Well it's been a few days since I had time to sit down and write out a blog about what we're doing. Hopefully, you all have continued to check though. After visiting the Dump the other day the rest of my week has just been filled with building houses and pouring concrete. One of the house sites was a huge rock bed. Several large boulders had to be dug out of the ground and moved. There were at least 4-6 that took more than 4 guys to move once removed from the ground. THAT was fun :) We have completed 6 houses so far and have 4 more to build today and tomorrow. A small crew of us spent 2 days at a public school just down the road from where we're staying digging footers and pouring concrete columns in order to move a gate. Hopefully, tomorrow we'll be able to finish laying the 250+ cinderblock wall and have someone come move the gate. Last night was our devotional night at the Jesus Statue. This is one of my favorite nights of this trip. The view is amazing looking out over the city. Tegucigalpa has between 2 and 2.5 million people and the lights are just amazing. The statue was designed by the same artist that made the one in Rio only Christ's hands are reaching downward rather than extended out. We only have 2 more days of work left and then we're off for a short retreat time at Le Ceiba. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support. Love you!

JB

There really are no words that can describe what I saw today and how I felt. Today we visited the city dump. Why would we go there? The answer is rather unreal... we took food to the people that live there. At the local dump, there are over 200 men women and CHILDREN who make their lives there. They live in cardboard boxes and scrounge through the trash not only looking for things of value they can sell, but most shockingly, for the food they will eat that day. Seeing people in such desperation as to be digging through the trash along with with vultures and dogs will forever change me. Several people there had their faces covered with ski masks or shirts not only to block the smell of the trash, but most were probably concealing the glue they were sniffing in order to help curb their hunger. We met a young man who actually grew up in Texas. He was deported back to Honduras but upon arrival found that his father had died and all of his papers such as birth certificate and such are gone. He spoke perfect english and said to us that he was very embarrassed for us to see him like that. That he had been living in the dump for about 6 months. We asked him what he did the other night when we got 5 inches of rain. His answer, "i just pulled up a piece of plastic up over me and laid on the ground." We saw several cars there. People that live in the city will come out to the dump and pay the folks that live there a few lemps to scrounge through the garbage and find them recyclable things and bring to them. Tonight as I was eating dinner, I could hardly stand to do so without feeling guilty and when I took my plate to scrape off the scraps into the trash can I immediately thought of those people and realized that in a day or so, they will be digging through that trash and eating that leftover food and scraps from our meal to feed themselves and their family. Still searching to justify that one in my mind. We are truly blessed in our way of life and I'll never be the same after experiencing that culture. On a little brighter side, it was incredibly rewarding to see the smiles on the faces when we drove up. Meeting such a basic need even if only for a day was amazing. A few of the girls in our group broke out the fingernail polish and painted the little girls fingernails... you could just tell it was giving them back a sense of humanity. Even a couple of the guys there got their pinky fingernail painted too.

My apologies for not blogging the past 2 nights. We had some good thundershowers the other night and lightning fried our modem. We got it replaced and are back online (obviously) Saturday was a little different day for me as I spent it just making runs to the airport to pickup other travelers coming in for the trip. We did get caught in a pretty strong downpour which flooded streets. we spent nearly 2 hours in traffic to only go 1 mile. It was pretty rough. The drainage systems here are not real great and cannot support the 5 inches, that's right 5 INCHES of rain we got on saturday. We drove by one spot where there was so much water in the sewer that it was popping up manhole covers and running out from under them! The rest of the group did manage to build 2 more houses that day before the storms came. Sunday was spent going to church at the community of Los Pinos and then had a relaxing day of shopping and eating. Today is back to the work site to build 2 more houses. Also making a hospital visit and few of us are going to the City Dump to take food to the people that LIVE there. More to follow about that after the visit there. Everyone from Central is doing well and we appreciate all of your prayers as we continue to work for God in Honduras.

Work day 2 was another success! 2 more houses were built despite what was described as "God throwing water balloons at us". Apparently, the raindrops where HUGE. Both house crews got drenched but continued on working despite the rain. Some mentioned it giving them a appreciation for how we take for granted things as simple as shelter and how it made them think of all the others in Honduras that had no place to go to get or stay dry. Others of our crew went to do some painting at the preaching school, hopefully I'll hear more about that soon as well. For me, today consisted of spending the day at the public hospital. MAN! What an eye opener. I had been once before 2 years ago on my first visit to Honduras. This hospital (Hospital Escuala) is for folks that cant afford heath care. Usually, they have to bring their own bedding and have to provide their own medications or whatever is required. The doctors pretty much tell them what they need and it's "good luck" from there. Sad really. There was one little boy who came in with something, i don't recall what exactly, that by our standards would be routine and even fairly minor, but the parents couldn't afford the healthcare so they left him at the hospital and haven't returned. It has been 3 months. Please continue to pray for our efforts as we continue working. Tomorrow promises to be exciting. This year, we are visiting several villages that we have not been to in years past so that is exciting!

Today was wonderful! We went into a community that the gringos have never visited to build so it was rather unique. We didn't have the constant stream of children swarming us looking for handouts and such. 2 houses were constructed and a third started.i'm only posting a few photos today... more will follow as things progress.

Day 1 - Travel Day! Well, just as previous trips today was one of the longest travel days ever! However, this year everything went smoothly and everyone arrived safe AND with all their luggage. Unheard of for honduras i think! We got to the airport around 4:30 and got checked in easily, went to our gate and waited patiently. Arrived in Houston around 8:00 and flew out only and hour and a half later so that wait wasn't bad! 3 hours later we were here. took about an hour to get through customs and load the busses. then we did lunch and came to settle in. Day 1 is a success! Stay tuned!

Well, the work portion of our trip has come to a close. Yesterday we built 2 houses, hosted a medical clinic that saw 84 children in 4 hours, and held a VBS. The 6 of us from Little Rock along with several others built the house paid for by Lifestage 1A. The build went really well. You can see in the photos the before and after photos. Hard to imagine that this family lived in such a small place before. What we gave them was far from fancy, but so much better than what they had before. When the build was complete, we went down and hung out with the kids from VBS. Had lots of fun. Just like last year, the last work day is the hardest to leave. Everyone just wanted to find "that kid" one last time and get one last hug. Several of us gave away our shoes to kids that needed new ones and rode the bus home barefoot. That was an amazing thing. Today as we wrap things up we will go to church back out at Santa Ana and play with the kids of Casa de Esperanza. This evening, we'll go out for a nice dinner as our "banquet" then off to Santa Lucia. This is the oldest church in Central America. It is just over 500 years old. Tomorrow morning we take a charter bus up to LeCieba which is a resort on the northern coast for 2 days of beach time to unwind and decompress. It's been a wonderful trip. Learned a lot and shared a lot. In some ways I don't want to leave, but at the same time I'm looking forward to getting home. See you all soon!

JB