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Barbie & the Crew take Tejeras

Rise and shine and give God the glory! After a wonderful breakfast prepared by the awesome Sandra and Gloria, we loaded up for the new church in Tejeras. Our mission today was to chisel out channels in the walls and pick axe trenches for preparation of electrical wiring and to dig a ditch to supply water to a spigot. Some of the group worked under the shade of the church's roof, while the rest played with balls and bubbles with the sweet children of the area. It is always humbling to interact with these kids and watching their faces light up as you hand them a cracker or a tennis ball.

Let the games begin!

Kari is gettin' it

Tommy be werkin'

muscle power

Two is better than one (Nate the Great and Jeffy J)

How many supervisors does it really take?

Barbie and the big oops

AGUA!

Barb.

Honduran Picassos

Water break!

After another delicious lunch, the crew headed to Goyita's business to watch the USA fight a valiant battle against Belgium in the quarterfinals of the World Cup (at the Hondurans' request) :) 

Go team USA!  .....

As we walked back to the ranch, we were awestruck by the fame of Barb in the village of Quimistan. People flocked out of their homes to catch a quick glimpse of her. "Hola Barbara" echoed through the valley! One day, I hope I can be as popular as the Great Barbara!

The Mighty Barb greets one of many fans

Weaklings.

This lucky crew got a picture with the famous Barbie

Maynor's happy family

 This blog was authored by:
Abby & Nate

Floors & Fluoride

Today (Monday) we went up to La Montanita to put a concrete floor in a room in Rosa's house.  We mixed concrete primitively by adding dirt, gravel, concrete mix, and water. Doing construction here is definitely not like back in the United States. However, primitive or not, the job turned out just as well. Kari and Daniel worked to level the floor in the addition onto the house while the rest of the group worked vigorously to prepare our concrete. The job took several hours, but it was a job well done and a job well worth it. Seeing the look on Rosa's face when she saw her completed floor made our task seem completely worthwhile and humbling.

Mixing concrete

Leveling the floor

After leaving Rosa's we traversed further up the mountain to the local school. Once there, we provided the school children with a hygiene clinic. Our clinic included providing each child with deworming medicine, teaching them to properly wash their hands with soap and water, to brush their teeth, and we finished with a fluoride treatment. All kids are kids no matter where you go, and it was apparent as they tried to sneak not having to take their deworming medicine. We stressed the importance and got them to take it, however, some of the children's shenanigans were rather humorous. It was shocking to think that the small important things that most children are taught at a young age don't have the same importance here for lack of supplies and money. All in all, today was a truly rewarding day for everyone, us missionaries and those whose lives we were able to impact with Christ's love and the Honduran Agape Foundation.

Brushing their teeth

Swishing the fluoride

This evening, we had the AP kids over for a screening of The Lego Movie.

Watching la película

Meeting the Kids

Today we were blessed; we got to sleep in late, meeting for breakfast at 8 am. Sandra and Gloria are the best chefs we could've asked for! After, we hopped into the bus for a short ride to Tejeras, where we had the opportunity to watch Sandra put on a bible study for the local children. My heart was torn watching about fifty children walk to the church, arriving in tattered clothing, some with no shoes, all carrying a cup and bowl each. It is apparent that God has brought these children to us. I was told that these were local children found scavenging the dump for scraps of food. Malnutrition was easily noted by the lighter hair color in the children. Thankfully, with the help of our program as well as locals and staff, we are able to provide these children with three meals a week. I have learned an important lesson about being wasteful today, knowing that these children would do just about anything for the scraps of food I throw away on a daily basis.

Bible study at Tejeras

Some HAF kids with some Tejeras kids

This afternoon, we visited the Agape Promise children for their weekly Bible study and meal.  We snapped portrait photos of over 80 % of the AP group (we'll try to get the rest next Sunday), plus several others.   Following the AP study session, we helped to serve their meal, then broke out the balls and frisbees for lots of interactive fun.  It was easy to have fun with the kids, but it was a lot harder to get to know them.  Our limited Spanish skills only took us so far, so we would have needed a translator to communicate beyond basic words.

Throwing the fútbol americano with some AP kids

When we arrived back at Celia Delfina Village this evening, we prepared for the VBS later this week. and relaxed with some Uno.

Making streamer sticks

The ocean in a bottle assembly line

We're not having any fun.

