A Corndog Summer

July 23rd-Day 45
    Saturday morning we were up at the usual time for breakfast, 7-8, and then we loaded the rest of the food we had bagged up onto the bus for the last food distribution in Mololoa.  We hiked pretty far up the mountain, farther up than I've ever been to hand out the food to people who haven't received any food from TORCH this year.  A lot of groups hit the houses lower on the mountain so it was our job to make it to the houses on the top.  I'd say it took about an hour and a half to give them all out and we were finished with that but the fun was just beginning.  The daycare in Mololoa was having Family Day where the families of all the kids and the families of the workers came to have lunch and see skits by the kids.  Sean also had a Bible study with the ladies at the daycare.  The skits by the kids were great.  Seeing 3, 4 and 5 year olds act out a skit is tons of fun to watch.  The most memorable one had to be Cinderella.  They acted out the entire story and even had costumes to dress up in.  They also all sung songs to us in spanish but they had also sang a few in english.  After that we had lunch and then the youth of Mololoa had planned to play a soccer game against us gringos but the soccer field was being used for a league match so we didn't get to do that.  Sean had his Bible study with the ladies that were there and we all had a great time.  We then loaded up after family day was over and headed back to the mission house.  Honestly, I have the feeling that we did do something else before heading to the mission house but I can't for the life of me remember.
July 24th-Day 46
    Sunday we worshipped with the church in Mololoa.  We got there about 9:30 and started service at like 10.  Dr. Aguillera preached and proved once again why he's so awesome.  After church we went out to the Valley of Angels again for a last chance souvenir shopping day.  I ate at the jalapeno restaurant with Sean and Nathan.  The shish-kabobs are just incredible there.  We then walked around for a little bit and peaked inside a few shops knowing we really weren't going to get anything.  We then left the Valley at 4ish and went back to the mission house were we ordered pizza and had a pretty relaxed evening.  Mark and Lori Connell came up to the mission house to say bye to everyone since it was the last night for the group.  We then had devo and sat around talking until it was time for bed.  Sunday was a pretty calm day to just chill.
July 25th-Day 47
    Monday we had to be leaving the mission house by 9:30 to get the Palmetto group to the airport so that they could get checked in and be on their flight at 1.  Things at the airport went fairly smooth, much smoother than I've seen on past trips.  A few of us had lunch upstairs while most of the group went on ahead through the checkpoints to go sit at the terminal.  We then finished lunch and said bye to those that were left and they went on through to head to the gate and wait on their flight.  Most of these guys I'll see once I get home but a few I won't like Erin, Jenna, Francisco and the Aguilera's.  So I know that they all made it safely to the airport and hopefully they all made it safely back home.  Tasha, Kate, Kaylee and I then left with Jenn Salgado.  Tasha, Kate and Kaylee will be staying here another 2 weeks to teach english classes to people in Mololoa.  They are going to have a 3 hour class each day at the church.  I needed a place to stay for the night and Jenn was more than willing to let me stay with her.  So we ran around with her for the rest of the day.  We went and bought food and supplies for the feeding center and daycare.  We then went up to Santa Ana to pick up Josue and then to Ojojona to pick up a couple of bunk beds.  I packed the beds onto the truck and thought that it looked pretty good, the truck was loaded down....at least to gringo standards.  Josue then comes out with another set of bunk beds and another mattress and we just had to pile them on top.  So he taught this gringo how to pack a truck Honduran style.  I bet the beds stood up 6 feet above the truck.  We actually hit a set of power lines with the post of the beds on the way out of Ojojona.  It was pretty crazy looking.  Even Jenn thought it was a crazy.  The good news is that we weren't electrocuted from the power lines thankfully, I would not have liked that again and we made it back to the house safely with all the pieces.  We then put the beds together and started to go to sleep until Tasha decided she wanted to talk....all night.  But it was all fun and I eventually got a few hours of sleep before getting up this morning.
July 26th-Day 48
    We were up at 8 this morning and were leaving Jenn's house by 8:40.  I had to be at the bus station by 10 to get a ticket to San Pedro.  We sat in traffic for literally 30 minutes just outside of Jenn's house in Nueve Oriental where they are doing road work.  The good news is that I got a bus ticket.  Had to say goodbye to the girls, 2 of them I might not see again which is always sad.   I'm sitting here at the bus station now waiting for my bus to leave at 12:30.  It is supposed to be a 4 hour ride but we'll see how that goes.
Ok so it was actually very close to a 4 hour ride.  I made it here to San Pedro Sula at about 5:30 and took a taxi to the airport.  The taxi was fun.  We had a stand-off with another car for about 5 minutes, which we won.  Then as we were coming up to the exit ramp, a full circle exit ramp, we were flying.  I thought he would slow down to make the turn but that wouldn't be any fun.  The tires barked the entire way around the corner and it was great.  So I've just been chilling here in the airport for the last few hours waiting for my plane to take me away at 1 so only a few more hours to go. 
July 27th-Day 49
    While I've got the time I'm going to guesstimate what is going to happen tomorrow.  I'm leaving here at 1 a.m and should be landing in Ft. Lauderdale at 5:35 and then leaving there at 7 to go to Atlanta.  I should land in Atlanta about 9:50 and my Dad is supposed to be there to pick me up.  A 3-4 hour ride and I should be home by 3 tomorrow afternoon.  So that is the plan for tomorrow and hopefully that won't change.
   
This trip has been incredible.  Starting in Costa Rica, moving on to Nicaragua and ending the trip here in Honduras has been much more than I ever imagined it would be.  I've met so many incredible people along the way from the states as well as from the countries we've been to.  I've gotten to see the look of relief on the faces of mothers as they are given food when they didn't have any in their kitchen.  I've gotten to see the tears of joy when we have built houses for families who had no place to call their home.  I've been able to see the smiling faces of kids in many places because of the joy that a simple VBS can bring them.  I've seen the worn out faces of gringos when they are completely worn out from serving the people in these amazing places.  In a place where there is sooo much poverty, injustice, hunger, homelessness, and corruption, the Torch mission teams were able to show the love of Christ to thousands of people.  Our hope is that through all the efforts this summer, that the people we have served will come to know Christ.  I know not all of them will but if even one of them gives their life over to Christ then we have done an extraodinary thing this summer.
One last story to explain the blog title.  The first Sunday that the Palmetto group was here, we went to the mall for lunch after Church service.  My brother, Sean and I decided to skip the food court and take a risk.  We found this little corndog vendor outside of the food court and my brother was like jackpot.  So he bought one and took a bite and said it was the best corndog he'd ever had.  Then Sean bought one and said the same thing.  I won't lie, it took me a minute to get up the courage to get one since I didn't want to get sick from it but I did and I must say it was the best corndog I think I've ever had.  So from that point on we started comparing everything to the corndog.  On a scale of 1-10, the corndog was an 11.  So if it was a corndog day then it was a good day, a corndog decision meant it was a great decision.  This summer has absolutely been a corndog summer.  It was a trip I was a little worried about at the beginning and as it neared I started getting more and more nervous but once I took that first bite I realized it was one of the greatest decisions I've made.  I'd like to thank everyone that I was able to work with for making these last 7 weeks such a blast.  It seems like just yesterday we were getting off the plane in Costa Rica and now it's all over with but what a ride it's been.  But for everything we were able to do we give God the glory.  God kept us all safe this summer, He provided us great places to go serve, He opened doors to new places, and most of all He showed us through His son what love is all about so that we can go out and show that love to those in need.  I hope yall have enjoyed reading these posts and if there are any of you that haven't been to Honduras before, I hope these things you've read have stirred up a desire in you to come and experience this for yourselves and serve God and the people of Honduras in a way you'll never forget.  From the San Pedro Sula airport and for the last time this summer, Peace Out!

I just lost...

