July 2011 Mission trip Day Four:

Another typical start to the day - wake at 6 AM, clean up, pack our work supplies, have a great breakfast - eggs, refried beans, tortillas, melon, pineapple and papaya then morning prayers together. Today Dave, Dan and Jim were able to start building stoves on the mesas built the day before. They finished two stoves and almost finished a third. We are behind because one of the local masons has been sick. We built a stove for Irma and Edberto Galdamez who have five children - 21, 19, 16, 8 years and one 7 months. Large families are very common in the village. Many women have ten or more children during their lifetime. Unfortunately, child mortality takes the lives of too many of the children.

Judy, Elaine, Stella and Marty continued painting the church with the help of the boys. In Honduras they often water down the paint to "make it go further". Labor is inexpensive, so they don't mind the extra time to apply extra coats to get the paint to cover. We are learning a new word - tranquilo - relax things are at a different pace compared to the hurried life lead by most Americans. The rain kept us from painting outside, so the group continued with the walls of the church - peach with a dark brick red along the lower 2 1/2 feet. The boys and a few girls from the youth group started to clean the iron work in the "windows" - no glass just an open space with some iron work.

Tim and Father John met with Bishop Allen and Rev. Barbara to discuss how we can help in the future. The economic slowdown in the US is magnified in Honduras. The cuts in the national church budget forced an unannounced 30% reduction in aid to the diocese forcing staff cuts. Bishop Allen has been working to make the diocese self supporting for years and now must ask the priests to get a second job to support themselves. Many are from poor backgrounds and don't have marketable skills outside of their ministry. The bishop is working with outside groups to help the people develop micro enterprises - Tilapia farms, solar power, bottled water, bakeries and any other businesses that fill a need and can help to support the church.

Tim and Father John also made some measurements for a foot bridge to cross the "river" dividing the village. God willing, a mission group from Virginia is coming in August to help build the greatly needed bridge. Now the water is very low due to the two month drought, but it can be an impassable raging torrent when the rains are heavy. It appears from the rain this week what we have brought good luck to the village. A few years ago, several of the homes were washed away during a storm. The Hispanic congregation at St. Thomas raised money so one of the families could rebuild their home after the storm.

Blessings, Tim...