The Good, The bad, and the Ugly.

When the men from First Colony church of Christ arrived last Friday I don’t think that they fully understood the task that lay before them. What they did know is that a nearly finished new home built by Berry’s Chapel stood next to their barren concrete slab surrounded by piles of lumber. Perhaps their faithful group leader, Eric Billingsley thought to himself, what have I gotten into? You’d never have known. The group also faced another challenge, befriend and be able to work with the three outsiders, Mac “soft spoken” Hughes, David “ FSuper Duty” Ford, and Gabe “Smile Bigger than my Head” Bales.

Satan was looking for a fight, day one; the group was without electricity, TC, Texas Cameron, Mission Lazarus project coordinator, came to the rescue with a large 25,000 watt generator. By 2 PM the generator was toast and the group was back to swinging hammers and hand saws as opposed to the powerful nail guns and chop saws. What Satan did not know was that this group had drive! They did not let up and by late afternoon the electricity was back on and all 4 walls of the house were up, all of the windows had been hung, and all of the tar paper wrap was in place.
The group also took time for a side project, the construction of a mud brick home in the community of Namasigue. This home is for a sister of the church, built on the site of her previous home that fell down during last year’s rainy season. The weather in Namasigue is much different than in San Marcos. Temperatures hovering around 100 degrees made the process of lift and placing the 25 pound mud bricks very tiring. Fortunately the piles of mud used to hold the bricks in place cooled your hands a bit while wearing off the outer layers of skin.
On Sunday the group quit work early for a trip back to Namasigue to worship with the locals in the evening. The old adobe house turned church building was packed. The service was great and so was the singing. The kids loved the candy that was brought to them by the Americans and after worship large quantities of flip flops and clothes were distributed to the local Christians.
On Wednesday a group of 5 spies went out to see the outlying jungle areas where Mission Lazarus works. They took time to visit with local Christians just barely surviving of what they can produce in the jungle. The trip also took them to a small island off of the pacific coast where they saw folks are “surviving” but without a million bucks at stake, rather their lives.
By the end of the week the men were tired. By the end of the week God’s love had been preached in many places around southern Honduras. By the end of the week the house was nearly completed, all exterior walls finished, all rafters and joists in place, and the roof was done. By the end of the week 30 had grown closer together. By the end of the week new friendships had been made. By the end of the week God’s name had been glorified. And by the end of the week one more home is nearly ready to serve 10 orphaned, neglected, or abused children from the southern region of Honduras.
Thanks guys for a great week of hard work. Thanks Eric for taking on this huge task, and thanks to all of you guys who sacrificed, time, money, and comforts to serve the children of Honduras.
Jarrod