Trabajo en la bodega otra vez!!!

This is my new friend Riley, we are at the Jesus statue last night.

Sarah, Diane and I spent another day at the warehouse and we probably have one more day to finish.  Sarah got done sorting and inventorying the medicines and Diane and I made a big dent in the clothes.  We also had to move our boxes to get to some that belong to another team.  That may seem like a simple task, but the boxes stack about 10 feet high and many get soft in the moist air.

We met this little girl when we had our "spa" day.  I found her some clothes in our supplies!!  She actually smiled at me!

 

 

The bus was supposed to pick us up around 4pm, so we starting wrapping it up around that time.  Since we didn’t get picked up until almost 5:30, we spent the time taking pictures and I shared some Zumba with them using the music on my phone.  All of the Honduran workers had left the bodega (warehouse), but we weren’t worried.  I think the guard might have been.

 

 

The rest of the team headed out of town to Didasko for the day.  Didasko is an orphanage that we go back to year after year.  Teams had VBS skits, some repaired and painted the playground, and one group set up computers that had been donated.  I’m sorry I don’t have any pictures, unless I can find some to borrow off of Facebook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nurse Sarah is trying some Zumba!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store.  I have four more days and one of those is a travel day.  I’m assuming that we will travel to Valley of Angels for shopping on Saturday.

 

 

Until next time!  Xoxo PJ

 

 

 

 

 

I’m not sure what tomorrow has in store.  I have four more days and one of those is a travel day.  I’m assuming that we will travel to Valley of Angels for shopping on Saturday.

 

 

Until next time!  Xoxo PJ

Tedious work for the Lord! I love it!

Monday


Today was a tedious day for Diane, Sarah and me.  We worked in the warehouse trying to organize the supplies.  In case you didn't hear, the Honduran government held our container for many days and then proceeded to charge us a storage fee.  We took a big hit that really ate into our work budget for this team.  Fortunately, we had lots of people working back home to donate money to help us.




Because of that, most likely, we will not ship by container next year.  That's why we worked in the warehouse.  We were trying to inventory everything that we haven't used so we can use it for next year.  Sarah worked hard on the medicine and Diane and I got started on the clothes.  It will probably takes us a good day or 2 to finish.





We had a small team doing another house build.  It was a small team and they were lucky to have an ideal site.  The materials were already at the site and the wood was already in place and sorted.  They also didn't run into any rock when they were setting the posts.







A large group went back to the hospital and delivered hygiene bags, food and special bags for new mothers.  Both groups visited the blind school after lunch and then came back and picked us up.

How do you like our impromptu sorting table???
 

We are supposed to be going to the Jesus statute tonight for our devo after dinner.  I guess I may wait to post this because I'll probably have some nice pictures from that.

Deep fried plantains for lunch  (I got them at the local pulperia (small store).

I decided to use a picture from last year.  I'm sorry, I'm tired!!!

I'm getting really tired.  We really only have 4 work days left!



xoxo  PJ

Friends, thank you for your help

 



The dream team

 

 

 

 

 

Michelle & ONeada, they are tiny, beautiful Honduran girls and they are beasts on a work site!

 

 

 

 

 

Today was another great day!!!  I was on a team that built my third and final house.  All of my friends, family, church family and anyone else who bought my jewelry, thank you!  You put a roof over a family’s head tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

This house went to a single mother with three boys that appeared to be about 1, 2, and 6.  She was, of course, overjoyed, tearful and thankful!!  The actual site was gorgeous.  We were way up the mountain overlooking Moaloa.  The problem is, we had about a mile hike up a very steep mountain.  Before you think we walked up a path like the ones in the Rocky Mountains, think again!!!

 

 

 

We mostly walked on bare dirt, which isn’t easy.  I started out carrying a 2x4 on my way up because I thought it would save me a trip, well, I have to say that was the only wood I carried up.  We were lucky to have some Honduran men carry the wood for us because it was an impossible task.  Honestly, if I had it and it wouldn’t cause World War III, I would have paid them a $100 for carrying the wood.  It would have been well worth it.  Besides  that, we had an awesome team. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone had a great attitude and we worked together well.  My team included the interns, Ginny Reece, Riley Bowers, Tyler Gist, and Leah Wright.  We also had Randi and “Tricky” Pat from PA, Jeremy and Nelson from Arkansas (I think), Josh, Zack, and Becca who live around or go to Freed.  Michele is a Honduran girl who has been translating for us, she worked all day and even did a lot of the roof.  Taylor Sullivan from KY was also on our team.

 

One team built another house and another team working on taking out concrete behind the daycare in Moaloa. Moaloa has experienced flooding in recent rains, so they were trying to repair some damage from that.

House dedication and prayer 

 

During the day, I got to reunite with a sweet young guy named David.  (pronounced  Daw-vid, with stress on the first syllable)  He remembered my name and also asked if Taylor was here this year.  Last year, I sent some very nice soccer cleats specifically for him and I was very sad to here that he never got them.  Our team is supposed to be going back, and I plan on taking he and his friend some shoes if it kills me!!!

 

 

 

 

 

A group also worked at the feeding center in Moaloa.  After they were done they enjoyed some fellowship with the lady workers.  They fixed each others hair.  Wendy, in pink, is a Honduran lady who has amazing skills with hair! 

 

This is Angel, 13 year old from PA, and Wendy.

 

 

 

Pray for these sweet people please!!!!

 

Xoxo  PJ

 

 

 

 

 

This is the day that the Lord has made......

