Time's almost up

It is hard to believe that I have been home in Montgomery for a month.  I've been really busy doing my taxes, replacing the HVAC unit at the rental house, medical exams, and a list of other things.  But I am so thankful to have had an opportunity to help out my dear friend Nancy Buzzard and to take part with a Rebuilding Together project with St. John's church.  I thankful to have had the opportunity to catch up with old friends, though I did not get to everyone I wanted to.  I'm thankful for my beautiful sister Ann and her husband Tony who housed me and fed me so well during my stay home.  Easter at St. John's was so beautiful and inspiring and I thank you for all that you have contributed towards my work in Honduras, both financially and in prayer.  Hot water AND good water pressure, electricity 24/7,  phones that actually work, being able to communicate so easily with out having to mentally translate all the time, the ease of transportation, and the abundance of everything has really been nice.  And I'm thankful for being to get some rest!

I return Monday to an incredibly busy schedule, preparing for incoming groups and getting ready to start construction on a new building at San Juan School.  I have to get the computer lab at the school rewired and then buy all new computers and get them installed (thanks to the financial help of some incredibly generous folks.  And of course I have to do it all in Spanish which continues to be a challenge for me.  But I thank God for the chance to serve him in such a beautiful place and with such beautiful people.  The challenges keep me ever aware of my need to put my trust in Him.  Please keep my in prayers, for my continued safety and the success of our endeavours in Honduras.  Pray for the Diocese of Honduras and all who seek to serve God in His church

Love you all,  Bob

Jack Melvin and I hosted the architects from Inscape Publico a couple of weeks ago per the last blog. After church on Sunday, we had the afternoon free and decided to go down to Comyagua, the original  Capitol of Honduras.  We toured a 1725 Cathedral which was beautiful.  It was a gloomy day and dark inside, and since there were people praying, I didn't want to use the flash, but the interior behind the altar was huge and all gold gilt.  They had what I think are the most beautiful stations of the cross I have ever seen.  They looked like porcelain in wooden frames.  In the park in front of the Cathedral the stones mimic the shadow of the church.

We toured what was "reported" as being the tallest bell tower in Central America

And the view was beautiful

Not only of the town but of the building itself

Thanks to Greg, Stefan and Kevin for the good company.  I really enjoyed the day with you.  You too Jack.  I look forward to working with all of you in the future on San Juan School Project.

San Juan School

I'm living in Siguatepeque at the Bishop's request, in order to supervise the construction of a new school here at San Juan's Church.  Actually, San Juan's is where my love for Honduras began.  It was one of the churches I worked on here, during my first trip in 1989.  I've been here for eight months and other than doing a lot of emailing with folks who are interested in supporting the project and getting some soil samples taken, not much has happened.  However we made a big leap week before last.  Jack Mevin is a SAMS missionary and architect working with the  Diocese of Honduras.  Great guy and a good friend, who's swamped with work.  Jack made contact with a company named Inscape Publico out of Washington D.C. and we hosted their architects for a week.  Inscape Studio is a profit making architectural firm, but two years ago, the owner Gregory A Kearley, AIA, started the "Publico" branch of the business in a desire to give back.  They have done work for non-profits all over the world and helped them to raise the funds to have their buildings built.  I am so excited!

Jack and I took Greg, Stefan and Nathan to visit two existing schools in Tegucigalpa and San Pedro.  Kevin had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Honduras for two years, four years ago.  (Said he felt like he never left)  We met with school administrators and teachers and gathered a lot of information about the schools.  We had meetings with contractors and city officials, took a mess of photographs and measurements, had a meeting with Bishop Allen and Steve Robinson, the new administrator for Episcopal Schools in Honduras, and just got a lot of work done in the short time they were here.  They will be drawing plans for the entire school campus and then a set of plans for the first building which we hope to have ready for next year.  

San Juan School has been in business for 7 years.  We have twice as many students as we did last year and we are growing.  It is a faith based, bilingual school as are all the Episcopal Schools.  We have 5th graders this year who have been with the school since it started and who will have no 6th grade classroom if we don't get something built by August.  My faith was getting a little wobbly till these guys came along.  No doubt they can help us get this accomplished.  And on top of that, they were just really cool guys that spoke English and I really enjoyed hanging out with them.  What a pleasure.  On Sunday afternoon, we went down to Comyagua for lunch.  I'll tell you about that in another blog.

Thanks be to God

Happy New Year from Honduras

I  have been seeing dummies lately.  Scare crow type figures made of old clothes and stuffed with paper. They sit in chairs, prop themselves up on boulders and I have even see a few standing in the streets.  Some are quite good.  They have hats and some are smoking pipes.  My friend Fredy tells it is customary here.  At midnight on New Year's Eve, they are set on fire, symbolising the passing of the old man of last year and welcoming in the new man of the new year.  "Putting behind us what is past, we press on..."

