Progress letter to Steve & Hope

Hi Steve -

This is the first of 2 e-mails today from us to you. This is the technical data - where projects and funds are.

1. Roof on director's house - complete, 1 leak still present, welder has been notified & materials are there at the house to fix. I spoke with Pablo several times about the old metal roof, he has not set a price, he "needs to count the metal pieces and see which are bad and good." I'm pretty sure he thinks he'll get a better deal from you than from me, so he put it off. The pastor offered an even trade for his services, so the price should be AT LEAST 1900 limps - worth more than that. The metal is still on the property despite several insistences by me that it be removed, the plan is for his uncle (Tia - the lame one) to move them this weekend, although I think the plan was to put them up by the wood pile, despite my clear statement that you want them off the property. The children run and play near the pile of metal, Wanda is beside herself that this is a disaster waiting to happen.

2. Biedelina house - complete, with dedication service went well. I dropped off a replacement toilet seat for one broken by workers, she is still in the rental house but has keys and is very excited to get into new house. The kids are greatly excited.

3. Fence at property - should be complete today. Omar is finishing the stucco & welder has to install the metal, which is completed and waiting for installation. The welder is paid in full, as he finished his part. Omar and Roldan & Jose will need paid today, money in envelope sufficient for this. The fence is done. In response to the request by Garden City for work that the women could do, I bought 10 gallons of paint (2 5-gallon buckets) from Lionel himself - the pressure was on, I did not check sufficiently, and there had not been enough time for the wall to dry; in addition, there was a wall conditioner that needed to be applied prior to painting - so I did not have the ladies do any painting. There are 2 5-gallon buckets of paint at the house that have not been used. Lionel told me directly that no-one uses oil paint for fences, that it does not hold up to rain, etc. and that the proper paint was an acrylic paint. I actually confirmed this with 2 other people prior to accepting his word, so I bought an acrylic paint - but it was a stock paint, not mixed, so it could be returned or exchanged. We will need to buy and apply the wall conditioner prior to painting in either case. As it stood, we had a field day with all of the children from BOTH programs Friday, so the ladies would not have been able to paint anyway. The team greatly enjoyed the field day.

4. "Gerson's" house (clinic house) - We installed new roof caps (wider) as the old ones were not sufficient - numerous leaks along the ridges. New roof caps appear to have solved the leak problems. New screens have been installed (Bobby & co) with the wall channel for suspended ceiling, but decided against installing the ceiling until doors are installed. Doors are purchased (very expensive - I will cover this in 2nd letter) and paid for, also I bought all of the hardware for installation and left it with Omar, the doors are locked in the container. They are very bonita! All paid for & Omar has instructions. Money will be needed for the suspended ceilings eventually. Omar should complete the doors by next Wednesday (needs pushed sometimes). The Garden City team attempted some of the concrete work, but it was not very smooth, and I gave instructions to Roldan to chip it out and re-do it. All of the work projects at the clinic will be completed by Omar, all materials are bought. Only money needed will be Omar & Co. pay by NEXT Friday. The septic pipe will be fully repaired by them, they have the materials.

5. Water tower - I have bought a huge pile of gravel and another of sand for this project, but the stuccoing at Biedelina and at the fence has consumed some of the arena, so more will be needed. I have bought cement sufficient for the feet of the tower and for most of the columns, but did not have sufficient funds for the wood for forms or for the rebar for the terrazo. It will take Omar through the end of 2 weeks from now to reach the point where he needs additional materials. He might need more sand the middle of the second week. I have discussed the 5000 liter tanks with Lionel on several occasions, the price is still 14,000 lempira each (!!!) and we were unable to find them any cheaper anywhere in San Pedro Sula. He will only need 4 days to order and obtain the tanks, I told him it would be at least 2 weeks more until they were needed. I took Omar and Roldan to the Aqua Azul hotel to see the concrete supports under the deck, and have strongly advised them to put diagonal braces between the legs of the tower for triangulation strength, as Angel did beneath his deck. They have the plans, it will only cost a little bit more to put these in. Omar and Roldan both agreed that it would be a lot stronger. Additional funds will be needed for this project, as follows:

Arena - 3000 limps, from Tigre
Materials - 15,000 limps, from Lionel
Tanks - 20,000 limps from Lionel
Labor - 4 weeks at 3250 limps = 13,000 limps - I don't know if it will take this long, outside figure.

