September/part of October in Honduras!

Hello! I’m still here! I had said in my last update that it would be a while before this week because we were without teams for a while and not a lot was going on. Well, that proved to be very untrue. Plus, we have just finished two weeks with teams here and currently have one here that will be here this coming week. So, let’s get to some good stories!

(I’m uploading at this moment, so it may be better to wait until Monday to look at the pics)

SAMUEL’S BIRTHDAY/ HOUSE PROJECT
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040441&l=63d73&id=156800196

PROJECTS!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2040442&l=7e2b6&id=156800196

UPDATE ON MARIA- I have a good bit of information to give you about the progress of Maria’s house and the contact I’ve had with her and her 4 children. It’s actually kind of funny but also brings a tear to my eye when I look at my last update where I wrote “…I believe that it is going to work out for us to be able to at least put a concrete floor in for her so she will have a solid piece of concrete to walk on and live on. Hopefully, in the future, we will be able to do even more to help this family.” God has done some amazing things since that bit of writing. It’s funny to look back at what my “hopes” were and to see how God has surpassed those hopes in such a short time…

It started not too long after I wrote that when I was driving home from church one night and saw Maria walking home in the rain. I quickly turned around and offered her a ride home, which she took. On the way home I asked her about the children and she kept telling me that something fell. I wasn’t getting the whole picture, but assumed one of the children fell. However, I was able to give her the good news that there was a team coming from the Ranch and we were going to have a work day at her house, and put a concrete floor in her home. She looked at me kind of strange, and with our limited communication, I gave her a date we would be coming, September 30th, to pour a floor. She simply said “bueno,” which is her most used response to my “Spanish.”

A few days later Roy and I were going over there to look at her home and get some plans for the project. As I was walking down the hill to her home, I immediately thought that things did not look right at all. Come to find out, her house had actually FALLEN DOWN, and I soon realized that is what she was trying to tell me that night a couple of weeks before. She had re-stacked the parts of her home into a lean-to on the hill just big enough for the bed and an old dresser. Well, as Roy and I were standing there, we started to get a plan on how this might be just the “push” we needed to move forward with my desire to do something “more” for her. Prices for wood are cheap down here, and we figured we could build a sturdy wood home for about $700 if we did all the labor ourselves. Well, to make this part of the story short, the work day on September 30th ended with a house “skeleton” and a concrete floor. A huge thanks to Kymm & Eric Schultz and their family who helped that day, along with several others from WGO who made that day a wonderful blessing for Maria and her children.

That day was on a Tuesday, and on that Friday, Roy, Ryan, and I returned with materials to put on the roof. So now, the roof is also there, along with all the “support” poles, studs, a door frame, and a concrete floor.

I’ll pause in this story to say that Samuel, Maria’s only boy, turned 6 the next day on Saturday. We decided to have a party, so we went and bought a piñata, candy, cake, drinks, balloons, and some toys and had Samuel a big birthday party in what is there of their new “home.” We had at least 30 children from the community that waded across the river to attend the festivities. It was an awesome day again to bless Maria, and especially Samuel, this way.

Ok, now to continue in God’s amazing outpouring on Maria this past month or so… When my mom was here, we had dinner with lots of our friends, including Pastor Darren from Union Church, the church I attend here. I mentioned my desire to help this family and to someday be able to build a new home for her. Well, he mentioned that Union has a fund for mission projects like this and that if I made a proposal for funds, he was sure the church would be able to help some, if not all. That was back in August, and I really kept thinking “HOW is this going to work? HOW am I going to be able to make this project happen in a reasonable time frame?” Well, I hate to say Maria’s house falling may have been an answer to prayer, but it may have been just that. We were able to take care of funds to pay for the wood we needed to do the frame and roof, but there was no way I could pay for the materials to build her home. I began to work on a proposal to Union and submitted it for the cost of materials already purchased as well as what we would need to finish the house, and total that amounted to $704. After a meeting of the elder board, they decided to fund the ENTIRE PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!! We decided to have a church workday that will be this coming Saturday and men from the church and some other helpers are coming to put up the siding on Maria’s house, and get it as complete as possible. Hopefully we will be able to finish everything that day. Also, some of the girls from the ranch are going to come and spend some time playing with the kids from the community.

