Great Week For Madison

Early in the week we received Madison’s first report card at her new school. She received two Cs and all the rest As and Bs. This was her first time receiving all passing grades while here in Honduras. This is a big deal…don’t forget, half of her classes are in English and half are in Spanish. Her teachers also agreed that her Spanish has improved sufficiently enough that she is no longer required to receive mandatory Spanish tutoring.

She also received special recognition, only one of 5 (out of 50) in 8^th grade, for having perfect attendance during the grading period.

There was a highly anticipated school-wide drawing contest. Madison, who loves drawing, drew and entered a special picture for the competition. In all of Jr. High her picture got first place!

Then on Friday the whole school held a costume contest. Madison, dressed in her best wolf costume, received second place in the whole school.

Cooking From The Deep, Deep, Deep South

This evening Mike was very excited about dinner. He cooked one of our favorites – barbecued pulled pork sandwich and sweet tea with a side of corn on the cob.

It is not hard to cook in Honduras, but sometimes it is hard to find the things you need to cook your favorites. Not many butchers in La Ceiba carry pork loin and corn on the cob is rare.

For our friends from the South – Does it scare you to see Californians cooking Southern classics in Honduras (the deep, deep, deep South)?

Kids Club – Dave And The Giant Pickle

Today Mike, Madison and I hosted 50 kids in our weekly Kids Club in Armenia Bonito. It was a fun and special Kids Club for all of us. The kids received a great message about David and Goliath, had fun and enjoyed a new experience…watching Veggie Tales. For our family it was really fun. Since Madison is 13 our family is charter members of the Veggie Tales family. Madison was raised on their videos.

We took the kids out to the field to play some games. The kids were corralled into the town hall and I read the kids the real story of David and Goliath. We then projected Veggie Tales’ “Dave y el Pepinillo Gigante" in Spanish (Dave and the Giant Pickle)” - for the kids. This was the first time we projected a movie for the kids and the first time any of them had seen a Veggie Tales movie. The kids got a rare treat of popcorn during the movie.

After the flick the kids colored and decorated a picture of the “Giant Pickle” with Matthew 19:26 underneath it - Para Dios, todo es posible (with God, everything is possible). A really fun day.

Reading the story before they see the movie so they know it's a bible story, not just a fun movie.

Madison helping out with craft and making her own



The kids proudly showing off their creations


Movie Snacks


Kids Watching The Movie


Mi Amor - Oneida

Update

Today is the last day Dr. Carl will be with us. Madison is doing well in school - just finished quarterly exams. Mike has been sick, but today he feels about 90%. Our team mates, The McCann's, are continuing their vacation in the States for another week. We have English class today, Kids Club tomorrow - we are going to project a Veggie Tale in Spanish - Dave y el Pepinillo Gigante (Dave and the Giant Pickle) up on the wall in the building where we have our ministry - popcorn, the whole thing - should be fun. Continued mobile clinic - but this week there will be only 2 of us - Mike and myself - going to be difficult with only the two of us, but we will manage - will just have to cut down on the amount of patients we can see. I'll have to to assessments, diagnosis, and pharmacy - yikes! Pray for us! Mike leaves next Monday for a leadership training in Colombia, then to Georgia where he will be speaking at three different events. Madison and I will be by ourselves for most of the month. Whew! That's "it" for my update :-)

Making Housecalls

Every couple of months we make the trek through Armenia Bonito to make more personal visits - this one was to make some housecalls. Dr. Carl, who just finished his last official duty of a three week visit came with me. As you can see in the pictures, a few kids from the village decided to join us :-) It was actually quite fun - helped people walking down the street, in their homes, and being "old school" docs. What a pleasure to serve this community, pray with them, and just show them the love of Christ.

One of our home visits


Cleaning a wound on the back of my truck

Another home visit at the house of Teresa, and our friend Chela


All the kids joining in the "fun"?!

In the Kitchen

So, what's a girl to do when you can't buy chocolate in Honduras? And - what's a girl to do when she has 40 kids every week that come to Kids Club, and she needs play-dough for all of them? Well - make them of course!

Our friends who live up in the mountains of Honduras brought us some nibs. What are nibs you may ask? Well - it's what you need as the primary ingredient for making chocolate. So, after much grinding, chopping, adding ingredients, we ended up with some amazing Dark Chocolate! We actually made two types - one sugarfree, lactose free, the other good old fashioned butter/milk dark chocolate! We all enjoyed it for our after dinner treat!



Play-dough IS available in La Ceiba, but it is expensive, and for the vast quantities I was going to need - not feasable to purchase. So - I broke out the flour, salt, and food coloring and went to work making 40 bags (two colors each) of play dough for our Kids Club - and of course - did the lesson on the Potter and the Clay. A big success.

Update

Just a quick update on what's going on. We had a clinic out in the mountains - about 2 hours away where we served 160 people. This is a struggling church, and it allowed an out-reach opportunity for the local pastor. This weekend the boys (Sean, Mike, and our visiting Dr. Carl) attempted to take some kids from the village to a local soccer game. They took them out to eat, and while they were there, the rainy season finally decided to arrive. A HUGE deluge came, and rained out the game. So - they took them to the movies instead. Seven of the 9 boys had never been to a movie in the theater, so they loved it. This week I will be with Dr. Carl in the public hospital for 3 days, Thursday our normal mobile clinic, then Friday we will be making house calls. On top of that we have some visitors here looking at how Street Children can be implemented in La Ceiba. Let's not forget, we have our other ministries, English class today, Kids Club tomorrow. All this with just the two of us. Our team mates, the McCann's, are in The States for two weeks for some much needed time off. Going to be a busy week! Pray for us as we attempt to keep the ministry going a little short-handed!

