What’s up from Kelsi and Becca!

Today-after waking up at 6:15 and 6:50 (Kelsi doesn’t take as long to get ready, haha) we all had devotional and afterward,  breakfast. Becca had some delicious chocolate cereal dubbed Coco Krispies, and Kelsi savored real-made french toast. Like, not from a box. She also enjoyed a bowl of zugaritas. (ask kelsi when you see her)

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Around 8ish we all left for Casa Hogar Vida instead of the Límon for community work. Kelsi worked with a MACHETE while Becca did boring work clearing fields. Kelsi’s hands hurt. J She also has some blisters, one is open haha. Becca was unhurt in anyway whatsoever… .psh. SHE says that she was careful and that she has tough hands, but I know the truth. She was NOT careful an ended up standed in a huge fire ant village where the ants then swarmed her feet and ankles, biting her. Then, they took her to the sacrificial chamber of their domain and began the ritual for rain. This happened because she is white and blonde. She was in terrible danger until Kelsi came swinging valiantly with her machete, slicing through their foes and freeing Becca from her constraints. They then road off into the sunset on a beautiful white horse. Yes, I was her knight in shining armor… or maybe just bedecked with a machete.

Wouldn’t that be totally awesome if that were true? J In truth, Becca got the ants off of her in about 7 minutes… or 5. Kelsi cut grass with her awesome machete. Reina, Sara, and Alec helped out a bit, but in the end Kelsi was the one who really did the job. After about an hour everyone else left and abandoned Kelsi to continue working. I say that they just couldn’t take my awesomness. Jacob, Edgar, and Mr. Saadeh watered trees, and everyone that wasn’t pwning with the machetes was clearing land.

Around 12ish we all returned to the hotel for a delicious lunch of stirfry meat and veggies with watermelon, papaya, and rice. After that, at 2,  we left for the beach!

Let’s switch to Becca now, you’ve heard enough from me haha!
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It took about 45 min to get there.  We had to cross a bridge that was only two boards across (it was both cool and a little scary).  After we got of the bridge we stepped on to a path made of soda filled with sand. Speaking of the sand, it was tan mixed with black, It looked multi-colored! We walked into a hut like thing with about 10 hammocks hanging from wooden poles. We played in the water, took a walk, and ate a delicious dinner of fish and chips. After hanging out for a while we all gathered around a bonfire and sang a couple of worship songs. After the songs a couple people shared their testimony and we ended the day at the beach with a couple more songs.

Right now we are finishing Iron Man, which we had started around lunch. It has been yet another wonderful day, and we all want to stay here a lot longer.

Hasta luego from Becca and Kelsi!

Day 6 - our last full day of work!  Can the trip already be coming to a close?  After yet another scrumptious breakfast, we went to board this bus for our last trip to Limon.  Except there was no bus.  We don’t know exactly what happened, but I am told that the bus driver was late so he wasn’t permitted to drive us.  No bus driver = no bus.  Instead of having our own bus, we crammed in with the team from The Rock.

When we arrived in Limon, the children ran to us and inundated us with affection just as they normally do.  Some of us continued building the wall, while a few of us set out to finish painting the malnutrition clinic.  What started as a quick touch up turned into a bit more, as the new paint was much thinner.  By God’s grace, I think we were able to finish the job.  Those of us working on the wall, having become expert masons (thanks to our foreman Alexis), were able to complete another section of the wall.  As Alec pointed out, it was remarkable how easy it was to labor in the 95 degree heat and blistering sun. We think that just being around the kids had a lot to do with that.  Their boundless energy and joy was infectious.

Around noon we went back to the hotel for lunch.  It was tough saying goodbye to the kids at the clinic and the daycare for the last time.  We took a picture together, distributed some hugs, and then we were gone.  We will miss them dearly.

Today was also our last day of house visits.  We split up into our three teams, loaded our backpacks with gifts of food and toys, and went into some of the poorest homes in Choluteca.  There are many wonderful stories to tell, and I hope that there will be an opportunity at some point to share them all.  Anne, Reina, and I had the privilege of witnessing God doing some pretty amazing things.  At the first house we visited, we had the opportunity to share the love of Jesus with Tomasa.  All four of us, including our translator (Ricardo)  squeezed into her tiny home with walls built with sticks and mud.  Our conversation with Tomasa led us to believe that she was a Christian, but while we were sharing with her, a neighbor poked her head in.  Her name is Dinora, and she told us that she had been waiting patiently for missionaries to visit her home. 

