A Friday of Peace in Quimistan

Buenos dia de Quimistan!

Due to the classes of most kinders and schools being closed for the strike, no fluoride treatments were given. I spent the morning doing necessary things like laundry, paperwork….sorta’ just like being in Aiken:)

In the afternoon, I spent some time with Maynor developing spreadsheets to ease his recording and then we ran errands. We stayed in Q town due to road closures and threats due to Zelaya’s activities.

I popped by the concina project at the kinderllate in the afternoon:

At first I found only Obin, Hector and two other boys working.

Obin, el jefe.

Shortly, help arrived from the other work site of the Pinto Construction team.

(For those who have been coming for years, the young man to the most right is Chepita, Grecia’s ‘little’ brother. He is now 14 and in high school. We reminisced of years ago having a Twister competition on his front porch. Of course, our memories differ on who was the champion:) Oh, the years fly by!)

Believe me, this is not as easy as it looks….the bucket is full of cement!

Down the hatch, and a column is made.

Friday Afternoon: Ministry of the Highway

Prayers of thanksgiving are offered.

Even the smallest is fed.

I think he likes his supper?

These sure did as they lined up for seconds or thirds looking for more nutritious soup in the big pop of Gloria.

And at least one, left very happy and full…..to God be the glory!

Roxanne

Let the Little Children Come

We visited the Luz de Valle Escuela to provide fluoride treatment to these first through sixth graders. This is the classroom funded and constructed by HAF a couple of years ago.

Even Maestro David enjoye(?) his fluoride treatment.

Swish and swallow for thirty seconds and then escupir (spit out)!

We then visited Banderas to provide anti-parasitic meds as the children had received fluoride in June. Unfortunately, the teacher is pregnant and has not had classes for a month and it is unknown when the classes will resume. An example of the sad, inefficiency of the school system here. But one parent was more than willing to help us gather the children for the treatment.

In the afternoon, I chauffeured the medical brigade to Los Montanitas…..my first visit. It is a beautiful pueblo albeit without electricity and clean water. Maynor did take a sample of the water for testing.

At first, I did play nurse and relieve Edith for the vital sign station.

Maynor ready for his first patient and then working hard to fulfill Dr. Elsa’s prescriptions.

Dr. Elsa during a consult with one of the thirty one patients with whom she consulted this afternoon.

It did not take me long, to move outside, where it was much cooler, although still hot, and entertain the children and adults with my antics. Thank God for who ever invented balloons and Frisbee….a huge hit no matter where you go.

As requested, I rode by the kinder cocina project to visit and view the progress made.

Obin, seems to be making great progress with out the gringos to ‘help’ him.

Unfortunately, again today, Friday, many teachers are not in school so we can not visit for the planned treatments. This has been the case for a month now as the government struggles to settle and Zelaya calls for strikes. Again, the children are suffering…..they will have lost so many days of school this year and yet, be passed on to the next grade, unprepared.

MT 19:14 “Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

“Do you not know? Have you not heard?”

As I am here solo in the missionary home, I have no one else’s devotion to listen to so in my quiet time, I read from Isaiah 40:28-29: ” Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and His understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.”

What a wonderful promise in the midst of such turmoil here in Honduras.

Looking at these sweet, precious faces, you can see that my time in Honduras continues to be special. Despite the political environment and the news you are hearing, I have had no trouble traveling in the past week. Today, I assisted our administrative assistant (AA) in providing fluoride treatment and de-worming meds to two kindergartens in small neighboring villages.

Good to the last drop! Muy Rico!

Or maybe not?!

It was my joy to tell them that I love them because Jesus first loved me and that He loves them and wants to be their friend and to live in their hearts…..looking at these faces, it is not hard to believe every word spoken.

No, I have not been arrested!

