Estamos en Tela; We are in Tela

Ok time for an update. Well, we find ourselves in Tela this week. It's a beautiful city on the northern coast. So it has beautiful beaches and is growing in it's tourist popularity. The flip side of this city, is that it is also extremely poor (I'm sure you're surprised given that 70% of the country lives in poverty). We're staying in the Hotel Venecia which is part of a Texaco... Yes you read that right. We like it because they have AC units in the rooms!!

We will be working on seven houses and a church while here. Mark knows a pastor here named Luis who told him about their daughter church out in Arizona. Arizona is a smaller town farther into the country. The church out there has not had a pastor in ten years and it is no coincidence that about a month ago a young couple heard the call. Their names are Mario and Lesli. It is a very poor area, so, coming in the name of Jesus, we will be helping however we can in Arizona. We are hoping that by our helping members of the community, more can come to know Jesus Christ. Another possible project is to buy the land next to the church and build two homes to be rented to help the church's income (any percentage of nothing is still nothing). Part of Mark's desire is helping young pastors. He understands that most churches are seriously lacking income, so he helps find ways that the church can stay afloat by renting a property, selling bricks, etc.

To help us with the work a team has flown in for this week. There are four men from Houston's Second Baptist (Matt, Ken, J.Pad, and Curt), of whom a few are former Aggies, and one was Mark's roommate in college (that's their connection to this mission). The fifth man is one of the other's father, and is the associate pastor at a church in Phoenix, AZ. The last two members of the team is the music pastor and his wife (Aaron and Liz) of a church in Dallas. This is the first mission trip for most of these people, and they're hoping it will spur on many others to come. For the pastors on the trip, they're using this as a test to continue missions through Mark with their churches.

So we arrived here Friday evening and of course Saturday we headed to the beach! The team flew in Saturday night. Sunday we went to Luis' church here in Tela, and we were planning on going to the beach afterwards, but a curfew was in effect starting at 2pm and ending that day due to the political unrest. So early Monday morning we headed off to work. In the morning we women are doing a Vacation Bible School and then whatever work we can find helping the guys. The guys, like I said, are working on about seven houses. They'll be pouring concrete floors in all and building walls for a few. Yesterday they finished two and today they'll finish two more. After lunch I've been going back to the hotel with Michelle and the kids so I can work on the design for the roof (remember Didasko, the orphanage?). I will say that this is by far some of the hardest work we've had to do. It's been in the 90s and we're working mostly in the sun... Please pray that God gives us, especially the men, strength for this week.

On a side note, Honduras has instated an interim president, Roberto Micheletti. The former president Zelaya has vowed to return on Thursday with the support of the OAS leader, Insulza as well as Venezuela's communist leader Chavez. Most American nations are supporting Zelaya and saying the coup was not legal. Although it may be true that it was not the democratic way, removing Zelaya is important to this country's future. If Zelaya remains in power he will try to become it's dictator. But anyway, we've had no trouble here, and it seems like the news is making it sound worse than it is. However, be praying that any road blockades are removed by the time we fly out, or we might miss our flights.

Well I think that gets us all caught up here. If you haven't heard yet, Matt (our Matt) returned home on Saturday to be with his family for a while. His father was recently diagnosed with colon cancer and has an operation tomorrow (7/1). Please be in prayer for his family through this time, and especially for his dad, Richard.

I'm missing you guys a lot, so leave comments for me!! Love you all!!

Allie