More pictures

Last night Ambrocio, was to visit us at 5pm. This would be our first time hosting a Honduran. It is what they call a friendship visit. You provide the pop or juice and little snacks and just talk. We were told that he was bringing a few of his reletives, but we didn't expect this many!!! They all piled out of a small 4x4 pick up truck, believe it or not. They just kept coming out, more and more, 13 in all. Praise the Lord the small snacks we had prepared for only a few people ended up feeding them all. It was a nice short visit, and their niece translated for us, but we were also able to use our Spanish quite a bit too. Ambrocio is the man second from the left, with the boy on his lap. He will be taking us up to the mountains tomorrow for the weekend bringing us back on Monday morning. Again we'll have three hours in the car with him to practice our Spanish.

Yesterday Will and Dave worked on the holes for the cabins. I think they dug about 5 or 6 of them. Will came home with some pretty blisters to prove his hard work.

This will be part of a low ropes course I think. It is a log over a dug out hole. The hole will be filled with mud and you have to stand in the middle with your partner and switch places carefully. We'll be putting in the mud, when the team comes I think. Dave and Will did accomplish it, but if there was mud in there they would have been very muddy because it took them a bit to figure it out.

These next pictures are from a garden centre just down the street from us. This garden was like a jungle, it was so pretty. Mom and Dad you would have loved every minute of it.

Dave took this picture for us. Yes that is all real vines growing on that bridge. Beautiful place to hold a wedding.

This is my favourite picture. The trees just grow into huge arbours.

Uncle Stan I thought you'd appreciate this picture. Unlike most dogs around here, this boxer was very friendly. Will made a new friend!

We're unsure what this plant was called, but it was pretty.

Into our third week

Well we are well into our third week here. It has flown by. This week has been a little more quiet as all the teams are gone and we are well underway with our planning for the Parkdale team that arrives Aug. 4.

So far we have pretty much worked out the schedule of what will happen everyday while they are here as well as organizing cabins and work teams. Our first week will consist of doing VBS at Esther's school from Monday to Friday. Saturday and Sunday we'll take a relax trip to Copan and Monday-Saturday the second week we'll have four teams working on different projects around the camp. Two teams will build two cabins, one team will be working with Bob on the lowropes course and the third team will be helping to paint Esther and Dave's place as well as maybe putting up some screens around the window on the cabin and other jobs like that.

Will and I will be leading the worship every morning with the kids for VBS. As well we'll lead the worship times in the evening with the Parkdale team. Our second week, Will and I will work in whatever team needs us. We'll be flexible.

This Saturday to Monday William and I will be taking a trip with Will's field ed supervisor, Patrick and Debbie O'Conner, up to the mountains about three hours away. Patrick and Debbie's ministry here in Honduras is church planting. They are bringing in a team from the US to build a church next week. When we arrive on Saturday we'll be aquainted with the team and on Sunday we'll do what I would call a mini Family Fest. We'll be able to do some canvasing and prayer walks around the area on Sunday morning and than the afternoon we'll have some music and games, etc. for the kids. Again we don't have too many specifics so we'll be flexible!

Will and Dave went to Tegucigalpa, the capital city to get some supplies yesterday. They ended up having quite the adventure, when the truck decided to break down an hour outside of where we live in Siguatepeque. So they had to get someone from here to take them the rest of the way to Teguc. They ended up in the back of a pick-up the rest of the way there, which would have been another hour or so. The driver eventually drove them back to their truck and they were able to start it, but it would only drive in third gear. With all these hills around here I am thankful it didn't break down again until they were just down the road from Dave's place. They didn't get all that they wanted to do accomplished, but they sure did have some good male bonding time together and a memory to never forget.

Will and I have a praise. We now have a vehicle to go back and forth to the camp with. This will save us the massive hill and getting bit by all the dogs. The place where we are staying, the Haglar's, they are allowing us to use their vehicle. Also some of you have been asking about my tooth. It has not bothered me in awhile. Praise the Lord! Thankyou for praying.

