Get Ready

Can you believe that April 1 is almost here - that means that we are moving fast toward our annual time together. I can't wait.
As you know, we will all be arriving on either the 19th or 20th of July and you can be assured that you will be put to work as soon as you get off of the bus. I just want each of you to make sure that you are able to make the trip because we are going to need every one of you to finish the work that our God has planned for us. That means that you need to be holding a USA Passport. Passports are very easy to get - as long as you plan in advance. Right now it is taking passport offices about 10 weeks to deliver - and that is only if you get all the paperwork that they need - the first time! Even expidited passports are 4 weeks in process. DON'T WAIT!
Next- you gotta get your application to me! We use the info on this form to get your missionary insurance and order your T-Shirt (which you are gonna love) If you don't send the application, don't expect your shirt to fit!
Our work this year is going to be amazing - and as usual, full of different things that none of us expected.
Well, from hear on out, I'll be posting new info about every week - stay tuned for more and more details about TORCH 2007.
Love & Blessings,
Marc
Ps: my new cell is 618-520-0589 - feel free to call if you need anything.

2007 Application

2007 Application
TORCH APPLICATION FORM ’07
Memphis - July 20-31
Others July 19-31
Cost of trip is $1325.
TORCH MISSIONS
124 Spyglass Ct
O’Fallon, IL 62269
Email address___________________Name_________________________________
Date of Birth_____________ Age______
Street Address______________________________________________
Home Phone______________________
Cell Phone_____________________________
Social Security Number_______________________
PassportNumber_______________________
City Issued_________________________Date Issued____________________________
Expiration Date_____________________
Are you a Christian? Yes____ No_____
Name of Church you
Address of Church you attend_______________________________________________
Male____ Female____ Adult____ Teen____ Child____ Single____ Married______
If married are husband and wife on the trip together?? Yes_____ No_____
Adults occupation_______________________________________________
Students academic classification & name of school____________________________
Languages you speak___________________________________________________
Foreign Countries you have visited______________________________________
Are you in good physical condition? Yes_____ No______
Are you taking prescription medication on a regular basis? Yes____ No_____
If yes, List medications and conditions being treated _______________________________________________________
Allergies_________________________________________________
Adult T shirt size Small_____ Medium_____ Large_____ XLarge ______ XXL_____
I have read and accept the conditions listed in the information section of the TORCH Program AND I commit to raising a minimum of $200 over and above the cost of the trip to support the benevolent work of my team.___________________________ _______________________Signature Date
IMPORTANT Everyone traveling must fill out an application
This application is due February 15 & must be accompanied by:$150 deposit
Spanish Parent consent form - signed and notorized
Copy of your passport One Passport sized photo
Letter of recommendation for TORCH trip (if it is your first trip)
Essay: Why do you want to participate in this trip

The Latest & Greatest!

Well, here I sit in a hotel in beautiful Sherman, TX thinking about the short 7 months that separate us from TORCH 2007.
Our new year promises to go fast and that means that all of us have a great deal of planning that needs to take place before we board planes and head south. The first thing that comes to my mind is a passport check. I'd suggest that everyone that hasn't seen their passport since they returned from Honduras last summer - find it, look at it to make sure it isn't going to expire anytime soon, and then put it in a safe place and tell others in your family exactly where it is. Last summer, we had a young lady that was certain that she knwe exactly where her passport was and when it came time to depart - the passport was lost and the young lady stayed home. You can't go to Hondo without a valid passport.
If you know of perple that are new to our group, encourage them to go now to apply for their passport.
I plan to post an application here in the next week or so and you'll all need to complete it and get it in with a $150 per person deposit. I have already paid about $100 per ticket deposit for 60+ airline tickets and I'm going to need to pay a deposit to the mission house in early 2007 so, I'm going to need your deposits by February. Since we are going to hold our group to about 80, you would be best advised to get in early rather than waiting. When we are full, we will be full. I'm not taking a monster team - 80 is the number.
Once again in 2007, we'll be asking everyone that signs an application to committ to raising an extra $200 (more is okay) for our benevolent work. Those dollars are our working fund and they allow us to buy food and build houses, hold clinics, and other good works. Tell your friends you'll build a house for them and you'd be surprised at how many people will be willing to help out.
Watch for the aplication soon.
I love y'all!
Marc

