March 2016 Team

Please pray for our preparations for our upcoming trip- March 5-14.  We will be holding medical clinics and doing small construction projects in five communities in the area of San Pedro Sula with the help and planning of our Honduran sister, Dinora and the staff of Proyecto MAMA.
Team members:  Bob Moyer, Barb Rice, Karen Detweiler, Phyllis Nyce, Eileen Radeschi, Michelle Rankin, Matthew Davco, Linda McKellar, Jon McKellar, Kaitlin Kohut, Vern & Joyce Geissinger, Ken & Leona Landis, Rolando Zelaya.

Friday- hard goodbyes

Today was the last day for our team before we return home. It was a fun filled, but bittersweet day. Dave and Ty finished laying block for the new bathroom stalls, and then went up the hill to help expand the "pig hotel". The rest of the crew worked at several crafts with the children, including paracord bracelets (which were a real hit) bookmarks, and writing cards. We also shared cards and pictures from our DRE children with the kids at Alpha y Omega. They loved seeing the cards and trying to read them. We took extra time to play, laugh and even sing with our new friends today. After  many pictures, hugs and a time of prayer together we had to say goodbye. These amazing children and adults at Alpha y Omega have been a real blessing to our team.
After returning to our hotel, we got cleaned up and then went out with a group of our Honduran friends to Power Chicken! It was great. After dinner we debriefed for a while, Josh led us in devotions, we threw lots of candy wrappers at Bob, and then got ready for our final goodbyes and our travel tomorrow. We are tired and maybe a little sore, but we have been blessed by the love, joy, hospitality and hope that we have experienced here all week long.
Good night!

Brent for the team

Thursday

Today we had another amazing day at Alpha y Omega Orphanage. We were finished painting indoors so we painted the one wall outside. Dinora said that yesterday the kids asked her if we were going to paint the outside too because they wanted the whole building to look nice. We painted the wall beige with brown at the bottom. Before painting, we scraped the walls with several of the boys taking turns helping us. The kids are really good workers. Some of the guys continued laying block in the bathrooms to divide the stalls. In the afternoon we enjoyed doing some crafts with the kids, including tissue paper flowers, which they loved. Tonight we had a few of the people from the church come to our hotel to visit and tell us a little more about Honduras and the church's youth group. We are all tired, but we are loving working and playing at the orphanage. We have also been enjoying lots of laughter and teasing. The kids at the orphanage are amazing and each of us has "adopted" at least one of them. It will be hard to say goodbye tomorrow. It's hard to believe that tomorrow is our last day at the orphanage, but we are excited to come home soon!
--Kimberly

Wednesday

Somewhat exhausted but expectant for work, our team began the day with breakfast at 6:30 before travelling to Alfa e Omega at 7:30 to continue our projects. By the end of the day, we completed the concrete porch at the front of the building, all of the interior painting, and two small murals, and continued masonry in the bathrooms—with eager assistance from several of the older children. The younger kids enjoyed fashioning jewelry from plastic beads, creating a poster of their handprints, and playing soccer against some of our team-members. After returning to the Villa Nuria, we had dinner and learned more about MAMA Project's history and Honduras's political condition, then enjoyed ice cream and conversation to relax before another laborious day.

Josh for the team

Tuesday

Today we got an early start when we met for breakfast at the restaurant in the hotel at 6:30. It was a high of 88 degrees with 100 percent humidity, so we were geared up for a hot and sweaty day. When we arrived at the orphanage we got right to work. We continued working on the porch and were able to get the roof on. After that, we went back to work in the bathrooms. This was hard work, but we were able to get them ready for the block tomorrow. The other half of us spent all morning continuing to paint the walls of the orphanage and were able to almost finish the whole inside of the building. Josh spent most of the day painting some awesome murals of cars, butterflies and birds on the walls of the kid's rooms. We all returned exhausted and looking forward to another fantastic meal from Aruara! We have all been enjoying our time together, as long as Bob is not singing along to Brents ukelele music!
-Ty for the Team

Monday - Alpha y Omega Orphanage

Today began with a visit to a local church to hear a speaker tell us about the history of Honduras, as well as the current condition of Honduras' economics and politics. He spoke of the difficulty of making a clean, honest living and told us of the pivotal role of the banana to Honduras society. He also mentioned how large banana companies such as Chiquita have made life in the banana industry very difficult for the average person.

