And April?

How about summing up April in one post, especially since I did not post in almost all of April? 

We will try to stick to an update via pictures. I don’t have any pictures for all the cool/interesting/motivational/touching stories from the clinic (Valerie seems averse to taking pictures...well, sometimes technology in general, but that is another topic for another time) so just rest assured...that ministry continues unabated, strong and providing a physical and spiritual reminder that Jesus loves you.

Let us get the depressing out of the way first.

I won’t lie, this year has been rough for the mission, for us, for me, for the Churches. Please pray for our physical, emotional, and spiritual health...as individuals, a mission, and multiple bodies of believers. April brought the need for us to meet with the leadership of the Church in Sampedrana, and the end of Gender being the pastor there. I won’t go into the details in this public medium, just say that in following the Bible’s teaching, there was a need for a pastoral change. This was not easy, not something we were wanting or planning to do, and came up quite suddenly. The meeting was ultimately encouraging for God leading the Church into the future, but as you can see from this picture, brought more than one of us to tears. 




Otherwise in Sampedrana, Alfonso continues to work on the Hill Climber coffee property. Here you can see a small nursery he started at his house for coffee plants. Small in size...but I believe he said there were roughly 10,000 plants there. They need to be transplanted to bigger individual bags for further care and maturing before being planted, that process will begin soon, up on the actual property. 

The goal is not 10,000 plants...but more like 35,000 or more.  That should be enough for 2012 at any rate.  The property could potentially hold much more than that...(more than 60,000)









Also we used a group’s trip to Sampedrana to distribute food and encourage the Church after the announcement of Gender stepping down to also take three drainage tiles for the road to the property. There are some creeks and drainage that run through the road, and without tiles...the road will be impassable fairly soon when the big rains begin. Ask the group though...the road to get there is already fairly interesting, and they did not even go all the way up! Four wheel drive, even in dry weather, is a must every time.

Here is one of the tiles in the back of Oscar's Ford (pray for it as well...running, but not well, and has been in the shop while they try to figure out what needs to be done.  115,000 miles on a truck in Honduras, going where we go, means it gets quite a workout on a regular basis. 

Along the trek that day, Alfonso gave us a big bag of raspberries harvested nearby from wild bushes, and a gentleman with those awesome “royal lemons” let us take a few they were not going to need. Raspberry lemonade anyone? We are looking at planting these wild raspberry bushes into a fence for the coffee property, providing a crop, as well as thorns to keep cattle and anything else from just moseying into the property, that will happen later this year as time permits Alfonso to do so.   Who knows, we may end up making raspberry and other jams/jellies in a few years.

Speaking of Alfonso, we finally got the new motorcycle delivered to him...no more walking two hours or more with tools on his shoulders to get to work on the property!

Of course it was raining that day...nothing like starting off on the right wet foot! The motorcycle is a cheaper Chinese bike (KMF)...we just could not afford a Honda or Yamaha with the donations received, but this brand new bike should work well for the next few years...and by that time he will hopefully need a truck to haul all the coffee, workers, etc.!

Talanga’s Channel 15 building is now complete...after much love and labor from Oscar, some paid help, and volunteers. They made the move last week, and now we have a secure building, a greater tie between the station and the Church, and no rent payments every month! The property still has work to be done in the future of course, but this is a big step. Second floor work is not planned until the station starts covering some of its expenses again...for the time being Jose Luis will live in the studio building itself.  (Note the wood framing in front...that is the future home for what you will see in the picture below.)

Pastor Jose Luis in Talanga has gotten involved with the clothing ministry to try to do more outreach, as well as generate some income for himself as well. There is no quintessential clothing ministry store type...some are indoors, some smaller, some bigger, some have hangers, some tables, some on a tarp. They all might look different, but all have the same goal. (Jonathan started another store in Villa de San Francisco with the goal beyond the obvious outreach factor to generate enough funds to give a pastor we know an offering to feed his family and enable him to work as a pastor there...we will see how that continues to develop. His Eyes is not in a position to take on financially another Church plant, but God is moving things forward there without our direct/monthly financial support!)