Later in the afternoon, the AA accompanied me to finally receive the license tag for my car. PTL ! This is the final paperwork needed for the imported vehicle……it only took 6 weeks; a trip to Miami followed by a flight to Honduras; weeks of waiting; a trip to Puerto Cortes to pick it up after five trips to San Pedro Sula for paperwork and insurance; a trip to La Flecha because the system in the bank here was not working; and the third trip to Santa Barbara this afternoon to have the tag in my hands. Tomorrow, once I find a wrench it will go on the car.

I only regret no one will be here to see my celebration dance:)

And if the children are in school we will administer meds to three of the remaining 8 schools in the morning so I look forward to sharing more photos with you all.

Please pray for the freedom of this country which so many of us love.

Roxanne

A Day of Praise, Worship, and Celebration–Sunday July 19

Our day started with a devotional by Joshua featuring Scripture reading from Psalm 121, Romans 8:28, and John 14:27. After the stressful events of the past two days, these scripture readings provided much needed reminders that despite the uncertainty here in Honduras, the Lord is our source of peace and we must not let our hearts be troubled nor should we be afraid, for “the Lord will keep [us] from all harm and will watch over [our lives], the Lord will watch over [our] coming an going both now and forevermore.”

After breakfast, we all headed to Martha’s multipurpose facility “the Breezes” for a time of worship and fellowship with about 100 children and a handful of adults from the Quimistan community. The children participated in a time of singing led by two local pastors, Scripture recitations, and a brief lesson led by Martha. She used the illustration of a watermelon to teach the children about salvation and the love of God, exhorting us all to love one another and help hold each other up (in accordance with passage in 1 John 4). After the lesson, we helped serve a specially prepared meal to the children and adults and then had the children join us for a time of parachute games, sidewalk chalk, and the ever popular face painting.

During the afternoon, Martha, Roxanne, Kristen, and Karen headed to Ocotal Tupido for a surprise visit to the First Aid class being taught to a group of about 45 ladies each week by a nurse named Reyna. When we arrived at the church, the students were gathered in their uniforms for class. Martha and Roxanne shared some words of encouragement and then we all circled up for a special time of prayer for the country before the teaching time started.

Upon return to Quimistan, Karen helped Gloria prepare the remaining “baleadas” for the AP program, and Sam, the Livingstons, Gloria and Sandra headed to Sra. Umanzor’s kindergarten to serve the snack to the AP students and say our “goodbyes.” Around 5 pm, the entire team went to La Cosecha for an hour and fifteen minutes of prayer, praise, and worship music followed by another hour and 15 minutes of teaching. Although the skies were cloudy and rain could be seen in the distance, we were able to enjoy the cooler evening air and remain outside for the entire service. Although the service was conducted totally in Spanish, we were nonetheless able to experience the the joy and presence of the Lord as we clapped, prayed, and raised hands in worship together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Following the church service, we picked up Martha and headed to Gloria’s home to join friends and family for a special birthday celebration for Gloria’s 14 year old daughter Bessy. Upon our arrival, one member of the team had an unfortunate encounter with a mud-filled ditch when exiting the car, so she was treated to a private “foot washing” at the back of the home prior to the start of the party. For another team member, the time here provided opportunity to experience the convenience of a rustic latrine across the street–truly an eye-opening experience. Once the party started, though, we all had a chance to partake of Glorias excellent culinary creations and feasted on fried “pollo,” “papas fritas,” salad, rice, Coke, Sprite, and a Felizidades cake, our last evening meal together.

We returned to Martha’s compound for a late evening spent packing and preparing for our departure on Monday morning.

Karen

Field Day Frenzy 7/18

Today, despite the rumors of road blockages, turmoil and demonstrations, was a day of fun and games for our small group. We ventured to Santa Clara for a ‘field day’. On the way, “we took with us air, balloons, cookies, drinks, energy, festivities, a gorilla, hats, ice cream, jokes, kites, limperas, markers, Norte Americanos, orange juice, people, quilts, rowdyness, stars, tarps, unity, variety, water, xylophone, and a zoo.” As you can tell, our games started on the way to Santa Clara.