July 20th-Day 42
    Wednesday we built a house out at the Valley of Angels, sort of.  It was on a mountain above the valley, up in the clouds, and we could look off the mountain and see the entire valley out in front of us.  It was pretty incredible.  The family that we built for lived in a mud hut.  The parents were old, in their 80's, and the dad only had one leg and was in a wheelchair and the mom was blind and they had 7 grown kids living with them in their house.  They desperately needed a house.  The view was incredible out in front of the house.  The build went incredibly well.  We were finished by 1 and went to eat lunch in the Valley.  We had these awesome beef shish-kabobs, beans, plantains...It was incredible.  We then went back to the mission house and just hung out there until devo.  We went to the Jesus statue for devo which is always pretty cool and then back to the mission house for a game of spades and bed. 
July 21st-Day 43
    Yesterday the group I was with went to the dump.  We started out by going to the supermarket and getting 25 loaves of bread, 200 banana's and 200 pieces of bologna.  We then made the sandwiches on the bus as we went around to get water at the service stations.  Usually it takes a few stops at the stations to get enough bagged water but we stopped at one place and they had more than enough water for us to buy.  So we bought it and headed to the dump.  Most of the people on the bus, roughly 15 of the 25, had not been to the dump before.  We rolled up and we had bags of food on the back of the bus for a food distribution so we had to give off the sandwiches from the front door of the bus and boy did that cause a problem.  They rushed to the door and it got pretty chaotic pretty fast.  Only Troy, Jenna, Josue, Bryan Lopez, Pedro and I got off of the bus and everyone else stayed on.  We tried our best to distribute the food as best we could but I'm sure there were people who got more than one of everything.  We were in and out pretty quick and didn't have a chance to mingle with the people.  Some of the guys that were sitting in a truck started throwing eggs at the bus and then started throwing them at the 6 of us who were off the bus.  The hit Troy in the leg and Bryan in the jaw and the rest of us had egg on our hands and arms and clothes.  I've been to the dump where we were able to hang out with the people for a while but that was just not going to happen yesterday.  It was the craziest I've ever seen it there.  So we left there and went to Cataluna for a food distribution.  Most of the community is pretty ok to deliver food too.  The hills aren't too steep and the houses are easy to get to, that is until you go to the back of the community to the little mountain I'd like to call "makesmewanttodie".  It is a fairly incredible slope we had to climb to get food to the top houses.  To climb it empty handed is impressive enough but we had to carry a few 30 pound bags of food with us which made it rather difficult.  Knowing that someone was going to get food who didn't currently have food made it all worth it though.  We gave out about 300 bags of food and by the end of the day we were all pretty tired and worn out from climbing makesmewanttodie.  We then came back to the mission house and had dinner and devo for the last time with the group from Mayesville.
July 22nd-Day 44
    Today we had to say goodbye to many more friends that we've made from the Mayesville CoC.  They flew out at 1 a.m along with Aaron to go back to the states.  Over this trip I've been able to work with tons of amazing people and the Mayesville group was packed full of incredible people just as the other Honduras teams, Costa Rica team and Intern team was.  We've made great friends and hopefully these new friendships will not end just because we are going back home.  When we said goodbye to them, we loaded up the bus and headed to Mololoa for our last house build of the trip in memory of Mr. Paul Simpson.  The house site was ridiculous.  I know it may sound like I'm complaining a lot about the hills we have been climbing but I'm really not, just trying to relay how incredibly steep they are.  We had a few people that wanted to build end up going to the daycare to work because the path down to the house site was too steep for them and since the site wasn't far from the daycare, it made sense for them to go there.  The build went great though.  We built an 11x16 house because that's all we could fit between the rock wall and the cliff.  We were done with this one by 1:30 and when we finished we went to Campero's pollo for lunch which is always great.  After that we came back up to the mission house and threw a little frisbee and kicked around a soccer ball before dinner.  Then we had devo which we just finished up and we are fixing to head to bed.  We introduced quite a few people to "The Game" today so that has been incredibly awesome to watch.  Tomorrow we are going to family day out at the daycare at Mololoa.  The youth group at the church wants to play the gringos in soccer and we are also doing a food distribution for a section of the community out there.  Tomorrow should be just as awesome as every other day I've been here.  Oh and Emily, if you are reading this Sean says HI.

The Cross Country Trek

July 18th-Day 40
    Yesterday we built another house.  We built out at Cataluna again and my team had a decent work site.  We were able to get it square much quicker than on Saturday and as we started digging holes we realized that one of them was only going to be 4 inches deep because there was a boulder the size of a car right under the ground and in the front corner we had another rock the size of a V8 engine.  We were able to get the smaller one out after about 15 minutes of prying on it.  As we went to lift it out, a tarantula ran out from under the rock and we quickly took care of it.  After that we were able to get all the post in with a little convincing and we were off to the races.  The build went very smooth again and we were finished by about 2.  We then went over to the other house and a few of our team helped them for about an hour and a half as they finished and the rest of us chilled or played with kids.  Once we finished up we all loaded the bus and headed back to the mission house.  We got back about 4:30 and had some time to rest and shower before dinner at 6:30.  For some reason I was pretty sore after finishing the house.  It was the start of another round of getting worn down.  We kept the same build teams that we had on Saturday so my team worked great together again.
July 19th-Day 41
    Today we built a 2 houses out in the La Tigra rain forest out the backside of the mountain that the mission house is on.  Just like the last time we built at there, we had to build in a swamp like area.  We got to the site and Mark Connell was behind us with wood for both of the houses, they were both right next to each other.  When we realized we couldn't get the truck with wood up the hill to the sites, our hearts sank.  We had to carry the wood and tools for both houses what we think was just over a half a mile to the sites.  It was slippery and muddy the entire way.  When we made the first trip there with some wood and the tools, Mark Connell took a few guys and started squaring up the house for his team and I took a few guys and started squaring up the one for my team.  When we started digging the post holes, we realized we were digging more of a well.  The holes quickly filled up with water and unlike last time we didn't have any concrete to put around the post.  We packed them full of dirt and leveled them up and started up with the walls as a few of us started getting the floor ready.  We had two more really great builds and two more families now have a home to call their own.  Mark's team finished about 10 minutes before we did which was great.  We were finished with them both by 3 and were back at the mission house by 4.  So far on the 3 builds I've been able to get some fresh blood up on the roofs, both the Jensen girls, Erin, Ally, Jenna, and a few others.  The girls have done a great job getting up there and roofing.  Today we are all absolutely wore out.  Carrying wood and the semi tough sites have taken their toll on the group.  I know that I haven't been this wore out in a while.  I'm not sick, my body is just wore slap out and that's not just me but a lot of people in this group.  We've been playing spoons the last few nights and I'm sitting here at the table about to join in when I finish typing and it's easy to see that reactions times are fairly slow tonight.  Tomorrow we have another full day.  We have a team going to Mololoa to work in the daycare and kitchen as well as a group of 8 going to do some repair work and painting on the buildings out there.  We have a group going to the hospital in the morning and then coming back to the mission house to pack up three loads of food to be given out on Thursday.  I'll be leading another house build tomorrow out at the Valley of Angels, we are only building one tomorrow so hopefully some of these guys can have a light day to rest up a bit because I know most of them are completely worn out.  So tomorrow should be another great day.  The weather has co-operated with us fairly well, it's been a little warm but the rains haven't shown their face so far during the days we've been building.  But this game of spoons seems to be gaining life so it's time for me to jump in.  May the force be with you!

Palmetto has arrived!

