Running in the snow

Another sign that I'm nuts (f0r at least some of you): I absolutely love running in the snow. And that's what I did this morning. It was wonderful!

As I watched the forecast late last week I really was concerned that running might not happen today or tomorrow, so I went long yesterday: 12 miles. Then I got to thinking that I could probably get a run in this morning before the snow got too deep. I ran from the church building and managed to slog out 5 miles. The streets in town are pretty much empty, so I was able to run on compacted snow. It was pretty good footing.

I made my way over to Doc Hamilton Blvd and ran from Rabbitsville Road out to Highway 37. I was actually exploring a course for a new race that will be held in Mitchell on Thanksgiving morning. The Give Thanks 4 race is going to be a part of the Mag 7 series, and I think we will have a good turnout. Maybe our slogan will/should be: RUN, eat, sleep... We'll see. We're hoping that a lot of people will want to get some exercise in and maybe the college kids and others who come back into to town for Thanksgiving will want to run.

Back to work...

The Dump in Tegucigalpa, Honduras

Building a House in Honduras

Catching up!

Wow, the last few days have been busy. That's to be expected of course, but it doesn't leave much time to do this or a few other "extras."

The more I reflect on our trip, the more I see how wonderful it was. As Dan said on Sunday, "It's way more than about building houses." We are establishing relationships in the name of Jesus, sharing his love and showing his love AND receiving the same from Hondurans.

I'm about to catch up on my work. My Church History class is the hardest thing I am doing right now. It requires a lot of prep, which is fine. When I teach N.T. or O.T. lit. I can easily draw upon years and years of study. Not so with church history! Right now we are looking at the church counsils, which are very interesting. Next week it will be Augustine; looking forward to thinking through him again.

Running is going well. I did my tempo yesterday morning with my friend Tim. Finally got sub-7s: 6.58, 6.57, & 6.57. Yee Haw! Still losing weight, which is good. I am getting a body fat analysis later today.

I've included some more photos from our last day in Honduras. We made our way, with the help of Pedro (see previous post), to the Jesus statue that overlooks Tegucigalpa. It (He) is awesome! Enjoy!

Honduras January 2010 Day 7

Honduras January 2010, Day 7

I really wasn’t planning on writing anything today, but I woke up early and wanted to share something that happened last night. Dan, Darrin, Steve, and I were sitting at the table after finishing a very good meal of chicken and rice and other stuff. We were talking about the trip and the future of our Help for Honduras ministry. It was a great conversation.

As we were talking, Pedro the security guard came to us and pulled out a chair. He sat down. Pedro can’t speak a word of English. He tries, but he just really struggles (like we do with Spanish). Even though the language barrier is large, he and Dan have become friends. Somehow they communicate. They share pictures of family and try to teach each other words from their respective worlds. Through Dan’s influence and example, Pedro has become a friend to all of us.

Yesterday, as we prepared to leave for the day, we allowed Pedro to look through some of our giveaway goodies. He carefully selected clothes for his little children. We also gave him a little table and chair set for his kids. He was so grateful.

As he sat down with us last night, he put his hands together and motioned heavenward. He said, in very broken English, something about praying. We all bowed our heads and listened to one of the most beautiful prayers I’ve heard in a long time. I don’t know much of what he said, but I know it was from the heart. I heard, “mucho gracias” several times.

Mucho gracias, indeed.

Honduras January 2010, Day 6

Today was our last day to work, and it turned out to be a beautiful day! Bright sunshine and temps in the 80s followed a foggy, misty start to the day. Everything went well with the build today.

We have been blessed in many ways by Mark Connell. The more I get to know him the more impressed I am with him and his work. One of the things that made our work easier this week was that Mark brought his “boys” with him each day. He intentionally mentors more than a dozen young men. Most of them do not have a father active in their lives. Mark is teaching and showing them God’s love and how to be a godly man. He pays them each day for their work. I think it’s about 5 dollars, which is a good day for most Hondurans. I’ve included a photo of today’s team.

Our build today was unusual in that it was way out on a sparsely populated mountain. It was a neat place with good views. It is the dry season here so it is not especially green and beautiful. Everything is a dull green.

