Friday, September 30, 2011

Will's Honduras Update 9/30/2011

It's been awhile since the last update so I will fill you guys in with as much information as possible. Today was Bob's last day of voluntarily teaching at Good Seed. When he came in today he asked me to help him unload the van. Unload the van? Turns out, all of the kids he taught for the last month had made him goodbye cards. It was pretty cool watching him go through them all. He actually almost started to cry! I never thought I would see that! It really sealed the deal when he got to Fabiola's card. In the card she wrote: "I love you daddy". Haha, the was it. Hook, line, sinker. you didn't hear anything but when he went into another room you knew what was going on.

For me it was pretty cool to see the letter. "I love you" is easy for her to say but to mean it...that is extremely hard. Those words in that letter were for real and you could tell. Mauricio's written words were "thanks for teaching us math and correcting us". Seeing that showed me how thick Mauricio's walls are. He will mess with you and everything but as far as letting you in 100%....that is almost impossible.

In the last update I mentioned that I wanted to recruit a married couple to come down and relieve Bob and Joyce so they could return to the States for a MUCH NEEDED break. God provided! Jay and Jen Sipes answered the call and I can not tell you how stoked I am about it. Jay and Jen Sipes are two good friends that I met through Zad Tomberlin who discipled me. From the very beginning of trying to get toHonduras they were two of the very few that stuck with me and encouraged me. Since then I have wanted them to meet the children and God is finally allowing that to happen. Right now they are trying to raise the funds to get down here. If you would like to help them in any way please e-mail me and let me know.

Also, I can tell you that I am extremely happy Bob is finished teaching because 3 or 4 times a week we had to grade papers....and that took FOREVER! For Bob's last day of papers it took us 5 hours! I'm glad that is over! I never expected that I would be grading school papers here in Honduras. Pretty neat how God throws surprises at you huh!?

Since I mentioned "teaching" I just want to tell you how much I appreciate Dahlia. She is the tutor of the children and it is amazing with how much patience she has with these children trying to teach them. She took a week off so you know what that meant. Bob, Joyce, and I had to teach! Bob had Mauricio and Fabiola and they are pretty good by themselves. Plus Bob was real busy trying to grade papers that week as well....by himself. Joyce had Pedro and Angel while I had Cesar. I know well enough now that I can never teach elementary school. I would want to slit my wrist. When Dahlia came back, it was like an angelic being walking in. I was so relieved!

Whenever Bob was in school, the tasks fell on me. Which I was glad they did. God has really used this month to mold me into the man He wants me to be. Whether it be from repairing things around the house or by running errands. One such errand was this week. I had to go to Galdamez's shop to power wash all of the clay from the last drill off of the rig. That was interesting. When I arrived to the shop I noticed the rig had a tire with no air in it. I had to take the "llanta" off then find a "llanta" repair shop to place more air in it. Once that was taken care of I had to figure out how to lower the feet that held the rig off of the ground. I figured out how to do that. Then the fun began. I had to back the truck up to the rig so I could hitch it up to the truck. That took forever as well but, I got that accomplished. I backed the rig up without a problem to the area I needed to take it in order for me to wash the machine. After 2 hours the mission was accomplished and I headed back to the house so I could wash up and pick up Rosa and Antonio from school. The 2 hours surprised me because on the way to the shop I had no clue as to how I was going to get this done. Praise God!

In terms of my residency, up until 2 days ago I would not be able to get the paperwork to renew my visa for another 4 months! That left me with 2 options, try and drive to the Guatemalan border or fly to the States at last minutes notice with little to no funds. Today however, God came through and worked it out to where the lawyer can bring me the papers tomorrow morning at 9! Yes! So that was a big sigh of relief! It is so cool, because since moving here you can literally see how God provides for everything. Even the impossible!


Prayer requests:

1. The Sipes.

2. Pray that God will bless Fabiola with a passport and a visa so she can go to the states in November with Bob and Joyce. This would be huge if this would work out. It would give Fabiola an opportunity to meet those who have been supporting her and praying for her the last 2 1/2 years! It would also be great for the individuals to see how much God has changed the lives of these kids!

3. Bob and I may be able to drill next week. Pray for that and for the drill site.

4. For the first time God has blessed me with the opportunity to preach His WORD! I have had the desire for a long time now and He opened the door! I preach on October 9 so pray that I am taken completely out of the picture and for my preparation, because if we drill it will be interesting seeing how I will be trying to prepare.

5. ANTONIO.

Trauma in the night....

Pedro, our Chinese missionary from yesterday, had a rough night last night. Before we were awarded custody of Pedro he lived in a nearly starved condition all the four years of his young live. He never knew anything other than hunger and that fear and pain is so deeply etched in his mind that to this day he can't control his eating without supervision. As a result if he is left to his own devices he will eat until he makes himself sick; much like an animal left in an over-rich pasture for too long a time.

