We got to sleep in late (till 7 am) before doing our groups devotions. We then cleaned up and stored the tools that we did not need any more for the church. The group then got together to practice our parts for the salvation play. Jon and Mike were the “Sinner” and “Builder”, Claudia and Sandra were the “Questioner” and “Narrator”, Luis played Guitar and the rest of us were the choir. All of the songs and the story were in Spanish (scary, huh?)! We then loaded up for the 2 hour drive to Defensia. We had some more rain so we knew the road up the mountain would be a little messier than before.

I have to give you a little background before I tell you what happened when we got there. You can only see about 4 houses from the church we are building (and you can see for at least a mile in each direction. The mountain road is very steep and windy. Some of our group walked for an hour or two on Monday to visit houses and invite the kids to VBS and the dedication service on Thursday. During that walk they only got to 3 houses so you that gives you an idea how spread out these people are on the mountains.

Even so, we had a good turnout for VBS Monday (57 kids) and a little less on Tuesday (about 45). We were expecting about the same on Thursday for the last day of VBS and maybe some additional adults for the dedication service. Well, God had other plans. When we arrived at our little chapel on the hill, there were people everywhere waiting on us with benches and chairs to put inside. We are not sure how many kids showed up for VBS because we lost count at 117 kids and more arrived after the dedication service started. Some of the boys helped put finishing touches on the roof while Mike and I mounted lights on the ceiling of the church. The rest of the team went to work with the kids.

View of VBS from the Church

View of VBS from the Church2

The dedication service started a little after two. Pastor Melvin who helped plant the church and other pastors from the “consejo” (kind of like the district these churches fall under) lead the service with songs, guitar playing and a message. The team did the Salvation Play and it went very well! It was really an unbelievable event there were over 100 people (besides us) crammed in the little church. The pastor kept having the congregation repeat Salmos 122:1, “Yo me alegré con los que me decían: «¡A la casa de Jehová iremos!»” (I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.”). They were very happy to have a place of worship.

Inside the Church!

The completed Church

After the service we said our “Good-byes” and started our trek back down the mountain. Only this time, we had many more passengers aboard since many had walked for hours to get there. Claudia and I had a passenger named Julio Martinez in our truck. Now keep in mind how remote this area is and that Julio has never been out of Honduras… The amazing thing was that Julio has a son that plays guitar and sings on a worship team at a church in New Jersey! He is going to try to get his son’s contact info to Claudia through John so we can touch base.

This truck had 26 people in the back going home from the service!

After we got back we went to dinner at Pastor Francisco’s (the president of the Consejo) house. Francisco and his wife Consuela (Connie) are full of life and a lot of fun to be around. As tired as we were after this week, we had a blast. Pastor Francisco and the teens would tell jokes back and forth while Maria Jose translated. I cannot remember laughing so hard in my life.

The team at Pastor Francisco's

There is so much more to tell you but I can’t type forever. We will try and send a final update tonight. See you Saturday!

Rob, Sandra, Desi and the team.

Jon: Hola, we finished the church today. The roof is put up and all we need to do is put in the lights, we only have one more day of VBS and it has been going great. The kids walk for miles over mountains just to come to a 2 hour VBS and they still have smiles on their faces. Going on back of the trucks is amazing, I have never and will never see sights like this and we see one of the two lakes in Honduras and it is beautiful. The kids are amazing, they have smiles on their faces at all times and they are grateful for everything. It is hard to talk to them when they don’t know what we are saying, but they just look at you and smile, some of them laugh at us trying to speak Spanish, and whenever we pass on the back of the truck the kids all yell “el gringos, el gringos!” (white people) we just laugh and wave at them.

Mike: Today we basically finished the church tomorrow we have a couple screws to put in then the lights, it has been so cool to see these kids come from miles away to come to vbs and see THEIR new church. This trip has changed all of us and really has shown us how lucky or spoiled we really are to even have clean water to drink is something that these people don’t have. We are staying at one of two places in the country where there is clean water. This whole trip has been AMAZING to say the least, seeing God’s work in the world is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. There are mountains as far as the eye can see and then some. This has been a great bonding time with all the other guys that went on this trip. I wish I was staying here for a year but I will be glad to be home. I have taken so many pictures but they don’t do justice to the real awesomeness of God’s amazing work. Jesse, Jon, Tommy, Mr. McGrath, Mr. Puccio and I both have had so much fun sitting in back of the truck getting thrown around, it hurts but it’s still so much fun to see all the sights I can’t even begin to explain how beautiful it is. Thank you all for all your support and prayers you have given us, we will see you Saturday.

This is Anna giving the update

Today is Tuesday we had our first VBS today.  but let me start from the beginning

We started our day off at 5.00 am had breakfast and devos on complaining. Got on the road 7.00am we drove the 20 mins and then switched to the trucks because of the mountain road. Today was my first day to go because I was sick yesterday so it was pretty neat to see all of the view for the first time. It was awesome to see the different patches of land when you look out. God’s handy work right at our fingertips. So we finally got there and started with the church building around 9.00am we finished all of the sides and put on the door so tomorrow we just need to finish the roof . kids started showing up around 12 and we were not supposed to start until 1:30. so we had lunch and then we started making balloon animals for the kids. They really loved them. After that around 1. I did the bible lesson today on Noah. We all pitched in on the rest because the men were still finishing up with the church. The verse was a great success that Tommy prepared. The arks were awesome that Mrs. Puccio designed. The kids loved it all it was great to hear them reciting the verse. To see their smiling faces playing all birdies must fly was amazing. We left at 3 in perfect timing to the coming rain. 

