Cheryl and I arrived in Tulsa about 10 o'clock last night. We flew Continental this time and didn't even leave San Pedro until after noon. That was quite a switch from our usual itinerary; we even had time to take care of some business matters before we left. It's always a busy time when we arrive back here. We've been trying to get on a schedule with our periodic updates, so we spent most of the day doing that. We did manage to get it forwarded this afternoon. The rest of the day was spent pretty much running errands, going through bags of mail, and unpacking the suitcases we brought as well as those that others have brought back for us. Jenny spent much of the day with us and Jeff is here tonight.
Just a thought I have been having.... to the extent we decide to live in the comfort zone, we will never know for sure what we really believe about God
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.
Yesterday Cheryl went to the ladies meeting at Helen Gilin's house where Helen treated them to Russian borscht. While she was there I went to the hospitals to pick up laboratory reports, and also did Christmas shopping for the employees. The perspective welding teacher was supposed to be here at 1:30, but didn't make it. The president of Honduras was in this area and when that happens they shut the telephone service down. That slows everything will crawl. Today Nicholas took the little boy, Levi, to the hospital in San Pedro for a pre-surgery examination. His operation will take place on Friday at 3 PM. He is a little boy who broke his arm in and it was not set properly.
Denny Boersema left yesterday noon. It's always great to have him here. He gets a lot of work done, but also encourages us in the work. I tried to call Alfredo tonight and couldn't get through. No more than 15 minutes after I stopped trying he called me. He has moved up his departure date from the US and plans to arrive back in Honduras in December. As you recall, he's the one that we wanted from the very start to teach our woodworking classes. He and his wife, Flor, have worked with us ever since we arrived here in Honduras. We interviewed a man this morning for the welding teacher position. I don't think he has the experience we need, but possibly can help us with the construction of the dormitories. Tomorrow, a man is coming from Progreso to interview for the job. Nicholas and I went to City Hall this morning to try to talk to the vice mayor and or mayor about property taxes before I have to leave on Tuesday. We were unable to see them today, but have an appointment on Monday. I also went to the Atlantic bilingual school and gave them a certificate of appreciation for having provided interpreters during the medical clinic. They are very gracious and eager to work with us in the future. Lourdes came last night to help Cheryl with the packing. She is now attending nursing classes three times a week and when she gets her certification plans to return here to work.
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.
We also talked about Gathering Hearts and some of our plans for the future, including our plan to begin manufacturing goods for sale in the US. At that, Luis said, almost incidentally, that he had a vision of us using his house here and the rice processing plant as a place to begin manufacturing goods.
The meeting was held in the new church.
You could have knocked us over with a feather. In fact, I asked him to repeat it just to be sure we understood it correctly. We had thought that we would need to purchase that building to use it and wondered just how we were going to get those funds.
Other aspects of this manufacturing projects seem to be coming together as well. Yesterday Flor told me that Alfredo is planning to come back Honduras from North Carolina soon; it sounded like quite soon. From the very start, he is the one we had in mind to be in charge of the woodworking operations. Today we had a message from Margaret Brewer saying that she and Linda Bullock are planning a trip here shortly after the first of the year. They are coming in order to train the sewing ladies to begin making articles for sale.
Helens Snipes left at about noon on Friday. Afterward Cheryl and I ran errands and then met Mike and Sherrill Gasinski for dinner. We have gone to church together for the last several years but never really got to know them very well. We had a great time of fellowship together. Cheryl and I then went to Frank and Phoebe Harrison's to spend the night as it was well after dark. We also had a great time with them. Frank had been studying the book of First Peter and shared some very encouraging thoughts. On Saturday we ran the rest of our errands and then went back to the mission center for the evening. On Sunday Cheryl was the worship leader at church and I had the communion meditation. Afterward we went to the airport to pick up Denny Boersma who had come from Michigan to help with the process of selecting a new pastor for our church here. During the afternoon we met with the Honduran representatives for the Reformed Church, and then attended church service and meeting afterward with the pastors who have an interest in helping us fill the pulpit. Denny has been working on the water filtration system today, and also additional computer connections to the satellite dish. But we have also had a couple of prayer, talk sessions about how to best choose the pastor; and about preparing for the first phase of construction of the dormitories. These were extremely productive times and we are very much encouraged with regard to both initiatives.
We have started writing up formal job descriptions for all the employees. Today Cheryl and I met with Mirna to go over hers. Over the last several weeks Cheryl and Helen Snipes have implemented a more structured program and attendance has increased. It will take time, effort and attention for Mirna to become comfortable with it.I made another visit to the Mario Uguarte vocational school today. The director called yesterday and said maybe he can help us find the right welding teacher. When I arrived he showed me a picture of himself and other Hondurans at Oklahoma State University where they were attending a conference. I was very impressed with him, the facility, and their program. I think this may be another very good contact.
As most of you know, Gary's and my motto is, “PRAY AND SHOW UP AND THEN GOD SHOWS UP”. Sometimes we do not always see God show up.
An interesting thing happened the other day. We were expecting Dr. Green’s medical team on Saturday, October 23rd and this was the day before. I had to get groceries and supplies. We try to get the perishable groceries last minute because they deteriorate quickly in this hot, humid environment and they are not always fresh when we buy them at the store here. So the Friday before they came in we made the hour plus long drive into San Pedro Sula to purchase our list and supplies and get right back to Helen Ruth Snipes at the mission center. I had every stop planned and timed, we were in a hurry.
At the first store we picked out our goods and went to the check out. Our card was denied. We knew there was money in that account and so we had them try it again. Again our card was denied. We had to pay with another account, just to get through the line, and then stepped outside into the mall where Gary and I sat down and tried to figure out just what we were going to do. We had a long list, (groceries for twenty some people for seven days) and did not have other funds that we could use. We prayed….we showed up…now what? As we were leaving the mall, we saw an ATM machine near the stairs. Normally if our card was not accepted at one business it would not be accepted anywhere. Also, we do not use ATM’s and seldom get a lot of cash so as not to put us at risk, but we thought we would give it a try. Amazingly, it took our card, but gave only a limited amount. We used both of our cards and got another limited amount and went on our way. We had several stops before we went to the big “SUPER” as they call it here and purchase the large amount of food. It took some time and several baskets and we headed to the check out, but something was wrong. The lines were not moving. In time we found out that the “systema” was down, i.e. their computer system was not functioning and no one how had credit or debit cards could check out. They gave out a call that if you had cash you could come to the front of the line and check out. We were put up to the head of the line and checked out and had just enough cash to purchase the groceries. Had our card not been denied and we not gone to that ATM, and gotten cash, we would have never been able to get groceries that last day before the team arrived.
We continue to encourage the sewing students to improve their skills. In preparation for the students to advance to a level to manufacture their products, new skills are introduced whenever possible. Linda Bullard taught the students how to make children's dresses out of pillow cases. These pillow case dresses can be decorated and trimmed in many different styles. The students so enjoyed Linda. What a blessing to have an American teach and lead the way. After the first of the year, we hope these students can design and make several products which can be marketed.