It's Not about me, It's about God!

June 30, 2008

Hello to everyone!!!! I hope that you all are doing well, and that you are not missing us too much. I just want to say that it is so great to be back in Honduras after a year and a half. For those who do not know me, my name is Brandy Barnett and I will be keeping all of you updated on the Lord’s work here in Honduras.

Today is Monday June 30. It started out wonderfully! Breakfast at 7 am; we had cereal, toast with peanut butter, butter, or jelly, and fruit. At 8 am we went down to the look out to have morning devotional, led by Travis Shivers. He spoke about the importance of praying to God for the trip. He had some of the men pray on specific things about the work. Travis did a wonderful job emphasizing the importance of prayer. After devo, we split into our groups. A group of 10 went to do construction, 25 went to work at the warehouse, 14 went to the landfill, and the rest went to Mololoa. This year I have decided to the blog a little different. For today I will tell what my group did, but after that I will be letting others tell about there day.

Mololoa
Today the group, through the strength given to us by God, delivered about 250 bags of food to those that were in much need. I really do not know how to begin to explain the joy I feel to see the faces of those who receive a bag, but in that joy is also sadness. The food will only last those people for about two weeks, maybe longer. I am joyful knowing that they will be feed for about two weeks, but heartbroken not knowing if they will find enough to keep them from starving. It is such an unbelievable experience, something that is hard to explain. Pictures and words do not give this place justice.
While food was being delivered about 10 people stayed at the bottom helping with the Manna Project. For those who do not know about the Manna Project it is a feeding center that feeds about 200 hundred children five days a week. It was started by Jennifer Arnold (who is now married and for the life of me I can not remember her last name) and Melissa Kluge. The people that stayed there helped hand out the trays of hot food to the children and played with them. They showed them love that they so often miss out on. The love of Christ! It was only through Him that we were able to do what we did today. Thank you Lord for giving us the strength we needed.

After we left there we went to the Special Needs Orphanage. We were able to spend about an hour with the children there. There are 21 children. We learned that out of the 21 only 4 receive visits from there parents. For anyone that has had to privilege to spend time with a special needs child they know how heartbreaking it is to see that child suffer. In Honduras it is no different, however these children do not receive the type medical care that is needed so it appears to be a worse than back home. Even though a lot of the children can not physically show us there joy, I know that they were extremely happy to have us there.
When we left there we headed back to the Mission House for dinner, devo, and bed, oh and some of us showered too!!

The Warehouse
One of the groups today went to the warehouse. Our job, was to take the cracked stucco off the front and side of the building so that new stucco could be put on. Our tools?, Hammers and imagination. The task was expected to be physically undemanding but proved to be quite difficult. In some places, it came off easily and we shattered or pried it off. While these actions sent large amounts of dust and debris on our clothes it was bearable. The difficult parts were the stucco on the concrete. In these areas we could only chip away at the edges, and break off tiny piece by tiny piece. For these places we broke out the sledge hammers too. Eventually, after several hours of dust, sweat, and frequent water breaks, we left with about three quarters of our job done.
Laura Collins (Memphis, TN)

Construction (Nueva Oriental)
Today we had the opportunity to build a new home for a family. The community that they live in is called Nueva Oriental. Upon arriving we discovered there was a "house" standing where we were to build a new one. Some of the walls were made of cardboard, there were multiple holes in the tin roof and the floor was packed dirt. It was built from the leftovers from another house in the village.They needed a new house Our team shifted gears and began to help the family move out of their current dwelling, so we could tear it down and build a new wood house with a wood floor. The site was filled with "boulders" that sat just below the surface, after moving the corner posts a few times we were able to move forward and begin building the new house. Everyone, including quite a few of the local boys, had a hand in the construction. Some of the girls learned how to operate a chainsaw and some of the guys spent some time playig with the local kids. After we finished (in just under 4 hours - WOW), we all met inside the new house with the new family, prayed with them, and gave them a housewarming gift prepared by one of the full time missionaries here. We had some time after we finished while we waited for some transportation and got to run around with the kids and have some fun. No one got hurt and a family doesn't have to worry when it rains tonite!! Their babies will be on a dry floor with a solid roof over their heads.
-Ben Cooper (Sarasota, FL)

The Landfill
This morning my group of 16 people went, first, to the warehouse to make honey sandwiches and food bags with cookies, and chips. After we made the food bags we loaded the bus with the bags and headed towards the dump. On the way there we picked up 200 bags of water and 2 five gallon jugs of watter. Once we had all the water loaded we headed to the dump. When we entered the dump there is a sign that says “No Children or pregnant Women.” at the entrance. As we drove into the dump, the stench became worse and worse and the amount of buzzards increased as we drove futher in. There were houses made of card board boxes along the side of the road. Once we were in the main part of the dump we saw hundreds of men, women, children, dogs, and buzzards all scourging through the same trash to find food. The colony of people who live there all have specific jobs; whether it’s to collect plastic, paper, metal, or cardboard. When we parked the bus, we got off and lined up buckets with water and soap and let them wash their hands. Then they lined up behind the bus and we passed out our food bags and water. After we were out a man asked Brett Mitchell if there was anymore and Brett said no and them man said “it’s ok, you’ll be back again, and we will still be here.” The people in the dump were so content with what they had, they seemed happy no matter what. After running out of food, we played soccer with a basketball and talked to the people for about 30 minutes, then we made the journey out of the landfill.
-Tyler Steffy (Pennsylvania)

When everyone returned to the mountain we had dinner. Tonight we had salad, rice, and shreaded roast beef with tortillas. It was really yummy!! After dinner, at about 8pm we went to the chapel for devotional. (By the way, if you would like there is a link that you can click on the watch the devotionals live) Tonight Taft Ayers from Memphis spoke. He first told a story about Jack. Jack, when he had just become a Christian, went door knocking and had a “bad experience. After Taft had talked with him and apologized for what had happened Jack said it’s ok I signed up for this. Taft’s lesson was something everyone should hear. Because like Jack said when you become a Christian you signed up for what ever happens. If we can all learn to walk with God and to accept what he gives us we will all be taken care of. I will be using this quote again so readers be ready!

After devo we spent some time together and had where did you see Jesus. Jesus was seen in many places today. He was seen in us all treating the locals as one of us. So many times people let skin color, ethnicity, culture, etc. get in the way of what truly is important. I think it is a great thing when we can come here and treat everyone equally which carries over back home. Jesus was seen in Jenny Lovell and the Special Needs Orphanage today. Jenny went right in sat down with some children and played with them the entire time we were there. For anyone that does not know Jenny Lovell she is one of the most incredible women I have ever met. I see Christ in her every time I speak with her. Lastly Jesus was seen in the people at the dump. For those who had the privilege to go I’m sure they were truly blessed. Seeing a sight such as the dump has to be extremely heartbreaking. We always take what we have for granted, but the people that the group spent time with today does not and they were content.

We can learn a lot from the people in Honduras. The groups today experienced joy, and sadness all at one time. It is a roller coaster of emotions here, but it is emotions we need to experience. God blesses us so much and I think it is time we all realize, “It’s not about me, It’s about God.”

Thank you all for your prayers. I will try to have different quotes from our trip as titles of the blog. Please continue to pray for the people here and God’s work. Thank you all again we miss you and love you.

Brandy B