Another Taxi Accident

Today we had to run to the store to buy powdered sugar. I need to make 70 cupcakes for Dia del Nino (Children's Day) which we are celebrating at church tomorrow. I didn't have enough powdered sugar to make the frosting. Because it is Honduras' Independence Day we couldn't get to the store we wanted. There were parades going down that street so it was closed to traffic. We ended up having to go to another store and thankfully they had what we needed.

On our way back home we saw yet another taxi in an wreck. Over 80% of all accidents in Honduras are caused by taxis. They are not the most considerate drivers in the world. You have to watch out for them, because they are not watching out for anyone else that is on the road. Today we saw a lot of police on the road and we were wondering what was going on. As we passed the area we saw what the problem was. The taxi driver hit a bus full of police officers. If there is one bus that you don't want to hit it is the police bus. Jason and I were laughing at the irony of it all.

Yesterday I took these pictures of the kids. They were being so good while I wrapped 38 pairs of shoes for the Dia del Nino party. A church in Nevada gave us money to buy shoes for kids. We decided to buy one pair for each faithful child that we have in Sunday School. We copied their feet on a piece of paper and told them it was a craft that we were going to be doing at the Sunday school party. We took these feet and used it to find the right size of shoe for them. They are then going to decorate these traced feet at the party. They know nothing about the shoes. Most of these kids are very poor that they don't even have shoes to wear to church. It was so much fun shopping for these shoes. We were able to get a great deal at a store called Palacio de Ninos (Kids Palace). They gave us an additional 15% off all the shoes that were already on sale. We were able to get all 38 pairs of shoes for the money that was donated.

The picture of Jordan is with the bunk bed he made from his Lincoln Logs. Joey is with out new kitty, Mittens, and Audrey is with Snuggles on the bed that she made for him.

Phone Book

The coolest thing happened to us today. We had to go get some passport pictures taken for some new medical cards we were getting and so we went to the mall. While we were there waiting for out pictures to get developed, we went walking around the mall. Of course Audrey and I found several things we needed, but we didn't get them as it turns out new hair accessories are not a need. I could have sworn they were, but this time we resisted the great temptation.

Anyway, while we were walking back to the photo studio we saw a sign that said, "Directorio, Gratis" which means free phone book. In all the years that we have been here we have never had a phone directory. We were so excited today to get our very first phone book. Now we can find things when we need them. At least that is the hope.

Hooray for progress.

Thoughts of a week

As I think back over the past few days while busily cutting out fish for tomorrow's lessons. I begin to wonder if my life will ever be normal again. It is not that anything major has happened, it is just as if the theme of this term on the mission field is to be, Expect the Unexpected. Thankfully these unexpected occurrences have been mostly good. This week, however, seems to be one curve ball after another.

Sunday afternoon while I was taking people home from church, Jason took some of the men to a Homiletics class being taught in Bro. Alan Jackson's church. Bro. Marcos Melindez was going to teach it in our church, but since Bro. Alan had some people that he wanted to hear it they moved the class to his church. While on the way to Bro. Alan's church the men stopped on the side of the road for some food. Unfortunately Jason ate some of it. What he ate was Papusas (an very good and safe to eat El Salvadorian food) and Repollo (shredded cabbage). Needless to say, the cabbage was not washed in bleach water. Jason has spend the past three days with Amoebas (if you have ever had it you will know what that means). Thankfully today he got some medicine. Hopefully tomorrow he will be feeling better.

Monday, we had Edwin over to fix our fridge. Thankfully all went well, except for the mess I had to clean up afterward. The repair job seems to have worked as the fridge has not frozen over yet.

Tuesday, Jordan decided that it would be fun to shut his finger in one of his drawers. By the time I got to him he had blood everywhere. Thankfully it was just a slight cut. To bad, though, that it had to bleed like he had cut his finger off. He tried to get out of doing his homework because of it, but he finally got it done.

Tonight, Joey was playing and dropped a drawer on his toe. It was pretty bloody and painful for him. I couldn't get the bleeding to stop so I just wrapped it in gauze and taped it up. It looked like the toenail was almost completely off. Thankfully after we got the bleeding stopped and I re wrapped his toe, we saw that the toenail is still intact. It is pulled away from the skin on only one side of his toe. We re wrapped it with gauze and tape and he is able to walk on it slightly. He was so funny when I was cleaning it the second time. He told me to clean his toenail as it was dirty (it is all bruised underneath). I assured him that it was not dirty, but I rinsed it with warm water anyway. After he had the gauze on it he let us know that he needed a band aid. So he now has a big toe wrapped in gauze and taped with a band aid around it. It is amazing how band aids make a kid feel better.

