Saturday, February 22 and Sunday, February 23, 2014

Saturday morning was an early morning wake up call to start our two day journey back to Detroit. After traveling from Copan to San Pedro Sula to Newark to Detroit, I am happy to report that our trip home was on time, safe, and uneventful. We are left with full hearts, life long memories, and maybe a few bug bites. We are thankful to God for this opportunity we had, and we will continue to pray for our friends in Santa Cruz, for Tim and Gloria and their hearts for mission, and for the country of Honduras. Until next year, thanks for following along!

Alison Cory

Friday, February 21, 2104

Today (Friday) was our last day at the village of Santa Cruz.  After rising to the daily chorus of crowing roosters and barking dogs, punctuated by fireworks at 6:15 a.m., we dined on another delicious breakfast from Delmay and boarded our favorite "Servicio Privado," piloted by the inimitable and unflappable Nehemias, he whose daily work is a game of inches: missing by inches the 16-wheeler screaming by at 65 miles an hour; missing by inches the stray dogs and hobbled horses that populate the roadsides of Honduras; missing by less than inches the various cars, vehicles and people around which he has to maneuver each day on our behalf as he bumps and bounces down the off-road tracks  from Copan to Santa Cruz.

Half of our group, the "newbies," spent the morning at Copan Ruinas, learning about Mayan culture from the 600s.  Tales of Thirteen Rabbits and Smoke Jaguar, plus lunar holidays marked by blood sacrifices, were part of their tour.

The rest of us hit the hills of Santa Cruz by 8:30, ascending its slopes to our final home, the casa of Anastasio.  Teodoro and Miguel awaited us, ready to mix another 18 bags of cement with 1170 shovels of sand and 45 gallons of water to make 9 batches of concrete to lay the floor of 4 rooms and a porch.  At the end of the afternoon, as our Jefe David says, we "met our goal and filled our quota."  We began the week certain that we knew the quantities and means of making this concrete, ending with our work at a much more productive level because we were making it the Honduran way.  Another reminder that Americans don't always know as much as we think!

The day provided its usual measure of humility.  I took part of the day to help carry bags of cement from one house to another, while climbing uphill.  Ugh!  Meanwhile Mike Huellmantel took a turn with the cement bags and then joined Peter in carrying bags of sand.  Ugh!  I then took a break from the group and helped the Honduran men unload a truckload of 300 bags of cement.  In the midst of that job, I was anointed with a moment of grace that slid its way down onto my shoulder.  Each of the men had an empty sand bag that they put on their shoulders, to help keep the cement dust off their skin and clothes.  I had no such bag.  After carrying 6 or 7 cement bags, I stepped up to the truck bed for my next load and just before the 90 pound bag was placed upon my shoulder, an empty sand bag slid under it and kept the cement dust cloud from adding to the layer already on my head and neck.  I never knew grace could be so rough as a sand bag but still so graceful.

After our work was concluded, Alison and Chrissy entertained the children with games of Red Light/Green Light, Que Hora Es Mr. Oso (What Time is it Mr. Fox) and Pato Pato Gonzo (Duck, Duck, Goose).  Alison was the favorite person to tag, no matter what game it was.

At 4 p.m. we all gathered at the school yard (about 100 square meters of hardpacked dirt and clay carved out of the hillside) for an assembly.  The leaders of the Honduran teams offered words of praise to God and of thanks to the members of GPMC, while we distributed gifts to the families.  Men stood on one side of the sun-drenched hill while women stood on the other, little children age 2 to 12 running between both groups and otherwise occupying the middle, draping themselves upon Loco Susanna (Acton) and Alison.

During our devotional in the evening, Julie Huellmantel told the group about her departure from the worksite.  As she said goodbye to the men with whom we worked, they had tears in their eyes.  The same could be said of us.

Mike Huellmantel led us in a wonderful devotional, which included a mashup version of U2's "New Song" and Bob Marley's "Every Little Thing."  We communed with tortillas held in Honduran pottery and remember that by the Spirit of Christ, we were at table with Teodoro, Adelmo, Maria, Nolbia and Antonio, as well as with Jim and Mary Garlough, Karol Swenson, Kathie Morinelli and Scott Turner.

We wrapped up the night with our annual Paper Tortilla awards.  Each recognition is part affirmation, part poking fun.  Sue Acton received the Creativo Use of Espanolo Award for her Spanish skills.  Dave Tucker was given the Gumby Award for his flexibility.  I will let others tell you the rest.

It is up to someone else other than me to try and summarize our trip, if such a thing is possible.  I will simply say that we saw and felt the love of Jesus Christ on a hillside in Santa Cruz and in a conference room at the Buena Vista Hotel in Copan.  We hope to bring the same to you when we return, trusting that God will help us in translating our experiences to you.  Thank you to everyone who prayed for us and supported us.  God has multiplied your gift in ways you cannot know and we are all the better for it.

