Friday
This morning I had a treat. �The sand was to arrive to mix the concrete to pour over the exposed sewer line we had dug and installed. �Suddenly I heard someone yell, �The ox man is here!�� Sure enough, the sand came in a trailer pulled by a pair of oxen.� The oxen were backed up �under the building roof, then stood patiently while the sand was shoveled off the cart.� It was so neat to me to see what was routinely done in our country on the frontier.� The oxen were yoked together and I couldn�t help but remember Jesus�words from my favorite verse, �Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls.� For my yoke is easy and my burden is light�(MT 11:28).
Last night I was supposed to teach in an open air patio for a group of Oscar�s congregation, but it rained cats and dogs.� Big cats and dogs!� So, instead, we simply enjoyed each other�s company and talked about Oscar�s dreams for his congregation.� You may remember that Leonor, Oscar�s wife, was the principle of Agape Academy in El Progreso, a high-standard, bilingual Christian school.� We didn�t know before coming here, but they plan to start a similar school here in Yoro.� The schools here in Yoro are not good and they believe the need is great.� It seems that way to me too.� The high school we visited the other day has 4000 students who attend.� The day is split into three.� Some kids attend in the morning, some in the afternoon, some at night.� I asked Oscar and Leonor if it was hard to be licensed to start a school.� Oscar laughed and said, �No, very easy.� The government needs as many private schools as possible.� Their plan is to start September 2001 with a pre-K, kindergarten, and 1st grade program.� Then as the school progresses to make it up to and including high school.� They hope to find American teachers who would be willing to come for one year.� The school would provide a house, pay for airfare, and a Honduran teacher�s salary, which is $350 a month.� Yes, that is a professional wage.� The average wage here in Yoro is only $6.00 per day.� The diet Pepsi I buy pretty much every day costs $0.85, cheaper than in the US, but not by much.� That is why there is such a lack of resources here.� Thinking back to the ox cart for a minute, there are actually some very nice John Deere tractors the city owns, but the opinion is that those were purchased with money given by the drug cartels.� Everything else is very limited.� The hotel we stay in, by far the nicest is Yoro, where visiting government dignitaries also stay when in town, has dirty water, furniture we wouldn�t buy in a garage sale, and a bedside lamp which doesn�t work (at least in my room).
The other day, I was looking at a mountain on one side of Yoro.� It looked uninhabited and I asked Oscar who owned it.� He said �the bad Urbinos.�� (On another occasion he had told me that pretty much everyone in Yoro was related to the Urbino family.� But there were �good� Urbinos and �bad� Urbinos!)� The bad Urbinos who live on the mountain will shoot you if you go there.� On the other side of Yoro is another mountain.� Oscar said Indians live there and plant and harvest marijuana.� If you go there, he said, the Indians will shoot you.� I asked, �With arrows?� Oscar laughed again and said, �No arrows.� This is 2010.� Well, there go my thoughts about backpacking there.
Quinn and Melinda continue to be a delight to be with.� They are completely flexible, willing to serve, and quick to pray.� Quinn actually knows some Spanish and has been a big help translating.� He reminded me that it may not be a coincidence that a number of people at Banks had asked about helping the children of Yoro � and then we find out about their plans to start a bilingual school.� One need they will have, Oscar explained to me, in addition to Americans willing to teach for a year, is for scholarships for children of his own church to be able to attend the school.� They are committed to trying to provide scholarships, because even at a bare-bones budget, the cost of private school for many of his families would be more than they could possibly afford.� He said I would be surprised the number of children in his church who go to school each day having only had a cup of coffee, or maybe coffee with a piece of bread, because they can�t afford more.� So the government provides in the school what is known as a �scholar�s snack� -- a cup of milk.
Saturday evening there is a big youth program at Oscar�s church.� I will be doing some Bible teaching at that time and Quinn and Melinda will be sharing their personal testimonies.� We are all well, pretty much rested, and feeling very, very blessed of the Lord.� Thank you so much for your support and prayers.� This mission would not have happened without them!
Love in Jesus,
Scott
| (I tried to send this last night -- couldn�t get a connection)
Well, finished another day.� Tried to escape any real work, almost made it, but not quite.� Quinn and Melinda, on the other hand, did some real work � they just about finished painting the men�s and women�s bathrooms (with assistance from about 12 kids too).� Pastor Oscar invited me to drive with him back down to San Pedro Sula to take one of the kids to the airport.� I said �sure� then found out we leave at 5 AM.� Oh well.� We drove the 2 hour trip down the mountains, dropped the young man at the airport, then went to El Progreso (where Oscar used to live) to buy a bunch of sheet rock, which we slowly took in his truck back up the mountain to Yoro.
The early morning trip gave me a chance to see the rural Hondurans �get ready for their day.� About 5:30 AM, I saw lots of girls and women on the side of the road carrying bowls on their heads.� Oscar explained they were taking corn to the mill to be ground.� From the ground corn meal, they make the tortillas for their family for that day.� Next morning, same routine.� We passed at least three sets of huge oxen yoked together by their horns next to each other, on the way to the fields to plow.� Some men rode bicycles with bundles of wood or a sack of meal tied to the rear.� Other men walked singly, carrying their machetes for a day�s work in the fields.� Lots and lots of mangy dogs.� After generations of inbreeding they all look the same, except different colors.� Long legs, long bat-like ears, long nose, and a tail like a whip.� Too ugly for adoption.� Saw trucks full of bananas, horse-drawn carts, little golf-cart like taxis, cowboys on horses herding a bunch of milk cows right down the road.� Lots of animals walking loose on the road, on which we sometimes went 60 mph.
