Jazz

I have been meaning to take the time to blog for some time.  To share some deeper and more involved updates on many of things happening around us and in us, but man, time just gets away from me for other obligations, and sometimes those obligations include actively trying to not do anything.  

I'll admit that I have some issues with the large grouping of music labeled Jazz.  Not all of it, but sometimes, in not a judgy, or "I'm better than that" way, it just did not impress me.  Again, not all of it as a whole, but some...sometimes it just felt a little too thrown together, like anyone could just sit down and do it.  

Listening to excerpts from this album (link below)
https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/well-i-should-have/1049424846 
(from voice actor H. Jon Benjamin, whom I knew best from "Bob's Burgers") who does not know how to play piano, yet still records a jazz album, I found rather interesting and just made me think.

Not to get too much into my train of thoughts and its dirt road, but if I think about life a little bit too much, it all does seem a little jazz-like.  Take that for what you will, I could expound on it...but I fear it would become some kind of small book.

As you might be aware, mission life around these parts has several foci, playing different solos and then also playing together.  

Lately though a new instrument of the road/entrance/gate construction has been taking center stage as we try to get everything ready for when the road officially re-opens all nice, neat, and white concrete.  As I have mentioned, this was not something we anticipated being part of the budget to start the year, since we didn't know the main road was to be paved.  Although, it is a pleasant surprise to be sure, it is a costly one.  We have not received much directed financial help for leveling the entrance, and have had to cut back from other mission efforts to pull it off.  

Fear not, I will include a link below of course if you want to help the mission.  As it stands, this year is proving to be a tough one in some big ways.  General donations are down quite a bit.  We have had fewer groups and group members.  Our upcoming trip to the US  to visit supporters and make new connections seems to be timely indeed.  

The rest of the work on the entrance project should be done in the next week or two, as we finally have a welder on site to tackle quite a few projects that have needed done, and raising the gate is a big one.  (Note to self...start a welding school somehow in the future, as welders seem to be in quite short supply whenever we try to find one.)  

Another big part of the picture above is the mission house remodel.  We have had some big help to get to where that is this year, pretty big strides.  Unfortunately the remodel will go silent for a while.  We had to let Rolando go from full time employment at the end of June due to lack of funding.  If enough donations come together, we might be able to throw him some more work on a job by job basis maybe in a month or two.  We still need to finish off the enclosure and windows, and then focus on walls and wiring on the new first floor.  Hopefully we can get back on that to some extent still this year.  

We completed our first big export of green Hill Climber coffee to a supporting Church in Florida.  How that will play out  to help there as well as to improve our operations side of things here God will reveal in His timing.  The idea is that we will use the money from selling the coffee in Florida to help build/fix/make better systems for harvesting and drying the coffee in Honduras to make its quality that much better.  

The Milk Project in Sampedrana is closer to getting started. We have identified the 25 children to get started (12 from the Church, 13 from the community) and the building is mostly ready to go.  Working on details for the day to day operations and the people that will oversee and implement everything is the missing key right now, and that takes prayer, planning, and discussion.  This takes more time than I would like personally, but it is not something we want to take lightly, as these are big first steps for the future of the viability of the project.   

We still need to figure out how to improve the road to the coffee farm in Sampedrana. And finish the caretaker/harvester house that needs to be built. The work on the clinic entrance and then the start of the rainy season makes it more problematic.  

Thanks to the group from Swiss Cove Christian Church and the Ohlsen family, we did our first group activity in Las Botijas in June, an eye brigade.  We saw just over 50 patients, which for a first event at the Church, which is not exactly downtown like in Sampedrana, this was a pretty good turnout, and very, very few of those patients had ever previously had an eye exam.  

Preparations for our US trip are mostly mental at this point...dates, some wrap up activities, and making sure we are ready to move everything to one of the containers on the property.  We think we are ready...well, as ready as we can be.  Truth be told, it is a scary business full of unknown and possibility for disappointments and failures.  Kind of like Jazz.  But I digress yet again.

I could go on about good things and hard things.....the new ultrasound use in the clinic, the new OBGYN, the new evangelism position for the clinic, the new Ford, work by the Church in San Juancito on their failing roof, the wall progress in Cantaranas, the struggling Church plant in Danli, the green pepper farming in Cantarranas, our special 76th child in the Milk Project in Tegucigalpa, and some of the recent deaths and health issues being dealt with around the mission family.  

I am not one for making grandiose statements, but as I write this, I feel like we are at a sort of key point for the mission...a financial one for sure, and one for many potential good, or challenging, dominos to come (such as some of the those listed above), and several more not yet mentioned but possibilities still in more of silent prayer and thought.  

Your prayers for our ability to be effective for God's work here while in the US would be most appreciated, as well as contacting us if you have any ideas for potential groups that could come, Churches with whom we could meet, or individuals that might want to help the work here.  We want to do our best, but ultimately we can only do that with help to make connections

You as well can always help, with a check sent to the address below or a PayPal donation made via the link below.  

His Eyes
9903 Indian Lake Blvd
Indianapolis IN  46236

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