April Brigade-Concrete Floor

Here some of the team is in a truck to drive to the site where the team was putting in a concrete floor. I am the one with my back to the picture, I couldn't even move. Imagine this is how most of the Honduras move around. It was fun for a few miles, but it wouldn't be for much longer




This is the home where we laid a concrete floor last week. All of the families possessions are outside while our team poured the concrete. The pastors pick people in their Church who are in need. This particular family, the father wasn't a believer, but by the end of the week he made a profession of faith. Please continue to pray for this family that this wouldn't just be a physical improvement, but they would truly see the love of Christ through this.

Another Rat Story!!!

Last night I was really motivated to clean up the pharmacy office. I was over on the computer doing something, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a big black "thing" moving down the wall. I looked over and saw a huge "rat", ok maybe a mouse, but when you are alone, things seem to look a lot bigger! Well, I took off running. I ran all the way over to my neighbors house and made my friend Jamie come back with me to shut down the computer and lock up for the night, it was time to quit. So we both walked back to the pharmacy and with great trepidation walked into the pharmacy. Of course the rat was long gone, or so we thought. Well, I had two sticky traps that had been on the floor for 2 months, with no avail to catching a rat. I decided to put it up high where I saw the rat and we have many mouse droppings, and went home. This morning my coworker got to the pharmacy first, she heard a squeaking noise. Well, guess what, we finally caught the rat. It had got stuck in the trap, the trap and mouse fell down to the next shelf. Not sure how long it was there, but it had started biting away at parts of its body to get free. We called our maintenance worker and he tried to remove the rat, but the tail fell off. So he took the whole thing out back, and don't know what he did with it. I kind of wanted to see it, but then again maybe not.

Well I will sign off now, it is late, the time when the rats like to come out and play. I am in another room where I have sighted mice a few times, and I just heard a weird noise.

Adios from Tegucigalpa. You all come down and join me now!!

On Friday, I bought a car! It is a Hyundai Santa Fe. It is an 2003 and it only has 40,000 miles. It is an automatic, because my driving skills with a manual or stick is very bad. It even has heated leather seats, go figure. I am really excited to be able to have my own transportation. This was an interesting experience. This car had been in an accident in the states and then shipped to Honduras to be fixed up and resold. I hope that it won't break right away.

New Experiences in Honduras

This month has been a month of many new experiences! I have decided to buy a car down here. I went with one of my Honduran friends to her "uncle's" lot and he let me test drive a few cars. I was so scared I was going to crash it and then I didn't know what would happen. I went to give one of the cars back and he told me to take it home for the weekend. Now I was even more scared. Well, I drove all the way back up the mountain to my house, about 25 minute drive. Once I got back, I found an extra set of keys in the car which happened to belong to the owner's car. Well he needed those keys. By this time it was dark and no one could drive with me, so I had to drive back to the city and find this place all on my own. Well the rest of the weekend went rather well. Thankfully no accidents. I was so relieved to finally turn the car back in on Monday morning. Still searching for a car that I like. All of the automatic cars come from the States where they have been considered totaled due to accidents or floods, and then are shipped here where they are repaired and sold. So, used car shopping here is very different. Half of the things on the car don't work, and they ask for a lot of money.

I also started learning to drive "stick" or manual cars. I have had a few lessons. My second lesson was driving up the hill. I stalled the car on a big hill, almost rolled back into a very nice SUV. It took about 5 minutes to final get going again. The next day the clutch broke so everyone is blaming me for it (in a joking way). My third lesson went a little better, and that car hasn't broken yet. I WILL NOT BE PURCHASING A MANUAL CAR!!

Medical Brigade

Last week, we set up the medical brigade in a very poor neighboorhood called "Nueva Capital" or New Capital in English. This is an area where many of the people displaced by Hurricane Mitch 10 years ago were put after their houses were destroyed by heavy rains and mudslides. It is located on a mountain. Few homes have electricity and running water. There is a great need in this area, therefore we visit this area quite often. Many of our missionaries have developed strong relationships with familes in this area, and continue to help them have a better life.








Pictures on the way to the Church where we set up our clinic.














Homes where people in this neighboorhood live. Many of them aren't bigger than 9 X 13 feet!

Time for some sightseeing

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to visit "El Picacho", a giant statue of Christ overlooking the city of Tegucigalpa. This statue is about a 5 minute drive from where I live.

First Day of Medical Brigade 2009-Bus "Brakes" Down

It is the first day of medical brigades 2009! We had a very good day at the clinic. On the way home, the bus driver slammed on the brakes a few times, causing everyone standing in the aisle to go flying. The driver pulled over the bus, knowing something wasn't right, to check under the hood. He didn't find anything, so he started driving again. After a few more minutes he pulled over a second time to check, again, couldn't find anything. The third time he pulled over, someone volunteered to lay under the bus while he hit the brakes and this is when he got sprayed in the face with brake fluid. Well after this, the bus wasn't going anywhere.
The broken Down Bus




Well, our ministry has 2 buses, but the other one happens to be without a transmission at the time, so we are stranded. We called a place that rents buses, and they were able to get to us within 20 or 30 minutes.







The rented bus




We squeezed over 30 people in a 20 something minibus, for the last 30 minute drive up the mountain. What a way to start the year. Now we have two broken buses and have a stretch of 8 teams in the next 9 weeks!






Inside the crowded mini bus


This incidence happened almost 2 weeks ago, and God has provided in miraculous ways! By the end of that week, God had provided the money through donations of the team to repair the brake line on the one bus, pay for the rented bus for 2 days, and to pay to replace the transmission on the other bus, which by the way made it's first trip yesterday since last November. When we are in the midst of trials and hardships, and wonder how we will make it through, God takes care of us. I thank God for giving wisdom to everyone involved to look out for our safety. I am thankful that the brake line failed on the way back up the mountain and not on the way down the steep mountain. I am excited to see what great things God has in store for our ministry this year.

This is a picture of what was found in my house in Honduras. The first few months I was living there, I heard this constant noise and couldn't figure out what it was. One day I had our maintenance worker (on the left) look at it. He thought it was rats. As he started taking down the walls, one dead rat fell out and the dog took off with that. We didn't see anything else, but he wanted to check the other wall, because the dog was always sniffing at something there. Well, I left to go work in the pharmacy. A little later as I was coming out of the pharmacy he was standing there holding two more rats. I guess one of them jumped out of the wall and onto his chest. I am glad I didn't see that! Now it is too quiet at night without the rats in my wall. I wonder what I will find in my house when I get back to Honduras on Tuesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I am new at this, so give me a chance to get the hang of this. I will try and update this weekly to keep you informed of what I am doing. I head back to Honduras on January 13. Please check out some of my pictures.