Monday, March 17, 2008

The Medical Brigade traveled about an hour and a half to a remote village where they saw about 350 patients and 175 in the eye clinic. Many have come with great medical needs and others come just because they heard that there are free medical services and that they just wanted the chance to see a physician eye to eye.

The construction crew really pumped out the work today. Our goal is to get all the block work done by Wednesday so that the locals can work on the roof while we take our excursion on Thursday. We have four local block layers who are real workers. They have been invaluable. The kids are all such awesome workers. Last night they all decided that they wanted to get up at sunup to start work so that they could work in the cool of the day. So, they all got up at 5 a.m., ate breakfast at 5:30 and were on the job site at 6 a.m. After lunch, they were supposed to take the afternoon off before the evening meetings. But there were a few important jobs to do at the job site, and wouldn’t you know they ALL decided to return to the job site and do a few of these jobs. Two hours later they were still working. They went back to the hotel at almost 4:00 after working almost nine hours in HOT and HUMID weather.

The evangelistic meetings are being well attended, but they would have had a much greater attendance had it not been “Holy Week.” Holy Week is a nationwide vacation for many. I was not aware of this cultural reality. The pastor admitted that he was a little reluctant to have evangelistic meetings this week, but he proceeded in faith as this was the only time we could do it. There have been almost 20 baptisms so far and they anticipate that by the end of the weekend, there will be more than 100.

Our VBS program leaders have done a wonderful job! We have very few translators to help them, so we hired four young people (bilingual) from La Ceiba to come and help us with our translation needs. They have been worth their weight in gold. About 200 kids were there tonight.

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Tuesday & Wednesday, March 18 & 19, 2008

All the walls are up and completed at the church. The “gable ends” still have to be done, but we held a class in “Stucco 101” on the job site and taught the kids how to put on the “brown coat” stucco on the cement blocks. We are hopeful that we can have the outside of the church stuccoed before we dedicate the church on Sabbath.

It was such a joy to have Pastor Peter Simpson, the mission president, join us this morning for worship. He brought five other pastors from La Ceiba and they rolled up their sleeves and helped with the stucco work. That says a lot about his character.

A few of our team have come down with a form of “tourista,” so they have been in bed for a couple days. Judy and I are barely hanging on. I have been on the edge of a bug all week. Judy keeps pumping me full of herbs and other meds so I can function on at least four cylinders.

As usual, it is almost like clockwork, but by the fifth day of our projects, everyone tends to “hit the wall.” It was with no exception today. They all were just dragging. Again, they were up at 5:00 for breakfast, and on the job site till 3 p.m. What troopers! I told them that they HAD to take tomorrow afternoon off, or we would end up with more sick kids.

They are all excited about the excursion tomorrow to Cayos Cachinos. We have 28 going from our group and two from Union College.

While we are gone for the day, the plan is to have the roofing crew (local contractor) install the roof trusses and the corrugated roofing materials, so that the church will be totally enclosed. Then on Friday, we hope to do more of the stucco and install the windows and doors.

We still are experiencing all kinds of transportation challenges. Danny Garcia is not with us this year and I really miss him as he is so thorough in all of his assignments.

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Thursday, March 20, 2008

We experienced our own version of the “Great Disappointment” today. We were looking forward, SO MUCH, to the trip to Cayos Cachinos for our excursion. We headed to Sambo Creek at 7:30 a.m. for a 9:30 departure. When we got there, we were told that because of a squall and strong winds, we were not able to make the trip, but that they were hoping the storm would pass and we would be able to get there for a few hours in the afternoon. It was not meant to be. We waited for an hour or so, then took the kids to a souvenir market, then headed back to Sambo Creek only to discover that they had already alerted the 100+ people on Cayos Cachinos that left at 6 a.m. when the waters were calm, that they would have to stay all night on the small island with limited sleeping accommodations. So, we took the whole group out for a late lunch, and then headed back to Tocoa.

I especially felt bad for several of the group who had never been snorkeling before. We just have to trust that this disappointment was for a reason.

The meetings are going well. Again, due to Holy Week, we are not getting the crowds as we had hoped. There will be nearly 100 baptisms, though.