WOW WOW WOW!
That’s all I can say about this week--- there has been so much going on, but it has been an incredible week.

PHOTOS!http://jsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030912&l=73697&id=156800196
http://jsu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2030926&l=9c3d8&id=156800196

PRAISE BAND!- First of all, the praise and worship band has been going great—we have gotten together probably 10 times over the past two weeks and practiced together, usually about two hours each time. I can hardly believe the improvement we have made since getting started. The kids have been working incredibly hard. It is all very new to most of them, but they are doing a good job of learning how songs are put together, how a rehearsal should go, and overall just doing so much more than I EVER expected by this point. We will lead worship for the first time this Friday morning at Chapel. I am looking forward to it tremendously!!!

SCHOOL!- This month at school is “Color month” and each Friday we are dressing a different way. Last Friday was pajama day, and while I participated also, there are no photos to show you. L Yesterday was backwards day, and unfortunately I didn’t get photos of it either. However, this past week was the week that we were supposed to decorate our week with a color scheme. We chose to recreate “bubbles” of the days of creation, and there are a few pics of that and my class. Enjoy!

VISITOR FROM AFAR!- I had my FIRST visitor from the states to visit the Ranch!!! Most of you from Roanoke know Gary Clark who works some with Soles for Souls and Four Corners Ministries. Gary was able to get in touch with me a couple of days ago and we were able to work it out to where he was able to come out to the ranch. Gary had been visiting some orphanages in Tegucigalpa, and wanted to make sure he got to se the ranch if at all possible. Thankfully it worked out and he was also able to bring with him a woman named Sheila who is a nurse living in the city. Both of them seemed to have a great time taking a tour of the ranch—seeing homes, visiting the school, chatting with others who live here. Sheila is considering coming down for a longer commitment and possibly work with WGO as a nurse. It was absolutely a WONDERFUL visit and even more wonderful to see a familiar face.

COMMNITY!- I am sorry I did not take pictures from the community this week, but I forgot my camera. It was our first week to do it since returning and we talked about how important children are to God. The kids seemed to really enjoy the message. Plus, we took some time at the end and played some relay games with them, and they REALLY liked that. There were about 35 kids this week, but we expect more over the coming weeks as school gets started back in the Honduran public schools and also as they realize that we have returned and are up and running again.

ARROW!- The ARROW Project is here! The Arrow Project is a foster care organization that is contracted with Children Protective Services throughout Texas and Maryland. They are a team of about 10 people who have come to train our staff on foster care strategies. They arrived on Wednesday and we have been in sessions from 1-5 pm each day, including today, and will be in session also Monday and Tuesday. It has been a great blessing to have some formal training for our staff from these very highly qualified professionals.

As part of their stay, this morning we took the Arrow project team members down the road so that they could help pour a concrete floor in one of the homes in the community. I was very excited about being able to go and visit more casually with some of The Arrow people, but also I really enjoyed helping last time with the concrete floor team and wanted to do it again. There are lots of pictures from this project today. It was an incredible time working together to give this family a solid floor. Also, one of the team members who speak Spanish was able to get a first-hand approach on making tortillas with the lady who lives there. It was very neat to see this “bonding” between the two and overall just an amazing way to start the day!

MOVIE NIGHT!- Tonight was MOVIE NIGHT on the campo. Everyone, well mostly everyone, pulled out their sweaters and blankets to go camp out on the campo and watch Meet the Robinsons. I was very casually dressed in my shorts and t-shirt. I think it was about 60 degrees, which is not cold, but it is for Honduras. Movie night on the campo means getting the projector out, plugging it into a DVD player and an amp, and stretching a sheet across two big poles on the side of the hill. I ended up coming home early, but it looked like a great time and definitely something “different” for the kids to do.

CONSTRUCTION TEAM ON THE RANCH!- A construction team from Illinois has been doing great work on the singles housing! The team has been working hard all week long and has accomplished a great deal of work. They have been able to finish the walls of the housing, put a coat of sealant, and also put up ALL of the trusses. It was nice getting to visit with all of them and they were a very friendly and hard working group of individuals.

CLOSING!- Well, as you can tell, this week has been a VERY busy week at the ranch. It was a very demanding week for everyone, but a very positive week that we should see a lot of fruit come from. Thank you all for your prayers and support! God Bless you!

Hello again from Honduras! It is wonderful to be back up in the mountains around Tegucigalpa. When I landed on the 2nd, it was about 70 degrees here in Honduras!!! The weather has been absolutely beautiful since coming back!

My time in the states was absolutely wonderful also. There were a lot of people that I wanted to visit more with that I did not get to, but I think I did a LOT for the short 5 weeks or so I was home. I got to visit a lot of family and friends in Geneva, Roanoke, Panama City, Phoenix City, and Jacksonville. I really enjoyed getting to attend a lot of different Christmas functions and concerts, including going to Festival of Lights at Callaway Gardens. I also loved getting to speak at 4 different churches over the break and sharing more personally what we’ve been doing here at the ranch. Plus, I got to go to Wal-Mart about 10 different times!!!

Anyhow, I wanted to thank all of you very much for making my time at home wonderful!! Thank you for all of the encouragement, love and support for what I am doing here in Honduras.
Last Friday we had a day of preparation in our classroom and Monday school got off to an awesome start. Last weekend was great getting to go back to Union church and seeing all of the people there. It is great being around the kids again and since getting back, we have started having actual rehearsals with some of the kids wanting to participate in a Praise and Worship band. They have been taking some private lessons, and now we are putting it all together and starting to combine our efforts. I am really wanting to see these kids work together for something like this and I think we are on the right track.

Last night the singles from the ranch met up with a couple of other singles from church and had coffee at CafeMania and then got some pizza from a little place in a neat little neighborhood. I got to talk with Terry Mallasch, COO of WGO, about a possible internship with the Medical/Evangelism side of the ministry for this summer. It would be about 6 weeks, and would involve helping to coordinate teams coming in and out, and helping coordinate the medical and evangelism outreaches around different parts of Tegucigalpa. This is an AWESOME possibility I am looking at, and hopefully things will progress. More to come!

Well, as I said, it is good to be back here and our internet is normal again so I look forward to sending updates each Saturday and also hope to hear from some of you. No pictures yet, but there will be.
Thanks so much for everything! Love to all of you! God Bless!
-Jesse Tiner