Yesterday the school had a party to celebrate "Missions Day" and there were cupcakes, large cupcakes, at the party. With no one to tell him to stop Pedro gorged himself with four of the large wheat bran cupcakes. The result: during the night he vomited all over himself, his bed, and his bed clothes...and then slept in it. This morning was not a pleasant one for Joyce....Pedro with a bed full of vomit and Antonio with a bed full of pee...again!

Of course, the real sorrow of the story is what Pedro had to endure as a baby and a toddler. Who knows how many years it will take to erase all the fears that life period have sown into him?

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Missionaries from around the world...

Today was missions day at Good Seed school and we awoke to find a mission team assembled from around the world right in our very own home.

Now that's a worldwide mission team!!!

A Geisha Girl...in Honduras?

This cowpoke looks a little to happy to me...

All the way from the island country of "Mauricio" that's right, that's Mauritania in Spanish!

This cowboy bears watchin'!

From the underground church in China?

Friday, September 23, 2011

Praises & Prayers...

Praise the Lord...Fabiola now has her braces for a full day and so far, she has experienced absolutely no pain! She's not too crazy about me calling her "metal mouth", but it insulates her from any abuse her fellow students might drop on her. She is really grateful for being pain-free!

Praise the Lord...Mauricio had the first two of four molars pulled today, in preparation for getting braces,...the dentist told us he would be in extreme pain, but we have been bathing him in prayer and up to this moment he has ZERO PAIN! Keep praying for him; he's still bleeding and next week he gets the other two pulled.

It's neat to see and hear them both acknowledging that "prayer really does work!"

Thursday, September 22, 2011

School schedules and loooong study halls...

With 5 children in a private Christian bi-lingual school and 2 more in a private Spanish school our school schedules are filled to over-flowing! I start by taking the "5" with me as I head out to teach at 6:40 a.m., then Will takes the other "2" at 6:50 a.m. to their school.

At noon Will picks up Rosa & Antonio and brings them home for lunch...in the interim I've returned to house and along with Joyce run the errands and pay the bills that are needed to keep us running day to day. At 1:00 p.m. we have a tutor who comes in to work with the kids; first with Rosa & Antonio, later with the others when they get home. At 2:10 p.m. we pick up Fabiola, Mauricio, Cesar, Angel, & Pedro and get them settled into 'study hall' at home. Joyce, Will, and I join our tutor and take the kids to different rooms to work with them one on one as much as we can leaving the old two to work on their own. The tutor works with the younger kids until 4:30 p.m. and then we take over sometimes studying until 6:30 or 7:00 p.m. (In between I do the dreaded 'paper correcting' that all teachers so look forward to.)

That leaves one half hour for the younger 4 children to have a snack, watch a little tv, and then head to bed at 7:30 p.m. (they're up at 5:15 a.m.); the older three go at 8:00 p.m. Then the next morning it starts all over again at 5:00 a.m.

Will usually hits the 'rack' around 8 p.m. and Joyce and I struggle mightily to make it to 9 p.m.; sometimes we're successful and other times we give up and go to bed. I guess we should be grateful...there's not much time for temptation to set in!!! Good ole school days????

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Home invasion???

This morning while I was eating my cereal and watching the news I was interrupted by blood-curdling screams coming from one of the boys bedrooms. It was Pedro and he was terrified because...as he was folding and putting away his clean laundry he shook out a pair of shorts out fell a large scorpion!!!

Not being the fastest person in the house I arrived on the scene after Will and Joyce and found Pedro still screaming, Will and Joyce holding everybody back, and scorpion trying to escape under the clothes basket. Just the look of a scorpion and the remembrances of what happened to the people in "Indiana Jones" movies when they were bitten are enough to elicit caution; not to mention fear!

In the end all is well....Pedro was not bitten, the scorpion is dead, and I got to finish my cereal! Now off to school to all my other "insects"! Just kidding...I love'em!

Monday, September 19, 2011

More medical news...

Friday Mauricio had the stitches removed from the operation on his gums and now is scheduled to have 4 teeth pulled (2 at a time) beginning tomorrow in preparation for braces in two weeks. Saturday Rosa, Cesar, and Pedro had the last of their cavities filled. Today Fabiola had spacers placed in her mouth in anticipation of having braces installed on Thursday.

We're still giving Pedro and Angel medicine via the atomizer/vaporizer and Pedro got up this morning with slight diarrhea. The rest of us just try to stay out of the way!

Monday, September 12, 2011

Will's Honduras Update 9/12/2011

Hola mi familia!

