What's New @ Proyecto Alcance

Life @ Proyecto Alcance has been as busy as every since my last trip to the states. The first order of business was helping Dialis get all of our tax info together and get them filed with our great friends at the IRS. Only to find out after weeks of hard work on the long form, we were informed we could use the Form 990 EZ, only 3 pages long, not something 15 pages.

After that it was time to get our school ready to host a health clinic for a medical team from the states. In one day at our school, the group helped nearly 400 people. I offered my services and helped the group for the rest of the week. It was definitely something else being apart of helping these people from a medical standpoint. We, Proyecto Alcance, help the majority of the people seen by the team during all their clinics from a spiritual and financial stand point on a normal basis. And to experience the medical caretaking was very uplifting for me since I have weekly if not daily contact with these people, even though I did get very sick while helping them. With the group, our friends, Milton and Elizabeth Padilla, and their son, Isiah, came down to help. Their trip was not to only help with the medical group but to also continue to be a blessing to us. Which I must say, they are GREAT and wonderful Godly people. Spending a week with Milton is always a treat, great comic relief, plus a real spiritual uplifter. They blessed us with a new laptop, that I using right now, and with wireless internet through Claro cellular service. It is so nice not having to go the internet cafe to use the net and I know Dialis enjoys the ability to more easily stay in contact with other in the states. And on top of that, they bought a dryer for us to use in the rainy season before they came down. And it arrived while they were here. Thank YOU so much for your blessings upon us.

Then after their visit, and a visit from our friends at William Jewell College to plan future trips. It was a short week to get things ready for David and his month long trip to NY, where he is right now to raise money for the project. With the economy in shambles around the world and the addition class grade levels at our school, finances here have been tighter than tight, but that hasn't slowed us down from what the Lord is down here and He is always providing what is needed. Unfortunately, just before time to print things for David's trip, our printer died. And two days before his departure, while coming from the river in El Cumbre with kids, I hit a bump and the leaf springs on the front left of the bus all broke. So the bus sat at the mechanic for about a week, but was ready JUST in time, I mean by two hours, for the start of our evangelistic campaign in San Juan Pueblo. The campaign went great, it lasted for 4 days and many people gave the lives to Christ. Praise Jesus! On the third night, while on our way to SJP, I ran something over in the bus and blew a hole in one of the back tires larger than a golf ball. Luckily no control was lost while driving the bus, since the bus has two tires on each side of the back. That got fixed the next morning, and now if I can only find out why the transmission is starting to slip after driving for about 30 mins, all will be good with the bus. But when is all good for the bus. We pray that soon we can retire Ol'Betsy, that's my name for our bus, and get something a little newer. I think everything has been replaced on her on time or another. She's 24 yrs old with a Ford chasis & body, and a GM engine, and I know we've pretty much changed everything else on her.

Okay, now that I just think I felt the chair shake a little under my rear, it's time to talk earthquakes. Earthquakes aren't an everyday thing here like California, but do happen more than they do in Georgia. From the research I have done in the past two weeks, the last major quake came in 1999, and that was a 6.5 on the Richter scale. That was until May 28, 2009 at 2:30 AM, when the earth woke up for a 30 second shake, about 40-50 miles to our north in the Carribean Sea and magnitude 7.3 according to the United States Geological Service. That 30 seconds felt like it lasted forever. Fortunately, thanks to God, we suffered no damage in our area or injuries. It seemed like a bad dream that happened to be experienced by everyone around. Our girls were shaken up and we brought them out of their home and placed them in the church to sleep the rest of night. The electricity went out, but only for an hour and a half. But it seemed to be the warmest night in awhile, trying to go back to sleep in the heat was impossible. For size of the quake, not much damage was done around the country and only 6 people lost their lives. In the following 10 days after the initial quake, 5 quakes registering over 4.5 on the Richter scale were felt and according to our paper and the USGS office in Central America, over 500 quakes (aftershocks)under a 4.5 were recorded, 90% of them with 50 miles of us. At times when you're real still and everything is quiet, they can be felt. But they still haven't stopped, over two after the initial quake. Today, June 16, at about 11am, we were rocked by what the news reported to be a 6.5 magnitude quake 40 miles to our north. And while typing this, I felt another very little aftershock. It's weird feeling the earth shake, and thinking "okay, this isn't back just another quake. Only need to move if it gets harder." In Georgia, they just doesn't happen, in many thanks to Stone Mountain and all that granite under the region. But everyone is taking the quakes in stride, and the girls are doing good. Luisito, our one boy, hasn't felt any of the quakes at night, he has slept through them all, the 7.3 and the 5.7 last week. That boy sleeps so hard.

For the school, the students and the teachers are doing great. They had last week off for Students Day. Yep... it take one week to celebrate one day for the students. Of course, the teachers still get paid, at least in theory at the public schools, but our teachers definitely get their pay. And this week is test for the kids. But construction at the school has started back up. After 5 months of no money to continue construction on the our last two planned class rooms and a concrete wall around the school, we've been blessed by a donor in the states. This gentleman did about a one hour visit at our school and a thirty minutes visit at the orphanage about two months ago. We didn't have much of an impression on how he felt about our project. But three weeks ago, we got a call to tell us that money is being deposited into our account to construct the last two classroom and continue on the wall. That doesn't solve a finance crunch, but it's a wonderful blessing to us and the workers and their families. For those who don't know how we work, how all non-profits are supposed to work, when money is donated to a certain project, person, or area of ministry, the money goes there. Not another part of the ministry. So money for construction is not money to pay teachers or some other need. We make sure the we receive goes to its proper place. And that's the same with all other donations we receive, we make sure the correct people receive what is sent through us.

The Lord is using our churches in incredible ways also, reaching out to the communities around us with the Light and Love of God. In La Presa, a community about a km east of La Masica, Silvia Chicas, one of our volunteers living at the children's home and our kindergarten teacher, has started pastoring our church there. Our other two churches, La Masica and San Juan Pueblo, are also still doing strong. We thank God for everything He has blessed us with and the people He has put into connect with our ministry. To everyone that has and/or continues to support us, we thank you for your obedience to God.

God Bless
Tim