July 16, 2008 Wednesday

Good Evening,

It is hard to believe that our trip will end tomorrow.

Today, we got started on time! There was much to do and we wanted to get started. The last day becomes of course the catch up day for all of the things that we did not get finished through out the week.

The construction group had to finish the houses. One was nearly complete, both needed the concrete floors, one a roof and gutters. At the end of the day, both were completed. Both families were tearful and thankful for the gift they had received. The crew did another great job! Pictures to follow!

The folks on the water filters did a big job of getting most of them installed. Some will be done on Thursday. Josh trained some of the Hondurans to put them together. The filters are being looked at by some other relief organizations. They are interested in our progress and desire to make this happen!

The medical group saw over 150 people in a shorter amount of time. I helped out there today. I was giving the children toys as they were being seen. I also got to see three babies that were 3-5 and 11 days old. Beautiful! And seemingly healthy! Praise God! Lots of meds were sent out from the pharmacy. Scripts for worms, colds, and other ailments. The Drs all worked very hard in the mobile clinics. These are much more difficult than those at the stationary clinic, that was not available to us this week.

I will try to wrap up some more tomorrow. We have to pack tonight and have our bags to the front door at 6am.....Because we can not use the Teguc airport.

running out of battery..

I will finish later.

robin

July 15, 2008 Tuesday

Tuesday

It is hard to believe that it is already Tuesday. We have had a busy, great week!

Today the start was to be the same....but our bus did not show up. We decided to have our morning meeting at the pool as we waited for the different bus. Kenny had a good devotional as he talked about many ways to see something or somebody. Point being, give the benefit of the doubt, get to know the person and don' t judge.

It was a while till we got the bus. We got to the warehouse and quickly got our teams and supplies together. The medical group was on their way, but the new bus did not make it to their destination because of another breakdown. They ended up finishing their trip in a the box truck. (No fun). They had nearly 265 patients. Jeff, the dentist was unsure of how many he had worked with. Once again, many scripts were given and filled.

Dr Dan was featured on a Christian TV channel speaking of why he was in town. Josh Fairchild and Samantha Specht were also interviewed about the water filters. That was pretty exciting. The filters are ready to be installed tomorrow.

The benevolence group packed 300 bags of food. Passed out 200 tickets, then passed out the food in the after noon. We also did VBS at the site. Lots and lots of kids attended. Daniel and the lion's den was the story. Everyone seemed to have a good time. We did some switching of the crews today. We had 3 teens (guys) with us in benevolence. They had been on the building crew. They joined us today as some of our crew went to other areas. On the outside looking in, it seems like benevolence would be an easy team to be on....I mean, how hard is it to pack food bags! Well, they found out. The supplies are quite an ordeal to get out and organize. Garbage bags must be double bagged. Bags contain bags of beans, rice, corn meal, lard, spaghetti, sauce, powdered milk, sugar, clothing, bibles and toiletries. The chain is formed and we all pass the items and load them in. At the end, the bag is tied and set aside. Then they are loaded in the box truck. Bags weigh any where between 15 and 20 lbs. Upon arriving at the site, we try to get the kids rounded up and get the vbs started. The moms (usually) are in line anywhere from an hour to an hour and 1/2 before the time indicated on the ticket. Today, the crew handing out the food was myself and the 3 teen boys on our crew. The were taken back by the crowd and the desperate look in the eyes of those who were in line. Some with children all around them. Some in line while nursing their baby. Grandmothers, mothers, elderly all stand in line most with tickets, some with out. All hoping that the person who dropped the ticket by their home was indeed telling the truth.
As we head toward the truck, the intensity in the crowd grows. They press even closer to the truck so that no one can get between them and their prize. One of the guys went into the truck, to count the tickets. Joe and I stood at the door, along with Andrew. We started to collect the tickets and give out the bags. The ones who did not have a ticket also pressed to the door. It is hard to face those folks. Some holding kids, or kids standing by them. Some are older and have disabilities. Others still look completely overwhelmed with what is going on. My crew was pretty tense. I could tell that they were realizing that this job was not very easy. The dispare that is shown is very real. All three were talking with each other trying to figure out how we could best serve these people. They were also checking with each other to make sure that each other was doing good.