The Livingston family had planned and purchased the needed supplies for our field day which included face painting, which was a huge success; relay races; bubbles; football; frisbee; water balloon play; soccer; placemat weaving; and play with hula hoops.

About 150 children and adults had a great time enjoying a time of sharing fun, laughs, competition, and a meal. A special treat for the missionaries was a prayer offered by the pastor of another church who wants to begin working with the Santa Clara fellowship to strengthen the body of Christ.

After 5 hours of activities, our group returned to Quimistan, bringing with us ” a bunch of colorful dreams of extra fun, with good and happy ideas to join kids, ladies and men in new opportunities to propel questions regarding the Spirit of Truth, Understanding, Virtues, and Wisdom with xceeding zeal!”

Ha ha, now the game is on you! Just try to keep up with Kristen and Rox and the ABC word games. 🙂

Santa Clara-Short and Sweet

Wow! What a roller coaster of a day emotionally. Friday could best be characterized as a day filled with emotional challenge. The day began with a devotional by Karen from Psalm 29 reminding us to practice what many Jews do by remembering to “Bless the Lord, the Maker of Heaven and Earth and King over all Creation” in all things, both the good and the seemingly inconvenient for it is He who brings forth and sustains life on the earth and provides peace for his people. We closed devotions with the song by Chris Tomlin, reminding us that we are called to lift up our hands for “the joy of the Lord is our strength . . . we bow down and worship Him now, how great, how awesome is He, and together we sing, ‘Holy is the Lord, God Almighty, the earth is filled with His glory . . . ‘ ”

After breakfast, Roxanne, Dulce, and Jacobo set off for Santa Barbara in hopes of finally obtaining the much awaited license tag and insurance for the team vehicle. The rest of us, Sam, Ron, Kristen, and Joshua, headed to Santa Clara for a day of renewing old ties and forming new ones. This was to be the first visit to Santa Clara for Joshua and Kristen. We arrived prepared to spend time assisting with the preschool program and helping with whatever construction projects were being done. When we got there, Lencho and another assistant were finishing up the concrete floor in Guillermo’s home, so Sam and Ron spent some time mixing and shoveling concrete. Joshua, Kristen, and I and the preschool children were given the task of walking the streets picking up trash, as Friday was considered “trash day.” We did this for about one and a half hours, and the children were treated to popsicles and chocolate covered bananas for their help. Because this took the entire time normally alotted to the preschool, we were not able to do any special activities with the children as planned. This was a great disappointment, but we left many of the supplies with the teacher for use at a later date.

Ron, Joshua, Kristen, and I then took a trip down the side of the mountain to visit Reina and Rosendo and their children. This proved to be a special treat as we got a chance to see the youngest member of their family (who I was given the honor of naming in January) now a healthy, growing 6 month old. As we passed around hugs and tried to reacquaint ourselves, we got a call from back home urging us to consider coming back to the US early, within the next 24 hours, due to the possibility of increased disturbances in the country during the weekend. Our visit with Reina and her family then took an emotional turn for about 20 minutes as we made phone calls to many different individuals in other areas of Honduras to get up-to-date assessments of the situation. With the uncertainty still a factor, we said a quick good-bye to the family and returned up the hill to make preparations to return to Quimistan to pack and prepare to leave in a few hours to return to San Pedro Sula for the night in preparation for a flight home on Sat. With many tears and great sadness, we left Santa Clara and returned to Martha’s ranch to prepare for departure. After being there approximately 20 minutes, I received another call recommending that we not return early as originally encouraged, but stay in the rural area as originally scheduled since we are safe here and the risk of traveling in SPS this weekend was now believed to be of greater risk than for us to travel back early Monday. Thus, we stopped our packing, took a deep breath, and regrouped our thoughts for the remaining activities of the weekend.