Overall the day was a great success. Praise God!

We are off to Pastor Fransisco’s house for an authentic Honduran meal. Please continue to pray for the team’s health.

Love, Anna and Tommy

P.S.

Please feel free to email us back! We would love to hear from you and know if you are getting our updates!

What a fantastic day we had today… our first day in the field! We awoke at 5am to get dressed, have breakfast, do our devotions and pack the vehicles to leave by 7:30. It took us 90 minutes to get to the site. The first 30 minutes were on a paved road, but the last 60 were up and down a windy dirt road that traversed the mountains in such a way that several among us feared for our lives, but I won’t name names  The building site had an amazing view of the lush mountains and valleys that literally surrounded us. We spent about 60 seconds admiring the location when we were ordered to work, but we willingly dove in. By lunch time we were 33% complete – can you believe it?! Some of us had an opportunity to walk up the road to find some houses and invite people to VBS… we found about three houses in the mile we traveled, uphill! Lunch was a simple PB&J or Ham sandwich, but some of the local folks brought us watermelon and pineapples for dessert – delicious! By the time we left the site, around 3pm, we were a little less than 50% complete, great progress! We had a very nice dinner at a partner missionary’s house (the Mills) and returned to the seminary for a debrief at 8pm. Everyone is very upbeat and willing to share their experiences and thoughts. Oh, forgot to mention that poor Anna was not feeling well this morning because her stomach did not agree with the food we had yesterday. She stayed behind with Luis’ wife, but her spirits were high and she was feeling much better by the time we returned. Please continue to pray for all of us; our safety, our health and of course, our ministry!

And may God bless and keep you all until our return!

Love,

Jesse and his Dad

Here we are Day Two and things are going well. We all slept well but we are still on NJ time so most of us were up at 4AM Honduras time. We even beat the rooster up! John took us to a great restaurant for breakfast and everyone really enjoyed the food. We went to the local church for a 9 am service and boy were we blessed. The Pastor gave a great message on sharing God’s word with the world. The music was moving, to hear the songs that we sing, like Majesty and Wonderful Grace of Jesus, sung in Spanish with enthusiasm was very moving and blessed us tremendously. I (Claudia) was moved to tears to hear them, they meant so much in Spanish!

After the service we came back and began the preparation for Monday, preparing the drills, tools, vbs material and everything else we needed. For lunch John took us a real Honduras restaurant and I am amazed how well the teens are doing and enjoying the different foods. (Debbie.. Jesse loves the food here and doing so well with his Spanish). Sandra and I later got to go a supermarket to buy our food for the week, that was pretty interesting but fun. They take your groceries to the car for you!

We are spending the rest of the night preparing our material for vbs and singing. The people here at the institute have been so nice and the children are so endearing. We have already made many friends. God has blessed us in so many ways and we can’t wait to bring the construction tomorrow.

Continue to pray for us, especially as we travel tomorrow. It has rained a lot and the roads could be very difficult to pass. They are telling us that only 4 wheel drive vehicles can make it up the road. We may have to take several runs to get us all up there. We love you all and miss you.

Joe and Claudia and the Honduras Team

P.S. Each day another person will do the update so you will hear from all of us.

Just a quick note to let you know that we made it to Honduras safe and sound. All of our luggage arrived and we made the 2 hour drive to the Bible Institute in Siguatepeque where we are staying.

We met up with an old friend, Louis, who was with us on our trip in 2002 and made several new ones. Also, Louis is now married to Kristie who is from America but worked at a missionary school here in Honduras. There were several children here at the Seminario Biblico so Claudia, Sandra and Desi have been getting to know them. The rest of the NDC kids, to include Joe and Mike were playing a soccer game before dinner.

We will be heading out to dinner tonight and going over our plans for the week. We will try to send out an email each day but do not panic if you don’t hear from us tomorrow. We just heard that the electricity will be off tomorrow.

Thank you all again for your prayers and support,

By His Grace,

Rob and the Honduras team

In His Service,
Anna, Tommy, Mike, Jon, Jesse, Desi, Joe, Rob, Claudia, Sandra, Mike, John,
Julie

Dates:  September 24-26
Location:  Harvey Cedars Bible Confernce, Harvey Cedars, NJ
Speaker:  Mark J. Crocco
Topic:  The Lordship of Jesus Christ (Living as men who belong to Christ)

• The full retreat is $165 and includes Friday and Saturday night at Harvey Cedars as well as all meals on Saturday and Breakfast on Sunday.
• Saturday and Sunday is $100.00 and includes 1 night of lodging, lunch and dinner Saturday and breakfast Sunday.
• If you can only attend Saturday it is $50 and includes lunch and dinner on Saturday.

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