Merry Christmas, Feliz Navidad everyone! And a very happy and blessed new year!!
This update will be a little different, I'm not positive how it will end up, I trust God will guide me to something interesting to say to you all!
The team in Honduras has this week off, so nothing new on the construction front. Here in Ohio, we're getting ready to return to Honduras
in January. We're meeting with donors and prospective donors. We're meeting with Bill and Rona the founders of one of the children's homes in
San Pedro Sula this Friday. Talking to a couple people about leading some teams to Honduras with us. A busy week!
Today is Saturday, I'm looking out the window at the mostly cloudy, cold and windy day! Reflecting on the past year... so very many things have
happened and changed in our lives! We marched headlong into this project that God has given us, Isaiah 6:8 "Then I heard the Lord asking, "Whom shall I send as a messenger to my people? Who will go? And I said, "Lord, I'll go! Send me!", telling ourselves we had an idea of how
we wanted things to end up but not knowing if they would end that way or a different way. Proverbs 16:1 "in his heart a man plans his course,
but the Lord determines his steps"... how very true that is! Off we went and spent 23 weeks in Honduras! In 2024 we have scheduled 38 weeks in Honduras and that could become more if we obtain residency which will allow us to stay longer. Currently with our passports and traveling as tourists, we're only allowed to be in Honduras for 90 days at a time before fines kick in. This year we were able to purchase a property in Honduras to make our home base and to call home. There were two lots, one was undeveloped. We enclosed that lot and started constructing a two story building we can use for a number of different things. From dormitories to work areas to classrooms, it will become a multipurpose building for us. This construction also allowed us to hire our first employees, the training started! God started this mission with the idea that He wanted us to show His love to the less fortunate by giving them jobs, training them to know more about construction and for them to realize that everything that is good comes from God! James 1: 17 "Everything good comes from God....". Our 501C-3 nonprofit is educational. We're learning that our focus may be construction, but there are so very many other jobs that we can help the locals with to provide employment! For example, Tammy and some of the ladies are making jewelry and selling it, all of the proceeds are going to help start a school! As a result, the employment allows the family to stay together. One of the problems facing third world countries is the mass exodus of the men to more industrialized countries like USA. They want to better themselves, better their families... but the world grabs ahold of them...they end up thousands of miles from home (if they make it), get lonely, and sometimes find another girl, start another family and leave mom and children back home to fend for themselves! Sometimes they take a child with them to pay for their crossing of the border, since the cartels control the crossing, they want to get paid, so if the men don't have the money, they pay with a child, child trafficking is a horrible, horrible sin that is running amuck in our world and growing like crazy in the USA! Pray that would end! We currently have 6 people working with us. What a blessing! Thank you Lord!
Our plans this coming year are to continue to grow and add employees, in order to do that we need paying jobs so please pray for that! We need our affiliation to be approved so we can look for the bigger and better jobs and to save money from the taxes, please pray for that! We want mission teams to come visit, to fall in love with the country and the people, to become invested in what we are doing... to obtain Paul's attitude that if it's not worth doing for Jesus then it's not worth doing! Luke wrote in Acts 20:24 "But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus..."! The affluence of the industrialized world has watered down the desire to "love one another", we're more into me, me, me! If it's from the world, it's not from God! Tammy and I are both givers, it's very difficult for us to ask for things. This mission needs donations to function and to grow. Whether it's for tools and equipment, vehicles to travel to the jobsites, a bus to transport the teams or bring the
kids to the bilingual schools they need to educate the children to give them a better chance at a better job, or wherever we are led by our amazing God! Pray for that!
We also were blessed to meet several other missionaries, have developed friendships with them. We've met several people who may want us to
help them with some of their construction needs in the coming year. Associations that are looking for builders because there is a shortage of
skilled construction labor. God is going before us in so very many different directions! God is so very good!! All the time!! Praise Him!
Tammy and I pray that you had a blessed year and that next year will be blessed as well! A quote that I've used before, from a movie (let me know
if you can name the movie)... "may the best of your past be the worst of your future!" God bless you all! Dios los bendiga a todos!
P.S. the pictures in the power point are a sampling from throughout the year, I hope you enjoy them and some of the progress that we've made!
P.S. no photos here at this time. :(Sorry. If you are interested in seeing more sign up for our email update at HIShandsconstruction@yahoo.com.
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