The Journey Begins

We started off on our adventure in the wee hours of the morning, leaving for the Augusta Regional Airport at 5:15 this morning.  We landed in San Pedro Sula at 3:15 local time and started on our journey to Quimistan.  For the newbies, the ride to Quimistan was an eye opening experience.  The poverty of the people was immediately apparent.  Once we arrived at Celia Delfina Village, we were surprised to find nice buildings with everything you'd want except air conditioning.

Arriving in San Pedro Sula

Kari catching up on some sleep at the gate

The view of Honduras from the plane

Sing the Word 'Hope' in Four-Part Harmony

Drawing our energy from Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here, Dissection's Storm of the Light's Bane and Immortal's At The Heart of Winter (Maynor's requests), with pumping blood and boiling intestines, we made an incredible amount of progress at Rosa's remote outpost over the past few days.  We'll try to use this blog to play catch up on the coming and goings, haps and mishaps, triumphs and shortcomings.

Really, I think we're all very satisfied with where we stand right now.  For the second year in a row, we have witnessed Rosa's house undergo a transformation.  Last year we built her a bathroom, complete with a toilet, shower and pilla.  This year we have built a 16x9' addition (which will serve as a bedroom) in a mere five days.  Last Friday we dug the foundation and footers, poured the footers, wired the rebar columns and mooked them in place.  On Monday we began laying block.  On Tuesday we finished laying block (save at the very top where the blocks had to be cut to fit the slant of the roof).

Yesterday we did finishing work on the block laying, mostly near the top and above the concrete beam we laid over the window, and we had to dig up some of the concrete from Rosa's stove area.  We also began the roofing process.  See:

Up-to-date photo of the new addition on
Rosa's house.
Notice Jerry's makeshift Coca-Cola cooler
hanging from the roof - it looks like a nootsack 

This morning we picked up a load of finely cut lumber Mark had ordered specifically for the purpose of making Rosa and her children beds to sleep on.  Up until today, they have slept on dirt, wooden boards and concrete.  Mark, Kay, Lorie and I spent the entire morning screwing together bed frames.  Three in total.  We screwed all morning.  The two twins were made into a bunk bed for Rosa's kids (Rosa's house is too small for three stand alone beds), and the third a full for Rosa herself.  We also sent a team out shopping to buy mattresses, flour, cornstarch, sugar, powdered milk, eggs, cleaning supplies, soap, plates and cups, etc.  

The bunk bed Mark designed and built
or...
soon to be monkey bars

This afternoon we cut a doorway between a room in Rosa's house and the new addition, which will be the only access to her new room.  See:

Digging out the door
stucco over about a foot of adobe

Deathtrap 3001 there in the background -
scaffolding HaHa style

   
We have tried to retain a healthy sense of optimism on this trip.  Despite the morbid tunes and open mic - like doom ramblings, what we have really tried to accomplish on this trip, as we have on past trips, is to bring hope to the lives of those who might need it.  Those who may have felt forgotten, unneeded, uncared for, hopeless.  Today marked the second time our team has circled up with Rosa and her children, prayed with them, and observed firsthand the difference our time, effort, blood, sweat, tears and pain have made in their lives.

The women presenting Rosa with food and new belongings

Too bad Chris couldn't ride this taxi up
the Trail of Pain.

 

A quick shout out to some personnel: Maynor and Danielson for once again guiding all us idiotic Americanas around the valleys and mountains of Quimistan, Nueva Esperanze, etc.  A thanks to Javier for translating for us (even though we missed Stan the Man), HaHa for teaching us a few new tricks Honduran style, Saundra and Gloria for preparing us breakfast and dinner every day, Sam for being Sam, the Federation and all its glory for having us bid its deed, the people of the Quimistan community for making us feel like we belong here.

Until next year...


Brad
Blog Overlord

Into the Shining Sun

Where were you when I was burned and broken?
While the days slipped by from my window watching?
Where were you when I was hurt and I was helpless?
Because the things you say and the things you do surround me
While you were hanging yourself on someone else's words
Dying to believe in what you heard
I was staring straight into the shining sun…


Memories are made and in to the past they fade, but relationships are eternal… I’m not sure I am what you call a nocturnal person, but as I write it is 4:45 am in the morning. I look across at my roommates, one curled into the fetal position, and the other looks like a corpse in a body bag with sheets pulled up to the edge of his nose. I would go to the ends of the earth with those guys, and I literally have several times. At times we may disagree and need to take a trek to the railroad tracks, but in the end we are always brothers in Christ seeking to resolve our issues and maintain our relationship.