A short time later, Roxanne returned from her day trip to Santa Barbara with discouraging news of yet another trip necessary to complete her task due to the computer systems being down. Once again, another glitch so common here in Honduras.

After some “down time,” Sam, Joshua, Ron, Kristen, and I joined Gloria and Maynor for a visit to the Ministry of the Highway feeding program mentioned in Sam’s post. We returned to home base for one of our best meals of chaleta (fried pork chops), frijoles (beans), papas fritas, and salad. After supper, I spent time organizing the clothing that had been sorted and stacked throughout the ranch, Sam and Ron spent time reviewing pictures for the blog entries, Joshua and Roxanne spent time transferring some Christian praise music, while Kristen prepared for the next morning devotional.

Finally, we all settled down for much needed rest.

Karen

Highway Ministry – Feeding the Hungry

WE FED THE CHILDREN TODAY.

Shown below are photos of HAF’s program where every Friday afternoon 75-80 children are fed a nutritious meal for $70. A visit to the garbage dump a few months back was the start of all of this. Young boys asked to take the bags off the truck as soon as we pulled-up. The ripped the bags open to scavenge for food, plastic bottles and anything else they could use. Their mothers and younger siblings were standing nearby, numerous buzzards were a few feet away, flies swarmed everywhere, and the stench was nauseating.

The next day, we fed them fried chicken and tortillas at the dump. On a later mission trip, they were not at the dump because the city made scavenging illegal. We were told that they were meeting on Sunday in the yard of a shack on the edge of the highway not far from the dump. They were being taught God’s Word by the Youth Minister of a nearby church, but they only had Coca Cola and a few cookies to eat. We asked their leader, Omar, who also lives in a mud stick shack, to keep them there for an hour and we would be back with food. He did, and we did!
Now we have pledges from 5 people and they are being fed EVERY FRIDAY FOR A YEAR.

As you look at the photos from this Friday’s feeding and your heart is touched, perhaps you would consider a donation! These, God’s Children, also need to be fed on Monday night (they meet Mon – Fri – Sun).

Will you consider helping through friends, Sunday School Class, Club or Church?

52 weeks/year x $70/week = $3640/year

Thanks for considering this need.

Sam Turnipseed

Deworming and Diagnosing 7/16

This morning, Sam, Karen, Kristen, Joshua, Maynor, and Nurse Edith went to Los Hornos elementary school to conduct fluoride and deworming with the children and teachers, while Ron went to work at the local kindergarten to help work on the kitchen construction. Back at Los Hornos, the flouride and deworming was finished in record time because we had so many people helping. The Los Hornos crew went to the kinder, and started helping with the construction, or in my case, making friends with the kids attending the kindergarten.The workers constructed and attached the forms used for pouring the concrete along the topmost layer of cinder block. We were able to accomplish this task in a relatively short period of time with so many helpers, and returned to Martha’s Ranch for a lunch of tacos.

After lunch, Roxanne and Ron continued construction on the kitchen, while the rest of our team plus Maynor, Nurse Edith, and Dulce (our translator) set off for a Medical Brigade in Jicaro. We set up in the Elementary School of Jicaro, and waited for the patients to arrive. Karen and Dulce helped check people in, Nurse Edith listened and diagnosed what the problem was, and Maynor and Joshua were the “pharmacists”, and Sam took a nap…I’m not kidding. As for me, I played with the kids— and so did my friend Bubbles. ☺ Our Medical Brigade took place from about 1:30 to 4:00, and it ended in a very good way (at least it did for me). My new friends -mostly girls- hugged me and wondered when I would be back, and unfortunately, we didn’t have anymore activities scheduled in Jicaro this trip. We drove back to Q-Town and picked up Ron and Roxanne up at the kinder, where they had finished pouring concrete into the forms. Once again, we returned to Martha’s and got ready for our evening activities.