Sunday

 

We started off the day with breakfast from 7:00 – 8:00 am, and church at 8:30.  We headed downtown to the bodega (warehouse) to let this group shop at Mi Esperanza; from there we went to lunch at the mall.  It is so strange to go into a mall that looks much like the ones in the US when you know there is extreme poverty just a few miles away.

 

This is Jenny Lovell from Western Hills CoC.  She is a tremendous fundraiser for Torch. 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we went to El Picacho to see the Jesus statue.  Apparently, that’s the big thing to do on a Sunday afternoon because many families were spending the day there.  We have always gotten special permission to go there at nighttime and it is beautiful, but there were lots of things there that we had never been able to see at night (gardens, a zip line, & a zoo) It was also so crowded that our bus had to park far away, we had a nice hike up to the Jesus statue. The exercise helped us to work off our lunch.

Some of these pictures are from Saturday's house build.  We were way up looking over a valley.

 

 

 

 

We had church in our dining hall, there was going to be a wedding in the chapel later.  This is Brian Steffy from PA delivering the message.

 

Normally, Sundays are not work days, but we went back to the mission house and Terry has some jobs for us.  A group worked on some VBS skits, while some other groups sorted clothes and supplies.

 

 

 

 

Our building site was so beautiful and nice compared to our last one. 

 

We ended back down the mountain for a quick dinner of fast food and ended up the day with our devo at 8:00.  The acoustics are beautiful were we have our devos and we’ve been learning “Greatest Commands” in Spanish.  I’m not much of a singer, but it sounds like angels singing!

 

 

 

 

Here is part of the team who raised money for the house for this lady.

 

I’m pretty sure I’ll be building my third and final house tomorrow, but our team has about 4 more to build in all.  The money for those was all donated by people at the Western Hills Church of Christ in Nashville.

 

 

 

 

This is something we have discovered in previous years.  It's called something like SuperGrandeTurboMega.  Diane, Pat, and I shared it and it was wonderful.  It tasted kind of like a chimichanga.

 

Until tomorrow!!!  Xoxo  PJ

It's a good day when you can build a house.....

 

 

 

 

 

Friday/Saturday

 

Wow, I should have know that my IPhone takes panoramic pics.  This is the peace monument.

 

 

Here's a proud mama from yesterday's hospital visit.

 

 

 

 

 

It’s a good day when you can help build a house for someone.  Today our whole team broke up into two groups and built two houses.

 

 

(I apologize that the pics don't go with the post.  I have to wait for my phone and laptop to talk to each other and sync pictures.)

 

 

We have two Beccas from Freed.  This is one of them, we enjoyed holding the new babies.

Our houses were about 30 minutes away toward Santa Ana.  Santa Ana is the windiest place in Honduras and they have gigantic windmills there. 

 

 

 

 

 

A view of the city from the Peace Monument.

 

We were out of the city in a beautiful area.  Each team had about 22 people on it, which can be too many.  It can sometimes problematic if you have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.  I went with the Western Hills Church of Christ teens (Nashville, TN).  Jenny Lovell, from Western Hills,  and her group raised money for 5 houses, isn’t that amazing???  This money for this particular house build was raised by their youth group. 

 

Hospital Escuela

 

We got the easier site because we had the most teenagers, between that and the number of workers, we knocked it out in about 4 and half hours!!   Not bad work!!

                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

 

I’m adding some pictures from yesterday at the Peace Monument and the hospital.

We were apparently the headline news.  Three different news station interviewed our interpreter.  They wanted to know all about what our mission group was doing.

Tomorrow is church and probably more time at the Valley of the Angels.  I hope I'll have more synced photos for tomorrow's post!




xoxo  PJ

 

Thrilled & Excited!!! (The New Team, that is!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waiting at the Honduran airport is a big deal, there is usually a camera crew waiting for some dignitary.

We picked up our new team yesterday and spent the day at the airport.  This group is mainly from Kittanning, PA, Western Hills Church of Christ in Nashville, Ashland City and some various other places.

 

This is Riley Bowers who lives in Springfield, TN.  It's a small world because his grandparents go to church with my aunt in Mayfield, KY.  This was our creative way to alphabetize the name tags of the arriving Torchers!

 

These Torchers are enjoying bus "surfing" as we take the curvy drive up the mountain.

Jenny Lovell and her niece, Joanna waiting for their room assignments.

 

Terry put them to work right away.  They have tons of energy and they jumped right in breaking down bulk food items, moving boxes, and making hygiene kits for people at the hospital day.

 

 making hygiene packets (muchos toothbrushes)




assembled hygiene pack



Breaking down bulk food and assembling food bags (rice, sugar, beans, tomato sauce, spaghetti, coffee, sugar, flour, boullion cubes)

Diane, Sarah and I worked on assembling bags for the maternity ward.  We had a bunch of food boxes donated by Walmart, hence the bags.  We were asked to take lots of pictures!!

 

Today’s plan is to visit the hospital and the blind school and have lunch at the Peace Monument.  I’ll try to take lots of pictures and keep you updated if we have anything exciting happen!!!



Friday:

We actually weren't able to go to the Blind School, it is closed for a holiday. We visited the hospital in the morning, had lunch at the Peace Monument and then went back to the hospital in the afternoon.



Technology is amazing.  My picture card has died, so now I'm just using my phone.  My pictures are automatically syncing to my laptop!  How cool is that?  All of mine from the hospital haven't synced yet, but here's some from the Peace Monument.

 

 xoxo  PJ

 

(Don’t forget to read the Torch blog:  www.childrenoftheking.blogspot.com  and our devos are streaming each night a little after 8 pm.)