July 12th-14th;Day 34-36
    Last Tuesday I really didn't do much of anything.  I started getting a cold/sinus infection and felt pretty terrible for a few days.  I stayed at Jenn's house most of the day and tried to catch up on some sleep.  After the previous 33 days I was pretty worn out.  So I just chilled at the house until that night when everyone started coming back in.  We then went out at Chilli's which was incredible.  It seems like all I want to eat when we go out is pasta so I got this pick awesome plate of chicken pasta and it was great.  There were a few others staying at Jenn Wrights house as well.  David Logue stays at the house with Jenn.  David and Jenn both live here full-time and are involved in a lot of different ministries.  Andy Hubright and another guy named Zach were there for a few days.  They live outside the city about an hour but stay at Jenn's occasionally to use the internet.  Both graduated from Lipscomb in December and I had played frisbee with them at Lipscomb so that was cool to be here with them.  There was also another Jenn staying with us.   Jenn Hines has been here since October and committed to staying here for a year so she has a couple more months here.  Another girl named Kolby was staying there too.  She had been here for 3 months and just went back home the past Thursday.  There was also Jenna Hostetler who worked with the last group and is staying over to work with the Palmetto/Mayesville group.  So we all had a good time even though I had a sinus infection, Kolby had strep throat, Jenna was in the process of getting a sick and Jenn was just getting over being sick.  We still had a fun time for a few days though. 
    On Wednesday I just ran a few errands with the girls because Kolby and Jenn Wright were heading back to the states on Thursday.  They needed to run and do a few things so I just tagged along.  We all went to La Creperia to eat dinner with  Mark and Lori Connell which is always fun.  It was the first time I have ever had crepes (i hope that's how you spell them).  It was pretty good food though.  It's nice to be able to go to different kinds of restaurants down here.  Having a large group is always fun but when there's just a few of you, you have more flexibility to do things like just going out with a group and having a good time for the night. 
    Thursday was another sick day.  I was feeling terrible that morning so I decided to just stay home and rest a little more since the Palmetto group was coming in of Friday.  Thankfully I started feeling better by the end of the day and started to kick out the sinus infection that I had.  Kolby and Jenn flew out so we had to say goodbye to a few more new friends.
July 15th-Day 37
    Friday I woke up and felt much better.  Part of it was because I was getting better and part of it was because I was excited for our group to fly in.  Mark Connel picked Jenna and I up at the house and we ran a few errands before heading to the airport.  We made it to the airport about 10:30 expecting the plane to land at 11 but they were delayed out of Atlanta.  So about 11:30ish we saw the Delta flight come over the mountains and start their landing.  After 30-45 minutes of clearing customs and gather bags, they came out of the baggage claim and we started loading them on the bus.  It was like watching a bunch of zombies walk through the airport.  Everyone of them looked like they hadn't slept in a week.  We then went to lunch at a place called Criollos (again not sure about spelling).  It's a really good Honduran restaurant that I've been to a few times.  They didn't let us down.  The food was incredible once again.  After that we headed to the store to let the group buy some food for lunches for the week and then headed up to the mission house.  We had dinner about 6:45 which was beef tips, incredible, and afterwards had devo here in the cafeteria at 8.  The devo/orientation lasted till about 9:15 and then we headed to bed.  I was feeling much better by Friday night but I had passed on my sinus infection/cold to Jenna, so that wasn't too good but everyone had made it safely to the mission house and needed a good nights sleep for the house builds.
July 16th-Day 38
    Saturday we started out with breakfast at 7-8, a short meeting at 8 to divide teams to build the houses.  Since half of the group are newbies this year, we made each team be half experienced and half rookies.  Danny Mullins led one of the build teams and I got to lead my first house build.  We built in Cataluna (accent mark on the n so it's pronounced Catalunya) which is over behind the dump.  The wood had been delivered on Thursday so we didn't have to carry it, we only had one rock that we had to contend with for the post holes and the team worked beautifully together.  I did have a few issues with getting the house square but after we started putting in the floor I measured and it was 16x16 and only a quarter-inch off square so I was pretty excited that it had turned out so nicely.  The team worked great together and we were done by 2:15.  The lady who we built the house for cried and cried as the people from Mayesville presented the house to her.  It really was a GREAT day.  The team worked just as well as any team I've ever worked with.  This is the first trip down here for my brother and he loved building the house.  He jumped up on the roof and took off once I showed him what he needed to do.  I thought that leading my first house would have been a little more challenging than it was, and maybe it should have been but the smoothness of this build didn't have anything to do with who was leading but how well this group worked together.  Everyone was willing to do whatever was asked of them and worked great together.  We made it back to the mission house about 4 after some crazy traffic downtown and played frisbee for a little bit.  My disc has been sitting in my bag taunting me for weeks because I haven't had a chance to use it but that is changing.  After that we had dinner, baked chicken, potatoes and a salad, then devo at 8.  After devo we sat around and played cards for a while and then headed to bed.
July 17th-Day 39
    This morning we all left at 8:30 to go to Mololoa for church.  The service started at 9:45 and we packed into the building once again.  Sean led singing and Aaron Mullins preached so it was a good service.  Afterwards we headed to the mall for lunch, Matt, Sean and I decided to be brave and buy a corn dog from a vendor in the mall.  That's something that usually you shouldn't do but this turned out to be one of the best corn dogs I've ever eaten and the best part is that we didn't get sick from it.  After that we went to Mi Esperanza to shop a little.  I went straight in and asked Lori if Mark (Mark Connell that is) was in the back and she was like yea why.  I headed straight to the back knowing that Mark was back there watching the USA v Japan women's world cup final.  So for the next 45 minutes I sat back there and watched the game only to have my heart sink as Japan beat us in penalty kicks.  It was terrible to watch the USA blow that game after having the lead twice.  It still stings.  After we left we went to the Valley of Angels to shop a little.  It's a tourist area that we go to to souvenir shop.  We didn't have much time, only an hour, so we had to do it pretty quickly.  We then went to a really nice restaurant in Santa Lucia for dinner.  Sean, Bryan, Aaron and I got this massive plate of food meant for 4 along with another entree.  Once people realized what we were getting, they all started getting in groups of 4 and ordering the same thing.  It was incredible food.  The 4 of us cleaned that tray pretty quickly and then acted like vultures watching for others not to finish.  By the time we left, Aaron and I had 6 of the massive trays of food in front of us with leftovers from the others and we finished almost every bite of it.  We are definitely paying for it right this second but it was an incredible meal.  Aaron and I definitely got the most for our money tonight.  We at more fried beans, plantains, and meat than we ever have and loved every second of it.  We are now back here at the cafeteria and I'm typing as the rest of the group is sorting medicines for the medical clinic tomorrow.  I'll get to lead another house build tomorrow, one of 2 that will be built tomorrow.  We are also having a medical clinic and a sending some people to work in the daycare and kitchen at Mololoa.  Also, Aaron is going to be posting a blog every night about what the Palmetto/Mayesville team is doing down here, here is the link if you'd like to read that blog as well, http://matthew25-31-40ministries.tumblr.com/. We are about to start devo in a few minutes so it's time for me to go. Until next time, Peace Out.

Last days for the Minions

July 8th-Day 30
    Friday we had our Finale, our final VBS.  Skit 2 was arguably our best skit but skit 3 was definitely the funniest one we were able to do.  We started at 9 again and the kids were already waiting when the bus pulled up.  The skit went wonderful again.  A few of us were sick and we were all tired but we put together one more great performance for the kids.  Jorden, Chris and I had the 1st graders again today for their craft, snack and game.  I've had a blast doing these VBS and it's sad that this is the last one.  But at 11 it was time for us to go.  We said goodbye to the kids so they could continue school and we headed back kto the hotel for a few hours.  We had a few hours to eat lunch and take a nap, at least that's what I did, and then at 2:30 we loaded up to go to an orphanage in the city.  The orphanage had babies and toddlers that we got to spend about an hour and a half with.  Some of them were a little shy at first but quickly warmed up to us.  We took them outside to their playground and they had a blast.  From pushing them on their tricycles to helping them swing, I think we were all glad we got to go.  The only bad part was when we had to leave.  We had to just leave them there as they sat and cried.  It didn't mater if you went back for a second to get them to stop crying and say bye again, as soon as you turned to walk off they would cry again.  We then went back to the hotel for about an  hour before heading out to a pizza place called Weekends Pizza.  I was pretty hungry so naturally it was the best pizza in the world.  We were then able to go to a graduation at the church.  The have a graduation for the people who complete the let's start talking program.  After that I headed to bed.

July 9th-Day 31
    Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and loaded up the bus by 8:30 to head to the Copan Ruins.  I had been looking forward to this since I heard we were going and boy was it awesome.  I absolutely love history and learning about past civilizations so this was right up my ally.  We made it to the ruins about 11 and after getting a tour guide we started our walk through time.  To see buildings and temples that are a couple thousand years old was incredible.  We were able to stand at the foot of a massive staircase where at the top thousands of people had been sacrificed.  We were able to go up where the king would sit and watch sporting events.  We got to see the ruins of the palace and the tomb of the last King of Copan.  It was all incredible.  I would loved to have been able to see that place back when it was thriving.  Only a fraction of the ruins in the area have been excavated so there is still a ton more to be found.  After we left the ruins, about 3ish, we drove on over to San Pedro for the night.  A 3 hour bus ride and we were at the hotel for night. 

July 10th-Day 32
    Yesterday we slept in till about 10 and had to be checked out of our rooms by 11.  We then went to the mall and hung out all day.  The Minions were flying out at 1:15 this morning, Monday morning, so this was the last day the interns would have together.  We got to see Transformers 3, in english woot woot and for only $3.50.  That was great.  I'm not sure what I like more, the movie or the $3.50 price.  We then just hung around for a while, ate dinner and waited until 8 which is when we were leaving for the airport.  We dropped them off about 9 at the airport so they could get all checked in.  I then road back to the hotel with Guillermo and we spent the night at the hotel again.

July 11th-Day 33
    This morning we had to be up at 4 so that we could get a couple of ladies to the airport by 5 to get checked in to their flight.  After that Guillermo and I headed back to Teguc.  I got to see the sunrise over the mountains this morning just outside of San Pedro which was awesome but sucked that I was by myself.  I wish the interns had a little more time here. We made it back to the airport in Teguc about 10 and I met up with Jenna Hostettler who was with her group as they were flying out.  She'll be staying to work with our group from home as well.  So we waited there until the lady we are staying with made it to the airport to get us which was about noon.  Until Thursday Jenna and I will be staying with Jenn Wright here in Teguc.  I just met her today at the airport so I have no clue what we will be doing yet.  Hopefully a lot of sleep is in my near future.  Once we made it back to her house and had lunch, I sat down on the bed and set my alarm to wake me up in an hour and a half...So I woke up 4 hours later and realized the sound on my ipod was muted.  So I've been up a little while now and haven't really done a whole lot today.  So I'm back in Teguc and hopefully done with bus rides for a couple of weeks.  It seems like most of our time has been on a bus as of late.  It's crazy how much a bus ride will wear you down.  But it's time to get geared up for one more 10 day action packed adventure.  4 days from now we'll be right back at it, building houses, giving out food, going to orphanages, to the hospital, working out at Mololoa, having medical clinics and a whole lot more.  I just found out that we are going to be building 2 houses a day on Saturday, and Monday and Tuesday of next week.  It'll be here before you know it.

