Coffee Anyone?

Life is good and God is at work in so many different ways here in Quimistan. After spending Saturday morning at the Pinal construction site and the eye clinic, a select few of us got to take a tour of our dear friend Wilmer's coffee plantation. The sites and smells of the coffee beans and various fruits gave many of our team members the "perk" they would need for Sunday.






Early Sunday Morning we loaded down the truck with soccer balls, coloring books, and a homemade rope swing, and headed for the Agape compound to spend some time playing with 46 of the local kids. With Frisbees flying and bubbles popping, there was much joy and laughter among both the kids and the team members.









When Sunday afternoon rolled around on the grounds of our humble abode, we met 40 of the boys and girls who are sponsored through Agape Promise. After the children and team members introduced themselves, Anne B. distributed handmade angles, crosses, hearts, flowers and fish (all made by her daughter, Cathrine) to the kids to take home as a reminder to them of Christ love for us. We also ate a meal with the children, had a drama on the story of Ruth, and finished off by having the team lead the kids in a rousing rendition of the Hokey Poke. Though we could all be labeled as professionally trained baby sitters after today, we had a great time with the Agape kids. There was much joy had today in Jesus name, and hey..."That's what it's all about!"





Finally, we ended the day by attending the night service at the Agape Church. After the team sang a few of ye ol' favorite hymns for the congregation, we took our seats to hear the sermon given by our own Randell Foxworth. He was a faithful instrument in the hand of God, reminding us of how God sends us the power of the Holy Spirit through His word. It was a great testimony to the truth and hope that can only be found in Jesus. Great job Senor Randell!





Well, I think we will call it a day folks. Spirits are high here, and there is definitely not drought in the laughter. Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for God's work amongst the people of Quimistan and for the team members. Adios amigos!





With hope from Quimisitan





-Cameron Beaty

A week in pictures

Good Morning,



To satisfy the thousands and thousands of emails that we have received from home, today we will post more pictures than usual. I am updating the blog here in the air conditioning while everyone else is working. Well.... Its all true except the part about the air conditioning. The weather has been quite cooperative, it may be, at times, as hot as it is in Mississippi, but not for long. It stays overcast here for the majority of the day. For those of you that don't know how the schedule is down here, there are about fifteen in our group. We have several projects going at one time. People can go to the same one all of the time, or change from one to another every day or so. The projects right now are (1) building a classroom for a school, (2) flouride treatments for the children, and (3) operating an eye clinic and trying to fit people with the correct glasses. Here are a few photos from the various projects:


















Emory and Avent here are excited after completing the ten minute correspondence course on how to operate the "i"(sp?) machine.















This is Suyapa(Right), the wife of our translator, with a local woman and her new Specs.



















Randall and Janice preparing the treatment

















Schoolchildren taking medicine to fight against parasites.
















Emory explains (in English) exactly how to do the treatment.






















As is evident by the thumbs up, these are just two more satisfied customers!

















This is Ashlee with her soccer team that played close to where we are builing the school in El Pinal. If you cannot tell, the boy on the far left in the blue shirt is the team captain.
















After breaking TWO shovel handles, Jeff thought that the best thing to do was to get Cameron to help hold this one up, while the school children continued to dig the footings.


















This is Jeff and a local contractor, Jerso, who is assisting with the school project. Please note the RSC cap that Jerso is wearing.
















This is one of the local delivery trucks. We stopped and spoke with the men briefly. We realized that this was definitely a more environmentally friendly, efficient, gas saving delivery service, than anything we have in Mississippi.

This afternoon, some of us are planning on going to a coffee plantation. Check back tomorrow for a full report.

Andrew

Jim's new glasses

Hola Ya'll,

We pulled up our chairs to God's table and feasted today til our hearts were full. We felt His hand at the Pinal school construction site, another rural school where we played with the children and provided flouride and worming medications, at the eye clinic, and at the La Cosecha Church tonight.

An elderly gentleman at the eye clinic was waiting for his pair of glasses when Pablo and our fearless leader Jim pulled out the pair on the left. I wish you all could have seen his face. He laughed a jolly laugh and then put them on his face! Humor crosses all barriers!

Before church, we were able to present the keys to one of the new homes that so many of you have worked on this summer. We gathered with the family for prayer and songs. What a very special opportunity for us all! The church service was very different from our Presbyterian ways, but we clapped and smiled and clapped and smiled and stood and clapped and smiled through it all. The pastor there did a dance that was a cross between James Brown and Elvis. Afterwards he taught us the moves so we can teach them to Olin. We are expecting a performance next Sunday.