Labor detail: Omar is well paid. Roldan is nearly as good as Omar, better on a lot of things and works a bit harder - He has said nothing about the pay, but I think he's worth all of 1250 limps a week. I (of course) did not do this but am recommending it. Omar has a brother (I forget the name) who is the best concrete finisher I have seen - he did an excellent job on the outer stove at Biedelina's. - we paid him 600 limps for 2 days work. If needed in the future for big projects, he should be used.

6, Transformer for Los Pinos - I hope by now that you have heard that Chet Thomas has agreed to allow MOM to put in a transformer for the school at Los Pinos, in fact he assumes that it would be available for all the community, and he is happy with that. The Garden City team was very touched by the Los Pinos experience, by the program blossoming there, and they left a total of $1800 US for the transformer. Pablo has been working on the transformer situation, and has been unable to get a reasonable price yet, but theoretically is working on it. We thought the $1800 would be sufficient, and Cesar (Pablo's brother) has the ability to install it, but the numbers we have heard are far higher than the original quote. More on that later. I will send you a copy of Chet Thomas e-mail to me - I printed it off and showed it to the team, and they were greatly pleased at such a quick answer to prayer.

6B - meeting at Los Pinos Tuesday - Most of the parents AND Ernestine attended the meeting. I had all of the older children attend, those that would be able to pay attention to difficult material, and I think that it was blessed.
1. I spoke and Pablo translated, I spoke about why Wanda and I had come, presented the Gospel message and drew the "crossing over" pictures to help explain;
2. I spoke about the 3 paths that the children could take - the "do what you want" path, the "grow up, marry, have kids and live in Los Pinos like your parents" path (which I told them was fine if that's what they wanted), and the "education and making good choices" path which could lead them to college and career, perhaps returning to Los Pinos as a teacher, a doctor, etc. I asked the parents which path they wanted for their children, and was very surprised and pleased that there were plans for a doctor (Yaniris), a lawyer (Marvella), and a senator (Cesar) in the group, among other things. I tried to communicate that there were people willing to help good students who stayed on track morally to achieve their goals.
3. I spoke about problems with intermarriage in a small community, with biological facts and illustrations. This was difficult, as their has been considerable intermarriage already with some consequence, but I felt that the message was important, This was well-received.
4. I spoke briefly about the transformer and what needed to be done, but stayed light on this, as I was not sure how soon this could be accomplished. I also asked about needs that we could be praying about, there were several families that needed houses built, or roofs installed, I told them that this would be a matter of prayer first. As this risked moving into a gimmie mode, I closed the meeting, Pablo prayed, then I left to visit several people in the community medically, removed the last of the stitches from Jacqueline, Gerson and I prayed over an older man with lung cancer, and Pablo stayed at the meeting (unknown to me) to conduct the gimmie session.

Since this is "newsy", I will copy this letter onto the blog. The second letter to follow will not be on the blog.

Financial details are as follows:

Money in "Water tank" envelope = 3200 Limp
Money in "Lawn Mower" envelope = 11,200 Limp
Money in "Transformer" envelope = $1800 US dollars

All SUMC and casa money has been used. All receipts are on the desk; total of receipts is much greater than the envelopes contained as we used about $400 personal money for some of the purchases - it was left over as Angel gave us such a good rate on the room.

Rick

Copy of Chet Thomas letter:

Hi Rick,

Thanks for making contact. We would be delighted for you to hook up the community of Los Pinos. When we ran in the line we told them that we did not have the money to put in a transformer for them and of course they wanted it donated. We said that they would need to raise the money and put it in themselves but that we would give them permission to hook up the lines without any cost, even though the lines belong to us for several more years.

