It's been a while...

Tuesday October 28, 2008

So it’s been a while since I’ve blogged and a lot has happened…in the beginning of last week we had really bad rain and just outside of Tegucigalpa (not where we are) and a lot of flooding occurred and mud slides. A ton of people lost their homes and have been living in churches and schools since everything happened. It was kind of like what happened with Katrina, except here there isn’t any huge organizations to come in an rebuild or offer supplies. Don’t get me wrong, people and churches etc. are gathering stuff together and everyone’s trying to help them but they just don’t have the back up plan or resources like we have in the states…it’s really sad.

We were also busy trying to get things finalized for Mission Of Mercy and for the garage sale the youth had on Saturday and Sunday. The youth have Camp which we’re going to as well on November 21st where we’ll go to another city 2 hours away from here and stay in cabins and they have a lot of things they have planned to do while their there. The price for camp is L400 lempira’s which comes out to about $22.00 US dollars which is a lot for the kids in Reynel Funez. They got together old clothes and had gotten donations and old shoes, etc and held a garage sale for the village. We had a lot of people show up and kids got new clothes, new shoes, jackets etc…some of the stuff was really old but you could see in their faces how excited they were. They were digging through the stuff because maybe they didn’t have a good sweater for when it got cold or their shoes were really old and didn’t fit anymore and they were able to get some new stuff for a price that the people here could afford, so it went really well! We were playing Christian music outside and the kids were playing and they were advertising it over the church’s PA system. They ended up making about L1100 Lempira’s which should take a chunk off each youth price that they have to pay.

Then, this Monday we had Mission of Mercy come out to Reynel Funez and they registered all of the children and did all of the interview processes. Now to finalize everything before they actually came out was a ton of work for the youth. We had to go back out to all of the houses that hadn’t checked in with us and make sure they were coming on Monday and were still going through with the program…and remember these people don’t live right in the same area, they’re spread out across the whole village some on top of a mountain with another on the completely other side. It was hard work but these youth put in the hours and are amazing. On Sunday night we were at the house all day after church and lunch working on stuff and we worked into the night doing stuff for the next morning. We went through each child and Amber and I were down there until about 2:30 am helping them. The youth spent the night working until 3 and left to go home at 5:30 am and we all had to be back by 7 am. Amber got up and cleaned the church with one of the youth Yensel and as people started forming a line I was handing out numbers to the people as they came. Over night the weather had completely changed and it was rainy and really cold and yet all the people came and waited in the cold with their children. Monday was such a long day and it went a lot slower than I think any of us expected. The interviewing process takes about 20 minutes with each child and their parent, filling out paperwork and if the child was old enough they answered personal questions about their likes/dislikes etc. When each child was through with that part we went outside and I took their picture with their numbers so we could keep track and then a picture for the sponsors and for the program. We started at 7 am and we finished at 6pm…with the youth running the interviews and all of us working non-stop except for a short lunch break taking turns. It was a very successful day and the children were so cute. They had been there all day but no one was complaining and everyone was happy so it went very smoothly.

Then after we were finshed about 30 minutes later we all sat down to discuss the day and we lost power and it was completely pitch black. We all huddled up in the Pastor’s house and got some candles and eventually we drove everyone home and went and bought some chicken and a little tiny place by Reynel Funez. The pastor’s house had electricity and so when the power goes out they can’t cook anything. Amber and I made it to our room by candlelight and just called it a night since we couldn’t see J I woke up today sick with a cold and still no power and it‘s so cold here…overnight it literally turned to winter with odd crazy wind (no rain just wind) that’s opening and slamming the doors and sounds like there’s a hurricane outside . I love the cold but I wasn’t prepared for it to change overnight so its caught me off guard, not to mention I was already sick so freezing didn’t make it any better :) Amber taught English to the children in the afternoon and we got to talk to our Mom and Dad (YAY :) ) and the power came back on just in time for us to make something to eat…earlier in the day I couldn’t take a shower and get ready because I thought better of the soaking wet hair mixed with a cold and it freezing outside…so when the power came back on I decided it would be good to get ready before church because we have a Tuesday night service. I took my shower and got out and then the power went off again…wet hair J haha just my luck! We went ahead with the service but moved in inside to Pastor Macklin’s house and set up candles and had church in the living room with Bessy speaking. They just started praying for the power, for Mission of Mercy, for sickness, for the people in Reynel Funez who don’t have heat, or warm clothes, food, etc. It was an awesome night and I know I say this a lot but I can’t say it enough how dedicated these youth are. They are here all the time, always working, doing everything you ask of them and witnessing to the people of these village…if it means they have to work through the night and spend the night and get up and do it again then they do. It’s truly amazing to see because they never once complain, this is their ministry and their village and they are doing everything in their power to change these people lives and witness and pray over every family in it. They don’t ask for time to hang out with friends or a break they just come every time the doors are open and are helping in some way daily. I love these people and I know Amber and I will continue to be friends with a lot of them long after we leave Honduras, they’re the most amazing sweet people.

As we’re finishing up October and go into November the kids are going to be getting out of school for their “summer” break (which is really in their winter ) and we’re going to be getting a lot busier. They’ll be having day camps and things planned daily for the children to do and the youth will have camp in November as well. Continue to pray for this team here and for the families that lost their homes. The rain is a huge problem here and it’s destroyed roads and highways have split in 2 because of it so just pray for the country as a whole. November is also their coldest month and many people here don’t have good jackets or cold weather clothes or heat etc, so pray the God provides for them and just keeps a hedge of protection around this village J I’m sorry this blog is so long but a lot has happened here in the last week so I had to share. The power is still out and I’m writing in the dark and my battery is about to die but we love you guys so much and miss you all! Natalie we’re sorry we couldn’t call you on your BIG 2-0 but we couldn’t get to a phone…we love you and I hope it was amazing. Amber was very upset she missed the first one in 15 years...we miss you! And another very special birthday happened this week, my best friend Katie’s little girl turned 4 on Saturday :) I’m sorry I couldn’t call, believe me I wanted too! I can’t believe she’s already 4 Katie…she’s growing up so fast and the time has flown by! I hope she had fun and give her a big kiss for me, I love and miss you guys so much! Thanks for the continued support and prayers, we love yall!

Love, Alisa and Amber