TORCH 2007

I have already started working with Cont. & American to secure our seats for next year and so far things are going well. We will have a small - $75 increase over 2006 but, we are going to have 12 days!
Where in the world can you get 12 days like we have for about $100 a day? You can't!
Here is where we are with our team -
Texas has estimated 25, Starkville - 15, Hot Springs - 10, St Louis/ IL - 15, Florida - 10, NC - 5. As you can see, we are nearing our FILLED status and it isn't even October 1. Of course, nothing is firm until we get a deposit and an application. I'll get those posted within the next couple of weeks.
If y'all haven't seen the new website for Casa de Esperanza, you need too. You can get there by going to www.cde-hopehouse.org Check it out and share it with your friends. When you go to the "about us" section, give the video a couple of seconds to load and enjoy!
I love all y'all and look forward to seeing you soon. Terri & I will be travelling to Hondo on December 1 for a few days and if you have an interest in a long weekend in Hondo, let me know.
Marc

TORCH 2007

Here we are folks - already getting ready for 2007!
The group size has the potential of getting full fast so, I need everybody that heads up an area to get to me with your "forecast" of people. We are going to hold fast to 80.
That will be IT!
The dates are July 20 to 31.
Price will be as similar to last year as possible - most likely a $75 price increase to $1325. We will also hold to our benevolent fund raising comittment of $200 per person.
This is still the best bargain in missions that I can find. Most mission groups are at this price for ground only and air fare is extra.
Let me know ASAP or you may be Left Behind.
Marc

Truck & Other Stuff

Less than a month ago, 65 of us were in Honduras - working shoulder to shoulder together.
I hope that the time that we've been home hasn't dampened your fire for service - I know that personally, I'm more fired up than ever about the work that our God has planned for us to do together.
I just wanted to give everybody an update on good things that are happening - first a Josue update. As we all eagerly anticipated, Josue & Karen are parents - the surprise is that they have a son and not the daughter that they were certain was coming. His name is Josue. Please pray for the new family.
Also wanted you all to know some of the good that you helped make happen. A new "Bodega" is about to be under construction at Casa de Esperanza and it is because of you that this can happen. In December we will begin construction on 2 Sunday School class rooms at the church in Santa Ana - again because of your hard work. Also, we were able to buy a truck for use in Santa Ana and at the children's home. Now, Noel will be able to pick-up a number of Christians that until now have lived too far from the church building to get there every Sunday. I'm pickng up the truck today and will get it shipped to Honduras as soon as possible.
I hope to have dates for next year as soon as this week. Keep watching here for news.
Marc

That's What It's All About

The "Hokey Pokey Boys" sang a little ditty that ended with "That's What It's All About". The song goes - you put your right foot in, you put your left foot in, you put your whole self in...
Since I've been home for a week now, I can easily see that they were correct! Putting your whole self in really is "what it's all about".
Well, I have now led teams to Honduras for several years and you can be assured that the 2006 team and mission was all about putting their whole self in. They put their whole self into the work needed to make the mission one that would answer many prayers and because of that, there are now 18 families with new homes. This morning I'm certain that many of them woke to praise our God for their dry floor and for a place that is safe for their families. I don't have an exact count, but 18 houses means that more than 100 people have a house today and that wasn't true a short 3 weeks ago. Our work allowed us to deliver much needed dental care to over 100 people. Our dental team was organized and worked so well with the kids and the adults. I'm confident that the people that were treated felt that Jesus himself had worked on their teeth.
Food is always an issue in most of the areas that we work. Our food teams packed more than two full truck-loads of food - each truck is more than 5000 pounds! That translated into about 600 food packages that were delivered directly to the families that really needed them. All of this was done in the name of Jesus. Some of the same folks that packed food also worked in our warehouse to organize, sort, and plan for our big give-away in Los Pinos. These sisters packed up more than a container of goods and we were able to assist more than 1000 people in the community of Los Pinos with clothing and shoes. All in the name of Jesus. This community was so appreciative of the work and the new clothes that were given in His name.
With all the work going on in the many ministries that we are blessed to be a part of, it would be easy to miss the point of "What It's All About". Of course, the Hokey Pokey Boys got it right - put your whole self in - that is exactly what so many on our evangelism teams did. Their work of planting seeds led to a harvest of 34 souls while we were in Honduras and even more since we returned home. Last weekend in Santa Ana there were three more that gave their lives to our Lord and it looks like there may be four more to follow this weekend. There were also 3 baptisms in Borger - all from that team going home and sharing the good news.
Our God is GOOD all the time!
There is even more -
Our team was able to help the little old lady on the mountain in Los Pinos with special food and a new bed. We were able to help the kids at Casa de Esperanza with a month of food! We were able to help another group with some emergency food. We were able to help the minister in Santa Ana with transportation for members that are too far from the building to get there on Sunday mornings - hopefully, that vehicle will be delivered this fall. Our team will be able to have some Sunday School classrooms built in Santa Ana and you will be able to see them in use next summer. There are over 100 kids that will be in classes there already!
Our God is Good All The Time!
and - That Is What It's All About!
Marc

