October Mission Team

15 October 2012

 Today started early as we had to leave Rio Dulce at 6:00 AM to travel to San Pedro Sula. We had special guests arriving today. William Dunnam, one of our associate pastors, and Carl Thornburg, another member of our church, were traveling in. William was going to do a pastors conference for some of the Guatemalan pastors and Carl was going to help me make bunkbeds for the kids from Cuatro Cayos that will be coming to stay with us in January to attend school. Today was also our first "solo" border crossing.

We had no problems crossing the border except the guards going into Honduras stopped us and looked inside the van. He saw that we were a family and waved us on thru. That was a big relief.

Everything else went smoothly until we got to the outskirts of San Pedro Sula and the traffic all but stopped. People decided to try to drive around whatever was stopping traffic even if it meant driving down the side of the road in grass. A 2 lane road suddenly turned into a 5 lane road. When we got to the intersection, we saw what was holding up traffic. A panel truck had driven THRU a concrete pole. Well almost thru. It was actually kinda' wrapped around it.

 

That's gonna' leave a mark.

 

We got to PriceSmart to get groceries for the team and pastors a little late so I left Jeanne and the kids there to shop while I went to the airport. William and Carl were patiently waiting on me. (Sorry guys!) We went back to PriceSmart, picked up Jeanne and the gang and headed West. We arrived back home about 7:00 PM and Mari had dinner waiting on us. (She always does a great job cooking and caring for the teams.) It was a long but good day.  We are always happy to have visitors.

 

16 October 2012

Today is the first day of the pastors conference. 12 pastors arrive today to attend. William is teaching the pastors some English. "Straight Up." That is the theme of the conference. He is teaching out of Colossians 3 about focusing not on this world, but on things above. While Carl and I are busy making bunkbeds, we can hear the pastors upstairs and it sounds like they are having a good time. William says it's going well.

(No this isn't one of the pastors. It's Brie modeling their theme shirt.)

                   

Carl, Brenden and I manage to get 3 sets of bunkbeds finished and started on the 4th. Carl is a good carpenter. Brenden is turning into an expert planer.

 

We made 6 of these.

17 October 2012

William continues the pastors conference.  While I don’t speak the language, they all appear to be enjoying the conference.   I really wish I could attend.  But Carl, Brenden and I manage to finish the other 3 sets of bunkbeds, modify a bookshelf and make Jeanne’s screen door.  It’s amazing what you can get done when you have the sense to get out of the way and let someone who knows what they are doing take over. 

 

18 October 2012

Last day of the conference.  The pastors finish up this morning and have lunch.  Then they are off to take what they have learned back to their congregations.  Some of them have come from quite a ways away to learn more about God’s word.

After lunch, we load up in Bryan’s boat and travel up river to Cuatro Cayos.  The river has been up and down a lot lately due to all the rain as it’s still rainy season, and the obstacles in the river have moved around.  It is always changing and is always a challenge.  Fortunately Bryan has done this a time or two and we arrive without any trouble.

We are here to meet with the kids and their parents who will be coming to stay with us next year for school.  We want to get all the kids’ sizes for uniforms, get some updated pictures, and set up some rules and guidelines for the kids so hopefully we won’t have any problems when they arrive next year.  Everything goes well.  It looks like we will have 10 boys and 2 girls coming to stay with us. 

 

 

 

Pastor Carlos

Pastor Carlos' house.

                    

Pastor Carlos' church.
 

For those that don’t know, the kids here in Guatemala can go to school in their village until 6^th grade.  For most, that’s all the education they get, especially if the family is poor or they live in a village far away from a city with further schooling.  If they want to go to school past that, they have to go to a larger city and go to what’s called Basico, which is basically 7^th, 8^th, and 9^th grade.  After that, they can go onto 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th to take classes to prepare them for a profession that they will later go to college for. 

In January, we will be housing kids during the week that want to go to Basico.  As Cuatro Cayo is a poor village way up the river, this will give many of them the opportunity to further their education they would not normally have.   While Jeanne and I have always had a house full of kids, we have never had 12 that weren’t ours AND that spoke another language.  Please keep us in your prayers. 

19 October 2012

Today William and Carl leave to go back to the good old Estados Unidas (I think I spelled that right).  We are sorry to see them go, but are glad they came.  It means a lot to us when people from back home come to visit.