I was shocked, and had to double check when I saw it has been since July I have posted a blog.  Shocked mostly because I knew I was busy, but not that busy.  I can remember when saying "I'm keeping busy!" was an acceptable prideful thing to say.  This year especially, I am ready to repent.  I am not actually repenting apparently, but actively seeking to repent.  That is...trying to find my way out of the paper bag of busy.  Trying to hand more off, trying to not take on more, etc.  Some of that is successful, some less so.  Lately though I feel a little behind the eight ball of faith.

Chains on a truck here is not a good sign of course.  Let alone on a mountain tackler like the Land Cruisers.  Walther is using this one for a bit to get posts for fence work and get the new drying racks ready before harvest approaches.  We ordered more pavers for the road there, and after the long wait last time, place that order in August.  What a "pleasant" surprise that they are now ready.  Getting them delivered now with the roads as present with the entire country being in the middle of major downpours, causing problems all over the country, will be...tricky.  We have a couple weeks for that to be figured out.  

We had some extra funds from digging the well in Las Botijas, and God orchestrated timing and donations to help to such an extent (pretty cool story actually) that we decided to proceed here in Tegucigalpa.  Yes, we have water access here, but if this works, it would be cost effective, make things so much easier for everyone, and possibly even be clean enough to not need filtering to drink.

It all came together so clear...except instead of 150-200 feet down, we are at 500 feet now, and still working.  I mentioned to a group last week something I have heard several times, that God doesn't call us to be successful, but being faithful.  

This might end up being a great story of the latter and not the former.  I'm ok with that, but I'm also ok with that faithfulness just being for a period here before we hit a gusher as well.  Right?

Having some faith that the newly (almost) completed wall in Cantarranas will be effective to keep would-be breakers-in from attempting anything.  

Hopefully in the next few weeks the final touches should be purchased and put in place...the serpentine wire (which is already up in places on the other sides) and a metal wall extension on the low section near one of our neighbors.  

Praying as well for the clinic going forward...seen above is a picture of an OCT exam being done in the optometry area.  We were praying for Darwin's trip to Cuba to study ophthalmology, but the Honduran government took that spot away.  I could explain what happened, but it would be such a tale of governments being governments, better no.  But, we pivot, and Darwin is now praying for an interview coming up to be able to go to Guatemala instead.  Also, we might have some staff changes coming up in the new year, some new opportunities for some, personal challenges requiring a change/move, etc.  Praying how all that will come together, and for the interim director to also handle that depending on when Darwin can get a clear path forward.  

Seen above is Rony sharing with the kids in Las Botijas in the Milk Project.  With 250+ kids now, and Christmas and soon after a new school year coming up, that presents the challenge of getting all the gifts and supplies paid for, and the potential of expanding in 2026 to a seven location?  A little scary, but if God has this, then it will come to pass.  

Generally speaking, I refrain from posting pictures of Valerie and myself, or making mention of us unless required.  The mission is not us, and in fact so much bigger.  

But in thinking about faith, being behind, and if we are trusting in God, right here when I was going to finish, I was reminded of this picture, and this trip.  

We were changing things up with a group late last month which turned out to be here during a long holiday weekend when the holidays got moved (it happens in October, just weren't sure when that would be when we scheduled the group.)  So...Maria was up for a special day out for 10 kids in the Milk Project, and we decided to take them to the first US embassy building, which is above San Juancito near the old mines.  I should have thought to ask around about how to get up there.  I should have thought more about it than just saying we would do it.  But I was busy, and it seemed a great idea.  And it was.  But...getting the Blue Ford up that road, part of which wasn't what the map said was the road, was quite the experience.  I had faith we would get there, I was too busy to think about what would happen if we didn't (even when we had to pass a small SUV that had broken down due to overheating), and I was definitely behind keeping up with the switchbacks and changes to 4x4 and such.  It was fun.  Fun that I don't exactly planning on repeating anytime soon.  But memorable.  For me though in different ways than maybe the kids or the group though.  We look rested and peaceful though in the picture right?  Beautiful place when you finally get there.

So I guess my takeaway today maybe should be...you can be too busy, but boy, you really shouldn't be so busy that you don't have time for practicing faith and prayer.  Because while one I have been feeling guilty for, the other has definitely been keeping us going.  Interesting eh?

Lots of building going on.  Of course, spiritual building is the main focus.  

Last year lots of groups helped us plant trees in Cantarranas.  Look at the starfruit trees already producing this year! ​

There have been construction projects in Talanga...including needing to replace most of the walls outside and in for the parsonage, and change the roof to not dump over the wall into the neighbor's property, which will be hopefully started a good way this week.  Also, the back wall for the church has been failing, and work started this week to make the hole, for the next team to help seal back up properly.  None of that was planned, but it was needed, and we were able to switch things up and with so many groups, help out quickly.  

And...we finally got the pavers for continuing things in Cantarranas, but unfortunately not enough groups, not enough days to get them all installed soon.  We have started, but quite a bit left to do.  (around 50,000 pounds worth) to then see how much left will need done.  

The well continues.  I could have cropped this picture more, but I love how the front tire shows the state of the road up there as well.  Said road which will be another project to tackle later this year with funding coming in to help there as well.  

Also...the farm property you probably didn't know we have in San Juancito, long dormant, we are now prepping to see what God would have us do there, the fence in Cantarranas should be ready for serpentine wire (FINALLY...don't ask how many years this project has taken) and other finishing touches, more will be happening with unexpected gift for stucco in Danli, and getting the Milk Project its own water source there, improvements/maintenance in Sampedrana on the Milk Project and fixing the drying racks for coffee there and building new ones as well, more stucco work in Las Botijas, several small projects in Tegucigalpa...you could say several guys will be busy for the rest of the year it looks like, praise God. I am also probably forgetting a few other projects...since I didn't originally sit down to list these all out, but they have just been bursting forth with help, ideas, funding, groups...it is amazing.  (don't forget of course much later in the year and into 2026, that we will be able to buy more pavers and have help to put them in up near the farm in Sampedrana!)

We also pray the Holy Spirit would be quite busy, in the midst of all this physical work, also doing and guiding the spiritual work that could and should go along all of it, and for the pastors and directors to ever be mindful of that as we go forward.

Thanks for your prayers, thoughts, comments, and everything!  

Ever lives in Sampedrana and is in the Milk Project.  

Last week, in the midst of a lot of other stuff flying around me, I got a text from Marvin, forwarded from pastor Juan, sharing how the church had been praying for Ever and visiting his mother, who is catholic.  They were asking if there was a way to send more help.

It seems Ever's mom was going to make orange juice for them, and asked Ever to get some oranges.  He went out to climb the tree, fell, and broke both his arms.  

They were quick, because usually I hear those sort of things from the Milk Project staff...who as it turns out had also already been sending home cooked food for Ever with his brother, who is also in the Milk Project.  

Well, plans were soon made, and Consuelo (Milk Project director there) went down to Comayagua and bought a bunch of food to take to help the family.  Not only that, but she and Sulma went to deliver the food personally...an hour walk up the mountain (closer to the coffee farm)

It was cool to stop for a minute to just think...this is how it is supposed to work.  Church, Milk Project, thinking alike, helping out, and going above and beyond a job description, but being the church, praying for Ever in a time of great physical hurt and difficulty just going about his day, and for his mother, and his siblings for many weeks to come trying to help him.  

As I sat down to share this, I got curious about Ever's name.  It seems to be the Biblical name Eber (the letter H isn't always included at the beginning phonetically since in Spanish it isn't pronounced, and B or V are interchangeable in Spanish.)  He is a descendent of Shem, one of Noah's sons, and possibly/probably where the word Hebrew comes from.

And as soon as I found that, I was reminded of the message from the pastor in the group last week, shared at the 26th anniversary service in San Juancito, from the book of Hebrews:

  Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us

I'd be lying if I said I had a good handle on things some days.  Praise God...there is just too much going on, and even for me, trying to keep up is hard.  Does it feel good to admit that? Yes and no.  But it is the truth. 