Ten Days In Honduras

Ten days in Honduras isn’t enough!
Every year until 2006 we have worked for two weeks and because of a number of things, we had a 10 day mission this year....next year we will go to 12 days.
I didn’t get a chance to post a summary of our Sunday in Honduras and it was again – Another Great Day in Honduras. We started off by heading to church in Los Pinos where there were over 300 in attendance at the morning services. Three years ago there wasn’t even a church in Los Pinos and now this congregation serves the community in many ways.
Just prior to heading off to Los Pinos, a young lady that is a friend of Cisco (one of our interpreters) chose to become a Christian and was baptized. After our church service in Los Pinos, there were two more new Christians and later on Sunday evening there was one more. Can you believe that we leave Honduras with 34 new brothers and sisters? Our God is awesome!
In the afternoon, we traveled out to Santa Ana to spend a little more time with Casa de Esperanza & the children there. The five little guys there are very happy and it is such a beautiful place. We were all gathered around the front of the house talking about how far Casa has come in just one year and the needs of the future. We also discussed the need for volunteer workers and how important it is to the project. After the formal presentation, my friend Deborah Krug from Borger, TX told me that she wanted to stay in Honduras and work for a few months in Honduras. Later in the day we found a phone and called her parents to let them know what Deborah wanted to do and they both offered their support – we left Deborah at Casa on Monday to begin her work. Sorta’ reminds me of the way that Jesus called some of the Apostles – he said come follow me and they didn’t say okay, I’ll see you in a few days, they just dropped what they were doing and left. Pray for Deborah!
The group from St Louis left Sunday morning so, we were down to about 50 on Sunday night. We were all tired by the end of the day.
Ours was a Great 10 days in Honduras!
Marc
Ps: Can’t wait till 2007.

A Good Tired

Saturday was work day in Los Pinos. Several of our ladies had spent days planning and organizing, sorting clothes & shoes, and packing all of the things from several containers. I have never been involved in a clothing give away that was so well planned and organized. There were 1015 people that were served with new clothes and most of them went away giving the praise to our God. At the end of the day, there was on older man that came to me as everyone was getting on the bus – he said thanks to God that we were there in Los Pinos today.
While there was tons of activity going on at the church building, our teams of evangelist were back on the mountain teaching and telling the good news. There were four more souls added to the Lamb’s Book of Life yesterday. That means that there have been 29 new Christians this week....more to come.
Still more good things were happening on Saturday – as the workers were at the Los Pinos Church, the Mi Esperanza – Women of My Hope – program was shuttling our women to the training center to have manicures done by the women that have graduated from the cosmetology course. Mi Esperanza is a program that teaches the women of Honduras the skills they need to provide for their families – they also teach the word so that it is truly a program that offers hope.
Josué’s house was finished yesterday and everybody was pretty tired by the time of last nights devotional. A really good tired!
Saturday was “Another Great Day in Honduras”.
Marc