So much has been happening that it has been impossible to tell everything. We had a church donate money for shoes for all of the kids in our church. We told the kids that we needed to trace their feet for a craft we were going to be doing on Children's Day (Dia del Nino). We then took these traced feet and bought 38 pairs of shoes this past week (one for every faithful Sunday School kid). We found a store that gave us a great deal, but buying that many shoes is a lot of work. Now I have to wrap them for Sunday which is when we will celebrate Dia Del Nino. The actual holiday was on September 10th.

Please pray for our Dia Del Nino party that the kids will be well behaved, thankful, and learn something.

water, water, and more water

The hurricane was nothing compared to the rain we received yesterday. The day started out warm and sunny. About 2:00pm it started raining. This is nothing unusual for rainy season, but this time it just didn't stop. We had thunder, lightening, and fierce rain. In the center of town where the central Market is, it flooded quite badly. Several of the people from our church were there and told us that the streets where rivers. People were literally swimming for their lives. Four people lost their lives in the floods. One pregnant woman was trying to save her store and was carried away. It was pretty bad. Most of these "stores" are just tables with a tarp overhead for protection. Because the President closed everything up for the day of the hurricane and day after most of these people were just getting back to work after two days of lost revenues. To have a flooding rain on that day made everything worse.

One couple, Xiomara and Rueben, couldn't make it to church as they couldn't get a bus out of town in time. Praise the Lord they were not hurt in any way.


When we got to church we had a surprise waiting for us. In Ojojona water only comes twice a week. Thursday morning was one of those times. After church on Sunday someone opened the faucet that we use to get water when it is available. The faucet runs in to a 50 gallon drum. That drum was full and there was about 6 inches of standing water on the floor. We had to take brooms, mops, dustpans, and anything else we could find and clean the water out before we could have a service. What a mess. I think I have seen enough water for a lifetime in the past 24 hours

Felix

Well, Hurricane Felix surprised all of us. We were concerned and many people who remember Mitch were panicky. The President issued a red alert yesterday at 1:00 pm, which means that all business are to close and their workers are to go home. The gas station by our house had lines of people waiting for gas that stretched onto the street.

So we all buckled down and waited for the worst. Nothing happened. We got a little rain, but it rained less yesterday than on a normal day in rainy season. Praise the Lord Felix managed to sweep around the hills of Tegucigalpa and we received little wind and rain. There was a lot of rain in Ojojona, but as most of the houses are built up higher there were no problems.

Thank the Lord for all the prayers issued on our behalf. He answered them and everything went fine.

The Hurricane is Coming

If you have been watching the news you know that Hurricane Felix has made landfall and in the process changed it's course. It was planned to really affect the North Coast of Honduras and so all night last night they were landing planes at the airport to evacuate people of the norther reagion. The only problem with that is, the hurricane turned and now is making a direct shot at Tegucigalpa. We are starting to feel the winds of the outer bands and it has made us nervous. Rosa lives in a dangerous area for landslides so we have offered to let her and her family stay with us for a day or so until the rains and wind subside. We don't know if she will take us up on our offer as she has to talk to her husband first, but we hope she will that way we won't worry about her.

There is no gas anywhere in Tegucigalpa. Thankfully we filled one of our trucks yesterday. The big green monster is over half full so that should be good for a while. We have cancelled all services until the worst is over.

Please pray for us that we would have safety. The Hurricane may still turn, but it is unlikely. You can keep track of Hurricane Felix by going to www.weather.com. The Hurricane is the main story. The eye is expected to pass sometime early tomorrow morning.

If we have electricity tomorrow I will update my blog so you will know how we are doing.

Also pray for Joey. He is sick with vomiting. Just what we needed at this time. :-)

Reading for the storm

If you have been watching Hurricane Felix (category 5)you know it is supposed to hit Honduras sometime tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. While it looks as if we will be spared a direct hit in Tegucigalpa, we could get a lot of wind and rain. Which means land slides and power outages. Today we are getting ready for the storm. We are gassing up the trucks and the generator. We haven't used the generator since we have been back so it may need some work done. We have plenty of food and water stored up so we should be fine.

We are praying that we have made all of these preparations for naught, but you can never be to safe.

Please pray with us that there would not be a lot of destruction with this hurricane.