    I picked the name A Part of His Mission for the blog because that's what we have been the past few weeks, A PART of His Mission.  The Minions have been able to work with the Church in Buenos Aires, Costa Rica; Nidiri, Nicaragua; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; Nacaome, Honduras; Santa Rosa de Copan, Honduras.  We have seen many parts of God's mission in many different places.  We have met incredible people who do not speak our language nor do we speak theirs, incredible people who suffer injustices, hunger, poverty, homelessness and through it all they have devoted themselves to God's mission.  We have been extremely blessed to just be a small part of all the ministries that we have been able to work with.  God's mission is so large and complex that we can't wrap our minds around it.  We just have to be willing to do our part, to play our role in is His mission.  We have to be willing to sacrifice some of our plans to follow the plans that God has laid out for us.  The Minions have done that over the past 33 days.  Giving up a large portion of our summer, sacrificing time with family and friends, wearing ourselves out mentally, emotionally and physically all to be a part of God's overall mission.  We have grown soo close over the past month that it was hard to say goodbye.  Terry has been using the analogy of the breaking of the fellowship of the ring from Lord of The Rings and that is a perfect analogy.  This morning as we got to the airport, we unloaded the bus quickly and said quick goodbye's as they headed inside and I headed back to the hotel with Guillermo.  It was such a quick goodbye that it really didn't sink in until I was heading back to Teguc this morning with just Guillermo.  The past month has been incredible and I couldn't have asked for a better group of people to have gone on this trip with.  I know that some of you guys are reading this and I just want to say Thank You for an incredible trip.  It has been amazing and I hate that it has had to come to an end.  From facebook post I've seen that the breaking of the fellowship is almost complete.  As people are getting home they are posting it on FB so it's nice to see that so far they have all made it home safely.  It sucks to say goodbye and to know that I won't be with that amazing group of people here again, maybe a few here and there but as a whole it will be hard to all be together again.  Terry assembled a great group for this trip and I can't possibly say thank you to him enough for allowing me to be a part of the minions.  But as it is in the Lord of The Rings, you have to move on.  The group from home will be here on Friday and it'll be great to see friends from back home who I haven't seen in a month and to meet the new people from Mayesville Church of Christ in Alabama.  I still have just over 2 weeks to go and if the next couple of weeks are just a fraction as awesome as the last month with the minions has been then it'll be a great end to this trip. Kennedy, Katia, Tatiana, Paige, Macy, Kathryn, Leah, Ashley, Brandy, Jorden, Tyler, Pat, Andrew, Joe, Minor, Brandon, Chris, and most of all Terry, Thank you for an incredible summer.

4 Hour Bus Rides....

I am a few days behind on typing up what we have been doing but here goes my best shot at remembering it all.

July 3rd-Day 25
    Last Sunday we were up at 5:45 for breakfast at 6.  The hotel provided breakfast for us and it involved eggs with some sort of salsa on them...In a really hot place, eggs with salsa is not a good idea for future reference.  The 23 of us had a worship service there at the hotel.  It was pretty neat to have a worship service of just a small group of Christians in a conference room of the place we happened to be that day.  It seemed to me to be something that a first century group of Christians would have done, meet wherever they were on Sunday to worship God.  We then headed out to the work sites to hopefully implement our plan of building a house on stilts.  We started the first house by framing the house on the ground and then lifting the frame up onto the concrete pillars.  Then we put in the floor and started framing up the sides and put on the roof.  If I had written this on Sunday evening I would have said that it seemed like a great way to build this house, but on Monday we found a little better way.  The group that we came down with had to go back to Teguc bc they had to fly out Monday morning.  So around 11 they headed out on the 3-4 hour ride back to Teguc and met up with the group at the Valley of Angeles.  Nathan Reeves had a team of about 10 that came in around 1 that afternoon to replace the people we had lost.  So for a couple of hours there were 7 of us putting up siding and some flooring until Nate's group arrived.  The house went up pretty smoothly but it took all day to get just one house up.  But we were a part of the very first Torch house on stilts.  It was a huge accomplishment and the ones to come will be a much needed improvement for the families in the village.  We then went back to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed.
July 4th-Day 26
    Monday we started the day with breakfast at 7.  We had a new plan to build the house today and by 8:30 we were at the site ready to go.  Nate's team thought it best to frame the floor up on the pillars and then build the walls on the floor and stand them up.  This worked a bit better than the way we did it on Sunday.  We framed up 2 sides and stood them up and only had to get ladder's to put up the other 2 sides.  So this method made the building process go a little smoother.  About 1 that afternoon, the lady who we are building the houses for had the school kids come to the house that we had finished on Sunday.  They had a presentation telling us how happy they were that we were there building houses.  They had an Independence Day cake for us and some Pepsi.  Then they wanted us to sing our national anthem which was pretty cool.  I've always wondered how awesome it must be for the U.S soccer team to stand on the pitch in a foreign country with our national anthem playing in front of ppl of another country.  This gave me a little taste of what that might be like.  It was a really awesome 30 minutes.  So we then went back to work on the house.  The 4 interns that were still there had to leave at 3, that's when our van got there, to go back to Teguc to meet up with the rest of our team so we could head to Santa Rosa the next morning.  So we loaded up at 3, took showers at the hotel till 4 and headed back to Teguc.  We left the build team with a roof to put on the house but we had started framing the floor for the next house.  So this build went quite a bit quicker than the one on Sunday went.  We made it back to the mission house about 6:45 and ate and had devo.  Then got to bed early to since everyone was worn out.  The team of 122 was now back down to just 20. 
July 5th-Day 27
    Tuesday morning we got to sleep in a little bit.  Brunch was at 9:30 and we had to be on the bus ready to leave between 12 and 1.  It was a fairly slow morning with nothing to do but pack and chill for a little bit.  We were told that the drive from Teguc to Santa Rosa de Copan would take about 4 hours so we were planning on being there by 6 at the latest.  So we loaded up and left the mission house about 12:30.  About 30 minutes outside of Teguc is where the road construction started.  We sat, then went a few miles, then sat, then went a few miles, and yea sat in traffic some more.  The weather here has been beautiful, low 80's, the rain has held off till the evenings...Not on Tuesday.  It started raining 5 minutes after we left the mission house and rained nearly the entire trip to Santa Rosa, so that slowed us down some as well.  Some of the storms were incredibly intense.  So at 9:30 we came rolling into the hotel here in Santa Rosa.  It was a long day and we were all pretty wiped out.  For those of you that think a 9 hour ride wasn't extremely bad, let me describe the roads here in Honduras.  The bus constantly has to swerve to miss the canyons and pot holes on steroids.  The driver does a great job to miss the big ones but you can't miss the little ones if you're trying to avoid the big ones.  It's like riding on the back of a four-wheeler through the woods for 9 straight hours.  It can be rough.  Just when you get to sleep you hit another hole and just when you think the road has smoothed out you quickly find out that it hasn't.  Now don't think I'm complaining bc I'm not.  The scenery is incredible and there is fun to be had on a bus ride like that.  But after 9 hours of it you are pretty beat.  Thankfully we made it safely to the hotel, through the storms and darkness and more storms and construction.  This is the last place the interns will be working before the trip comes to an end.  We are going to be working with Mission UpReach this week doing a few projects but mainly doing a VBS in a school that they are heavily involved with here.  It is everyone's first trip to Santa Rosa and our first time working with Mission UpReach so it should be a grand adventure.
July 6th-Day 28 
    Wednesday was a good day but not a great day.  We were up to eat breakfast at 7:30 and left at 8:30 to go to the school to hold our first VBS of the week.  We have the kids from 9 to 11 so we have 2 hours with them each morning.  The skit went ok but everyone was tired and it kinda showed, we were dragging.  Everything else went ok for the most part.  Since it was our first time to this school, we didn't know what kind of facilities we would have so we had to improvise a little bit when we got there and things went ok.  The kids seemed to have had a great time.  The school is located in arguably the poorest part of Santa Rosa.  Since Mission UpReach has been here this school has gone from one of the worst schools according to grades, to winning an award this past year for having the best test scores in the Santa Rosa area.  The school is just outside the city in Los Angeles so I can now say that I've been to Los Angeles and people will be like dude that's awesome.  After the VBS we had pretty much the rest of the day to do whatever we wanted.  Most of us went out into the city to walk around and visit the shops and the cathedral and just see the city.  It is a very colonial style city with cobblestone streets and narrow streets.  It looks similar to pictures I've seen of towns in Spain.  It seems pretty peaceful and it is a gorgeous place.  After that a few of us went to the pool on the roof of the hotel for a few hours and then went to the local soccer field/track and jogged and walked some and just hung out there.  Then there was dinner, devo and we headed to bed. 
July 7th-Day 29
    Today we were up for breakfast at 7:30 again and left for the school at 8:30.  The kids were already out front waiting for us when we pulled up.  We had a meeting last night about how to do a better job with the VBS today and it went so much better today.  The skit was much more energetic and the kids loved it.  We kept each group of kids in one room and just moved the people with different activities to the kids instead of trying to move the kids which went much smoother than yesterday.  We had a much better time and the kids seemed to have enjoyed it more today.  I had to get my Silas on one more time but we are now done with the skits I am in since we won't be doing our 4th skit this week.  After that we came back to the hotel for lunch and then I have no idea what people were doing this afternoon.  I came up here to my room and laid down on the bed thinking I would take an hour nap and 4 hours later woke up when they told me dinner was in 10 minutes.  So that was GREAT.  Doing a VBS, then eating lunch, then going to sleep only to be woken bc of more food...It was a great day.  After dinner we had devo up by the pool and now I'm sitting here on my bed about to be out for the night. 
    So tomorrow will be our last day of planned work.  We have our VBS tomorrow morning and will leave for the ruins in Copan on Saturday morning.  I'm absolutely pumped about going to the ruins.  It'll be my first time to see them and I'm excited.  It is the largest set of ruins in the america's and only a fraction of it has been uncovered.  In my missions class last semester we did a project to develop an evangelistic campaign for a Mayan Indian culture in Guatemala so we had to do a lot of research on the Maya people.  To get to go to their ancient capital will be incredible.  So I'm just a little excited about that.  But until next time, peace out.

