October 21 and 22, 2012 Our final report had to be delayed because the internet was down on Sunday. After a very nice breakfast we went to Tejeras, the small neighborhood built along the highway right of way of the very busy road between San Pedro Sula and Copan. HAF learned about Tejeras when some of our members discovered the children foraging for food at the city dump. HAF now provides a church school lesson each sunday morning along with a nutricious meal for the children who live here. We came to observe the program and to examine the meal to see what was provided. Each child received a plate with spaghetti noodles, chicken, beans, carrots, and bell peppers plus one tortilla and a drink. HAF provides a similar meal for these children several days each week through the generosity of sponsors. After lunch, we visited the Sunday afternoon session of the Agape Promises program. There are fifty children sponsored in this program, which provides Christian education and encouragement and assistance to continue in school. The program was a lively lesson about Gideon defeating the Midianites with only 300 men chosen by God. A nutricious meal was also provided to these children. In the late afternoon, we went to the inaguration of the indoor soccer field mentioned yesterday, which included a church service. This was a special treat because we got to see a lot of people that we knew from the community. We were also treated to a very nice meal as part of the festivities. We were told that one of the first activities will be a match between the youth soccer teams of one of the local evangelical churches and the catholic church. On Monday morning we went to San Pedro Sula by Busito and flew home, arriving in Atlanta on Monday afternoon, people from our plane were the only ones in the lines at immigration and customs. It was a great week. We were truly blessed with good weather the entire time and Maynor made sure we went everywhere and saw all the groups that we had on our list.

October 20, 2012 We began the day visiting with the teachers of the Agape Promises program. These four ladies, including two who are in high school, are dedicated to teaching the Word of God to our sponsored children and encouraging them to stay in school and do well. The program now has fifty sponsored children and several more children regularly attend the lessons. Afterwards, each of the team members who sponsor a child had a chance to visit with them. The university students came to visit with us later in the day. These two young ladies were in the AP program. Laura has been in AP since before Maynor started working with us. Both plan to become dentists. The program takes six years. One of them, Iveth, is in the first year and Laura in the third year. After talking with them about their courses, we were all convinced that they have the intelligence and the drive needed to finish their studies. They both look forward to a time when they can come back and help in the Honduras Agape dental clinics. Wouldn’t that be wonderful? Later in the afternoon, we went to the birthday party for Jocelyn, one of the AP teachers who is a junior in high school. She is yet another wonderful example of an AP student who has grown into a teacher. She was very pleased to have us come to her party. The team had dinner at Goyita’s restaurant and we marveled at the new indoor soccer facility that the Mejia family has built on the other side of their home from the restaurant. This facility looks like something I would expect to see in Aiken. The field came from the USA and is the latest artificial turf, with sand base and small rubber pellets mixed in with the grass. The first phase of construction for this facility is now complete. Plans for the next phase of construction include exercise equipment and a game room as well as a second floor area to enjoy fast food and watch the soccer games. This may become a favorite place for mission teams to visit and relax.

More Photos from the Planning Mission Team

October 19, 2012 We went to Nueva Esperanza to look over the school and check on the needs of that village. We passed through Rio Chiquito on the way and stopped on the way back. There was a grader working diligently between Nueva Esperanza and Rio Chiquito. Nuevo Esperanza and Rio Chiquito have a joint water project and the need to purchase land where their water source is located in order to protect their water from logging. Although the exact figures were not available during the meeting, it appears that they may have saved just about half of the money needed. Rio Chiquito was one of the towns that Dr. Tino and maynor had suggested they may be a good candidate for a future Holistic Approach Village (HAV). They have a water board and patronato and seemed to be eager to meet with us. They were forthcoming concerning their progress toward saving the money needed for their land purchase and the negotiations in progress. They have three volunteer health workers ready to train and are on the road to Nuevo Esperanza, so they are quite handy, as much as villages way up in the mountain can be. Laguna del Carmen was part way back down the mountain and a left turn plus a ride across yet another mountain trail. It was also suggested as a good candidate for a future Holistic Approach Village (HAV). These people were well organized and the both the community center and the school were neat and clean, although several repairs were needed. The school has a new water tank, which was provided by the Rotary club. They have cleared ground for a proposed kindergarten building, even though they do not yet have the funds. We have now visited all the villages where we have been working lately and we are all happy to be off the road, as we will spend Saturday visiting with Agape Promises teachers and students and the University students. We also plan to have the evening meal with Jose Alfredo Mejia and his wife Goyita. We have known this couple since the earliest days of our activity in Quimistan and are really looking forward to this opportunity for fellowship. They own the Don Fermin restaurant and will be inaugurating a new soccer facility next to their home on Sunday afternoon.

