Top 10 Memories from 2010

As the year comes to a close, we’re taking a few minutes to look back on our favorite times from 2010.

10. MTW Area Retreat (October)

This retreat checks in first on our list as it was one of the nicest vacations we’ve ever had.  Our agency combined the relaxing aspects of a beach vacation with the encouraging and challenging messages of a Christian conference into one packed week in Mexico.  We came home rested and encouraged, ready to press on in ministry.

9. World Cup (June)

2009 ended with Honduras qualifying for their first Cup in 28 years (I was born during their last World Cup).  The entire country filled with excitement and anticipation as the games drew near, and although Honduras didn’t win a game, they made their country proud.  Our team used these exciting weeks as a time of sports outreach as we broadcasts the games to captive audiences and hosted numerous soccer events.

8. Youth Discipleship Begins (March)

Last Spring we started a scholarship program for some high school aged kids in Armenia, and along with it was started a weekly discipleship program.  Every Tuesday Lindsey and I would take turns reading the Bible, asking questions, and praying with the students.  Lindsey enjoyed seeing Nancy and Alicia grow throughout the year, and while George and Walter’s growth wasn’t quite as obvious, I was still encouraged by their honesty and openness.

7. Two New Houses (June and July)

One of the pleasures of hosting short-term work teams from the US is seeing the impact they make on people’s lives here in Honduras.  In addition to other projects, this year the teams started and finished two houses for single moms.  A college group started Argentina house back in February, and then in June it was finished up by some skillful carpenters.  Next we built Maria and her ever-expanding family a new two bedroom home, pictured above.

6. Clows Arrive (May)

One of the hardest part of being a missionary is that we are seemingly always making new friends and saying goodbye to old ones.  We cling to those few friends we have here, so the coming and going is that much more painful.  This fall our teammates for over 2 years left for the US for furlough, but the hole they left was filled by a new family coming to join us.

Kathy and John have been amazing friends and teammates for us since they arrived.  With no one else to turn to, we don’t know how we would have made it though Anna’s birth and early months of adjusting.  Their kids have also been kind and patient playmates with our little ones, despite their age difference.

5. Eduardo (Year round)

Speaking of coming and going.  My closest friend in Armenia has left for the holidays.  Eduardo’s mother moved to Roatan (an island off the coast) a few years ago, so every year he visits her for a month or two during his school break.  I’ve mentioned Eduardo many times on this blog, so all I’ll say here is that even today I am surprised how much I miss him while he is gone.

4. Pastors Conference (December)

This year, for our 4th pastors conference, we decided to do thinks a little differently.  Instead of flying in an American speaker, we asked a Honduran pastor to teach for us.  And instead of busing all of the attendees to a nice hotel in town, we rotated the conference in the local churches of Armenia.  These changes had a lot more variables than the years before, but despite them the conference went very well.

It was especially nice to work side-by-side with the local pastors.  Rico, our speaker, stayed in our house, played with our kids, and befriended our family.  He also really resonated with the Honduran church leaders, who themselves embraced the idea of hosting the conference and can’t wait to do it again soon.

3. Boys Soccer Tournament (April)

Honduras loves soccer.  That much is obvious.  And the boys we minister to are no exception.  So in the spring we planned a special day for them at a local soccer facility.  They spent all morning playing on indoor fields and ended the day with a knockout tournament.  The boys loved playing, but the highlight of the day was the message shared by a local pastor who grew up poor and on the street, which resonated with many of the kids.

The day was so successful we’ve had sever spin-off events, but nothing can compare to the encouragement of the original.

2. Construction Projects (February)

Early this year our team purchased a big lot in Armenia Bonito.  The guys started clearing the land in February and haven’t stopped since.  The property began the year as a few acres filled with jungle, but it ends the year as a fenced-in lot with a completed guard house/storage shed, an unroofed, but playable, soccer court, and a completed first floor of a Christian high school.  The projects for 2011 include a roof for the soccer field, a second floor for the school, a health clinic, and a church.

Armenia isn’t the only neighborhood seeing buildings go up.  We also broke ground on a ministry center in town that will primarily serve as housing for short-term teams, a street children drop-in center, and a seminary.  The little lot is a hive of activity, and ends the year with amazing progress on the foundation and ground floor of the dorms.

1. Anna is Born (October)

Our year began with the exciting news of McCann #3.  Though Anna just arrived a few months ago, Lindsey would tell you her presence was felt all year long.  You prayed with us for her and Lindsey throughout the year, and God provided for her every step of the way.  We’ve known Anna for 2 months know, and we can’t wait to get to know he more in 2011.

Growing Buildings Downtown

Our construction site in La Isla (downtown La Ceiba) keeps moving right along.  Despite rain and the holidays, our workers are working hard and making quick progress.

The’ve completed the first building on the property, a small storage shed.  To us this doesn’t sound very exciting, but it means the guys no longer have to store their supplies at the neighbor’s house across the street, and now they can keep all of their tools with them.

After weeks of digging a deep foundation, the first of the walls are going up on the dorm building.  This is very exciting as we have another busy summer coming up and would love to use the property for at least some of the time.

Kids Club

After our 10 week series on the Ten Commandments, we took a few weeks and just had some unorganized play time with the kids.  It was a great time for our new interns to meet the kids and enjoy playing with them.

The past few weeks though, we’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit.  We started with a lesson and coloring sheet on the angel appearing to Mary, and then last week we covered Jesus’ birth.  This Tuesday was our last before our break, so we made Christmas trees, candy canes, Christmas bracelets, and colored a nativity scene.