As it line ended, there were probably 75 or more that were still standing there with nothing in their hands. As we drove away, it was pretty quiet. I was glad that they were touched by the situation.

At the end of the day, Jeff had a devo about even though most of the day did not go as we had planned that God was still there. It was a great idea for us all to think about. Even though we had prayed and given the day to God, very few things had gone as planned. God was with us all the way! We were all blessed by the thoughts and the day.

Tomorrow is our last day to work....looking forward to it....actually getting to bed a tad early....YES!
love robin



Robin Weier

July 13, 2008 Sunday and July 14, 2008 Monday

Greetings from Honduras!

Sunday...
We were excited to head to worship today. We were heading to Inglesia Reiner in the New Jerusalem area. Several years ago we had built two houses. An area preacher made contact with our group. He had baptized several people in that area, but they had no place to meet. They had been praying for a building. They had some land and wondered if we could help. They had no money or talent to build the building. We as a group decided that we were able to buy and build the building.

I remember that day when the building was going up. We were all there, VBS going, soccer being played and other games.. It seemed like the whole neighborhood was there. There were probably 200-300 people or more there helping and watching, playing games, vbs and more.

Since then we have worked in the area, building, dropping food bags etc, but we had not worshiped in the building. Today we went early. The church normally met at 3pm, but today, they met at 8:30 for vbs and 9:30 for worship (sound familiar?). VBS was about Noah. the story was told off of 3 flip charts with illustrations for the story. Of course one of the flip charts was out of order and caused a bit of confusion (which always adds to the adventure). There were probably 60+ kids in a room 15x15 or so. Plus 6 adults. AFter the story, the children went out side to get their animals (colorful animal plates on a paint stir stick). Jeff and Brenden Gibbs were handing them out.....as I looked out the window to see how that was going, I could see that both were in chaos with children clambering all over them. It was pretty humorous. The plan was for them to come in 2x2 and make the noise of the animal on the stick. Evidently that was difficult to translate as the kids came into the room, with the animals, making no noise, much to the dismay of the translator:) Ginger finally told Marvin to just let them come in. And they did, smiling and having a great time!

They then colored, made some Noah's ark bracelets and some other activities. 2 dogs also joined us. That of course was fun , trying to translate to them! jk

We then went to the main building to worship. The time began with festive singing and prayer. I would say that the Hondurans sang their songs for 30+ minutes. Very soulful and spirited. One of our mission folks was ask to give a talk. Gailin spoke about the questions of life. He of course was translated. He did a good job. They then took an offering. The preacher stood and thanked us for coming and said "I am sure the Ohioans would love to sing some songs for them" We were all thinking we were on our way back to the hotel. But we did sing server al songs to them, which they did seem to enjoy.

Afterward we did get to hold some babies while the women handed out home made bags that some of the Spring Road family had made. They were big hits with the women there. A big Gracious to all who participated in that project and to Diane Beggs who headed it up!

We went back to the hotel and had some lunch. The majority of the group went to the Casa de Esperanza children's home. They had a nice visit with the children and staff.

In the evening some of us went to a church built in the mid 1500's. Yes I did say 1500's. It was a beautiful building will send some pictures later. The reason to go was to have a devo and sing with the TORCH mission group. It was lead by Tim Hines who heads up that group. It was powerful and spirited. The acoustics were awesome. We were able to tour the church afterwards. Even to the bell tower's very narrow spiral stair case.....Truly an amazing treat for us. It was told to us that it is the third oldest standing church in the western hemisphere.

On the way to the singing we went to the wrong building. It was the Basilica of Tegucigalpa. A building we have seen from a far for years. It was beautiful inside with worshippers praising God. We witnessed the dedication of two newborns. We all remarked how sweet it was!

