I've been extremely busy over the last 3 weeks since my return from the States, but thanks to my good Honduran friends Fredy, Amilcar and Josue, and the grace of God, I've gotten a lot accomplished.
I had a wonderful team of 40 medical professionals here in February including doctors and nurses, an eye clinic, dentists and veterinarians. This team from Mississippi has been working in the mountain town of San Joaquin for many, many years and they rent our big yellow school bus and send it out every morning picking up patients from some 20 surrounding villages bringing them to the clinic and taking them back home in the afternoon. Because they see over 250 families, they send down a large shipment of medications and medical equipment every year. This year, unfortunately, their shipment hit a snag in customs and we have been trying to get it out ever since. Upon my return from the States, I learned that it had finally been released. I spent 5 days hanging out at the airport in customs trying to get everything inspected and payed for. We were finally able to get it loaded up and Fredy and I took off to the clinic in San Joaquin, where we were able to store it until next year. Luckily, we only lost one box of Ibuprofen due to expiration dates. George Jackson, the team leader, and I had gone to customs in San Pedro everyday for four days trying to get the shipment. When we learned it wasn't going to happen, we had a little cry together and some prayer, then set about acquiring as much medication as possible with the money they had brought to pay the duty on the shipment. Despite the set back, the team had a very successful mission. My thanks to George and all the incredible people on the team for their patience, understanding and most of all, for their faith and ability to be flexible. Good work guys!
Three days after the Mississippi group left, I had a team from Good Shepherd, Dallas here in Siguatepeque. They did some great construction work and held VBS classes every day. Upon learning that almost all of the 13 computers in the school lab were dead, they sent down some money and with the help of Trinity Episcopal Church of Newport, Rhode Island, we have been able to re-wire the lab and purchase 20 new computers and a new 3 in 1 printer. The office staff at the school is much appreciative and the children are incredibly excited. Thanks to my friend Josue, the IT guy at El Buen Pastor who helped me make the purchases and spent three days at the school getting everything up and running. I'll purchase a new router this Tuesday and when that is installed, we will be up and running. My thanks also to Brad Fink and Kathy Nelson from Good Shepherd and Tom Jansen from Trinity and all the good people who made this possible.
I have been working with Jack Melvin (a SAMS missionary) and Inscape Publico, a non profit architectural design firm from Washington D.C., on a new building at San Juan School. It will be a cafeteria building, but we will be using steel studs and sheetrock to temporarily divide the finished building into 3 new classrooms. The school is growing and we are absolutely out of space. We have made some progress on the design and will hopefully have some finished plans here in the next couple of weeks. I have shown the plans we have at present to my local contractor and he is ready to run. We have to have this building completed by August the 15th and we are really going to be cutting it close. So please keep that in your prayers.
I have also been burning up the road and Yahoo preparing for two back to back groups coming in June. One will be helping to build a church in Copan and holding a medical clinic in nearby Santa Rita. The other will be providing medical care in Matazanales, a quite remote little village in the mountains that is just a little slice of heaven. Hope to have those ready to go pretty soon.
I have some really good news too. My old friend, Reverendo Francisco Lone from Tela, has been transferred to San Juan Church here in Siguatepeque. Everyone is really excited as am I. He is great guy and has a beautiful family. I worked really well with him in Tela for 3 or 4 years and he is very excited about partnering with the school here. He is one of those guys who is filled with the joy of his salvation and just a pleasure to be with. He will be added local support for me and I'm very thankful for that.
So I have been very busy, I'm tired, and I'm back in the road at 6 in the morning, but I am so thankful for having been found worthy to serve God and his people in this beautiful country. There is no way I can thank the good people of St. John's Church in Montgomery for their continued generous financial support and prayers. God bless you, I miss you, and I love you every one. It is sometimes hard to believe that within just a couple of weeks I will have been here for a year. It's been very challenging, but my faith continues to grow and I'm happy. Thanks be to God.
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