Halfway Point

June 29th-July 1st-Day 21-23
    Wednesday I went to build another house in El Peliguin on the backside of El Hatillo which is the mountain the mission house is on.  This house site was up on the side of the mountain but it was more like a swamp than a mountain.  We had to dig drainage ditces to drain some of the water away from the site.  A few of the guys started to square up the house and when I asked them if they thought they could get it square they all just handed me their tapes, they learned quickly.  I had it within a half inch pretty quickly.  The first whole we dug started filling up with water and when we packed it with dirt the post nearly fell over, it was that wet and muddy.  So we had to use bags of cement to hold all of the post in place, even the post in between the corner post.  The build went fairly well.  We didn't have any major issues and the team worked great together.  The only issue we really had was that Pat and I got the team started on the wrong walls first so we had to finish the floor and the 4th wall before we could start the roof so the team was sort of sitting around with nothing to do as the roof was finished.  We then went to the Jesus statue wednesday night and had devo with one of Tim Hines groups. 
    On Thursday I went to Didasko to get my Silas on.  After all the months of planning and weeks doing VBS in 3 different countries, this was the last day of VBS for me.  We had about 80 kids at the orphanage and just had a blast.  The games, snacks, crafts, skits, and everything else was absolutely perfect.  Terry said he thought that this was our best performance of a skit so far.  We found out that the Choluteca house building team will not be going all the way to Choluteca.  The place is actually called San Lorenzo and it's close to Choluteca but not quite there, only like 2 and a half hours away.  It's still supposedly extremely hot and it has been raining for 72 straight hours down there which is causing us to not be able to go on Friday but to wait until Saturday now.  We are still going to try to build as many houses in a day as is humanly possible so it'll still be a tough weekend.  The main group is leaving on Monday so the ppl that are going to build houses will come back to Teguc on Sunday and the interns that are going will stay with Nathan Reeves and his team to work until Monday evening and then we'll come back. 
    Today, Friday, I went to paint Jenn Arnolds house.  A team of 11 of us went out to paint hers and Josue's house and it was a really nice and easy day before the trip to San Lorenzo tomorrow.  We got nearly the entire house finished, outside only, before the rains set in for the night.  We then came back to the mission house and had devo and now I'm in the bed about to fall asleep.  Tomorrow will be a long day because we will leave at 8:30, get to San Lorenzo around 10:30 or 11 and start building houses by noon.  Hopefully the rain will have stopped by the time we get there and if it doesn't I'm not sure what we'll do.  I've heard that they haven't been getting just normal rainshowers but that it's been torrential downpours for days.  So hopefully everything will work out.
    The intern team only has 10 more days down here and it's in the back of all of our minds but we aren't ready to face that fact yet.  In the past few weeks together we've really grown into a family and it's going to be tough to say goodbye to each other in just a few short days.  The past 3 weeks have been incredible and hopefully our last 10 days together will be just as amazing.  I'm absolutely looking forward to the team from home coming down here.  I'm excited to see the rookies and how they react to the things they will see and to have my brother down here for the first time will be great.  My trip is nearly halfway over and it seems like it just started.  It has gone by so quickly, it seems like just yesterday we were landing in San Jose.  But as amazing as the first part of the trip has been, the second part is shaping up to be incredible as well.  The interns will be leaving Teguc on Tuesday for Santa Rosa de Copan for a week.  It'll be my first trip up there and should be great.  I hope everyone back home is doing great.
    One of our interns is a girl I've known for a few years and many of you back home know her as well.  She does the Torch blog every night and a Torch trip just isn't the same without her.  Brandy Barnett received some terrible news when we returned from painting Jenn's house today.  Her father passed away earlier today.  She was scheduled to fly home on Monday but she will now be going home tomorrow, June 2nd.  I ask that you all keep her and her family in your prayers.  He has had some health issues of late but this was still unexpected.  The next few days, weeks and months are going to be tough for her so please keep her in your prayers.
July 2-Day 24
    We left the mission house about 9 this morning and started heading towards San Lorenzo.  Since the main team leaves out Monday morning, those of us staying here in San Lorenzo until monday evening had to say goodbye to all the great people we've met.  I'm a huge fan of the show Survivor.  I always wonder how the people on the show can say they've created life long friends while only being around those people for a couple of weeks.  This year I can honestly say I can understand how they do it now.  There have been some amazing people on this team and I am really going to miss seeing a bunch of them.  Saying goodbye this morning really really sucked.  I wish them the best as they head back home on Monday and hopefully I'll get to see some of them soon once we are back in the States.  We made it to San Lorenzo about 12:30, after we had a time and a half finding the hotel.  Made it to the house sites around 2 after we realized they booked us in the farthest hotel from the site.  Then we quickly realized that the way they wanted the houses built and the way we do them are completely different.  The wood lengths and quantities we gave them were for a 16x16 ft house on the ground.  They have it laid out for a 24x19 ft house 3 1/2 ft off the ground.  So we quickly realized that we wouldn't be doing anything today except figuring out how to make this work.  I understand the plan that we have created to make this work but I just don't see it working too well.  I hope I'm completely wrong but I don't see these houses being here in a year, but we'll see.  We are going to build them on 6 inch diameter circular concrete columns.  I'll try to get a picture up of it but it scares me.  We are back at the hotel now with a few of the guys swimming so it's really been a productive day.  16 of the 20 that made the trip down are going to have to leave at 10 a.m tomorrow to get back to Teguc since they leave for the States Monday morning.  The 4 of us that stay will meet up with a team of 6 to work until Monday afternoon.  So it's been a frustrating and boring day.  Hopefully tomorrow we can get rocking and rolling with these houses.  It is pretty HOT down here too.  It's like South Carolina in the middle of August but with higher humidity, a good 20 degrees warmer than in Teguc.  The houses that the workers live in, the ones we are building new ones for, are terrible.  There are about 70 houses in this little worker village on this farm and most of them are made with sticks about 6 inches apart with mud pushed up between the sticks.  With the flooding they've had, the bottom 2 or 3 ft of the houses are washed out and they have cardboard or vinyl or sacks or garbage bags to enclose the bottom parts of their houses.  Some of them don't even have a wall or two, it reminds me of the kind of little shacks the ppl on Survivor live in for a few weeks.  It's pretty terrible.  This wouldn't be high on my list of places to live.  Today is the halfway point in this trip 24 days down and 24 to go.  A lot of firsts and a lot of surprises made up the first half of the trip and hopefully the next half is just as GREAT!