We returned to the hotel, very tired. We knew that we had had a full day. The bed felt soooo good!

Monday...

This morning the alarm rang at 5:45 AM. We readied ourselves for the day with showers and breakfast. We were on the bus by 7:15am. We had much to do and were anxious to get busy!

We arrived at the warehouse to get our gear together. The medical group was going back to New Jerusalem. The builders the same area. The benevolence/vbs group would go to still another area.

Josh Fairchild and a crew was working on the water filter system that they had tried successfully in the Valle Bonita that we had ventured to last year (remember the "3 hour tour?"). After a quick trip to the Valle on Friday and Saturday, they found that the filters had been successful. The families health had improved. One family had a young infant that had yet to be sick. Something very rare here. We praised God for the good news! I believe that they are to install 15 water filters yet this week.

After packing another 200 food bags, we headed off to the neighborhood that had been selected. We played soccer. I quizzed some younger children about school, families and God. It was fun talking to them. They really enjoyed themselves. The kids were very respectful talking to us. It was a blessing.

Some of our group passed out the 200 tickets. Some worked on VBS and painted fingernails and played soccer, ring around the rosie and more. The sharks and minnows game did not go over well as it was hard to explain....

We were blessed once again to give out all the 200 hundred bags. Once again we had people left over who did not get tickets, either because they were not home at the time they were passed out, or had heard about the food drop and was hoping to get some food for their families. It is always heart breaking to see the faces on some who do not get anything. Some seem to brush it off, and then some show the hurt and pain that hunger and rejection bring. It is difficult to look these people in the eye. It is hard to watch them walk away with them wondering how they will eat and when they will get some food for their family.

On a personal note. I had one of those derailing moments today. (derailing is not the right word, ambush is probably better)
As we were packing the bags to be handed out, I opened several boxes of the clothing that had been sent down. On top (of course) of a box of women's clothing was a dress that my Grandmother wore many times for special occasions. Most of her clothing was given to friends and church members. There were a few dated pieces that were not selected. I decided in March that she would have loved know that she was still contributing to the needy, so I put it in the bin a church. When I opened the box and it was on the top, it took my breath away, and instantly my eyes welled up and my heart sank, even as I type this, it is happening again. I had to stop and take a minute to thank God once again for her and all she was and did.

As we passed out the clothing, the dress was on the top of the bag. As I handed it out, it once again grabbed my attention. I sent it aside as the next several women were younger. There was one, 7 back that was an elderly woman. When she got to me and gave Casey the ticket. I handed it to her with a tear in my eye and a smile knowing that she would probably enjoy this special memory. A picture captures the moment.

We arrived back to the warehouse to share with each other memories of the day. Here is a round up:

Medical:
*600+ scripts were given
*60+ met with Jeff Gibbs and the other dentist
*223 patients visited with the doctors and nurses
*Several sets of glasses were given out

Construction:
*Roof was completed on one of the houses
*Rafters were installed on the second house
*Floors were leveled
*Kids arrived and played soccer and had some fun

Benevolence:
*Packed 200 food bags
*Passed out tickets
*VBS told the story of Moses
*186+ kids attended
*300 pages were handed out to be colored
*Played soccer
*Painted nails, neon bracelets

Water Filters:
*Josh filled us all in on how the filters are built. He also shared about the good health of those families who were using it properly!
* Josh has had this project on his heart. It is making a difference.

There were three baptisms:

*Santos Elene Silva
*Manuela de Jesus Bonia
Marvin Moncada (more on this tomorrow!)

We are so blessed to be here! We thank all of you for your prayers and support to make it possible. We serve a Great God! A Big God!

We are BLESSED!

With love,

robin

July 12, 2008 Saturday

Greetings.
It is Saturday night and we now resting from a busy, long day in Honduras.

Friday evening we had some pizza with the whole team. We also had our Honduran co workers with us. We spent some time introducing ourselves. We then spent some time talking about "our purpose here in Honduras". There were many things that were discussed. Some talked about the fact that we had been so blessed in our lives, and so we should give back. Others talked about being the hands and feet of Christ. It was interesting to see the different perspectives. We talked about being a light to the world so that folks would see Christ in us.

