The last TORCH work day for the summer was Saturday the 4th. A house was built in a place that most of us that have built many houses would call a "house of death". Please don't think we would take our teams to places of danger - the site would be called this because the workers would be thinking that they might die from the work needed just to go up the mountain to get to the site. Anyway, this site required the team to climb and to go through three houses just to get the wood onto the place where the house would be built. It was needless to say a challenge. The great thing here is that the house was finished and in spite of the tremendous efforts necessary for the team - everybody ended their work in Honduras with a smile on their face.
The really cool thing about Saturday was that one more of our team made a decision to follow Jesus into the water. Demi Lane confessed the name of Jesus and his good friend Rom was blessed to be able to baptize him. What a way to finish our work. We celebrated the end at Baskin Robins and everybody slept well before the trip home on Sunday.
Our God is AWESOME and this was truly another great day in Honduras.
I plan to post a summary of the summer this week so - stay tuned.
Blessings,
Marc
Monday, August 06, 2007
Saturday, August 04, 2007
Santa Ana
About two years ago this week, we broke ground on a place called Casa de Esperanza. The "House of Hope" is a beautiful place and there are now 16 children there that our God has rescued from places that are very difficult for me to even think about. The oldest child that we care for is 10 and almost al of our kids have been beaten, starved, raped, prostituted, ignored, hurt, wounded, or abused in other ways. Looking at them now - you might never suspect any of this. They are happy, love to play, learn, and be around people. They are very trusting of the people that come to Casa. God has made this place a refuge for the hurting.
Casa de Esperanza is where we worked on Friday. Casa is on a beautiful property in a community called Santa Ana. Our work included assisting in the construction of new Sunday School classrooms for the church in Santa Ana, working to restock our pharmacy in the clinic, we also worked on the playground at the children's home - our job was to add wood shavings to the area below the equipment so that the kids would not be hurt as often when they fall from the swings and slides. We also had a small clinic where all of the children from the children's home were examined by Kim and several of the children from the area around the children's home were also treated for various needs.
We finished our day by sharing a great meal and celebrating the 50th birthday of our bro - Dennis Carter.
It was truly Another Great Day in Honduras!
Blessings,
Marc
Casa de Esperanza is where we worked on Friday. Casa is on a beautiful property in a community called Santa Ana. Our work included assisting in the construction of new Sunday School classrooms for the church in Santa Ana, working to restock our pharmacy in the clinic, we also worked on the playground at the children's home - our job was to add wood shavings to the area below the equipment so that the kids would not be hurt as often when they fall from the swings and slides. We also had a small clinic where all of the children from the children's home were examined by Kim and several of the children from the area around the children's home were also treated for various needs.
We finished our day by sharing a great meal and celebrating the 50th birthday of our bro - Dennis Carter.
It was truly Another Great Day in Honduras!
Blessings,
Marc
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Hospital Esquala
Today was a unique experience for a lot of our group. This morning we all went to Hospital Esquala - the teaching hospital of Honduras. The group split into three teams and set out to meet and visit with the children in the many areas of the hospital. These included the nutrition ward where there are many kids that are near death from not having anything to eat in their homes. There was visits made to the baby area and many smiles were a part of that portion of the ministry. Others of the team were visiting the children of the burn ward and the cancer ward. All of the team shared smiles, hugs, prayers, and time with the children. Prayers for God's will were lifted up and there were changed lives today.
Sasha Lane was one changed life that was evident. Sasha was baptized by her dad tonight and I was blessed to be a witness. God is good... all the time.
After leaving the hospital, we went to Jovenes en Camino - a home for homeless boys. The visit there was great and the boys are so happy. The home is in a community called Zomorano and there are about 90 boys that call it home.
We ended the day by seeing the baptism of Sasha and a time of prayer, singing, and sharing of thoughts.
It was another great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
Sasha Lane was one changed life that was evident. Sasha was baptized by her dad tonight and I was blessed to be a witness. God is good... all the time.
After leaving the hospital, we went to Jovenes en Camino - a home for homeless boys. The visit there was great and the boys are so happy. The home is in a community called Zomorano and there are about 90 boys that call it home.
We ended the day by seeing the baptism of Sasha and a time of prayer, singing, and sharing of thoughts.
It was another great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
A New Ministry
Today we worked in a mountain area that was at one time called Israel - they changed the name and I just cannot remember the new "official" name. Israel is the first community where TORCH built a building and planted a church. The church is going strong with over 130 adults and more than 80 children. The building is very good and is a center of the community.
Today we used the building to try out "Photo Ministry". The idea was thought up by Mrs. Lane from Columbia, SC and it is so simple. The group from SC brought a photo printer and some simple paper frames. They took pictures of the children, printed & framed them, and then worked with the kids to decorate the frame and add a verse so that everytime someone looked at the picture they would be reminded of this day and the verse that they were taught. The children loved having their picture made and being able to take it home to their mother.
Later in the day, we made cotton candy - raspberry of course - and every kid in the village (plus our workers) were smurf blue.
While the team was working in the area of the church building, there was a house being built for a family that had lost everything they owned in a fire. The house crew did an amazing job and took care to deliver the best house possible for this family. Speaking of family, ours grew by three yesterday. Cisco was on the mountain yesterday talking about Jesus. While all the activity was going on, Cisco participated in the harvest of three new sisters in Jesus.
Our God is GOOD... All the time!
Wednesday was truly a great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
Today we used the building to try out "Photo Ministry". The idea was thought up by Mrs. Lane from Columbia, SC and it is so simple. The group from SC brought a photo printer and some simple paper frames. They took pictures of the children, printed & framed them, and then worked with the kids to decorate the frame and add a verse so that everytime someone looked at the picture they would be reminded of this day and the verse that they were taught. The children loved having their picture made and being able to take it home to their mother.
Later in the day, we made cotton candy - raspberry of course - and every kid in the village (plus our workers) were smurf blue.
While the team was working in the area of the church building, there was a house being built for a family that had lost everything they owned in a fire. The house crew did an amazing job and took care to deliver the best house possible for this family. Speaking of family, ours grew by three yesterday. Cisco was on the mountain yesterday talking about Jesus. While all the activity was going on, Cisco participated in the harvest of three new sisters in Jesus.
Our God is GOOD... All the time!
Wednesday was truly a great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Tuesday In Honduras
This morning about 72 of the group that arrived on July 19th departed for home. That left us with 18 from Columbia, SC - along with a few others, our team is down to a "one bus team". That didn't however stop the work. This morning there was a load of about 5,000 pounds of food that was packed into 240 bags - about a week of food for a family. This team did the pack out in about 3 hours and was anxious to deliver it to hungry familes. After lunch, that is exactly what we did. We first went to a community that is visable from one of the main highways - one that we have never delivered food into - we went house to house and delivered about 100 bags of food. From there we went to Nueva Suyapa to help families there. The families were so thankful - to our God for answering their prayers.
It is always refreshing in Honduras to hear people praise God when they recieve a house or much needed food. This is almost always the case - the folks have been praying for help and when we are able to help them, they see us as the way that God intended to answer their prayers. This is really cool because it is all we want to be. Our work is all about Jesus and we are only here to bring glory to his name.
Today was a great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
It is always refreshing in Honduras to hear people praise God when they recieve a house or much needed food. This is almost always the case - the folks have been praying for help and when we are able to help them, they see us as the way that God intended to answer their prayers. This is really cool because it is all we want to be. Our work is all about Jesus and we are only here to bring glory to his name.
Today was a great day in Honduras.
Blessings,
Marc
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