Cute kids in the clinic getting glasses, and holding stuffed animals.  Cute x 5  

Jose Luis continues to share in the clinic, and host several home Bible studies.  I am up on the numbers being seen in the clinic, but only God knows how He weaves everything together there.  I do know that Tuesday just in optometry they saw 45 patients.  (while two people were out with the group in a medical brigade, helping almost that many people with reading glasses and other help as well.)  

Personal hygiene lessons, and help trimming fingernails, not something we normally cover in reports on the Milk Project, but that is another area where it is hard to cover everything that happens on a daily basis.  

Emergency repairs done on the rusting supports for the TV station and pastor house in Talanga.  Shout out to Jeffry and Eduardo for helping pastor Manuel on all this, and for today prepping to buy more material to fix the upstairs walls and change the roof, to help in the future, and also since there is a neighbor next door who is building his house right next to our building.  

We are closer to actually seeing if there is water, and where, in Las Botijas.  This is the equipment finally delivered, now to see the company put everything together, and see how it works.  And praying it works extraordinarily well.

Recognize this?  When we did the construction in Tegucigalpa, we had the old gates from the man cave garage.  This is one of those repurposed, for the garage in the church building in Danli.  That patina is a no-cost option

Combo trip was cooked up for delivering food to the Milk Project in Cantarranas, a meeting for Maria, and Jeffry and Jose Luis to mend the breaking door lock for the church and the Milk Project, while Jorge also helped taking food as well to Talanga nearby.  Pretty cool when scheduling happens and works out so well.

Gray Ford and White Ford have been in the shop...for "a while."  I am not lying when I say I have been actively trying to not count how long, so as not to get depressed.  Got both back yesterday after "extensive" repairs (can you feel the monetary pain associated with those air quotes?)   But today with the first test drive to get the above materials for Talanga...an oil leak.  Hopefully just something that needs tightening.  

Making decisions on when to give up on a vehicle is hard.  Sometimes, it seems hard to make decisions, or the right decisions, on number of things!  Other times, it is also just hard to have time to make all the decisions one way or another.  

And, most of the time, praise God, there are many other empowered people making all sorts of decisions, doing all sorts of good, helping people, acting and living out the Good News in many different ways.  

I can't keep up.  That's no lie. 
But God does.  And that is one of the amazing things about Him.   

We are in the middle of the biggest group year of the mission's history.  Social media sharing covers a lot of what they have been helping the mission do, but I thought maybe I could share some more things here, not exactly behind the scenes, but just to perhaps convey just a little of what a whirlwind we are collectively in right now.  

Starting off with the big tree falling and hitting the mission house in Sampedrana, damaging the roof, hand rail, etc.  Several people jumped together, materials purchased, and fixed before too much rain did too much more damage.  

I don't have good pictures to show, but just a few days ago, we were informed just how many problems there are with TV station and pastor's house building in Talanga.  Again...pitching in, helping out, materials purchased for phase one of fixing it, but this will take a while, and won't be something we can really help do with teams.  And, in Las Botijas the road work to get to the top of the farm will have to wait until dry season, and until we can secure many thousands in funding to make that happen.  So...we also wait for a break in the seemingly record rain, to dry out just enough, for the well digging equipment (not the big normal equipment...lighter and "easier" to get up there equipment) to make the trek and start.  We had to put the deposit down...now we wait for the weather to cooperate.  

And...we have several other minor issues with the new office building to work out in regards to rain as well, not in the building itself, but the garage area and upper patio area.  

Groups have been helping a ton in Las Botijas, moving about 4,000 new variety coffee plants.  Shame though we can't get to the farm in Sampedrana to help them do the same.  

We are also hoping, when there isn't rain...to get more progress done on the fence there in Las Botijas, where the concrete block needs stucco work to be stable long term.  

The lovely adoquines order we placed to arrive for groups to help with this summer...is on hold.  It takes months after ordering to get them, but apparently our order got bumped, and so we can't make any more progress there in Las Botijas or Cantarranas.  We will hopefully be able to order more later this fall to put in Sampedrana next year...but so far no teams in the dry season that can help with that.  We shall see.

Otherwise, we are hoping to get further on finishing the wall in Cantarranas with teams in July, and start the fun process of getting the serpentine wire up, and the entrance now that the road is actually fully paved through Cantarranas, all the way to Talanga!

