March Report

March 2008
We started March in San Pedro Sula. Our daughter Nicole and husband Matt started spring break with a late night flight from Atlanta to SPS and we were there at 1 AM on the 1st of March to pick them up. We returned to Santa Ana early the next morning only stopping to survey a community at KM 85. The community we surveyed is the poorest place that I have ever visited. We did not see one livable house and we are in the process of planning several TORCH visits to the community for house construction, food distribution, and planting the seeds of the gospel.
The first week of the month we surveyed many areas for future work plans. We were also able to do a trial feeding at the Tegucigalpa dump. We wanted to make sure that we can safely implement some feeding programs so that we can begin to have a dialogue with the people that live there. We believe that there is a hugh opportunity to touch lives, plant seeds, and talk to desperate people about the hope and promise of Jesus. The dump itself is a place that cannot be described. Literally, men, women, & children are diving in the trash piles side by side with buzzards. The smells & the filth are overshadowed by the fact that real flesh and blood people are so desperate that they will dive into unimaninabel places to try to get something to eat or something with a small value that they can sell. Stay tuned for more on the dump.
We made a quick trip to the states during the second weekend of the month - personal stuff and taxes. We returned early the following week to begin working with some of the spring break TORCH groups. The first of those was led by Mark Connell of Alabama - the group was from the University Church at the the University of Alabama. That group was followed by one from Belpre, Ohio. TORCH Teams are always well recieved by the communities where they work and these groups were no exception. Houses were built, food was distributed (about 750 families were fed), and people saw Jesus in action as their prayers were answered. During March, final plans were developed for the Oriente Project (read about it at www.hondohope.blogspot.com ). We will begin moving dirt about April 15 and hope to finisg the project by around the first of June. This project will employ about 10 people for 6 weeks - all of them from the community that the project will serve. What a blessing!
The churches of the area are continuing to do well. Santa Ana has had 3 Sundays where attendence outnumbered the available chairs. All of these were record (non-gringo) Sundays. Of course - last week was a full house as there were 30 folks from the states visiting.
Los Pinos is also continuing to grow in both numbers and in Spirit. The church has completed it's kitchen project and is dedicated to feeding children every Sunday. They are doing this from their contributions and the weekly feeding averages about 130 to 150 children. The adult attendence is usually over 100. Los Pinos is clear evidence of how Christians plant seeds and God growing them.
Terri and I are doing well and love our work. We are blessed to be here and we truly appreciate all of the prayers, emails, and encouragement.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc