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.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Philippians 1: 3-7
"I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because you hold me in your heart,for all of you share in God's grace with me......"

It is so hard to believe the week is over. The verse from Philippians was the focus of our devotions this morning, which were held on the bus as we pulled out from Hotel Buena Vista at 7 am. I know I will keep the people of Santa Cruz close in my heart. It is not likely that we will see the village again, but we CAN be confident that the good work started will continue.

Being a travel day, I thought I may not have anything exciting to write about. Well, was I wrong! The road from Copan Ruinas to San Pedro Sula, is two lanes up and down the hills, with 230 curves, no lane dividing lines, many potholes, and lots of traffic. The scenery is a mix of beautiful mountains with grazing cows, terraced coffee fields, and shacks built from sticks dotting the sides of the roads. It is not uncommon to see children playing along the side of the road, while semi trucks zip past. There are security checkpoints, which until today, we were waved on through. About an hour out of Copan, we reached one of these checkpoints, and were pulled over by the Direccion Nacional de Servicious Especiales De Investigacio. A rather stern looking officer, with the name Nunez embroidered on his pocket, took our driver's papers and went back to the office. He returned to the passenger door of the bus, and asked for our passports. Sue pulled out the copies of our passports, which she so wisely kept handy, and passed them to him. He stepped out the bus, then back in, and wanted to see our real passports, one by one. That's when I started to sweat. He only spoke Spanish, and Gloria was telling us to hand them one by one, row by row. After a few tense minutes, Office Nunez returned to the middle of the road, and said we could go. But, Nehamias, our driver, had not had his papers returned. At this point, both Gloria and Nehamias were both out of the bus. We all watched a bit anxiously as we saw Gloria and Nehamias exchange words with the officer. Nehamias returned to the bus and sat. We watched as Gloria got on the phone on the side of the road. What seemed like an eternity, but was most likely only about ten minutes, we watched and waited, wondering what was next. Gloria came back to the bus with Nehamias'' papers, and said we could go. She said the police were corrupt, and were trying to extort money from us. Gloria had contacted the Mayor of Copan by phone, who promptly got in his car and started to the checkpoint. This bit of info must have changed Officer Nunez' mind about detaining us. A few minutes back on the road, Gloria got another call from the Mayor. He had called Officer Nunez' boss and gave him a stern reprimand. Ha! That will teach him! He didn't know who he was messing with when he took on Gloria Wheeler!

The rest of the return trip was rather uneventful. Old and new friends sharing experiences, stories, laughs, and joys. We are all tired and weary, but it is a good feeling. I thank God for blessing us with this trip.

We would love to share more with you about our experiences. Please feel free to stop and ask questions. There are so many stories to tell.

-Holly Cory