Much To Report

May through July has flown by and there is much to report on.
May began with an annual fundraiser for our ministry in the Tegucigalpa Dump. We completed 2 years of ministry in the dump in April and we have never had to make a plea for work funds. The cause of the poor in the dump has been seen and many, many people have come to us to share in this work. Campus Church of Christ in Atlanta was one of the first and later in 2009, our friend Trey Morgan took up the cause.
On May 5, Trey Morgan, the minister of the Childress, TX Church of Christ held the 2010 "Dump Day" fund raiser. The result was simply amazing in both dollars and in new connections. We were blessed with plenty of funds to pay for food for the coming year and additionally, we were blessed with a matching contribution from a Texas NGO called Bread For a Hungry World. The folks from Bread donated funds that will become the seed money for a brick and morter facility that will provide for health and spiritual development of our friends at the dump. The net of the day was amazing.
On May 11, we hosted a team of college students from Middle Tennessee State University. This team was here for four weeks and we were very blessed to be able to work in many areas including Copan Ruins. The team stayed in our home and were a very big help when Terri had to go to the hospital at the end of May. As I am sure that most of you know, Terri had emergency surgery on May 27 - obstruction in her colon. She is much better now but, for weeks, she was a very sick lady.
Our teams this summer were from Tupelo, MS; Columbus, MS; Baton Rouge, Layfayette, Overland Park, KS; Borger, TX; Starkville, MS; Jacksonville, IL; Childress,TX; and smaller groups and individuals from NC, MO, CA, OK, and many other places. We pretty much ran from May 11 until August 2. Our teams participated in building, feeding, loving, visiting, teaching, providing medical care, and helping the people of Honduras. We built 45 wooden houses and 3 block houses. We mixed tons of cement to build a new soccer field for Casa de Esperanza. We fed thousands of meals at the dump and provided 1000's of bags of food for the homes of people that really needed some food. We treated more than 1000 in medical clinics. We were able to help something like 3,000 people to have clothing and shoes. We held 2 VBS's in the dump. We went into the dump and held a medical clinic and a wound care clinic. We provided formula for babies of moms working in the dump and promise to not bring their babies there. And, there were 25 people that decided to follow Jesus and chose to be baptized. I am sure that I missed some of the work - so add anything you see that I missed to the comment section.
Our work here in Honduras has continued to be very blessed by the shipment of many containers. It is very expensive and time consuming to deal with containers however, we have chosen to make this a part of our work. From May through July, we recieved 4 containers. One with food, one with mission supplies for our summer work, and two with hospital beds. The shipments have benefited many thousands of people. For the balance of the year, it looks like we will have at least 2 more shipments that will include Christmas boxes for many many children and school supplies for many many children. It is very likely that we will also be offered another food container. Food is one thing that we just won't turn down.
The children's home - Casa de Esperanza is doing very well and we are in the process of trying to hire house parents or a house mom. We have a beautiful new home that is ready for kids and we know that our God will send the right person(s) to allow us to continue to rescue more children.
In August, we plan to travel to the states where we will be resting a bit as well as travelling to a few locations to speak about our work.
I would like to thank our friends and supporters that make it possible for us to continue to work here in Honduras. We are blessed to be here and our partners in this work make it possible.
I am doing almost daily updates on FaceBook and would be happy to answer any questions that you might have by email.
Thanks,
Marc