Off To The Races

We have more then doubled in size now! Yesterday we had about 66 people arrive from the states. We will have about 19 more arrive today and then we will be at full capacity. Our teams today broke off into 4 groups: 2 house builds, 1 airport group, and 1 group that stayed back at the mission house to organize supplies. 

Both house build groups went to Mololoa! For those of you who are new to my blog I LOVE Mololoa!! Mololoa is one of the poorest villages in Honduras that we work in. I have many friends in Mololoa that I keep up with throughout the year and have known for over a decade now!

In good fun we always like to "race" when we have house bids. Really it does not matter who wins but that the house is build to the best we can build it! The crew I was with worked on a rather small site. Normally our houses are 16X16 but we only had space for a 14X16 house. Along one side we had a dirt wall, one had a barbwire fence, one had a drop off, and one had a dirt wall and a large tree. The tree was covered in ants...but it came in handy when I couldn't reach on the ground, haha. This was the tall side of the house but I was able to nail every board on that wall thanks to the tree and my climbing skills. 

Build site

Dixon was a big help on the site! 

He worked nonstop...and he liked to work FAST!

Hanging out in the tree...Don't worry mom I didn't take pictures of me hanging off of it. 

Kittanning girls getting the floor in.

Finished product.

Due to the different size of the house it took a little longer to get the posts set. After that we got the first 3 walls up fairly quickly. Taylor had us take a short break for lunch. During which a lady came and set a child on my lap! His name was Sammy, he laid there for a little bit and then got up and left...it was a little strange. 

In Molola it is important that we really watch our bags and tools, so for a little bit I was sitting with the bags and was able to play with the children. I got to see my little Angel from previous years. I also played the hand clapping game with some of the girls and I made great friends with a girl named Angelica who was 5 years old. 

While watching bags I had a little beauty salon fun with the girls!

I think I traded 5 or 6 heads. :)

Angelica

Dixon

Me and Angel

Angel and Angelica made a seesaw out of a piece of 

left over wood. They had a great time playing on it!

In the end the house build I was on went up a little bit slower...by about an hour. Tricky's house build won the races for the day. Back at the bus I got to see my little...not so little...boy Franklin. He has a little mustache growing now! Crazy to think it has been 12 years since I first met him! When he saw me he came up and gave me a big hug. 

Franklin and I

Back at the mission house the other group was having orientation. After orientation we had dinner...dishes are a little more complicated this year with our big group of over 100! We are doing dishes in shifts to make it slightly less overwhelming. 

Today we are going to church in Molola, going to Mi Esperanze, and coming back to organize items for hygiene kits and food bags tomorrow. 

Be What God Intends You To Be

Morning Devo

Day two is in the books. Today we went out north of the dump to build, I asked Tricky to tell me the name of the town but he said I wouldn't really want me to have him try and pronounce it, haha. I am beginning to get a little worried about the builds that are to come because we had another really easy site yesterday for a few reasons:

1. We did not have to carry the wood, it was already right where it needed to be. 
2. Aside from a few rocks the ground was relatively easy to dig and put posts into.
3. We had an amazing team! I did not hear anyone complain about rain or heat! Also everyone was giving their 100%.

Build site

Katie and Hannah leveling a post.

This hole was about triple the size around as a normal hole..

We may have found 1 or 2 small boulders in it. 

Getting the walls up!

These are some of the boys that helped hand us wood while we were nailing up the walls of the house. They were such great helpers!! It is amazing to see that we come down to help and the kids work so hard to help us.

Jose was a little short but he never stopped helping.

Me and Patti, she is the one who was able to raise money for his house. 

This house was made in honor of a friend of hers that passed away suddenly.

 Adriana and Hannah working on the roof.

Putting in the floor.

The build today was for a mother (I did not get her name) and her two sons (David -10 years old and Jose- 5 years old) I was able to play with the kids while the 4th wall was going up for about 20 minutes! I love building houses but playing with those kids bring me so much joy!

