Today we had our weekly health clinic in Armenia Bonito.  Unlike most Thursdays, we had a pretty small crowd today.  As we were driving in for clinic, it was raining pretty hard, so we think that must have kept most folks away.

It was a good thing too, because Erin and I were the only ones around to work the clinic today.  6 months ago, this would have been a big problems, but we’ve been working with 3 or 4 teenagers from the community and now they are integral parts of our clinic.  They faithfully come to clinic and serve in whatever capacity we need that week.

In the picture above, Eduardo is helping me out at the pharmacy.  It is an interesting story about Eduardo and the health clinic.  When we first got here, he had been helping out Andy, the previous pharmacist.  But when it was Andy’s time to train me, he got very threatened by my presence and left.  It took about four months, but he finally came back and has been more helpful than ever.  One of our families highlights from the last month has been getting to know his family better and becoming good friends.

We’ll we’ve finally gotten back into the swing of things.  After all of our summer teams left, we took a few weeks off to rest, pray, and plan for the coming months and year.  It was a great break of brainstorming, planning, and uniting our vision as a team.  Then, just when we were getting excited about getting back into ministry in Armenia, our old buddy Zelaya showed back up.  If you don’t know who that his, just search our blog.  The former president of Honduras has a good habit of causing havoc right about the time we as a family are trying to do something.

His return into the country last Monday led to lots of his supporters protesting and looting, which led the current government to put on lots of curfews.  After a week of varying curfews, we are finally back to a fairly normal schedule (although Zelaya is still camping out at the Brazilian embassy, so something could go down at any time.)

All that to say, last week our team hosted a new English class, our first Kids Club of the fall (in which we’ll tell the stories of parables in the New Testament), and a full medical clinic.  It was a great week and we loved getting back to work.

Vilma, Lucy, Lindsey, Hacie, Jessica, Lucy, and Alejandra going for a walk in Armenia Bonito.

One of the most exciting times when you are kid is going to bed hoping it will snow while you’re sleeping and school will be canceled the next day.  The night is filled with anticipation, and the next day without school is always so much fun.

Lucy's last snow day. We were in Charlotte, about to leave for Costa Rica. February '07

Well we don’t have snow here in Honduras, but we still have our version of snow days.  Let me explain.

This afternoon, our exiled, former President Zelaya popped up in the capital city.  Hiding in the Brazilian embassy, he has rallied supporters and wants to talk.  The new government has responded like they have all through this process, with curfews.  As a move to hopefully stop protests and curb violence, the government instituted a 4 pm curfew this afternoon to run through the night.  Pretty standard, weren’t planning on going anywhere at 3 am anyway.

Well here is where the snow day comes in.  We just found out that the curfew has been extended for the whole day tomorrow.  Honduran snow day.  No school.  No work.  No errands.  No morning family time.  No afternoon Kids Club in Armenia.  And to make it worse, no fresh snow to play in.

As it has been through this whole process, we are perfectly safe and will continue to abide by all curfews.

Do all Hondurans celebrate their nation’s birth with home-made, BBQ chicken pizza on the grill?  Probably not.  But did that stop us from enjoying it on our day off?  Absolutely not.

Happy Independence Day Honduras!

One of the ministries that we had the great opportunity to be a part of this summer was community construction projects.  All of our short-term teams wanted to be a part of this mercy ministry, so they raised money for construction supplies and came down full of energy and a servants heart.  It was great to see the love of God shared though these projects, among Honduran and American alike.  Here are the stories of our summer projects.

Alejandro’s New Home

Alejandro is a single man with no known family in the area.  For years has lived in a small, one-room wooden shack.  He was thrilled at the idea of a new, concrete house, and worked along side us every day.  Our first team of the summer was a small group from Arizona who started work on this house.  The first few days were filled with the back-breakinging job of digging a foundation in the rocky soil.  Our small team worked hard, and with the help of a constant crew of Honduran volunteers, they laid the foundation and build up all four walls in a short week.

The job of finishing the house fell on our second summer team, a large youth team from southern Georgia.  In just two days the poured the floors, put up the roof, and installed the windows and doors.  Three months later, Alejandro still greats us with a gratefull smile for the work these two teams did.

