Saturday,Gary and I went out to the very impoverished area of El Sauce and did “storying” , a method of evangelizing in third world countries. We simply give a Bible story, but leave the story unfinished until the next time to build suspense. We just stood out in the street and gathered people around us by Gary playing the guitar and singing. It was not long before there were about 15 + people. The session ends with an invitation to Christ. We hope this will be a weekly Saturday afternoon event.
Cheryl and Gary arrived safely in Tulsa, Monday August 27
We did not get good news from the Electric Company here about getting connected. All of our industrial machines take three phase electricity. There is no three phase for miles around, so it would be very costly to bring it out to us from Puerto Cortes. We would be required to purchase all of the poles, cables and installation. Please pray with us about that. Meanwhile, we have a local worker who will finish surfacing the walls and plugging up all of the holes out in the production center.
As most of you know, we were hoping to purchase a house for Lourdes and her five children as part of the homeless housing project. In the long run it would save us money to get this one, already built on a lot, because Lourdes does not own any property. We met with the owner on Monday and requested him to show proof of ownership or some kind of deed. Since then he has raised the price $2000. This is probably because we are Americans. This has been disheartening, we are praying about what God would want to do in this situation.
Today our water pump system is down again and it looks like we are going to have to purchase another tank, etc and replace the main part of the system. We are not sure if the repairman knows how to really pull this off, but they always say they can and then may end up breaking it more. He was to have been here early this morning, he has not showed up yet. Gary and Nicolas had to go to the electric company to appeal to them to get the electricity turned on for the production plant. They told Gary that in order to get 220 out here we would have to pay for the poles and wiring to bring it in from who knows where. Then they require us to hire (their) engineer and copy down all of our electrical blue print. Then there are pages and pages of requirements that we would need to fulfill.
Pray with us as we investigate the housing for Lourdes and her five children. Meanwhile, we are in the process of building another home for the homeless in El Sauce.
We went to another area of the El Sauce campo and met with some other families in need of housing. It was very difficult because there are so many living in what I would call great poverty …literally in the mud. It was so difficult to choose who would receive a house and who would not. We finally settled on a family of nine children; one who is severely handicapped. This week our workers will begin hauling in the materials for this family.
This is the family that we (and our workers) chose to receive the next house. There are nine children altogether that will live in this one room house. Normally they just sleep inside the house and do everything else outside the house.
This is the first completed house. Gary and I went out to the El Sauce (campo) area to inspect the completed house for the first family. The cost of the house was higher than expected but the builder explained that they had to raise the entrance and floor of the house to avoid the constant flooding. It was exciting for us to turn the house over to this needy family.
On Saturday Cheryl attended the International English Speaking church women’s fellowship at Margy Hoff’s house. What a blessing to fellowship with sisters in Christ.
Gary and I spent the week-end in San Pedro to attend the ICF church and to run errands and get medical lab work done at the hospital.
Thursday, August 9th, Gary took Oscar to the surgeon to see about scheduling his second surgery that will seal up the hole left from a trachea tube. Oscar is the young man who was the victim of a machete fight and was beaten so badly that he was left for dead. Among his other injuries, his throat was slit. He needs surgery as soon as possible. Gary and I do not ask for funds for anything except this kind of urgent need for the people. Oscar needs $1400 for this surgery. If you feel led, you might want to contribute to this imminent need. We are waiting for the funds to schedule the surgery.
Thursday Night Mauricio and Mazie Mayor came for dinner. Mauricio has been a reliable resource for the production center and employee relations. Among other things, Mauricio advised us on Honduran employee policy. (Mauricio is the general manager of the Landau Company on Puerto Cortes.) Mauricio still plans on his team of managers helping us to organize the production center assembly line.
Madonna and John Spratt met us in Puerto Cortez this morning to help us connect with the government Health Center. This center will provide a “covering” for our visiting doctors as well as possibly provide us with the use of an occasional nurse in our clinic. This would be a great help. Madonna will continue to hold clinic once a month, but we are still hoping to have a standing clinic as much as possible. She also took us to the local post office. That was quite an eye opener. There is nothing like it in the states; very primitive. There we could sign up for a post office box. It does not cost much, but for anyone to get anything to us at that post office, they would have to pay for airmail which is costly. We would have to purchase our own lock and key at the hardware store and install it ourselves. For now, we put that on hold. They have a new food market in Puerto Cortes that Madonna introduced to us. Most of the time we have to go all the way to San Pedro for our groceries, but this will be a closer option. We treated them to lunch at a fish restaurant right on the water. (Puerto Cortes is on the Caribbean)
Madonna spent 30 years on the mission field in Africa and India before her 28 years here in Honduras. I am learning a lot from her.
I can’t imagine more rain and wind than we have already had. This last week we have had terrible storms, lightening and torrential rains. Our gutters are broken down and the pigeons are taking advantage of that.
Please do pray for this north west corner of Honduras.
Yesterday we went to the English speaking church: The International English speaking church in San Pedro. It is always great to get with the other missionaries and English speaking Hondurans. Fourteen of us met for lunch afterwards. What rich fellowship. It is about the only time we are with English speaking people.
Today Gary is tackling the legal details for the building permit for the dorms, as well as meeting with several of our employees.
Signed up a new student for the carpentry classes.
Right now everything has come to a halt as most of Honduras is watching their soccer team play Brazil in the Olympics…….first time Honduras has been in finals. Even our workers are out on the porch with a “rigged up” television watching the soccer game. The computer class started an hour early this morning so they could finish in time to watch the start of the game. Soccer is huge here in Latin America.
Yesterday, Nicolas took us into San Pedro to pick up supplies and run errands. There are a lot of supplies needed for thirteen employees, nearly a hundred students and the children’s feeding program.
Last week Gary went to Puerto Cortes to see the lawyer about our will for the ministry and to get the current list of requirements for the building permit for the dorms. We do need prayer about all of these legal issues. They are very complicated and the regulations are stiff. Just understanding all of the legal language is a challenge. We may need to bring in a legal translator and a “go- between person”.
On Wednesday Mark and Joy Hoff brought Sophia Fields out for lunch. When we lived in San Pedro we had a constant stream of missionaries coming and going. We miss the fellowship, so it is a real treat to be able to have our friends out to our mission center. Sophia has been here on a two month mission internship that will count as school credit.
Lourdes completed the requirements and received her diploma from nursing school. We sponsored Lourdes all through her school. Please pray that she will be able to serve the Lord and her people with this nursing degree. Unfortunately, she lives three hours south of us and, so for now, she will seldom be able to come serve in this clinic. Thanks to the Lord that a another missionary, Madonna, who lives closer to us, will help us once a month.