. Everyone was thankful for the productive day and prayed that we would continue to serve the Honduran people in tangible ways the rest of our week here. We also prayed for all the people back home who are supporting our efforts here. It was a great first day of work and we look forward to what tomorrow will bring (maybe a pig or rooster will make its way into the project- there are a lot on the side of the road)!

For pictures of our trip so far from Shannon’s camera, go to the following Picasa web album: http://picasaweb.google.com/emailslc/Honduras?authkey=E39Ota5PrL4

Hasta Luego,

Kristin & Shannon

Wow! Every day brings something interesting and new. Sunday morning we got up and had quiet times and time to pack and get ready to head out to Choluteca. We learned later in the day that Hotel Escuela Madrid is a culinary school as well as a hotel. That explained why we were able to see into the kitchen as they prepared food when we went up for breakfast. Oh, breakfast. Talk about authentic Honduran! We had a buffet line of scrambled eggs with green peppers, mangos (I think) and some other vegetable, and it tasted great. We had some beans which, though unusual to me to have for breakfast, also tasted great. We had corn tortillas, a “sausage” (sure looked and tasted like a hot dog to me ), and a very interesting square of cheese. The cheese was very salty and had the consistency of a sponge…but it was good! So you mix a bit of each together and a bite of tortilla, and yum! Oh, and the coffee! The coffee in that hotel was magnificent! Very dark but not bitter. I would like to take some back home!

Then, while we were eating, we heard a parade with drums and music in the little neighborhood below (Colonia, in Spanish). That explained what we heard all night from about 2 am every 30 minutes or so that REALLY sounded like a large gun firing two or three shots at a time. Turns out it was fireworks (most likely…at least that’s what we felt most comfortable rationalizing). Apparently, the neighborhood was celebrating 50 years as a neighborhood.

After breakfast, we loaded up and started driving to Choluteca. And it started raining. And raining. And raining…pretty much the whole way and all evening. But it was a nice change from the Virginia drought. Along the way I asked Josue what a Rosquillo was since I kept seeing signs for them. Josue said they’re a classic Honduran breakfast biscuit. And the next thing we knew, we were stopped at a roadside food stand ordering Rosquillos. The kids got bags of Doritos (I felt a little silly not remembering what 15 in Spanish was when she told me how much it cost…the driver had to rescue me and pull the currency from my hand!), and Dave got a bag of Fritos. And against the warnings from all the doctors stateside not to do so, I tasted some food from a roadside stand (Josue said it was safe). It tasted a lot like a really dense Cheez-it. Dry and crunchy but cheesy, too. Made from some sort of Corn meal or something. The Hondurans were very nice.

Anyway, we got to the hotel safe, ate dinner, went swimming (in the light rain), and packed it in for the night after a short planning meeting and prayer.

Keep praying for us!

Tom Millar
Honduran Team Member

Today, our Evergreen team of 11 departs for Honduras. After months of planning, prayer and preparation we are departing on a faith venture to minister to the physical and spiritual needs of others in Choluteca, Honduras. The trip is sponsored by Great Commission Latin America and Evergreen Community Church and marks the first time our local church has done a short-term mission trip since we were birthed in 1998. We hope and pray this will be the first of many more to follow.

Our team is scheduled to arrive in Tegucigalpa around noon today. It is the capitol of Honduras and our sister church there is the largest evangelical church in Honduras. We will tour the city in the afternoon and then attend one of the church services in the evening. On Sunday we leave by bus for Choluteca to get the lay of the land and our marching orders for the rest of the week. We know that each day will include work on a humanitarian project (we'll be building a playground for underprivileged children) along with opportunities to share our Christian faith in one-on-one and group settings.

Our mission team has 5 men (Russ, Tom, Paul, Josue and Dave), 3 women (Kristin, Shannon and Anne) and 3 teenagers (Jacob, Alec and Brianne) … I like to consider us a Fellowship of the Cross akin to the Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkein (so if you are NOT a LOTR fan, my apologies!). Each day throughout our trip we will have a couple our team members provide their insights and experiences from the trip right here.  Also, we'll provide updated prayer requests for and from our team each day. To get started I'll mention several:

• Pray for safety, encouragement and perseverance as we travel
• Pray that God speaks to each one of us during the week.
• Pray that the Lord helps us bear fruit for His Kingdom.

I am both excited and nervous about this trip. Excited about the possibilities of helping others in Honduras; excited about seeing the vision and work of our sister churches in that country; excited about forming life-long bonds with others who have given their time, energy and resources to a noble cause. I'm nervous because it is the first time I've ever traveled out of the county (and, yes, I'm 50 years old!), nervous about leaving my family and nervous about relating to the Honduran culture. But God has called me to get out of the boat … so here I/we go!!!

Dave Blum
Honduran Team Member