After the build we drove out to Casa de Esperanza (“House of Hope”). It is the other children’s home where our October team installed a water treatment system. We were informed yesterday that it wasn’t working properly. A quick investigation revealed that someone had opened a valve that was allowing the water to bypass the system. It was an easy fix.

Today Manuel was accompanied by his sister, Angelica. She looks to be about 15. She, like Manuel, is very sweet. She jumped right in with a hammer and helped us with the build.

We unloaded all the tools and spent some time organizing everything. The next builders should find everything ready to go. We’re now back at the mission house awaiting another scrumptious supper. Smell like chicken to me. Pollo!

Now that our work is over, it is time to reflect on what it all means. I hope to address that briefly on Sunday. Lord willing we’ll have some good photos and a video to share. For now we thank God and all of you for making this trip wonderful. I am eager to get home and see Kedra, Rebecca, and Ben!

We leave the mission house at 9 in the morning, and we leave Honduras about 1 p.m. Unfortunately we have a 3+ hour layover in Houston and will not arrive in Indy until nearly 11 p.m. I hope to be in my bed by 1 a.m.

Thanks again! Please pray for traveling mercies.

Honduras January 2010, Day 6

Honduras January 2010 Day 5, Thursday

[We had no electricity or water when we got back yesterday evening. They both got restored some time over night.]

I just saw a teenage Honduran boy get into a truck. He was wearing a bright yellow jacket that had the name of a school and the word “Cheerleader” boldly written across the back. I think he has no idea what the jacket says, but he is very grateful to have it. It’s a little cooler here today, low 70s I would guess. It was cloudy most of the time with a heavy mist periodically falling.

It was another good day, and it started in the same way for me: a run and another yummy breakfast. After breakfast Dan, Darrin, Steve, and I met Mark at the warehouse. Then we headed out to the work site. We went to a different area today. The build was right behind a Church of Christ building.

The house was built at the request of the Mayor of Tegucigalpa. He has donated lots of tin for the roofs. His wife wanted to come to the dedication, but could not make it. She plans to visit in the next few days. I thought that was all kinda neat. Torch Missions has a wonderful relationship with the mayor, and some of our Torch leaders know personally and have a good relationship with the new President of Honduras.

The lady for whom we built the house was so grateful. For a living she makes and sells what looks like the elephant ears you get at the fair or the Persimmon Festival. She had a tub of them and insisted that we eat one. I was leery, but Mark said it might insult her if we did not take one. So in the name of Jesus, and a with quick prayer of gratitude and mostly for gastrointestinal protection, I took one. She then squirted some kind of red sauce all over it. Man, it was good! I’ll know soon whether I should have eaten one or not. I have my bottle of Cipro ready! Steve and Darrin also ate one.

Dan didn’t. He was too busy being the big-hearted generous guy that he is. He started passing out clothes, shoes, and toys. It didn’t take long for the lines to form. Once that happens you are committed until everything is gone. Many of you donated many wonderful things. The folks at the Bryantsville Church of Christ sent lots of very nice clothes. A lot of those were distributed today. Thank you!

We gave the recipient of the house a bag of corn and a beautiful blanket that was made by Phyllis Mundy. The lady loved it. The house was dedicated to Steve’s parents. They have been very generous and helpful with our Help for Honduras ministry.

After our build we made our way to the Baxter Institute. It is a school that trains evangelists for all over Central and South America. They have about 50 students from 10 different countries. We met the new President of the institute, Howard Norton. He was very gracious and gave us a nice history of the place. It is a very impressive place. Beautiful.

Manuel continues to be my big buddy. He is helping me learn Spanish in a very playful way. We have a phrase book, and we’ve been looking up silly things. Today we started singing Feliz Navidad. It was hilarious to hear him try sing the English parts. Then I started singing Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean’s not my lover...” Manuel then started singing it. It was clear that he was faking the words. I suppose you had to be here, but it sure cracked me up.

