After a year away from Proyecto Alcance, I'm back..... And after two years of no blogs, I'm back to posting blogs. 2012 has been an interesting year for me. My mom was diagnosed with cancer in March and after 5 weeks in the hospital she went to be with the Lord. I was blessed with the opportunity to spend those last five weeks with her. I'll never forget that time. In May, my brother Tommy and I went to the Philippines to take our mom's ashes home and placed them with her mom. I spent three months in the Philippines, getting to know my family more and help them. I was able to help rebuild one of my uncles' house. The house had plastic bags on parts of the roof to cover holes and the supports for the floor were split and rotted. In September, I made my first trip back to Honduras. I quickly learned the effect I had on the kids and how much I was needed back here. I also realized how much I wanted to be back. Here feels like home to me. And in November I returned to my work here with the kids.

Early Morning Wait

It’s 2am and I’m sitting in the airport in San Pedro Sula. I’m waiting here until 5 am to catch a taxi to the bus terminal, and finally after to San Juan Pueblo, straight to school to teach. 2010 has been a year thus far, the government and political situation has been tranquil with the inauguration of the new president, Pepe Lobo, and another new school year. Our school has 177 students at last count, up from 94 last year, with the addition of first year college. As I have mentioned in earlier blogs, college in Honduras is the equivalent to 7th thru 12th grades in the states. Our kindergarten has a full class; we’re just short one teacher. Last fall we were blessed to welcome a new missionary to Proyecto Alcance. Her name is Amanda Daugherty and she’s from North Carolina via Tegucigalpa. After a year and half with World Gospel Outreach, she felt let to join our organization and help teach our kindergarten while she continues to learn Spanish. Most of our classes are full, with class sizes ranging from 18 to 27 students. Dialis said she wasn’t going to have the first year college class unless she had 25 students sign. On the first day of school had 23 students for the class, and by the third day of class we had our 25 students, thanks to the Lord. For me, this year I’m teaching all the English classes for grades 1 thru the first year college class. That’s 155 students, up from 30 last year. I had trouble last year remembering name and putting names with the right faces, this year is truly a challenge. I’m still writing my own curriculum that I collect from six different books. I also have a classroom to teach my class, so I do not have to go class to class and now I can put materials on the walls for the students to reference. I’m also giving private tutoring in English to a boy from Guatemala. He’s home-schooled and his mom has taught him all she can in English, so I was asked to tutor.
I’m the president of the youth in our church in San Juan Pueblo, which means I’ve been preaching in Spanish. Yes… Spanish. I can now speak Spanish more fluent. This year I’ve preached at least 10 times in Spanish. It’s definitely a challenge put the Lord has given the words to speak in the language He wants me to speak it in. It’s an incredible feels to be used by the Lord like that. I have 12 in my youth, most are young teens or new Christian. We’re very enthused for this year and reaching more youth in our community. Each Saturday morning we have prayer at 5 am to pray for the upcoming service that evening. We have plans to hike in the mountains and do a devotional, service on the beach, outdoor service in the center of the colony and other exciting activities. We had a movie night in January and also participated in a youth camp at our school. I’m really looking forward to see how God uses this youth this year and how He grows them.
Also in January, a group from William Jewell College came down to Honduras for their Village Partners Project in Embarcadero. Being their liaison, I organized the logistics for the project in Honduras. But this trip was different than other trips. The group didn’t stay in hotels; we stayed in the school house in the village. This village has none of the normal utilities that are found in a home in the states; no electricity; no plumbing, only latrines, if they weren’t flooded b/c of rain. Each one of us in the group was paired up with a family to eat breakfast and dinner with. The group ate lunch together. But the experiences from eating with the families were unimaginable. The group got to realize, on a personal level, how these families actually live. Each person was forced to come out of their comfort zone and get to know their family. The families enjoyed it also, they were impressed that an American was willing learn how they live and experience a little of their lives. Oh, I don’t think I mentioned, I was also the translator for the group since all the translators I know had to teach at their bilingual schools.
My fingers are starting to hurt so I think I’m going to call this blog quits. At least I’m not alone in the lobby of the airport. And someone came around to take our information so if something were to happen, they knew how was here. Another two hours to wait, I think I’ll watch a movie. Until next time, I pray blessings to you all.