Recently they asked us to run them a line down from the center but legally you could lose your service as the electric company does not allow you to provide electricity to your neighbors. If so done and they find out , and they will, you will be fined and then your line will be taken out so I informed the community last week that we could not do that.

But we are very open for them putting in the electrical service.

Blessings,

Chet

___________________________________

Lic. Chet Thomas

Executive Director

Proyecto Aldea Global

Work: (504) 239.8311, 239.8400

Fax: (504) 232.6511

Direct USA: 305 433 2947

Web: www.paghonduras.org

From: drrickt@aol.com [mailto:drrickt@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 10, 2008 5:59 PM
To: chet@paghonduras.org
Subject: Los Pinos

Hello from Mission on the Move Santa Elena/Los Pinos

This is Dr. Rick Thomas, my wife and I have been living in Honduras for the last 2 months, and are overseeing feeding programs in Santa Elena and Los Pinos, also doing some medical work, particularly in Los Pinos. We spoke with Alba at the resort there, and she thought that we should communicate with you. We have become familiar with Alba through visits there to the resort facility.

We are quite familiar with stories relating to the Los Pinos community and the electricity that goes thrugh the town to the resort. Our feeding program is at the school there, and we attempt to keep food at the school, sending a week´s supply at a time. 27 children are currently being fed there, and the food issue is a struggle. We would like to ask if there is any possibility of running electricity to the school for the purpose of maintaining a refrigerator and freezer for the feeding program. There is a pole right across the street, and we would be willing to buy the transformer and get the power installed so that this food could be kept fresh. We are committed to the Los Pinos community, and would gladly make this investment in the program there.

Let us know of your thoughts on this matter. Alba felt that it could be considered, but, of course, she is not the one to ask. Thanks for considering this. You may respond to me at DrRickT@aol.com or to Steve & Hope Shearouse at Steve1Hope@aol.com. Once we hear from you, we will begin the process of raising the funds, if you are favorably disposed to it.

Rick Thomas

Down the home stretch

Wow, what a week! The Garden City/Ellabell team has come and gone, and we are now alone here in Honduras. We hadthe experience of being missionary team hosts, and it has been a real challenge... a good challenge, but really kept us hopping. Lots of energy and talent, lots of desire to impact Honduras in special ways, and a number of projects that needed specific kinds of work done - working to find a way to match skills to needs while keeping the normal ministries running for the week took a lot of energy! We are tired. However, we still have lots of loose ends to tie up, prior to our Thursday departure.

One of many hilarious comments came from team members this week. I (Rick) have been learning a tiny bit of Spanish, just enough to make the locals laugh or cringe, but I can actually communicate pretty well. The joke is that, despite my statements that I don`t know the language, team members have seen me communicate and they speak confidently, *ask Rick to tell the boys this or that*. I look around to see who else is here to be the translator, then realize that they are talking about me, so I charge right in! For the first 2 weeks, I would hold back until I was pretty sure that I could get out the whole sentence, but that was TIRING. So now I just start speaking Spano-swahilian, as long as I know the first word to say, (usually yo) then just let it fly from there. One of the team members speaks fluent Spanish, in fact teaches Spanish, and she thought it was really hilarious - but I generally got the point across, somehow.

There were so many things that happened this last week, I`ll just list a few. The VBS went well, the frog t-shirts were very well-received. A one-day VBS was held at Los Pinos on Thursday, and this went well with the team visiting the Resort and waterfall after the VBS. Some of the group came back to help feed the kids at noon, which was really appreciated. On Friday, the Los Pinos children were invited to the Santa Elena property for a field day, where all of the children from both programs had a day filled with fun and frolic, then food and more frolic. A really good day, and a good chance to get the Los Pinos children locked better into the Mission on the Move program.