Manuel lives in a Torch house that was built some time ago. Dan, Darrin, Steve, and I were talking about how he always is clean, neat, and dressed in clean clothes. It’s hard to imagine how he does it. The same is true for Murlon, the recipient of yesterday’s house. It gives us some sobering insight into life here. Even the people who look a lot like us and value neatness and cleanliness are living in little boxes without any modern conveniences.

Tomorrow we build our last house for this trip. Following the build we plan to visit the other children’s home where we installed a water treatment system in October. We also plan to stop at a medical clinic.

This trip has been wonderful in many ways. Dan, Darrin, and Steve are a joy to spend time with. We have all been blessed in many ways. We would all appreciate your prayers for a good final day of work.

Honduras January 2010, Day 5

Honduras Day 4, Wednesday

[To better view the photos, click on the one below (hold your Ctrl key to open a new window) and then click on “slide show.” This will allow you to see the pictures better, including the captions. You can slow the slide show down also by clicking the “minus” sign.]

Words are woefully inadequate to describe what we saw and felt today; more on that later.

We had another wonderful breakfast at 7 a.m. I managed to run 3 miles before that. I am finding that running at altitude is a little harder than running back home.

After a good breakfast we took off for the warehouse. We had a young man ride down with us, Manuel. He is 13 and became my buddy today. He is the son of Rosa, a lady who used to work at the mission house. Many of us got to know Rosa last summer.

The ride into the city was smooth this morning. We think it was because of the presidential inauguration. Maybe the people had the day off? We were glad to get to the warehouse and back out before anything happened. We were a little concerned that streets might be blocked off, etc. We had no problem, and we guess everything went well with the inauguration. We saw some fighter jets fly over this afternoon and then heard some noises that we hope were fireworks.

The build today was challenging. Solid rock in a couple of places. We had to reduce the house from 16 feet wide to 12 feet because of the rocks. It took us an hour and a half to set the posts. We also had to cut a tree down and remove it. Sadly the tree fell on Dan’s backpack and crushed his camera. Believe it or not, it still works!

Once the posts were set, everything came together pretty well. It was an uneventful build for the most part. We interrupted it around lunch time to travel to the dump.

I have never seen anything like what I saw today at the dump. I’ve seen picture and heard stories, but being there in person is simply shocking. I was pretty well stunned. People live there, and they compete with buzzards, dogs, and cattle to find food and items they can sell. The sights, sounds, and smells are beyond words. I felt like weeping.

We took a bunch of food and passed it out of the back of a pickup truck. I’m not sure how many we fed, but it was quite a few. Men, women, girls, and boys all lined up to receive a hot meal and a drink of fresh water. I took lots of video and hope to have a DVD ready for Sunday morning.

After our time at the dump, we returned to the building site. As we were finishing up the house, dozens of people gathered, as they always do. A little boy and a little girl were playing with a couple of our hammers and nails. Suddenly we heard this terrible scream from the little girl. We looked and saw blood dripping, at a fairly rapid rate, from her finger. The little boy accidently hit her. We had a nurse on site today, so she took care of everything.

After the girl calmed down and was bandaged up, I presented her with a Dora the Explorer doll. This doll has a little history. Some of our little girls at church had a little dispute about the doll a couple of weeks ago. It was funny for those of us not parenting them! Anyway, the Dora doll is now in the hands of a sweet little Honduran girl who had a very rough day. There are some photos below.

Today’s house we built in memory of Clint Gorman, Teresa Birtles’ father. The young man receiving the house has a wife and 2 children. His name is Murlon. He works at the mission house as a maintenance man. He is very sharp, friendly, likeable, and speaks a little English. We did not get to meet his family today, unfortunately.

After dedicating the house, providing him with a bag of Bryantsville corn, and a bag of goodies, we went to the special needs orphanage. Wow. “First the dump and now this.” It was pretty tough. We plan to install a water treatment system there in the summer. We need about $2,000 to do it.

The Lord continues to bless us as we are striving to live out Matthew 25:31 and following. Truly we are serving the “least of these” in the name of Jesus. They are truly grateful, and so are we. We are very grateful for those of you are praying for us and have made it possible for us to build five houses this week.

Please keep praying for us. Thanks!

Honduras January 2010, Day 4