No hey problema

Friday in Honduras was again “another great day in Honduras”. We sent building crews to San Miguel to build three houses and others to talk to the people about Jesus. In Honduras, everything doesn’t always go as planned and you just gotta go with the flow or the frustrations would allow Satan to take your focus off of the mission. Yesterday was one of those days for one of our house crews. The crew went to the building site that they were given and as usual started measuring and digging corner holes. This is one part of construction that takes the most precision and time – because as we all know, a good foundation is what keeps a house standing. Anyway, our house team had unloaded all the materials, measured the site for corner posts, dug the holes, and began to set the posts. About this time, another person came up to the site claiming that the lot was his and that we couldn’t build there. Well, rather than take any chances, the crew reloaded the wood on the truck (a lot of wood too! Somehow it seems that the pile grew after it was unloaded the first time), they un-planted the corner posts, and went to another site. It was really cool that nobody complained and that this crew was able to get the wood moved and another house almost completed even though they didn’t get to get going until almost 2 PM.
One other crew went about 40 miles from the mission house and began construction on a house for Josué and his new wife. This house is unusual because it is 20 feet wide by 10 feet deep. It is also – when finished going to be much taller than a usual TORCH house because it is going to have a loft on each end. That house was about 75% completed yesterday and will be finished on Saturday.
There were 3 more new Christians that the Angels celebrated yesterday too. That – I think brings the total to 25. Our God is good! All the time.
Pray that we will have “another great day in Honduras”
Marc

Josue

Thursday in Honduras was truly “another great day in Honduras”!
There are now 4 new Christians in the community of Santa Ana, another family has a new house, there are over 200 families that have food in their houses, and my friend Josué is married.
Several years ago, six to be exact, I met a 15 year old kid that worked at the airport as a luggage hustler – (one of the people that grabs your bags out of your hands and wants to take it to your car or bus to get a tip.) That year we at TORCH hired Josué to work summers for us. He is a great worker and was always willing to do anything we needed. Even without much education, Josué was learning English and is now fluent. The second year that he worked with us, Josué became a Christian. Just like all of us, he has struggled with his walk with Jesus. Earlier this year, I saw Josué and he told me that he was going to be a dad and I asked him about his wife – he told me that it was just a girlfriend and as a friend, I told Josué that this young lady and his baby needed a commitment beyond that of a girlfriend/ boyfriend relationship. Josué was very hesitant to make this type of commitment and after a lot of talking it all came down to the fact that his grandmother was totally against this marriage. A little more digging and I found out that grandmother was afraid that Josué wouldn’t taker care of her anymore if he was married. Well, several of us made the trip out to Josué’s village to meet with his grandmother and to seek her blessing for a marriage. On Wednesday she gave the blessing and last night we threw a wedding for Josué and Caryn. Please pray for them as they will be parents within just a few days.
With only a couple of work days to go, we are all realizing that we still have much to do!
There have been 22 people that have made a commitment to Jesus and have been baptized but, there are so many more that need to know Him. We have distributed tons of food but, there are still too many hungry people. There are bad houses everywhere. All of this is why this ministry will continue and we will work just like Jesus – helping one person at a time.
Marc

Great Days in Honduras

Tuesday & Wednesday have been wonderful – best described as two great days in Honduras. We worked both days in Los Pinos and the results have been amazing to say the least. In the past two days, we’ve built 6 houses, passed out over 100 bags of food in a very poor community, held a ladies class, sent about 20 people to spend time with children in Hospital Esquala, sent several teams into the community to tell the good news, and have seen 10 people become Christians. Simply amazing what our God can do and we are blessed to be a part of his plan.
In Los Pinos, the people that have new houses are so grateful for the chance to have a dry place to live with their families. One new house was built for a very young single mother, another for a family of 10, another for an elderly lady in a wheel chair, another for a lady that was going to lose her rental house on Monday the 31st. We can all tell you so many stories about people we have met that have had their prayers answered by the team that you sent to Honduras. When we finish a house, the people always know where the credit goes, they give the thanks and the credit to our God.
It is now early Thursday morning and we are all dreading the end of our mission. Sorry folks, we all just want to stay and continue to serve.
Over the next few days, we’ll continue to build, feed, love, and teach. All in the name of Jesus. Please continue to pray for our team. So far we have been very blessed with no major cases of Hondo Revenge, nothing more than a few scratches and mosquito bites. Pray for our evangelism team and for our safety.
We are all set for “Another Great Day in Honduras”
Marc

