We are in the United States

We just wanted to let everyone know that we are back into the United States, just in time for some good cookouts and fun holiday. We will be traveling to Tulsa from Dallas Saturday morning and then plan on being at Memorial Road for church Sunday morning.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. Please keep praying that the situation is resolved soon and we hope to return as soon as possible. God's plans and timing are bigger than we are and we trust that but still would like to return soon.

We are safe and sound

We just wanted to let everyone know that despite the political situation that is going on here in Honduaras we are safe. Our groups are all heading home by Thursday. We just finalized tickets back for all of our interns too for the same day. We realize no one is giving out courage medals for those who stay so we are also heading for the states on Thursday to Dallas.

It is hard to leave, but we plan on returning to Honduras as soon as possible. We pray that things settle quickly so we can come back to working with people we have come to know and love.

Stories from the Stadium

The last week has been really good at the stadium with some cool things happening that are fun to share.

Suyapa, the gum seller, told me the other night that when she talks to her dad, she asks him to take care of Raquel and the other people in her group that bring the food. It took me a second to figure out that she meant when she was pryaing she asked God her father to take care of me. Wow. I was floored. She prays for me? Wow! The simple faith of people can be astounding.

One guy that we have been having some problems with in the past showed up last night. It had been a while since he had been around because one time he got so angry that he threw his food in Darwin´s direction and all over the truck. I was content that he hadn´t been around in a while causing problems, but he came back last night and apoligized to all of us individually. That is pretty awesome.

One guy who is always happy and always wearing clothes that are too big for him named Carlos and I were having a chat last night. He was interested in how long we were going to be here and I said we are going to be here for 2 years for sure and after that we have a big decision to make about what we will do after that. I said it´s hard because we have friends and family in the states that we really miss, but if we leave we will miss people here in Honduras too. I asked him what he thought and he said, well that decision is yours. But he sat and thought for a moment and then asked me, well, where do you have more friends? I laughed and said well, that is a good question but I dont know, and he replied, Honduras of course! Haha, that made me feel special that he hinted at wanted us to stay.

Please continue to pray for the people at the stadium. They are great people, battling addicio

Chainsaw Framing, Churches with a View

This past week we have gotten to work with some great people on some great projects. The first project was the roof in Mogote over the classrooms. Norm, James, and Justin Easter along with Tom and Evelyn Poteit came down to make the church less leaky. It was a great project and the classrooms will now be much more functional and less musty during the rainy season.

Then Dudley Chancey, Bill Walters, and Don Drew came down to put a roof on the church in Isopo (and help finish the one in Mogote). The walls of the church have been built but with no roof leaving the building useless until that was finished. With the help of some chainsaw framing and lots of thought, the church in Isopot now has a roof. We were so glad to be able to help with these projects which were really usefull. The people in Isopo were so happy to have their new building. In the evenings during this last week there was usually about 100 people watching as the sun lowered into the beautiful mountains in the distance. On the last day when finished the church members gave us an official thank you letter with the stamp of the church on it saying that they were so thankful.

(The kids love to sit in the back of the truck)

(The finished product)

I think in this last week we have gotten be at some of the most beautiful churches in the world. This is a picture of the church in the mountain east 2 hours on a dirt road from Catacamas in Las Cabas. Then working on the roof in Isopo with a view of the green vallies surounded by mountains, wow, beautiful places.

I love renewing our visas.

It has been a long time since we blogged... things have gotten a little busy, but things are really good. My cousin JC and his friends have been here, along with Dudley who brought Bart and Melissa Dodson whom we are happy to now call our friends. Groups have started coming and are doing some neat things.

We just got back this morning from a visa renewal to Costa Rica. Just Will and I went this time since Amber is going back to the states next month. We had so much fun and it was perfect timing to go and be able to relax. We went to Jaco beach. While we were there, Will surfed until the jumping sting rays out of the waves made him a little timid, fished, I read, swam and just enjoyed the beauty. It was a great time.

Seriously beautiful.

Will fishin.

We are back in Teguc, refreshed and ready to hit it hard for another 3 months.

