January 26, 2009

While we were updating the blog our little gecko friend was hanging out on the converter on the desk beside the computer. You can see his tail on the backside of the converter. He accompanies us many times while we are working on the computer. He was too bashful when we tried to get a picture of his entire body.

January 23, 2009 - Food Distribution

After the food was passed out the team along with church members and many from the community gathered to pray on the spot where they want to build a roof for the church to meet under. Also, a short video of the event. The guys on the right is Saul (superintendent of the Bible Institute) and Beto (the pastor of the church)

January 23, 2009 - Food Distribution

More pics. The tables are the kitchen for one of the houses. The sign on the other house says "Me and my house will serve the Lord."

January 23, 2009 - Food Distribution

More pics from the community. Here are some of the people and houses in the community.

January 23, 2009 Food Distribution

Today we took the team to a community where we have our newest church. Presently the church meets in a house. The team passed out four lbs. of beans and four lbs. of rice to each family - about 80 families. The community gets it's water from the 55 gallon drum as water drains into it from the rain runoff.

January 22, 2009 - Pool Party

A short video from the day. The kids only get to go to the pool one day per year so they take full advantage of it. They also had a nice covered soccer field. Some of the kids, the house dads, and some of us gringos played some soccer. We all had so much fun playing together we're discussing having a kids versus adult game at Faith Home. Not much doubt on who will win. The only chance the adults have is because one of our two kids that play professionally has a broken foot and won't be able to play.

January 22, 2009 - Pool Party

The Food. The pool served everyone chicken strips (probably why there were so many chickens running around - didn't see as many after lunch), fries, salad, and a soft drink. The line waiting to eat and the people eating.

January 22, 2009 - Pool Party

Here are two of our Transition kids (teenagers) - Alan and Irís. And, yes, we did have chickens running around the pool all day.

January 22, 2009 - Pool Party

Today the team that is here took all the kids, house parents, and gringos to a local pool for the day. The kids played in the pool, ate lunch, and played some more. Until they were just too tired to play anymore. That's Greisy, she had nothing left.

January 21, 2009 - Church Service

Tonight we took the team to one of our local churches. The church meets at the house of the pastor. That's the pastor (Arnaldo) preaching.

January 21, 2009

We our into our second week of having teams here. Today, is just beautiful. The temperature is only in the low 70's with the sun shining and a light breeze. We are enjoying the day. Too bad the HEAT is just around the corner.

January 12, 2009

Today was a big day. We went with our teammates (Rodney and Teresa) to try and finish our application for our honduran residency. We had heard horror stories about long lines, not accepting your copies of the paperwork, and various other problems. We tried a new way to get to the immigration office and drove right to it. Pulled in the parking lot and it was full (parking can be quite an adventure in San Pedro Sula) - but someone pulled out of a spot right when we pulled in. This is going so well.

Went into the building and wound our way through the hallways to get to what we thought was the correct office. There was only a short line (we were expecting a very long line and had brought lots of snacks) so we thought maybe we are in the wrong place. Rodney went up to the side of the counter and asked if we were in the right place. The guy said yes and asked for our paperwork and begin working on our applications. This is really going well, we don't even need to wait in the short line. The guy even speaks a little English. This is really, really going well.

We have a folder full of info and documents that our lawyer told us we would need. We are ready. We even have extra copies and extra pictures just in case they are needed. The second document the guy asks for we don't have. It wasn't even on the list of items our lawyer said we would need. Oh no! This is not going well now.

The guy then proceeds to begin filling four copies of a form. Hum, there are four of us and he is filling out four of the same form. Maybe we haven't totally crashed yet. He hands us the forms, tells us to go pay the amount at the bank, and then come back. Wait, did he say come back. That means we are still moving forward.

We go to the bank, wait in line about 10 minutes, pay our fees (ok, the fees were about four times what our lawyer told us they would be - but having lived here for a year we have learned to always take more money than you expect to pay), and returned to the guy helping us.

He took more of our forms along with our pictures, they fingerprinted us, gave us our packet of information, and told us we just needed to bring the form from the General Baptist saying we are employed by them and we could finish the process. What? We've only been here about 45 minutes and we are this close to being done. This can't be.

We left, ate lunch on the way back to Faith Home, when we returned to Faith Home we generated the necessary form for each of us, and headed back to San Pedro Sula. Pulled in the parking lot to the immigration office and once again the lot was full - but as soon as we pulled in someone was pulling out. We parked, went inside, gave the guy the forms we brought, he printed off the form we needed, stamped it, and handed it to us. This was just too easy.

In 60 days or less we can come back and pick up our official residency card, but as of now we are official residents of Honduras. YEA! This process started January 2, 2008 in Chicago when we passed all of our original documents through a little hole in a window along with over $500 in cash only with a promise from the guy that he would mail our documents to us. No receipt - just a promise. He did send the documents and now, after twelve months and paying about $4500 we are legal residents of Honduras for five years. No more worrying about either having to leave the country or having our lawyer drive to the capital and pay money to renew our visa every 90 days. This is a big headache taken care of. We all four were celebrating on the way back to Faith Home.

January 11, 2009

We have our first team of the year here this week and tonight we went to one of our newer churches for the evening service. We arrived at 7:00, which is when the service is suppose to start, and the only person their was the pastor, Raul. It was dark and certainly didn’t look like there was going to be a church service tonight. We asked Raul if there was going to be a service tonight and he said “Yes.” We had brought our own chairs with us so we set up our chairs and waited.

Eventually they brought out the sound equipment and the keyboard and turned on the music. They only play it loud here. Over the next twenty minutes people begin to come and we had about thirty people from the community along the twelve of us packed into this small area under a tin roof.

Raul preached on Apocalipsis 22:12 and 2:23 (Revelation 22:12 and 2:23). Jesus is coming unexpectedly and He will reward everyone for what they have done. This is not our home. We will be rewarded with heaven, no more pain, no more hurt, and no more crying. We have our rewards to look forward to and let’s not forget that. Even though it was in Spanish and we didn’t get all of it, his message was what we needed. And, after the service when we were talking with Raul he told us his message came from God. He didn’t know what he was going to speak on or what he was going to say before the service begin.

January 5 - 9, 2009 Field Council

We had field council this week. That’s where the leaders from the States come in and we have meetings all week discussing various topics. It’s a long week.

January 7, 2009 - One Year Anniversary

January 7th is our one year anniversary here. We have experienced a lot over the past year - fun, laughter, new experiences, making new friends (in the States, Honduras, Guatemala, and Germany), learning a new language(and still needing to learn so much more), learning a new culture (ditto with the language), struggles, family separation, the passing of Cindy’s mom, and learning more about God because of all these experiences.

I guess the one thing that stands out for both of us is that this is much more difficult than we ever thought. How do those who live in hostile cultures manage? We thought we were prepared and ready. We have found that the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual drain is difficult and wears you down. Perhaps we must reach this point to completely trust in and rely on God to bring us through. For God to work in a way that only He can get the credit.