Block by block...

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 11/24/2008 7:47:00 PM)

Our house is slowly becoming a reality.  It's so cool to see it going up a block at a time!  Every day we walk out to the job site to see what got accomplished by the 5 man work crew that day.  Today when we walked out we could hardly believe how close the walls are to being finished!  By the end of this week all of the walls will be up and the cement ring that ties the entire house together will be poured.  Then we're ready for a roof!
But while we wait for this roof we will begin putting the finishing touches on the dorm.  Our groups will begin arriving on February 7th, and all must be ready by then.  So we move from one project to another.   We are so thankful for the funds to get the walls up on our house - a big thank you to Westmore Church of God in Cleveland, TN for making that possible!

   

We wanted you to see some pictures and share our great joy with you at the work done so far!  I'll have to send more pictures at the end of the week so you can see the walls completely FINISHED!

Welcome New Interns!

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 11/20/2008 8:05:00 PM)

Our first H.H.I.M. interns are finally in Rio Viejo!  We want to welcome Heather Stewart & Allison Ippel  to Honduras.

       

          Allison & Heather sending home emails to friends & family                                  They came ready to learn and ready to work!

We can't wait for all of you to meet them, what incredible young ladies they are.  They have jumped right in and are a perfect fit in every way.   We can hardly believe how much we've gotten done in just a few short days.   They are both working in the hospital with the patients and the pharmacy and organizing things in their spare time.  At night we work on the computers together getting our groups lined up and planning.   IT'S SO AMAZING!    They are currently living in our little house in the village while we make some improvements to a house that joins the hospital property.  Hopefully they will soon they  be our neighbors living just 30 feet from our house!  What a blessing they have been already, we can hardly imagine life without them.  Heather is from Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a registered dietitian.  She is an LSU alumni, a recent graduate of Healing Place School of MInistry and serving a 10 month internship with us through Go Global Missions.   Allison is from Chicago, Illinois and a graduate of Wheaton College.  She has already been accepted to Medical school for the Fall of 2009.  She will be working with us for 7 months as a medical intern.

                

              Helping to remove three fatty tumors from this patient's arm.          Allison helps with an emergency machete cut on her first day!

We want to officially welcome them to Healing Hands International Ministries in Honduras.  We pray God blesses their months here and uses it as a time of growth filled with life-changing experiences and memories that will last a lifetime!

Raining Cats & Dogs...

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 11/7/2008 11:03:00 PM)

Or should we say, Raining Buckets?!  It has rained and rained and rained in Honduras the past three weeks.  Last week we had the incredible privilege of hosting a team from Men & Women of Action based in Cleveland, TN.  They were coming to lay all of the block walls for our house.  We were ecstatic!  All of the blocks were purchased, the cement was on hand, the sand was on the ground ready for mixing cement and the groceries were in the frig - we were ready!  And for two days we worked and made great progress. And then, the floods came...

                           

I woke up at 3 a.m. hearing that some of the group members had awakened in the heavy downpour.  I was going around checking for new leaks, a common occurrence with the roof on the hospital.  Others began getting up and saying they had never heard such heavy rain in their lives.  The wind was blowing hard and the rain was torrential.  By morning it was still pouring and we had to move some of the group members who were getting wet from the leaks.  It was apparent that no work would be getting done that day.  The lights were out, the water was out and we found out later that after 15-20 inches of rain in 24 hours, the road was out as well!  A portion of the dirt road had been taken out by the monstrous river and we were stuck up the mountain.   What an adventure for these 7 visitors here to build a house.  But let me tell you, there were such troopers!  They helped us catch rain water in buckets, took bucket baths and a few of them even got really sick, but they stayed anyway!  We played cards, ate by candlelight, and laughed and laughed.  On day three of rain Martin decided to remove any unwanted moles! ha/  Yes, that's right, we had a mole removal party.  Nine moles came off that day, plus one cyst, all from the group members!  What a day that was, we've never had a party like that, but then again we've never had a group stuck up in the jungle with us like that either.  Finally on day four and still no road we decided to walk into the city and try to get the group closer to the airport so they could try to make their departure flight.  It was another great adventure and we made it safely across the missing section of road where we were met on the other side by some missionary friends from La Ceiba.  The airport closed several times, but they finally all made it out and safely home.  While in the city they decided to buy Sam and Rachel bicycles, what a treat for the kids, they were so surprised and so happy!  They have ridden them through the mud and rain ever since.

