let there be light..

this morning, believe it or not, i walked out of my room to see the sun...SHINING! the rain has finally gone, the hurricane passed us up, and maybe, just maybe it will start warming up around here. yesterday was another really rainy day, so it altered the schedule again. in the morning a small group of us went to the IRC warehouse, the rest of the group packed food at the mission house. in the afternoon we headed outside the city to an orphanage called bencaleth, the special needs orphanage. this was the first time that i have been able to go there in 4 or 5 years, and most of the people on the trip had never been there. the kids in this orphanage are handicapped, mentally and physically, and most of the cases are severe. needless to say, hearts were broken. steve kemp, a veteran TORCHER from nashville found out that his boy that he fell in love with passed away about a month ago. as hard as that was for him, he still poured out his love on the other children there, who are in desperate need of being loved. they are making great strides there. their schooling and rehabilitation are helping the kids in great ways. it was beautiful to hear everyone's stories as we talked about where we saw jesus yesterday.
today we are heading back out to the valley of angels to finish our houses. my house only lacks the floor, and the other house only lacks the roof and floor. hopefully the sun will stay!
time to go, another great day ahead. keep praying

NCR

a day to remember..

yesterday was one of THOSE days.. let me welcome everyone to rainy season in honduras. it has rained everyday since my dad's group got here. the first night we were supposed to go to the jesus statue, no, it rained, on wednesday night we were supposed to have devo at the jesus statue, no.. so yesterday, if weather was to permit, we were going to build 2 houses. we woke up, beautiful day. not too sunny, but not that cloudy, and the temperature was cool, but not cold. we headed out to the valley of angels to build, where joe was meeting us with the wood, and carlos toledo, the preacher at the church there( who we have tagged with the name- holy toledo). the wood had already been dropped off at the first sight, so my crew headed up, and i do mean UP, to our sight. most of the crew is carrying the wood up to the sight while a few of us get the post holes dug. simple, easy. we had our post holes dug and set the posts in probably 15 minutes. had the bottom boards ready and set the rest of the posts in another 30. things were looking great.. started to sprinkle.. "actually i wouldnt mind if it rained it would be kinda nice" one of the guys chimes in, i don't hold this statement against him, he has never been here before.. the flood gates were opened. all our walls are up, and it was time to start the roof. (let me go back for just a second and tell you that i put the chainsaws together before we left yesterday morning). so it's time for the roof, and i take the chainsaw and start it up and start to cut the posts to put the roofing rafters on, and i'm tellin you, it was NOT cutting, as if it were just REALLY dull. so i try the other one, same thing, not cutting at all.. by this time the rain is in full blast, and the wind isn't making the combination pleasant. so me and brilliant chainsaw comprehending mind decided to take them apart, and try something new, so i take the blades off to turn them around, only i turn them back around to the same direction they were in when they weren't cutting.. i try them again, and, you guessed it, won't cut.. i send a local to see if they can find a hand saw, because we are at a standstill until we can cut these posts to start the roof. we wait a solid hour and a half and tim calls me to check on progress with the chainsaws, and suggests turning the blades around to face the other direction.. of course, in my mind, i had already tried this, but why not? it was pouring rain, we were all freezing, and something HAD to work. i turn them around and what do you know.. they are cutting through the wood like butter. can i remind you at this point in the story that it is STILL raining, and it's just getting colder.. so we finally start on the roof, and by this time my hands are numb from it being so cold, and i can't really feel the nails that i'm hitting, so i end up hitting my fingers just as much as the nails, and i'm shivering as i'm walking around on the roof rafters, the slippery roof rafters. i mean, you could see your breath it was so cold.. see your breath.. IN HONDURAS! so we finish the roof, and barely get started on the floor, and it's time to go.. we load all the tools and head down to the bus and on the way down i think to myself.. i believe that i have a jacket in my backpack.. oh yes, i did, and i didnt even know it until the day was OVER!!! THAT was a perfect ending to the day! we got back home and a hot shower never felt so good. the group came over for dinner and we had devo at the house, and tim and my dad surprised the group with tickets to star wars.. in which i fell asleep half way through, but the first half was good!.. just another day in the exciting world of TORCH missions. a day i'm sure no one who was soaking wet and freezing will not forget any time soon..

still drying out and cold
NCR

stayin busy..

