Did you know we have a Gator for the farm in Las Botijas? I was skeptical at first that it would be useful enough to justify the cost. Wow, was I impressed. It is expensive, but so easy to use on the farm, to get things around, in tight spaces, and at less cost hour to hour in rural settings like that. We have the opportunity to get another one, at a greatly reduced cost. We have already been blessed with $1,000 towards the $15,000 total we need to raise (the actual value of the Gator would be $22,000) This one would go to Sampedrana. going back and forth between the church and up to the farm. It is a very cool opportunity to get this one, especially now that we know how well they can serve the farms. If you want to donate...you can do that here: The work has begun on creating the pond to house the tilapia in the farm in Cantarranas. We are a long way from having fish, but this is a good start at least. The fish is a way we are praying we can produce enough financially, to cover all the rest of the fruit trees on the farm giving them away in the community, church, and Milk Projects. Pray for these unique little concrete contraptions. They weigh 40 pounds, and we are going to try a test implementation of these on the road to the farm in Sampedrana to help with the road construction. If these work, they could greatly improve our ability to do more road work, throughout the year. We have to wait for enough of them to be made, to try a small test area with $500 worth. It would be so much easier and cheaper than pouring concrete, it just remains to be seen if they will be a good fit. The FAME container came a little while back. The interesting thing has been this year giving out some of the supplies has been more structured, with Jose Luis (clinic spiritual director) doing more of it as he does house visits and Bible studies. We always request wheelchairs, canes, crutches, etc. as well as adult diapers, as they are very expensive in Honduras. It is great to see those go to so many who need the physical help, and also get to hear the Good News, the reason we are able to do all this in the first place. The Milk Project locations are continuing the tradition of making piñatas, for use for holidays but also to share with the churches where they are. (These here are in Cantarranas)
Please pray with us...there are many different projects, like the ones above, some funded and just to do, some we need funding, all though which need to be covered in prayer for successfully being carried out.
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The pastor's meeting this month was a national pastor's meeting, held a couple hours North of Tegucigalpa. Development and care of the pastors is something we need to focus more on, especially once the office building is finished. We are even hoping some specialized groups or parts of groups in the future will be able to pour more into pastors, leaders, Milk Project staff and/or all three. A lot of times, meetings and encouragement/training times don't photograph well, but for the future of the churches, of the mission, we need to do more, better, and consistently. Two year anniversary this week of the Milk Project in Las Botijas. We had some dental gift bags a group had left to distribute (seen in the picture some of them getting those) It hasn't been easy, but the expansion of the Milk Project into the churches, as fast or as slowly as that seems to be unfolding, was not something we saw at the beginning, but definitely now can see how it fits into not just pouring into the communities where we work, but also by extension the church going forward. I have a picture from the clinic spiritual development progress, but don't want to share that publically. Instead, enjoy this picture from Sampedrana one of the kids learning to treat the wounds of a classmate in the Milk Project. The clinic spiritual work has been doing so well since starting in January. The picture I am not sharing, is of a patient that came to the clinic suffering from depression after the death of a love one. She lives about a twenty minute walk from the clinic. For three months, Jose Luis has been visiting her, talking, studying the Bible, and praying. One of several such pictures and stories not being shared here. Some that were just here might be seeing the picture above and saying...What? We just poured concrete there! Yes we did.
We are opening those holes to put up columns to support a new pad up above, to tie into the new building and mission house patio. What's up? Well, to keep a long story a little shorter, we are using some group funds and building funds, to put up the second story on the office building. Not the concrete and third floor concrete roof...but metal walls and a metal roof. That will be good enough for the next 5-15 years if not more. And if we need to go higher soon/sooner, we can take this down, and essentially move it up to the next floor. Easy peasy...ish. This will keep the building cooler, eliminate our water issues with the way the roof was poured (still not happy about that) and essentially give us some breathing room/storage. We will be working out how to keep a porch with a view long term, especially to avoid a revolt from groups. Likely, eventually we could build out that space for groups to use, bedrooms, bathrooms, instead of or addition to, the duplex, but that remains to be seen. How are all these above items connected? I don't think I'll write a great essay to probe that, but in my mind, they definitely are. |
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