Gathering Hearts for Honduras

I mentioned on Thursday that I had sent Luis Paz an e-mail asking if we could begin using the rice processing plant now. I got a response the very next day reiterating that he is eager to help us and that he is ready to talk.  PRAYER REQUEST:  That when First Methodist Church comes in March one of the projects will be to prepare the building to begin the manufacturing project.

We also got a message from Eliezar Bermudes, the author/teacher from Venezuela saying he will not be coming to the mission center in February. He still wants to come but will have to do it later on. Nicholas wrote that they picked up two students today for the Saturday carpentry class and that they have two more for the weekday classes with several others interested. I had a meeting today with Paul Mackey from First United Methodist Church. He will be coming with the March group, but also plans to make a quick trip down next month to gather information that will better prepare the group for when they arrive. Paul is a pilot with American Airlines and so it's pretty easy for him to make such a trip. 

Yesterday was a red letter day for us in that we heard from all five of our kids- Jenny and Jeffrey here in Tulsa; Michael in Kentucky; Marisa in Florida; and Amy in California.
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Thought for Today: Someone has said, "worry is practical atheism."  I don't know about that, but I do know the more I pray the less I worry; the less I pray the more I worry.

 I got a call from Nickolas yesterday morning saying that no one showed for the new woodworking classes. I'm thinking it may be because we have decided to charge a small amount of tuition. Experience has shown that when we charge something the students take it more seriously. For example, the computer students pay tuition and the sewing students don't. When we have heavy rains few if any of the sewing students show up but every one of the computer students do.  In any event, I asked Nicholas today to get all of the employees together and have a time of prayer asking the Lord to provide students.  I'm feeling uncomfortable being gone from the project for so long. However, I don't want to return until I'm sure about Cheryl's health situation. She continues to do better. Today was Norman Sherwood's funeral and she was able to attend. I'm also a little cautious about my own situation. I was remembering today that less than a year ago I had lost so much weight I was down to 105 pounds. I'm now back to my normal weight and have started exercising again. We're determined to get our health back because I know that the best days are still ahead.
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Thought for Today:  Sometimes I think about the people who have shaped my life. Not all were gifted; there may be some I would not have chosen. But I know that whatever I may accomplish in my life I did standing on their shoulders.

Nelson began putting together his next class today, and so far he has 45 new students including one of the local pastors. They now have access to the Internet and that helps to get new students. I also signed a stack of diplomas today for his graduating class as well as Norma's. They will have their ceremony near Christmas time. Alfredo called again last night from North Carolina and he has moved his arrival date to November 24. He will be arriving at 1 AM; Nicholas will take Flor and the kids to meet him.  Amado Perez, the man who has been recommended to be our welding teacher, came today. He's 45 years old, has several certificates, and a good deal of experience. He lives about five hours away, which poses something of a problem. If he were to work for us he would likely move his family close by. We gave him the talk, the tour, and lunch, and afterword he seemed pretty excited about the thought of teaching here. I think we will probably offer him a job. He's a Christian and active in his church. I saw Gladys, one of our best sewing students, at City Hall today. I'm not sure why she was there, but her topic of conversation was the fact that there are no jobs here and she has to support her family. I explained our plan to teach the sewing students to produce items for sale and she became very excited. Today is payday. Nicholas went to the bank to get the money and on the way back the truck broke down. He doesn't dare get on the bus with that much money so Beto took the van to pick it up. Joel stayed to guard the place. It's 8:45. Beto brought the money back but I still haven't heard from Nicholas so I'm not sure what's happening with regard to the pickup. Guess that's about it. Cheryl and I will be leaving in the morning to return to Tulsa.

Today we had Luis Paz and family along with Denny Boersema for lunch to discuss the church and the  appointment of the pastor.  Even though we come from varying points of view, I think we are in agreement about the type of person we need to pastor the church.