                        
    MEN & WOMEN OF ACTION: Ron & Pam Barker , Jim & Carol Daniel, Bill Hale, Milton Abbott, & Hugh Carver.  
     Walking out on Thursday during a momentary respite from the rain.  What an adventure!




                         
                            Sam & Rachel on their new bikes at the hotel with the group - THANK YOU!


We want to say thank you to those who came and let you know how much you blessed our family!  I know you didn't get to finish the block laying you came to do, but we believe you did what God had in mind in the first place: you encouraged our family more than you can know.  It was such a pleasure to have you with us.  And we welcome you all to come again.  Though next time we'll be sure it's in the dry season.  

Travels to the U.S.A.

(copied from old blog. entry dated: 11/7/2008 2:35:00 PM)

On August 12th we began our six week journey.  What an adventure it was!  We flew first to Orlando, Florida where we spent a week visiting with family and nearby churches and getting our van ready for the long road ahead...

    
     Birthday dinner for Martin the night of our arrival.                      Samuel & Rachel performing in Gainesville, FL

Then the miles began adding up as we traveled to visit with Ben & Pam Williams where we updated our video and visited their church in the Gadsden, AL area.  From there we spent time in Cleveland, TN and Fayetteville, TN visiting more friends and more churches.  We left Tennessee on our way to Chicago, IL to interview a medical intern who was interested in working with HHIM.  After an overnight stop in New Albany, Indiana to see missionary friends, we were on our way to Chicago.  It was our first time, and wow, what an extraordinary city it is!!

   
                Samuel on the streets of Chicago!                                Tony & Sandra Nucaro of Toronto, Canada

We enjoyed our walk around the city with our new intern Allison so much!  She is due to arrive in Honduras on Nov. 14th and we are very excited about having her with us to serve with HHIM for six months!  We all wanted to stay longer, but after only one nights stay we were on  the road again headed for Toronto, Canada.   We spent three wonderful days with Martin's best friend Tony and his family.  We were able to meet with the Christian High School and the students and teachers who will be spending 8 week in Rio Viejo with us next year.  What an innovative program they have for their high school seniors and juniors allowing them to live in a third-world country for 8 weeks. We can't wait to have them here with us!

Then it was straight to Atlanta, GA - 18 hours of driving from Toronto!  But it was so worth it!  The Spencer  family welcomed us into their home and church (Life Church International).  We had the most awesome time with them and at their church.  They even took us to our first professional baseball game!  After a big cookout we went home with the Moore's and enjoyed  a time of riding dirt bikes.  I can tell you that this was easily the best part of the entire trip for Samuel!  He said it was even better than Disney World! ha/  I wish you could have seen little Rachel riding trails and speeding past on her motorcycle!  It all came to an end too soon for all of us.

      
   At the Braves game with friends!                   Look at Rachel ride!               Container packed up and ready to go!


Next we were on our way to Alabama where we visited with Wendy's family and some of our wonderful home churches.  We worked on the container full of equipment, making the inventory a bit more detailed and filling that container to the very brim!  We can't fit another thing in there and it's ready to ship!  Now we just have to wait for the rains to subside a little so we can get it up this muddy dirt road.

We left Alabama headed to Baton Rouge, LA just days after a hurricane had passed through.  Friends were nice enough to host us and even have a party in the midst of trees down and electricity out.  We were also able to meet with another new intern who is coming to Honduras on Nov. 14th, Heather from Healing Place Church.  She will be with us for 10 months and helping us with so many aspects of the ministry.  Too many to list, and we can't wait for her to get here to begin on them!   We finally made our way back to Florida where we did the last minute mad packing and jumped back on a plane headed home to Honduras.  So many ideas swimming around in our heads, so much hope in our hearts, and lots of wonderful memories to enjoy for months to come.
It was a whirlwind of a trip, so many miles traveled, so many words spoken.  It was so incredible!  And though we are all happy to be back home in Rio Viejo, we can't wait to do it all again one day soon.  I know with the hospital seeing more and more patients we will not be able to take a six week trip again, but we hope to make several shorter trips each year.    There were so many people we didn't get to see on this trip,and to those of you we missed, we are so sorry that time didn't permit us to make it your way this time.   Maybe you'll just have to come and see us here.    You are so very welcome to come!