This morning I heard Ronnie (our dog) going absolutely crazy down on the front porch. Turns out someone had put an iguana on the porch and it had really gotten to him. I went to Mauricio’s (general manager of Landau factory) for lunch today. It was great to get with him and Mazie in their new house—beautiful. Yesterday Nicolas asked if we had enough money to buy a load of gravel and some bags of cement for the dorm. I asked how much he needed and he said 6500 lempiras. I counted out what we ha in the construction envelope….6500 lempiras. The OSU engineering students and faculty will be arriving here January 4. They will be starting a new project, probably construction. The water filter project will continue on also, but it is now being funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency. They are considering Alfredo’s brother Santos to be the one in charge of making and selling filters. I met with him yesterday and he is very much interested.
Stillwater junior high girls are pen pals with the private school girls. Gary handed out 30 gifts and it turned out that everyone received a gift. This has turned out to be a great way to minister to these young girls.
Yesterday we took George (construction foreman) to the ENT specialist in San Pedro. He’s been having problems for quite some time and it was starting to get him down. Turns out he has a sinus infection; we were able to get him a couple medications that will help. While we were in San Pedro we also went to immigration to check on our renewed residency cards. I couldn’t get them but at least we’re keeping the ball in the air. This morning I went to the private school to hand out gifts to the older girls from their pen pals in Stillwater, OK. There were 31 gifts, each one addressed to one of the 31 girls in the room. It worked out perfectly. When I arrived at the school and went into the administrative room there sat Jose at his computer. You remember José-- he was sent home to die only a few weeks ago. We had a nice time visiting with him. While I was at the school Rosa gave me grade reports for a number of our scholarship recipients. They’re all doing well. (Pastor) Nelson is back in class, preaching to the students and looking as if he’d never been gone.
Last week when I got back, Nicolas came in to settle his account for the previous month. While I was gone he had two payrolls as well as 3 vehicles to take care of, and many other expenses such as meals for the workers, utilities, private school tuition for some of our kids, etc. When he subtracted all of that from the money we had sent, plus tuition from Nelson’s students, he had $14 left over. This just to the minute; just to the amount provision from God has become a way of life. It was a testimony to Nicolas. Sunday for church, we got a van load from El Sauce. People sing their heart out for the worship service..
Sunday evening, as we drove through New Campana, a voice rang out from the darkness, “Will I get a box?” This little boy was referring, of course, to the 1000 Christmas boxes that will soon be handed out. Tom Hagen, Jim Redyke and several others packed the gifts and other things Sunday, November 3rd, there in Tulsa. The load will head out for New Orleans on Tuesday. Pastor Batista and Juliza come in from Venezuela Monday tonight; several of us will be going to the airport to pick them up. On Thursday we had a visit from a man who has a filter in his home that was installed by the Oklahoma State University Engineers Without Borders. He brought samples of both filtered and unfiltered water to be tested. Joel ran the test and today had the results: water from the tap- very much contaminated; from the filter, clean water! That group from OSU is having a very positive impact here. George and Joel are doing a great job on the dormitory. They and Juliza, our little architectural student, have really taken ownership. They have fallen in love with the architectural plans, which is good. However, today we had to introduce a small change and they are really struggling with it. However, by the end of the discussion they were having ideas for an alternate plan. I think it’s going to be OK. Today we took Carlitos to get new shoes so he can sit for his exams on Monday. (He has to sit with a proper uniform). Afterward we took him and Perla to Wendy’s for lunch.
I made it back to Honduras yesterday without any problem and found everything at the mission center in good order. I have gotten enough information on the container the last couple days to realize it could be here in two weeks! So, first thing this morning we took that news to the lawyer who is trying to get a tax free permit for us. She wasn’t in her office so we called and she had just arrived at the office of the foundation that is going to give us use of their permit this year. Hopefully our information about the arrival of the container will speed up the process. I learned yesterday that Pastor Bautista and Juliza will arrive here on Sunday. They will be here until sometime in December. I learned today that Alfredo, our woodworking teacher, has begun preaching in the villages. That is a blessing. Today one of his students gave me an 18” by 24” wooden plaque in which he had carved Psalm 1:1. It’s beautiful—would sell anywhere for a good price. |