Junior didn't show up to translate today so Sonia took the English class and I went into the preschool with Helen while she told the story. I think she had 17 kids today. In any event she gave them a memory verse at the end of class, Luke 10:27, and as soon as she did they started reciting it from memory. As it turns out, that is a verse Myrna had given them some time back and every one of them knew it from memory. Interesting.   It occurred to me last week to try to speak to Alfredo Orillana about our woodworking classes. We began working with Alfredo back in the year 2000. He is a good friend, a Christian, and an excellent woodworker. He is the one who made kneeling benches out of mahogany for Jennifer's wedding. Several years ago Alfredo went to the United States to try to earn a living for his family and has been there ever since. Tonight I spoke with him in North Carolina with regard to his future plans. He says he's planning to return early next year, as soon as he comes up with enough money for a plane ticket. However, the longer we talked, the more interested he got in possibly returning to work with us. He said he will call me back next Tuesday to discuss it further. With our plan to produce goods to be sold in the US market, he would be my first choice as one to help with that program. This might be something to put on your prayer list.   I've spent a fair amount of time the last couple of days working through the issue of insurance for our building here. We have had coverage against earthquake, fire, and hurricane, which on the surface sounds pretty important. However, I did some research and found that as far as earthquake is concerned there have been no serious earthquakes in Honduras since they started keeping records back in the year 1530. There have been earthquakes in Central America, but they have been confined to Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica. Of course we do have hurricanes, but in checking with some pretty well-informed local people, there is hardly ever much wind damage to buildings as a result. The damage is through heavy rains and flooding; but we are on high ground here so that doesn't seem to be a problem either. As for the thought of this building burning to the ground, it is made of concrete and rebar, that is not likely either. I had a conversation with Bill Hoff who has Bible Institute south of San Pedro and he is pretty much in agreement with what I am thinking. His thoughts were that our greatest exposure is with the contents of our building. We do have contents coverage through Clements International in Washington DC and my thinking right now is to use our money to increase that coverage and cancel the other.   Over the weekend we received enough money to get the red van fixed. Therefore, we had a wrecker come out and pick it up today and take it to San Pedro. No word yet on what problems might be.   When we were with Frank and Phoebe Harrison over the weekend, they offered to let certain of our employees attend their discipleship training seminar presenting a technique called"storying." I talked to Beto about it and he seems quite enthused. He and Joel would be the ones to participate . I also spoke with him and Nicholas about offering the diploma discipleship class first to our employees, just to get started.  They both seemed quite enthused about that. They asked that we announce it at our next luncheon/staff meeting so it is clear that it is our idea and not theirs.   We had further evidence today that Cheryl's foot is doing better. Joel walked into the office upstairs with a live, 6 foot long snake. When she saw it she did a dance that would challenge most anyone.   Dr. Green and his team arrive on Saturday. Cheryl has spent a good bit of her time lately getting things ready for that.

On Tuesday when we went on our walk through the village some people came out and asked me to go into one of the houses and talk to Raul Ford. He's a young man we have known and who has been very helpful to us over the years.  He was laying in bed and I was shocked when I saw how thin he was. I found out that about a month and a half ago he had an accident while working at the cement plant about halfway between here and San Pedro Sula. He was helping with construction of the metal building when a wall with steel beams fell on him. According to his account it's a miracle he's still alive. His back was opened up by the surgeon and six staples were put in. Obviously he will be unable to do heavy construction again. With that in mind I took Nelson over to see him and we arranged for him to begin computer and English classes in November.   Russell has still not made contact with us about teaching the welding and carpentry classes. So, yesterday I went to talk with Alfredo's brother. Alfredo is Flor's husband, is an exceptional worker, and helped us a great deal in the beginning when we were back in the jungle. He's the one who made kneeling benches out of mahogany for Jenny's wedding. He's in the States now and I get the feeling from his brother he might come back if he had some assurance of a job. We will be getting his telephone number tomorrow and I plan to call him and see what his plans are.

Nicholas wrote today and sent me Rosel's outline for the woodworking class. He has listed 27 lessons starting with the use of hand tools and progressing through the making of furniture items. I think he's really going to be a benefit and the blessing to the ministry.