Saturday

Man, what a long and emotional day for all of us. It's hard saying goodbye to all those wonderful children. Especially those that you really fall head over heels in love with. Saying goodbye to Jim, Georgia, Lawrence, Mike and Marta is hard but different from the children, because the adults don't show the same emotion that the children do. When we were getting ready to leave, Jim had all the children gather around the team and Loyda and Bella prayed for our safe trip home as well as our health and all of our families. There is nothing that can compare to the love and innocence of a child when they pray to their father in heaven. We left at 8:30am and had one more experience of driving through Honduras, where stop lights and signs are just suggestions. We were so blessed to have Lawrence drive us around, because none of us could have survived without him. Silva and Rosa left today also but they were on a different airline than us. Kelly left Honduras for DFW on Friday and Dena talked to her while we were in Atlanta. She arrived home safe. Marc and Ana and their family will be in Honduras for 18 more days. Please keep them in your prayers as they minister to the children in the orphanage and the people of Honduras. We saw GOD work in awesome ways this week and we can't wait to share our pictures and experiences with all of ya'll. If you see or talk to anyone on the team, just ask about Honduras and expect to hear an earful. We are sure glad to be home we are getting ready to go to sleep in our own beds. I don't know about the rest of the team but my bed is a whole lot more comfortable than the hand made beds with thin foam mattresses at the orphanage. It is really 1:00am Sunday morning so Penny and I are going to bed now. Bye and love to everyone.

Friday

Today, our last day here. We all are ready to return home, but sad to be leaving. Each one of us have been touched in so many ways by this place and Gods love. The pictures are, Branden, Cory, Me (Jackie) in front of the fence around the new Girls home.Ladies waiting in line to receive the bags of food this morning at the feeding program, Tom working in the play ground where he has hauled in dirt to fill the low areas, The girls bagging the food for the feeding program. Today we went and handed out the food bags and it was great. We had a lot of people there to get the bags and after handing them out there was so many that came up and thanked us for being there and doing this. Many lives were touched and helped. A love offering was taken up to help the church where we had the feeding program. So many needy people but so many blessed people also. We then went over to the valley of the angels to shop and rest. We had a great Honduran meal and John almost had a heart attack because he saw a stick bug crawling on Cory. I will admit that it was a large bug but it wasn't even on him. He jumped back so fast and hard that he knocked over the tray of food behind him and broke some of the dishes. Then tonight we had a meeting with Jim and Georgia and they thanked us for all the work and help we have been here. They also said that we had set the bar high for all the teams to come this year. We each took time one by one to say what we had learned from this trip and what we we taking back. Everyone has so much to bring home and each one is leaving so much here. Lives have been touched and changed, not only the people here but our lives as well. God is great. All the time. We will do one more blog tomorrow and then we will see everyone on Sunday. We can't wait to get back and share all our stories and pictures with all of ya'll. Thanks for the support, this trip and all of ya'll's prayers. We are already looking forward to coming back.

Thursday

Today Cory, Brandon, Tom, and I stayed here and continued our work trying to finish all we could. We all worked hard from early morning till dinner time. The girls and John went to Talanga for the medical brigade. There were 203 patients treated and prescriptions filled. Silva and Rosa from Ft Worth and Mark, Anna, and their children went with them. The girls were really glad to have them along since they are all bilingual. They were also able to give away the rest of the blanket packs to needy women. One patient was a 90 year old man, who told Penny that he felt better after he had drank his medicine. Of course Loyda had to translate for her, but what a blessing to see immediately the rewards of their labor. Dena, Kelly, Loyda, and Bella performed the puppet show for all of the children waiting with their parents. John got to preach another message to all the waiting patients and Pastor Jorge from "Sinai Church" in Talanga also preached and several people accepted Christ as their Savior. The medical brigade was in a small church in Talanga, and the name was "The Church of God in New Jerusalem". It was hard work from 9am till 4:30pm, but well worth the effort.

Wednesday

Hi from Honduras. Today was another hot beautiful day here. The pictures above are of (top left)Penny at the hospital today in the maternity ward where they gave out lots of blanket packs and prayed with a lot of new mothers. One young woman had lost her baby on Saturday just four hours after birth, she also needs a blood transfusion but they don't have her blood type. So please keep her in your prayers. The other one is of me being shown how to mix concrete the Honduras way :) 40 shovels full of sand and rock and 100 pounds of cement, add water then shovel to the right then back to the left, and add water then repeat again. Then its ready. Man what a work out. Cory and I are great at it now (anyone need concrete mixed?) We are almost done with our fence and Tom moved a lot of dirt today. John preached another great sermon tonight at the same church as last night.