The past week was a week full of miscellaneous things here is a short list:

1. I finally started the process of applying for my residency. I had to obtain a few things and pay for a few things as well. One of the biggest hassles of obtaining what I needed was purchasing a "Certificate of Health" from a bank (weird huh? You have to purchase a form for a complete physical at a bank.) and then I had to hunt down a doctor to have him fill it out, stamp it, then sign it. Joyce knew a doctor in the Emergency Room that spoke English so we decided to pay him a visit. It took three hours but eventually he was able to fill it out. He took me into a room and asked me a few questions then told me to wait and he would return with the form completed. Half an hour later he returned with the form completed and a full health report and it was free. Pretty nifty huh? I had a physical and blood test without having to go through it! That saved alot of time and ALOT of money. Hopefully within a couple weeks I can go to immigrations and simply pay $20 a month to renew my visa instead of having to fly to the states every 3 months! :)

2. A month or so ago, Shari and Terry (the two missionaries that Alba lives with and that have a feeding kitchen for the poor of the city) asked me if I could deliver some donated cakes to an orphanage because they would be in the States during that time and I agreed to do so. Friday that is what Alba and I did. We stopped by the bakery, picked up the cakes, then delivered them to "La Casita" which is a all-female "orphanage". The orphanage ran by IHNFA and the orphanage is literally a prison like Alzira was for the children. When I was there a few memories came back from the first time I met the children. The lack of proper nutrition, proper utilities, the lifestyle, the hoplessness, etc. What made it even more difficult was the fact that it was an "all-female" orphanage. I could imagine what would happen to the girls in this "orphanage" when there was nobody around. When I was there, I learned there was a 13 year old girl that was already 7 months pregnant! That was hard. This country has such a dire need for children to be adopted but the country is too stubborn and prideful to do anything about it. That is why very few adoptions in this country is successful.
After La Casita, Alba and I then went to the orphanage that she worked at for four years to drop some clothes off. I visited this orphanage back in March with her, Shari, and Terry and I can tell that this one is a nice one. It is a privately ran orphanage owned by Alba's church "La Cosecha". The facilities here a much, much better than what Al Zira was or what La Casita is. When you walk in it has the entire story of Jonah painted on the inside of the facility. For me, it was cool to see Alba with the kids that she is close with. They all call her "Tia Alba". I watched as they all came to her one at a time giving her a hug when they returned from school. The smile on her face and the affection she showed them was great.

3. Sunday after church, Alba wanted to take the kids to the park so Bob and Joyce could have some quiet time and that is exactly what we did. Every time she spends a day with the kids I can see her growing closer and closer with them. It was good to watch her yesterday. Unfortunately, Mauricio and Fabiola couldn't go because Mauricio had stitches in his mouth and Fabiola had alot of homework to do and she was going to help Bob grade some homework.

4. For Bob's second week of teaching he is a big hit with all of the children but he can not stand to grad papers. It is pretty cool to see kids walk up to him out of nowhere saying "Hey Mr. Bob!". It shows that he hasn't instilled fear in their hearts yet. :) Truth is, Bob is a big goofball so kid's are naturally drawn to him and that is one of the reasons why I think they like him so much.

5. We continue to have many problems with Antonio and his conduct both at home and in school. Please pray for him. Angel has been battling a nasty cough since Friday. Rosa has made honor roll after just a few weeks of being bumped up a grade level. I sincerely believe that if she is pushed she can perform very well in school. Pedro and Cesar are loving their new school and you can kind've already see a change in them both for the better.

ALSO: We are looking for a Christian married couple or woman that would be willing to come down from the 1st of November to the 15th to help me with the children so Bob and Joyce could return to the United States to conduct some business. If you are interested email me, or Bob at bcoder@tds.net for more details. You can also call us on skype via your cell or home phone (is a TN number) at: 423-546-4323. You will only have to raise funds for airfare. Everything else will be covered.

Thanks for reading and your prayers!

Friday, September 9, 2011

More medical news...

Mauricio just had peridontal surgery. He's getting ready to get braces for his teeth, but first he had to have some surgery done on his gums and the muscle that holds the upper lip to the gums. The muscle was growing between the front two teeth pushing them apart and creating a gap in his front teeth.

The doctor cut the muscle out and put in 5 STITCHES!!! He was a real trooper and didn't even flinch much. Next he has to get 4 teeth pulled to make room in his mouth for his teeth to align properly....and I thought his mouth was big enough to fit anything in there!

Anyhow, he's on his way toward braces...Fabiola escaped having to have any teeth pulled; seems her mouth is large enough. Go figure!!!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

School, Rain, Lawyers, and more...

After one week the 'school teaching' is going pretty well. Actually, I'm enjoying the kids...okay most of them. There are a few I've threatened to send home in a condition where their parents wouldn't recognize them, but for the most part they've been great.