I cling to the hope of the relationships that have been built over the past few years in Honduras. Daniela, Maynor, Gloria and Sandra all locals who have dedicated their lives to the service of others including Los Hombres like us. They arise even before I and begin to plan and prepare the daily duties that make our lives so much easier… it is the little hidden things in life that we can and often do miss that creates bliss in the middle of the storm of life. I offer up my deepest gratitude to those people who willingly sacrifice time, talent and treasure to serve with a glad spirit.

Young, old, male or female, together we strive to serve a loving Creator and share in a hope eternal… Not that we may receive an earthly reward, but to respond to the call of service in His name, so that others can see His love expressed through our words, actions and deeds. 

“Where were you?...” Matthew 25:40 beckons that question. Daniela and I had a disagreement over the window size in Rosa’s new bedroom. He thinks it is too low to the ground and therefore to large. I have a vision of Rosa standing at the window in question, sipping on a cup of coffee and enjoying a moment of silence from the rowdy children tugging at the hem of her skirt, “Staring straight in to the shinning sun”. My hope it that through all of the blood, sweat and tears she realizes that her prayers have been answered. 

Lost in thought and lost in time
While the seeds of life and the seeds of change were planted
Outside the rain fell dark and slow
While I pondered on this dangerous but irresistible pastime

I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the moment had arrived
For killing the past and coming back to life

I took a heavenly ride through our silence
I knew the waiting had begun
And headed straight...into the shining sun

(Gilmour)


The Division Bell will ring on Friday morning as we pack up our clothes, secure our keepsakes and whatnot possessions for the journey home, and there we will find our anxious families awaiting these weary travelers to return in their presence after a brief, but long absence. Hugs and kisses will be exchanged and possibly a few tears will be shed, but joy will certainly overflow in the airport lobby. The return to normalcy may come easy for some, but a large piece of my heart will forever be planted in the valley of Quimistan and the people of this humble village. My hope and prayer is that we never allow these memories that have been etched into our hearts to be discarded and or traded up for the next best thing in life… 

As a wise man once wrote; “When I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” Lives are fragile and limited, but hope found in a relationship in the risen Lord… is eternal.


Mark

I would like to dedicate this section of this blog to the loving memory and spirit of Cindy Shaw. Your spirit will always dwell in mine, and I pray for Steve and the kids as they struggle through this tragedy…  There is a hole in our hearts tonight that only God can mend, Godspeed, We LOVE YOU!

Amphibious

Today, another day blessed by our loving father, was as preciously enjoyed as the first day we arrived. The sun rose, breakfast was mucho grande, and the drivers were happy as always to drive us to our mission of the day. I love starting the day out in prayer and it's always a surprise to see what God has laid on Chris's heart to read from God's word of love.

The ride to Rosa's is a bit of a drive but that's okay. I love sight seeing, taking pictures and videos of the life of Honduras. There is a wide variety of people, houses, and dogs. Some people are hanging out at their home, working at their stores, standing on the corner talking, riding their bikes, selling some fruit. Drinking water or eating frozen, flavored ice from a bag. Children walking to school in their cute little uniforms reminds me of when I was in school since I had to wear a similar uniform for 12 years attending Catholic High School. The towns are busy and I love saying hola and smiling real big to just about everyone!

After riding through town there is a nice, bumpy drive before reaching our destination. The beautiful sight of God's world is breathtaking. The view is wide open with green land and high mountains. This sight reminds me to pray and take a moment to talk with my father. Sometimes there are cows in our way which is really cool. Anything that happens on this trip that wouldn't happen at home I fully take advantage of enjoying every moment.

We don't waste any time getting to work after we arrive to Ms. Rosa's. I love seeing the children which is one of the main reasons why I'm on this trip. I prayed many times about how awesome and heart fulfilling it would be to be with all the children in a different country. So today I had tattoos and candy as usual! I always like taking a little extra cookie for the puppy. I have had the pleasure of hiking for the past few days which always puts my body to the test. Even though my legs burn and I can barely breath by the time I reach the top, its worth the hike. Its rewarding to know that I'm making a difference in someone's life who lives at the top of the mountain.