Marcus and Jolie’s New Home

After finishing Alejandro’s house, our youth team started our biggest job of the summer, a two-bed room, one-bath house for a small family, complete with a porch and a septic tank.

Marcus and Jolie are a young family, about our age, and Margerie is their 6 year old daughter.  Marcus is a hard working day laborer, and Jolie helps her mom cook and sell pastelitos (pastries), pan de coco (coconut bread), and baleadas (Honduras’ version of a soft taco).  As long as we’ve know them, they’ve shared one bedroom in their parents house, a small home filled to the brim with over 10 family members.

Again, our team dug and laid the foundation, helped dig the septic tank, and laid enough blocks to get the wall up to about waist high.

After a few weeks break, our home church showed up and we picked up the house right were we left off.  A couple of the guys jumped in to lay bricks, and by the end of the week were working on their own with no supervision.  The rest of the crew mixed and ferried cement, carried bricks, and generally helped on-site.  Their week saw the walls go all the way up, but with still more work to go.

At the end of July, a group from Norther California came down for 10 days.  In their first days the laid the floor, put up the roof, and finished off the septic tank.  It was so great for us to see it all completed, we just wished everyone who put in time could have been there to see it.

Just the other day, I stopped by and watched some futbol with Marcus in his new living room.  Despite the plastic chairs and 10″ TV, he was thrilled to finally be in his new home.

Ramon and Dunia’s New Bathroom

Our California team didn’t stop with Marcus and Jolie’s house, and had soon moved on to complete Ramon and Dunia’s bathroom.  Ramon is very involved in a local church and works as a tutor at a local Christian orphanage and school, where his 6 year son Issac attends.  Dunia is a stay at home mom, caring for their 7 month old, Naomi (who is often seen sighted in a Duke skirt around town, it pays to be born a few months after Ellie!).  Right now they are living in his brother’s house, waiting to move into their new home once it is finally finished.

In just two days our group, under Ramon’s watchful eye, finished off the bathroom walls and covered the septic tank.  It is just a matter of time now until the family moves into their new digs.

Pastor Melvin’s New Roof

But once again, our California team wasn’t done there.  With the two days they had left, we headed over the Pastor Melvins house to fix his failing roof.  Melvin pastors one of the three churches in Armenia and he, along with his wife, son, and daughter, have been very welcoming and encouraging to our team.

Our foreman for the summer built the house over 15 years ago, and even though he did a great job, the roof was rusted and leaking, only held together in parts with some duck tape.  So in two days, we took down the old roof and put up the new, just in time for some serious rain storms.

Pastor’s Iraeni’s New Kitchen

After our California team finally said good-bye, a team from Arizona showed up for the third week of August.  Their job for the week was a new kitchen for Pastor Iraeni, a replacement for his old kitchen that was ruined in a fire.

Though Iraeni works all day in a factory, his wife Brenda and their two daughters were always around to keep us company.  The team built a tricky wall up the side of a steep hill, put up a new roof, and started to fill in the floor.  When they left, there was just a day or two more until the kitchen was complete.

A New Roof for Pastor Iraeni’s Church

Our last and biggest team of the summer brought down 18 workers all the way from New York City.  Their job was no small task: install a new roof on a local church in the middle of town.  For the first few days, the team helped with demo and paint, while a few works went over to finish Iraeni’s floor.  After a few days of ground work and brick laying, the roof finally started to take shape on Thursday.  Full days on Thursday and Friday saw the roof almost reach completion.

It was quite a busy summer filled with sweat, hard work, and long days.  The projects went a long way in serving others and sharing the love of Christ with them.  We loved being a part of this ministry and seeing the love that was shared between the Americans who we just met and the Hondurans whom we have come to love.

Summer is official over.  This past weekend, our final team of the summer headed back to the US.  They were a great team full of energy and activities, but now that they’re gone, it’s time for us to kick back and relax for a little while.

With summer teams and interns gone, our MTW team here in La Ceiba consists of just us and our teammates, Mike and Erin.  We’re looking forward to a slower month to get caught up on things that fell by the wayside this summer, following up with new relationships in Armenia, and spending lots of team time discussing, praying, and dreaming about what God has in store for the next season of our ministry here.

