Woke up to a beautiful morning of birds chirping and goats maa-ing and most of you know I’m not usually a “morning person”. After breakfast, I even took some pictures before we all headed off to the Clinic.

Our morning there started off with a bang, literally. Charley’s portable dental unit was the cause and therefore, wasn’t working. Later, Charley tried it and it was functioning again – thank the Dear Lord! Several power outages changed the schedule, too, (that’s why the job of “flashlight holder” is necessary), so extractions were performed during those times. “Dentistas” Randy and Charlie are very flexible.

Our translators were very helpful – one being a high school-aged girl that we met for the first time and also helped as an assistant.

We served a total of 28 patients today, of which 20 were AP students. The dental work included 12 cleanings, 14 fillings and 31 extractions. A long day for sure!

As treasurer, Tommy did some banking and took lots of pictures of the children, as you can see below.

Looking forward to tomorrow. I’m so glad I came – will have many stories to tell.

Blessings,

Mandy

The lively looking crew above, consisting of Randy, Karen, Charlie, Mandy, and Tommy, left Aiken at 4:30 this morning for Columbia airport. Following an hour-plus delay out of Atlanta, mostly due to weather, we arrived safely in Quimistan to join fellow team members Sam and Roxanne. Our primary purpose for this trip is a whirlwind 3-day dental clinic, which promises to be very busy. Today was mostly travel, set-up of the clinic, planning, and settling in, and we are all very tired after a short night and a 26-hour-long day.

Stay tuned for further details of what God has in mind for us this week.

Tommy

Our entry into the blogosphere last year was a rousing success. Interested readers are able to keep up with events underway in Honduras while the mission teams are there. Feedback has been positive and very encouraging.

Now we have moved the blog for Honduras Agape Foundation missions to its own site—here. The site we’ve been using will remain open and accessible for other missions of First Presbyterian, Aiken. Our new site will be exclusively for Honduras Agape Foundation missions.

We thought Mrs. Amalia’s house would have been completed by now, but unseasonably rainy weather has stymied progress. The floors have been completed, and doors and windows are ready, but the brick factory making the roof tiles has not been able to fire up the kiln because of the rain. As soon as the skies clear up for a few days, progress will resume and we’ll get a photo showing the pride of the neighborhood!

Allen

Here is how Mrs. Amalia’s addition looked on Monday after the last team members left on Saturday. It’s ready for the roof beams and tiles, the floor, and doors and windows. Wet weather has prevented firing the kiln to complete the roof tiles. A few days of uninterrupted sunshine will enable the builders to finish the construction of this addition to make it the showplace of the neighborhood!

Allen

We finished today in a grande celebración and fellowship with local believers at Iglesia La Cosecha (The Harvest Church) in Quimistán. This was an incredible experience to be welcomed by brothers and sisters in Christ and worship with them in honor of our Savior. We did not understand much of what was said, but agreed that God was honored by the worship service and our interaction with local believers there.

Earlier in the day, Karen and I returned to Santa Clara to spend a few hours encouraging our new friends. I was able to make a short video of the people working on Mrs. Amalia’s house and learned more about that effort. Later, I encouraged Arturo to provide a short tour of the brick manufacturing microenterprise that I also captured on video. We will try to post these videos in the near future for those who are interested.

Also during today’s visit to Santa Clara, Karen was able to spent time talking to Brenda, one of Mrs. Amalia’s daughters who wants to become a nurse. She had a wonderful visit with Brenda and was able to encourage her to pursue this goal even in the face of what may seem like overwhelming obstacles. Please pray for Brenda.

Other events of the day included: A visit to the Agape compound clinic to meet with Dr. Elsa; time with Letitia at the Quimistan health department discussing VBS materials and deworming treatments at local schools; and a meeting with Katie Wooten, the Peace Corps volunteer in Quimistán who, unfortunately, is returning to the U.S. soon but hopes this is only for a short time. Our attempts to arrange meetings with Pat from Cristo Salva or Rob Turner from Boise State University’s Clean Water Club were unsuccessful. We will continue these efforts later.

Thank you for supporting this outreach in Honduras. We have been able to join in a conversation God started with the people of Santa Clara many months ago. In my brief time here, I have witnessed the power of God’s goodness as He opens peoples’ eyes and hearts, and changes both lives and lifestyles. Santa Clara is a community in the midst of an awesome transformation, and we have the joy of playing a small part in the opening stanzas of a grand concert God has scheduled in this place.

