The news paper yesterday said that there is a "big cold front coming". It didn't say much about the wind. Yesterday morning the front hit and with it some pretty amazing winds. I don't have a wind speed reader but if I did, I would guess that we are getting a steady 45 to 50 mph with some gusts at 65 to 70. It is intense!
At noon yesterday I had a voicemail from my friend that runs the schools at Oriente and he needed to tell me about the damage that the wind had caused one of the schools - the roof had been lifted by the wind and removed from the building. TORCH has built all of the buildings so - it was natural that Carlos would call us for help getting the building repaired. I hope to pull enough resources together to get it fixed on Saturday. Obviously we won't be getting on top of a building with sheets of tin if there is still 50 MPH winds.
Coming home from Oriente yesterday was another mind altering event.
Driving north on the SPS highway, I noticed that the truck in front of me swerved left and stopped quickly in the median. I saw what I thought was the reason - a large piece of debris in the road - only as I got closer I could see that it wasn't debris - it was a man. The truck in front of mine had struck a man trying to run across the road. He was knocked out of his shoes - about 75 feet and was laying in the center of the road. He was dead - just like that. Intentions of crossing the road - not even very much traffic - one second heading to the other side and the next - on the other side of life to face his maker. There was nothing that anyone could do for him. I don't know his name but, I will never forget his face.
Be a blessing to somebody today,
Marc
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Friday, October 24, 2008
Let's Build!
In the USA, a natural disaster is met with an army of both government workers, aid, private volunteers, Red Cross, and others. The disaster isn't easy to recover from but, there is usually help on the way.
In Honduras, that isn't always the case. Many of the places where disaster strikes are remote and the help never comes. Houses are destroyed, crops lost, and people are hurt - sick - or just not able to recover very quickly. There isn't a FEMA, there is no State Farm agent, there is only pain, hunger, and suffering. It seems somewhat overwhelming.
Only when we recognize that we are called to help people - to serve our brothers - one at a time - can we see that even a little help is what we need to provide.
Driving into Tegucigalpa this morning, I came up with the idea that there may be some of you that would like to do - just a little bit to share the love of Jesus with some folks that have had the disaster of losing their home to a landslide or flood. I would like to pull a group together that can come to Honduras the week of Thanksgiving to build houses and share the love of Jesus. I have enough beds in my house to sleep 12 or so let's fill em up. Plane tickets into San Pedro Sula are running about $475 or less right now and we can build a house for about $1300. If we can act fast, I will go to the Teguc airport and see if we can't get them to discount the rate for a team of builders. I would ask anyone interested to get with their home church to ask for support of building at least one house. Terri and I can come up with enough rice and beans to feed everybody and we can go out and share Thanksgiving with people that need the hope of Jesus -right now. Even if you can't come, ask your church or Sunday School class to help us build.
Emal me at marclt2003@yahoo.com if you are interested - recruit friends and family and Let's Build!
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc
In Honduras, that isn't always the case. Many of the places where disaster strikes are remote and the help never comes. Houses are destroyed, crops lost, and people are hurt - sick - or just not able to recover very quickly. There isn't a FEMA, there is no State Farm agent, there is only pain, hunger, and suffering. It seems somewhat overwhelming.
Only when we recognize that we are called to help people - to serve our brothers - one at a time - can we see that even a little help is what we need to provide.
Driving into Tegucigalpa this morning, I came up with the idea that there may be some of you that would like to do - just a little bit to share the love of Jesus with some folks that have had the disaster of losing their home to a landslide or flood. I would like to pull a group together that can come to Honduras the week of Thanksgiving to build houses and share the love of Jesus. I have enough beds in my house to sleep 12 or so let's fill em up. Plane tickets into San Pedro Sula are running about $475 or less right now and we can build a house for about $1300. If we can act fast, I will go to the Teguc airport and see if we can't get them to discount the rate for a team of builders. I would ask anyone interested to get with their home church to ask for support of building at least one house. Terri and I can come up with enough rice and beans to feed everybody and we can go out and share Thanksgiving with people that need the hope of Jesus -right now. Even if you can't come, ask your church or Sunday School class to help us build.
Emal me at marclt2003@yahoo.com if you are interested - recruit friends and family and Let's Build!
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Rain
It has been raining here for the past 4 days - NONSTOP. On Wednesday we headed down south to help feed folks in a little village where we hope to do some work next summer. The rain however has been so strong that we couldn't drive into the community. We had food for 100 families and we were able to send word ahead that we were coming. Because of the word that was sent ahead, the people of the little village came to the "end of the road" to meet us. The road ended at a river that is about 150 yards wide and rolling very fast. The river is usually a creek about 20 feet across that you can drive across. We found out that the people that came to get the food had crossed 2 other rivers and spent more than 2 hours to come to meet us. They were cold and shivering. They were also happy and greeted us with a joyful attitude. It was an amazing day.