For whatever reason, no one came.  Instead God brought her to us!  Dinora listened very intently to Anne as she relayed the good news of salvation in Jesus.  At the end, we prayed with her and she committed her life to Christ in an expression of sheer joy that I could not possibly describe in words.  We embraced her and gave gifts of food to the ladies and toys to their children.

That night, we joined the team of the Rock as well as some of the members of the local Church and Pastor Giovanny for an authentic Honduran dinner.  I had been waiting for this all week: papusas, tostadas, baleadas, and taquitos.  Let me tell you - it was incredibly good, and some.  In Jacob’s words it was "insanely awesome".  I would have to agree, and I think the rest of the team would, too. 

Following the meal, we watched slide show of our experiences throughout the week, then we had a time of giving testimonies of the marvelous things that God had done, giving thanks, and sharing funny stories about our adventures in Honduras.  It was a moving time, and a fitting way to wrap up  an incredible week.

-Jason

Here are some pictures from today of us working on the wall Evergreen paid for and of us sharing the gospel in the neighborhood.

Here are some pictures from Day 5, 1/6/10

Today's bloggers are Mr. Marron and Alec Millar.

As you may know, our days are split into two halves: the morning and then afternoon. Most of the team spent the entire morning finishing painting the Malnutrition Clinic and starting to build the wall at the bakery...Hondurans (gracias to Anne) like their soccer and tend to kick la pelota (the ball) hard enough to make holes in walls....while a few of us spent half the morning carrying kids on our back or swinging them in circles. We heard that everyone back at home has been experiencing some big winds and would just like to let you know that we aren't missing out at all...it turns out it's kind of hard to paint the outside of a building or sift sand for concrete when the wind is blowing 40-60 mph.  Needless to say, some people had more paint on them then on the building. Alec, Jacob, Juan, Edgar (Geovany-the pastor's son), and other Hondurans were making cement the old-fashioned way for and starting to work on the wall, while the rest of the team finished painting.

After another amazing lunch, consisting of pork chops, watermelon (the best watermelon you'll ever taste), rice, and salad, we went out into a community in Choluteca to share God's word. The team split up into three groups. The first group consisted of Tom, Paula, Becca, and Kelsi with Juan as their translator. The second group was made up of Jason, Anne, Reina, and Ricardo along with a Honduran from the church named Eli. Our group was Paul, Alec, and Jacob along with Sarah and Edgar as our translator. We ended up visiting about four homes in all because each of us ended up staying longer than usual at one of the houses.   Our group had the privilege to share with a lady by the name of Erica who had a son by the name of Anderson (3 years old).  After about an hour of explaining to her "For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith-not by works-" Ephesians 2:8-9 our translator lead her through prayer and she accepted Christ as her savior! When we were ready to leave we decided to pass out our stuffed animals...what was for a few minutes a nice and orderly line turned into a free-for-all mob to get the precious little toys. At dinner two people from the Missouri team came up to Mr. Marron and asked if he had talked to a lady by the name of Erica. They said they had gotten into a conversation with her after we had left (their team ended up staying a little later) and found that we had already shared the gospel with her--they said that she was very excited about accepting Christ. Later on we had a great devotional time where everyone shared their stories of the day and we all prayed together. We are looking forward to what God has in store for tomorrow and the rest of the week...although were quite saddened when we realized that we are already half way through the trip.

Adios y hasta luego!

Here are a few for tonight. The family in the house is one of the families where the husband who we were sharing with accepted Christ.

-T

Hello from Jacob and Reina! Today was our first day of actual manual labor, and near death experiences. More to come on that later.

We started breakfast at around 8 this morning, and it was delicious, of course. Afterwards we held a devotional with the Mizzou team. It was led by a person from the other team, and was about being broken in the Lord and having hope. Being here it's easy to see all of the hardships people face daily and it's difficult for many to be hopeful in the varying circumstances they face. It was really encouraging to hear stories of hope being created for the Hondurans through God's promises.