“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish. Matthew 18:12-14 (NLT)”

Ron L.

A long-awaited day became a reality on Thursday as the Samaritan’s Purse pickups pulled into the Santa Clara school yard. They came to introduce the community to BioSand water filters as a major element for reducing diarrhea, worms, and other water-related diseases that are endemic to rural Honduras.

We had been told on Monday to expect a six or seven man team from San Pedro Sula, so we were amazed to see about ten guys pile out of the trucks and begin preparing for the 2 PM community meeting. We learned early in the day that the power in town would be out all day, and we knew the meeting was structured with a PowerPoint presentation and sound system. But not to worry—this team has obviously faced similar situations. They started their portable generator and got everything together and working right on time.

Invitations and informal chats across the fence had alerted every family in town of the meeting. Experience from earlier community meetings made us cautious; in a bold assessment, we were able to have faith that as many as 30 people–maybe 40 at most– would show up within an hour of the announced starting time. But when the time came, we didn’t have 30 or 40. We had about 60. Within a few minutes, the crowd had grown to 70. Eventually the count was 92. Community leaders said this was a record turnout by far.

The presentation was an overview of the process used by Samaritan’s Purse of Canada when they bring BioSand water filters into a community. Their goal is to put a filter into every home in the community, and to get the residents of the community to build the filters themselves. This meeting was the first of a series, culminating in the beginning of filter fabrication by the community in July. Because of contributions to Samaritan’s Purse, they only ask for a nominal amount of money (40 Lempira, or about $2.21) for each filter.

Another interesting event in this meeting was the presence of Adolfo Leon Otoniel, Director of Community Health Evangelism (CHE) for Central America. Karen had arranged to meet him when we were in Copan last October, and followed up with arrangements for him to be in Santa Clara this week. As we talked with him Thursday morning we asked him if CHE has had any collaboration with Samaritan’s Purse. To our surprise, he told us that the CHE organization has begun evaluating possible collaboration, and that was one determining factor leading to his presence at the meeting. He had come earlier in the day to walk around the village in order to assess general conditions of the town considering the possibility of introducing CHE concepts of pure water, hygiene, and public sanitation—all within an evangelistic framework similar to that of Samaritan’s Purse. So this was an excellent merging of similar efforts, all aimed at improving the health situation in Santa Clara—both the physical health and the spiritual health.

Another long day in Santa Clara with places to go and people to meet. The day started with the usual greetings from the children, who always come running to us as we get out of the cars, with arms open wide and smiles from ear to ear. Whenever I see them it reminds me of the joy our Father in heaven must have whenever He sees us running into His loving arms for peace, love, and security.

A couple of us went to the municipal office in Petoa to obtain a permit for cutting a tree to provide lumber for Mrs. Amalia’s house. We had a chance to meet with the vice mayor to discuss the ministry of the HAF both in Quimistan and Santa Clara. This was a great chance for us to explain our vision of spreading the love of Christ by partnering with local leaders and facilities such as the Pueblo Nuevo clinic and Samaritan’s Purse Office in San Pedro Sula.

After this visit, we took one of the children from Santa Clara to the clinic in Pueblo Nuevo to get some antibiotics for bronchitis. In this visit we learned that the doctor is on vacation for a few weeks. The patients who need a doctor’s expertise are referred to the nearest facility, about 45 minutes away in Trinidad. Those who can afford bus fare can go, if they want to take the chance that they might or might not get treatment that day. That’s the stark reality of medical care available in these small communities. Fortunately, the nurse was able to dispense the needed medications.

The rest of the morning was spent going door to door to all the homes in Santa Clara to pass out invitations to the community meeting with Samaritan’s Purse on Thursday to discuss the upcoming BioSand Water Filter project.

In the afternoon, the men hauled bricks while I had an opportunity to meet with the women of the town to discuss health topics, sanitation, hygiened, clean water, and Justa stoves. While I had been told I would be talking with mothers of newborn babies, I ended up meeting with about 15-20 women of all ages. From that meeting, I learned that most of the women here believed their water was safe, so it was difficult to convince them otherwise. On a positive note, however, they all agreed that the respiratory problems of their community are largely due to their inefficient wood burning stoves and almost all of them were enthusiastic about the possibility of working on improving that situation by building Justa stoves.