The rain has continued - on Friday we drove east of town to take some friends to the town of Danli. We were on the same road on Monday and noticed that the pavement appeared to be sinking. By Friday, a large segment of the road was blocked off and the slight sinking was now about 3 feet lower. It appears that a big chunk of the mountain is about to fall off. The only good news about this is that if it does fall, it will be on top of a hotel that is known for exploiting young women. I hope nobody gets hurt (except for the hotel).
This morning in the newspaper there was an article about a village that is trapped by a river - an identical story to the one we observed first hand on Thursday. The headline said "Hunger drives people to ignore danger". The picture was of 3 women and some children crossing a river to get food for their families.
We had an amazing week here with friends from the Bay Area of California.
I will report on all of those activities on my monthly report. I will also outline more of our plans for helping the people in the south. We want to put something together that will address both the need for food and the need for Jesus.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc
The rain has continued - on Friday we drove east of town to take some friends to the town of Danli. We were on the same road on Monday and noticed that the pavement appeared to be sinking. By Friday, a large segment of the road was blocked off and the slight sinking was now about 3 feet lower. It appears that a big chunk of the mountain is about to fall off. The only good news about this is that if it does fall, it will be on top of a hotel that is known for exploiting young women. I hope nobody gets hurt (except for the hotel).
This morning in the newspaper there was an article about a village that is trapped by a river - an identical story to the one we observed first hand on Thursday. The headline said "Hunger drives people to ignore danger". The picture was of 3 women and some children crossing a river to get food for their families.
We had an amazing week here with friends from the Bay Area of California.
I will report on all of those activities on my monthly report. I will also outline more of our plans for helping the people in the south. We want to put something together that will address both the need for food and the need for Jesus.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
September Monthly Report
We began September in the USA. We were in many places and were able to speak to a number of churches and others regarding the work in Honduras. From our speaking, we were able to secure support for several projects including one of the planned church plants for 2009. We were able to nail down our TORCH team dates for almost all of our 2009 teams and because of that, we were able to work with the airlines to secure seats for about 75% of our anticipated team members. It is much easier to communnicate with the travel desks of the airlines from the states.
We also met with the Adventures in Missions group in Lubbock to discuss the class of 2009 and the potential of having a new team here next summer.
On September 1 we also began work on the new cottage at Casa de Esperanza. We were able to start the project while in the states because we are using Milton Estrada as our construction supervisor. Milton and I had drawn up all of the plans and staked out the project prior to our departure to the states and we knew how much work we expected to complete during the first 3 weeks of Sept. In spite of all of the rain, we are on schedule for completing the new house in October. All of the walls are done and we should be closed in by sometime next week. We are excited that there will be more kiddo's here at Casa and the sooner we get this project complete, the sooner we can do the work that God has planned.
In other news - We are in the process of working with a number of churches and sunday school classes to raise the funds necessary to supply all of our kids with new beds. In our home, there isn't any place for our kids to keep a few of their own things - the new beds will have a closet and drawers built in to that every child will have a little place of their own. A place where they can keep their few private possesions. We had a prototype made and the cost was about $500 for the bunk with a clost built-in. The construction is amazing and the new buds will last for many years.
For planning, we are already working with Baxter to discuss the new church in the Tegucigalpa area. Looks like we may have preaching students working in the plant area as soon as February 2009. This will be the beginning of "seed planting" for the new congregation. In October we are planning to visit the area where the other 2009 church project will be located. Hopefully we will be building a house and distributing food to people in the community.
Terri and I have lived here for more than a year now. We can see just how blessed we are by the work that we are able to be a part of. We continue to pray thanks for all of the support, encouragement, and love that we are shown. Thank you for praying for us.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc & Terri Tindall
We also met with the Adventures in Missions group in Lubbock to discuss the class of 2009 and the potential of having a new team here next summer.
On September 1 we also began work on the new cottage at Casa de Esperanza. We were able to start the project while in the states because we are using Milton Estrada as our construction supervisor. Milton and I had drawn up all of the plans and staked out the project prior to our departure to the states and we knew how much work we expected to complete during the first 3 weeks of Sept. In spite of all of the rain, we are on schedule for completing the new house in October. All of the walls are done and we should be closed in by sometime next week. We are excited that there will be more kiddo's here at Casa and the sooner we get this project complete, the sooner we can do the work that God has planned.
In other news - We are in the process of working with a number of churches and sunday school classes to raise the funds necessary to supply all of our kids with new beds. In our home, there isn't any place for our kids to keep a few of their own things - the new beds will have a closet and drawers built in to that every child will have a little place of their own. A place where they can keep their few private possesions. We had a prototype made and the cost was about $500 for the bunk with a clost built-in. The construction is amazing and the new buds will last for many years.
For planning, we are already working with Baxter to discuss the new church in the Tegucigalpa area. Looks like we may have preaching students working in the plant area as soon as February 2009. This will be the beginning of "seed planting" for the new congregation. In October we are planning to visit the area where the other 2009 church project will be located. Hopefully we will be building a house and distributing food to people in the community.
Terri and I have lived here for more than a year now. We can see just how blessed we are by the work that we are able to be a part of. We continue to pray thanks for all of the support, encouragement, and love that we are shown. Thank you for praying for us.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc & Terri Tindall
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