What a Week.

Last Wednesday night after church we invited some kids to come spend the night at our house. We ended up with 13 kids, it was a blast. We had most the of the family of the 12, and some neighbors. One boy named Carlos Alberto came over for the first time, and I'm glad he did, his father was shot working as a police officer a couple months ago and is now pretty much incapacitated, living as a vegetable in their house, so I'm glad he got to get away from his harsh reality for a night. We took the kids to KFC (they love this statue of colonel Sanders, they all call him Grandpa, Marla is kissing him in this picture), then on to our house and watched a movie. During the middle of the night some boys came in asking for a drink. I went in to give them some water when one of them asked for the drink that was in a bottle... I knew we didn't have anything in a bottle, but he (William) insisted that he and Carlos already had had some... I asked him to show it to me with a sinking gut feeling. He took me into the kitchen and showed me the bottle of cleaner we keep in a water bottle! After a little bit of panic of not knowing what to do, I called Amber who called the hospital and found out we just needed to give them antacid pills, that the brand of cleaner we use is not that corrosive... We have a little ways to go kid-proofing our house, I guess.

The pila, baptistry, is going well. The bricks are about half way up. We have gotten to know Darwin's uncle Hector pretty well, a preacher at another church in Mogote, who has been a great help.

Friday we got a suprise visit from Mark Thurman. The three of us decided to go to a national park fairly close called La Tigra on Saturday. We had a great time hiking to a waterfull 120 high, and being in the peaceful, quiet rain forest away from the hoking horns and constant noise of the city. The road up there is really neat, with fields of calalilies, strawberries and blackberries, people selling fruit on the streets, and kids selling boquets of flowers for 50 cents. We really enjoyed ourselves.

While we were at La Tigra we heard that the boys had been in a car accident but didn't realize how serious it could have been. Blessedly everyone is OK. But after the park we headed to the hospital to pick up those who had come to town in an ambulance while Amber brought back the rest of the crew who had been in the car. We are so happy everyone is OK, just a few bumps and bruises, it really is a miracle after seeing pictures of the truck. Poor Shakira the truck who rolled 5 times, RIP.

Wheels!

It is official. We officially have wheels. We love the truck and it is so nice to be independent. It is a '92 Toyota pick-up, 4 door, 4x4, diesel (which doesn't exist in the states). We are so blessed to be able to use this truck!

Since we now have an extra vehicle we decided to put the extra room to use. After church Sunday night we invited the teenagers to come home with us so that we could take them to a water park the next day. We had so much fun. We loaded up our two trucks with 12 of us in all, ate at Pizza Hut, hung out at our house, then the boys stayed with us and girls stayed with Amber. We headed out the next morning and made it to the water park, Aquasplash. It was a great park with slides, a wave pool, and everything. We had fun with all the teens and got to know them a little better. After the water park we took them with us to feed people down by the stadium Monday night and finally took them all back to Mogote. It was a great day.

This week is Semana Santa, Holy Week. The whole country takes a break this week. Even the Honduran Wal-Mart shuts down. Families go on vacation and visit relatives. It is similar to our Christmas Holiday. The only drawback for us during this Holy Week is that there are police stops on many roads throughout the city. They are similar to what we might have during the 4th of July. It is usually no big deal and not uncommon to get stopped by the police here for random checks, but this week you can barely drive 2 miles between stops. Most of the time police are very difficult and encourage "greasing" the wheels of justice. And often it is the only way to start the proccess of sanity and justice moving foward again. I am still learning that sometimes things are just done differently and there are different expectataions in foreign places. But such is life to people living in Honduras. You do what you have to do to survive.

On Tuesday we poured the foundation and laid one layer of bricks of the baptistry with the help of Darwin and Ariel's uncle Hector. We hit a small roadblock today because the water trucks that usually fill our barrel of water to make concrete were on their semana santa break, but we hope to finish soon and put it to use.

Last night we had another book club meeting with other local missionaries here. It was so good to be able to fellowship and laugh with each other. We realized that we all live within walking distance of each others houses, and all have a connection to Oklahoma! Small world.