God has done some amazing things this past month in a time that I thought might become “boring” without teams. Again, it’s simply beautiful to see the way he works and provides. More updates to come on this project after this Saturday.

FLOORS- Well, we have had an exciting past two weeks with floor projects also. I want to share about one in particular, which happened to be this past Thursday and Friday. This was a larger home that we decided to make into a 2-day project. We would do a small kitchen area, the large area which was a bedroom/living room, and another side room that was attached with a separate entrance. This totaled about 35 square yards. However, there was a small section of each room about 10 inches lower than the rest. Because of the location of the house, we decided to just “move” the 10 inches that was there, fill in the low side, and level the rest, making the entire home one level floor.

Day one turned out to be one of the toughest days we’ve had in construction. Not only were the materials late coming, we ended up having to haul the materials by buckets up the longest path we’ve ever had to carry materials. When we arrived, we took about an hour to level the floor in the kitchen and living area, and spent the next 4-5 hours carrying sand and gravel, one bucket at a time, from the road far below up to the project site. This was made even more difficult by the rain that was off and on all day and the slippery conditions as a result. At the end of the day, we still managed to pour the floor in the kitchen and half of the main living area.

On day two we returned to finish the main room and to work in the side room, which we had not leveled yet. Well, after finishing the main room, our attention turned to the side room. After removing the bed and other belongings, we saw that on the common wall side, there was about a foot wide section that went from the back of the room to the front where water flows during the rain. Only a small section, maybe 3 foot, had a pipe that helped channel the water out the front. Most of the room however, had a “stream” flowing through it when it rained. We were able to find some more sections of pipe, and after the day was over, were able to present her with a solid floor across the entire room, and a buried pipe about a foot below that caught the water outside, and carried it underneath her floor and out the front of the house, without ever being seen.

For a person that has lived with a river flowing through their room almost daily in the rainy season, this was a HUGE change for the better. This was definitely one of, if not THE, toughest projects we have done, and by far one of the most life-changing. We were able to bless a family of believers with a solid foundation in their home, a tool that they can now use to show others what the love of God can do.

OTHER- Other things are generally going well. We are busy again with teams and life is moving along. We started a new study in Sunday school at Union about peacemaking a few weeks ago, and that is going well. I have also been able to lead worship there a couple of more times since my last update. I am also attending CCI church some, and am being able to play keyboard there with the praise band a couple of times each month. It is very nice to be able to still take part in music, especially to be able to do it in a manner such as this. I have also started taking Spanish lessons recently to help improve my vocabulary and to help sharpen a lot of my grammatical skills. It's a lot of fun, but definitely difficult at times.

PRAYER- I would like to ask for your help in prayer over a lot of situations in my life. I definitely need direction and guidance from the Lord in lots of areas, and ask that you join me in prayer as God’s plan for my life continues to unfold. Please also pray for my family in general as lots of changes take place.If there is a particular request I could help you pray for, please don’t hesitate to let me know.

COMING HOME!- The tickets are bought! I will be flying into Birmingham on Friday, November 21st, and staying until Saturday, January 3rd. I look forward to spending time with family and friends in Geneva, Roanoke, Jacksonville, Panama City, and wherever else the wind blows while I am home.

As before, I would love to be able to have a vehicle to travel in while I’m home. This isn’t a CRITICAL need, but is a huge blessing to be able to travel freely and visit with people during my visit. If you think you could help in this area, PLEASE give me a heads up and we can discuss details. THANK YOU!!!Well, again I am excited about returning home for a time and seeing all of you. I look forward to visiting in person and sharing more about this time in Honduras.

I love all of you!!!

-Jesse