Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Week That Was

This week has been filled with many things that are great and some that are difficult to think about.
We started on Gonzolo's house this week. Gonzolo is a man that always smiles. He worked with me for several months last year when we were building the women's center project. Work is a pleasure for Gonzolo and he is always happy. We are building him a block house in Mirador de Oriente.
My mom and dad arrived on Wednesday. Early Wednesday we were able to feed 100's at the dump. We were joined this week by Jen, David, Sam, and several of Jen's friends visiting from Ohio. Having a lot of people to help meant that I was able to visit with a bunch of folks in the dump. Mom and dad arrived on time and we are really enjoying having them here.
Wednesday's paper announced that there was a village in the Tegucigalpa area that was "bulldozed' away. The land owner had taken the squatters to court and won. He reclaimed his land by using a bull dozer to clear out 300+ families. Somebody had duped the squatters into believing that they owned the land and had sold lots for the houses. There was nothing that anyone could do.
On Wednesday morning, I had a call from my friend that is the director of Jovenes en Camino telling me that the paper work was complete for moving a couple of their kids to our home. We were able to take in Jose and Anna on Thursday afternoon. They are 7 and 8.
Also on Thursday, we found out about Gabriela. This young lady is 18 and was in a motorcycle accident 2 weeks ago. Her upper right leg was shattered and the Dr's at hospital Escuela did the best that they could to repair the mess. After 2 weeks they realized that the leg won't heal without proper orthepedic surgery materials. The family couldn't afford the more than $1000 cost of the pins, screws, and other materials needed for the surgery. Without the surgery supplies, the Dr's had told the family that the girl would loose her leg at the hip. Thank's to our amazing God, we were able to purchase the supplies and hopefully, Gabriela will have surgery this morning. PRAY!
Yesterday (Friday) I recieved a call that I had been waiting for for a long time. I have been working with friends in Nashville to put a water well in Oriental. There is a group from Texas that has a well drilling ministry and they have been promising to get us on the schedule for a long time. Yesterday I got the call that the time is here. I am meeting the manager of the operation in Oriental this afternoon to begin the process. Once complete, this village of more than 1000 will finally have a source for their water needs. What a blessing.
Please pray for the needs that I have talked about here. Please lift up thanks for the answered prayers here too.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I Like This Quote

The other day I read this quote -
"Vision without action is only a Dream!
Action without Vision is only an activity!
Combining Vision & Action can change the World!"
I like this.
Imagine adding Jesus to the center of every Vision?
Imagine waking up every day with only one purpose in mind - your Vision!
Vision with Jesus in the center and Action with Jesus as the master will surely change the world.
One soul at a time.
Be a blessing to somebody today!
Marc

Thursday, February 05, 2009

January 2009 Report

We finished 2008 and started 2009 in the states. While there we were blessed to be able to spend time in Fairview Heights with our home church. They are amazing! We could not have a more loving and supporting family. I was able to speak at both Sunday School and during worship.
While in Fairview Heights, I was able to meet with friends that had access to a mobile medical clinic. It is one that is built on the chassis of bus similar to those used for rent car shuttles. It is in excellent condition and we were offered the bus as a gift. Of course we accepted and we will be working to transport the vehicle to Honduras prior to the many groups working here during the summer months. In addition to summer usage, we will partner with Baxter's clinic. The Baxter institute has an ongoing clinic operation that utilizes the resources of doc's from a medical school in VA. They will be able to use the clinic in many of the remote clinics that they tie in with remote churches. It is a perfect partnership.
From IL we travelled back down to Arkansas where our son in law graduated from Harding. As soon as graduation ended we were on our way to Kansas to meet with the Overland Park Church. They had contacted me and asked me to speak to them about short term missions. This is a church of about 800 and their college plus group had been looking for a mission opportunity. This group will be joining the team from Topeka in the summer of 2009 and it looks like they will have about 30 travelling to Honduras for the first time. The total KS Torch team will be about 50 to 60 strong and this is only the second year. Pretty amazing & very exciting!
On the same Sunday we were blessed to be able to speak and meet with the Central Church in Topeka. They are very excited to be coming back to Honduras in 2009 and we are blessed once again with the family there. The Topeka team formed because one of the families there had been coming to Honduras with my large July team - they went back to Kansas and told them that they should ask me to come and speak. I was able to go and speak & preach in September of 2007 and the rest is history.
We left Kansas to spend Christmas with all of our family in Texas. While there, we were able to speak & preach in both Shamrock and Wheeler. Both of these are wonderful churches and we are again blessed because our amazing God has put them in our lives.
We ended our tour of churches in Gulfport, MS and headed back to Honduras on January 8th. We didn't arrive back in country until the 9th because our tickets required a "lay-over" at the Miami airport (landed 1:30 AM departed for Tegucigalpa 10:00 AM).
We had to hit the ground running as there was much to catch up on.
On the day we returned, our AIM'ers told us that they had decided to return to the states. There were some issues within the team that they needed to resolve and they are in Lubbock working to regroup. Please pray for them.
Terri and I are continuing the Tegucigalpa dump ministry. We make about 350 bologna sandwiches a week, we buy about 100 pounds of bananas, and 10 gallons of water to share with the hungry people - men, women, and precious children - every Wednesday. We are blessed when we are able to share this work with others and in January we were able to team up one Wednesday with Karen (director of Casa), her mom and a friend from Ohio. Yesterday we shared the work with a group of ladies from PA as well as a few other folks from here in Tegucigalpa.
In January we were able to build 3 houses for families. A container of medical supplies from Mississipi arrived and is already helping many many people that have needs. The crutches, wheelchairs, walkers, hospital beds, and many other goods were put to immediate use.
In January, we were able to spend time with a friend from California. Mandy works with a group of ladies from Danli. The ladies there assemble gift items for Mandy's business and it is exciting to see her work to get more women able to feed their families.
In January we were able to spend time with new friends from Texas. JB Roberts and Dan Carpenter were here to find out more about the work we do and to meet with a number of folks about the needs of Honduras. These gentlemen work with an organization called Hunger Plus as well as Rotary Clubs International. They have already shipped a container of medical supplies our way (should be in country today) and have plans to help us with many many projects. Once again, our Amazing God introduces us to amazing people.
In January we were diasppointed to lose the family that we had hired as house parents for Casa de Esperanza. The Montes' family made the decision to return to work as full time ministers and have moved south to work with a church there. Pray for God to deliver the families we need to help us care for the children here at Casa de Esperanza.
We are continuing our plans to plant churches in 2009. Santa Katerina - south of here has already given us land and we will be going there this weekend to survey and take some gifts to the kids there.
Once again, Terri and I want to thank you for your continued prayers, for your encouragement, and for your amazing support.
We love you,
Marc & Terri
Be a blessing to somebody today!