All in all, I was pleased to see the response of the community members to this meeting and believe that it is during group interactions like this that community-wide change can have the greatest success.

Karen

Today was ‘bonding day’ in Santa Clara. While Allen and Ron helped to move bricks from the brick factory to the house being built, Karen worked with several neighborhood children–coloring and just enjoying interactions. By noon, the bricklayers had completed the third course of brick above the top of the windows, and began the stepped brickwork on the two gable ends of the roof.

About mid-morning we walked down the long, steep hill to visit Rosendo and Reyna and their eight children including a 21-day old baby. We finished that three-hour visit with Karen and Allen sitting on the floor with five of the kids playing UNO. Neither of us won, but we celebrated with the winner.

The highlight of the afternoon was a meeting with students who will be able to attend school this year as a result of an anonymous donation to the foundation. The students range from 7th grade to 11th grade. One of the boys wants to become an engineer; one girl wants to be a journalist, maybe a TV newscaster. Another girl wants to study vocal music at the university, and a third who likes English was encouraged to consider becoming a UN translator. The oldest girl there, who had to drop out of school during the seventh grade because her family couldn’t afford to keep her in school, expressed a fervent desire to become a nurse. She will talk more with Karen as the week progresses. But mostly we tried to instill in them a desire to do their best in school to prepare themselves as potential future leaders of the country.Front row, left to right, are Ruth, Paola, Nuri, Dalila, Julissa, and Estuardo. Back row, L to R, Francisco, Byron, Marlon, and Brenda. Carlos was away picking coffee; Bryan was making baskets; Esther and Manuel were unavailable.

The evening session of a home group with one of the community families was led by Ron, with participation by the assembled group as well as comments from Karen and Allen. Introductory comments from Rick Warren’s book “A Purpose Driven Life” opened the discussion which evolved into emphasis on how our relationship with the Lord needs to be walked out in our relationships with our neighbors.

After the long day we wished the home group members a heartfelt “hasta mañana”

Allen

Folks in the Santa Clara community have been drinking contaminated water for many years, in the same manner as many, many other communities in this country. Those days should be coming to an end this year through the efforts of Samaritan’s Purse and worldwide supporters of their clean water program.

Monday we met with Brad Phillips, National Director-Honduras, of Samaritan’s Purse of Canada. Final arrangements were made for a meeting in Santa Clara on Thursday, when Misael Baquedan will bring a six-member team to the community to begin discussions.

The team will describe how BioSand filters will be made by the community members and installed in each home at very low cost (i.e., 40 Lempiras, or about $2.12 per family) to provide pure drinking water. Subsequent meetings through the next few months will be arranged with organized groups within the community to teach the importance of combining pure water with hygiene practices and sanitation to attain the full benefits–reduction of gastrointestinal problems from contamination by human and animal waste, worms, and other harmful things sometimes found in the water.

Earlier communications with Samaritan’s Purse pointed to a March-April beginning of the work. But a different community already engaged in a similar program recently requested additional filters, so the timetable for beginning the physical work in Santa Clara can’t begin before July. The revised schedule was a disappointment, but the potential improvement is worth waiting for after all these years.

The actual physical work will begin (in July?) when a team brings twelve filter molds to the community and trains the people there on how to fabricate the filter housings of concrete, how to set up the filters for operation with rocks, gravel, and graded sand, and how to maintain them to assure continuing good water supply. Perhaps our July mission team will be able to participate in this phase of the work, working side by side with the community members.

Following installation of filters in about 100 homes throughout the community, Samaritan’s Purse will provide follow-up meetings at one, three, six, and twelve months to assure that the filters are continuing to perform as intended, and that families are well able to do the necessary maintenance of filter bed quality.

As a result of the contacts our translators made with Samaritan’s Purse on behalf of Santa Clara, a neighboring community of Las Minitas will also be included in the program. That will add about 90 families to the group who will one day have pure water and–we hope–healthy kids.

This is just one more example of how we are trying to not only cure medical problems, but to avoid them in the first place. The approach also will encourage community self-help and cooperation as a way out of bad situations.

Allen