Kids playing at the swimming hole.

Oneida, Vilma, and Sarah hanging out at the river.

The past few Monday’s, the teams have been helping us with Kids Club.  Although the kids all seem to like us just fine during the year, they especially like it when teams are here because it means more attention and more playmates.  The girls continue to come out every Monday and enjoy the games and singing.  Ellie is always passed around, and doesn’t seem any worse for the wear.

Katie, Sadie, Hernan, Nancy, Jessica, Ellie, Wilson, and Adan all hanging out during Kids Club.

And then of course there are our two faithful helpers, George and Walter.  Seemingly since day one, these two cousins are always hanging around, helping, teasing, and playing.  The’ve kicked it up a notch this summer, and are amost like extra team members.  It only takes them about 5 minutes to make new friends, and all the teams seem to fall in love with these two.  They may not know it, but they are well loved all over the US!

Last week, right as our team was leaving, we packed up as well and headed to Mexico for a 72 hour vacation.  You’d think because we live in Central America, a trip to Mexico would be nice and quick, but it took us 3 flights and a bus ride to get to Puebla, our weekend destination.  Puebla is a big town outside of Mexico City.  It has a very European feel to it, complemented with hundreds of historic churches and cathedrals.  But the best part for us was the great food, the mild weather (no humidity!), and the hotel pool.  Lucy loved her daily swim and nightly bath in a real tub, we loved the dry, cool air and the delicious food, and Ellie is as happy as anywhere else, just along for the ride.

Once we returned, we had our first chance to take a breath since our new summer intern has arrived.  Sarah arrived the same day as the last team, and had a fairly hectic week of adjustment.  This week we’ve had a slower pace that even included a beach birthday party and a morning river trip.

Yesterday, we were back at it with our weekly kids club.  We started off with some water games to cool off, and then headed inside for 30 hot minutes of singing, a gospel presentation, and a coloring craft.

As you can see in the picture, Lucy is becoming more and more comfortable with the kids in Armenia (it only took 6 months!).  Yesterday she wanted to be first in the water line, and then let some kids carry her inside, and even colored with older boys picking on her the whole time.  She has really turned into quite the brave adventurer.

Today was our home church’s last day here in Honduras.  It has been so great for us to visit old friends and rekindle relationships.  Yesterday they helped put on a health clinic all day, and those who weren’t working took lots of the neighborhood kids up to the river.  Today we continued house construction, and then took the afternoon off for a quick beach visit.

Here are a couple pics from the last few days.

Marie, Laura, and Donnette learning how to make baleadas from Teresa.

Walter and George entertaining Luke during some downtime.

It was so great having our church down here for the week.  It is sad to see them go, but we can’t wait to host them again some day.

Late last Saturday night, we welcomed our home church from Charlotte, NC, as our third mission team of the summer.  We spent over three years at Sovereign Grace Presbyterian, so it was so exciting for us to see old friends , make new ones, and work together here in Honduras.

The started their week on Sunday with a pancake breakfast at our place, afternoon worship at our team house, and an evening out in Armenia Bonito at a local church service.  For the past three days, they’ve been working hard on construction.  Everyone is getting involved shifting sand, mixing concrete, and moving and laying bricks.  In between are breaks to pick up trash, advertise for our English class, and play with the ever-present kids.

The Brick Line

On Monday, after construction and lunch, the team helped us put on a Kids Club by playing games, performing a skit, leading songs, and helping with a craft.  On Tuesday, the afternoon involved an English class which the teams helped with, along with more soccer with the boys.  And then today, after a long morning, we headed out to the local swimming hole with lots of boys and girls for a nice, refreshing dip.

Lucy, Elizabeth, and Donnette, taking a little break.

So far the team has been great.  There have been a few delays, crowed cars, and the usually heat and humidity, but they seem to have taken it all in stride.  Some of the women even stayed back yesterday to help Lindsey cook some food for our teams in August.

It has been a blast to have our church here, and the time is flying.  We’re sad to see them go this weekend, but can’t wait to have them back again soon.