I spoke with the manager up at Los Pinos resort, a very pleasant gal named Alba, about the possibility of getting electricity to the schoolhouse so that the food could be kept more fresh, and she was agreeable, and gave me the name of the boss there. I sent him an e-mail requesting permission to place a transformer there in Los Pinos, offering to buy and install the transformer, and he (Chet Thomas - no relation) immediately responded positively. Some team members were carrying money that they wanted used for a special project, and gave $1000 of the approximately $1500 needed for the transformer on the spot, then found a way to gather the additional money needed. We will check into getting and installing the transformer this week, prior to my leaving. This has been a real answer to prayer, and will greatly bless this little community, as they will be able to use the transformer to bring power into their homes as well.

As far as work projects are concerned, the roof for the director house was completed in 1.5 days, as I had expected, and is really nice. There were a few leaks, but the leaks have been repaired, thanks to Bobby from the team. This left a lot of time for other projects. The Biedelina house, I am proud to say, has been completed - due to a late flurry of activity, and we had the dedication service at the house Saturday. What a great time we had. Biedalina is a widow with 5 children, and I had the opportunity to share James 1:27 with the people there, about pure religion being proper care of widows and fatherless. We sang songs with the guitar, some in English and a couple in Spanish. Biedelina had spent the day cleaning, had a cake and soft drink for all, we laid hands on the family and on the house, and prayed for blessing, for extraordinary wisdom for this neat lady, and then celebrated. Many people who never expected to learn stucco work learned at least a little about stuccoing this week.

Fence work continues, the metal protectors are installed on the long right side of the wall, and the metal is completed for the left side, leaving us with just the cement work - but Omar has been busy trying to finish the Biedelina house, so was unable to get his part done. This week will see the fence completed.

The little house behind the clinic proved to be a real stinker. The roof was leaky from many branch falls, and required much work. The doors were ordered, but ended up costing an arm and 2 legs to manufacture, and are not yet installed. This money for the doors ended up consuming the entire budget for the house, so the ceilings are not yet installed - and they could not be safely installed until the doors are in place anyway - or the celing pieces and track would end up being taken. I am not totally happy with the progress on the house, but the door costs were my own fault - I had not set up parameters for the door costs, as I though that it was a fixed price - but the doors were custom made of a very solid wood that sounds like Laurel and smells like mahogony and looks like the best doors I have ever seen - and good thing, because the cost was about $700 U.S. for the 4 doors.

We will be buying the rebar for the feet of the water tower, and the men will be working on this, as it is about the only project for which we have any residual funds. The holes were dug courtesy of the Sprigfield team 4 weeks ago, with special mention to Dennis for giving his blood for the project. These holes are 1 meter cubed and there are 6 of them waiting to be filled with concrete and rebar to start the work.

As far as the talk with Los Pinos is concerned, after praying about it, we felt led to put this off until Tuesday of this week, and to invite Pablo to translate. We have arranged for a meeting on Tuesday at 1 PM (3 PM your time), and would ask you to be in prayer for this meeting. Some of the reason for this change involves timing, and some involves wanting Pablo to hear and perhaps internalize much of the spoken material himself.

Our schedule this week, then, involves an ultrasound in Santa Cruz tomorrow AM for one of the mothers of the program, then work on the projects listed. Tuesday we will be speaking with Los Pinos, hopefully getting the transformer as well. Wednesday we will leave Santa Elena to spend the night in San Pedro Sula to catch an early morning flight home on Thursday.

Thanks for your prayers in this matter. We have important conversations to catch up on, with Pablo, with the Los Pinos ladies, with one of the workers, and with a girl from the program in Santa Elena.

Heating up in Honduras - see important last line

Hi all. We have been to the beach with 47 children and 12 adults, 3 vehicles, all went well and it was a blast. Most of the children had not seen the beach, so it was all new to them. We did not lose any children, and everyone left well-fed and happy. Total bill was 375 US dollars, I can´t think of a time when money was better spent. Since this was not an official MOM function, we used our own resources, and were very satisfied. Pictures would just not capture the total joy or the total uncertainty on the part of some of the young un´s when they approached the waves for the first time. We kept them surrounded by adults at most all times, and got back safely, actually at 5:45 PM.

