October Monthly Report

October was a very interesting month. I started the month heading to Copan for the annual conference on children's missions and health care missions in Honduras. Terri and I both attended the conference last year and this year she was unable to go along. The conference is a place where you can meet with many many people that are working in similar ministry around the country. It is a place where you can gather tons of helpful information about how to avoid some of the same problems that others have experineced. As a result of the conference, we have learned how to apply for a couple of grants for shipping containers into the country as well as how to utilize the resources of our own military transports to ship goods into the country.
As soon as I returned from Copan, we were blessed to have a couple of friends from Atlanta as our house guests. Our guests were able to see the Mirador Woman's Center on the day that we recieved the first of many truckloads of water from the city. Our Atlanta guests are from the Campus Church of Christ - the sponsors of the woman's center project. A later follow-up on the project was great. I have hired one of the church members to manage the facility and they are making great use of the facility for the community. It takes about 5 hours for a woman to do the family laundry so - only 10 or so ladies per day can use the pilas. The facility is being well used serving about 40 to 50 families a week.
(Other community news regarding Mirador Oriente involves the new block school building that was completed in September. In late October the roof was blown off - in a 70 MPH wind. We have put a temporary fix in place and plan to complete the repairs in November. )
Days after our Atlanta friends left, we were blessed with having friends from California for a week. We were able to take the week and do many many things including - visiting the kids at Hospital Escuela, feeding the poor at the dump, building a house for a person that lost their home in a fire, working at a children's feeding center, and meeting many many people. Additionally we took a road trip to the south. We planned to visit the community of Santa Katerina but, the rains had made the rivers too high to cross. We had purchased enough food for 100 families so we met many of the community at the river edge to distribute the food. The people that came for the food had to cross 3 rivers and walk for more than 2 hours just to get a small bag of food for their family. After we left the area, we found that the whole community had been down to having only tortillas to eat and that the food that we distributed helped them get past the crisis. Our God is amazing and we are blessed that we were His hands in answering the prayers of the hungry.
We are planning to help the community of Santa Katerina on a longer term basis in 2009. Our prayer is that we will be able to construct a community center that will function Monday - Friday as a feeding center for the local children, on Saturday's we would use the facility as a baking co-op for the women of the community to prepare bread for every family. On Sunday's we hope to utilize the facility as a place of worship. Seven days a week - feeding, helping, teaching, and delivering the hope and promise of Jesus! I have applied for a grant that will provide for one year of operations for the feeding center and it looks like we will be in a position to recieve the request. We are still working on the design and construction funding but are confident that our God will provide. After all - He has all the money in the world.
In October we were faced with lots of really bad weather. Rain for about 12 days in a row - followed by 40 to 50 MPH winds for 6 or 7 days. The rains were a dissaster for this country. There are 1000's of homes that have been destroyed and the roads and bridges are falling in or down - everywhere. We are working to try and help rebuild several houses during Thanksgiving week. So far we have comittments for 2 or 3 houses and are praying that we will be able to build as many as 10 to 12.
In the last week of October we were able to build a memory house for the family of friends in Mississippi. The new house is now in use and 8 people are living in a 16'x16' one room house. The appreciation was given to the Lord and the family was so very happy with the new home that was delivered as an answer to prayers.
The AIM Team has completed 2 months of Spanish school and has started working in various ministries. Throughout school, they have continued to feed at the dump every Wednesday. They have been able to start working in evengelism at the dump by securing the help of Richard - the minsiter of the church in Oj0jona - the small town where they live. We are blessed to have this team of young folks working with us for the next year.
We once again want to thank all of you for your prayers, your encouragement, and your support.
Thank You!
Be a blessing to somebody today,
Marc & Terri