We arrived at the Toronto Airport at 11:45pm last night safe and sound. We were greeted by family and friends, which was great as we came out with our bags to arrivals!
We all can't thank everyone enough for your support and prayers. We hope this blog has been an eyeglass into what we experienced and that you were able to get a good view of our ministry while away.
We look forward to seeing you at church in the next week or so and we will plan to have a sharing time of our trip in the near future to share even more stories and pictures.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Friday, July 15, 2011
Punta Sal
Our boat
Ant Hills
Crabs and lots of them
Monkeys
Big rocky hill to climb
Lobster that was caught. It's huge!
After our tour, they took us out by boat to a tunnel we could swim through. It was very cool, but I don't know if anyone got any pictures of it.
We then headed to a small beach and swam for an hour, then over to a part of the island where the Garafuna (people) live. There is about 100 that live on Punta Sal Island in total. We swam and they served us a fish lunch like this...
Small beach
Beach where we ate lunch and swam
Where they cook lunch
Lunch - Battered fish, deep fried plantain (tastes like french fries) beans and rice
We headed back to Tela around 2:30 and surprisingly enough it was a much, much, much, much smoother ride back compared to 4 years ago when Will and I, Dave and Esther last went!
Cool story actually about when we were at the island. When we were swimming at the small beach first, Jenna Stevenato got a small piece of something stuck in her foot near her baby toe. It was painful and we couldn't get it out. However when we got to the other beach where we were having our lunch, there was another team there too from Georgia. They were a team of doctors and construction workers. So a doctor happened to have the necessary tools Jenna needed to get this little piece out of her foot, except for anestectic to freeze the area! She was so brave, despite how much it hurt to get it out and we were very blessed to have the doctor there to help her. Thank you Lord Jesus!
We are back at our hotel now safe and sound. We are about to eat dinner in an hour. We leave for the airport around 7:30 tomorrow morning and we'll be seeing you all shortly.
Thank you all for your prayers, your comments on our blog and your encouragement. Please continue to pray for us as we travel home tomorrow. We don't get in till midnight in TO, so we'll be a little tired.
It has been a great missions trip. William and I have dreamed of taking youth over on missions trips and this was our first opportunity to do so and it's been amazing. We were just looking at some of the older pictures we took last week in Siguatepeque where we were staying and we were just saying we already miss it there and I know the rest of the team would agree with us. Please also keep Jasmine in your prayers as she stays here with a family that is close to Dave and Esther for the next three weeks. We will miss having her on our way home tomorrow, but are so excited she is able to stay and serve.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Our last few days events
We have internet at our hotel in Tela, so I am taking this time to write and post photos for you of our past three days.
We finished our VBS last Friday, so we have been very busy working at the school. Monday we had half our team go off to Balibrea and deliver 4 stoves to families. The normal stove that most have are very big, hot and use a lot of wood and produce a lot of smoke that the families inhale 24/7 as it's always burning. Pastor Noel, who is the pastor in this community has been delivering these new stoves to families within his church so that they can bless others in their community with it as well. These stoves use less wood and don't smoke as much so are healthier for the families in their homes.
There are some nice homes in Balibrea (above), then across the street you can find a home like this one (below). This small house below is smaller than a normal size bedroom in Canada and sleeps 6 kids and a mother. There is one twin bed in the house that the mom and her three children share and a hard table covered in blankets for the two older kids to sleep in. The baby sleeps in a hammock above the mothers bed.
Here she is receiving her new stove with three of her children. There is not enough room for a kitchen inside the house, so she cooks outside.
Here she is trying out her new stove and putting tortillas on it. She was very excited.
This house (above) make of wood and sticks was a house we stopped by on Saturday. We didn't mean for our van to stop here, but the extra tire (donut) that sits under our van came loose and fell off. By the time we heard the noise of the tires holder dragging under the van we had stopped in front of this house. The mother and kids were home. William had packed some cookies for us as a team, but we hadn't eaten them yet, so we gave them to the family. Only to find out 2 days later that this family is very poor and the husband who lives here has had an alcohol issue and many times came home drunk and threatened to kill his wife and kids if she went to church. When he found out she was at church he would get very angry and the wife and children would flee the house and spend days hiding out and sleeping in the forest nearby. All this to say, Pastor Noel has been praying for this man and he has recently given his life to the Lord! It was no mistake that the extra tire came loose and we stopped in front of this house. They get very little food and I believe have about 9 in their family to feed. These cookies were a huge blessing to them!
Here are two of their children.
This is a normal shower for people in Balibrea. Some cloth held up on a make shift clothes line and some buckets.
We were also able to hand out some stuffies for the kids and tooth brushes and tooth paste for each family member we visited.
We also took a trip to a children's home, close to Balibrea. 7 of these kids from the home attended our VBS, so we wanted to visit them again and meet the other children. 41 in total! Here are some photos of our time there.
This little guys name is Christian. He is 6 months old and came to the children's home when he was about 2 months old. Beautiful big brown eyes!