Anniversary in Guayavillas in June, and several baptisms in Los Trozos.  

There was a pastor's meeting at the end of June, which we are keeping going every month now, and June had one of the conferences that we are doing at least eveyr other month throughout the year for pastors, leaders and Milk Project staff.  

The Milk Project has had some staff changes this month, and also illness requiring time off, and now a pregnancy break as well.  Lots to keep everyone hopping, as if 200 kids isn't enough to do that.  

Also, we are close now to having three of the Milk Projects with their own electrical service, rather than adding to the church's monthly bill.  That takes time, paperwork, trips, and help from many of us, but will be better long term for all involved.  

Thanks to some generous donations, we were able to get two more sewing machines and start sewing classes as well.  Seen above is Maria, who learned a lot of sewing prowess from some help and classes probably around 14 years ago when the Milk Project was in the old clinic building, and now keeps passing those skills on.  

Vehicles...we did have a hit and run, seen above with the Land Cruiser.  Lots of routine maintenance, and two of the older Fords still in the shop, but otherwise, we have been able to get by.  It is a testament to how much the mission is doing, in so many places, that what a few years ago would have been a lot of cars, sometimes now requires careful planning on some days for everyone to get where they need to go.  

Hopefully before the end of the year, we will have the older three Fords we have in the US down here as well.  At this point, we have given up on the Denton Program option, unfortunately.  

Otherwise...I have pictures that the staff send me of the many times a month they share from the clinic the donated items we receive, like adult diapers, canes, crutches, wheelchairs, but I don't usually share them for hopefully obvious reasons of when people are most in need and how that looks in a picture. It is amazing though to see things like that, just glimpses as to how love is shown every day in the clinic.  

Say a prayer for all of us as well, there is more going on with staff family health struggles, some family members struggling with different things I can't start to go into here, and just some past hurts as well.  

I have personally heard/seen/witnessed so much in the last month around me of hurt, pain, and suffering.  I think I am fine, but also just trying to stay emotionally good with all that there is difficult.  Including someone sharing with me, the first person they had told ever, of some horrible abuse and treatment when they were younger.  

Being able to be there for someone is a privilege, but also when life in general is coming like out of a fire hose, processing, dealing with, and properly reacting is usually only something done through prayer, and lots of it, so all of us here appreciate your prayers, and by all I mean (and I counted to be sure right now) 52 full time staff.  Not counting volunteers, pastor's wives, myself or Valerie, day laborers, or the His Eyes board of directors.  

Praise God for where we are, and for where He is taking us, and for you being along with us!  

Pretty cool to see when we were visiting the church in San Juancito Sunday that they are building a new building above the church building.  They already have the block, are doing the work, and have a plan.  Maybe we can help a little down the line with the roofing materials.  They wanted a better place to cook and have meals when they have special events, and this was some space on the property still available.  

We had a staff change in Danli at the Milk Project, and with the road quality still so bad making the drive so much longer than normal, Maria actually just did the interview online (after a recommendation from the pastor.)  So far things are going pretty well there, and the staff change is just because the pastor had to step aside to help with the small business he has, and now there are two sisters from the church working full time in the Milk Project.  I heard from Cecilia this week that we are getting closer to half the kids there sponsored!

Jose Luis continues to find ways to meet people at the clinic, sharing, and visiting with some donated supplies, the Good Word, and his time.  

We talked recently about how that is going, with a couple cell groups meeting and more people asking about where this will go, and where they can worship together.  It was exciting, but also a little daunting the potential responsibility of course of undertaking something new here so close.  Ultimately we decided to pray and wait for a while longer, but not in a scared way, but in a comfortable way to just keep evangelizing, helping, praying, and sharing and then seeing where God will take it.

Seeing mangos come from the farm in Cantarranas to kids in the Milk Project in Cantarranas, is still a little surreal for me.  I like to think I have a pretty creative mind, but watching that physical connection of things planted and then given to kids that are also being planted in Christ,  still just takes me aback.  A failing to be sure.
​
I am still trying to think creatively as we work through 13 straight groups this summer, trying to be detailed, but keeping my eyes open.  I will miss things for sure.  But of course, God sees it all.  And ultimately...He's got this whether I have a creative bone in my body or not.  