Today started at 5:30 am. We had a great breakfast and was on the bus by 7:15am. We drove to the warehouse where we had a prayer and got ready for the work we were going to do.

The building folks go their tools and plans together. They were to work on their 2 houses. Then they left to head to their sites.

The medical folks got their supplies together and headed off to the area that they would hold a their first clinic.

The benevolence and VBS groups worked on readying 200 food bags for the the food dropoff at about 2pm. Time was spent lining up the following items: 3# of beans, 3# of rice (both of which came in 100# bags and were divided out), sugar, milk, coffee, spaghetti, tomato sauce, lard, corn meal, bibles, clothing, personal toiletries. We are told that tis amount of food feeds a family of 4 for a month. The VBS group worked on getting the animals made up for the creation story. They also prepared the lions for the story of Daniel and the lions den.

We loaded up the food bags and headed to the site of the clinic. When we arrived we saw a huge crowd of people lined up for the clinic. Our Doctors and Dentist had been hard at work for many hours. And had much yet to do. We took our crew up to a house to have our creation VBS story. The family emptied the room of furniture and we set up our program. With in minutes there were nearly100 kids in the house. They had fun as they heard the story of creation in their own language. Then the were handed a picture of Adam and Eve in the garden to color ( with provided crayons). After a prayer, they were dismissed and given an animal face on a plate that was attached to a paint stir stick. They loved it. The kids enjoyed the program. Attached is a picture of the room full of children and a beautiful view of a young girl praying. One kid brought his picture to the front of the room. Ginger and made over it big time...He just beamed with pride and joy! Ginger and Rilla have worked very hard to put a fun, active program. The kids love it.

We then walked back down to the clinic site. The bus was there with the clothing bags. We then opened the back of the bus to hand out the bags. The patients were given tickets to pick up a bag. When the ticket was presented, we would give them a bag. Casey and I had some help at the back door, 4 young men, probably 7-8 years old helped us to hand out the bags. They were very helpful to us. At a lull in the action, I picked up 4 bags of water, I gave 2 to our team mates, one for me and then one to the boys. He then took a drink and shared it with the other boys. It was a beautiful site.

We had 35 bags that were unclaimed. We decided we were not going to take them back as there were too many people there who had not yet received a bag. The crowd of young and expectant mothers and others, pressed up against us, backing us into the bumper of the bus. It was a very uncomfortable situation as we had to figure out who most needed the food. It was of course a guess as we did not know the people, but were just trying to be a blessing to those in need. We were able to get bags to most of the folks, but there were still those who did not receive a bag.

It started to rain very hard and it broke up the crowd some. As we finished up, we still had 4 bags left. Two of the young boys who were at to door helping us came back up and said good bye. They said that their moms had not gotten any food. We looked at each other and handed out two bags. They let us know that they were brothers and only needed one bag. They were very grateful. The view of them running, skipping with the food back down the hill behind us will never leave my memory. We learn much from those 4 nameless boys. I will not forget them.

We returned to the warehouse for our devotional. All the crews returned with the following information:

Building: Both houses had set all the posts and had walls up! Ben said it was the fastest that the teams had ever worked to have this much done in 1 and 1/4 days. They were very pleased! We all cheered!

Medical Clinic: Dr Dan said that the Pharmacy crew had filled 500 scripts! They learned about several of the diseases that the people had. Jeff Gibbs saw 86 patients. He extracted many teeth. He said only on child cried for a short time. Jeff said that for the first several hours he had asked his patients to "Abrio la loco", instead of abrio la boca. He was asking them to open their crazy! We all had a good laugh out of that. Dr Dan and Dr Megan saw 165 patients. With a variety of ailments and provided treatments. The clinic Dr that joined them (from Honduras) treated 95 patients.