The TSP progresses, albeit slower now. Donations are continuing to come in...but slowly, and that has us thinking carefully about what we can do and when. The floor was a big step, and is now done. We plan on using a group in May to put up the walls for the bathrooms and porch, and then take a look at the donations coming in to see if we can start on the false ceiling and/or electrical wiring. After that...bathroom fixture/plumbing, lighting/fans, dry wall, offices/sound booth, and the last step will likely be putting in the tile floor and window fixtures....that is...still quite a bit to be done! We won’t make our goal of June...we are now praying we might be done before November, if the donations are there that is more than doable.

The rock wall...continues. The goal with the greater welding and securing of the containers, and the future beefed up columns along with this rock wall is to not have to deal with any issues in the future of the ground pushing our retaining wall beyond its boundaries. Big project, but hopefully will be finished with the big labor next month, and we will let nature/gravity/rains to move some of the earth back into the hole over the next several months, and then pretty up that area very close to the clinic probably in early 2013 after everything has settled properly.

 Cantaranas...the Church continues to put in the work to see the building go up! They are still making the blocks, and doing everything required. Jonathan’s only request to the mission is helping with the roof for this big building. Pray funds would be designated for that roof...I am not sure how much we will be able to help when they are ready (and that will be soon with the rate they are going!) since the cost will easily exceed $5,000 for the materials (even with them doing all the labor to get it installed....steel/metal is getting more expensive all the time!)

April was a busy month. God is moving in always incredible ways. The enemy is pushing back as well. Busyness, stress, problems...they all take a toll on all of us, I know they do for me, but join us in prayer that He who is greater than all our problems would renew us, restore us, regenerate us for His work, His glory, His honor...that He might be praised!

Construction update

Time for another update on the Church building process.

This is a long row to hoe...and becoming evident as we progress.

The roofing process alone is probably going to take another two weeks, and requires a minimum of six guys at that. You can see here why it requires so many guys and yet goes so slow...we rigged a zip line of sorts to shuttle the insulation and roofing sheets from the container side to the roof itself. Getting the insulation in place, and then putting on the roofing sheets more than doubles the time required, and makes it more difficult...but insulation is a good thing in the long run. The zipline is a rather creative way to speed things up a bit...but still is a complicated slow process. We will still need to buy scaffolding for the long term (to handle the soffets, guttering, the interior wall work and ceiling, electrical, fans, lighting, etc.)...we will be looking into that this week more. Renting them given how long a process this will likely be will not be cost efficient, and at least we will have the scaffolding whenever we need it in the future.

At this speed...we will not finish by June, but with the funding we have we can not go any faster. It is encouraging to all to see the work progressing...but at this rate we will likely have to stop and wait at the end of March (with some help from the groups coming that month.)

Join us in praying for some guidance on this, and of course the funding to continue at a faster pace. If you are so inclined, for newer readers, the link to make a donation pasted here works via PayPal...just add in during the process that you want your donation to be used for the Tegucigalpa Sanctuary Project, and we will start putting it to good use straight away.  

 

 

Imagining the building done for the 20th anniversary service is something I am sure all of us here would love to see come to fruition, especially as I looked upon the columns for the current pole barn building this Sunday during the service and seeing the continued toll the termites are taking.

Building begins!

Recognize that?  It is part of the Church building being put together!  Woohoo!

 

It is not that I doubted this day would come...it is just so weird to see it actually here. 

To be sure, much work was done on the building in 2011...literally tons of work you could say, but to see something that is designed to be above ground of the building is just really encouraging, even if we are just getting started....there is so much left to do. 

Monday and Tuesday Oscar hired 10 guys to unload the entire container...the cranes set it upright, but could not move it, and to get the crane out...we had to unload. After it was unloaded, at least they could then put the container where we wanted it, so that is a silver lining.

The heaviest pieces will sit outside while they work across the fence to put them together.  The rest is being relocated back in the container for safe keeping, since it will be weeks or more for us to get to needing them...that plus they are taking up the entire man cave right now. 

What is with the container hanging off the end like that? Well, you might notice this is a 45’ container versus the rest of our containers that are 40’. So when it came to placement, we could have less of a walkway between the two containers on top, or hang over the clothing container/wall below. I thought having the overhang would be kind of cool, you know, to save up to have a big chandelier hanging there, to class the place up a bit. 