Curfew due to end?

After another night, Tuesday night, of curfew and vandalism in the capital, and a the cries of the country about food shortages in homes, the de-facto government was reluctant enough to suspend the curfew for 7 hrs during the day, Wednesday. As people ran to the store and gas stations around the country, there was nothing there to buy. Many stores in Tegucigalpa were vandalized. Like I wrote last night, no one worked on Tuesday and delivered were unable to be made and supplies were no where to be found until later in the morning. As for La Masica, the little town I live, hours from the violence, our shelves were empty in the morning. David went to the store and was able to come back with corn flake, flour, and oil. The rice was long gone and we have one of four rice mills in the Honduras, located in our small town. But by late morning, early afternoon, delivers were being made. We even had to wait for propane gas tanks to be delivered in order to cook. We were told they'd be delivered at 11am, but didn't show up until 1:30pm.

Eventually most people in the country were able to buy the goods they needed. Video of the cities showed city streets blocked up for blocks and blocks of people waiting on gas. As for me, the early afternoon rain kept me for the most part. But I did venture out in my bike to buy something at 3:30, 30 minutes before the original time for curfew to start back up. The pharmacy I went to closed just as I buying my meds. People were starting to close up to get ready for the curfew. In the evening, an hour after the curfew was back into effect, I decided to let some of kids go on a short walk around the block since they'd been suck in the project for three days. They enjoyed it very much, even though it was short. We had church service tonight in our La Masica church and after dropping off a couple people at home after service I decided to venture into the center of town to get some food since Tuesday night most people were still open at 9pm. Being a small, the curfew is a bit more flexible. I actually haven't seen a police officer yet, but I'm not looking either. I figured they're at the highway entrance to town with a road block. Even with out a curfew the have normal rock blocks. But when I made it into town, everyone was closed, even the bars that say open until the early hours of the mornings. With pics of the capital from the night before, some fear seemed to have set into the business owners. I actually found one pulperia open, little shop that you buy goods from a window, usually a front room of a house. The town seemed like a ghost town. I got my OJ and and few little bags of chips.

As I got online tonight, I read an article from the AP that the curfew is set ti expire in the morning. We had already decided to have school tomorrow, with or without the curfew b/c of reports of a no police sighting during the day in our area. With this, the people in most of the country will be able to return to some normality to their lives.

I pray tonight is not like last night in the capital and other large cities in Honduras. Video from last night, showed vandalized stores and the sounds of assault rifle gun burst. Sounds we hear from video from a battle in Iraq. The gunfire was continuous, not a shot here or there. The vandals that were caught on video, we're people stealing for necessity. They were young 16 -25 yr old punks stealing cell phones and chargers, not food or water. In my time in Honduras, I've found that many Hondurans don't have fear. They don't fear the police that are willing to shoot first and ask questions later. A doctor at a hospital told the news that they had 25 injured civilian, all had gun shot wounds. With the violence the police already deal with in this country with riots and curfews, it's not a surprise the police shoot first at night when they feel in danger, b/c many other have guns, including the one I watched get arrested in a store.

If you didn't hear, the UN told Honduras that they are suspending their electoral aide for the upcoming election. They feel Honduras is in no condition to hold the election until this crisis is resolved.

With the curfew being lifted, it looks like I'll be able to go to the missions conference in Copan tomorrow (Thursday). Thank you, Lord.

Also please pray for peace tomorrow during a planned pro-de facto government march in Tegucigalpa.

Unrest in Honduras

I live eight hours from Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras and the location of the Brazilian embassy. The epicenter of this huge headache that Honduras is suffering from. La Masica is small town, yes we have out share of crimes, drug & gang violence, but it's not the city. There's not a worry of demonstrations or protests here. But with Zelaya back in Honduras, tensions are high. Life would be more normal if it wasn't for this nationwide curfew. The curfew started at 4 pm, Monday and is in affect until atleast 6 pm, Wednesday. That's 50 hrs of everyone having to stay home or atleast off the streets. That means, people can't to work. The factories, schools, food distributors, buses are all closed.... even the airports and borders are closed. If the government doesn't lift this nationwide curfew, then this country is going to see some real problems.