Ready to start a week of serving

June 26th-Day 18
    Sunday we split the group up into 3 separate groups to go to different churches.  One team went to Mateo church downtown, one to the Santa Ana church out where Marc Tindall is, and the team I was with went to Mololoa.  Church went just as it usually does when I've been here and able to go.  Afterwards each team went to separate places to eat.  I got to hit up Pizza Hut with a few others and it was great.  The pizza with the cheesy bites as the crust is pretty stinkin good.  We then took the group to Mi Esperanza to buy some things and then went back to the mission for a bit before heading out for dinner.  We went to the mall to eat and found the slowest restaurant in Teguc.  We consisted of 70% of the people in TGIF and it still took an hour for some of the people to get their food.  My table was done in an hour but the others had to wait forever for their food.  After that we headed to the mission house for devo and then to bed.  It was a pretty easy day which was great since I was sore from that house build on saturday.
June 27th-Day 19
    Today was a ridiculously long day.  I was again with the construction team who went out and split 30 people up to build 2 houses.  The house sites were insane.  We walked about 150 yards to the first site then STRAIGHT down about a quarter mile to our site.  The lady that we built the house for was blind and literally lived in a shack made of sticks with mud to hold them together.  She had one crippled son and another son who took care of them.  So since we didn't have wood there when we got to the site, we went ahead and got it square.  That's where the frustrating part started.  I helped and watched and helped and watched for about 30 minutes as a few guys, who at the time thought I had no clue what I was doing but quickly had their minds changed, tried to square up the house.  We didn't have wood so I gave them a good chance to get it right.  When I finally told them to back up and let me do it, they were still about 30 inches out of square....YEA 30 INCHES, pretty terrible.  Within 5 minutes I had it within a half-inch and they were like oh well that made sense doing it that way.  So then we dug all the post and sat and waited on wood for a while.  So at 12:30 we finally get wood and then have to carry it down this hill to the site.  Since I was one of the team leaders I made other people carry the wood down after my first trip which was great.  I put the post in and got the siding level so that when the others finished carrying the wood they could go straight to hammering.  As I said in an earlier post, there are about 70 rookies on this trip.  The people we built with today were pretty much the same people that built with us on Saturday.  So we had a ton of people that had no clue to what they were doing but thought they did because they had helped Saturday.  There were boards I had to knock off because they were wrong.  Flooring that had to come back up.  I told the guy on the roof to get down about half way through and I just finished it by myself.  If there was a hard way and an easy way to do something, they always chose the hard way and you couldn't tell them any different.  They tried to re-invent the wheel several times and I'd just have to let them try and then when they messed something up fix it.  People were sitting around a lot, didn't want to listen to anything.  This was the 27th house I've built down here and it was probably the house that I've put more effort into than all the others.  Ok so I'm done complaining about that.  The best part was that the lady had a house to go into tonight.  When the rains came, she didn't have to dodge the leaks or have water run into her house through her walls.  That's all that matters.  So then we load the bus and head to the mission house.  We were on the other side of the mountain from Villa Gracias, back on the back of the mountain in El Limon.  We get about 5 minutes into the ride back and get stopped on a hill when a motorcycle pulls out in fron of us.  When we start to go we just spin tires.  After about 45 seconds we roll back, hear a loud noise like a tire going down, grinding like the transmission is exploding, see an orange glow out the window and then smoke/steam/something out from under the bus.  Guillermo hit the air brakes and went to jump off the bus but we just rolled back.  Thankfully he jumped right back on and hit the brakes but that's when the interns that were there quickly got everyone off the bus.  The airbag system had gone out, botht right rear tires were flat, the air brake system went out and we think the rear end went out as well.  So after an hour and a half wait with a bunch of irritated Hondurans who couldn't get home bc the bus was blocking the entire road, we made it back to the mission house.....around 8 or so.   So it was an incredibly long day.  I'm not sure that saying I'm wore out would come close expressing how tired I am.  The frustration today and bus issues are all worth it knowing someone has a new house tonight.  God is great.  Tomorrow, I am going to pick the easiest thing on the schedule and go and do that, no matter what it is.  But for now, just sleep.  Oh great and glorious bed, here I come!
June 28th-Day 20
    Today was a pretty good day.  I was able to go to Mololoa to work with a team to move the mud from behind the church.  I kept sneaking off as much as I could to go up to the daycare and see Bryan but we were still able to get 90% of the mud moved.  We broke up the mudd, put it in a bucket, and tossed it over the edge of the hill.  Very basic but evergy consuming task.  There was also a team painting at the daycare and at the new bathrooms at the church.  That was really all I did today.  Hung out with Jenn some, played with kids.  Oh, the new bathrooms need a sewage tank dug so we started that today too.  A 5x5 hole 6 ft deep at the base of the hill in front of the church.  That is not even close to being done but a good start was made. There are now plans that have materialized in the last day and a half to send a team to Choluteca to build houses for a few days.  A lady that runs a farm there wants us to come build 25 to 30 houses for her this weekend to replace the terrible houseing she currently has for her workers..  She is going to pay transportation, hotels, food, and buy the wood for the houses so we won't have to pay for anything.  We are sending 30 people down which is 3 crews with the hope of pumping out 2-3 houses per day per crew from Friday-Monday evening.  Then we will come back Tuesday.  As much as I like to build houses, I'm not so sure I want to do this yet.  We will have to beast some houses like never before.  A list of ppl interested is being put together and then 30 will be chosen to make the team.  So this weekend might shape up to be an intense weekend.  I'll be co-leading a house team tomorrow to sort of train some of the guys to work together and build a really good house fairly quickly as a sort of warm up for them for this weekend.  I've got until tomorrow evening to decide if I want to go or not so we'll see what happens.  So far it has rained everyday that this team has been here.  The good thing is that it holds off until at least 3.  Between 3 and 7 though, you can bet it'll start raining for a while.  It has been fairly cool though, only in the mid 80's which has been nice.  Hopefully this weather will last until the end of July.  I hope everyone is doing great back home.  Counting down the days until you guys will be down here.

Teguc at last!!!

June 22nd/23rd-Day 14/15
    So the bus ride wasn't the most fun thing in the world.  It was about 10 1/2 hours, lots of getting on and off the bus, switched buses, just not a very fun start to the day.  We made it to Teguc about 2ish and had lunch downtown near the airport.  Then went to the warehouse to start sorting boxes of supplies so that they'll be ready when the team comes in on Friday.  We were sorting things for about 2 or 3 hours and made made a ton of progress.  We then came up to the mission house, unloaded our luggage and got settled into our rooms.  We went out to dinner, a large number of us went to the mall to eat and see the USA-Panama game but when we walked in the front door we saw highlights of the only goal scored.  So it was a bummer we didn't get to see it but at least we won.  We then came back to the mission house and I went straight to bed and the others had devo and stuff.  I went on to bed because about halfway through the bus ride I started getting a headache.  After we left the warehouse it had started getting worse and I started almost shivering I was so cold.  Then at the mall, as I was in long pants and a jacket and still cold while everyone else was in shorts, my head felt like it was going to explode.  From my neck down I was freezing but my head was on fire.  I had a pretty bad fever and vision was a little blurry at times and they said that my face was really red too.  But the good news is that I took some meds, went to bed and felt like a million bucks when I got up this morning.  So first-a scorpion, second-electric shock, and third-terrible and mysterious headache and fever. 
    Today we started getting up around 8 to leave for the warehouse by 9:30.  I designated myself to be the person to bring up the rear so I got up about 9:15 but I was sick last night so I had an excuse.  We were at the warehouse all day breaking down the stuff even further than we did yesterday.  Loaded up medical stuff on the bus to bring back to the mission house and I'm now sitting here just waiting for dinner.  Not a whole lot of excitement.  Today was a lot of lifting and grunt work and tomorrow the larger group comes in.  Tomorrow we will have to crank up the intensity quite a bit.  So far nothing out of the blue has happened to me yet but we are waiting.  I have a guy on scorpion watch, one that checks the shower before I go in and a nurse following me around...Not really but I'd feel a little more safe if I could get them to do that.  Hopefully today will break this trend

June 24th/25th-Day 16/17
    I just want to start off by saying yesterday was great. Nothing terrible happened, just a nice normal day.  So I have realized that everything that happened, happened in Nicaragua and I got sick on the way out of Nicaragua....I'm not sure I'd feel safe going back.
    Friday was an incredibly busy day.  We were up early to start prepping for the group to come in.  We had skits to plan to act out the rules sheet such as what happens if you flush the toilet paper or what happens if you drink the water....It was great and I've got video to prove how great it was, I just have to figure out how to post pics and videos on here first.  Then we loaded up the buses with boxes of food to go on a "gatorade blitz" where we rush off the bus and give food and gatorade to the street workers who earn less than $5 a day.  So we went to the store and they didn't have enough gatorade so Capri Sun was a good substitute so I guess you could say it was a Capri Sun blitz.  We then took the bus around the city passing the food and drinks out until we realized we were supposed to be at the airport 30 minutes ago.  So then we hurried to the airport and waited just a little while for the first group to land and the fun began.  5 interns were assigned to each bus of 40 people.  We took them to lunch and to the grocery store and then back to the mission house for orientation.  Things went really smooth but it was a fast paced day.  We then just chilled at the mission house till dinner, had devo, orientation with the skits and then off to bed. 
    Today we really started working.  One team went to the hospital, one to the market downtown, one to the warehouse to sort more clothes, one group stayed at the mission house to make food bags to hand out and hygiene kits.  one group went to didasko orphanage to get ready for the medical clinic the first 3 days of next week.  And then 3 teams went out to build houses so I finally got to build my first house this year.  just over 70 people out of the 122 are new this year so there are a lot of new house builders this year.  About 3/4 of the ppl on the build crews today were new and they were all great.  It did take us till nearly dark to finish but we took our time with 11 ppl per crew and ended the day with 3 great houses.  The only real issue we had other than the rain showers was chainsaws.  Our team had the guys in the house to cut out the door and window once we had boarded up the last wall.  So as they are completely boarded in, they go to start the chainsaws to cut.  The first one runs out of gas.  They start the second one and get about 3/4 of the way done with the window and it runs out of gas.  So we look for our gas can and it had apparently walked off somewhere.  So another guy went with me to one of the other build sites about half a mile away, to get some gas.  When we get there we see 4 people outside and the house completely boarded up.  They had just started to cut out their window and their first chainsaw ran out of gas and when they tried to start the second one they pulled the pull cord out of it so it wouldn't start either.  So they had sent guys to our site and the other site to get another chainsaw.  So after it was all said and done, we got our gas, they got another chainsaw and we made it back to the mission house about 7:15.  But other than that little issue, it was a great day.  I'm sunburnt, wore out and about to head to bed so peace out.  Oh and Tasha, as painful as this is for me to say, you were right, there are capybara's here.  Another guy here saw one this morning.