We then went to Alpha y Omega, the orphanage that we will be spending the rest of the week at. We met with the 31 kids and teenagers, ages 1-18. We then split into groups, with some people working on renovating the bathrooms, some working on a porch outside the orphanage, and others painting  the boys' bedrooms, with more rooms queued up to be painted as well. We enjoyed a lunch of sandwiches and chips, then continued work. The majority of the painting group then helped the younger kids complete crafts, before heading outside and playing various games with the children. The whole group remarked afterwards of the impressive conditions of the orphanage. The children appeared well taken care of, they all helped out (such as doing their own laundry), and appeared to have a real togetherness. The older kids seemed to care for the younger ones, to the point where we thought they were siblings, but upon asking, discovered that they were not related. We returned to the hotel tired, hot, and sweaty, but pleased with what we had seen, and excited to return tomorrow.

Matt for the team

Sunday worship and visiting at Gracias a Dios

What an incredible day! We were welcomed warmly by our friends at Central Mennonite church of SanPedro Sula. The worship was amazing and spirit-filled. Brent's sermon was a blessing to many. We enjoyed the lunch we shared with friends we met last summer at Mennonite World conference. We also enjoyed many conversations during our meal and made new friends. Right after that we drove to Gracias a Dios. The language barrier was felt a little more here since many at Central Mennonita spoke English. I think I can speak for Bob and myself that we were touched by our opportunity to see so many of our friends. We enjoyed some pizza together and some cake. (Yes, it seems like all we do is eat!) For me personally, saying goodbye was extremely difficult. I probably will not be in Honduras again for two years. So the day was a bittersweet with excitement of reconnecting and then saying goodbye.  God was present throughout our day in so many, many ways. As we met as a group tonight we talked about feeling like the family of God even while worshipping with people we don't know well and in a different language. We also discussed how amazing it is that so many ninos in Gracias a Dios have an education because people at DRE listened to the Holy Spirit's nudging. We also enjoyed Matt playing the drums at GAD and making new friends as a result!
We would appreciate your prayers as we head to Alpha y Omega orphanage tomorrow. There are elements of the unknown, but we're so excited to meet the kids and see what work we'll be doing.
And although we've had some rain here, we are so glad we are not in PA "enjoying" your weather. 😃
Terri for the team

Saturday - Arrived - cool, rainy San Pedro Sula

 Travel for our February 2016 Youth team went really smooth. Mark and Zack got us to the airport on time, and check-in was quick. There was a long security line, but it moved fast, and we were at the gate within an hour of our arrival. The direct flight was delayed 1/2 hour, but we arrived within 10 minutes of our scheduled arrival time. Dinora, Gustavo, Aurora and Rosita were there to meet us and take us to the Villa Nuria for the week.

After unloading the van and pickup truck we had some fresh fruit, and then unpacked our personal bags and rested until about 6:00, when we went to the Central Mennonite Church in San Pedro Sula for a youth worship service, centered around the theme of love and friendship. Ada led the devotional part of the evening, and then they divided their youth and our DRE team into 4 mixed groups in which we all introduced ourselves - names, where we are from, what we do, and any other information about ourselves. We also looked at a picture together, and each of us talked about what we saw or an experience we had that this reminded them about.  It was a good way for each of our
DRE team to get to know some of the Honduran students in the group. There were several Hondurans present that we knew before - either from previous trips or from when they visited us this past summer after the MWC.  It was interesting to learn that many of the youth present were students in the local universities in SPS, and they are coming from all parts of Honduras to the Central Mennonite Church to join other youth in their worship service. It was also nice in that many of these students spoke English too, so there was not much of a language barrier.  We ended up the evening with some snacks and more time to talk to others that were present. We got to meet some volunteers too - for MCC, Salt, Yamen, and one from a Brethren in Christ agency ( one from Kansas, Maryland, Indiana, and India!  )

We all had a great evening, but were exhausted by the end of the night. We had a team meeting to prepare for Sunday. But  I think most of us were in our rooms by 9:30.

Looking forward to a full Sunday, and Brent preaching!  Thanks for your thoughts and prayers, and we'll try to keep you informed each evening from now on.

For the Youth team,  Bob