Before Monday, life in Honduras seemed normal. The price of food had dropped, rice was more affordable to the poor, which is most of this country. In the last two with Zelaya in office, at least 15 Venezuelan drug planes have crashed in Honduras, with him gone, none have been seen. The presidential candidates, chosen last Nov., well before the government power change, were busy campaigning against each other, not having to fight just to have an election. Like they did while Zelaya was still in office. People were living life before Monday.

But now, everyone has to stay home. This evening I walked into the center of town to get a bite to eat and noticed that the shelves, in the pulperia where I bought my drink, were half empty. I realized the stores weren't receiving their delivers. After one day of curfew the shelves were half full, what are they going to look like after two days. The fear I have, is the stores running out of food and the people starting to go hungry, if this curfew isn't ended. And when the people start to go hungry, the real violence will break out. And that scares me.

I pray the leaders of this country are God fearing and look up to Him for guidance. If a peaceful solution is not found soon, than crisis cold really lose control. I understand trying to minimize demonstrations and protests in the city, but let the rest of the country breath a little bit. Rice & beans aren't a problem for me to eat, but how long until the supply can't meet the demand of the country.

May God bless us all!

Tarea

I've been back in Honduras for a little over a month, after spending 7 weeks back in the states. Just after arriving in the states, I received a summons to serve on jury duty. Fun, fun, fun.... But I'm back now and enjoying my time more than ever. Since returning I've concentrated more of my free time with the kids. I've taken the responsibility to make sure the kids get their homework done each day and help them also. It's not the easiest job since my Spanish is still limited but my vocabulary is growing each day. It's been a test of patience that I have to say, I don't pass everyday. Helping the kids study exam during exam week, I resorted to locking them in the church each afternoon until they finished their study guides. It was the only way to get them in one location and forcing them to study. Of course, they didn't want to study, and they fought with me, tried to play games, but by the end of each day, most of them finished their study guides. Usually one or two of 14 wouldn't finish. I've learned during this time that the more time I spend with them, helping them, the more reluctant they are listen to me when I tell them to do some thing. I've learned that I'm not good at playing Jax. The kids play everyday, even if they only have rocks to use as Jax. Their hands are so quick, but mine are so slow. Even just watching tv or playing tag in the evening, makes me life easier when I need them to do something. It's not a walk in the park, but it's a blessing each day. Sometimes I think the kids think all I know how to say is, "got any homework?" or "finished with your homework yet?" They're all kids and always want to play.... that I completely understand. But I'm trying to teach them discipline and want to see them all succeed in life. Homework.... every kids least favorite word.

Time to get healthy.

Hello everyone.... I pray you are all doing good. The Lord is working hard here in Honduras. Myself, and everyone at Proyecto Alcance are doing good. David is currently in New York, speaking at a number churches and sharing to many people about our project here and what the Lord is doing through us. I titled this blog, "Time to get Healthy", b/c when I came back here in April, I made the decision to make sure my physical health was better. I have lost a large amount of weight while I've been here, but good health is more than just losing weight. As of April, I was down to 225 lbs, at one point I had been as low as 210, but after a few trips to Pizza hut here and three weeks in the states, the weight went back up. I have to say that right now, I'm down to 205 and holding it off, hopefully that doesn't change when I make a trip to the states in two weeks. But I decided to go to the Doctor in April get some blood tests, especially for my uric acid level, since that causes my awful gout attacks, and to get checked for diabetes since it runs in the family. Well, for diabetes, I'm negative, that was a nice relief. But when I went to the doctor to get my test results, i asked him first how he was. He answered in his broken English, "I'm fine but you're not", laughing as he said it. That didn't make me feel so good before getting my results. It turned out that my uric acid level was two and half times the normal level. That explains the frequency of my gout attacks. But I knew ahead of time the results weren't going to be good, that's why I went, to figure out what I needed to do to get better. He put me on a medicine to lower my uric acid levels.

