Michael and Savannah’s wedding was last Saturday at her family’s missionary retreat center. As you might imagine it was a very special affair as we didn’t lose a son but gained a daughter. A special blessing was that all of our children, many of our family members and several missionaries and friends from Honduras were there. We are spending some time visiting churches and then will return to Honduras on June 17 in time for a team to arrive from Venezuela on June 20. Another team arriving June 29 will be doing construction and hopes to work on the dorms. We got our building permit! However we do need prayer for another matter. We need special permission from two landowners adjacent to the dormitory lot to build right up to our property line. One property owner lives in New York and another is a sailor.
We have mentioned before about the struggle we've had in getting our building permit for the dorms. We thought we had it last month; then when I went to pick it up I was told more information was needed. So we engaged the services of an engineer in Puerto Cortes. We were not very optimistic about getting the information quickly and I had to leave Honduras no later than May 9. Well, as it turned out, the engineer had the information ready at four o'clock on the afternoon of May 8. Nicholas and I met him along the highway, got the documents, and took them to the municipality before they closed. Next day I left Honduras and Nicholas returned to the municipality. He was given the amount that we would have to pay in order to get a permit. We discussed it over the phone, and since the amount was not entirely unreasonable we paid it; and we now really do have our building permit as of May 16th.
When the First Methodist group was here we went out into the low lands and did house to house visitation. We also explained about our church and invited them to attend. The next Saturday we did the visitation again, but this time we told the people we would bring the van out to El Sauce on Sunday and give anyone a ride who wanted to come to church. Well, the van was full that day and we had 60 in church, which is the most we've ever had. Yesterday we filled up the van again and church attendance was almost as great. Next week Cheryl and I both will be gone, but church leaders are putting on a big spread for Mother's Day. Actually they're having it on Saturday so that mothers can be at home with their families on Sunday. They are expecting between 100 and 150 people. Many of those will be Nelson's students and their families.
A couple of weeks ago we boldly announced that we had our building permit for the dormitories and that we had received it without the usual difficulties. I was a little uneasy at the time making the announcement as things can change so quickly here. Well, sure enough, when we went to pick up the permit they said there was some information missing and that we could not get the permit until it was provided. With that, we had no choice but to engage the services of a local engineer. He says he thinks he can do the job, but will need the assistance of another type of engineer supply what the municipality has asked for. Gary has to leave Honduras no later than May 9 and we are praying that we can get the permit before he leaves. While we are gone this engineer will also do the drawings that we will use to stake out the lot where the footings for the dormitory will go. The intent is to have the footings in by the time the construction team from Christ Presbyterian Church arrives in July.
We also continue to work on our personeria juridica, the Honduras equivalent of a 501(c)(3). This is another process filled with complications and delays. We actually began our application at the end of 2007 and almost had it when the insurrection occurred in 2009. At that time, all such processes pretty much went back to their starting point. We were not entirely satisfied with the lawyer we had at that time, so we have changed to another. She is an experienced lawyer and knows our ministry quite well as she was the vice mayor of Puerto Cortes when Oklahoma State University began their widely publicized water filtration project. I think she will do a good job though she, too, says it can be a very long process. She also said it is expensive. However, it's something we really need as the ministry continues to grow. Since we will be away from Honduras several weeks for church visitation and Michael's wedding, Gary is getting as much done as possible on the personeria before he leaves. |