Then both teams traveled to a nearby town called Limon, which is where the tortilla factory, bakery, day care, malnutrition clinic. Also there was a place where they roast delicious Honduran coffee, using a machine called “el tostador”. (Jacob thinks that's an awesome name, because it sounds vicious.) In the tortilla factory there's now a machine that allows 5,000 tortillas each hour. And no, that's not a typo. They can really make 5,000 an hour. The bakery also had a new addition in the form of a gas oven. We had samples of tortillas and this delicious sugar bread. We also tried some roasted coffee beans and some people had cups of coffee.

Next we went to the malnutrition clinic and daycare. At the daycare, the kids sang a song in Spanish and had some cool dance moves. They also had two of the children recite all 66 books of the Bible (I don't think anyone from the teams can accomplish the same feat… Honduran kids: 1, Americans: 0.) Everyone was excited about the kids singing Feliz Navidad in English, and then the playing began!

All the kids and everyone from both teams went out to the playground. We started giving the kids rides on our shoulders, pushed them on the swings, and played soccer. Also Mr. Millar had a puppet that the kids really enjoyed. The entire interaction was pretty chaotic; people were running everywhere, translators were being used to their full potential trying to help us communicate and there was a lot of laughter.

We went back to the hotel for lunch, and then the real work began. The Mizzou team went to Casa Hogar to clear a field for a new park that going to be constructed and our team went back to Limon for various projects there. The majority of the team (Mr. and Mrs. Millar, Anne, Becca, Reina, Kelsi, Sara and Ricardo) began painting the outside of the malnutrition clinic while Jacob, Alec, Jason and Juan went with Levi to get cinder blocks to fill holes in the walls of the tortilla factory.

Painting was really interesting. It started off as a typical painting job: grab some buckets of paint, a few rollers and get going. We painted an entire wall when the raucous activity began. Some of us (mainly the kids, I'll admit it) decided to have a slight paint war. We painted our hands and imprinted them on each other's faces, arms, legs, etc. As we type this, most of us are still covered in the green paint. After short break we started on the opposite side of the building and had to push ourselves to complete that wall today, especially since we're putting on another coat tomorrow. About ¾ through the second wall, Anne bought some of the sugar bread from the bakery and we had a mini feast, and waited for the boys to return.

Meanwhile, the other team (Jacob, Alec, Jason, Juan, Levi) drove up to Casa Hogar to get blocks. All of us got in the back of a pickup truck, except for Levi who was driving. (This is the near death experience.) Now you have to realize that we were, at the moment, in the poor parts, so the roads were dirt with many potholes, rocks, etc. We were driving on this road and we think Levi was purposely hitting every pothole at first because he didn't seem to miss any. We were a little scared at this point and several times we nearly flew out of the truck. Finally after driving in circles for awhile on a decent road we made it Casa Hogar easily. When we were there we loaded up 102 bricks onto the truck. Then we drove around town for a bit, I'm still not sure why. We stopped at a hardware store and added 8 bags of concrete to our load (only 5 of which actually made it) and a folded 20 foot long rusty, metal grate thingy (which was wrapped around Alec… sort of, and would have cut off his head if Levi had slammed on the breaks). So when we were traveling back on the terrible road we managed to hit a very big pothole. Remember we are in the back of a truck with no seatbelt so we flew very high in the air nearly causing us to fall out. At this time we lost a bag of concrete and Alec nearly lost his head…well kind of…the wire thingy was just hitting his and everyone else's neck. The near death experience was that the wire flew into and took out Juan's eye… just kidding. So then we got back and unloaded everything and cleaned up the spilled concrete.

After all of the ridiculous shenanigans, we got back to the hotel for a great dinner, and then we went to Wendy's. Yes, really. We indulged in frostys and French fries and loved every minute of it.

Reina, Jacob and a little bit of Alec

This is Anne.  I hope this will help you get a glimpse of what we are seeing here.

Today was our first full day in Choluteca, Honduras.  We started our day with breakfast and devotional with the Mizzou team, which gave us an opportunity to get to know them better since we would be spending a lot of time together.