Grace and peace,

Peter

Thursday, February 20, 2014

What a great day we had today!  It is such a blessing to be at the same community as last year, even though my role is vastly different.  Sue and I are the official "senior" women on the trip.  So this year, instead of making block, or shoveling sand, we worked with the women and children. There are benefits to getting old!  We were stationed at the casa that the women who were making our lunch were gathered. We had passed out fabric and sewing materials, and were amazed when we saw children showing up the next day in pants that were hand sewn from the material passed out the day before.  It was so special to be able to play with the children during the day.  The big hit of the week was the balloons, which they called "bombas", and the rubber band bracelets. (Thank you Mikey and Jake!)  I brought my iPad, and showed the women and children pictures of our visit last year. When I showed Dominga the picture of her and Beth, a big smile came to her face! She definitely remembered Beth.  We were sad that Antonio was not at Santa Cruz, but was now at Choncol.  We laughed with the women and children, in spite of the language barrier.

In the afternoon, we took the long bus ride up the mountain to the community of San Francisco.  We had worked at this community two years ago. San Francisco had a community dedication on Sunday, which we were not able to attend due to our travel delays.  The community wanted to express their appreciation to our group as well. We were able to see the finished homes which we had started with them two years earlier. When we went to Herman's home, he proudly took us in, then played his guitar and sang a song for our group. Then we all gathered with the community in the school. The celebration had men and women in traditional Honduras dress, dancing to guitar music. Weren't we surprised when we were asked to dance with them! The dance step was not difficult to pick up, and we all had great fun. We heard words of appreciation from the community, and all received an official certificate from the city of Copan Ruinas in appreciation of our work. We headed back down the mountain, enjoying the beautiful vistas.  In the evening, we had our traditional pizza dinner at Jim's pizza.  I am so blessed to be here, and am grateful that I was able to make this trip. 

Holly Cory

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Yo tengo gozo, gozo, gozo, gozo
en mi corazon, donde?
en mi corazon, donde?
en mi corazon,
yo tengo gozo, gozo, gozo, gozo
en mi corazon,
porque Christo mi salvo.

How much joy could we possibly feel!  It was such a journey that led to two wonderful days of work so far.  Today we tried a new tactic, dividing into smaller groups, allowing us to work on more houses.  Less down time (ie: sharing shovels and space) and definitely more productivity. We completed more work in the morning than we did all day yesterday. Lunch was once again a blessing, filled with amazing food (cooked by our dear Gloria and the women of Santa Cruz) and the wonderful smiles and voices of the nina's and nino's of the village.

The afternoon proved to be as successful as the morning as we finished off the floors in three of the houses and started two more.  You cannot imagine the strength of the men and boys of this village.  The climb from the bottom of this mountain to the top is unimaginable, with a path about 1-2 feet wide, constant switchbacks, and a vertical ascent that makes Hemlock at Boyne Mountain look like a bunny hill.  We were lucky to make it up with our backpacks, but the men of the village carried
100 lb bags of cement over their shoulder and the teenagers had the job of carrying 100 lb bags of sand up the mountain.  I don't know how our mission group from 2013 made it up that hill in the rain carrying buckets of sand and  cement.  I bow to all of you and the amazing job you did.  We are so happy to be helping to finish the job Mission Trip 2013 started last year.  It is possible that this village will be complete by the time we leave Friday.  Just over 1 year from start to finish.  Way to go Santa Cruz.....with some help from GPMC.


Off to a rousing game of Jeopardy - led by our own Peter Henry.  More tomorrow from the as of yet unknown hands of a Honduras Mission 2014 member.

With great love and joy!

Julie Huellmantel

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Well, work day number 1 is completed.

We started our morning off bright and early with breakfast at 7 a.m. and on our bus by 7:40 to be at the hardware store by 8. Since we are on Honduras time, the store wasn't open quite by 8 a.m so we all had a lovely time exploring the area surrounding the hardware store. After waiting a quick 15 minutes for Dave in the hardware store (which I'm told we will visit every morning before work) we were finally on our way. 

Upon arriving at the worksite, we were greeted by a rather larger downed tree, blocking the buses final 20 feet to the base of the community. Eager to get of the bus, we all grabbed our  backpacks and water bottles and began the trek up the hill to our first house. 

Our morning consisted of shoveling sand, hauling buckets of water, mixing wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of cement and then realizing that we were using the wrong formula for mixing cement. After reworking our formula, we ditched the wheelbarrows and began mixing our cement on the ground. By the time lunch was ready, we had the first floor in our house completed. 

Lunch was prepared by the women in the village and served down the hill from our worksite. We were served a delicious lunch of chicken, fresh veggies, rice and tortillas. Needless to say we all were pretty full by the time lunch was done. 

After lunch, we all worked our way back up the hill to our first house, where we completed a second room. We cleaned up pretty quickly and moved up the hill to work on our second house of the day. There were so many of us trying to work in such a small space, both members of GPMC and the community of Santa Cruz, that Julie, Allison and I packed up our stuff and headed down the hill to join Sue, Holly and the women and children in the village. We ended our work day making friendship bracelets, coloring, reading and singing with the children. 

