Amazing

It is difficult to decsribe the amazing events of the past two weeks without becoming somewhat emotional. This family of workers was united in everything and the results can only be described as AMAZING....
CONSTRUCTION
Our God assembled a group of builders and....build they did! The final count of 35 houses included 31 from scratch and 4 that were completed for another mission team that was unable to finish the job before thay left the country. Our builders worked in Nuevo Oriental, Santa Ana, Valle de Angels, San Miguel, Via Nueva, & 21 de Octobre. Every home built was completed with lots of love in in the name of Jesus.
Our crews were led by many excellent & dedicated builders including Jim Kelly & his son Austin, Kyle Ferguson, Andrew Kurgenivitch, Mark Halbert, John Rogers, Paul Bennett, Caleb Yates, Ryan & Kirt Hunt, & others that I am sure that I have missed. Everyone agrees that the addition of floors is the best thing on the mountain since outhouses.
Our construction story wouldn't be complete without thanking my friend and brother Mark Connell. Mark's amazing love for putting roofs over the heads and floors under the feet of families that need them is just like mine. He worked tirelessly to make sure that we coule build every home that was humanly possible. Mark, I see Jesus in you every day (except for possibly the hair thing)
More Construction
The community of Santa Ana has a new church building and it was completed - from start to finish in a week. Simply amazing!
We celebrated communion on Sunday the 24th of July on a plot of land that was almost untouched and one week later we worshiped together in a new block building.
This amazing work was led by Don White and he was assisted by Aaron Hill, Andy Hill, Wally Sweedenburg, & Larry Allen. The family of builders looked at what appeared to be an impossible task and said that "With God, All things are possible"...and it was. The work was non stop and it was hard. It included moving 1000's of block, mixing 100's of loads of concrete, moving dirt, and sweat....lots of sweat.
Even more Construction!
The builders also moved dirt in the area of the new children's home and build sidewalks. They worked on rock walls and on block houses that are being build in the area of the new church building.
Food Distribution
Terri Tindall and her team of food packers did amazing work. This team packed more than 10 tons of food for the hungry. Probably closer to 25,000 poubnds of food was packed and distributed to hungry families.
There were a couple of people that turned out to be "professional" packers and they deserve to be thanked and recognized - Mary Sharky was a packing machine and she was joined by Nancy McCullough, Gayla Kenser, Sharen & Jenny Seldomridge, & many others.
Because of the hard work of the food team, we were able to feed about 1500 families.
Clinics & Medical Ministry
This year we were blessed to have Dr's Jason Kelly & Dan Kellum as well as Jim Lup a P.A.
This medical team completed 3 medical clinics and two dental clinisc and were able to treat over 900 people with medical needed ranging from surgery to remove a bullet that was lodged in a mans arm for more than a couple of years to a lady with elephantitus, to having to remove every tooth from the head of a woman. These men were joined by Esperanza Massana, Michelle Rachl, and several other translators that made communication work. Additionally, there were many clinic volunteers that mad the process work for the docs and the people being treated.
On a personal note, I'd like to thank our medical team for always being there for our team - especially for those that fell ill while serving in Honduras.
Evangelism
Amazing, the harvest was simply amazing!
Billy Ferguson & Cisco Vega have established a simple way to deliver the gospel to the people of Honduras and have been joined by several others including Les Ferguson, Wesley Thompson, Jeremy Stewart, David Kenser, John Palmer, Russ McCullough, Lowell White, and many others. Because these and others were willing to step out onto the mountai, there are now 54 new Christians and 2 new churches have been planted.
More than 30 in the community of Nuevo Oriental alone!
UPDATE on Los Pinos - we were able to visit the community of Los Pinos a couple of times and we are happy to report that the church that was planted in Los Pinos two years ago is continuing to grow. More than 120 adults and 12o children meet there every Sunday.
We are praying to see the same sort of results in Santa Ana and Nuevo Oriental.
Other Ministries -
We sent teams of workers to the public hospital every day to spend time playing and praying with the many children with needs. We also sent these teams of servents to several childrens homes and places like the Special Needs Orphanage. Our workers were blessed as much as any of the children that they came into contact with.
Gayla Kenser spent 3 days in Nuevo Oriental teaching a manacure class to 7 ladies from that community. On graduation day many of our ladies allowed the newly trained ladies to test their skills on them for a total of 30 Limpera (about 1.80 US). Each of the ladies earned close to $20 that day and many are going to be able to apply for jobs that they previously were not qualified to do.

As usual, our morning and evening times of devotional were amazing. The singing was the best ever and the thoughts that were shared were inspiring. Most of us weren't quite ready to come home and re-join the routines that we didn't miss.
I'd be remiss in closing this summary without letting all of you know how much we need to thank Tim & Gena & Joe for their unending work and love for making things happen. Nobody knows the amount of time that they put in to making TORCH Missions work. Tim, Gena, Joe, Dalton, & Dylan - We love you with the love of the Lord & we see Jesus in you every day!
Interns - you were all great and we love you too! Thanks!
Team.... Family, If you would like to share your thoughts on the blog, please email them to me at
marclt2003@yahoo.com and I'll post them. I will continue to post at least weekly on this spot as this is the best communication tool for letting you know about TORCH 2006.
It has been a Great Year In Honduras
Love all of ya'
Marc