A Wild & Crazy Start in Honduras

After a non-eventful and safe trip, we arrived in Honduras and made it quickly and easily through customs. We were greeted by Mark, Lori, my friend Jason Jones from Louisville and all the TORCH bus drivers. The others that arrived were our friends from Oklahoma. From there we went to lunch at a local restaurant. Steve Castleman LOVED the bean/cheese dip with chips. Then it was on to Villa Gracia to get settled in. I am rooming with Jennifer Presley, Carol Walden and a sweet new friend from Oklahoma named Lori Pink. We are in the same room I was in on my first trip here 3 years ago. That night we were all exhausted since we had been up since around 2:30 that morning.

The next morning, since not everyone was here yet, the whole crew went to one location to build 2 houses. We jokingly divided into Oklahoma vs. Alabama to build. Our house was built in honor of the Homewood Church of Christ Youth Group by a generous donation from Mike & Lori Ermert. We did have a couple to switch sides though! We had to haul enough lumber/tin/supplies along with our backpacks up the mountain. The housesites were relatively close and we could see each other working. It was extremely muddy and therefore hard to haul the lumber. The lumber consists of several sizes and lengths. The biggest boards are 3 by 4s that are 18 feet long. It was super hot and we were all getting a little lightheaded. Oh, did I mention that we first had to tear down the existing structures before we could begin building the houses? The work seemed to be going pretty slow probably because we had so much lumber to haul on top of actually building. After lunch Mark announces the good news - there is another load of wood being delivered that we need to unload and haul up the mountain! Some "newbies" thought he was joking because he is known to do that, but the rest of us knew he was telling the truth. I realized I have really bony shoulders as they are now sore and bruised! Around mid-afternoon, it started to rain (more like monsoon) along with thunder and lightening. Remember, the roofs are tin! Our crew was actually in our house and had the roof done at this point. The woman we were building the house for had very little in the way of possessions but did own an old box springs and mattress which had been leaning up a against a barbwire fence with a tarp partially covering it. We fought our way through the rain and mud to get it and haul it up into the house. It got wet and muddy but we saved it. Suddenly, I heard people start to scream. As I looked up and out the open space that would soon be the final wall of the house, I saw my dear friend from Oklahoma, Stan Berry, falling backwards through the air. He and Steve Castleman were on the back of the other housesite working when Stan lost his footing and did a backflip off the mountain. He fell 20 feet or so into the rubble that was the house that was demolished to build the new ones. He fell among boards with nails sticking out, trees, old rusty tin and other dangerous things. When he landed, he slumped over and then pulled his head up and all we could see was blood. His daughter, Allie, who is Ellen's dear friend, was at our worksite with horror in her eyes. Ellen and I quickly took her down to where he was. Her mother, Cheryl, was already there along with several of the men, one of whom is a doctor. Stan was conscious but obviously in a lot of pain. Cheryl had taken off her shirt so they could use it to put pressure on his head. David Logue, a missionary who lives here, then took off his shirt and gave to Cheryl. She was so cold and was in shock as well. Ellen raced back to our worksite to get her rainjacket. We had her take off the David's t-shirt and put on Ellen's jacket. The men then helped Stan up and walked him down the mountain to David's truck. Allie wanted Ellen to go with them to the doctor. Stan ended up with 12 stitches in the back of his head, cuts and scrapes on his knees, bruised ribs and a fractured right wrist. He is in some pain but so thankful that it was not worse. It could have been so, so much worse. We are thankful to God for his protection! They arrived back at Villa Gracia that night around 10:00. Really long day - especially since they were drenched when they left for the doctor. He asked Ellen to be his "assistant"! He had another patient there as well. He was explaining to Ellen what was wrong with her. Turns out, she had sesmoiditis in her foot just like Ellen does! Ellen told him she had it too! He gave the patient a shot and Ellen then had to apply pressure to it! Ha! Maybe she will rethink being a doctor! Afterwards, the doctor went to dinner with them at the local McDonald's! Welcome to Honduras!

Yesterday, I went to build a house with my friends from Louisville. We built it in honor of Willie McDaniel. It was a muddy site already but then we hit a water main! Who knew there even was a water main....which consisted of a 1 inch pvc pipe. The other house site was about a half mile on up the mountain and we had to haul all the lumber up to it. Several of our kids were on the lumber hauling crew and did an amazing job after having hauled 3 loads the day before! Tim Mills led that crew and the house was built in memory of Carol McLaughlin by her husband, Jim.

Today, our group spread out in several directions. Some helped with a VBS in one community some went to a children's home, others to the dump and 2 more houses were built. The house site that a majority of our group was on was beautiful. It was also out in the country close to the two from the day before. The lumber haulers had delivered our wood and even organized it for us so we could get right to work. The house build was extremely smooth and quick....of course, we did have some really, really experienced men with us! This house was built in honor of my sweet friend, Nikki Koski, by an anonymous donor at Homewood who loves her and her family a lot! She was overcome with appreciation.

We have had rainstorms every day until today. I am now hearing some rumblings of thunder. Tomorrow is the Lord's day and we will go into town and worship with those at Breaking Chains. It is an inner city ministry for homeless kids. I will post about our day as soon as I can.

Godspeed to you all.