Thursday Morning Update from Honduras

Good morning to all!

It's another glorious day in Honduras. The activities that we do everyday may start to sound repetitive, but great works are being accomplished daily. 3 more houses were completed yesterday, some in very difficult locations too! A group traveled to Mololoa to help cook and serve lunch and to hand out vitamins to 200 families. These 150 children in this village are provided a hot meal everyday, which is a non-profit supported work. The group also finished digging the trench for the water pipe that will provide running water to the church and school. The pipe was being laid by the end of the day yesterday! Another group packaged 50 lbs of vitamins in individual ziplock bags for a one year supply of vitamins to each recipient. They then traveled to the hospital for another visit with the children and their families to pass out juice boxes, toys and New Testament Bibles to the adults. The families are so appreciative of our efforts to bring a smile to their child's face, even if it is for just a moment. We traveled in pairs around the various wards and as Alex and I went together from room to room. I was amazed at how receptive the families were when Alex would ask before leaving if we could pray with them. Everyone would immediately agree and we would all stand in a circle, holding hands as Alex prayed a prayer written in Spanish that he could read. I don't think that we would receive the same reception in the states, emphasizing the true hunger and thirst for God here in this country.

All the teams returned for our evening meal here at the hotel, followed by our nightly devotional. David Boyer challenged each of us in our last few days here to look beyond our comfort zone to experience all that we can while here in this country, to reach out and get to know one another on a deeper level. The bonds of friendship and brother and sisterhood are being forged by our shared experiences of service. We all are learning that in order to obey God, you need to take risks.

The adventurous of our group traveled two blocks from the hotel and played indoor soccer for 2 hours. There was also a large group that went to cheer on and watch as spectators. Great fun was had by all and a weary, somewhat banged up group of soccer players returned to their beds to get ready for another day.

My next update will probably be tomorrow morning again. As you can see, I am much more a morning person and there truly is not much energy left by the end of the day. Many pictures are being taken, but only Tonia has the ability to download her pictures to the computer. Tonia became the next victim of the bug going around so she has been out of commission for the last couple of days at the worksites to take pictures that can be posted. I have my camera with me at every site, but just don't have the time to dig it out of the backpack most of the time. We have such limited time to complete a house before we have to get off the mountain, so the work becomes a frantic-paced activity as the clock ticks down to quitting time. Everyone so desperately wants to finsh their home so the family can sleep in it that night. For the most part, most of the homes have been completed the same day. Occasionally, building obstacles have prevented that goal, so a finishing crew will return to sites the following day to complete anything that did not get finished.

We have not returned to the internet cafe for the group to write their emails or been able to pass the journal around to post messages back home. Our days start early and end very late. Please know that we all are fine, some of us are having to fight off colds and the unlucky few with the dreaded stomach bug. Eveyone is being taken care of and we will try our best to post messages to home tonight.

I'll leave you with this thought for the day: If what you are doing doesn't require faith, then you are living faithlessly. Rick Warren - Let's all strive to live a faith filled day today.

All our love from Honduras,
suzanne