Back Home

We haven't posted in a couple of days. Everyone is resting up and sorting through the volumes of photos. We just want let everyone know we made it home safely, and that good ole American cheeseburger and fries sure hit the spot.

We'll have more updates soon, and also posts on other mission work going on.

Back in Tegucigalpa

Just wanted to let everyone know we are back in Tegucigalpa at the Casal Bed and Breakfast. We will be going to dinner soon.

We met up with Ron and Loretta here and they took us to an artisan village to do some shopping. We had to spend the last of that Honduran currency some place!

I'll try to get some comments from some of the other team members and post them later tonight.

Tomorrow we are leaving for San Pedro Sula. It is a 6 hour journey, but believe me, by the time that 6 hours are over you feel like you've driven to Oregon in a car with no suspension. It is very taxing.

Thanks again for everyone's prayers, we are all safe, all of the little queasy stomachs are better now.

We all can't wait to get home and see everyone.

Wednesday in El Paraiso

First of all thank you to everyone praying for us. Please continue your prayers as some of our members are little under the weather including Alehandro. Nothing serious, just some getting used to the food I think.

Church is on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. The internet cafe closes at 8 local time so tomorrow there will not be a post. However on Friday morning we are leaving for Tegucialpa again. We should be able to post Friday evening and Saturday, and hopefully on Sunday from Houston.

I thought for this post I would just post some random notes from my personal journal and then on Friday we are going to post some from team members journals and comments.

Tonight I put comments on the pictures I posted the other night and I'll try put up some new ones.

Thanks again for everyone's support.
Bob

Day 3 - Sunday

We went to the work site after breakfast. It was a 15 minute walk through streets deep with mud and ruts from tires. There were a couple things that needed done before tomorrow that should have only taken a couple of hours. However the trustee with a key to the tool shed was two mountains away and had to come by bicycle. That took a couple more hours. So we waited and played with kids who flocked around us.

Alfredo was a huge hit, drawing them pictures. Chuck made them some paper airplanes which they flew all over the place, and Josh, Brent, and Alex played soccer with them in the muddy street.

Finally the trustee arived as did a load of sand. The sand was shoveled into buckets and passed brigade style inside the walls, up a scaffolding, up a ladder and dumped into piles onto the roof. A second load of sand was delivered and the process started all over again.

After we got these tasks accomplished we went back to the hotel and took showers, then went with the pastor and Alehandro to Danli where they showed us around. We got to see the Methodist church there that is the model for the one we are working on. It is really nice. It is the second largest Methodist church in Honduras. We also got to meet the pastor. He told us they have about 110 adults and about 80-90 kids coming to their service. He said they have about 165 members.

After we got back from Danli we went to worship with the church and to hear Pastor Santos preach. They had an extra guitar and asked Brent to play with them. He did an awesome job. The service was fantastic. Very lively and the people just welcomed us and were so grateful we had come to work.

A couple things about the service that really struck me was the enthusiastic singing and the fervent, heartfelt prayers.

Day 4 - Monday

Today was our first real work day. We are all amazed at the un-organization we face at the job site. The culture down here is very different from our fast paced, hectic days. They think nothing about waiting two hours for a load of sand or gravel. And EVERYTHING gets re-used. Nothing is wasted. Some of the boards we are using as supports have long seen their better days. But they get the job done.

Yesterday and today we formed bucket brigades and moved 5 loads of sand and gravel from outside where they dumped it to up on the roof. Brent and Josh kept looking to see if their biceps were any bigger. It was a tough job, but everyone jumped in and got it done quickly.

Again today the kids were all around us when school let out. They are so fun. They loved to have their picture taken and today took Donna's camera and took her picture with it. She ended up with a huge number of pictures, most of them of fingers in front of the lens and the ground. The kids just bond so easily with everyone. By the end of the day today, when we left to walk back to the hotel they were hugging us and giving us kisses. The boys love shaking hands and doing fist bumps.

Day 5 – Tuesday

One really cool thing today is that Melvin invited me, Corey, Alfredo, Alehandro, and Jon up to his house. We went in and his sister immediately started getting out chairs for us to sit in the living room. She made is this fantastic coffee, and served it to us in a china tea pot with cups and saucers. During the conversation they made mention to Melvin's dad that Jon wanted to ride a horse. The next thing we knew, here comes Melvin's dad leading a horse through the house! He brings it in the back door, through the kitchen, through the living room and out onto the front porch. It is about half a meter down from the walk to the street. He leads it down the sidewalk to where the walk meets the street and into the street. Jon got on it and rode bareback up and down the street a few times. Much to the amusement of all the locals who came out of their houses to watch “Gringo” ride past on a horse.

After that we walked up to the top of the hill to where the big cross is that overlooks the town. From there you can see all of El Paraiso and have a great view of the church we are working on. We also realized just how close we are to Nicaragua. We had discussed going there to cross the border and get our passports stamped, but Pastor Santos said that was not a good idea and we respected his wishes. From the top of the hill, the very next hills over is in Nicaragua. Less than 10 minutes away from the center of El Paraiso.