God is continuing to teach and refine us. This week, although it's been quiet, has been great to spend more time in the Word together and seek God's direction while here and for the future.

Thank you to everyone who have been praying for us. We do feel your prayers and words cannot express how thankful we are for brothers and sisters in Christ who keep us close to their hearts. Here are some more prayer requests to keep you up to date. Please keep us in your prayers as Will and I travel up the mountains this weekend. I have been under the weather for the past two days with stomach problems. Today I am starting to feel better, but do have a sore throat. Please pray that I'll be feeling much better for the weekend. Will is still having stomach issues too, but doesn't seem to be bothering him too much. You can pray for energy for him. The altitude makes him tire easily. You can also pray that Dave and Will will be able to get all the materials in time as well as they have to dig some holes for the cabins that will be built. The holes are all done by hand, so it takes lots of time and hard work.

In Christ
Mel and Will

Tela

Hello, we are back from our three day trip to Tela and the island of Punta Sal. What an incredible experience. We went with the RVCC team from Wisconsin. Here are some pictures.

Unpacking all our luggage at the hotel in Tela. I thought we were going to pop a tire there was so much. Will drove the truck and Dave drove the van.

Our view from our room

Our room

Some kids playing in an asile

I dipped my feet in the pacific bathtub. It was so warm! You can see our hotel just behind me on the right.

Pizza for dinner

Waiting for our boat to pick us up to take us to Punta Sal island.

A part of Punta Sal

We went on a walk through the jungle of Punta Sal. This is a banana tree. You can see a cluster of bananas on the top left.

This is a poisonous snake. Yes and we all walked over it without knowing! We only found it because we had to walk back the same way. William spotted it first. Our tour guid told Will to move away slowly as it can jump up to 6 ft. It doesn't have fangs, but if it were to bite you it has venum to make a person very ill. PTL everyone was fine.

Here's a monkey. Some were big, like this one, but others looked quite small. Were they loud!

Our tour boat. The trip to the island took about 25 min. We left at 8am, so the water was pretty calm. We left the island at 2pm and the ride back was quite different!!! I wish we could have taken pictures of the swells that we were in for about 45 min.! But water was coming into the boat so fast that most of us used our towels to keep the salt water from getting into our eyes and mouth, or we just turned the other way. Dave got the brunt of the waves. He was a seat behind me on the side. Two times he got douced with water. He was a good sport and thank goodness no one was sick. It was a life time experience. And the tour guides to this everyday. I don't know how!

Only two families live on this island. It is a national park owned by the government. These families work on the island and whenever a tour boat comes in, they make a fish and chip dinner for those on the tour. They rarely leave the island. These are there homes and eating shelters.

Haaa relaxation

This is how they cook the meal

A house

Will and Dave with their fish tales

Drinking fresh cocanut. Will enjoyed it, but I thought it tasted like medicine.

They cooked our fish whole in a batter, with plantane french fries and rice and beans on the side. It was sooooo good. I demolished my fish. Dad you've be proud of me!

On Wed. morning we dropped off the team at the airport and headed back to the camp. Here is a picture along the way. We were very high up.

This morning we went into the market to get fruits and veggies. What a neat place. Busy, but cool. This afternoon we did some planning for the Parkdale team and delegated some jobs between Dave, Esther and us.

You can keep us in your prayers as we plan for this team. We only have two weeks before they arrive and there is much to do.

Prayer requests:

1. The material needed for the construction would be delivered on time

2. All the little details would come into place

3. Protection as we travel, the roads are nuts here

4. We would continue to stay healthy. We feel great, although the food is having an affect on our systems, so that God would protect our bodies and allow everything to return to normal soon.

These are the high ropes course I was talking about in an earlier blog. We have to work together in pairs or fours to get across wires. It's an art.
Here's our view

This was our team

Haaa, land again!

Here we are on our last leg!

Almost!