The girls were really blessed today by going to the hospital. It was remodeled about six months ago and it was nothing like it had been in the past. They now have elevators that everyone can use, in the past only handicapped people could use them. Unfortunately they were broke down and everyone had to climb four flights of stairs. It was slow going for Penny, but Anna stayed behind and helped her. She said it was definitely worth the climb because she said that the hospital had improved so much and was a lot cleaner and healthier. They gave away approx 40 blanket packs and will have 22 to give away at the medical brigade tomorrow.

We had a talk with Jim about what this mission needs as far as people and money, let's pray God will show us all the way to do his work. God bless all.

Tuesday

We have just returned from church in Jalaca where John preached tonight and did a awesome job. There was a church full and everyone made us feel welcome. You could feel the Lord working all around us. Dena sang two songs and Penny gave testimony before John preached his sermon.
Today was another beautiful day here. Cory, Brandon and I worked on our fencing job, Tom worked on repairing the tractor after it broke a hydraulic hose. The girls spent the morning bagging the food for our feeding program. They made 101 bags of food to be given to the needy women and children on Friday morning. Then they spent the afternoon treating the girls here in the orphanage for lice and cutting their hair, making them very happy in the process. A new family arrived today from El Paso, Texas. Mark and Anna and their three children went with us to the church service in Jalaca. Mark is French Canadian and Anna is from Old Mexico, Anna was gracious enough to act as our interpreter for the service. She will also go with the woman tomorrow to the hospital in the capital, where they will give the new mothers gifts.
Last night I was so tired that after I cleaned up I layed down to rest a few minutes and woke up this morning at ten to five. We have been working as hard as we can and trying to do all we can. Jim and Georgia tell us they are so impressed with how hard we work and all we are getting done.

Monday

What a day here in Honduras. The weather was hot with lots of sun shine. Cory and I finished digging the post holes for the fence and managed to get half of them concreted in, Tom and Branden worked on the lawn and filling in areas that were in need of filling and mowing. John helped out all over the place where he was needed, he and Penny took beds apart and reassembled them in another room for a pastor and her sister from Ft Worth, that came in the same day we did, and then he was helping with the fence, and mowing, he also him ministered to the kids. The girls went into the bigger boys home and cleaned out their old clothes and threw them away and then they had to find them new clothes from the store room of donated items. They then did the same thing for the girls home. Everyone but Penny and myself have gone with brother Jim to take the kids to Jalaca to get chips and sodas. Each night we all sit together and talk about what we have learned that day. It is something to hear what we learn each day. We all say thanks to God each day for this trip, and this mission.

Sunday

Hi! This is Dena, and this trip has been so amazing so far and there are so many blessings awaiting us this week! I feel so blessed and thankful to be able to be here to see the wonderful things that God has in store for us, and I am so blessed to be on a team with such wonderful people. Our mission team is so amazing. we had such an awesome day today. The children here are so full of love and have so much love to give. The week has just begun and I eagerly wait to see the great things that are going to happen on this trip. Thank you for your prayers and support.. God Bless You! Dena

Jackie's blog
Today our mission team worked hard. The men worked on lawn mowers that were in need of repair. We laid out the fence for the new girls home and dug post holes. Tom was on the tractor all day mowing and moving dirt. The girls emptied sixteen suitcases that we brought with items full of ministry needs. They ended up with 62 blanket packets that included clothes, diapers, wipes, and the blankets for our hospital visit on Wednesday. The men had the boys from the orphage helping with the digging of the holes and as we worked we talked to them and got to know them. God is working here with each us and everyone that works and lives here. As for me today was a beautiful day. Working on things and getting to know these kids and how they live everyday. I thank God for this trip. Penny has taken lots of picture to show on our return. The internet connection is real slow today so we were unable to download any pictures for todays blog. I will try again tomorrow night when I next post a blog.

Saturday travel day

Saturday June 5th. we were at the church at 2 A.M. and loaded up and off we went to the airport, only to hurry up and wait. What a blessing Alvie was to get up and take us all to the airport. It was a very long day for us all, but we were all happy to arrive safly in Honduras. We all found that our life back home is a blessing compared to the poor conditions here in Honduras. We fininlly made it to the orphange and had a wonderful time getting settled in and now it is almost ten P.M. and we are all headed to bed for a great day with the kids tomorrow and work to be done here. God has touched each one of us today with so much that we can't imagine what will tomorrow bring. God is great. All the time.

Getting ready to go

Thursday night at the Church packing bags to take to the hospital on Saturday. From left to right are John Schultz, Dena Duncan, Me (Jackie), Tom Handzlik, and Cory Stahl. We had a lot of baby blankets given for the new mothers there at the hospital. We know they all will be very happy to receive these and to hear about Jesus.