This is Lorena. She came to VBS and stole our hearts!
While this team was out on Monday in Balibrea, the other half of the team stayed back to work on the work projects. (Jungle gym, benches and desks for the school in Belibrea).
Painting 15 desks for the school in Balibrea
On Tuesday the teams switched locations. The team in Balibrea handed out 4 more stoves, shoes, clothes and tooth paste and tooth brushes.
On Wednesday we were all at the school finishing up our work projects and cleaning up. Here are some pictures of projects we were able to work on and finish.
Our jungle gym coming along nicely. We did not finish it all, but the next team coming will be able to put the two roofs on, a climbing wall and fire mans pole and it should be complete. We'll get photos of that when it's finished in about another 3-4 weeks.
We had some soccer nets donated, so we were able to put these up. Worked great, we weren't running after the ball when it went through the goal!
Another mural at the school.
Megan and I finished the mural in the kindergarten area.
Benches for Balibrea school finished and painted.
Putting the desks together
15 desks are finished and painted
We finished our VBS last Friday, so we have been very busy working at the school. Monday we had half our team go off to Balibrea and deliver 4 stoves to families. The normal stove that most have are very big, hot and use a lot of wood and produce a lot of smoke that the families inhale 24/7 as it's always burning. Pastor Noel, who is the pastor in this community has been delivering these new stoves to families within his church so that they can bless others in their community with it as well. These stoves use less wood and don't smoke as much so are healthier for the families in their homes.
There are some nice homes in Balibrea (above), then across the street you can find a home like this one (below). This small house below is smaller than a normal size bedroom in Canada and sleeps 6 kids and a mother. There is one twin bed in the house that the mom and her three children share and a hard table covered in blankets for the two older kids to sleep in. The baby sleeps in a hammock above the mothers bed.
Here she is receiving her new stove with three of her children. There is not enough room for a kitchen inside the house, so she cooks outside.
Here she is trying out her new stove and putting tortillas on it. She was very excited.
This house (above) make of wood and sticks was a house we stopped by on Saturday. We didn't mean for our van to stop here, but the extra tire (donut) that sits under our van came loose and fell off. By the time we heard the noise of the tires holder dragging under the van we had stopped in front of this house. The mother and kids were home. William had packed some cookies for us as a team, but we hadn't eaten them yet, so we gave them to the family. Only to find out 2 days later that this family is very poor and the husband who lives here has had an alcohol issue and many times came home drunk and threatened to kill his wife and kids if she went to church. When he found out she was at church he would get very angry and the wife and children would flee the house and spend days hiding out and sleeping in the forest nearby. All this to say, Pastor Noel has been praying for this man and he has recently given his life to the Lord! It was no mistake that the extra tire came loose and we stopped in front of this house. They get very little food and I believe have about 9 in their family to feed. These cookies were a huge blessing to them!
Here are two of their children.
This is a normal shower for people in Balibrea. Some cloth held up on a make shift clothes line and some buckets.
We were also able to hand out some stuffies for the kids and tooth brushes and tooth paste for each family member we visited.We also took a trip to a children's home, close to Balibrea. 7 of these kids from the home attended our VBS, so we wanted to visit them again and meet the other children. 41 in total! Here are some photos of our time there.
This little guys name is Christian. He is 6 months old and came to the children's home when he was about 2 months old. Beautiful big brown eyes!
This is Lorena. She came to VBS and stole our hearts!
While this team was out on Monday in Balibrea, the other half of the team stayed back to work on the work projects. (Jungle gym, benches and desks for the school in Belibrea).
Painting 15 desks for the school in BalibreaOn Tuesday the teams switched locations. The team in Balibrea handed out 4 more stoves, shoes, clothes and tooth paste and tooth brushes.
On Wednesday we were all at the school finishing up our work projects and cleaning up. Here are some pictures of projects we were able to work on and finish.
Our jungle gym coming along nicely. We did not finish it all, but the next team coming will be able to put the two roofs on, a climbing wall and fire mans pole and it should be complete. We'll get photos of that when it's finished in about another 3-4 weeks.
We had some soccer nets donated, so we were able to put these up. Worked great, we weren't running after the ball when it went through the goal!
Another mural at the school.
Megan and I finished the mural in the kindergarten area.
Benches for Balibrea school finished and painted.
Putting the desks together
15 desks are finished and paintedWe are in Tela now. Here is a picture of us having pizza for dinner tonight beside the beach enjoying a gorgeous sunset.
We are off to Punta Sal Island tomorrow at 8am-3pm. We'll be taking a jungle walk tour, swimming and eating a fish lunch. More pics to come!
(Some of these pictures are compliments of Dave Bettney.)
We are off to Punta Sal Island tomorrow at 8am-3pm. We'll be taking a jungle walk tour, swimming and eating a fish lunch. More pics to come!(Some of these pictures are compliments of Dave Bettney.)
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