I wish I could say I will keep up with all this blogging! New year, and lots of new things and new opportunities. The title for today's blog is French...a little idiom saying you are living to work (subway, work, sleep) A common sentiment, albeit depressing. Unless you love you work.
He will also be overseeing how we integrate the Milk Projects and churches better...and just yesterday we hired a new position...clinic greeter/evangelist. We have struggled and tried different approaches over the years to more purposefully reach those coming to the clinic spiritually. Thankfully, even though that effort has had limited success and stumbled through different volunteers and church visitors, etc., we have not lost the fervor to see that be done better. So, there will be a bit of a Venn diagram for this new position...a greeter that helps patients get to where they need to go and just helps organizationally, and then getting to know, praying for, and even seeing for those close enough to see about Bible studies in the future. This time though, being a full time position, it will help us be able to supervise, encourage, and see where this goes. 22,000 patients last year in the clinic, not counting family members, people stopping by just to get a shot or pick something up...that is something we just can't continue to do the way we have been doing.
Honey processing means we pulp the coffee and dry it. Rather than the normal process of pulping, fully washing the coffee over a day or more, and then drying. Using all that water may be normal, but the process mucks the water up quite a bit going back into the ecosystem, not to mention just using all that water. So we get a better tasting process, and do a better job of just looking after things as well. We still have roughly 200 pounds from 2023 harvest to roast and get out there, but after that...everything will be this new process everyone will be drinking soon enough!
I'll leave you with a cool picture taken from the drone of the farm in Sampedrana. Lots of work will be coming there in the next months to do road improvements, and we are also doing some investigation and praying about other options for the future bringing things from the US possibly to help speed that process as well!
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Progress on the office building seen from the air! The stucco progress is all on the inside, and the other side of the building. They seem to be saving the hardest two sides to do for last. It is time consuming for sure. We will equip and paint the inside of the building as soon as we can of course, and probably leave painting the outside for when a group can help. "What will go upstairs in the unfinished area?" Is a question I have heard already. My first reply is "By the grace of God let's finish the first two floors first!" But actually, I am already anticipating that down the line, we would use that for more group sleeping space, and a porch with a great view preserved of course. You can kind of see from this angle how big the building is, and how we are using as much of the property as possible.
Spoiler alert then for life...we are always learning. Never will the day come on earth where we have it all down, when it all makes sense, when it all goes according to plan. That can be discouraging. But knowing it is coming at least, helps. Sometimes. :-)
There are upcoming changes still coming... -There will be new staff in Las Botijas for the Milk Project (our director is leaving to attend church with her husband that just came to Christ through another church, and our cook needs to leave to care for her mother suffering from Alzheimer's.) -We have a consult next week with a company that might be able to drill a well for us in Las Botijas (currently the water we have, when it works, comes from several miles away) which if it looks good could be expensive, but would be a huge improvement in every sense for everything on the campus there. -there are a couple clinic staff changes coming about as well -prayerfully in the first quarter of 2024, another NGO will be helping us modernize and get our solar systems up to snuff for the clinic and apartment building to get our bill down, and provide battery backup power for the clinic during outages. Coffee ripening in Sampedrana above, first harvests up on the high farm.
Coffee ripens at different times, even on the same branch. The work here sometimes is the same. There is pruning involved, fertilizing, hard work and prayer. There will be changes and things to come in 2024 we can't even see dawning on the horizon yet. But we can be praying for those we already know, and those unknown, already, for grace, mercy, and strength through it all!
He had a chance to talk to a couple of the patients, to hear from them what this once a month (currently) clinic means to them: Maria Angela Martinez says she walks 30 minutes to get to the clinic. "Before, we had to go to Comayagua because there is no health center here. Now, we have the ease of just coming to consult in the clinic. The care has been good because my daughter Aby Perez (six months old) got over her cold." Maria Azucena Andara says "having medical attention here is good because before you would have to go to Comayagua and get up before dawn and be there two days because if you didn't get in the first day." Exolina Moren lives close, she told Marvin "Travelling to Comayagua required a lot of time and more money because you had to pay for transportation and a hotel in Comayagua to get seen the next day." Her son had pneumonia and recovered thanks to a brigade that came to Sampedrana. Marvin also shared that there were people there from Rio Blanco and El Horno...a three hour walk from the church.
