The House

Alright, so back to the story of our trip.  

One of the big things we have been praying about is our housing situation at Manatial de Vida.  Right now, there isn't a place for us to live.  And for a whole lot of reasons, it's best that we live on camp.  When Noah visited in 2009, he and Wes talked about building a house for us, that if someday we weren't at Manantial de Vida, it could function as a main office. 

Well, on Friday morning, before we left to come back to Costa Rica, we were able to met with some of the pastors of PIER who also happen to be engineers and architects!  And they literally said to us, "What do you want in your house?"  What in the world!!  We never in a million years thought we would be able to help design a house for us to live in!  And what a beautiful thing it is!  At least on paper right now!

After our meeting we went to lunch with everyone and Pastor Daniel started sketching what we had created back at church.  Here it is, on the back of a paper place mat.

Isn't it lovely?  It was crazy to watch these guys take what we said and make it work!  And the details they thought of!  Things like which way does the wind come from, how to make it cooler, how "wow, that's a big space, boy, let's see what we can do to make that more usable."  


I love the wrap around porches, the fact that I have a laundry room right next to my kitchen with a door to the outside just steps away.  Something tells me that is going to come in really, really handy with two boys!  And oh!  There are plans for a bath tub!

And now we pray.  Pray for the $75,000 it will cost to build this, pray for God to bring the right people and teams to help with the construction, pray that He will be gloried through this house.

And hey, if you are interested in helping with this important project in anyway, shoot us an email or give us a call (yes, we can get phone calls here, and it won't cost you anything!  We have a stateside number).  We'd love to talk with you about how you can help fiance this or come be a part of the building.

And so that pretty much wraps up our trip to Honduras.  We are so thankful we got to spend so much time with the Williamsons and to be part of the day to day.  We can't wait to get there for real.  But for right now, it's back to the studying and working out how to communicate with this people that we have come to love.

"Glad to Turn Again" a World Away

It was so great to be part of the daily running of a camp again.  We both got so excited when we heard buses pulling into camp on Friday night, just like Teen Winter Retreats at Barakel!   And  to wake up to the sounds of campers through out camp, doing what campers do, laughing, running, exploring.  Oh, so good!

Noah, being Noah the programer, couldn't stay away and even managed to get a baliada (flour tortilla with beans, sour cream and sometimes eggs) out of visiting the group that was in camp.  He came back with some great photos too.

And it was so familiar what the group was doing, breaking up in to cabin groups, making mascots for their groups, and spending time away from the ordinary in order to hear from God.  Camp is powerful, no matter if you are in the pine forests of Northern Michigan or the pine forests of Northern Honduras.

We learned that right now, 10% of Honduran kids grow up with a two parent home.  Yeah, let that sink in for just a second.

That means 90% of kids grow up with a single parent.  Most kids will drop out of school by the time they are in 6th grade.  The unemployment rate of 30 year olds and under is 60%.  As if all of this is bad enough, there are gangs just waiting to give these kids a "family". A war is on for the hearts and minds of Honduran youth.

 As we talked with Pastor Daniel, he said that the way Honduras is going to change is through reaching the youth of the country.  Changing the mindset of the people, one kid at a time.  Wow!  What a challenge, and how exciting to be a part of what God is doing through the Honduran churches to reach these kids with Christ!

We also got to help with some of the projects around camp.  Noah worked on finishing out making bunk beds for one of the dorms.  When Wes was showing us the dorm for the first time I was confused on where in the world I was.  For crying out loud, the floor was even painted the same color as Boys Dorm before carpet!

And I know if I looked hard enough, I could find a photo or two of Mike Baker or Dan Haines putting together bunk beds for one of the new lodges!
 

And check this out!  Yep, those would be Do It Best screws. And no they weren't brought from the States, there is a Do It Best in San Pedro Sula! The Fairview Hardware store (you know, the famed VIP Hardware Sale store) is a Do It Best!

It was mind blowing how God placed us in Northern Michigan, where there wasn't a single native Spanish speaker for at least a hundred miles, and how well that prepared us for where will be in Honduras!  I am so thankful for the time we had on the banks of Shear Lake, and for what God is doing there and what He is doing to reach the hearts and minds of the people of Honduras through Manantial de Vida!

Staff Fellowship

While we were at Manatial de Vida, we got to be a part of the weekly staff  meal and Bible study.  Sound familiar?  Yeah, while we were on staff at Barakel, we would get together every Wednesday at 11 am for Bible Study and then eat lunch together.  At Manantial, they do it on Monday evening.

All the women met together to cook the meal, which was tajadas con carne. It's fried plantains, with shredded cabbage, ground hamburger and a tomato based sauce.  Yum!  

While the food was cooking, the staff kids were running around the dinning hall playing tag of sorts.  There are 2 Honduran staff families.  Each family has one or two young teens and then a toddler, which is such a great dynamic because the Williamsons have young teens and we have preschoolers!  I never did get a photo of our boys with Daniel and Fernando, who are almost 2 and 1.  Forrest and Elliot were very taken with Fernando.  Forrest even called him Fernandito (a term of endearment).  What a blessing to have two Honduran buddies right around my boys' ages!

 
After dinner, we sang and then opened the Bible and read about the life of Joseph.  And just in case you forgot, all of this was in Spanish.  We were able to follow almost all of what was said and add to the discussion in Spanish, which was exciting for us.  Our boys enjoyed the singing and they are starting to recognize some of the worship songs we sing in Spanish.

We are so thankful for Leonel and Marlen and Polo and Marlen (yes, the women have the same name.)  They do so much around camp and it was great getting to know them some this week.  Can't wait until they are our vecinos!