Work Day #4 Update

Dear Families, Friends, and Bob,

Sorry for the delay on the update, but I was exhausted last night. We didn't get in from the service until 9:30, and then Dennis led a "short" devotional time in which we mainly talked about how we needed to slow down today so JB would have some sawing to do and some block to lay. We split up into two groups yesterday morning: We all went to the house where I cut the shorter block they would need and then Joel and I went back to the church with Manuel and Jose to finish up the gables. We were aided by the efforts of, among others, Reynaldo who is about six years old, hardly more than 3 feet tall, and carried block, helped take down scaffolding, and carried buckets of mortar, all the while stopping to pull up his sleeves, flex his tiny but powerful muscles, and with a huge smile shout out, "Muy Fuerte!" He has stolen our hearts. Joel properly compared him to Atom Ant; always cheerfully working and mighty in deed.

By the time we got back to the house site, two and a half courses of block had been laid even with some engineering problems because the foundation, which was well laid was not standard measurement. However, those issues were solved and rapid progress was made. The house site sits in a family compound consisting of about five mud houses. It is a high spot on the relatively flat plain of southern Honduras with a tremendous view of the mountains on the other side of the river. It is shady, Jeremy, and the area where I was cutting block has two trees perfectly positioned for a hammock! This was our lunch spot.

The family has been digging a well by hand, with picks and shovels and a pulley, rope and bucket system to bring up the dirt. They get down and back up on a ladder pieced together with pieces of rope and sticks. They are now down to about ten and a half meters and the hole is about 10-12 feet in diameter (we keep a rope on Tom in case he wanders off and falls in under the influence of the painkillers --- just kidding; we don't have that much rope). When asked why they thought they would find water in that spot, Senor Paulino replied that they had prayed and had faith. I wonder how many of us would dig that kind of a hole and expend that kind of effort on faith? Pray that God rewards their faith.

There are four generations of family living in this little piece of God's kingdom. We watched them make tortillas: grandmother grinding the corn into flour, and grandaughter patting out the tortillas by hand while her mother cooked them on a stove made of mud, sticks, and metal. The fire consisted of a few cut branches and on this fire they cooked tortillas, rice, beans and eggs for all the Honduran workers. Later Nurse Cristina performed first aid on a teenage girl who cut her toe under the quiet supervision of Dr. Juan. He said it was a significant cut but not compared to Tom's!

One of the family members had a new baby, four days old. Video of the viewing of the baby is on the blogsite. We watched a mother washing her family's clothes by hand scrubbing them on a stone. All of this done with water pumped from a well down on the main road some half a mile away down a rugged dirt path. To say these people are "dirt poor" is accurate, to refer to them as the "less fortunate" would be an insult since our Lord has proclaimed they are first in the kingdom of heaven. It is our honor to serve them here this week.

The service last night was amazing! There were 170 people there, men, women and children and one dog. The service started with spirited, hand clapping singing including "Because He Lives." We were able to sing along in English. Pastor Mejia then formally opened the service in fervent prayer as members of the congregation prayed their own prayers out loud with him. Then Dennis spoke on our behalf. Gerardo, our interpreter, could not go with us last night because he was attending the funeral of the nanny who raised him. Pastor Mejia, who has a seminary degree, has been teaching himself English for the past two years, ever since he learned his church was on the list to be served by an American missionary team. He was surprised and intimidated by the fact that he would have to serve as interpreter to his congregation, but he did a remarkable job surprising even himself. Many in his congregation were unaware that he had such a command of English. Joel pointed out it was kind of like Pentecost (we experience a lot of those type moments down here). We then watched the powerful and well made "Jesus" movie, based faithfully on the Gospel of Luke. After the movie, an invitation was extended and a young woman, Marianna (about 12) made her public profession of faith, and prayed a prayer accepting Jesus as her Savior with the Pastor. It is amazing to think that someday we will worship with this beautiful girl before the throne of Abba, Our Father, and we were here to witness the moment she became our sister in Christ Jesus. Again we humbly thank you and all of the members of our Church who afford us this opportunity to hserve in this corner of God's Kingdom.

On a more somber note, we will not be going to Tierra Blanca this year. The road has a bandido with an AK-47 and is now considered one of the most dangerous in Honduras. In addition, the Tierra Blanca area was hit by two tragedies recently. The first was an epidemic of dysentery caused by E. coli poisoning from the stream from which the community draws their water. Over two thousand children died; half of the children in the community. The congregation of the church was not hit as hard because of the deep water well at the church which the couple from Greensboro so graciously provided before their untimely death in Iraq. The other tragedy was a tropical storm which wiped out this years corn crop, the community's main supply of food. In response, Gerardo has started a seed bank, with the aid of a trained Honduran horticulturist to allow them to plant beans this growing season. This will create a first time rotation of crops to replenish the soil which has been leached of nutrients by hundreds of years of planting just corn. He currently has one and a half plastic silos full of beans which will supply this years crop to over 85 families. We are donating 1/2 of our mission money to buy more seed for the seed bank, in addition to the distribution of rice and beans to the congregation at Vida Nueva. Just another way that our church's ministry in Honduras will continue to touch lives for years to come.

This was a lengthy update to make up for the delay, but yesterday was an amazing day in the Kingdom - kind of the way they all are wherever we are if we are alive and aware of the presence of the Living Lord in our daily lives!

In His Name,

Team One.