VBS: Ginger reported that she was very touched by what was happening here and she was hooked! She said she would be back! Others talked about the baging of the foods and handing out the food to the people.
..

July 10, 2008 Thursday and July 11, 2008 Friday

Good Morning,

We are up and about this morning. Getting ready to head out to do some work.

We did get to sleep in today as none of our travel worked in a timely manner. We were on the road 22 hours..

Thursday Morning.
4:30 am The alarm went, off, the sound was Chris Tomlin's "Amazing Grace" was playing. "The Lord has been so good to me, His word, my soul secures. He will my strength and portion be, as long as life endures." The verse, probably my favorite in that song, was a great start to our mission adventure to Honduras.

Morning has come and now our journey to Honduras begins. Diane laughs as I lean on the bath room counter and look into the mirror. We are about to once again travel to Honduras to be God's Hands and feet and smiles to hundreds, thousands of Honduras.

It is still way dark as Carl Brown comes by to pick us up. Kevin and Lauren Chivington were already onboard.

We are thankful for our chauffer Carl! We arrived at the airport and unloaded our cargo. Carl prayed for us. We headed to the American Airlines counter. We met up with Joe Howald, Josh Fairchild, Jeff and Brendan Gibbs. Many of our Ohio group left on Wednesday. We had a very easy check in! (Usually takes forever)

Our plane took off for Miami the flight was non eventful. We did fly over my parents house. I waved and said good morning to Hattie (our dog) who is vacationing there(:0). We arrived in Miami and met up with our Cincinnati and Florida team members. It was a happy reunion.

Our flight which was to leave at 1pm, did not leave till nearly 5pm. We were happy to see that after several announcements of "maintenence issues" and a test run, that they brought in another plane. Our team did not any mid air "maintenance issues."

We arrived in San Pedro Sula around 5:30 pm. We had all of our bags!

We met up with our Honduran Hosts. We boarded a school bus for our 4 hour ride to Teguc. We did not land in Teguc because of a major aircraft crash in May. 4 people had been killed. The airport is still closed to large planes?

Our predicted 4 hour bus ride was 8 hours. We arrived at the hotel around 1:30 am local time, (4:30 Columbus time). So, by the time we got ready for bed, we had been up 24 hours.

Friday, July 11th
Good Morning,
We were able to sleep in this morning until 8:30 am here (10:30 col). We joined some of our group at breakfast. It is a beautiful day here. I chatted with an US service man who had been home for 2 months because of a medical issue. He said he was feeling better and was looking forward to finishing his work here in the next 3 months. He will then go home to be with his wife and child in Ft Sill, OK. I also meet 4 members of the Barbados tennis team who are here for some of the Davis Cup playoffs. They were pretty cool to chat with. They were interested in what we were doing here. I invited them to join us sometime this week. They sounded interested, but their coach was not so sure! :)

We are excited about getting to our work. Keep us in your prayers! I will write about our day today later. (It has not really happened yet!).

We did get to see Moses again. He will interpret for us again. You may remember him as the young man who needed a ride back to Teguc after we had a rural village clinic probably 4 years ago. He and I had many conversations that day. We have stayed in contact yearly and he will work with us again. We have been looking at the Bible for sometime and I am anxious to talk about his progress.

Keep in mind, our team members:

Galen Bailey, Jas Birk, Pav Birk, Lauren Chivington, Kevin Chivington, Andrew Cichy, Ginger Cichy, Megan Crosmer, Casey Evans, Amy Ewing, Greg Ewing, Josh Fairchild, Brendan Gibbs,
Jeff Gibbs, Joe Howald, Carol Huey, Joey Martinez, Dan McClenathan, Erin McClenathan, Patrick McClenathan, Gary Morgan, Rilla Morgan, Ben Nichols, Debbie Nichols, Heather Nichols, Kenny Nichols, Casey Oakes, Sean Sekas, Beth Sorg, Sam Specht, Diane Weier, Robin Weier

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

Feel free to respond to these emails. We love your encouragement and thoughts.

For Him
Robin