We’ve also been singing some Christmas songs with the kids as well.  Here is the most popular:

Navidad, Navidad (to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Navidad, Navidad, hoy es Navidad

Con campanas este dia hay que festijar

Navidad, Navidad, porque ya nacio

Ayer noche, Nochebuena, el ninito Dios

And yes, that is Ellie bundled up in Honduras.  We’ve had some cold fronts this month, so cold it might even get down into the 60’s for Christmas!!

Armenia Christmas Party

For the past two years (2008 and 2009), our biggest event of the year (at least numerically speaking) has been our children’s Christmas party in Armenia Bonito, and this year was no different.  The day consisted of some Christmas songs, a Christmas message, presents, and lunch.

For presents, we gave out plastic soccer balls to the boys and earrings and a knitted hat to the girls.  The hats were made by some ladies in a supporting church and were quite a hit.  You might not think a knitted hat would be a good fit for tropical Honduras, but when the temperature drops below 80 in the rainy season, the winter clothes come out.  Jackets, gloves, and yes, even knitted hats.

After two years in a row of a Honduran staple for lunch, arroz con pollo, we decided to give them a little American classic, hot dogs, which the kids loved.

The party was exhausting to put on, but a joy to be a party of.  And a big thanks goes out to the team for pulling it off.

Unique Giving Opportunity

Many of you have been following along the construction of our ministry center in Armenia Bonito.  This has been quite an undertaking, with a dozen or so national workers laboring away daily since early this year.  They’ve been aided by many short-term teams and missionaries here on the field.  So far we’ve cleared an entire two acre property, built a multi-purpose soccer field (which still lacks a roof), and built the bottom floor of our two-story Christian high school.

This project has been funded entirely by donors, both individuals and churches, in the US.  As the year draws to a close, we’ve received some extra encouragement to consider giving now: your gift given will have double the impact.  For a limited time MTW strategic funds has agreed to match every gift received 1:1. If you give $100, $200 will go to our project.

There are two ways you can make a onetime contribution:

1) On-line:

Use your credit or debit card at this address: https://www2.mtw.org/donations/donate/default.aspx

Please make sure you enter 92410 as the designation.

2) Check:

Mail your check to:

Mission to the World
P.O. Box 116284
Atlanta, GA 30368-6284
Attn: #92410

Make sure to write “#92410” in the memo of the check.

Our hopes for this ministry center is that it would become a place of hope for the poor men, women, and children in Armenia. Living life at the poverty level in a third-world country like Honduras is not easy.  This ministry center is by no means the answer to deep and painful problems that these people face on a daily basis, but we pray that it would bring them a ray of hope.  Through this center, we will show the love, grace, and justice of God to all those who pass through it’s doors.  From the children we cherish, to the poor and sick we serve, to the spiritually lost we hope to reach, the marginalized of society will be loved and shown the true hope that can only came through Christ Jesus.

Join us in praying for these people whom we’ve come love and for this center, through which we hope to show them that love.

Medical Clinic

Last Friday we hosted our December health clinic with Dr. Mario Pacheco.  He has been so kind to take a morning off from his own clinic to come and work with us.  With Dr. Pacheco and our triage “nurse” Betty, our little clinic has quite a volunteer feel to it these days. While these monthly clinics are a serious downgrade from our normal weekly clinics, they are working great in keeping up our medical mercy presence while also serving some of the very sick and needy.

Here is Carlos, one of our new scholarship kids.  Even though the school year hasn’t started yet, he wanted to get a jump start on volunteering with us.  Adan spent the day showing him the in’s and out’s of pharmacy.

Helping Hands

Ever since our friends in Armenia discovered our house, and how easy it is to get here on the bus, we frequently have drop in visits.  Although these visits often come at inopportune times (but for us scheduled Americans, isn’t it always a bad time?), they are normal in a Latin culture and we’ve come to enjoy them.  The one hour bus ride (one way) doesn’t seem to deter even younger girls, who have been coming around even more lately to hold baby Anna.

The girls spent the afternoon at our house working and playing.  We have lots of kids puzzles that we like to bring out to Armenia from time to time because the kids love to play with them, but they get pretty messy and mixed up.  So Sairy, Karla, and Nancy put together a dozen puzzles, found all the missing pieces, and organized them.  And they loved it!

But it wasn’t all work, and they helped Lins, Bethany, and the girls bake (and eat) lots of cookies.

Pastors Conference

 

On Saturday we ended our three day pastors and leaders conference in Armenia Bonito on leadership.  Pastor Rigo taught the conference as well as led worship each night.  All of the leaders seemed to enjoy the theme, as well as the music, and at the end many were already asking about the next conference.

At the end of the conference we gave everyone folders full of more notes and material, as well as a certificate for completing the 12 hour conference.  These certificates have become a big deal, and people really treasure them.

Hosting the conference at three different churches, three nights in a row, was a lot of work.  We couldn’t have pulled it off without lots of work and preparation on the home front from Kathy and Lindsey, as well as lots of last-minute errands and set-up work from our awesome new interns, Leo and Bethany.

4th Biannual Pastors Conference

Last night we kicked off our fourth pastors conference here in La Ceiba. Our theme this year is leadership, a topic that most of the pastors and leaders are very excited about. Our speaker for the conference is Rigoberto Romero, a Honduran from the eastern part of the country who has served churches both here and in the US. He is passionate about the topic and is a gifted speaker.

Rigo is also a very talented musician, so he is leading our group in praise and worship every night, playing both the guitar and the keyboard. The conference got off to a great start last night with around 70 leaders in attendance. They love the topic and have asked for more materials, so we have been running around today getting some material together to give them tomorrow at the end of the conference.

Please pray for Rigo and the pastor in Armenia for their time together tonight and tomorrow.