What´s new

Well.... first it´s great to have the internet working again. It´s weird, we´ve had a LOT of rain over the past two weeks. Some of the country has extreme flooding and ten of thousands are homeless. But we haven´t really had a problem with losing electricity, which is really nice, but the internet seems to always be down as of late. And he´s another weird thing... my laundry.
Well since I got back here over a month ago, I started to clean my own laundry. I would wake up at 5 am on Saturady and do my wash and have it all on the clothes line by 7 am so it can dry before the afternoon rain and have it done in one day. Then one weekend, it rained in the morning, so I got no laundry cleaned. Later that week I took my laundry to local cleaners, since the lady had a washer & dryer. I paid about $15 to get three loads cleaned and folded. Well when the lady at the orphanage that does most of the laundry found about me taking my laundry somewhere else to get it cleaned, she got really offended. The reason I stopped letting her clean my laundry in first place was that she made it clear, before I came home to visit, that she didn´t want to clean it anymore. She told my sister-in-law once, when she was here, that she needed to clean my laundry. And when this worker was cleaning my laundry, I was having to wait close to 5-6 days to get my laundry back. But now she wants to do it again, she don´t even want me to clean my own laundry. She insist I let her do it. And now it´s that rainy season, and we´ve gotten a lot of it. I figured it would take DAYS to get my laundry back. Nope... I get it back it in less than two days now. Weird, when it was sunny, I waited 6 days..... and I don´t pay her to do my laundry.
I´ve been busy in San Juan Pueblo(SJP), I started my new youth service and I average 25 youth each week and about 50 total in the service. I´ve organized a couple youth soccer teams in SJP to play games against teams in La Masica. I play with the older team, youth in their 20s. I´ve got some new friends that speal english. They´re four sisters that are teachers and secretary at the new bilingual school in SJP. So I´ve started spending time there hanging out also. It´s good to meet some people my age that speak english. My spanish is doing better, I´ve planning on preaching my first sermon in spanish in January. I really think I´ll be able to do it.
It seems with this rain, more people are getting sick. I got something right now, but I think I ate or drank something bad in the Colony last week. As for my wieght, I´m at 220 lbs now, that´s 35 lbs less since June. With the rain and being busy, I haven´t been able to go for a walk in about 2 weeks. All the kids in the orphanage are doing really good. Oh, I´ve been finally added to the chores list at the orphanage. So,now I feel more official here.
Well, I have more to type, but the internet is about to close so I need to hit the road and head back home. Take care and God Bless.

Thanks again for all your prayers!
Tim

New youth service

Well, I have finally started the new youth service in our San Juan Pueblo church. The service takes place on Saturdays and I picked the best Saturday night to start the service. I picked a night that the Honduran national futbol (soccer) team was playing. Even my new translator wasn´t the happiest having to miss the game. Half of the guys that showed up for the service, left after about 30 mins for the game. But it´s all good.
But Saturday CRAZY!!!!!! Only one person that agreed to show up to my meeting on Saturday morning, to get ready for service, showed up. The person that had my memory stick to add music to it for service, went out of town without telling me. I wasn´t planning on singing during praise and worship, but since there was only one other person with me at the planning meeting, I had to learn some spanish songs fast. My translator got back into town about an hour and half later than we planned, just in enough time to get ready and make to service on time. I planned time for prayer before service for the service and only one person showed for that. And everywhere I went, I saw people waering their futbol jerseys and carrying their flags. And all I could think was that I´d be lucky if one person showed up to service. Oh, I miss typed one of the songs for our transparencies for worship. But I put in the Lord´s hands and the Lord took care of everything.
We had some mess ups in service, but it went great. Everyone loved the games at the beginning of service and I hadn´t heard so many of the youth sing during worship since I´ve been here. They are usually just clapping, but Saturday they were singing. I believe I only put two people to sleep during my surmon, one of them goes to sleep in almost every service, so I felt good. All of the responses have been great since the service. Oh, and I got everyone out of service by half time of the game, so I even got the chance to see Honduras weep up on Canada.
Please pray for this new service and the youth in San Juan Pueblo. The Lord has done many things here and I can´t wait to see what else He has for this community and it´s young people. Thank you to all for you continued prayers!!!!

Take care and God Bless
Tim

Education in Honduras

We always hear jokes about public education and we all know how bad Georgia test scores have been over the years. But after realizing how bad the education program is here, I'm happy to say I graduated from a Georgia public school. I would rather go to a Clayton County school than down here... by the way, can anyone tell me if Clayton County got their accreditation back? Anyway... right now the public school teachers are on strike... AGAIN! Our school is private, so we don't have to worry about the nationwide strikes. But this is the fourth time since July they've been on strike.

Now let me tell you a little about the education here. The highest required grade for kids to complete is sixth grade. Yes, I said, "sixth grade." But get this, not even half of the kids in this country get that far. It's not rare to find a 9 yr old kid in first grade. After sixth grade, school is called "college." And that takes kids through our 12th grade. And when they graduate from "college," they receive a degree in a certain area. And the education in the college is no way near the education in our middle and high schools. And very rarely do find kids that graduate "on time", or as we think of it as around the ages of 17 and 18 yrs old. A lot of kids are in "college" into their twenties. And if you go to school at night, usually starting at 6 pm, you can forget about your teacher showing up. Maybe for the first couple classes of the night but not the whole time. Class is supposed to last until after 10 pm, most students are home by 8:30pm.

But the main reason for this blog is because of the strikes. While the teachers are on strike, because of money, like always, they're getting their full pay. They're supposed to be at the school while the strike is on, but we all know, they're not. And what about the kids, no one cares about them. The kids think it fun not being in school. But if the teachers strike long enough in a school year, the kids can all be held back and lose a year a school. The teachers don't care, they still get paid. I have heard of a story of teacher that got caught teaching her students during a strike, and she got her pay taken away. It's sounds ridiculous, but what doesn't sound ridiculous here in Honduras.

So I ask all of you, please keep these kids in your prayers. That they may be able to get some kind of education so the may have a some chance of leaving a life of poverty.

Take care and God Bless!!!

PS - There are universities here, but very few attend there.