Roxanne and Sam went to meet some friends for dinner, while my family-me, Karen, Ron, and Joshua- were treating Dulce, Katie Wooten(a peace corpe worker), and Ortwin (a little boy our family supports) and his mother to dinner at Shirley’s. When we finished the “maravilloso” dinner, we headed back to the Compound for a restful night of sleep.

Kristina (mi nombre en español)

Tuesday 7/14

For some of us, it was another busy day at the eye clinic. Once again, our autorefractor was slow to awaken, but once it decided to work for us, the rest of the day went smoothly. Karen, Kristen, Shirley, and our new translator, Dulce, worked in the autorefractor room doing the initial assessments and screenings with the machine and the eye charts. Jenn and George and Jacobo assisted with the glasses fittings, and a handful of AP students assisted with check-in and as hall monitors. Once again, we were able to treat patients ranging in age from about 8 years old to 86 years old. For the 86 year old man, this was his first time to ever have someone check his eyes. We saw 81 patients today and gave out 87 pairs of glasses. Not bad for one day’s work. The best part was that we were able to see everyone who showed up and didn’t have to turn away a single person due to lack of time or resources. Praise the Lord!

The other team members spent the morning working at the Sra. Umanzor’s kindergarten and a few of them returned in the afternoon for several hours. Cecelia joined us at the eye clinic to learn about the routine there and receive hands-on training working the autorefractor and doing the calculations for the eyeglass fittings.

Several of us from the eye clinic had our first opportunity to ride in the ever popular taxis as we went to the ranch for lunch and returned to the hospital. While the roads in Quimistan were a bit uneventful though bumpy, the ride on the highway in one of those taxis with 18 wheelers whizzing by at full speed was slightly disconcerting. Thankfully, we only had to do this going one direction.

The evening wrapped up with supper and a meeting with Danilo Saguero and Dario Pachecho to discuss the Quimistan Valley Scholar (QVS) program.

Karen

Rebar and Coconuts-7/15

Hola, Greetings from Honduras, CA. We are closing out another exciting day and have some great things to report.

We begin each day with a devotional lead by one of our team members. Today, Kristen shared her favorite Psalm with the team (Ps 91) and, we discussed how important it is to know that God is caring for all of us. He is our protector, shield, and refuge during times of trouble. There are many uncertainties in life – where ever we are – and we are strengthened by knowing God promises for us. We were all encouraged by Kristen’s devotional, even as we prepared for part of the team to return home.

After breakfast, we gathered for a quick group picture then said “Vaya con Dios” to George, Jennifer, Shirley, Deirdre, and Cecelia as they departed for San Pedro Sula, and the first step in each of their travels home. We look forward to hearing updates from them as they adjust to life back home and hope they will reflect on what they saw God and the team doing here in Honduras. Maybe, they will be able to post some updates on the blog in the next few days!

Work on the Kinder Kitchen continued today with installation of additional rebar on the foundation wall. I have never handled so much rebar in my life and did not really have an appreciation for how hard this work can be. However, we continue to be encouraged by the students and are eager to see this new building completed for them to use in the near future. We are working hard and making excellent progress! We are blessed by our Honduran coworkers and the friendships we are builidng with them. We celebrated today’s success with a harvest of fresh coconut from a tree at the Kinder. Don’t you want to try this?

Karen and Kristen spent part of today unloading, sorting and taking inventory of the team materials that are on-hand and needed by the other teams working here this summer. They also had opportunity to sort through the clothing and shoes that will be distributed to families during the coming days.

Joshua told me this morning, that staying here 10 days is not really long enough to suit him. I think we all agree. We have been blessed by God to be a blessing to others. While here, away from home, we have been able to focus more of our attention on blessing others and witness the positive impact of HAF’s years of service here.

Thank You for your prayers and support of the work here.

Ron

P.S. Note: Due to slow internet connections, the pictures from this post are out of order and the posts from Tues. July 14 will be added later today.