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Showing posts from 2016

Christmas Party at Cerro de Hula

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It all started over breakfast.   Santito, who cleans our five story building, told me she does like not Christmas.  When I asked her why, she explained that she lost her mother when she was thirteen. After that her father showed little interest in her.  Her childhood was without Christmas and hard. It was a time that made her sad.  Knowing that Our Lord always loves a party  , I asked if she would like to throw one in celebration of Christmas for herkids and the community.   With a smile, she said, "Yes." This is what happened. A typical house in Cerro de Hula. Get that party going! The party begins. Waiting for mine. Joana, daughter of Santito, babysitting. Angela at sweet 15!   The Cumpleañera cuts the cake. (It was also Angela's fifteenth birthday, la Cumpleañera, which is an important day for  young girls in Latin America.   No one celebrated Santito's fifteenth becaus

Mission 2016

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Your support has allowed the following projects to go forward in 2016.   Thank you. THE ARCHITECTURE   1. Good Shepherd Church , Santa Maria, El Paraíso. In July of this year we consecrated the church as a culmination of a ten year mission project. For more information, click here . 3. Zamorano Diocesan Retreat Center , Zamorano, District of Francisco Morazàn.  Last year we finished the schematic master design for the retreat center.  But because the funds are currently limited, we decided to build the cafeteria first.   We will be starting the foundations shortly. Cafeteria with a view toward the chapel beyond. 4. St. John's Bilingual School , Siguatepeque, Comayagua. After a long delay, again because of lack of funds, we finally have been able to go forward with the cafeteria roof.  This is the first building designed for cooling by natural ventilation. There is no air conditioning.  The roof is insulated and large windows open to the cool breezes outsid

How the Most Dangerous Place on Earth Got Safer --- New York Times Article Aug 11, 2016

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Programs funded by the United States are helping transform Honduras. Who says American power is dead? http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/opinion/sunday/how-the-most-dangerous-place-on-earth-got-a-little-bit-safer.html

Letter from the Mission Field (July 1, 2016)

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It has been very busy here.  In January, the beginning of the school year in Honduras, we supported five poor children in the mountains around Tegucigalpa  and two in Copan Ruinas, as part of the Ministry of Presence. We helped them with school costs such as books, uniforms, and  school fees.  Our goal is to maintain a relationship and continue supporting them until they graduate. In April, I had the opportunity to attend the New Wineskins Conference for Anglican missionaries around the world, held in Asheville, N.C.   It was a very inspiring time. Back in Honduras, I have been nursing two churches toward completion.  Buen Pastor Church (Good Shepherd) in Santa Maria has just been completed and consecrated by Bishop Lloyd Allen on June 26, 2016.   See the articles below. Emmanuel Church in Roatàn moves forward with the installation of a new roof.  That in itself was a challenge.   The boat carrying the steel set sail at night in a storm and foundered on a reef outside of La Ce

Consecration of Buen Pastor (Good Shepherd) Church

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Bishop Allen came to Santa Maria, located close the Nicaraguan border,  to consecrate Buen Pastor Church on Sunday, June 26, 2016.   Three local churches, a mission team from Florida and people from the town came to the event. An estimated five hundred (500) people attended the service. Thirty six (36) people were confirmed or received into the church.   Here are some picture of the event. Bishop Lloyd Allen leads the procession at the consecration service of Buen Pastor Church. The procession continues. Inside in the packed church. Newly confirmed and received church members. The view of Buen Pastor Church from the road at the entrance to town.

Evangelism in Honduras

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Rev. Victor with acolytes.  Rehearsal for the Consecration. The Iglesia Buen Pastor story is a good example of how the church is growing  in Honduras.  The man in the  center of  its success is Rev. Victor Velasquez, currently an ordained deacon.  He founded the mission  and nurtured it to where it is today.   In 2006, Fr. Juan Jose Diaz asked Victor to go to Santa Maria, an hour outside of Danli on the road to Olancho. ( Click here to see map.)  Fr. Juan told him that he had a few acquaintances there. Would he go and see if he could start a church?  Victor, who at that time had no car, hopped on the bus for Santa Maria, which is on a dirt road highway in the middle of nowhere.  Chander's adobe house and meeting place for the mission. Soon Victor had a small group meeting regularly.   After gathering in various places, eventually they were invited to the adobe ho me of Alexander (Chander) Flores, who converted his living room into a permanent meeting hall for t

Lost at Sea: Salvagers Helping Themselves to Our Roof

Here is a video from the local La Ceiba TV station. The boat carrying the steel for the roof trusses, for our Emmanuel Church in Roatàn, ran aground and foundered on a shoal during  a midnight storm. In the morning, salvagers helped themselves to the cargo.