The swimming hole

Coop playing with the kids

The Trail of Pail

Me and two of my friends

We've built four stoves so far! I'm a professional at it now! Not really, but I'm really good at making the stoves look really good. Besides helping make another stove today, I got the chance to go swimming with the kids!!! They jumped from the rocks, splashed each other with water, and laughed and had a great ole time! We were catching tadpoles and putting them in a plastic bottle but then we let them go. This made me miss my son in a way because he loves doing all of these things.  When it was time to go one of the little girls was trying to tell me that I only had one shoe. Which meant that one of the little boys, Oscar, took my shoe and hid it! Luckily I didn't have to walk back with one shoe on, due to my special friend Danny who found it for me. Making these kids laugh is the highlight of the day.

Each day here gives me a feeling of God's presence. Whether its feeding the families, making the kid's laugh, helping improve their everyday living with a stove, learning about others, or just being involved and caring about someone else other than yourself is a God connection. That's the connection I want!

Tracey

Images And Words

Light to dark - dark to light - light to dark - dark to light.

After a reprieve from the action yesterday, today we returned to Rosa's outpost and split up into more or less the same teams as last Friday (which recall is the first and last day we went to Rosa's).  Chris, Danielson, Maynor, Lorie, Tracey, Madison and Cooper ventured up beyond Rosa's house into the wilds of the remote Honduran mountains and soared high in the winds to finish the stove they started Friday.  Not only did they finish it, they started and completed another.  The tally of total stoves we have now built on this trip is 3.

The team that stayed at Rosa's continued working on the 16x9' addition to her house.  Since the footers were poured on Friday, today we concentrated our efforts on building two additional rebar support columns and laying block.  By the end of the day we were some eight high.  We'll climb a little higher every day.  Our goal is to have a roof over it by Thursday. 

Twist tying the rebar columns

Mark laying block.  (Crooked, as Danielson
would later point out)

Clouds rolled by and we rolled with them.  Ominous skies loomed overhead but the storm never came.  The sun came and went.  The heat was unpleasant but not suffocating.  The integrity of our mook was never jeopardized.

Lorraine sifting sand, prepping for mook mixing

Stove numero tres

The trail of pain.
There is so much pain.
Doom comes to those who wander.
But not all who wander are lost. 

We arrived back at the compound at 6:00pm, thirty minutes before dinner.  This means, again, nobody had time to take showers before dinner.  We always enjoy eating dinner with dirt, mook and blister scabs falling into our plates.  But when we did finally get around to taking our showers, the water ran red from our cuts and lacerations, as it did during the first plague of Egypt, and was as blood.  Here's nominating Mark to receive the Red Badge Of Courage for the Honduras Mission Trip of 2014.  I, Blog Overlord, nominate him to receive this award.  The award shall come down from the blogosphere and shall be stamped with the Seal of Doom.  And I, Blog Overlord, receive second place, having slit my wrist on the roof at Santa Clara.  This award, too, shall be stamped with the Seal of Doom.  Oh yes, there has been blood.

Three days left on this journey.  Let us not sleep as do others, but let us rest.  We are to be watchmen.  The smile of dawn will come too soon. 

Every day sends future to past.
Every breath leaves us one less to our last.  


Brad
Blog Overlord

Daily Blood

On Sunday morning an expected seasonal heat swept through the valleys of northwestern Honduras and into the settlement of Quismistan. 

Last week’s weather was, if anything, a bit of luck and a brief respite from the high temperatures of this time and place in the world. The focus of the early morning was on seeing one of the team members, Hunter, off on his return voyage home.

The team leader tossed and turned all night in anxious anticipation for the necessity of obtaining Hunter’s passport and exit fee from a safety deposit box in a separate building on the compound. If he awoke too late, the building’s occupant might be gone for the day, and Hunter stuck in Honduras, when scheduled for summer school. 

Our leader got up early. 

And he escorted Hunter on the hour and a half trip up to San Pedro Sula, and his flight to America. He returned with pizza. 160 slices. 

The rest of the team enjoyed some extra time in the morning before making their way to the community of Teheras, a series of huts and makeshift shelters on the side of the highway heading south out of Quimistan.  

If a person volunteers for a mission trip abroad in search of desperate poverty, degrading conditions, and an almost incommunicable sense of suffering, (that they can’t find in their own suburban neighborhood), this is the place to find it. 

Living in the 21^st century, in the First World, it is easy to forget how difficult days can get, how bleak circumstances can be, what true economic blight looks like, and how hopeless life can seem. We came from a world of luxury, of reality television and status updates, where a concern for sheer survival was replaced a hundred years ago by triviality and decadence. 