This past year represents a radical change in my life.  Having moved here in June, everything has changed.  There have been and continue to be many challenges, but I am so thankful that I am now living what I dreamed of for so long.  I am so thankful for the many people here who have helped me get set up and who continue to encourage me in my work.  I am ever so grateful to the people of St. John's Church in Montgomery who continue to support me, both financially and with their prayers;  for being able to communicate with the young people (YASCsters) that I trained with in New York and for being able to watch God work in their journeys, and for the people I have had the  pleasure of meeting and working with through the short term mission teams of the past 6 months.  For my friend Fredy without whom I could not do my job.  For Amilcar and Eleana in the main office who help me understand HOW to do my job.  For clergy who look out for me and support me.  For Ms. Ana Reid, my co-worker and friend, who prays with me and makes me laugh.  I thank God for a small but comfortable and safe place to live; for reliable transportation; for electricity, water, phone service and internet (when I have them); for plenty to eat, and good health.  For my family.

Surely I have been blessed,

I pray the God of Peace grant you all your heart's desires in the coming year,

Love Bob

Thanksgiving in Honduras

This was my first Thanksgiving ever away from my family.  But I received an invitation to join my Tela "family" and went up there for a day or two.  I stayed with my good friend Stace who is a gringo teacher at Espíritu Sancto.  We had a delightful dinner at a local restaurant where the power went out just as the meal was served.  But we talked about our spiritual journeys and how God had lead us here and how He continues to work in us.  And that was a great blessing.

Thanksgiving morning began with a service at the church with all the students from the school.  It was such a blessing to see the success of the school and how closely they work with the church, not to mention seeing all those gorgeous happy faces of the children.  It was raining like crazy, so after the service I went back to Stace's apartment and took a long nap.

That evening, Reverenda Olga Barrera (who I love) had invited us to her house for a Thanksgiving celebration.  There were about 25 people there and the food was non-stop and delicious.  It was so wonderful being with my old friends and some new ones.  The number of people who speak English in Tela is much greater than anywhere else I work and that was surely a pleasure.  There was also some great  music provided by Olga's daughter Swami and You Tube.  There was dancing.  I danced.  I danced at Thanksgiving and it was great.  I danced with Olga's mom who has the greatest smile and not at all shabby on the dance floor.  A little samba, a little salsa, some rumba mixed in with a little "punta," a native dance.  What a wonderful Thanksgiving!  Thanks to Olga and Stace.  And my dear Swami.

A nuevo amigo

One of the greatest things about my job here in Honduras is that I have an opportunity to meet some of the finest people you could ever hope to meet.  Such was the case this last week when I had an opportunity to travel around with a great guy named Richard Marks from Washington D.C.  His church has taken part in short term mission teams in the past but not in the last couple of years due to the aging of the participants.  Working here can be pretty demanding physically.   The amazing thing is that their passion for the work is still strong.  Richard was on a fact finding mission and together with Rev Hector Madrid we traveled to some really out of the way places accessible only by dirt "road."  His church has been supporting a clinic in Protección for several years including the salary for Dr. Waldo Madrid and funding for pharmaceuticals.  These people would be really hard pressed for any amount of medical attention if it were not for this clinic.

We traveled to three different locations that are in my area that I had not had an opportunity to visit before and because Richard is totally bilingual, he was a huge help to me.  I learned a great deal  about the needs of the churches and health care facilities we have in those areas.  We also visited with Rev./MD. Elvia Maria Galinda here in Siguatepeque.  In addition to being a priest in the first church I ever worked in here back in 1989, she is also running an AIDS clinic where she attends to about 100 HIV patients.  She also sees about 20 patients a day with other maladies.  It was interesting to learn that there were only three new cases of HIV last year.  She said that education here had been very effective.  They also opened the clinic to everyone so that the HIV patients could avoid the  stigma that goes along with the decease and still come to the clinic, which worked.

Teams are great and we need more, but it sure was a pleasure doing some one on one with someone who shares my passion for the work we are doing here.  Richard was simply a joy to be around.  He treated me to a great dinner at his hotel in San Pedro Sula and we talked about how Christ has worked in our lives and in the lives of the people of Honduras.  We talked about plans for the future.  It was as enjoyable and it was informative.

Thank You Richard.  God Bless

What's that you say Bob?

I SAID,  "I will never be one of those guys who retires just to turn around and work another job 6 days a week."  I also said, "Never again will I take a job that has me in the road all the time and living out of a bag."  And here I am, doing exactly that.  But in Honduras.  Tired, but it's a good tired.

Last week was incredibly busy.  I had a group in Puerto Cortez with a medical clinic and I had to leave and drive 5 hours to Copan in the middle of the week for a meeting with a scouting group that will be bringing down a group in June.  It was a lot of driving, but both of these groups were incredible.  The Echol's group in Puerto Cortez was a medical brigade.  They saw close to 375 people!  They were such a joy to work with.  And so appreciative.

The group in Copan will be moving their operation there after working for many years in another location.  They were fun!  Very excited about the possibilities for medical clinic and construction on a church we have there that has been under construction for 10 years.  I stayed with my old Spanish teacher Edgar, and had a chance to visit with Edgarcito, who I've had in school for years.  He is speaking English now.  Great help.  Edgar is trying too.  Larry Tate and his group treated my to some of the finest dining in Copan, steak tenderloin in coffee and rum sauce.  Awesome.

I had to return to San Pedro to see off the Echol's team and missed them.  Then back to Puerto Cortez to wrap things up there.  Back home for two days.  I return to Puerto Cortez tomorrow with paper work and then back here in the evening.  Meeting with representatives of an engineering school Saturday morning to take some soil samples at San Juan School in preparation for the new construction.

Busy, busy, busy, but still loving life in Honduras.