Been a while, and catching us up on what is going on is definitely more than one blog post can handle.  For example...pray for our rural farms, as there is government rumblings about making us and all our neighbors remove all our crops, for the good of the watersheds.  So pray...but if that previous sentence leaves you scratching your head, that is an appropriate reaction, but just no time to delve into that now, but suffice it to say, the impact to so many in the community could be devistating. (Seen below, the church in Sampedrana having a church service up on the farm property, a pretty cool thing!)

We have a medical team with us this week.  If I allowed myself to get cynical sometimes about teams like these, all you have to do is participate and talk to the people we are helping to realize how few options there are for care for so many people.  It is staggering really, and a great privilege to be able to serve in such a way.  So much need, and with more trips this year, all week we went to four different places we had never been.  

Seen below, if this posts correctly, is some good news.  The paving of the road in Cantarranas is now reaching the front door of the church/Milk Project.  A paved road there that connects to Talanga will be huge for mobility for people, for a lot less dust and illness, and less repair on vehicles.  (I'm keeping this positive and not thinking about the possibility of 12 speedbumps as well going in)

Also going on soon is trying to get all the Milk Project locations on their own electrical meters.  That's the kind of exciting behind the scenes stuff you don't get to normally hear.  Also that Maria and the staff have been looking for good, reliable, and cheap ways to have internet in the different projects (for homework, lessons, songs, etc.)  And how we fix the natural gas refrigerator in Las Botijas.  

The other good news is that in terms of the day to day working of the Milk Projects, we have been very much blessed with great teamwork and things going smoothly.  There have been some changes of some of the kids, usually related to moves, school issues, distance to get there, etc.  It is awesome though to see how much the kids want to be there, and the wide variety of things that they get to do every day, as things grow, expand and get more and more creative.  
​

Before Valerie and I came back to Honduras, we were at a Christian Medical conference, and got to hear from a missionary doctor who was sharing some of his story, and the slide below.  I had not seen something spelling it out like that, but it was interesting to see the struggle of three sides of medical care, and that doing all three is seemingly not feasible:  caring for the poor, sustainable care, and excellent care.  You can do two, but not three.  

As we continue to look at how we can grow the clinic work into doing surgeries, especially in light of what I just mentioned, it is intimidating.  But as I said about groups earlier...there are so many out there than need help.  It is a fight, but one I am looking forward to seeing how God will provide.  Because seemingly like everything else, and more and more as we grow, try to improve, and do things better, I find myself saying "I don't know how to do that"  "I don't have the answer"  "I don't think I have the skills to do this"  and more.  

The more I know...the more I realize I don't know.  And I can see that this pattern will continue.  It is scary.  It is humiliating.  And it is God sized.  We are starting to bite off some of those God sizes pieces already in preparation and trying to move forward.  

A few years ago, thinking about how much bigger this is than what I can even attempt to do, would have kept me awake at night.  Actually, it used to some times.  And sometimes the temptation comes still.  But, He knows.  

I have tried four ways now to tie this together...let's just see what happens?

The Milk Project opened in Danli yesterday.  It will take a while to get the kinks worked out, but it does get "easier" after six different locations now.  Another community will be blessed, a church will be a bigger part of their community, and outreach will be improved.  There is a lot of behind the scenes things, from boring, scary, complicated, and otherwise running the gamut.  It won't be easy, being as far away as it is, and in the area it is, but the direction and ability to get this far has been clear.

We spent $5,000 on pavers to improve the road to the farm in Sampedrana back in December...it takes this long for the company to make them, and this week, all week, most of our trucks are transporting all that to the farm.  The farm staff will be putting in some of them, and we will be using two groups in March to help as well. 

I can't tell you how exciting I find this.  Something that I know for many reading this won't make sense.  I am excited not mostly for me, as I don't get to drive up there very often (maybe more often when the road is better eh?) but everyone else that lives on that road and works using that road.  This is a long term investment that will improve safety and many lives now and to come, Lord willing.  

