Poop Mud...oh, yeah!

Monday, July 4th
Happy Independence Day!!! We miss you all on this festive occasion. As you celebrate, remember that your fellow Americans have gained a greater appreciation for our country.

Breakfast was basically toast (and the fixin’s), bananas, and cereal. The crowd is definitely dwindling. Part of this is because today a team of 24 left at 6:30 am to drive to Choluteca. They will be staying there at a hotel and will return Wednesday night. I will post details of their trip upon their return.

Now, I love Mark Herrera more than I can say…but today, he owes a lot of people a big favor. His talk for devotional contained what he referred to as “poop mud”. If you are not sure what this means, yes, it means what you think it means. He told about a trip from a month ago when Honduras was suffering greatly from an excess of rain. This trip consisted of one and a half weeks of shoveling “poop mud” away from the back wall of the church at San Miguel. Psalm 40 contained his scripture for edification. We don’t physically deal with mud in the States, but there are different types of dirt that could hinder us.

A group of five went to the Bodega from 10:00 – 2:00 to sort vitamins and medicine to be distributed Wednesday at our medical clinic. Then this group joined the VBS team at the Valley of Angels. A group also stayed on campus to sort food for distribution (flour, rice, spaghetti, bouillon cubes, beans, etc.).

The VBS at the Valley of Angels had to be tweaked, but ended up going well. Originally, we had set a time of 11:00 am. However, at that time, only ten kids came because the others were in school. The kids began leaving school shortly before 1:00 pm. So, the team did a repeat of the 11:00 show for the 100 (approx.) students who came to the plaza area. Bible study with Mike Hollis of South Carolina and AB translating was held twice with a small group study time afterward. Several boxes of New Testament Bibles were given out to the adults. Bubbles, jump rope, coloring books, nail polish, soccer, story reading, “Duck, Duck, Goose”, water bottles decorated with stickers containing Bible verses, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (which were made while riding on the bus) all kept the day filled.

Now, for the poop mud. Yes, POOP MUD! Another group went to the Valley of Angels with intent to split into two teams and build two houses. Welcome to Honduras! Neither team built all day. The bus stopped at the piece of property purchased by Central Church of Christ in Sarasota, Florida. We oohed and awed over the amount of work already done—everything looks great! One group left with a truck to head to their site; they had trouble finding it and then realized the wood had not been delivered. So, they spent a good bit of time riding around finding the wood and trying to get it delivered (they broke another truck in the process). While this was going on, the other group left at the church decided to help the Honduran workers there with anything needed. We climbed out of the bus to be assigned the roles of digging a trench as well as a footer for a sidewalk. And may I add that it was the world’s largest footer—almost two feet deep and one foot wide. We were all in poop mud up to our thighs—don’t believe me, check the pictures on the blogspot. As I was saying, we were simply killing some time working/playing in the poop mud until around eleven o’clock when we found out that the wood truck would not be delivering our wood. So, we scrapped the idea of the house and went back to work. Around 1:00 pm the other group arrived to help finish up at the church. The day was a success in that we completed the demanding and dirty jobs of the day. [But Mark Herrera owes us for his jinx.]

Troy with the Palmetto group gave our devotional talk tonight. He talked about the patriotic implications of today and how they related to the work in Honduras. In America, we have become so independent that we do not reach out for help from fellow Christians and God as much as we should. We will remember this Fourth of July more than any other, because today we are celebrating our “dependence upon God.”

“Where did you see Jesus, today?”
* In the faces of all the workers at the church shoveling poop mud—true hearts of servants.
* Mark Herrera and AB (two translators) holding kids while jumping rope at the VBS.
* In TORCH as a whole, because so many people respond positively to this group. The mayor in town was very appreciative of all the work we were doing and stated that the Valley of Angels was “at your services.”
* In Justin Ward, who spent an unbelievable amount of time playing and running with the kids at the VBS.
* In Amanda, who tried her best to communicate with a group of kids that stayed with her at the VBS. She was a “total goofball”, and they loved it.

Tenga un buen dia (Have a good day),
JMA