Your $26 per square foot is certainly still needed as we hopefully hit this ramped up phase of construction, if the funds sustain it, but not for any chandelier...no worries there. We can not rely on groups to do everything, and before the first group comes on the 21st to help, we need all these guys working to get the prep work done so that we can do as much as possible when they get here. Maybe, just maybe we might be able to get the walls up then, After that comes...well, everything else (roofing, windows, floor, interior finishing, tiling, electrical, plumbing...you are starting to get the idea, right?)  That can be done fairly quickly...if we have the funding to make it happen.

How about it? One square foot of the building paid for with your $26...right here, right now...or later as well:

If you want to go more than $26...you are more than welcome, there are specific projects like the stage, baptistry, sound booth, usher's room, each of three office spaces, and more that can be sponsored, just let me know.

The container came out fairly well in the whole dropping process as you can see, but to be sealed in the future it will require some cutting and patching. No money to spend on that right now either since the priority is to get the building done first.  The fix will require cutting out the damaged sections and putting it their place...something else, not sure what yet. Maybe windows? Maybe just other metal? Maybe a patchwork of the doors from the containers we still have? Time will tell.

Kind of like seeing how this giant jigsaw puzzle of sorts will go together in the building to house the God sized jigsaw puzzle that is the Church.

Exciting times are ahead...we ask also for your prayers for safety for everyone working physically on this project, as well as spiritually for us and the Church as we know that such a great tool for use for the Kingdom will bring reprisals from the enemy. 

Keep smiling

I’m smiling.

You might not think so when you see what I am about to write, but we are jumping ahead to the end of the book, if you will.

Yesterday the planning and scheduling was done to unload the Church building container on the clinic property. We had spent lots of money fixing the road, coordinated the crane, working with the customs agent, trucking company, and shipping company. All was set.

There was a plan in place on the property where to put the crane, how to unload the container, and where to put it.

Easy right? Not so fast.

  

The crane took quite a bit of time to get set and prepared. After one attempt in its location to lift it and put it where it was to go (on top of the container wall) seen here...he decided the crane was not up to the task...even though the reported total weight of the container and contents was supposedly ~48,000lbs, and the crane was rated for 80,000. We paid extra for this crane for its heavier capacity...but for not.

So, they repositioned the trailer/container and the crane to just pick it up and sit it down, we could pay again later to pick it up when unloaded to put it on its perch. Not ideal, but ok.

And then...as he was picking it up, the cables on the crane on the far end snapped.

Upon snapping the container fell down, and then onto the crane. The crane operator saw what was coming and jumped out...injuring his knee in the process, but no one else was hurt,

not by the cables, the container falling, running for cover, etc. It could have been much...much worse. Even with their careful setting things up...not much you can plan for on the cables breaking. Not only could someone have been killed...the falling container has relatively not damaged the crane, nor somehow did not hit the semi, and from what we could see from the open door did not damage the building pieces...although we won’t know for sure until we get it there to see for sure. The container itself will have two or three big dents in its side.

So...after much wrangling and using the crane some more...the semi was able to leave, but he left the chasis up by the clinic (said he could not turn around) and the container...sits on the crane.

They are bringing another crane tomorrow to try to sit it down and then move it to a temporary location for us to unload, also allowing their trapped crane to leave as well.

God has a plan. I don’t get it right now, but I know...I really know...there is a reason for all this.

 

 

Additionally, struck by that sinking feeling you get when you see a container falling over and the aftermath...I was also struck by what a beautiful day it was, and what a beautiful evening it became as we were there until after 7:00 with all this.

Sometimes you laugh to keep from crying...like when I was thinking about being Yoda and just using the force to pick the container up and move it...or then pick it up off the crane...or then pick up the semi to to get it out...you get the idea.

But I can say that through all this...I’m smiling. Not for what I know or see...but for Who I know.

Rain rain on my face...

It is only Tuesday, but it has been a rollercoaster week already.