Craft time

Will speaking and leading worship

Well we have had a full first week here. Today was our last day of camp. The campers left around 1pm and it was time for clean-up. One of the US teams also left today, but the RVCC team is still here with us.

We will be leading this team to Tela tomorrow morning. Dave and Esther have never been so it will all be new for us, but we are looking forward to a few days of relaxation and sleep. The RVCC team will leave for the US on Tuesday.

After they leave Dave, Esther and us will be pretty much on our own for planning for the Parkdale team. There will be another US team here when we return to Tela, but we won't be doing too much with them.

The campers loved camp these past 4 days. The time they experienced here this week, they have never had before. In Honduras most of the camps are just for kids to come and they get spoken too the whole time. There isn't much play and very little interaction. So it was so good to see that when it was time to leave they didn't want to because there experience was so different and amazing.

Will's first talk was a little on the rusty side. He had to have a translator as not all the Hondurans were fluent in their Spanish. So it was new territory for him. But with some pointers and extra tips from the speaker the week before he was able to hit home his message on Friday and Saturday night. Thursday night he spoke on fear and some of the things that hold us back from having a relationship with Jesus Christ. Friday night he spoke about the freedom we can have in Christ, when we give him our fears. Saturday night he spoke on living on the fence and how God has given us a free will to choose to follow him and lay down our nets, those fears, addictions, etc. that get in the way with having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and following Him with all our heart, soul and mind. At the end he got everyone to write down on a piece of paper the things that were holding them back from following Christ and laying it all down. They placed their papers in a box and burned them. He then gave an invitation to pray with him to recieve Christ into their hearts. A show of 13 hands went up and 10 of the 13 came to talk and pray with us afterwards. Most of them already had a personal relationship with Christ, but were unsure that they were still saved. So we talked with them and prayed for them. Many tears were shed and lives were transformed yesterday. PTL!

I think tonight is a wind down night with a movie in the main building. We just finished a steak dinner that was pretty good. I think I enjoyed by lunch today better though. Chicken, mashed potatoes for the first time since arriving, and veggies. MMMMmmm good. I tell you though they do love there re-fried beans. I stay away from those!

Our second day of kids camp

Today Esther was able to take us for a tour of the camp, so here are some pictures of the camp.

The girl, Natalie in the black hair. We met her family on our last flight from Miami to San Pedro on Monday afternoon. There son, was sitting beside Will and overheard us talking about a camp. So he asked us if we were going to Campamento de Cerro de Luz. We looked at him confused because we were and we couldn't believe he knew about it. Turns out, his family lives in San Pedor and they were coming to help at the camp this weekend. So we met their hole family on the plane. God is good! Another girl that sat in front of us also new about the camp and knows the director, Ken, personally. Small world!

Natalie and her friend Brittany

Dave on high ropes course

Dave giving Will a 'wet willy' These two are two peas in a pod. For those of you who don't know Dave, he is Esther's husband.


Inside main building waiting for lunch. I think we had some hungry people!

This is a typical hole that the Honduran's dig out BY HAND! Will's head is almost at the top. It will take days for one man to do this and they have them all over the camp!

Dave and one of his many poses!!! What a guy!

These are the cabins that our US team sleeps in while the campers are not here. The Parkdale team will be building two of these when they come in August.

Here is the high ropes course, I just finished. It took my group of four 1.5 hours to complete and they aren't even finished one of the courses. It was difficult and scary at first, but we worked as a team to complete it. My legs feel like jello and my shoulders will be sore tomorrow. Will still has yet to try it. I had someone take pics of me up there, so I'll have to download those later.

Here the beginning holes and layout of one of the cabins the Parkdale team will be working on.

This building is still under construction. They have had to stop for now as there isn't enough money to move forward yet. This building will eventually be sleeping courters and conference rooms for group gatherings. For now though, they set up these tents in the rooms for the counsellors and campers to sleep in. There are not enough cabins to hold all the kids that are here this week.

There is also two levels to this building

This the main building where we meet for sessions and food!

Will is eating a fresh banana

This is the same building, from a distance, that is under construction