Our Thursday and Friday Missions

Our group split up as some headed to San Ignacio and some stayed in Tegucigalpa.

While the others were packing to go to San Ignacio Thursday morning, Tim and Suzanne Snyder were leaving bright and early for a meeting with a government minister for persons with disabilities. He, who himself is blind, received us warmly and expressed appreciation for the work we are doing amoung the blind people of Honduras. Following this meeting with Mr. Ruiz, we discussed teaching blind students computer skills as we demonstrated to the computer instructer at Comunion church a special program that blind people use to operate the computer. We were so busy that we ended up having to order pizza at the church. After this meal, we traveled to the Blind Athletes Federation where we received a warm welcome. We observed blind people playing chess, and enjoying fellowship with one another. We then returned to our guest house for a brief respite and meal followed by participating in a worship service at Cataluna. Tim preached on the subject "With God All Things Are Possible".

We continued our efforts to encourage computer training for the blind as we traveled to the INFOP educational institution where we met with the director. He responded to our suggestions with much enthusiasm and showed great excitement about our ideas for training the blind. We then traveled to a Christian radio station for about an hour where we talked about the work of Fishers of Men. Of course we had to go to Burger King during our stay in Honduras because it is one of Pastor Pena's favorite restraunts. He ordered his favorite-the Chicken Whopper Jr. Our afternoon ended with a visit to Santa Lucia where we toured a school for blind youth and adults. Words cannot express how amazed we were at the types of things that are accomplished at the school. We were especially impressed by the carpentry shop.

Our Saturday in Tegucigalpa consisted of making home visits. We visited Elena, a woman who is chairbound but doesn't let her limitations stop her. In fact every Saturday she teaches a Bible school in her home. We also visited Byron, the young man whom Fishers of Men has helped with the expenses of medical bills and medicines. We enjoyed visiting the home of one of our tranlators, Nelson. He brought out his guitar and we sang "Amazing Grace", "Breathe" and Tim shared with them an old country song by Little Jimmy Dickens, "Take an Old Cold Tater and Wait".

In short, we were incredibly blessed by the welcoming people we met during our stay in Tegucigalpa. When you meet extradinary people who live in less than great situations, it inspires you to desire become an extrordinary person yourself. Especially since most of us live very comfortable lives. I do not believe God has ever shown His presence to me in such a great way than He did these past few days. He proved that He really lives inside of those who will accept Him.

Meanwhile the rest of the group took a long and bumpy ride through rural Honduras along bumpy country roads. We passed cows grazing in pastures and chickens running through the road. Along the last seven miles it was dirt roads and men riding horses and walking to the fields.

When we got to San Ignacio we met with Chris and Donna Keeter and Alex and Delmy Goya. Chris and Donna are missionaries from Kings Mountain, NC and Alex is the pastor of First Baptist Church of San Ignacio. Delmy is his wife and plays a key role in directing the programs of the church which include a feeding center and pre-school. As we had a bite of lunch one of the couples of the church gave us their testimony of how they had come to the church. Ada's neighbor was a member of the church and asked her as she passed Ada's house to come to services with her every time passed. Ada said that she would but never quite made it. One day her neighbor didn't ask her and Ada decided to go and find out why. She started going to the church and eventually was saved. Henry, Ada's husband saw the changes in Ada's life and came to the church with her. Shortly after attending the church had a woodworking workshop and he became interested. His life changed and he joined the church with his wife Ada and was saved. Alex and Chris were both very complimentary on the work that Henry and Ada do for the church.

After lunch, we set up another eye clinic for 3 hours and were amazed at how much the people there needed our help. One elderly man that lived beside the church came into the eye clinic struggling to walk because he could not see. After being fitted with a very strong pair of glasses, he had the biggest toothless grin you have ever seen. In fact, he was sitting in his doorway waving to us wearing his new glasses the next morning. Augustine prayed with everyone as they left the clinic.

Dale Overman, Doug Jones and Raymond Overman anxiously got over to the wood shop which has helped the church in their building processes. We had brought parts to repair a lathe that was broken. Unfortunately, as we repaired it we realized that the parts we brought were not correct. As we discussed the problem a new plan was made. We would go back to Tegucigalpa early in the morning and purchase a new smaller midi-lathe so that we could have the woodturning program after all. When Raymond gets back to Charlotte he's going to have a long discussion with the Delta tools representative and see if we can get the other one running too. The men in San Ignacio will have two lathes to gather around and work with for fellowship and creating items for fund raising. Look for some pens from Honduras. They were very excited.

On Friday, everyone in San Ignacio woke up to the "ki ki ki dee" of roosters at "La Finca" or "The Farm" which is what Chris and Donna Keeter call their guest house. Honduran roosters don't say "cockle doodle doo" of course. They speak spanish.

As the sun rose, Chris, Dale, Doug and Raymond headed back to Tegucigalpa for a scouting expedition. They were hoping to bring back a new piece of equipment for the woodworking shop. As they were heading down the dirt road leaving San Ignacio one of the chickens in the road didn't quite make it. Chris commented that he would stop on the way back and pay the lady for the chicken which was a big loss for a Honduran at about $6 or $7.

Our last eye clinic was held and the blessings continued as we fitted a couple of children with glasses. These kids were struggling in school and could not read the blackboard. It was rewarding to see how excited they were to be able to see better.
As much anxiety as we had about these eye clinics, God proved he was in control!

Augustine shared with us that 14 people had made a profession of faith during these eye clinics this week.

As we finished the eye clinics other members of our team went on a prayer walk and distributed food in the San Ignacio community. The group prayed with people at their homes and shared the message of the church with those who would listen.

We returned to La Finca for lunch and we listened to another testimony. Lencho confessed that as a young man he liked to go to parties and didn't follow the Lord. His father, who was saved, was sick with cancer and Pastor Alex visited him regularly. With the cancer, Lencho's father couldn't help build the church, he couldn't minister to other people and wasn't instrumental in bringing new members to the church. Pastor Alex was glad to have him as a member and was happy that he was saved but he needed strong men and women to help him build his church. Lencho's father prayed that Lencho and his wife would come to see the forgiveness and life that Jesus could bring to their family. As Lencho's father's cancer progressed, Pastor Alex saw Lencho one afternoon with an old bible reading to his family in his yard. Pastor Alex though, "What is a non-believer doing reading from the bible to his family?" He made a note to bring a new bible to Lencho and invite him to the church. Lencho's father passed away within a month of Pastor Alex seeing Lencho reading to his family. Within that time Lencho and his family had started coming to the church. They had been saved and became strong members that were active and willing to spread the word. Lencho's father was able to help build the church.

After lunch we headed back to the church. The group that went to Tegucigalpa had returned and got everything set up. We shared in a program and bible school with the children. Observed and helped with the feeding center and gave out a lot of hugs.

At supper, the sponsored children and families joined us at La Finca for a meal. The grill we sent last year was in full swing with beef and sausage, potatoes and plantains. Refried beans and vegetables were added to complete the meal. The kids really enjoyed the letters and gifts that were sent and we worked with them to write return letters to their sponsors.

We finished the evening with a service at the church by Pastor Alex.

On Saturday morning we had another bible school with the children and the men enjoyed a woodturning session where we taught Henry, Lencho and others how to make a pen. They were very excited.

After lunch we returned to Tegucigalpa and Lydia's guest house.