The first leg of our journey

When I started my senior year of high school, if you would have told me that in only 5 years I would be spending 2 months doing mission work in three Central American countries,  I would have told you that it sounded cool but that it would never happen.  If you'd have said that it would be my eigth trip to Central America, I'd have said you were crazy.  And if you'd said that I'd be spending a lot of the time with people I didn't know too well and with none of my family with me I would have called you ridiculous.  But here I am and what a great few years it's been.  So far on this trip we've gotten to do a few vbs, a gospel meeting, visit 2 volcanoes, and a lot more.  I know some of you have been asking what I've been doing down here so I figured that a blog would be the easiest way to let everyone know what we are up to.  I didn't start typing anything until after the first week so I'll remember as much as I can.

June 9th-Day 1
    So the first day of the trip was a very long day.  We had a drive to Atlanta, flight to Miami then a flight down to San Jose, Costa Rica.  We arrived in San Jose about 11:30 local time, as of right now they aren't recognizing daylights savings so it's actually 2 hours behind eastern time.  We ate lunch at the mall and then loaded up for a supposedly 4 hr bus ride to Buenos Aires, which is in the southern part of the country not too far from Panama.  So at around 2 we headed out of San Jose to conquer the Cerro de la Muerte or Mountain of death.  One bus lost a cylinder on the way up so going uphill quickly became a slow process.  After all was said and done it took us about 7 hours to reach Buenos Aires.  I pretty much headed to bed as soon as we got to the hotel.  One thing that surprised me though was that there weren't any school  buses at all. They use buses that are more like a church bus or tour buss kind of thing.  I had a great surprise too when we got done eating lunch and came back to the buses and Ernie and Denis Ulmer had just arrived in San Jose.  I didn' know they were part of this group but it was great to see them.

June 10th-Day 2
    The Church in Buenos Aires has a house that they rent about 100 yards from the church where they allow people to stay who are having a rough time and use for other church purposes.  The ladies of the church used this house to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner for us each night.  So they wanted us up between 6 and 6:15 a.m to get ready so we could load the buses by 6:45 and be over at the house for breakfast.  And yes I did stay in the bed until about 6:35 and then got up to go.  So after breakfast we had morning devo at the church then left for the school, Vera Cruz, to have a VBS for the kids.  There were about 90 kids and we had snacks, games, crafts, and the VBS skits.  We had a ton of fun and the kids seemed to have loved it.  After that we went to the park where the local radio station came out so that the group could sing over the radio.  So in the middle of the park the group sang and a few of the preachers that were in town for the gospel meetings talked over the radio for a while.  It was pretty cool to be a part of that.  After that we kind of had a slow afternoon of just preparing other things to get ready for the gospel meeting.  We had dinner and devo and went practiced one of the skits that night back at the hotel.  All in all the first day on the ground went really well
June 11th-Day 3
    We had breakfast at 8 a.m this morning because we were going to a wedding at the church building at
10:30 that morning.  The wedding was pretty cool.  The guy, Charlie, has been living here in Costa Rica for the past 30 years.  He moved down here when his parents did 30 years ago and he hasn't been back to the states since.  They had the wedding outside under a tent.  After the wedding both Charlie and Betsy, his new wife, wanted to be baptized so at 3 that afternoon they were both baptized.  In between the wedding and baptism, we went out in the city to go doorknocking.  This was really my first time doing anything like that and it was nice.  We had a blast going out and goofing off but also inviting people to come to the gospel meeting which started later on that evening.  We also went back out and covered a little more of the area after the baptisms.  We then had dinner right before the gospel meeting got underway.  Rafael, a preacher at a congretation around Freed-Hardemann and native Costa Rican, opened up the gospel meeting with a great sermon.  I love how he is so passionate about what he is saying.  We had one guy, Issac, decide after Rafael spoke that he wanted to be baptized.  So on the first day of the gospel meeting we had 3 baptisms.  It was a pretty awesome day. 

June 12th-Day 4
    Sunday morning started out like the other morning had with breakfast at the house and then heading over to the church.  One thing I've always liked is worshipping with a congregation here.  It's cool to be a part of it.  So we had church and then lunch.  The mens and womens classes started at 2 everyday and the vbs team was supposed to have a vbs for the kids that were supposed to be at the church, the only problem was that there was only like 5 kids at the church.  So we did what I think the church should do more of.  Instead of finding something else to do we went out and met the kids in the streets throughout the city and had the vbs there.  We went and bought balloons so that as we walked down the street announcing what we were doing we could give the kids balloons and they would follow us to the end of the road where we would perform our skits.  We did the skits in full costume at few places and had an incredible turnout.  Even with it being pretty stinkin hot we were able to have great success.  While we were out doing the skits we had an older man, probably in his 80's, at the mens class at the church decide he wanted to be baptized.  We then had the gospel meeting that night, dinner and the went back to the hotel.  Up until day 4 we didn't have any rain at all but that was about to change.  The great thing was that the rain really cooled it down for the rest of our time in Buenos Aires and it didn't really hinder us at all.

June 13th-Day 5
    Today after morning devo the vbs team had a little time to prep before we went out to another school, Santa Cruz.  So we could practice a little before heading out later on that morning.  When we got to the school there were no kids in the area but very soon after we arrived the teachers started letting them out of class and bringing them over.  After about 5 minutes I realized that we had more kids that we did at the first school.  After about 10 minutes I realized that we had doubled the number of kids at the first school.  After 15 minutes I wondered if every kid in a 10 mile radius was going to come.  I think we had 252 kids total.  Since on this trip I'm a part of VBS for the first time, 250 kids is a lot to me.  It was a little crazy at times but overall it was great.  The kids all seemed to love the skits, snacks, games, and crafts we had for them.  The skit went really well and we all had a blast doing it.  After the VBS, we went back out doorknocking.  This is when the rain began to make it's presence known.  About 25 minutes in, it started drizzling/sprinkling but it wasn't enough to make us stop.  Right as we were finishing though the bottom fell out of the clouds and it rained just about all day after that.  After that we had dinner and then the meeting for the night.  Rafael spoke again and it was great once again.  We had our devo and then went back to the hotel for the evening.

June 14th/15th-Day 6/7
    Days started running together at this by day 6.  I know that we went out and did some a lot of doorknocking.  It rained/drizzled all day but that just made it more fun.  The gospel meeting continued that night and we prepared for we went to prepare for our last day in Buenos Aires.  On day 7 we had the chance to go to an Indian reservation about 45 minutes from Buenos Aires.  They had a new classroom at their school that they wanted painted and they wanted us to do a VBS for the kids.  After we started painting we realized that it was going to take all day to finish and the kids were let out of school early so we scratched the VBS.  We were literally up in the clouds on the mountain at this place and of all things we had a thunderstorm roll in.  It was pretty awesome being in the clouds during a thunderstorm.  We never really saw lightning but the thunder was pretty intense.  Once we got pretty close to finishing painting the building, one of the men on the reservation's council (I like to think of it as like a Jedi council) wanted to take us into their town so we could visit their museum.  We went and saw their hand crafted masks, they were pretty neat.  This reservation was also the site where the first Jurassic Park was filmed so you can imagine what the scenery was like, awesome.  We then headed back to the church and had the final meeting of the gospel meetings.  Terry spoke and had a great lesson.  We then wrapped up the meetings and began to say goodbye to all the great friends we had met throughout the week.  Daniel Chavez, who is the preacher at the congregation and his family are just incredible people.  I wish we could have spent a lot more time here because the people of Buenos Aires are so amazing and are thirsting for someone to show that they care about them.  The gospel meeting was a such a great thing for the town.  We covered 80%% of the town by doorknocking.  Had radio campaigns and tv campaigns.  A total of 4 baptisms and many more that responded throughout the week.  For me, it was a trip of firsts.  It was my first time doorknocking, my first time experiencing a gospel meeting like this,  my first time involved in VBS and my first time spending time with this group of interns that I'll be with for the next few weeks.  Everybit of it has been incredibly awesome and I've enjoyed every second of it.  The intern team that Terry has put together couldn't be any better.  We've been together for a week and it feels like we've known each other forever.  The first leg of our trip has just been incredible.  We now slow down for a few days before heading to Nicaragua.

