Honduras, Thursday Night

Thursday night the Hondurans of Betania threw a big "thank you" party to celebrate the week of ministry. Some of the women and guys dressed in traditional garb.

One of the things that the Hondurans wanted to be sure that we knew, was that Honduras beat Spain in soccer at the Olympics. Everyone who was wearing a Honduran soccer shirt (BFCers and locals) were asked to stand in the front.

Each member of our team was honored with a gift, a small momento of our time with them.

I was presented with a plaque to bring home to BFC, expressing Betania's and El Socorro's gratitude. It will have a favored spot, either in our auditorium or on the mission wall.

From the left you see Pastor Montoya's wife, Lori, Carlos himself, their married daughter Kimberly, and Mark and Beth Thompson.

Many of our ladies wanted a picture with this lovely young Honduran, clothed in traditional garb. She patiently took on all comers.

Jackie is in her element. This snapshot portrays the wonderful attitude she and our other team members had all week long..

Mark's family was incredible, serving in every way imaginable!

Carlos laughed when we stood for this shot. Said it was an inverted Oreo cookie: white on the outside instead of the middle! What a godly couple, with a godly family!

 The evening ended with a wonderful and generous meal. The food was delicious, and the fellowship was great. We'll not soon forget how graciously treated we were by this wonderful church family!

Honduras, Thursday, Day 6

It was the last day of planned and structured ministry. The busy schedule was beginning to wear us thin. We also needed to shift some people back to the construction team to finish the floor at El Socorro.

We were all a little weary, but we also had the routine mastered. At the first school we had difficulty holding the student's attention.

One of our world-class puppeteers looks over the audience

One of our world-class stage hands  . . .

Doris gives some last minute coaching about the height of the puppets above the stage.

Mark has the speaking duties this morning. I'm running the camera.

At least, most of the time I'm running the camera. Occasionally I wind up on camera.

This is the story of Zaccheus (Spanish: Zaccheo). The puppet with his mouth open is Zaccheus.

Precious people, wonderful faces . . .

The last school of the day may have been our best of the whole trip. The students were well-disciplined and attentive, and even the teachers seemed engaged.

Goodbye, until next time . . .

After returning to MEDA for lunch, we were driven over to Betania for the final VBS day. A torrential downpour required that we make adjustments to the schedule, but the Hondurans seemed to take it in stride and it was a great afternoon. This is the end of their rainy season, and it rained at least a little nearly every day (and some days, a lot more than a little!).

When we arrived at the church, the children were eagerly waiting for us.

The coming rainstorm . . .

This little guy has in his hand the craft of the day (one of Gideon's torches). We also gave out trumpets (kazoos). From then on, the VBS sounded like a giant bumblebee nest, with the thrumming of all the kazoos.

Think about the amount of work required to hold a VBS in your church. Then think about about planning one that you are holding 1800 miles away. All the little parts of a craft for all the children must fly with you, travelling in carefully packed, bulging suitcases. All the glue, scissors, crayons, etc. Thank you to all the BFC team, many who did not travel with us, who cut out shapes, organized, planned, purchased supplies, etc. Your labor made our ministry a success.

This is Ingrid, one of our teen interpreters. She is a delightfully pleasant young lady, and extremely helpful. I am so impressed by the spiritual quality of their teens. It is clear that they love Christ. Ingrid is just one example of many.

Honduras: More Wednesday Pictures

I could not move on from this day without adding more pictures. It was a great day of ministry and holds some special memories.

Here are the stars of the show:

And here are their personal assistants:

On the left is Jonathan Montoya. He played the guitar and translated. On the right is his sister Kimberly, who is married to Pastor Edwin. Fifth from the right is Danielle: her father is a pastor in Miami who frequently teaches at MEDA.

Dave Megginness did a wonderful job designing and creating this puppet stage.

Here are a few scenes from backstage

Here is Mark giving the introduction to the Zaccheus story

The kids are doing handmotions to the songs:

So many precious faces

Honduras Construction Team Report

Many thanks to John Schmidt, who supplied these pictures.

The project begins. 

First day crew, getting acquainted.

The supplies are here.

Raulito, Ferdinand, and helper sifting sand for the mortar

Preparing to mix the mortar. Might as well do it on the floor, it's going to get tiled anyway.

Wish we had a cement mixer! Oh, wait . . . we do! Thanks, John.

Making sure the first course goes down right.

This is going to be a big job.

The first course goes down. Need a lot of mortar to level it.

The first cross-course goes down.

Time for a lunch break

John gives his kneepads to the main Honduran tilelayer.

Progress!

 Ken keeps Nathan well-stocked with tiles

 More sand-sifting. One of the toughest parts of this job was the preparation of mortar. No wheelbarrows were available for the first half of the week, and the water had to be carried to the worksite.

The first day there was only one tile-layer. But starting on the second day Nathan began laying tile and progress increased.

Nathan tries to sharpen his pencil with a machete.

 Ken works on the grouting.

 Almost done.
 

Our construction team all but finished the floor. There were a few details to be completed, but the members of the El Socorro church would finish them.

The team faced multiple challenges during the week, a lack of needed equipment and insufficient workers topping the list. But they accomplished the task!