Patti and the family.

After our build we saw this rainbow!

Truett's first house build!

When we got back to the Mission House we got our official room assignments and had to move our luggage around to the new rooms. I am rooming with Lydia! I am excited to get to know her a little bit more. We also have 3 other girls in our room but they have not arrived and I did not recognize their names. 

Tricky Pat had the devo last night. He gave his testimony about how he became a Christian and his appreciation for this country and all that Terry and Margaret has done for him. Terry then came in and added a little bit to his devo. He discussed the job qualifications to be a Christian. He then discussed how the apostles really do not fit any of the qualifications that we came up with. Regardless of what we think we can accomplish or become God is able to do amazing things with us. He is able to mold and change us if we simply allow Him to be the most important part of our lives. 

With Thunder Comes Lightning

The official first work day for the advance team is under our belts! We started our day off with breakfast from 7-8 and then we on the road to our house build at 8:30. The house yesterday was in Limones in the rainforest. The build site was a pretty easy one, which of course no one complained about! We ran into a little bit of clay on one side which caused our posts to take a little bit longer then normal to set but with our amazing team we got it done!

House build site

 Top: Catie and friends working on a post hole.

Bottom: Hannah and Jared working on a post hole.

 Tricky and I took a selfie

 Putting up the walls.

We had a few friends on the build site today. 

 Melissa being a champ and getting up on the roof on her first ever house build!

Getting the last wall up, I was a bit short.

 A few of the kids who will be living in the house :)

The team and the family. 

We have a few rookies on the advance team this year and it was great to see their excitement as the helped drive nails, put up walls, put in flooring, and even climb up and get the roof done! I can't wait for the rest of the team to get here if we are all going to work as well as the new ladies that we had on the build site yesterday!

Once we finished the house Mark showed up and asked us to drive up the road and wait while his other team finished their house (This way their bus wouldn't have to drive the entire way back up the mountain from the airport). While we waited Mark took us to coffee farm, a man named Jesus planted it about 4 years ago. With the help of a group from Freed Hardeman Mark was able to give him a loan back in March to help grow his business! With this loan he is planning to purchase some equipment, this will allow him to be able to grow, roast, and package the coffee himself instead of having to send it off somewhere else! It is amazing to see the growth that this country has had since I first started coming down in 2004! While Mark was talking about the loan it was great to hear the good that comes from a loan verses simply giving people money. With a loan Jesus will be able to grow his business but he also will be able to put pride into the fact that he did and it is 100% his work!

The coffee farm planted on the hillside of a mountain! 

Amazing! 

Jesus also had a vegetable garden up at the top for the off season.

Jesus in his farm.

After the other team finished we loaded the bus and headed back to Villa Gracis. On the bus I ran into a woman that looked very familiar and it turns out I had met her daughter about 8-9 years ago on a TORCH trip! I also saw a guy who I went to college with at OVU on the Texas group that was back at the Mission House! Funny how small the world is that you can run into familiar faces in Honduras!

Our group grew by about 12 people today. We had Tyler, Katheryn, Truett (4 months old and already on his first mission trip!), and Brenda flew in. We also had the Costa Rica group arrive from their previous trip, ready to do some more work here in Honduras!

Terry lead the devo tonight. Our shirts this year came from some graffiti that he saw in Costa Rica last year that said mas amore por favor, which translates to more love please.  This is our theme for the trip and Terrys lesson. He talked about the apostle John, the apostle of love and the son of thunder. He talked about how when we hear thunder it is because there was a large bolt of lighting and how John was like a bolt of lighting. He was able to harness all of this ideas and love for Christ in his writing and spreading of Christ's word. He also talked about how on this trip we are hoping to get our own bolt of lighting for God going! We want to be that bolt of Christ filled energy no only here but everywhere that we go when we go home!

Today we are planning to build another house! With 15-20 houses being build on this trip I would say that is a great idea!