Day 1 – Travel and Arrival

This post today is from the journal of one of our team members, Chuck Conley. The internet connection here is really slow and the cafe closes early. Tomorrow I will try to post two posts if possible. Tonight I also was able to post a few photos. You can see them from the link to the photos.

Everyone is doing great and we are all safe.

Chuck's entry:

We left Berea about 12am on July 10^th. Arrived at the airport in Knoxville at 3:30am. Houston at 7am, then San Pedro Sula at 11am.

The drive from San Pedro Sula was quite an experience. This was a 4 to hour trip to Tegucigalpa. Our drivers were aggressive as are all drivers here, and although most miles were on 2 lane highways all the driver considered them three lane highways. What appeared to us to be narrow escapes were, I am sure, every day driving experiences. Another surprise was the mountainous terrain. Most of the driving was up mountains and then down. It was high enough to make the air much cooler.

Tegucigalpa was a surprise in that it was in a bowl in the mountains with houses stacked on the hills and 2 lane streets with buildings and houses right up to the street. Traffic was chaos. No stop signs and if there was one occasionally ti was ignored.

It was a shock to many of our gang to find guards with shotguns at places we stopped.

The hill sides have been denuded with very few trees to provide fuel for cooking. Man 1 room shacks, no doors, no glass in windows. They use cloth coverings. Many hammocks on porches. Many bicycles on the roads, along with many older vehicles. Horses and cows tid up on the side of the roads where they grazed.

We stayed in the Casal Bed and Breakfast in Tegucigalpa and had dinner in an Italian restaurant down the street. Charles Bertrand gave a short devotional.

After about 22 hours of traveling every one was extremely tired. We went to ed about 9:30m local time. It is 6:50am on the 12^th and we are getting ready for breakfast and the two hour trip to El Paraiso.

The team is an interesting mix. I have bee surprised at the lack of awareness of time and place. Perhaps this comes with age. I think Alex is opening up more as many of us have been showing support for him. It is good to interact with the younger people. They are wide eyed. Maxine did not go to dinner last evening. The day was difficult for her although Jon and I handled her baggage for her. She seems recovered this morning. Although I left not feeling well I did Ok yesterday and feel still better this morning, not 100% yet.

It is a great asset to have Alfredo with us. It makes everything much easier. He is also a great people person. He reminds me of Morris.

One of the funniest things was watching people sleep on the 5 hour trip to Tegucigalpa. Bobble heads were everywhere!

We made it

Today we made it to San Pedro Sula airport and met the guys who were there to get us. All went smoothly, not a hassle in the bunch.

We all exchanged a few dollars at the airport, loaded the truck and vans and took off. About 5 hours or so later we ended up at our bed and breakfast in Tegucigalpa. Tomorrow morning early we continue our trip on to El Paraiso.

Tonight we are all turning in pretty early as we have been up since Thursday morning with no sleep.

We hope to be able to continue these updates from El Paraiso so check back often.

T minus 2 hours

Well, we are all double checking our luggage and making ready to meet at the church in just two hours. From there we will load up the van and head down I-75 to Knoxville. Tomorrow we will be eating lunch in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Emotions are running high now, excitement, nervousness, anxiousness. "Do I have everything?" "Will the weather be ok?" "I hope I can remember enough Spanish to ask where the bathroom is!"

We will do our best to keep everyone up to date on what is going on and where we are. Check back often next week and please pray for us often.

Will You Pray for our Honduras Team?

July 10-July 20

7/10 Thursday - Pray for last minute details to be completed. Pray for Safety as our team departs from Berea and travels to Knoxville, TN.

7/11 Friday – Pray for Safety Flying from Knoxville, TN to Honduras. Pray for travel to Tegucigalpa.

7/12 Saturday – Pray for safety as we travel to El Paraiso. Pray for team orientation. Pray for open minds and hearts of team members.

7/13 Sunday – Pray for our Honduras worship experience.

7/14 Monday – Pray for our work on the construction project

7/15 Tuesday – Pray for team members’ family in Berea.

7/16 Wednesday – Pray for team members’ Health.

7/17 Thursday – Pray for team members’ closeness to God.

7/18 Friday – Pray for a day of fun and fellowship.

7/19 Saturday – Pray as the team reflects over the week’s experience.

7/20 Sunday – Pray for safe return from Honduras back to Berea.

Less than 7 Days

In less than 7 days our team will be departing from Berea, KY. We're flying out of Knoxville, TN through Houston, TX and then on to Honduras. We are very grateful that our team funding is almost complete and that all of our travel arrangements have worked out. We have 15 team members and will be taking almost 200 personal hygeine kits and several boxes of kids clothes down to give to the local church. We've had a great support from our individual team members, from our general church body, from our Vacation Bible School kids, and from our community. Please check back in the upcoming week for more up to date post and hopefully additional links that will be on the right side of this page for photos and other interesting links.

Gratefully.
The Berea UMC Honduras Team