Valerie and I are back in Honduras for several months! The trip to the US was good. God blessed us in that often for communication/fundraising/conference trips, the fruit from seeds planted come months if not longer down the road. But God was gracious as always to give us several opportunities to see Him working right before our eyes, which is a huge encouragement to doing these trips. What's that? Yes...there are many things about being in the USA that are easier than Honduras (driving, errands, security [sometimes], shopping for example) but it is still work for us, and brings its own challenges and changes to our normal schedule, what we do, etc. All that to say...seeing how it helps the mission to grow, that is why we do it, because overall having our place, our routine, and doing what we know more everyday here in Honduras is overall easier. But we aren't called to what is easy, or comfortable, or known. We have been so blessed though so far in these trips, and already have a bit of a handle of what the schedule for 2024 will be like...just as busy as 2023 probably!
What else? Things on the farm in Cantarranas have not been going as well as we would have hoped with the young pastor we were giving a shot to prove himself, so we will have to make a change there beginning soon.
The construction in Danli is going well...still a lot to do, but pastor Edwin has been working hard when they can get the materials they need (they waited weeks for the second floor metal to pour the concrete into) We are still praying we can find the right person to help us on the farm direction/management. We need someone who can drive, a go-getter, and that speaks English (to also help with teams) and have been looking/asking...but just haven't found the right person yet. Plus, Carlos will be leaving us at the beginning of 2024 up on the farm in Sampedrana. Pastor Juan has a new candidate we will be trying to see how he does, overall but also if he can drive up there as well! And of course in Sampedrana, with the rains subsiding, we are hoping to start getting materials up there to make more road and bridges during the dry season. Pray that all comes together because it is time consuming, and takes a lot of planning to make that happen, along with everything else going on especially. And the other big thing...the office building. Fundraising has not been bountiful for that...but we are 100% convinced it is actually a bigger priority and need than a lot of what can be seen...primarily because it is where we hope to have the most impact in what can't be seen...the faith and outreach success of all we are doing in the churches, Milk Project and farms. So, we press forward as much as we can. Have to put some plans and meetings/conferences/teaching on hold though until we can get that fully built out and finished. So...we are coordinating end of the year activities, getting materials, closing out well...and also planning and budgeting everything for the year to come...December will be just as busy as every other month for the mission for sure! Say a prayer for us to see how God would have us prioritize, and to help us cut ourselves a break when not everything gets done quite as timely as sometimes we would like. God timing not our timing! And now...for a special announcement! This will be shared via social media very soon, but blog readers are getting a special first look at this unique donation opportunity! By clicking on the donation link here, you can get a new His Eyes shirt (you pick your size when ordering), a new His Eyes coffee mug, and two pounds of whole bean Hill Climber coffee...and not just our normal coffee, but one pound of honey processed coffee, and one pound of cherry processed coffee! All for $70, with shipping included!
What is with the different coffee you say? -Normal coffee is picked, pulped, washed, and then dried. -Honey processed is picked, pulped...and then dried, no washing off of the "honey", which is the sticky part of the coffee when you pulp it. -Cherry processed is picked...and dried! Then you pulp it. It gives it a different flavor that some of us really enjoy! These are items that won't be available on the website normally, and right now we only have enough mugs to offer this deal to the first 10 people that click on the offer. We have more shirts that will be available at ICOM, and there might be some of the experimental processed coffees available...but there are only 10 mugs in the USA, so after 10 clicks, the link will be disabled. Thanks for your prayers and support, and let us know what you think of these limited type donation opportunities!
Huge change this year for the Milk Project then, not only in locations, but with Marvin moving from teaching English to taking over church development duties, we hired a new teacher, another staff person to help with the day to day in Tegucigalpa with Maria now supervising more locations, and hiring help in the USA to communicate with sponsors and coordinating communication on needs, goings on, etc. (Cecilia for those that know her!)
What's next then? Well, we have more sponsors to get for Talanga, but when the construction there is done, we will move to helping the church in Danli getting ready with the needed construction there, praying that perhaps in 2024, that will be the next location for another Milk Project! There is also more training to do, as we grow, for the teachers/directors, but also how to further integrate the projects with the churches and getting the pastors more involved in being with the kids and doing home visits. When the new office/conference building is completed, there will definitely be more of those kinds of meetings going forward! Prayers for the staff...working together during all these changes and growth, and keeping focus during this on serving Christ in their day to day activities! We are going to run out of clothes sometime early next year. We are only doing clothing now with groups, and only when a container can be coordinated with other supplies. When will the next one come? Might be a year from now! That will mean some changes for groups at some point, when there are no more for a time. That will be interesting. It will also be sad, because we know how much people look forward to those in many rural areas around the country. I've been absent from blogging mostly due to being way to busy to even think about it. That last sentence by the way, is not something I am proud of...nor should we prize being busy. Being occupied is one thing, but when I saw it has been two months, I knew that wasn't because there hasn't been many things to share while we have been in the US working for the mission, but rather just not having time to think about it.
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