Cottage #2 is Finished!

During January 20-26^th a group from the Rotary Club in Champaign, IL visited the Home. The group of nine was led by Debbie Heirschi. The group painted the outside and inside of the new cottage and finished any detail work remaining to be done. They also bought 10 beds and 10 dressers for the new cottage. Both the cottage and the multi-purpose building were dedicated during that week. Praise the Lord for the new buildings!

Work, Work, Work

From January 12-19 two groups - one from Fillmore, MN and the other from Clarks Grove, MN - visited the Home. The first group of 11 came from the Free Methodist Church in Fillmore, MN. The second group of six was from First Baptist Church at Clark Grove, MN. The leader of the Fillmore group was Dave O’Byrne and leading the Clarks Grove group was Jeff Schei.

The groups worked on painting the outside and inside of the multi-purpose building, as well as installing vents and windows. They also wired the new cottage, poured the sidewalk and worked on the sewer system.

Both adults and children immensely enjoyed working on the soccer field. Gareth Smith led this project. The soccer field got new soccer posts and the lines were painted. It looks completely different! They also worked on a new entrance to the property near the multi-purpose building.

In addition to all the construction work they had activities with the children. One of the fun activities was called “American and Honduran Idol.” Every night Monday through Thursday the children and adults would take turns on the “stage” and sing. After each song the children received a stuffed animal (donated by Family Christian Store in Ankeny, IA).

Honduras Fall 2007

From Nov. 1-8 a team of eight people visited the Children's Home. The team held bible school classes Nov. 2-5 in the afternoons and visited elementary schools Nov. 5-7 during the morning.

Over 100 children attended the last day of bible school!

Hurricane Felix update

We were worried that hurricane Felix would shake Honduras like hurricane Mitch did in 1998. The only thing Honduras experienced was some heavy rain. Although some areas of the country were affected by heavy flooding there wasn't nearly as much devastation as we feared. The Children's Home just experienced rain and no damage occurred as a result of the storm.

We are extremely thankful that God protected not only the Children's Home but the country as a whole.

A Reflection by Jenn

Hello, my name is Jenn Ehlman and this was my second time going to Azacualpa, Honduras. I went down to the children’s home with 11 youth from my youth group and 3 leaders. While we were down there, we did lots of work, went to churches, schools and a feeding program, had a bible study lesson with the kids at the home and played with the kids. I had a great time!

The first three days we painted two houses for about three hours each day. The last two days of work, we poured dirt into another house and tried to level the floors. Even though the work was hard and the sun was very hot, our group had fun working as a team. When we went to schools and churches, we sang some Christian songs in Spanish, we performed up to five different skits, and we each gave our testimony during the week. At the feeding program, we helped serve the 60 kids at the feeding program a meal, which consisted of very little. It made me very thankful of how blessed I am at home to have so much good food to eat. After the meal we sang songs with them and performed skits. The skits taught the kids lessons about life and did it in a fun way.

In the afternoons, we did a bible study lesson with the kids at the Children’s home. Two of our youth would give the lesson each day. After each lesson we would help the kids with a craft that related to the lesson. It was really fun trying to use my four years of Spanish to try and talk with the kids. I was very happy to find out that they understood what I was trying to say and I understood almost everything they were saying! I also found out that we could communicate with the kids in many more ways than talking; such as smiling, using sign language, laughing, and playing hand clap games. I had tons of fun washing my clothes, playing with their parrot, swinging with the kids, and playing soccer! Every afternoon we played soccer, one time we even played in the pouring rain! The kids in Honduras are amazing at soccer! I loved watching them play. The kids really showed me that it does not take many things at all to be happy. We can only truly be happy through God.

The last day we went shopping in San Pedro Sula and then to a waterfall in a different town. The waterfall was amazing! We got to go in a cave under the waterfall and then we got to jump off two cliffs into the waterfall! Because of the mist and water pouring down on to us constantly, it was very hard to see. We had to trust our guide to lead us to the safe and amazing places in the waterfall. During the whole trip, I trusted God, our ultimate Guide, to lead me on an amazing journey.

Construction Team #2

Following the Ankeny team, a youth group from Champaign, IL stayed at the Home. They finished painting the buildings the first group started. The group also visited a couple of schools and churches where they performed skits and gave their testimonies.

Construction Team

Prairie Ridge Church from Ankeny, IA took a team of 12 to Honduras July 14-21. They worked on painting two buildings, dug a trench for water pipe and pulled the weeds out of the playground area. The team also visited two churches and helped out at a local feeding program.