Sunday & Monday

Sunday started with a bus ride to Santa Ana where we attended worship in the building that our team build last summer. It was amazing to see the 200+ people worshiping in a place that was a bare plot of land only a year ago. Our worship finished with the baptism of the brother of the young man that chose Jesus on Saturday.
From Santa Ana, we travelled into Tegucigalpa to eat in an area that we like to call the "Campero's Area". All good food from chicken to pizza to burgers. From Campero's we were off to the Valley of Angels for shopping and relaxation. We then went to Santa Lucia for our evening devotional. That was in the oldest standing church building in the America's. Built in 1531 with no nails, it is a beautiful building and the singing there was incredible. While we were in the devotional, a couple of folks were studying with one of our bus drivers and the study was well. After the devoyional, we found out that Franklin wanted to become a Christian and plans were made to baptize him. What a great finish to a wonderful day.
On Monday we sent three building teams to Los Pinos. This is a community where a church was planted 3 years ago and it is great to report that the congregation is doing very well. The building teams built while groups went up on the mountain to invite the ladies of the community to a women's bible study an the children were invited to VBS. The bible study resulted in a new Christian in Los Pinos. All in all it was a Great day in Los Pinos.
While the Los Pinos crews were making things happen there, there were a few that went to conduct a bible study with Mario and his family. This is the same MArio that I wrote about a few weeks ago. Turns out that MArio and the mother of his children had never been married and wanted to do that before they became Christians. We were able to pull together a wedding in about 30 minutes and smiles were everywhere. Immediately after the wedding, Mario and his wife confessed the name of Jesus and entered the waters of baptism. God is good! All the time!.
There were also teams that worked on packing food and some that went to Hospital Esquala to be Jesus to the children there. The food team packed over 5000 pounds of food and the hospital team came back emotionally drained. Please pray for everyone that goes to work in this hospital ministry. It is a very emotional day but, the smiles of the children tell me that they see Jesus in the people that are spending time with them.
Sorry for the shortage of blogs so far. Getting the internet to cooporate is sometimes a "welcome to Honduras" thing.
Pray for our team while we " have another great day in Honduras"
Marc

saturday

What a day! Our team started as usual with breakfast & morning devotional and we were out the gate by 8:40. We made it all of 1/4 mile before one of our buses broke down and we had to have the other bus return to help out. Al ended well and we repaired the bus and travelled on out to Santa Ana where our teams worked throughout the community. The dental clinic went as smoothly as any clinic as I've ever seen. We had new people - that had never gone into a community to tell people about Jesus - doing just that. There were over 50 at the 2:00 PM bible study and there were 2 new Christians at the end of the day.
The two houses were beautiful works and two new families are now dry and warm - all because God provided the resources for his work to be done. There were teams that worked with the childrens home - some people painted and others were just being Jesus to the children in Santa Ana. You had to be there to see just how awesome it really was. You can be proud of the work that the people that you have sent to work - this is a wonderful group of people!
Last night we tried to get in to "El Picacho" the statue of Jesus that looks out over Tegucigalpa. Normally, our teams are able to easily get in at night but - "welcome to Honduras" the gates were locked so we ended up having our evening devotional behind the statue- nevertheless - it was a great close to the first day that the whole team was able to work together.
Saturday was a "Great Day in Honduras".
Marc

Everyone is Here

This is Nicole posting again for my dad. Sorry to have kept all of you anxious moms waiting so long to know that your babies mede it safely. The group from St. Louis arrived on Thursday, and only one bag was missing. It was so good to see everyone. We enjoyed a lunch Church's Chicken. Fried Chicken seems to be a staple of the eating out diet here. wherever there is a Church's, there is also a Popeye's, a KFC, and a Honduran place called Campero's all on the same road. On thursday night my dad talked about what faith is and how we will see faith in people of HOnduras that we won't even imagine. We will see people with no food and no money to buy food, but they have such a strong faith that God will provide for them. It was a great day.