We had a successful surgical day last Wednesday, actually a successful day all the way around. My schedule was far more tight than usual, with cement block work in the morning (my own project, a front porch half-wall for the Biedelina house, then to Los Pinos in the noon hour, then back to the clinic for a surgery - removal of a very large benign tumor of the lower chest wall on a 25-year-old. Guess who my surgical assistant was. Hold on to your hats, it was Wanda!!! The patient made it through AND Wanda made it through. Right in the middle of the procedure, it began pouring rain, then lightening, then the lights flickered, and we thought that we were in real trouble, as the wound was wide open and I was just beginning the layered closure. Wanda prayed, and I continued to work, the lights stayed on, and we finished fine. The wound looks really good, almost a cosmetic surgeon job! If I do say so myself... Then, back to the mission house to see a patient, then to Peña Blanca with the welder to order supplies for the rest of the fence building. Finally, dropped the welder back at Santa Elena, and back to the hotel.

Here is a prayer request. Not much time to explain right now, but we are looking forward to having a translator on the Garden City team, as the Lord has been giving us some direct things to communicate to the Los Pinos folks, but we have been unable due to language barriers. There is a spanish teacher on the coming team, and I am hoping to use her for a long session with the families of Los Pinos next week, probably Friday. We have been ministering to, helping these folks for 6 weeks, and I feel strongly that we have earned the right to a fair hearing on the Gospel message, talks on the future of the Los Pinos children, talks on genetic problems with inbreeding, and talks on the needs of these families. Particularly, I feel strongly that a direct presentation of the Gospel, in the context of the relationship developed over these 6 weeks, will be very effective. They know that we love them, that has been clear. Now it is time to move to a more significant level. I am asking you to be in prayer for this Friday or Saturday, as we try to schedule such a meeting. Those of you who know me well know that this is not always a part of my M.O., as I do believe in the ¨ministry of presence¨concept, but I also feel that there is a time to move on to a direct presentation of the Word of Reconciliation (Jesus Christ). Pray for this.

Brief funny update

How about this one, Jordan? We mailed your reference letter today... at least, we think we did. We drove into Peña Blanca, we were told that the Post Office is near the police station. We had the letter in an envelope, with no stamp, of course. We went to the police station, a little hole in the wall with very nice but totally non-English speaking policemen inside. We were informed that, yea, this is the police station, and the post office as well, but that they had no idea what to do with the letter. They read the address, the return address, asked me about myself, asked me if the letter was to them (the police), then sent for a friend who knew some English. Well, the friend was a guard at the hardware store, and he came on a police motorcycle, fully armed with a semi-automatic weapon. I explained the situation, and he told me where I could mail the letter via international courier. However, he could not tell me exactly where the store was, so he offered to guide us there. Bottom line: Your reference letter was delivered to the store via armed motorcycle escort!!! What a trip.

We went back to Los Pinos today, had the meal prepared and a Bible story, then cleared the table, and, in front of numerous spellbound little niños, used mosquito clamps to remove staples from our little Marbella. She held very still, and the procedure went well! We did not have the right equipment, but the improvising went well enough. We then went into the classroom, and examined the sister of one of the mothers in the feeding program, who has a large congenital skin lesion on the abdomen that she needs to have removed. After looking at it, I am certain that I can remove it there at the clinic, so we will do this tomorrow. We then went to one of the houses in the village, where a little 15-year-old girl who is pregnant was having some abdominal pains in her 5th month of pregnancy. I examined her belly, took vitals, and things seemed okay, although I could not hear a heartbeat. I will be reexamining her in 4 or 5 days, and we will go to Santa Cruz for an ultrasound if I am still unable to find the heartbeat. In the meantime, she will rest and we will get her some good prenatal vitamins.

We appreciate your prayers very much. There are many issues here that need a lot of prayer. Gracias!