Also Lord willing...we will need to buy even more of these if we can afford it/fundraise for it.  And we need to pray that they are the game changer we believe them to be.  Game changer...in transportation?  Don't get me started talking about how infrastructure can change lives in the short and long term.  

Church service, in a home, coming from patients coming to the clinic.  Wow.  

We didn't have this like as a goal or something, but in a way something we have been praying over for since the beginning.  And we honestly don't have a clue what this means long term, are we talking about another church plant?  No?  Yes?  This house is just a few blocks from the clinic.  There are other churches in the area...including next door!  But there are patients, nearer and further, that aren't churched.  How do we respond, and plan to respond?  Mostly right now, in prayer. 

We have had four groups already this year, and the last two were medical teams.  It is easy to get focused on all the details doing those.  I was focused right before I took this picture, trying to explain some optometric options to a patient that needed a lot of explaining.  It was somewhat difficult though due to all the crying and screaming.  I tuned it out, but when the patient left, I took a moment to see if this was out of the ordinary or just the normal stuff.  Turns out, the mother there is holding a small child that had a plastic piece lodged in its ear.  The doctors could have referred him, left it for someone else to do...from what I literally heard and how long it took...it was somewhat involved.  But they worked hard and got it out.  Then we learned from the crying mom that they had tried somewhere else, and even had the child admitted previously, but the situation wasn't fixed.  

I have statistics and numbers of how many were seen, and they are impressive, but the real life stories...known and unknown, the prayers, and lives impacted...are beyond me.  

Ingris, our new group coordinator helping take those pavers to Sampedrana sent me this picture today. 

I thought it was beautiful, for metaphorical reasons mostly.  The seen and the unseen.  What is ready for harvest, and what soon will be.  The fact that someone long ago looked at this fruit, and looked beyond the fruit to what was inside.  

Thanks be to God that He sees what we don't, works where we don't think there is a chance, brings things about otherwise unthinkable.  

There is a lot we are planning that seems unthinkable, or undoable, (right now!  Like...we just today bought property to build a hospital?!!?  How is that going to happen?!?)...and yet we are on a path clearly laid out for us, even if we can't see but for a few steps ahead.  Praying for the steps, for faith, for the help we will need, and all the help we don't even know we will need!

Change is a funny word.  Both desired and feared, avoided and sought out.  All depends on your point of view and desires I suppose.  Part of our leadership in Honduras thinks we are changing and progressing too slowly...for others it feels like being drug along behind a truck at speed.  

Above is a change in the Milk Project in Tegucigalpa, re-creating one of the classrooms to better handle the youngest of the students and separate the ages out a bit.  The paint we had purchased in 2024 for groups to use painting murals...but none did, so they will have plenty to get started on new murals such as this one, as well as re-painting some on the property wall that faces the road that haven't aged well over the last four years.  ​

The optometry group that was here last week saw quite a few people that even though they were far away, we referred to the clinic if they could get there for the difficult prescriptions they had.  Giving them something to get them by, but often times 1/2 or a 1/3 of what they needed.  When talking high prescriptions...that is a lot missing.  

Seen above is one of those patients that came quite quickly!  Being a -19.00 or so, one can understand why.  For those who don't know those kind of numbers, it is kind of like 10 times stronger, (in an inverse way), than a pair on the shelf to read with at the pharmacy.  

We are working on a plan how to handle the farms this year with all the trees we have planted...how will those harvests be distributed?  What about the timing?  What about the different quantities?  It will be a bumpy ride for sure, but getting started talking about it helps.  

This week though, a test planting of yuca came ready...and it was enough to feed all the kids in the Milk Project in Cantarranas.  

Another change of many with the new office building is the restructuring of the electrical meters and connections.  I include this because a lot of change is...hard.  Change isn't easy to process, isn't easy to make sure you are going the right way, isn't easy to handle when you find out you aren't going the right way, and in many other ways...it can just suck.  

Getting the permit for the new meter (to be placed there on the right) was shockingly done in one trip.  I thought that was at least one good/easy change.  Of course...they did say it will take 25-40 days to actually get it done.  And we will presume that will actually happen without a hitch, right?  

