Journal 4
Repair Team
Tuesday greeted us with a beautiful morning. The group from Pennsylvania and Steve left for the mountains, and the repair team started marking off items on Nury’s list. Kyle and Frank screened in the outdoor cook stove at the Barnabas House to keep out insects. Clinton and Ben started stuccoing the outside of the two new bathrooms we added last year. David and Pete were busy with plumbing issues, installing a new venting system. Our electrical team, Larry and John addressed several electrical problems. Ann Hope and Lil were busy painting the Barnabas house. Ronnie and Nury left early in the morning for San Pedro Sula to retrieve two bags that never made it here from Atlanta and to pick up supplies and paint.
One of our biggest problems at the Barnabas house is water. When medical teams come there sometimes is a shortage of potable water. Kyle, John, Ben and Frank met with some community leaders to discuss what can be done. It is a work in progress!
As the day wore on the rains came, so by sunset temperatures were chilly, for Honduras that is! Ben presented our evening devotions from 1 Corinthians 12, "We are One Body with Many Parts”. As we gather together each year as a repair team, each one with our own abilities we become one Body… we become the “Team" for Christ! Pleases keep us in your thoughts and prayers!
Stories from our “Mustard Seed”
Wednesday
Today produced blessings to a heart full of love for the people of Honduras. To witness first hand the simplistic lives they live in the countryside of the mountains in an attempt to survive, yet live with a grateful and happy heart touched my heart beyond words. We traveled even deeper into the mountains today on a dirt road to a small village. It was a five hour drive from the village back to the Barnabas House at the end of the day!
We were at first surprised when we arrived as there were no children. This is coffee bean harvest season and the entire family travels by foot to the hills where they collect the beans by hand. An average coffee picker will gather 100-125 pounds of coffee in a day, a very long day at that. For 100 pounds of beans the picker makes $4 A DAY!!! A really good picker will gather 250 pounds A DAY and earn $8!!!
They eat a lot of corn, beans, and fruits that they grow. If they were able to even make it to a store prices are not that much different than in the U.S. For instance a 16 oz Coke costs a little over one dollar, so they would never even consider purchasing something like a Coke. And families had many children beginning at a very young age. Most of today's families were very poor. It is a struggle just to survive.
One lady had ten children. They walked for miles just to get to where we were set up. They possessed a sense of gratitude for the most simplistic items such as a plastic grocery bag to carry their things in. They live the truest form possible of a simplistic lifestyle, yet they are still full of love and joy without knowing if there will be food for the next meal.
Hugs abounded today from both the children as well as the elderly. It was a day that a "Mustard Seed's" heart was touched in ways that will NEVER be forgotten!!!