Quinn and Melinda seem to be enjoying themselves and fit-in so well with their cheerful, servant attitude.� Quinn had so much dust on him yesterday, he looked like one of those African natives in National Geographic who paint their bodies with white clay!
Late this afternoon we went to the public high school.� Last week, another youth group had gone to this same school and about 100 kids prayed to accept Christ.� This time, we were there to follow up.� Our kids split into three groups, with a Spanish-speaking adult each, and went into each classroom and with the teacher�s permission, invited those who accepted Christ the previous week to come to the back of the school for another presentation.� (Keep in mind this is a public school!)� Well, the rest of us had set up a speaker with music and two microphones out back.� At least 150 kids showed up!� Different kids from the Kentucky youth group shared personal testimonies of how they came to Christ, pastor Oscar invited them to a youth meeting this Saturday at his church, the kids put on a skit, then we went and mingled with the crowd of kids.� I was able to speak to two groups of high school boys, inviting them to accept Christ and encouraging and praying for those who had done so.� It was a wonderful, wonderful afternoon, full of joy and a sense of rewarded purpose.� Oscar explained to me that the school administration needs the churches to help.� There is apparently lots of drugs, teenage violence, and gangs in the schools.� Because all the kids wear identical uniforms, white shirts with a badge on the sleeve and navy blue pants or skirts, and all nicely groomed, it was hard to believe by appearance that the school was having so many problems.
One funny thing.� This morning in El Progreso, Oscar and I were having a cup of coffee.� His cell phone rang and Leonor, his wife, very upset, asked if he had heard the news from the USA.� She said that President Obama was discovered not to be an American!� I said, �What?� Oscar asked the store owner to turn on CNN, but as you probably know, no such story.� I�m not sure where she heard that, but for a few minutes, I had visions of impeachment, Joe Biden as president, and who knows what!
Thank you again for your prayers.� They are so important and needed.� Tomorrow evening, the plan is for me to do a Bible study at a small group that meets outside Yoro and we will continue to do construction work.� Well, some of us will �
Love in Jesus,
Scott
| Hi everyone! We all made it here - and the piano too! When we got to the airport in San Pedro Sula and prepared to go through customs a man came up to us from the US Embassy to give us ushered service through the process. Turns out that he is from the same church as Oscar (though in the San Pedro ¨mother church.¨) It was VERY helpful. After a 10 minute animated conversation in Spanish between he and the female customs agent, the piano was waved through (apparently customs wanted to charge us a tariff, but the US Embassy man talked her out of it).
We drove the 2 hour drive up to the central highland town of Yoro. Amazing tropical scenery all around. Dogs, horses, brahma cattle wandering loose on the roads. Roadside pineapple vendors, people carrying bundles of wood, pushing carts, driving really beat up cars, and buses roaring down the road, bicyclists veering out of the way. The road was in really bad shape in places. Oscar now has a Nissan truck, much better than his old Toyota, but I´m amazed he doesn´t need new shocks once a month.
We got to the Hotel Marquez (no relation to Eddie) and they had no rooms! Another group is with the church, from Kentucky, with about 15 teenagers, and the hotel had sold our rooms, thinking we weren´t coming. After another 10 minute heated debate in Spanish between Oscar and the hotel manager, we were given two rooms. Praise the Lord! Definitely ¨Motel 6¨accomodations, but at $25.00 a night, I can´t complain.
Today we joined the other group to work on the church building. The congregation in Yoro signed a 5 year rental contract (with a plan to eventually purchase) on an abandoned school. LOTS of building space, but it is a real dump. Except for the sanctuary area, which the pastor from Kentucky (a very accomplished builder and contractor) has helped put together, over a number of prior visits to Yoro. The sanctuary is now a very attractive space. Last night though it rained really hard and part of their new ceiling collapsed, due to the sheetrock getting wet after a local roofer had ¨fixed¨ the roof. Also, last night, two thieves broke into the big church bus that carried the youth to Yoro, took out the enormous bus battery, had it on the ground, when the church night watchman caught them. He is a man about my age, no more than 4 feet tall, and chased them down with his machete! They dropped the battery and ran. I think I would have too.
Crime is unfortunately very common in Honduras. There are some drug cartels who use this area of Honduras as a safe place to fly cocaine in to the US from Ecuador. But, the cartels do not seem to effect day to day living. Most of the crime is just theft. Almost every store, church, school, hires a guard.
Today, Melinda and Quinn sanded and primed the newly sheet rocked bathrooms. I tried to avoid labor where I could -- but unfortunately found I needed to help! So, I worked with pastor Jimmy and a couple of the boys to pipe a new septic line to the street. Yes, I even had to use a shovel. Melinda even got a picture to prove it.
This afternoon the whole town pretty much shut down to watch Spain play Germany. Apparently Spain won. I took a nap. In addition to continued construction work tomorrow, we will also probably be visiting in a local high school. Even the Catholic schools welcome Protestant young people to put on evangelistic programs in their public schools! (School here is open now until November.)
Thank you again for your prayers. It is good for us to be here and Oscar and Leonor love having us.
Love in Jesus,
Scott
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