First Day

Our first full day in Honduras and hearts are full and excited for the rest of the week. Words cannot express and pictures cannot contain the beauty of this leafy and mountainous land.

 The weather has been kind to us on our first day of work at Tranquilidad… clouds in the sky to shield us from the sun, temperatures in the 70’s, with a soft breeze. It was absolutely perfect!

This morning we traveled up the hill to the TQ children’s home, which overlooks the gorgeous Quimistan Valley.  The progress that has been made on the home since our last mission trip is truly amazing. It is all coming together and is looking more and more like a home. It was moving to see the tree grove that our June 2014 team planted is flourishing. Much sweat, hard-work, fun, and laughter were poured into planting these trees by a group of people who knew very little about planting trees. It’s a reminder that we plant and sow but God waters and brings forth the growth!

Today’s work entailed pulling weeds and cleaning the flower gardens along the fence line as well as indoor plumbing. Vickie felt right at home among the flowers and Fred made thousands of new friends. All thousand of their names are easy to remember because they all have same name… Ant! Their kisses felt more like stings! No complaints from Fred… he just brushes them off and keeps going.

Inside the home, an intricate job is at hand and we just happen to have the men to get the job done! Butch and Coy’s plumbing knowledge is at work in a big way as plumbing is an extremely important part of building a home. Working alongside the Honduran employees, they accomplished a lot today!  You truly realize what hard manual labor is when you are doing everything by hand without machines. For Ron, this took him back in time to his manual laboring college days. If my calculations are correct, he went back to the 70’s today. I didn’t ask what he wore back then but I can just imagine a hip Ron with bell-bottoms and a beetle’s haircut… Groovy!

All this is taking place as Roxanne is overseeing the work being done at the home as well as the building of the administration complex that is now in process. Let us not forget, Sam was in search for the rock of the year and he found it! (See picture)

All in all, in was a great day in Honduras! Trenches were dug, pipes where laid, and unique relationships are forming within the mission team and across cultural lines. We look forward to the rest of our week with great expectancy! More to come!!!