We have so many pictures, but we are too tired tonight to share them! Andrew plans to get up in the morning and post many of them to give you an idea of what we have been doing. Thanks again for your prayers. We feel them

Rinse and Spit

After a good nights rest a group of us traveled about 20 minutes to a school where we did more fluoride and worm treatments on students there. Most of them enjoyed the worm treatment (banana flavored!) but, the fluoride was a little more difficult. (The picture to the left is them "swishing") The kids were so appreciative of us being there and playing frisbee and football with them afterward. They also loved our cameras! We took tons of pictures of them and they were so tickled to look at them on the screens.

A group also went to a construction sight where they started building the foundation of a school. They carried boulders up a hill to start the building process.

Right before lunch Marquita, Avent, Donna and Jim went to a "home" with Martha where she showed us where 2 families were sharing a living space. We all agreed that we had never seen anything like this before, our hearts broke with them.

After lunch, we went to the eye clinic where we saw 25 people, which we hope in the next couple of days will increase with "town talk". The people were so grateful to be able to see better.

We had a wonderful day and saw some old friends and met many, many more! Please keep Randell Foxworth in your prayers, he has been feeling bad all day. Thank y'all for all your prayers and support! We wouldn't be here without you and the Lord's grace that brought us here!

Avent Clark

Off to a good start

A flat tire and delayed construction materials kept our crew from heading to the work site this morning, but it didn't keep the men from working! After an inspiring devotional from Randell and a delicious breakfast, they assembled 120 backpacks in record time. Another crew headed to La Guana, a rural village about 30 minutes away from our home base. There we visited the Marco Aurelio school where we provided flouride treatments and worming medications to 140 students. The teachers here are on strike, so mothers of the children were filling in today. Of course the children captured our hearts. The kindergarten kids filed in one by one with their hands on each other's shoulders and lots of smiles. Only one child cried, but a few stickers and some warm hugs went a long way.

After lunch, our group headed to a local kindergarten where we will begin the eye clinic tomorrow. None of us seem destined to have a profession in the medical field! We practiced on each other with the auto refractor and had Emory believing that she needed coke bottle glasses! Don't worry. We will have perfected the process by tomorrow afternoon! Donna has us doing the math problems before we go to bed tonight!

We couldn't end the night without a visit to Shirley's for ice cream. We are all happy and well and missing our dear families and friends.

With gratitude for opportunities to serve,

Anne Buffington

Greetings

There is the sound of laughter and yawns in Quimistan tonight as a tired group is getting ready for bed. Our flight was on time, and we were greeted at the airport by Arturo and his wife Suyapa. Our first mode of transportation proved a little slow! We couldn’t figure out how to get all fifteen of us on the back of this wagon, so we opted for Arturo’s truck and a van made for eight. We squeezed in fifteen!

Our accommodations are great although we’ve decided to visit the local “Lowe’s” in the morning to purchase more fans! We will be up early for daily devotional followed by our first instructions of the day. Half of us will be constructing a classroom at Pinal, a rural village about 45 minutes from here. The rest of us will be doing fluoride treatments and giving de worming medications to local school children in neighboring villages. Can you say “Swallow and smile”??

We have already seen many friends and are anxious to meet more. Thank you all for supporting us and loving us in so many ways. Here’s to a great night’s sleep.

With gratitude for God’s provisions in getting us here safely,

Anne Buffington

Adios!

Our last day in Quimistan opened with a beautiful devotion from Vanna. She emphasized we should allow God to dwell in us in every and each thing we do. He has showed us an amazing group of people, who love him fully and without embarrassment even in the face of great adversity. However as we return to our daily lives in the U.S., we cannot just simply readjust our priorities as a result of our Honduran experience. God has no desire to be top priority. He does not want to be a part of our lives, even if it is the largest part. He instead wishes to be present for every part of our life. If we allow Him to do that then his love can flourish and truly become alive through us.
Well pretty quickly we figured out our plans for the day were irrelevant. God decided all of Quimistan Valley should be covered by an unrelenting downpour. No work was done this morning at the schools or construction sites. Instead we were able to very neatly refold all of our clothes, pack, finish books (team recommendation: The Shack by William P. Young), and fellowship. It was a great time to absorb the events of the week and prepare our hearts and minds for the return to the United States. In the afternoon, a few team members were able to return to the dump we visited earlier in the week. The way the children ravaged and picked through our trash that day struck particular nerves very deep. We were able to pack rice, beans, and fried chicken into individual bags that were hopefully split evenly amongst the twenty odd people who canvas the road into the dump. We also toured previous home sites, went to the supermarket, picked up our large order of machetes, and visited La Flecha for souvenirs (all in the rain). All our loose ends have been tied and the week has come to a gentle conclusion. We thank you all for your interest, comments, and prayers. Pending our travel tomorrow, all that is left to say is..........ADIOS!!!!

Brittany Klein