Last night we got this photo of the Wednesday night prayer meeting at our church in the village. Pastor Batista is intent upon training lay leaders; the leader shown here is Nelson Osorto, our computer/English teacher. There were 30 in attendance. Several months ago hardly anyone came.
Last evening we had a meeting with the Hembrees and the Colwells to pray about the dorm construction and other projects. These are the two couples from First Methodist in Tulsa that came to visit us in April and took a strong interest in the ministry. It was really a great evening. Today we went to Stillwater. First we had a meeting with Julie Ward, our tax account; and then we met faculty and students in the engineering school at Oklahoma State University. This school began a water filtration project in our village in Honduras several years ago and they are planning their next trip for January. Some have come several times.
This is what the dorm construction looks like as of August 17th. Even
though it is just one man, George, with an assistant, working, much progress has been made. Here is what the dorm construction looked like a week or two after
the Christ Presbyterian team left. George, our construction worker, built up the footings with a layer of rebar; sealed it with cement and then started laying the blocks. I will be sending you what it looks like today. George has worked just with an assistant when he lays the blocks. He has made a lot of progress on his own. Saturday was Mike and Savannah’s reception. It was very special; about 75 people attended. A real highlight was going to be having my sister and her family here. Then the night before they were to arrive, Tony had a massive heart attack. He has improved somewhat, but still in critical condition and was air lifted to Baylor Hospital in Plano TX. . Please put him on your prayer list. Over the last couple of days we have gotten photos from Nicolas of two walls of the dormitory that have been completed; and from the Batistas of things they are making for the Children’s Day celebration at the church.
We had a bad storm Friday night. I've never been in an earthquake, but that's how the thunder made it seem. It seemed like the house was shaking. It was eerie. Saturday we had about a four hour meeting with our lawyer regarding tax status. I think I mentioned before I would be glad when that was over. Well, finally it is, at least my part. Now she takes our documents to the capital. We're praying it won't drag on for several years like our last attempt did. I am leaving for Tulsa tomorrow so today was a busy day tying up loose ends. First of all I went to immigration to work on the residency. It never goes through the first time, but it was better this time than in the past. Since Cheryl and I will both be gone for several weeks we were trying to decide whether to suspend construction on the dormitory or let it go forward in our absence. After a considerable amount of discussion and a meeting with our builder and architect, we felt confident enough to continue building while we're gone.
Gary On Wednesday I went to see José Vasquez. He is our church member and director of the private school. He has cancer and several weeks ago was rushed to the hospital where they declined to operate or put him on dialysis because he was too near death. I have to admit, he did look very, very sick. When I saw him on Wednesday, he looked almost perfectly well. He had walked up to the school, and as far as I can tell, he looked the same as he did before he got cancer. That answer to prayer has really pumped life into our church.
That same day, Alfredo and I took Jacques Lafrance's invention, "the pulldozer" on another test run with the changes that Jacques had given. The invention shows promise as a project for our students to make something that would sell, but there's still more work to do. We are down to the bottom of the barrel this week. Adding up residency fees, immigration, and a repair job left us two dollars short. Then I remembered that I had some lempiras in the wallet that I carry in the US and that got us over the hump. Dina had about a dozen patients at the clinic yesterday |