On Friday, the group went to Santa Ana, a town about 45 minutes outside of Tegucigalpa. Last year a piece of property was bought here. There is now a clinic, a church, and a children's home with five precious little boy (the children's home just opened) A few of the ladies and Ben from Ft. Laderdale worked in a dental clinic. Most of the people got their bad teeth removed. It was neat to see the kids smiling even after teeth had been yanked out of their head. The rest of the group from St. Louis went with Mark Connell, a youth minister from Birmingham that spends his summers down here working for the Lord, to build a house. This was a house site that the preacher at the local church picked out. If I understand correctly, the family that had lived there had lost their house to a fire. They had a roof over their head last night which is awesome because it rained pretty hard for part of the night.

While the group was working hard and serving the Lord, my dad and I went to the airport to pick up everyone that came in from everywhere else. As soon as they were off the plane and through security, they loaded the buses and went to Santa Ana to meet the rest of the group. Many of this group came last summer and saw what the land here looked like. All were amazed to see how their hard work had paid off and that those sidewalks they built really did go somewhere. They spent their time entertaining the kids that just wanted to hang around the clinic as well as playing outside with the boys at Casa de Esperanza, the children's home.

Back at the Mission House, everyone found their way to their room before dinner. The lovely staff at the Mission House served us with delicious Honduran cuisine. At devo we talked about taking care of the poor and needy both here and at home. We also shared where we found Jesus. Many people see Jesus in the eyes of the kids. It is so easy to see Jesus in these children. They are so willing to love complete strangers, and they have no reason at all to trust and love us but they do. That is a lesson that we can all learn from them: Love whether you know the person or not. Well it was another great day in Honduras.

Today we will be building 2 houses, having another day of a dental clinic, and Wesley Thompson and his crew will be going into the community to tell the pepole about Jesus. I will write more on that when the day ends.

Ready

FYI this is Nicole, Marc's daugher, posting. I have been here since the end of May. Everyone is so excited about "Don Marco's" group coming. It is going to be a great trip. I am excited for each person that has never been here before. Your eyes will be opened and your hearts will be broken. For those who have come before, I gauruntee that it will be better this year than last. If you got to work in Santa Ana, you will be able to see where all of your labor went. This property is beautiful. We will even go to the church there on Sunday. I can't wait for all of you to get here. I will be waiting at the airport to give each of you a big hug.

Work Plans

Here is a daily summary of our work plans - just know that Honduras has a way of making plans change.
20 Group from St Louis Arrives. Food Packing & Clinic Prep
21 St Louis group in clinic & work at Casa de Esperanza All others arrive- Food Packing & House building clinic.
22 Dental Clinic Evangelism House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm
23 Worship at Santa Ana Valley of Angels
24 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm Hospital Esq
25 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm Hospital Women’s - Ministry
26 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm Hospital Women’s - Ministry
27 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s HmBlind School Jimmy Hughes
28 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm Hospital
29 Evangelism VBS House Building Food Distribution Children’s Hm Hospital Women’s - Ministry
30 Worship TBD St Louis departs Group to work at Santa Ana
31 All others depart.

Next Week

Next Week –
Wow! All of us can officially say that we’ll be heading to Hondo NEXT WEEK.
For all of you that are new to this, I won’t even begin to try to describe what this is going to do to you, for you, and throw at you. You are going to experience a wide range of emotions and at the end, joy will prevail.
For those of you heading to your second trip to Honduras, well, all i can tell you is that this year will be better than last year....same thing for those of you that have been on many missions – every one is better than the one before. Funny how God works that way, it’s what keeps us coming back – time and time again and loving every minute of it.
Mom’s & Dad’s that are worried about their kiddos – don’t! We will take care of them and deliver them back to you – better than before. God is going to turn their lives upside down. Some of you are going to have your kids come home telling you that they want to change majors and become missionaries.
While I’m on the subject of worried folks, here is my cell number in Honduras –
011 504 351 8214
If you call it from your home phone, dial the number exactly as it is listed above. You will get a big surprise on your next phone bill – about $3.00 or more per minute. This is an emergency number and you shouldn’t expect to call it and get connected to your child. I will deliver the message. Phones are scarce in Honduras and it is expensive to call back to the states. There may be one or two occasions that your child will have access to an internet phone – anyway, we’re only gone for 10 days and you can keep up with everything we are doing on this web site. You can also attach a message and we will print them and make sure that your favorite person gets your message.
Okay everybody, lets get lots of rest, lots of prayer time, and keep up the excitement for next week. Our God has big plans for this team and great things are bout to happen.
Let’s go have a great day in Honduras,
Marc