Things were worse in Teheras, especially a few years ago. Before efforts of the foundation, before a Sunday school class led by hostess Sandra, housed in a newly fashioned concrete church in the heart of Teheras, small but sufficient, a skyscraper of comfort compared to surrounding shelters, modest and indescribable. 

A couple years ago our group gathered with the children in a dirt patch a few paces below the highway, in-between two shacks, with unnecessary barbed wire stringing along random poles. Back then no hope appeared in the eyes of those children, covered in flies, dressed in the same outfit every day, with no promise of an education, or expectations of making it away from such a place, where their families squat in ditches belonging to the government, with no other, certainly no better, place to go. 

This morning many of the same children the team from Wilkesboro encountered in years past was in the new church, singing songs, clapping, a great many of them even smiling. After the service, our team helped Sandra serve the children a meal, rice and a single tortilla shell. Each child brought with them a tiny plastic bowl plastic cup. The team collected them, filled them up, and returned them to kids, who’d eat a few joyful bites, before placing the bowls in plastic bags to take with them home, to share with their remaining families. One can only begin to imagine what else they’d eat on this day, or the rest of the week for that matter. 

After Teheras the day was light, some shopping and a visit to one of the Federation satellite schools where several team members are sponsoring “AP” kids, those from the area with good grades, who get selected by Agape for additional help to pay for future studies, including for most of them some college. 

Afterwards the group met back at the compound for pizza with the families of our hosts, our interpreters and our drivers; a celebration complete with balloon hats for Maynor and Daniel and fake tattoos for the kids. It was a happy occasion in the middle of two weeks of work, a reminder of why we are here, and the pleasure filled life we came to extend to people in places like Teheras, and Rosa’s family on that mountain side we return to tomorrow. 

The honest truth is that for a great many people we know back home, family members and fellow Christians, they will find salvation in their own ways even without participating in mission trips, through faith, a belief in the divinity of Christ, and their humble requests to be forgiven of sin by the Almighty. 

This trip was not a requirement. Mission work is not an obligation, but rather a choice made by the servant of God to share the good word and to perform works of faith. In the end each of us possesses the secret for salvation, the antidote, it is up to us whether or not we share it, and to appreciate what Sandra’s husband Marcos taught the AP children today, that “life is an instrument of God,” and so here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own. 

There is not a new stove or added bedroom that will do more for the people we serve in this country than the simple effort to inspire in them a new measure of hope, a new birth of faith, a belief that things will get better they can carry with them through challenges that will arise long after we are gone. 

The meal we served this morning in Teheras filled stomachs for just a moment, on one day. When we departed from that place, a skinny seven-year-old boy escorted his two younger sisters, tiny and fragile, across the highway, dodging tractor trailers for a walk uphill through weeds, carrying a bag of rice and three tortilla shells, to feed the rest of his family.

All we can do is to keep coming, to keep building, to keep sponsoring, to keep inspiring hope, and to keep the faith that one day those kids will make it out. 

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life.” – Proverbs 13:12

Michael Cooper
Ambassador, WUMC

Hope is Eternal

We left Villa Celia Delfina this morning to trek across the great divide of the Quimistan Valley heading for Nueva Esperanza (New Hope) to perform a one day construction project at the local school. Every year for four years, the Wilkesboro team has made this journey into the mountains to bring and share the hope of Christ because the people of Nueva Esperanza have a special place in our heart. No journey is too long… no journey is too difficult when it comes to fulfilling the commandment He gave the Disciples before His ascension. Christ said, “To share the good news of the Gospel to the ends of the earth.” New Hope is so remote, one would think that you are close to the end of the world… 

Today was no different, after a gut wrenching two hour journey across torturous and pothole laden roads we arrived to be greeted by the children. They were lined up at the gate smiling and welcoming us to their world. Our work began in earnest when we began installing new screens on the windows of the main school building, and some of the team began to cut and build new screen frames for the lower building. Several team members kept the children entertained while playing a variety of games that included baseball, soccer, volleyball and a few made up games. The work was completed by 4 pm, we loaded back up to make the return journey home.

Once we arrived back at the compound, we cleaned up and went out to eat at the local chicken joint along with several special guests and their families. Following the meal many of the Americanas gathered to play soccer with the locals, and I tell you the truth, the girls were a lot more physical at the game than the guys. I took a cross check from a young lady that sent me into the fence… I think I have a few loose teeth now… The day went well as always. 

Screening

Making screen frames

Hunter cutting screen

Thanks to our drivers and the crew who always put our safety first, God bless all of you.

Mark