Photos from Las Dantas

School at Las Dantas

Community Meeting in School at Las Dantas

Water Source - Spring - at Las Dantas

Path from Water Source back up to Las Dantas

October 18, 2012 We started the morning with a trip to Santa Clara. There we met with the leaders of the White Dove School, who showed us the growing campus of a bilingual, Christian school. We also watched with joy the kindergarten children, when asked in English, writing their names and performing simple addition for us at the board. We also watched third graders, again given instructions in English, reducing fractions and solving equations. We also met with the leaders of their parent’s organization. One of these ladies said her family moved to Santa Clara in order to place their child into this school. Another family moved their child from public school, placing the child in second grade rather than fourth. The child is now well beyond the level of those in public schools. These families are very pleased with the opportunity this school is presenting to their children. About noon we continued to Acequia, where HAF had paid for desks. The teachers there fed us lunch to show their gratitude. This is a large school which teaches first through ninth grade. They have eight teachers and an impressive amount of activity going on. There is a room with computers and the solar system is painted on the walls. They are in progress of adding toilets, which has been partly funded by the red cross. Next we went to Las Dantas, to look at a village which has asked for help on a water project. This village is way up in the mountains at the end of the poorest road we have traveled so far. To begin the trip, we had to ford a river, which in times of heavy rain prevents travel by the road. The people in the village were very excited to have us come because no one from another country had ever visited the village. There are fifteen families in the village and they all come to get water at a spring. They have one small dam to collect drinking water and a lower pool is used for washing their clothing.

Photos from our current Trip

SUNRISE IN HONDURAS

SCHOOL IN TEXOXINGONLES (TEO)

SCHOOL RESTROOMS IN TEO

CATHOLIC CHURCH IN TEO

CHURCH OF GOD IN TEO

SCHOOL IN EL VENADO

BAKERY IN EL VENADO

SCHOOL PLAYGROUND IN LA MONITANITA

KITCHEN IN MILPA ARADA REBUILT BY EARLIER MISSION TEAM

TEACHERS AND STUDENTS TILING THEIR NEW KITCHEN

SCHOOL IN JICARO

SOME 'STARS' OF JICARO

October 17, 2012 Today we visited La Montanita. After meeting with the leaders of the village, we met with the students who have been able to continue their education beyond the sixth grade, with help from HAF sponsors. The parents expressed their gratitude for the foundation doing what they cannot afford to do for their children, and the young people expressed a strong desire to stay in school. It was really heart-warming to see these young people who wish to get an education. We also met with pastors from all the churches. The Catholic representative was the first one to speak and told us that they all get along and share the materials they have received for training their children. When asked about the need for additional Bibles it became apparent that some of the pastors had shared Bibles so that members of other churches could have them. This is truly watching God at work. We stopped by Milpa Arada to check on the progress in the cocina (kitchen) at their school and found the teachers working at laying tile in the floor. It will look really nice when completed and will serve all of the community.

October 16, 2012 Today we had a nice drive over the mountains along a road which provides a very good view of the Quimistan valley, which is a wide, relatively flat, fertile plain. I had not noticed the beauty the last time I was on this road due to cloud cover. The mountains and the road are very steep. We visited Texoxingales (or Teocingales), where we met with the church leaders, Patronado and the president of the water board. There are two churches in Teo, Catholic and Church of God. The people get along together well and are very interested in working together to make good things happen for their community. They are very grateful for the Bible study materials we have provided for use in teaching their children. The catholics would like to have the Latin American version of the children’s chatecism, which is taught in four age groups. When we asked about their school, we learned there are way too many children in each classroom. We were given a very nice lunch of chicken soup, with rice, potatoes and cabbage. Next we visited El Venado. There are three churches in this village, two of which are different versions of the Church of God and the other one is Catholic. The new Church of God needs Bibles, but the others stated that we have already provided enough for each member. This village has one school room for all grades kindergarten through sixth – the other room in the building is where the teacher lives. They would like to have another classroom to separate the kindergarten from the elementary grades. This village also requested a small generator as power source for nebulizers. They do not have Justa stoves. Many also do not have latrines. They stated that there is a problem with water entering the holes.

Oct 15, 2012 We arrived in Quimistan after an uneventful trip a little past 1pm, Honduran Standard Time. After a nice lunch, we met with Dr. Constantino and Maynor, to discuss the medical mission activities and our schedule for the week. The main purpose of this trip is to gather information which will be used in our vision conference to establish plans for our 2013 mission activity. Two very interesting items we learned include that a Red Cross representative told Maynor that there has been a marked improvement in respiratory health recently due to the people having Justa Stoves. We also learned that the ladies in La Montanita, who started sewing with HAF assistance, and then grew into a bakery business, have been noticed by USAID, which has donated ~$3000 to help them improve their bakery facilities. God is good and has rewarded these ladies for their hard work. I view this as confirmation of HAF's micro enterprise development activities in La Montanita. After our meetings we had the evening meal and turned our attention to settling into our quarters and getting ready for a much needed shower and a good night's rest.