Health Clinic in Olanchito - October 16, 2009

On October 16, 2009 our team drove to Olanchito to help a national Pastor launch a new church. We treated over 160 people in seven hours. Each person received personal prayer, evangelism, individual medical consultations and free medicine.

Watch this 3 minute video to see this great event:

Honduras Qualifies To The 2010 World Cup

On October 14, 2009 Honduras qualified for the World Cup of Soccer for the first time in 27 years. Honduras qualified by beating El Salvador 1-0 and received a little help from the U.S. who eliminated Costa Rica by tying them 2-2. These events allowed both the U.S. and Honduras to qualify to the World Cup which will be played in South Africa in June of 2010.

Check out this 2 minute and 20 second video of the post game celebration:

Public Hospital

Gurney's outside

Dr. Carl's exam room

Dr. Carl prepping to start his day

The endless people (over 400) waiting to see a doctor


Walking down - through the hoards of people ahead waiting to be seen.

Today, tomorrow, and three days of next week we have the opportunity to work at the local public hospital. It is the epitome of socialized medicine in a third-world country. There are endless lines, you still have to pay, and little to no resources. Dr. Carl is, however, excited to be there, and provide services to patients who otherwise might not be seen. I acted as his translator for the first part of the day until our translator arrived (he is a student at a local school). To me, this would be a very depressing day - to arrive and see well over 400 patients waiting to see a doctor, gurneys outside because there is no room inside, the overwhelming need of everyone, and the few resources. However, God brings to us what He has for us each day - so we are excited to see how He will use us during this time.

Girls Night

We have been out in Armenia Bonito for 16 months now. We've been doing Kids Clubs, English classes, mobile health clinics, etc. We've gotten to know a lot of people, and now are ready to start investing more in-depth time with folks. So, last month we had a girls night, and last Friday we had our second, with a different set of girls. Our goal is to focus on girls 10-15(ish) years old. This is the age where girls are getting out of school, and ready to get into the adult world. We want to help guide them and give them an understanding of their importance. So, we took the girls to Pizza Hut (boy did they have a blast with the automatic water dispenser - never having seen one before), then back to the McCann's house where we played games, made necklaces, ate ice cream, and had a bible lesson. The girls had a BLAST, and we look forward to the next group of girls we get together with. After we have had time with many of the girls in this age group, we are going to focus on specific girls to disciple. Please pray for this ministry.

Mobile Medical Clinic

Every Thursday we hold a mobile medical clinic. It's fairly basic. We offer basic antibiotics, vitamins, we check Blood Pressure, blood sugar, lots of health teaching, etc. However, our focus is on the individual. We have grown to know and love many of the people that come, and we often will just sit with them and talk. We pray with them, and offer them encouragement in their daily struggles. It's often times crazy - we get overwhelmed with the number of people who are coming for free medical care and free medication, but it's such a blessing to serve the people in the community. For the next three weeks we have a visiting doctor - Dr. Carl. He will be working alongside me in our medical clinic, and therefore, will allow us to see more people each week. Three other days during the week he will be working in the local public hospital. Please pray for us these next three weeks as we attempt to glorify God in all that we do.

Update

Had English class yesterday. Today we have Kids Club. Today we are also welcoming a short-term Doctor from The States. He will be with us for 3 weeks working in the public hospital, and with us out in Armenia Bonito. Tomorrow we say goodbye to our boss who has been with us this week. Thursday we welcome a young woman who is coming on a vision trip to see if La Ceiba is where she is going to come for 2 years. Thursday we have our all-day mobile medical clinic. Friday we have another "girls night". We have personally invited 10 girls whom we are going to take out for dinner, play games, have a craft, eat ice cream, tell a bible story, and basically just get to know a little better. All in all it's going to be a BUSY week (but I know - what's new about that?!) :-)

Roatan, etc.

We are on Roatan enjoying a few days away from the stress of La Ceiba. It's a time for team building and team planning. The Pettengill's have to leave tomorrow because it's back to school for Madison. The McCann's will be staying an extra night, and enjoying this grand house to themselves! Enjoy it you guys! WOOHOO!!!

We are continuing with our ministries in spite of the current political situation in Honduras. Right now things are pretty status-quo. Ex-president Zelaya is pretty quiet, but still holed up in the Brazilian embassy for now. The elections are still planned to go on in November - we shall things transpire between now and then.

Mike will be gone for most of the month of November in the States, and in Colombia for a Vision Retreat with our mission agency, Mission to the World, and a leaders conference in Colombia. Please pray for all of us during this time of separation. I will obviously need to stay in Honduras to continue with our ministry and keep Madison in school. Please pray for me as I'll be doing our English ministry by myself, and our health clinic will be held with just Sean McCann and myself. Going to be a little hectic, but we are committed to continuing our ministry work, and to the work Mike will be doing while he is gone.

October 1st

Today it's October 1st. Strange. That means it's Fall, my decorations are out. It means rain is coming to Honduras (has come some, but this has been a light year so far?! - At least it seems that way). We have a team retreat this weekend to finalize things with our boss who is coming today. I'm feeling very anxious and I'm not sure why. Almost like it feels like something is out there - waiting to be done - I have too much to do - long lines are bugging me - my house is a mess - I've lost tons of movies (we have a "free" check out of our movies - and 25 over the last year have come up missing...) - have medical clinic today (pray that I feel more at peace). I don't know. My husband thinks that my emotional well-being is closely mirrored to his. When he is calm, I am calm. When he starts to get anxious, so do I. Maybe that's it. He's swamped right now (pray for him!!!). We have SO MUCH planning and execution of things over the next year it feels a bit daunting. It could also be the political turmoil in Honduras. Always wonder - from day to day - what is going to happen. Things are SO FAR AWAY from being resolved, it is so hard to see the end. So maybe that's it. I don't know. Just pray :-)