Honduras Hope News Update                        August 16/07

We arrived back in Tegucigalpa on Monday with no hassles and all our baggage! Wow, we were impressed! First time ever we got back with all our stuff!

There were a few "surprises" awaiting us though…The car did not start. The battery cables were all corroded, but Randy, being the “jack of all trades” that he is, cleaned them all up, and fiddled and faddled with all the wires, ran the car down the hill and eventually jump started her in 2ND gear. Yea!

Then our first night back here, the water pump gave out and we were almost 3 days before it was fixed. Randy was getting anxious for the water to come back on... but we were at peace and did not sweat it. (SO TO SPEAK) After all, it was only in the 80 degree temperature range.

So Tuesday we went to the cable company to reconnect our cable. Three hours later we got back to the house, and still had to wait till yesterday for our internet phone and Internet service to be reconnected. One hour later the power went out with thunder storms. (We are in the rainy season) So that was fun too.

Our land-line telephone was cut off and our cell phone was out of minutes.

But Randy was happy, the TV was on :)

But in all fairness, we really are just laughing about all this, we really are!

Our favorite expression is "Welcome to Honduras" so we are learning to just go with the flow!

This is just a continuation of our lessons on "patience, perseverance and pressing on"  and as our dear friends added, God's peace as well is certainly here with us.

In Canada: It was an adventurous trip home to Canada having visited 8 churches and spent most of our time on the road between Itineration and trying to see family and friends. We thank God for all of them. All in all, we were blessed to be there and have 20 more lbs on us to prove it :)

Also, in Canada, we had a few difficulties with the van which cost us quite a few bucks and we nearly blew 2 tires. However in both situations God's hand of protection was definitely upon us. Both times the tire was showing the steel and we could have had an accident, but God is soooooooooooo good!

Unfortunately we lost our camera that we use for the Ministry here, just a week or so after we got home. We searched everywhere and it was no where to be found. We were on the road so much it literally could have been anywhere. Every time we went to buy a new one, we felt like God said to "wait". God again is faithful, a few days before we left, a couple came to us and gave us the funds specifically for a new camera. Praise the Lord!

Our Itineration Co-coordinator has resigned her position. Nancy has been a tremendous help to us over the past year, helping us get into several churches to present the mission of what we are doing here. She did an amazing amount of work and we would not be where we are today without her help. She will be dearly missed and hard to replace.

The best thing about being in Canada was just seeing our kids and grand-kids and just loving up on them and getting my momma/ granny “fixes”. Although there never seems to be enough time to stock up on all that lovin. I would have loved to have seen them all more. Better still, I’d love to just pack them in my suitcase and take them all with me. Leaving the family behind is always the most difficult part for us, especially when our 3 year old granddaughter Leah, the day before we left, looked up at us with an expression of horror on her face, , and said, quite passionately ,“you’re leaving??” My heart broke.

We were blessed to be at Spring Bay PAOC Camp and take in all the wonderful speakers and worship for 2 whole weeks! This really built us up and helped rejuvenate us to come back to the field. (We really needed it)

We will take a few days to regroup and get settled back in before heading back up to the mountains to work with the children. Monday is back to normal, Lord willing. Then again, we never did quite figure out what "normal" was here. So we intend to pace ourselves more, put in a good weeks work and actually take a day off this time around. Pray that we stick to that! With so much need here, it’s hard to just sit back and let it wait. But we have come to realize that if we burn ourselves out trying, we are no good to anyone, including ourselves, much less God being able to work effectively through us!

Reality check, we have all been there! “Lord send more labourers..Please”

We appreciate all the help, encouragement, prayers and support that you give us. We are so blessed to have you in our lives and part of this team. You are making a difference here in Honduras by being the hands that send us. We could not do it without you either.

For those of you who would like to come and experience the Mission field first hand, or just revisit, NSPC (New Sudbury Pentecostal Church) is planning a 2 week Missions trip for April 2008. For more information, contact the church at 705 566 9447. The team leader is Anna Burton.

Please continue to pray for us and be encouraged yourselves. God is in Control and HE is still on the throne. No matter what you are facing today may HIS peace, joy and love flood your soul and bring you closer to HIM. No matter what, if we keep our eyes on Him, He sees us though every storm.

We will be in touch.  Until then, God Bless all of you 

We now have a Bilingual Dentist that started last week with the program. We began with an educational lecture, then had examinations and applied fluoride treatments. In all we had about 70 children and have now begun the daunting task of deciding which work we can do for what children at this time. We found that many of the younger children already have major problem with their baby teeth, some of them only have roots left. Older children, who have their six year molars, have 3-4 cavities in them already. We are told that 98% of Hondurans loose these 4 molars before they are 15 years old. We are hoping to have the Dentist use preventative treatment, seal the molars that are good so we can beat these odds. We were surprised that the examinations revealed worst case scenarios than we had imagined. This is largely due to poor diet and inaccessibility to clean water in the home as well as lack of proper dental care. Our task will be a huge undertaking to continually educate the parents and children to ensure this changes.