Yeah, we will need to paint there, and redo that mural...oh and the gate and door need painted.  Oh...change, change change.  What sometimes is hard to accept, is that change is constantly coming at us.   

We see a lot of change coming this year, both good and challenging.  I imagine it will all come too slow...and seemingly all at once as well. 

The good thing is that when changes suck, when they seem to be good, when we are so frustrated we just want to cry...we can remember James 1:17

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows."

We have all received the good gifts...but when the shifting shadows are all we can see, we can always come back to the Rock which does not change or shift.  Amen y amen.  

The mission is sending out an appeal as the year draws to a close, and this post is to expound more about what is being asked.  

As we look back through the year, and look to the future, these are three things, in three different areas of the mission, that we see as priorities moving forward. 

We had a lot of help to get a long way with the church building in Danli.  We are going to spend some more money though (and already have) to finish the Milk Project portion of the building.  The floor, paint, windows, bars on windows, tables, chairs, appliances, plates, cups...you get the idea.  Some of the things we got on previous containers (we have a fridge and TV for example) but there is a lot left to do, and we won't be able to open until this gets done, because there just isn't anywhere else to meet while we wait.  (The church meeting space upstairs isn't finished either...one thing at a time.)

So this is a great timely opportunity to give, because we can see that finishing the physical work will directly allow us to start with the kids that have already been selected for us to start.  We are hoping if the money comes in, we can open by February.  

You can donate for this specific project here

This is a big project...and a long time coming, even from before 2024.  

We have debated and looked into the advantages and disadvantages of different properties for sale in Tegucigalpa and outside of Tegucigalpa.  Buying property here is never an easy proposition, and looking into a lot of different facets, led us to choosing this property that is just outside of town.  The cost benefit versus trying to find something closer is HUGE.  It looks like we are past one of our farms or something, but there are neighbors in nice homes down the main dirt road that connects to the main highway to Tegucigalpa. 

We are taking steps to make a hospital a reality, but also we are realistic that it will not be quick or easy.  This property allows us to do some basic road work, set up some fence, smaller buildings for housing construction equipment, etc. to set us up for the long term when bigger things need to happen.  We can use groups and some smaller donations in the future to get those balls rolling.   

We are also looking at adding two ambulatory (walk in and walk out same day) surgical suites in Tegucigalpa at the clinic, which would be done and working before we finish the hospital on this site...it is all part of a longer plan to bring all this together in a healthy way.  I won't go into all the details, but the board of directors and us locally in Honduras are working on this and looking at the many different steps it will take for us to get there.  

But...it all hinges on getting this property purchased first.  

You can donate for this specific project here

And the last area is one that for those familiar with His Eyes, has been something we have been working on for several years.  Road work. Doing this on the farms is expensive, labor intensive, and hard to schedule since it can currently only be done during the dry season.  

But...we have a new answer.  

The picture on the left is from a recent installation of $500 worth of pavers.  These things are huge, and weigh a ton.  Well, that is, $500 worth were several tons. 

These give much needed stability to the hills, and will also help clean up from mud slides.  Some of those mudslides might be helped as well from some greater ground stabilization.

Oh...and they will be a lot easier to drive on as well!  

We have some groups coming, and we have some guys working on the farm...and we want to order $5,000 worth of these to install.  Right now, we are thinking all of them will go to Sampedrana, since that is where the worst of the roads we face are, but in the future, some could go to Las Botijas, and Cantarranas as well for the farm there.  But, these $5,000 worth if we can raise the money...will take us a good long while going into 2025 to put into place, and boy will we be happy for all that work...it will be life changing for a lot of people, and help us do more, no matter the weather or time of year, in a lot of different places.  

You can donate for this specific project here

If you are still reading this, thank you.  

I wanted to add an extra thanks to those of you that not only give, but also pray for these items, and everything else going on in the mission.  There are several other areas we could bring up as appeals, but these were carefully selected as we look at what we are doing, and what we will be doing as a mission.  

From time to time someone asks if this is overwhelming.  It certainly can be, especially when we take our eyes off of Him who is making it all happen.  Then we can sink into worry, stress and more.  Prayers help us in the highs and lows of our own rhythms, as do donations to help us keep going and doing more for Christ!