It was pretty amazing to see how the littles things like song books and friendship bracelets and cement floors can bring so much joy to the men, women and children of Santa Cruz and I know I can speak on behalf of the whole group that we are all looking forward to another work day tomorrow. 

Chrissy Turner

   

Monday, February 17, 2014

We woke up bright and early to make it to our hotel breakfast by 6am, in hopes of catching the 6:30 shuttle to the Houston airport. We all squeezed on the shuttle, standing in the aisles, and made in to the airport with plenty of time for our 9am flight to Honduras (finally!)

Our flight to Honduras was uneventful, which was a welcome blessing to us. After  navigating customs and collecting our baggage, we met Gloria Wheeler, our leader for the week, and our bus driver, Nehamias. Many of us know them from past trips, so it was fun to reconnect.

We set out on the 3 hour drive to our home base of Copan. During the drive, we learned that we would indeed be spending the week at the same village as last year, Santa Cruz. It was exciting to know that we would get to reconnect with familiar faces and see what progress has been made since last year.

We make a quick stop by Santa Cruz before heading to our hotel. The men and children of the village greeted us on the road with smiles, hugs and handshakes. I was surprised how many of them remembered our names. One little girl, Maria Antonia, immediately came up to hug me with a baby on her hip (her nephew) and then asked, "where is Susana?" (Sue Acton).

The men of the village showed us what has been done and each gave little speeches welcoming us and telling us they were happy that we were there. The feeling from us was mutual. The houses were all finished, and our job for the week was to work on laying the cement floors.

The beauty of the landscape around Santa Cruz is truly amazing. Each home in the village has a spectacular view of the mountains and the lush valley below.

We came back to our hotel, settled in, had a delicious dinner, and then Julie led us in devotions about being the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We are all excited to finally be here and to get started working alongside the Honduran people.

Alison Cory

    Getting ready to leave Houston for Honduras!

   Joe Reed making amigos.

    Being greeted by our old friends.

Saturday, February 15 and Sunday, February 16

Saturday

We are all a bit nervous as we gather at Detroit Metro.  We already are aware that our flight to Newark where we are to connect with Chet Henry and our flight to San Pedro Sula will be delayed by 2 1/2 hours.  The rumor is "Weather" as the cause but we are confused by that as it has been a few days since we have seen snowfall in Detroit.

We are told to board anyway as Newark is a hub and will have more options.  Good news. It wasn't snowing in Newark either.  But, bad news, they really didn't have any good options for us since they hadn't yet recovered from their Wednesday storm.

We finally figured out that if we could drive to the Philadelphia airport, we could get a Sunday night flight to Houston and a Monday morning flight to Honduras.  Not a great solution, but when you have awesome traveling companions, lemons become lemonade.

Peter and Julie remembered that Princeton is within an hour of Newark, AND that some great friends of GPMC live there.  Yes, we are talking about Gordon and Nancy Mikoski.  A phone call to them while we were finalizing our flights was all it took.  By the time we were on the road to meet them for dinner, not only did they have plans to take in some of us, but they had already found lodging with friends for all the rest of our group of eleven.  We enjoyed a great dinner from the "not-to-be-missed" Hoagie Haven, a wonderful night of catching up with dear friends, and an inspirational devotion on the Beatitudes from our own Joe Reed.

This morning brought a tour of Princeton, an adult ed class on the geography of Palestine from Gordon, and worship at Pennington Presbyterian, which is the church Nancy now leads as head of staff.  We enjoyed our visit very much and feel blessed by this detour.

As I write this we are in the air on Sunday night on our way to Houston.  Our overbooked vouchers for this flight and the one tomorrow have become real tickets with seat assignments for ALL of us and we have high hopes of being in San Pedro Sula by noon tomorrow.

Thanks for all you praying for us in Grosse Pointe.  Tonight, we are feeling blessed with great friends - at home - and on this flight - and in Princeton - and waiting for us in Honduras.

We trust our next posting will come from Honduras!

Sue Acton 

   Sue, Joe, and Chet worked for 3 hours in Newark to figure out how to get us to Honduras.

   Peter and one of our hosts and old friend, Gordon Mikoski.

   Nancy and Anna Mikoski, our gracious hosts.

Welcome - 2014 Trip

Thank you for virtually joining the GPMC team on our 2014 mission trip to Honduras! Our trip will be from February 15-23. With the help of our mission partners, Tim and Gloria Wheeler, we will be working side by side with the Honduran people to build houses in a small village. We will be updating this blog with the happenings of each day during the trip. We look forward to sharing stories of how the Lord is working in Honduras, both through the GPMC team and the people we meet. Thanks for following along!

P.S. Feel free to look back at the posts from the 2013 trip as well! You may view all 2013 trip posts here.