Trying to get back into a routine...

It's been a good day so far, and there's more to come! I got up early (5ish) and did my usual routine of reading and being quiet for while. We sat down for a quick family breakfast, and then I took off. I dropped some stuff at the church building and headed out to the Park for a 10 miler. It was cool enough, but the humidity/dew point made things less comfortable than last week. Oh well...

Back to the building for a quick shower and a little more reading and check-in with the wonderful food pantry workers before heading over to Oakland City U to teach a couple of classes. In between classes I had lunch with Pat A., which is always an enjoyable thing to do. After my last class I stopped by the gym for the first time in a few months. I have to work on my core and upper body some. I left there and got home a little after 4, I think.

Supper is about ready, which will be followed by JV football. Ben had a great game last week, but he ended up with some bruised/cracked ribs. He's not sure when it happened; he had several hard tackles and got hit pretty hard a few times himself.. He did not dress out Friday night but plans to play tonight. I hope he is OK.

I have entered into one the busier phases of life, which is OK. I seem to perform better when I am the busiest; seem to get more efficient. My running is going well. I have managed to average more than 40 miles a week during the heat wave and hope to enter the 50s this week. The marathon is only 9 weeks from Saturday.

Encouragement!

I showed this video this morning as a part of my sermon about encouragement. God "comes alongside" to encourage, and we are to do the same for others, with the encouragement we receive from God.

Thanks to Carrie Williams, now residing in Alaska, for sending this video to me!

Back soon!

I know, I know...

I just needed a little break, and now I have pretty well completed it. This week my school year routine begins as I begin teaching a couple of classes at Oakland City U. in Bedford. I am looking for to the classes and to the routine. Summer break is good in a lot of ways, but I do better with more structure.

SO come back in a couple of days or so, and I should have something for you. Thanks for checking in from time to time.

Looking Ahead

[Sorry I didn't get this written yesterday. I still had some residual tiredness from the trip.]

We are very excited about our future work in Honduras! I was hoping this recent trip would, among other things, allow us to make key contacts to help us plan our future strategy. It did! We were able to have a couple of very significant conversations.

We want to work in one village, making repeated trips to the same place. We will get to know the people, and they will get to know us. We are in the process of identifying a village. The one we have in mind has no church and only receives water once a day for two hours. It is poorer than most of the surrounding villages.

There is a medical training school that plans to build a clinic in this village and is looking for a church to help with it. The Baxter Institute wants to help plant a church in the village. We hope to be a partner with both of these things. We would like to build a tank to hold water, build houses, distribute food, help build a church building, and many other things. We are actively praying for guidance.

I don't know what the future holds, but I know who holds the future. I am excited about walking into it.

Final Report

I feel pretty good, which is surprising since I had so little sleep. I'll probably crash later.

Here are some stats from our trip. We, the team of 160,:

• Built 14 houses
• Had 5 food distributions, delivering 1250 bags, which is 26,250 meals
• Built a really cool playground
• Painted a daycare
• Built a security fence where women and girls are often raped (huge problem in Honduras)
• Painted a church building in Choluateca, inside and outside
• Built 27 pews and painted them
• Helped 180 families in Choluateca with clothes, shoes, and toys
• Did 6 hours of "make-overs" that included washing hair and feet
• Saw 530 people in our medical clinics
• Had 6 sessions of VBS
• Fed people at the dump
• Painted a church building in Catacamas
• Held evangelistic meetings 2 nights that had 161 and 224 in attendance
• Made 6 hospital visits
• Visited 3 children's homes
• Painted a mural at a boy's orphanage
• Repaired a playground
• Distributed more than 1000 Bibles
• Survived 3 major bus breakdowns
• Organized the warehouse
• Did other good things

Wow, we did a lot! Our team of 21 participated in a lot of these activities.

Soon, in another post, I will share our plans for the future. Lord willing, we are going to make some significant and exciting changes in strategy. We are very excited about our future work in Honduras!

Thank you for all your prayers. God truly blessed us with a great (and safe) trip!

Here are a few leftover pictures; some from our awesome worship in a 500 year old church building and some from our delay in the airport.

Honduras Summer 2010 wrap-up

A couple of videos

Our team did not get to go to the dump on this trip, but in the future we plan to make a trip there a regular activity. This video was shot in January. It is shocking.


Our church family donated the funds to build 7 house on our trip this summer. Here is a video from January that shows how a house is constructed.

Back Home in Indiana

We arrived at our respective homes around 1 this morning. We had a nearly 2 hour delay leaving Honduras but still made our connection in Houston. I'll have more to say later, and I hope to have another photo album up before the day is over.

Thanks.

Day 9 & 10 Honduras Summer 2010

We are back in Tegucigalpa, arriving yesterday. We are staying at a very fancy hotel, which is disturbing after all the poverty we have witnessed this week. It does not feel right to be living in the lap of luxury when people are hungry with 200 yards of us. We are here due to the mission house hosting another group that is starting their work today. Oh well...

Our trip from Choluateca was fairly uneventful and was considerably quicker than the trip out, which was a pleasant surprise. We climbed from sea level to about 4800 feet. The air here in Teguc is still humid but much cooler.

Last night our group joined with others to comprise a crowd of more than 300. We all bussed out to the oldest church building in the western hemisphere, Santa Lucia. The building was constructed by the Spanish in 1530! It is an amazing building full of rich history. Last night’s worship in song was wonderful! Powerful.

Today is an unstructured day. Various ones are doing various things. I wish we were flying home today, but tomorrow is coming soon. This evening our group of 21 is gathering for a couple of hours to “unpack” the trip, looking for honest expressions of impressions from each team member. We will use the information in several different ways, including looking for ways that we can improve the trip. We plan to make several changes.

Even before “officially” hearing from each team member, I know that there have been many power moments of transformation. I believe it was clear to most of us that when we were looking into those large brown Honduran eyes we were looking into the eyes of Christ. How beautiful he is.

I am not able to upload pictures presently. I will try later.