TEARING DOWN WALLS

Well the group has come and gone and I am so sorry that I didn't take the time to keep everyone updated, but I was living in the moment so to speak. I am now taking time to reflect and can't wait to share the amazing time we have had the last two weeks. I guess I should break this down into several blogs there is so much that has happened.


The group arrived the day after Mother's Day and we met them at the airport. It was such a joy to see friends that we haven't seen in such a long time. With quick hugs and greetings we loaded them onto a bus and off they went to Comayagua. It was no fun, it was like getting a quick look at a present and then have it taken away for three days!

I know that they did a lot of good in Comayagua. They dug ditches, painted a church, visited children's homes and hospitals.

They came back to Tegus. late Wednesday night. We drove to the mission house for the Devo that night. I was so excited to get to visit our friends and begin to make new ones. We made plans for the next day. We were going to be building two houses in Mololoa and then the soccer team was going to play a game. I know that after building a house I can just manage to fall into bed after a shower. I can't imagine playing a game of soccer after building a house, but truth be told I can't imagine playing a game of soccer at all.

The house that we worked on was quite special. In fact they are all special. This house was going to be the largest house we have ever built. The mother that will be living in the house has two little girls, the first one is five years old physically, but mentally she is just a baby, she needs a wheelchair, her mother carries her now but she is getting too big. Her name is Miracle.
The mother also has a two year old little girl. She works for minimum wage at a laboratory and her elderly mother lives with her and cares for the girls. We really wanted to make this house large enough for a wheelchair because the child will be living in this house with no real way out. They live high on the mountain where it is very steep and the road is slippery with lose dirt and rock. Do they have special wheelchair's for outdoor conditions such as these? The mother has been trying to get the land prepared for a month now but just couldn't do it, so we started our day out digging, and we ended the day with digging.

The crew that worked on the house was big enough so that the building and digging could go on continuously. It was a great day to work and everything ran smoothly except the chainsaws.
It was wonderful to work with old friends like Kyle and Nat and to talk with new people and seeing the situation through new eyes. We were able to get about 1/2 way done on the house the first day. Friday a small group went to finish it up.

The group of boys and a girl that came to play soccer worked on a house that was 1/2 wood and 1/2 plastic. They had to tear down the walls first and then let the building process begin. I think that God has to do that with us sometimes. He has to first tear down some walls before the building can begin. And like that house sometimes the walls are thin and easily ripped away, other times they are solid and long standing. It is hard for them to be torn down, sometimes painful, but He can not even start to build us up into what we should be until the old walls are gone. When the old is gone the new is even more than we hoped or imagined.

Mothers Day 2006

I was really worried about Mothers Day this year. This is my first year without my mother and I was dreading the thought of no longer having a mother to spend the day with. So I decided to throw myself into a mothers day project for the ladies at Mololoa.

Randy gave the sermon on Sunday morning and Jen and Fabs taught the children's class. Well after realizing how much fun the kids had last week we decided to have the children make tissue paper flowers for their mothers. The children had a wonderful time. They worked so hard to fix their flowers just right. They pulled the tissue paper trying to get them just perfect. I think they were all beautiful. I was the lucky recipient of a few beautiful flowers.

Live flowers are very affordable here. We decided to buy flowers for all of the ladies at the church. On Friday night we( Jen, Alora, Katrina, and Fabs) made small bouquets of flowers tied with a pretty ribbons. We passed them out after church on Sunday. The woman were so happy to get their flowers.

Well mothers day ended up being pretty good. I spent the day with some very good friends, and made a bunch of children and mothers very happy.

The kids in Mololoa have been asking me for a month when we would have another VBS. We are having them the first Saturday of the month. Every week they ask, this Saturday? Finally it was THIS Saturday. We (Jen A., Katie, Alora, Katrina, our special guest speaker Fabiola and yours truly) all headed up to Mololoa on Saturday morning after a late night making and bagging lunches and drinks for the kids.

When I say Fabolia was our speaker I mean that literally, she was kind enough to translate the lesson for us. She is really busy between a full time job and law school and she still makes time for us and Mololoa. She has truly become part of our family. Katrina and Alora see her as a big sister and she makes a great one. I am proud to call her part of our family.

We had all of our plans, lessons, coloring sheets, movies and bagged lunches ready. We thought that the kids would really have a good time. That they would enjoy the coloring sheets and of course they would love the movie. We had also made cards for them to color for their mothers.
They were simple cards of construction paper with a picture of flowers glued inside and a heart cut on the outside. I thought it was an extra project in case the kids got restless, as most of you can imagine it is better to be prepared than to be caught empty handed with a room full of about 80 kids. So I figured mothers day is soon and it would be a good back up project.

Well the movie was so-so, the lesson and activities good, and lunch was a great, but the biggest hit by far was the cards. These kids loved making something to give to their mothers. They worked very hard to color their cards, the older children helping the younger, they tried hard to make them as beautiful as possible. Even the older boys colored cards. Many of the children included personal messages to their moms. There were even grown men asking for cards to color for their wives and mothers. I saw the man that was mixing concrete for the kitchen sitting to the side in a child size chair listening to us and coloring a card for his mother. I had no idea how much making these simple cards would mean to the children(and adults). I know how wonderful it makes me feel to give to someone and I know that we were able to help these children feel wonderful today by getting to give something to their mothers.

It was a good day and the kids are already asking Next Saturday?

NAME THAT KITCHEN

The other day when I was working on my blog about the kitchen. I said to Jen, "I don't like calling it "the kitchen" or

"the feeding center". It sounds so commercial." I think that we need to come up with a name besides feeding center or kitchen. Well we tossed around a few ideas, some of them were pretty good.

But the best idea we came up with is to have a contest. A name that kitchen contest. We want everyone to send in their suggestions to the comment section.

As far as the prize goes.....Sorry we need all the money for running the kitchen, but if you ever come to Honduras we would be happy to let you work in ____________(formally known as the kitchen.)

Remember that these are the children that we are praying to be feeding soon.

So good luck, keep your eyes on this

blog to see how things are

going and how you can help!!

I thought I had better give everyone an update on the kitchen. If you are wondering what kitchen I am talking about check out our blog from April 5th. We started work on the ground at the end of March and building began on April third.

We had to begin by clearing the land and making sure it was flat. That is so much easier said than done.

Next comes the footers. Randy said that with these footers this building is not going anywhere.

Up go the walls!

the roof and the stucco.....

The metal and concrete on the floor....

We are really excited about how fast things are going. Well it seems like it is moving fast to us but I am sure that for the hungry boys and girls it is not moving fast enough. Keep reading for more updates.