Gathering Hearts for Honduras

Cheryl had a really special birthday yesterday; she received about 70 Facebook cards. The surgeon examined Oscar and felt optimistic. Surgery will be performed tomorrow morning 7 at CEMESA, private hospital. Not sure of the cost; scheduled it on faith. Joel performed first test of the OSU water filters; two thirds failed. Back to the drawing board. ------  One of my favorite responsibilities at St. Francis Health System was workforce development – working with managers to match employees strengths and interests with departmental job tasks, and then delegating-- really delegating. The result was better departmental performance; greater job satisfaction; and fewer people needed to get the job done. As we continue to add more and more projects here, I think we need to do some workforce development. We have employees with the capacity do much more and many of them have free time on their hands. Furthermore, there are people in the village in need of a job who likewise have great capabilities.  ---- I met the man today whose company has built big buildings in Puerto Cortes, including the big FICOHSA bank building. Were thinking maybe he can help us divide the dorm project into more manageable segments. 

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  The wisdom of this world says don't spend your money, invest it. To the believer, what is more valuable than money? Time. Time is more valuable than money. Therefore don't spend it, invest it -- in prayer, Bible study, service to others.

Linda left today due to a family emergency; plans to return later on. Cheryl and Margaret went to a ladies luncheon in San Pedro; Nicholas and I visited a mission school project run by a group from CA. Very encouraging. I went to see an ENT doctor to seek help for Oscar Chavarra. No answer yet. We had a good meeting with Linda and Margaret on Thursday regarding the manufacturing project; discussed the need to take the next step forward. We bought shelving for the fabric and ordered more. Joel from Seis and his dad will continue construction. I have to meet with the villagers soon regarding the water purification project. 

THOUGHT FOR TODAY: They're telling those doing the surveys that when they look at the church they're not seeing the attributes of Christ; the fruits of the Spirit.  Instead, they are seeing hypocrisy, legalism, materialism, compromise, unforgiveness. So then, it looks like the culprit in this case is not some college professor who is teaching about evolution.  The problem seems to be us.  With regard to young people leaving the church, we may be our own worst enemy.

They’re a great group; hated to see them go.  Several have a year or two left before graduation; I hope we will see them next year. The project they have started is of huge importance.  They worked until after dark Friday night placing the last of 9 filtration units.  PRAY:  That the local leaders will take ownership with the goal of a unit in every house in Seis de Mayo.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY:  You probably figured it out; the man I described who wants to help your friend is Jesus Christ.  Since His death on Calvary He no longer has a physical presence here on earth.  Therefore He must depend upon His body, the church, to represent Him.  However many people, especially the young, are saying that when they look at the church they aren’t seeing love, compassion, faithfulness, forgiveness, mercy, sacrifice.

Here is a rough outlining of our objectives for the Implementation trip, we will have a more detailed one as soon as school starts back up:

Main Goal: to provide the means for at least 20% of the community to have access to clean potable water. This would mean developing water filtration systems that will be easily built, maintained, and used by the people in the community.

Main Design: currently we are actively developing our version of a biosand filter. This would be a water filter unit made of a concrete shell and filled with native sand. The unit operates by creating a mini-ecosystem within the filter to naturally remove bacteria, protozoan, and various undesirables. The large volume of sand will also work to mechanically remove particles from the water just like the ceramic filters in the bucket units, which disallows anything larger than 5 microns from passing through. Each unit is designed to provide enough water for 6 people per day.

Oklahoma State University Engineers without Borders arrived March 13th ready to work. Their goal, according to their president, Austin Burton, is to provide pure water systems for the village of Seis de Mayo. This will be a long term project that will be accomplished during bi-annual visits.

Eric Lam, project manager, divided the team into two separate teams for this on site visit: The Community Team meets with the missionaries and community leaders, they will then proceed to fill out the Health Point form for the community and check our approximation of the population. The Surveying Team will mark the perimeter of affected residents on a map.  They will then proceed to take topographical data and start drawing a map of the community. Potential locations for a central filtration system will be identified.
For the first time in history as far as we know, a map of Seis de Mayo and our village were drawn and lined up with GPS coordinates. They met with the municipal officials and the village authorities; a relationship was established and the education process has begun.

 Filters that were donated by the Freeman and Boss family of Tulsa were distributed and demonstrated. One of the team's challenges was to help the people realize there is a correlation between drinking contaminated water and their illnesses. 
Gary and I were impressed with the dedication this team had to their project and their willingness to work in spite of some hardships.
Sarah Cary, who started Engineers without Borders at OSU and then appealed to them to accept this project here in Honduras accompanied them solely to assist me with this team while I was laid up with a broken foot.

This past week, Mar 13-17, a group of eight students and one faculty member from Oklahoma State University came to Seis de Mayo to see how they could improve the quality of living in the community. They were mostly concerned with the quantity of parasites and bacteria in the water, and how to best provide clean water to the village. While unknown by most of the inhabitants in the village, the water, which is not filtered or decontaminated in any way, causes much disease, sickness, and death in Seis de Mayo. These engineers have a task before them not only to provide the clean water, but to show people that it is necessary to use the clean water exclusively. Through multiple studies during the week, they concluded the number of houses in the community, the elevation throughout Seis de Mayo, and the general consensus that there are only few families in the community that recognize the need for clean water. They also met with the mayor of Puerto Cortez and the leaders of the community to fully understand what the people of Seis de Mayo need the most. Having fully studied and understood the problems existing in this village, they will return to the US and formulate a plan to solve the problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Today, March 4,2010, Gary had a meeting with the new Vice Mayor of Puerto Cortes.
One of the items discussed was the project of the Engineers without Borders from Oklahoma State University. EWB will arrive March 13 to study and install water filtration systems in Seis de Mayo. The group will be invited to the Municipality for a visit with the Vice Mayor and other officials. While Gary was there, the Vice Mayor invited the press and local cable television to cover the story.