Mario

In Honduras over the weekend I saw our God in action!
Imagine if you can living on a rock......not rocky soil but, a mountainside that is solid rock. If you were in a house (American style) then, it wouldn’t be too bad, but this was in Honduras and the living conditions were not anything like we are accustomed to.
Living on the rock was a little family – The family of Mario, his wife & their three beautiful children. The Mario family had a shelter that was three sided – it had a stick frame and was covered in plastic sheeting. The cover for the front of the “house” was a blanket. Inside was the rock floor, an old thin mattress, a couple of extra pieces of clothing, not much else. The obvious missing element for life was food – this family had absolutely no food.
I was able to see all of this because I was there on the day that Mario and his family were getting a new house. Mario had somehow met someone from the Tupelo, MS TORCH team and told them about his current bad situation. Mario needed a house NOW because if he couldn’t improve the living situation for his children, the government was going to come and take them away. I think that it was on Thursday that he told the Mississippi folks about his situation and he only had until Tuesday to get a new house. Mario had been making adobe blocks for about two months with plans to build his own place. Since Mario owned basically nothing, he was able to only make one or two adobe blocks a day and at that rate, it might be a year for him to get the one room house built. Mario’s situation became desperate when he was told that he didn’t have a year to provide shelter for his kids – he was down to days.
Well, Mario prayed and our God delivered! He used the arms and legs of the TORCH team form Tupelo to answer Mario’s prayers. Mario got a house and his kids can stay with the family.
The really cool thing about this is that Mario knew exactly who delivered his house and he gave credit to our God for bringing he & his family a new place to live.

A Month Away

This morning we are waking to a hot day - at least here in Memphis. The predicted high temp in Memphis is 97 and I gotta tell you, that isn't a dry heat! 97 degrees in Memphis, TN is as hot as you ever want to be. I'm just happy that I'm able to adjust the a/c setting down to 72 and stay comfortable - because comfort is what it's all about isn't it? Well.....isn't it?
I guess it really depends on how you choose to look at it. If making others comfortable is what you are thinking - then you are on the right track.
As we spend this last month preparing our hearts to serve the people of Honduras, I'd like to tell you a story of what happened a few years ago. A story that still makes me tear up every time that I think about it.......
My first experience with TORCH was in 2001. My group was about 17 and we joined another 21 or 22 people from Florida and the experience was awesome. The next year, my group had grown to about 45 and that was the first year I really led a TORCH team. If you have been with me from the beginning, you all know that I place a very heavy emphasis on raising money for benevolence - my experience in 2002 is the reason why.
In 2002, we were not any different than any other TORCH team, we built houses, packed food, taught VBS, worked in hospitals & orphanages, and took the good news of Jesus to people on the mountain. One thing that was different though was the fact that we used all of our house building money in about 6 days. Our little team had built a record number of houses but, that didn't change the fact that we had no mas dinero por nuevo casas (no more money for new houses). Well, it seems that everybody on our team wanted to go back into an area where we had built a lot of houses that year - to say good-by to the friends that they had made on the mountain. While we were on the mountain, a young woman came to me and she was holding her 8 or 10 day old baby. She asked me to help her buy milk for the baby - I agreed and we walked together to the pulperia (a neighborhood market). I bought milk and some food for her and told her that I would help her carry the load to her house. When we arrived at her house, I saw that it was built on the slope of the mountain - because of that, there was an open space under the house. I noticed a mattress and other things in the area under the house and that is when this young woman told me that her home was the space under the house. She lived there with her 10 day old baby and her 2 year old.
I cried. There was nothing that I could do because I was out of money for a house. I left the mountain that day haunted by the fact that a mother and her 10 day old baby and her 2 year old were left to live in conditions that we wouldn't allow a dog to live in. I made a promise to myself that I would never be on the mountain without the resources to build a house.
We have remained true to that promise!
Remember, this mission isn't about you. It isn't about making yourself feel good - because you went out to help somebody. It is about serving Jesus through serving others. It is about being his hands and his feet. It is about bringing glory to the God we serve.
Get ready for a great day in Honduras!