Flashlight Baptisms

After Sunday night church in Mogote 6 people decided to be baptized. It was already dark and it is illegal to be in the river after dark (I´m not sure why... but that is the word) so we made plans to go to the Mateo church and use their pila (a tank of water) to baptize them. We loaded up 32 people in 2 trucks and headed down the Mogote mountain towards the country of Mateo. It was a beautiful night and we arrived at the Mateo church but there was no lights. So with cell phones and one flashlight the 6 new christians were added to the family.

I am often amazed at the dedication of the people here. They could have waited, not crammed into a truck with 12 people in the bed, they didn´t have extra clothes, but they had made a decision and they were going to go through with it.

Busy Spring Break

Things have finally settled down after our Memorial Road Spring Break group has left. It was so busy, but it was so fun. We feel like our family has grown and we now count families from Mem Road as part of our extended family.

The group accomplished some really neat things while they were here. We had two carnivals, one in Mogote, and one in Izopo. In Mogote we have talking about the "Carnival of Prizes" for months now, getting the kids excited about it, and about coming to bible class. They had to come to bible class 5 times in the last 3 months to be able to attend. It was a huge success and so intricately planned with a cake walk, digging for burried treasure, throwing games, and a bounce house. It was so much fun for the kids to have something so special just for them. We all had a blast.

The group also built 10 houses, poured 32 bags of concrete in Mogote, built a pipe system in the creek at Baxter, held 2 carnivals, 2 medical clinics, and did more than I'm sure I even know about. It was such a neat group, we love them.

In Mogote the next project is a baptistry. The church is in great need of a baptistry. Right now if someone decides to get baptized they have to go down to the river rich is about a 20 minute car ride, they can't go at night, and only as many people as can fit in the truck can go to witness it. The neatest thing about this new project though is that each church member is contributing by bringing bricks to church each service. They bring as many as they can afford, usually just 2-3 bricks, but it is so neat to me that they are taking a stake in building it. It is also a sacrifice for most of them to buy bricks. I am learning more and more from the people in Mogote, they are such a blessing to me and I am honored to get to work with them.

Things are going well. We are still looking for a truck and hope we may be close to finding a good one. The people at the stadium continue to open up to us. Last night we all received bracelets from Hector which he would normally try to sell to make a little bit of money. Excercise class with the ladies at church is going really well, we now have an aerobic video in Spanish, which has made it much easier for everyone to follow, and we also have a few more pairs of tennis shoes from the group for the ladies to wear.

Special Delivery

After being here for almost 7 months we sometimes feel like we are fully adjusted to the new culture we live in and nothing really can suprise us or seems strange or different anymore, especially when there are groups here or people visiting. We are sorta like Honduras tour guides to visitors and mission brigades at times explaining the why´s and how´s of this part of the world that we have grown to love. But there are times when we are suprised and get a laugh at our ignorance of some ¨normalcies.¨

We had seen this type of delivery before and got a huge laugh. We were very dissappointed to not get a picture thinking that our chance was gone forever. Not true. While riding in the back of the truck the other day we saw another one. The guy laughed as we took his picture. I am continually amazed at the inginuety in the lack of resources. There is no way I could make this happend with 1 rope. Not to mention the balance it takes to keep this thing stable at 60 MPH while turning or going slow in the usual traffic jams here. In case you can´t see the picture because of the glare, this is a clothes washing machine.

Work in Mogote

We are back in the full swing of things trying to get everything ready for the spring break group next Friday. We are pouring the rest of the concrete slab in this next week. We have had some awesome help from some of the boys in Mogote. They range in age from 10-13 and have been a great help to us. They love working, if we are up there and they know we are going to pour concrete that day they stick around and do whatever they can to pitch in. Some of these kids come from really broken homes, but as tough as they are they still love to give and get hugs.

Pouring concrete is quite the process. We order sand, rock, rebarb, and bags of cement in the morning. They deliver it outside the door to the church. After getting the rebarb in the holes we crank up the mahcine, then start the mixing. One bucket of water, 2 of rock, 2 of sand, add the 92 lb. bag of concrete, 2 more rocks, 1.5 more sand. Then Darwin and Ariel have worked out a system to push-pull the wheelbarrow full of concrete up the 5 steps and around the side of the church and dump it wherever Will tells them, then Will smoothes it and makes it nice.

It is hard work but we really enjoy getting to do it together with people from Mogote and are excited about the kitchen!