I figured I wouldn't be seeing the doctor until our next scheduled appointment, three months later. But I was wrong. As it was time to make my blood better, my stomach and digestive system had other plans. Or at least some little amoebas had other plans. No idea where I got them, but life stopped being fun for awhile. I'm going to try to save you all some nasty details, but I will say this..... When Imodium Extra Strength can't even but a speed bump in the way of what I couldn not feel coming, it's BAD, and it was like water. The only good position for me was sitting; standing or laying down... no good. But I tried to be a big boy and try to fight it out or hope it would pass. That was a bad idea, three days later at 1 am, I was making a trip to see me doctor.

Now let me tell you about a fun morning. For some reason, I decided to try to sleep, and when I woke, the feeling wasn't good. So after realizing I can't go on being scared to sleep, and after some housecleaning, I decided to the doctor I go. I didn't want to trouble David that late at night since I knew I wasn't going to work in the morning and he needed to wake up early. So as I when to start the truck to go to the doctor, the battery wouldn't crank. So I switched the first battery, no luck. After going through FIVE batteries and none of them starting the truck (now, I'm VERY dehydrated and WEAK, and batteries aren't light to carry around), I decided I was going to put everything back where I found it and walk the mile and half to the doctor. When I put the first battery back in the truck, I decided to give it one last try, fortunately the truck finally started. My doctor was at least half asleep when he listened to my problems, he gave a bunch of pills and sent me on my way. While explaining that the diaherra, if you can even call it that, wouldn't stop for a few more days. Fun, so I slept on the floor for a couple nights on a towel. Well, thank the Lord, all was better after about 4 days... for atleast the next week and a half. Then it all came back again. I didn't waste any time and when straight back to the doctor. This time he decided to listen to my stomach and told me I had a party in there. This wasn't cool, definitely since we had a medical missions team coming a couple days that I had plans to help the following week. Well, he gave meds to stop the party in my stomach and all was better in just a couple days. But while helping the medical team, I ended up catching a cold / flu from shaking the hands of all the sick people and not using Germ-X like everyone else. OMG, in the morning it felt like I could boil an egg on my head. Plus on top of that the cough, running nose, weakness, and body aches. The medical team gave me Tylenol and put back to work since they were super short on help. They gave me a chair and fan (which I later sold to another work station to use for 50 lempiras) and placed me at the station to give everyone worm medicine. Nothing like a station where I would have contact with 90% of the people there. The only meds I was given was Tylenol, I couldn't figure why they wouldn't give me anything else stronger. But the fever was gone a couple days and I started to feel stronger, but the cough and runny nose lasted for more than a week more and got really annoying. Definitely since, right after the group left, some people from William Jewell College and Guatemala came into town to meet with me and do some planning for their Village Partners Project. Which is a great project and I'll write about that in my next blog. So for 4 days I was with them, having to deal with my stinkin nose and cough. The day we went to Tela after a meeting to enjoy some time on the beach, my stomach when into knots and the pain was horrible. I tried everything to relieve the pain, even tried to vomit, but that didn't work. So while everyone else was on the beach enjoying great Italian food, I was in a hotel run rolling in pain. The pain did finally went away about 30 minutes before the group came to get me to go back to La Masica. The cold left me eventually, I think, I have a small cough again, but since I got sick, it seems many around have gotten sick also, including Dialis. She is fighting it right now. But I have to say, with being sick so much time, I haven't missed too much work, no more than five days in two months. I've had to fight through as much as I can, definitely with David being gone for a month to NY. I need to be healthy so I can fully serve the Lord, and I know with me taking steps to better my health, to better my ministry, the devil is doing all he can to bring me down. And that's one thing I'm not going to let happen. I know the Lord is with me to get me through this time and the Light is always shining bright. This is where the Lord wants me and I couldn't more joy in the Lord that I have now.

Until next... God Bless to all....
Tim

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