Every night for the last two weeks we've been getting "mini-hurricanes". Anywhere between 8 - 12 p.m. a storm blows over the mountain with high winds, lightning, and intense rain. Our house has little floods with just about every storm. The windows in this house seem to be "un-caulkable"! San Pedro Sula is bordered on the West by high, steep mountains and when the rain comes it races down the mountainside creating 'white water' throughout the streets of the city and depositing a lot of mud and rocks in the streets. The street in front of our house floods about every night.

We continue our fight w/lawyers...we have our third lawyer now and she just returned from Teguicagalpa where she found that our last lawyer never filed anything properly on our behalf. Normally you would think you could just get your money back; but it doesn't work that way here...here you bite the bullet and continue to look for a lawyer who will actually do what you're asking.

The battle for resolution in the case of Antonio continues. As his conduct continues to deteriorate we get more and more promises and less action. Holding someone's feet to fire is not easily accomplished here.

Angel is mostly over his circumcision...although he told me yesterday that a ball him "there" and it hurt! I'll bet it did. Nearly all of our medical problems are behind us now, so we're looking forward to smaller med bills this month.

Pedro & Cesar and both adapting well at Good Seed...both of their teachers say they are trying hard, they are making friends, and they are both bright. It's a huge opportunity for them so we pray they don't get discouraged and will fight through their learning curve. Rosa just keeps amazing us as she went straight to the honor roll after skipping the second half of second grade and jumping into the middle of third grade.

Thanks for all your prayers and all your support...you are making a difference!

Bob, Joyce, Will, & Kids

Thursday, September 1, 2011

School Days...

Well, here we go...off to school. Lots of smiles: some with eager anticipation for a new school, some anxious to get back to old friends, and some.........well, one........going back after nearly 50 years away! Oh my, what have I done now? I'll be teaching 4th, 5th, 6th, & 7th grade math for the month of September.




Will's Honduras Update 9/1/11

Hola mi familia en Jesus Cristo!

It has been a while since the last update and for that I apologize! Perdoname.

Since the last update it has been pretty busy around here whether it be from battling virus' or preparing the kids for a new school year! We now have Pedro and Cesar attending Good Seed which we believe will be GREAT for their development in every way! We especially believe that it will be very beneficial for Cesar!

As far as drilling is concerned we may not be able to drill until October. The reason being that for this month Bob has to teach math at Good Seed for the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th grades.

Thats right....***BOB IS TEACHING IN A SCHOOL WITH A BUNCH OF KIDS***. Pretty cool huh?

He was asked to step in because the new math teacher that was hired is coming in from the States and he will not be able to make it into the country until the end of the month. So, Bob teaches from 7 to 10 in the morning. Bob is pretty sharp with math and is pretty good at teaching it so he'll do a good job. When I try to imagine him teaching though all I can think about is the film from the 90's "Kindergarten Cop" ("Who said you could eat my cookie!", "It's not a tumor!", "Who's your daddy? and what does he do?") :)

Aside from those things...there were quite a few surprises along the way as well. We learned more about what Cesar has locked in his head from his past experiences in Alzira, Bob had to have a colonoscopy, Joyce had an ER visit due to dehydration and food poisoning (may I add that it was at the same time Bob was having his colonoscopy?), Angel had to have a circumcision performed, we have had three consecutive nights of HEAVY RAIN, had a small tremor, and I had a few personal surprises as well with my family back in the states. It has definitely been a surprising and interesting two weeks.

Here is what else has happened:

1. Fabiola turned 14 on the 15th of August.

2. On the 20th of August Bob, Joyce, and Fabiola went to a wedding of a young couple from the English speaking church we attend here in the city. They spent the night over at Tela where the wedding was held which left almost a whole weekend for me to be with the kids. Alba also returned from her 2 week vacation in her hometown of La Paz so she helped me with the children. It was a wonderful weekend, tiring, but wonderful. Alba and I took the kids out for the day and I believe it was also a great opportunity for her and the kids to start somewhere in terms of building a relationship. Apparently she clicked with Pedro because now the little guy is calling her! Looks like I have some competition!

3. For a long time I have had the desire to preach God's Word and He has finally blessed me with the opportunity (major fist pumpage ensues)! Bob and I went to Bill and Margy Hoff's (The pastor and wife of the church) house yesterday to pick up some letters and Margy had asked me if I have ever preached and I informed her that I hadn't but was waiting for God to bless me with the opportunity. She asked me if I wanted to on the second Sunday of October and I was surprised! I didn't know what to say because I was so nervous. Bob almost had to say "yes" for me! When I finally said "yes" I accidentally said "yes sir" instead of "yes ma'am". Great start huh?

4. Mauricio and Fabiola took their bike to a poor family down the street to give to one of the older girls in the family. Turns out that was God answering the little girl! The little girl had been asking the mother for a bike and a couple weeks later God gives her a pretty nice bike! Pretty cool how God provides huh?

Thank you all for your prayers VERY MUCH! You guys have no idea how much they mean to me!

Dios te bendiga!