1. Group arrived on Saturday, no problems and ready to work!

2. Sunday Church service at ICCC in Tegucigalpa was full as usual (when are we ever going to get that building done!?)
3. Halfway through the service, I was called aside (as God would have it, my seat had been taken and I was standing at the back of the Church with no room to sit...good thing as it turns out) as Gerson was frantically looking for...somebody. Somebody happened to be me, they needed someone to drive ambulance style to the hospital, as Silvia was bleeding profusely. No problem. Right before that Claudia had asked if we could go soon up to the clinic to get a bp cuff for another Church member. Well, scrap that because that person passed out, possibly a stroke, so we needed to get her to the hospital ASAP as well. Shuffle people around in the truck, and away we went. Long story short...Silvia had very high blood pressure (and did not know it.) Despite the very long lines at the emergency room, she was attended and home in a few hours...she started bleeding again the next day and came to the clinic for follow up care. I have still yet to hear how Rufina is doing.
4. We left after Church to visit some friends, Juan and Leandra first who had their home burn down in late October, trying to pick up pieces and rebuild....and God is blessing those efforts, but it is of course a long row to hoe as it were.
5. Then we went to take some food for Delmis and her family. We no more than pulled up and she was crying and coming back to the house from frantically trying to find her 14 year old daughter Doris....missing for 24 hours. We took her to the police station, she filed a report...but nothing expected from the police. We visited Monday to give her some furniture and odds and ends from the man cave only to find out that the daughter is in Olancho with some supposedly dangerous people, and it is still unclear if she went willingly (not uncommon for guys to sweep in and take a young “woman” to live with them) or not. Delmis is wanting to go after her if she can find the money to get there and back, as well as someone who knows the area to go with her to find Doris. While she is gone of course though she would have to leave her other seven children unattended, all of whom live in a house smaller than my office...with one bed (before we took them more furniture that is.)
6. Group helped a ton on Monday and Tuesday on work on the man cave. This is a small group (a family of four actually) and this was a great way to use them to catch up on some much needed work there that had been neglected for the past six months or more. Every time I catch up on cleaning/organizing/distributing in that sort of process it hits me how much we really need a “warehouse manager” full time. God knows best though, and for now this is how we have to play catch up.
7. I went to a town hall meeting at the US embassy today, mostly as executive director of His Eyes rather than for any personal reason, in case there was important or useful news or other happenings at the meeting. As usual I found myself listening during the “question” time to people that seemed to want to show how much they had to say rather than actually ask a question or get useful tips/help. I also saw these embassy employees trying to do what they can, but sensing inside myself that they were of only minimal help to me, us, the mission...if I wanted to try to grab someone’s attention and plead my case for help, I needed to take that to God. Not to say they are not helpful, not necessary, not able to get anything done...but it just seemed like a good reminder of where our priorities should be when we are not sure where to turn. I felt sorry for the embassy staff who is expected to divulge whether or not they have the bay islands under surveillance, answer for every visa denial without the facts, somehow answer how to fix Honduras security issues, etc. mostly being asked questions about which they have little to nothing to do with finding solutions or are part of their mission.
8. No word on when our trusty policeman Hernandez could be back at the clinic. With all the controversy in the police department right now, it does not look good, and that is not good for the clinic and patients.
9.  Dora's daughter Noli, after being hit by a car and via God's provision not being seriously hurt, is now waiting for another ultrasound to see if she will need surgery or what will need done with an unrelated health issue...if not for being hit by the car and needing the first ultrasound, they would not have known about this other condition/problem. 
10. Still waiting for the medical supply container (with many other supplies for the mission and sanctuary construction project) to clear customs. We are in debt to the carrier for at least $640 for demurrages (ah, a word you only learn if you have to deal with customs/shipping containers I think) and not sure when we will unload, plus praying it makes it up the hill, we have enough help, everything gets put away well, no breakage...you get the idea.
11. And to add to that, the good news/bad news is that the Tegucigalpa pre-fab sanctuary made it to port yesterday. We pray it does better clearing customs, that the crane to unload the container (we had to buy this container) can be secured, and it all comes together with no problems.

Overwhelming just fails to sum it up. There are some other big things going on as well that I am not presently at liberty to discuss...as you can imagine, even more overwhelming things...just don’t leap to any drastic conclusions from that statement, some things are just not for blogging.

And this sounds like a good time to reflect on Jars of Clay’s “old” song Flood (a song that I think can be interpreted at least two different ways depending on where you are in life, or sometimes both ways at the same time):

“Calm the storms that drench my eyes
Dry the streams still flowing
Cast down all the waves of sin
And guilt that overthrow me

Lift me up - when I'm falling
Lift me up - I'm weak and I'm dying
Lift me up - I need you to hold me
Lift me up - Keep me from drowning again"