well another week has gone by, and i've been here for 3 months already.. i can't believe how fast the time goes. i guess you dont really realize it when you are busy. just a quick update to let you know what i've been up to. this week we have been getting ready for the summer. getting tools ready, sorting tools, gloves, levels, shovels, picks, etc.. we worked on the IRC warehouse to get the medical room ready for air conditioning to keep the medicines in a better environment, and dalton and i inventoried the medicines for gayle. i did the yard here at the house, that was a day job, tim and gena's yard is a lot bigger than ours at home, and there are more pine needles in their yard than i have ever seen. last night i went to a lock out at los pinares, dylan is part of a club called challenge club, and last night the kids camped out on the soccer field at the school. tim spoke about elijah and they had a bonfire with smores (by the way, honduran marshmellows are disgusting!). today i worked on the land rover, trying to get it ready for the summer. my dad's trip gets here on tuesday, so it won't slow down for a little while. i'll write more when the group gets here
NCR

a view from the top of a big rock on the beach.. gorgeous 

a picture of the waves from the first afternoon 

these guys played for about 2 hours as if it were the world cup. .i kept my skills to myself, didnt want to embarass anyone 

probably still hopeful about becoming a surfer at this point.. 

a new found respect..

this weekend joe and i went to el salvador to visit one of our good friends, anibal, and to see the sights. it was about a 6 hour bus ride, but we were at the border for 2 hours on the way there. it was packed and there was hardly any organization. we finally made it there and hung out with anibal on thursday night. one of the things that joe and i wanted to do while we were there was to try out surfing.. so we headed out to the beach friday morning with some boards and high spirits. the waves were perfect learning waves, so anibal says, so we were ready. now let me preface my thoughts before i tell you how things went. i have always considered myself a sportsman. i'm not denying that my ego might have led me to believe that i am a better athlete than i truly am, but nonetheless, i have thought of myself as a pretty good athlete. for the most part, when i have tried a sport whether it be indoor, outdoor, water, snow, etc., i have been able to hold my own. so let me get back to my surfing experience.. anibal gives joe and i the rundown on what we needed to know before we get into the water, and i felt pretty good about things. because from what i hear, surfing is like snowboarding.. and i can do pretty well on a snowboard. so we hit the water and start paddling. paddling.. a word that now makes me cringe. the break was probably a couple hundred yards out, so the idea is to paddle to the left of the waves and move over once you get out to them. well anibal scoots right out there, i think he had some sort of motor under his board. i am coming to the consideration that all other surfurs that day had these motors except for me and joe. it wasnt that i just felt like i wasnt going anywhere when i paddled, it was that i definitely wasnt going anywhere when i paddled. the current just kept me in one place, or took me further back. so i finally get out to the break, and by this time i am already worn out. anibal tells me to just ride the wave in, like bodyboarding, on my stomach and get the feel of the wave. so i do that.. after i had run over a bodyboarder, the wave that i caught took me almost all the way back in to the beach. i felt pretty good about it, that is until i realized that i was all the way back in! all that means is that i have to paddle my way back out. by this time i have given myself a terrific rash on my chest. it's just not a good combination the way you lay on the board, and the way your chest moves against the board when you paddle. so not only am i tired, but my chest is killing me as well. i went back out and rode one more wave in on my chest, and i went back to the room. we went back out again that afternoon and saturday morning, but i had zero luck in the surfing department. this is my new found respect.. surfers.. i guess i really just had no clue what kind of shape they are in, and the talent it takes to be a surfer. i apparantly am not in that kind of shape, and i didnt even get to find out what kind of talent i have because i only caught maybe 5 waves the whole weekend. a very humbling experience to say the least.. all in all it was a great weekend.
one week from today the first TORCH group of the summer comes, so busy is the word. yesterday joe, gena, and i cleaned the outside of the warehouse, built a store for a lady at los pinos, and yesterday afternoon with some help from the los pinos guys we unloaded my dad's container at the warehouse. THAT was a task! mark connell got here sunday afternoon and it's great to have him here. he has been a great influence on my life and he's like another dad to me. the summer is here! please keep us in your prayers.

not quite a pro-surfer yet..NCR

yes, that white stuff on the ground is hail.. in honduras.. 

when honduras freezes over..

Well I never would have guessed it, but it hailed today.. I was enjoying a nice Sunday afternoon nap when I woke up to the sound of thunder and rain. So I thought to myself, “well this will be nice.. rain hitting the roof, great to sleep to.” Or not.. I got up to see what all the ruckus was and when I opened my door, I saw hail EVERYWHERE. So I put on a jacket and ran to the garage where I could watch it better.
It was really beautiful actually. And it was a great reminder of the power of God. We see thunderstorms all of the time in the states, but it has only rained a few times since February here, so to see hail and a monster thunderstorm was a refreshing sight.
NCR