11 weeks of quarantine/lock down.  The vasty majority of our population not able to work.  Not even sure what will be coming in June if that will change much, or how quickly.  

We are continuing to roll with the punches as it relates to travel, construction, education, and...well, everything I guess when you think about it.  

As we have been doing food distribution, we have had some changes and ideas as we tweak and see what we can do and how. 

Maria asked last time if she could have some bags for here in Tegucigalpa for the guys that are continuing to try to walk up and down the streets selling food or whatever they can.  That can be a hard life even when everything is open. Now, harder to imagine.  Seemed like a good idea, and she has a good eye, so it was an easy vote.  Just 5 or so of the 600 we were able to do for these two weeks.  Small number.

Today she sent me this picture from a gentleman she encountered, selling avocados, green peppers, onions, tomatoes and raspberries.  He is deaf, so she did not get his name, but she sees him come by with frequency.  

She also sees a couple other guys that help him and work together trying to do this in quite a few neighborhoods.  They live about a mile away, across the four lane road. 

They are technically violating the quarantine.  Selling food probably usually gets them a pass...but they are also at risk at getting picked up and having all that taken from them at any time as well.  But what is the alternative?  Hard to imagine.

But at least he will get to eat tonight. 

We are moving more food this week.  We have a list, and we have definitely been checking it more than twice.  Each time we do this, every two weeks, we look at the money available, the expanding need, and how we can balance the different areas where we work, between helping the Church, and the community.  We create a list of people's names in Tegucigalpa for the most part, and let the pastors determine in their areas which people in the community to help there.

Not knowing how long this will last (we are on a lock down we anticipate to last to the end of the month...perhaps longer) is not helpful for planning purposes, but given what we have seen how hard this is hitting families, we plan on continuing to help for at least a couple weeks after restrictions are lifted.

​Our doctors are the only ones who can get out driving, and man, they have been doing some driving!  They will be out every day this week, and probably next week will have to be out a day or to for buying more food to gear up again. 

We upped our game to 600 bags thanks to huge help from Sherwood Oaks Christian Church, and this time were able to up each bag to 17.69 pounds.

We have to weigh them since we sometimes push the Fords to their weight limits in some of the trips, to make sure we aren't over weight.

The weight of the situation is also something that we feel.  The hunger people are facing is ongoing, and while always present here, is at crisis levels with just a few days of not being able to work, let alone over two months now. 

We will keep giving out food as long as we can.  Currently that is only through mid June with what has been donated.  But...we weren't set up or thinking we could do any of this in March.  It has been a process that just about everyone in the mission, and many many in the US have been involved with.

We are spending about $10 per bag right now.  So just in this week we are going to give out about $6,000 and over 10,000 pounds of food.  

So, we will keep praying, planning, and doing what we can...together.  

There is an area we know well, just a mile or so away from us, an area with many members of the Church next door that live there.  They had a flood last night...like almost chest high.

If we hadn't been already gearing up to do more food distribution, we wouldn't really be in a place to help.  

But this morning Jorge and some of the staff fit into the Ambulance with clothing and 20 bags of food to give to them.  

They lost food, clothes, and more.  Plus, they will probably lose the peace of mind for a while when it rains.  (the flooding was caused by a creek running there that had two massive tree limbs fall into it, damming it with other debris, and spilling over into the neighborhood.)

Schools are closed...but Honduran schools are trying to do online classes.  The only problem...most kids here are not online, and they don't own a computer.  The only internet they can get is via cell phone, but they don't have the money...you get the idea.  

Maria has been helping the kids print out tons of things for them from these online assignments, as everyone struggles not to loose the school year (school here runs February to November, so this all started just a month after starting school)

Now...I may have problems getting more ink for her to continue to do this, since this was not something we were planning would go to this level, and no office supply stores are open.  


We are trying to keep the coffee farms going, and at least keep the guys there employed as they can certainly social distance up there, and farms don't wait well through pandemics.  

The fertilizer we can only sparingly apply once a year should go on right before or right as the rainy season begins.  We are behind, by about a month.  

Today Darwin trying to take the fertilizer that we amazingly were even able to purchase, faced a self-imposed community roadblock (notice though...forgetting socially distancing) trying to get to Sampedrana.  A normally four hour trip turned into eight...but praise God they found a way to get through.​  Although somehow the back window of the Ford imploded...that will be fun to try to replace.

Oscar and Julia cooked up a mess of food yesterday and Darwin went to pick it up (again, only doctors can travel at will) to give to all the staff here for Mother's Day.  Loving on quite a few folks there from afar.  

Yetserday Maria wrote me that Gerardo needed some exams done at the clinic, and that his family has no money.  That is his dad (granddad) with him that takes care of him.  He is a mason...not much work out there for builders right now since there are so many restrictions in place, so no ways for them to make money.  

Yet another time we are grateful to have a clinic where we can make those tests a reality.  


Not many opportunities for work for most people, and after months dealing with the tile floor breaking and lifting around us, (and how now we can actually buy cement again), seemed like a good time to be able to pay some of our regular guys to get that fixed.  Hopefully it will hold up better this time around.  

Manuel sent us a picture from him on the road distributing food yesterday.  I also got to see him on his show on Channel 15 (yes, our TV station in Talanga is also still working strong through this lockdown) praying for everyone all around the country. ​

We have been painting murals on the clinic property for about six years.  I had an idea a while back for one, but kind of wanted to do it myself, although I did not think I really could.  But this week I gave it a try in my free time before and after work. Never done anything like it before, might never do it again, don't know.

I thought about just putting a picture up on Facebook...but this is just a little too personal to share without sharing the story as well.  

I don't know...something about Snoopy's battle with the Red Baron as a kid I found reassuring. Grit, fear, calm...quite the range of emotions displayed.

I am not a kid anymore.  But I still need reassuring. 

I did it in English, and painted it in such a way that no one will see it really unless they are coming down the stairs from where we are living.  I did it that way because I figure it wouldn't make sense to most people just seeing it. 

But for me...I can see it every day...and remember.  

It means something to me, and helps me, to remember that whatever is going on in my brain, or around me...whatever situations or possibilities I think could happen, the real and imagined, the dark, the scary, that which gives us good cause to freak out and be very much afraid...God is there. 

There may be scars along the way, we may lose our lives along the way...but He is with us, and no matter what, it doesn't get better than that.