June 16th-Day 8
    Thursday we loaded up the buses at the hotel and went to breakfast at the house then to the church for devo.  We had devo and had another quick goodbye with the people of Buenos Aires before loading up the buses to head back to San Jose.  We made it back to San Jose in about 7 hours (again, supposed to be a 4 hour trip but the naptime was GREAT).  We had lunch about halfway there and were able to stop at a few shops in San Jose and then headed to the hotel for the night.

June 17th-Day 9
    We had breakfast and devo then loaded up the buses to head to the Arenal Volcano to spend the night.  We took a 4 hour bus ride (this one actually was only 4 hrs) to a place at the foot of the volcano that had a lot of hotsprings.  They had water slides, waterfalls, about 15 different pools ranging from 90 to 152 degrees.  The 152 pool would burned my feet in about 3 seconds so only my feet made it in, although we had a few that temporarily lost their minds and dove in only to run out pretty quickly.  We spent most of the day at the hot springs before leaving and going to the hotel for the evening.  The volcano was incredible though.  A perfect cone shaped volcano with smoke constantly rising out of the top.  I didn't get the lava show I was hoping for (probably a good thing) but it was still incredible to see.  We had our final devo with the most of the team, a few left Thursday and 4 more left tonight.  Now that this trip is winding down our time as a 42 man team has ended.

June 18th-Day 10
    We loaded the buses early again to head back to San Jose.  Another "4 hour ride" and we were back in San Jose at the hotel to spend our final hours before we headed out.  We loaded up the bus later on that night and left at midnight to be at the bus station for our ride to Nicaragua.  21 of us are making the trip and the others flew back to the states as their 2011 trip had ended.  The Costa Rica trip was great.  We had an incredibly smooth trip, rains never really altered our plans and we had great success in everything we did.  It is such a beautiful place with all the natural beauty and wildlife.  The country didn't look as bad off as Honduras, it was quite a bit more advanced than Hondo.  There were still some places where they lived in small wooden houses like the TORCH houses but they were larger, had electricity and a lot of the people had vehicles.  I'm sure that there are places in Costa Rica like Mololoa and Nueve Oriental, Los Pinos and other places around Teguc but if you're going to find those areas in San Jose then you're really going to have to look for them.  They aren't as noticeable or as widespread as they are in Teguc.  There is still a great physical need here but even though it may not be as great as the physical need in Honduras, there is still a great spiritual need and that is the reason we come on these trips.  It's great to build houses, give out food and clothes, but if we aren't bringing people to know God, to believe in Christ then what we are doing has no greater purpose than just getting someone by for a few weeks.  The need for Christ to be brought into people's lives is just as great in Costa Rica as it is in Honduras and in every other part of the world.  I hope and believe that TORCH has been able to lay a good foundation to be able to come back and expand their mission efforts in Costa Rica just as they have in Honduras.

June 19th-Day 11
    We had the 9 hour bus ride from San Jose to Masaya, Nicaragua Sunday morning.  We arrived in Masaya about 11 a.m.  The bus doesn't have a normal stopping point in Masaya so the driver just randomly stopped along the major highway and let us out on the sidewalk.  I have to say that with 21 people and 40+ bags of luggage, it was a little interesting just standing on the sidewalk waiting on our bus to come pick us up.  What we didn't know at the time, and didn't realize for about 20 minutes, was that the hotel we were staying at was only about 100 yards up the road.  So we grabbed our bags, crossed the road and we at our hotel that we'd be at for the next few days.  We then went to church at the local congregation who had put off services until 3 so that we could be there.  A really small congregation of about 15 people met at a local school because there building wasn't large enough to hold them and us.  We had church with them and then had a pretty relaxed rest of the day.  Practiced our VBS skits, went to a local artists house and went to bed.  Oh and there was this little restaurante in town that we ate lunch at that had the best chicken I've ever had.  Like 4 grilled chicken fillets, tons of fries and a pepsi for under $5, it was great.
So now I have caught up with everything.  I'm sure I've left something out but now I'll hopefully be able to keep up with the things we are doing and type it up before I forget anything.

June 20th-Day 12
    Today we were up fairly early to eat breakfast at 7 so that we could be at the bus by 7:30 to go see the Masaya Volcano about 30 minutes away.  The volcano wasn't a cone shape like the Arenal Volcano was, this one had collapsed so we could go up to the edge and look down in it.  It was pretty spectacular.  It had 3 major craters and one has been pretty active the last few weeks.  They've only allowed people to start going back to the rim of the volcano in the past week because it's been so active.  It was pretty warm, smelled of sulfur and was just incredible to see.  Every few minutes a massive puff of smoke would come pouring out of it.  We had nothing else planned for the morning so after we left the volcano we had nothing to do until our 1:30 VBS at a local cultural center.  Once we got to the center, I picked my hands up off the top of the seat in front of me, put one hand on the window and felt something like a massive thorn in my index finger.  So I pulled my hand back and shook it quickly and saw something fall to the floor.  I jumped up, pulled back the seat on the bus and a scorpion a little smaller than the size of my hand took off toward the back of the bus.  He got up into a part near the wheel well and disappeared after that.  I had a couple of swollen spots on my finger but so far I haven't died so I think I'll be ok.  It looks like he got me with his pinchers and not his stinger so I feel pretty lucky.  The VBS didn't look like it was going to be a huge success to start off with.  There were about 15 kids in the center so we started with songs for the kids.  Some of us were putting on costumes in another room where they were getting the snacks ready.  They poured 20 cups full of juice and Brandy came in and said we now had 25 kids, so they poured some more juice.  She came back and said there were 37 kids, then 44, then 50+.  We ended up having 98 kids and 22 adults total so it was a huge success.  It seemed like the more songs that they were singing, the more people on the street passed by and decided to come in.  We had games and coloring books and it was great.  After that we went back to the hotel for the and just chilled for the rest of the afternoon.  It seems like every time we have some down time all we want to do is sleep.  We practiced our 3rd skit for VBS tomorrow, which I'm not in so I went on to bed early.

June 21st-Day 13
    So i'ts 3:45 a.m and I'm on the second level of a double decker bus which is pretty cool.  Today we finished up our short stop in Nicaragua.  We had an easy morning with really nothing to do.  The ones in the VBS skit practiced that and I just chilled on my bed with my eyes closed and dead to the world.  Then at 1 we left to go to the local park to have another VBS.  We were able to use a stage in the park which mad it great, since we were outside we actually had room to move around as opposed to the small room we were in yesterday.  We had 95 kids today so it was another big turnout.  The King Agrippa skit was a ton of fun and the games and crafts seemed to be a big hit with the kids.  After the VBS we went back to the hotel for dinner, devo and to start packing to leave for the bus station.  We came to Masaya with the hope of having a great turnout for our VBS and I would say that it was mission accomplished.  The first two stops in our trip have been excellent and couldn't have really gone any better.  But now we are on a bus headed to Teguc.  We are tired now but as Terry said earlier tonight, we haven't experienced tired yet.  We will hit the ground running in Teguc.  A team of 122 arrive in a few days and we have to get everything ready for them so that when they get here they can jump right into working.  Sorting things at the warehouse is the biggest of those tasks which we will start on literally when we get off the bus in about 9 hours or so.  The part of Nicaragua we stayed in was much more like what you'd see in Honduras.  The poverty seemed to be a little worse than Costa Rica but not as bad as places we've been in Hondo.  But we've only seen a very small portion of Nicaragua so I would bet the poverty is worse in other places.  The preacher at the Church in Masaya is great though.  A really awesome guy and I wish him nothing but the best as he continues to establish his congregation just outside of Masaya in Nidiri.
    So I have another scorpion like story for today.  After we had gotten done eating dinner and had devo, I decided to go take a shower.  First off, I just want to say that I've always thought that the shower heads that they use down here (the water heaters with wires going everywhere where the shower head would be in the states would be) are safe and caused no problem.  That all changed in about 2 minutes tonight.  So I'm washing my hair and I smelled smoke.  It wasn't unusual because I had been smelling it since we had been in the hotel so I just went back to washing my hair.  So about 30 seconds later I realized that the smoke was filling up the room so I turned around and looked up and saw one of the wires just glowing orange and smoke pouring off of it.  So my first reaction was to turn off the water, so i grabbed the handle and you know that feeling you get when you wake up at night and you've been laying on your arm wrong and it is all tingling and going numb?  Well when I grabbed that handle that's the feeling I got all the way up to my shoulder.  So I jerked my hand back and still standing in the water, looked up and thought, I've either got to grab that handle again to turn the water off or watch this building burn.  So I looked back at the handle and I won't lie, I had to contemplate for a few seconds whether I wanted to grab that thing again.  But I did and it shocked the mess out of me again but the shower head turned off and the wire stopped glowing and the smoke was slowly starting to stop pouring off the wires.  So for about an hour my hand was tingling.  So yesterday was a scorpion and today was a shower, I can't wait to see what tomorrow holds.  But for now, it is sleep time.