The church in Choluteca gave us a presentation about what they do in the community and after seeing it several times, I didn’t think I would have learned anything new.  But every year, the church’s influence in the community seems to increase.

They have a Malnutrition Clinic, Day Care Center for single mothers, Tortilla Factory, Bakery, Roasted Coffee, Micro Loans, and Casa Hogar Vida.  We were shown who and how the church is trying to help people through these programs.  Among very successful ones, we were reminded how there are also very heart-breaking one.  Where we are reminded of how broken this world is.  One stands out with Casa Hogar Vida.  The church came across a couple who were becoming new parents.  Through the process, they found out they were both HIV+.  While they were in the hospital, the church shared with them, but when they went back to their home and the stigma people have about HIV, the husband committed suicide.  The wife visited the church office where Luz, who was in a very similar situation, shared about the truth of HIV and of the hope in the Lord.  She was still very sad and depressed and when she returned to her town, she decided to kill her baby and herself.  This is the reality of things here and the need is great.  And this is what we contemplated as we had lunch.

The second half was visiting Casa Hogar Vida, one of their biggest projects.  Since we were last there, they now have a brick factory, and some families who have moved into the homes, which we had a chance to visit with.  The only 2 requirements for someone to be able to get one of the homes are that they do not currently own a home and that will not be able to own one.  Their plans have slightly changed when they meet Brenada, a lady who is a single mother living with HIV and cancer.  Her situation was like any other with no support and outcast by others.  She is very sick and with lots of prayer the leadership decided to let her and her family live in the orphanage building.  Pastor Gyovanny, who is also a doctor, thinks she will not improve and will die soon.  We visited in teams and had a chance to prayer for her and her family.  When the time comes, we can be assured that she will be in Heaven with Jesus our Savior.

This is such a little thing but when I entered the room to visit her, I noticed the wheelchair we brought last year.  It was just something in our house we were using anymore but God knew that it would be helpful to someone here at this time.  It warms my heart to know that something we brought it helped ease her here and made a difference, however small in her life.

As I write this, I am reminded of the devotional this morning on Romans 10.  In verse 14, it says “And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?”  I ask myself, am I willing to obey and not let my fear control me?  To see how God will use us as the resources to change lives.  However small we may feel, how great will our impact be!

Our day for most of us as we started towards the airport from our homes loaded with heavy bags filled with work clothes and gifts from Operation Honduras, toothbrushes from local dentists, stuffed animals from the outgrown toy baskets, and other useful items for our Honduran brothers and sisters here in Choluteca. When we left, it was a blustery 20 degrees with wind chill (warm compared to what I hear it is right now!), and we arrived in Choluteca 14 hours later (five and a half hours of flight, three hours of driving, waiting, etc), at about 3:30 pm DC time where the temperature was a dry 93 degrees. Wow, what a difference! No one lost their passports, boarding passes, wallets, or other important items, and we arrived safely and very tired.

We had a quick lunch and took some down time to get settled in our rooms before the evening service at the Choluteca church. We were feeling more refreshed as we rode in the bus with the windows open to the church, and the dry early-evening air had the faint aroma of Honduran food being prepared in the homes we were driving by. Pulling in to the church parking area, we were very impressed by the recently completed expansion which at least doubled the area of the worship center and gave it a modern look. We enjoyed praise and worship in Spanish and a message that was translated for us about changing the way we think in the new year. We each have 365 days of new opportunity to serve God and His purpose for us. It was a very encouraging message.

After that, we came back and had dinner with the other church team who is here and wrapped up the night with a planning meeting and prayer time. As I write, Alec, Jacob, Becca, Kelsi, and Reina with the translators are down there playing Nertz! We have a big day tomorrow, and we thank you for so many of your faithful prayers and support leading up to the trip.

-Tom

10 Evergreen members going to Honduras.
3 going for the first time.
2 going for the second trip.
5 going for the third time.
80 bags from Operation Honduras
17 suitcases of our stuff & donated clothes, medicine, stuff animals, and fabric
2 churches working together for 7 days
1 common mission

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” - Matthew 28:19-10