The San Martin Mission

The team made a made a big difference in San Martin today, and San Martin made a big difference in the team. Profound changes that may be felt today, but not fully understood until sometime in the future.

Fluoride was carefully applied to developing teeth of children. Team doctors worked with community members and prescribed treatments for their ailments. Children were given a gift for active play with a cool jungle gym, and families and team members alike shared themselves personally as equals in Gods Kingdom!

More team members spent the day at San Martin, continuing their mission outreach in this small village outside of Tela. The team was busy building a jungle gym for the children, and providing, medical, and dental services for all community members. Christian Education worked with children whose parents were meeting with Doctors.

It was great to see the sun again. The team working on the excavation and construction of the playground was happy to be out of the mud, but there was still a lot of dirt to move and put in place in order to turn a rough back lot into a safe and fun place for the children at Espirtiu Santo, the Episcopal School. It was a highlight for the team when they were joined by smart and hard working sixth grader, Ronald (red shirt, second pic from bottom) who pitched in shoveling dirt, moving the wheel-barrow, and clearing big rocks. Thanks for your help Ronald, you are Awesome!!!!

The construction team cleared rock from the site of a future playground for the children in the Episcopal School. The heavy rain did not slow them down and they worked hard while enjoying the beautiful music of the school children singing and playing with the Christian education team in the room adjoining the sight.

The Christian Education Team had a great program working with the children from Espiritu Santo (Holy Spirit Episcopal School) as they studied the miracles of Jesus together stories songs and crafts!!

The team started the morning, with coffee conversation and uplifting worship with song and
prayer, after sleeping (or not) through a night of heavy rain and high winds. It was a a great treat to have guitar music for the inspiring hymns.

The team enjoyed reuniting at the hotel to discuss plans for the week. We are thankful for this opportunity to work and share together. The food here is terrific. Seafood and vegetables (all I've had so far) are particularly fresh and delicious

The team arriving Monday has been busy working at the construction sites and preparing for the Christian Education, and Medical Clinics. The mural on the wall (above) was painted by a team from a previous year, while the construction sight on the bottom will be the location of a new playground for young children at the Episcopal School.

The second half of the mission team arrived today to join the others who arrived on Monday. Tela is approx. an hour and a half from the airport in San Pedro Sula. The drive was through a lush landscape with beautiful palms. We will post more pictures of the community and neighborhood in the future. We are all staying at the Cesat Maricos Hotel on the beach. The hotel has a lot of local character and the people are very generous.

Prayers Answered

Medical / Health Assistace Project:
As part of the mission, medical experts on the team will be meeting and consulting with community members, trying to help in ways they can and by offering guidance if further attention is needed.

Prayers Answered:
There is always so much need in the medical/health area and when faced with this challenge, the advance team relied on faith, prayers, and their determination to seek out contacts, referrals, and volunteers. They reported today that all of the prayers were answered when they made contact with an Angel, in the form of Doctora Elvia Maria Galindo. Dr. Galindo is a Doctor in Honduras, and also an Episcopal Priest in charge of the medical component of the Bishops outreach for the country. She has agreed to travel from Tegucigalpa to Tela and stay with our mission team all week!! She will be a great asset to our medical team, as she is very familiar with the regional health issues and has seen it all in her work throughout the country. She will add so much to our work and we are humbled by this blessing and thankful for her presence.

Bathroom Project- Before Pics

These are before pictures at the location for a new bathroom project at Campo Elvir. The new bathrooms will be built of cinder block against the wall, and the old ones will be demolished for a new playground!!

The team will also complete the hand trenching and installation of a water line to bring chlorinated water into the school bodega.

The Advance Team / Holy Spirit Playground

It's quite a feat of planning to organize a large group of international missionaries, identify the work needed, plan transportation, housing, and put the tools in place to accomplish large projects in a relatively short time.

The advance team has made several trips to Honduras in preparation and they just finished putting the last pieces in place for the team arriving next week.

As in life, the advance team faced changes in plans, locations, and support, and like life, they could not have done it alone. They are thankful to have been blessed with prayers answered and witnessed many small and large miracles along the way.

The bottom photo above is the location of one project; where the team will erect a playground at the Episcopal School, just outside the Sunday School Building built by last years team.

Packing Day 2-10-08

                                                               

                                                       

                                                               

                                                               

                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

The team worked together to pack supplies for their upcoming trip.

Vitamins, personal hygiene, arts&crafts, and construction gear are all packed and labeled in a well organized system to make the materials easy to find and use, when time is precious while on location in Honduras.