This is my favorite time of the year. Autumn leaves, changing of the season, the first frost. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day. Celebrating the anniversary of my 29th birthday, and of course all of the wonderful foods. As the year begins to draw to a close another favorite part of this time of the year begins, the official sign-ups for the 2009 Honduras mission trip!
I always release the Torch application during thanksgiving break and the time has come. Along with the application comes lots of news about the trip. For additional information please feel free to contact me at reeves.tl@gmail.com . But, hopefully, this blog will cover most, if not all, of the information you might need.
After much thought and prayer, and consultation from some close friends and compadres, the information concerning the trip has been tweaked and adjusted and I am now ready to set some things in stone (not all things, this is of course, a trip to Honduras). So, get your pens and paper out, along with your daily planners, and get ready to request your time off because we are ready to roll.
This year’s trip dates will be Friday, June 26th – Monday, July 6th. The dates were adjusted to accommodate the flight schedule of Spirit airlines. Spirit Airlines flies in and out of San Pedro Sula on these dates. Since so many expressed an interest in saving money via the airfare, this is the route to take. However, seats will be limited and if you choose to fly Spirit, you MUST fly in and out on these dates for me to be able to provide transportation for you to Tegucigalpa. We will be chartering nice, luxury coaches this year (not the scat buses we used last year) to get us back and forth. You do still have the choice to fly directly into Tegucigalpa using American, Delta, Continental, or TACA. Regardless of airline choice, I will need your flight itineraries emailed to me so I will know when and where to pick you up.
The cost of the trip this year will be $595.00 per person (plus your airline ticket of course). The VAST majority of people that I talked to were in favor of modifying or even eliminating the retreat this year to save money and to increase the number of days that we can work. I applaud your decisions and reasoning for it. The fee will pay for the following: Lodging at the Mission House; 2 meals per day at the Mission House; bus rentals; bus drivers; supplemental travel insurance; Torch t-shirt; Torch journal; truck rentals; fuel; tool usage fee; Torch Administration fee; taxes and tips at the airports; exit fees; translator scholarships; special activities; Torch banquet; partial work fund contribution; and misc. expenses (parking, meals for the bus drivers, oil, coolant, minor bus repairs, etc). This will also pay for the bus ride for those who choose to fly Spirit Airlines.
Additional money is needed for the work fund. We are asking each person to contribute $100 to the work fund. If you want, you can add that to the cost of the trip (pay $695) or you can bring the money down separately. If you are heading up a group it would be much easier of you would bring your work fund money down with you (in cash of course) separately to help relieve the amount of money I will need to bring down with me.
Application, along with deposit ($250.00), is due March 31, 2009. However, spaces will be limited and I am expecting to have a full team this year so the sooner you send in your application / deposit the better. I plan on capping the team this year at 100. If this is your first trip with Torch Missions, remember that 2 letters of recommendation and an essay on why you want to participate on this trip are required. If you are a team leader, please make photocopies of all paperwork for your files and send me all originals. If you are applying as an individual, please send all paperwork directly to me. My address is 221 Oak Hill Drive, Lebanon, TN 37087.
There will be plenty of information to follow. Please feel free to contact me about anything as far as the trip is concerned. I am truly looking forward to working with all of you this year and I know that god is already at work to prepare the work for us to do when we arrive. Look forward to hearing from you!
Terry Reeves
President, Torch Missions Inc
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