Trip Statistics

8 days

9 Mission trip participants

3348 miles in the air

2 items confiscated by airport security :)

156 miles in the bus

7 miles walking to the caves and back

8 cold showers per person :)

~700 tortillas made and eaten

3500+ pictures and videos taken

24 children living at the Foundation

52 songs sung (as a group. many more unofficially)

26 Arch books in Spanish read over and over and over and...

lots of games played

215 meals served to the community on Thanksgiving Day (Pasta, ham, potato salad, peas, bread and cake)

1 new clean drinking water system for the Foundation

7 new portable clean drinking water system for the community

8 bunches of bananas cut (~500 bananas)

several hundred tangerines picked

8 hospital gifts delivered

4 bathroom leaks fixed

2 faucets installed

3 computers fixed

200 feet of wire run

~800 pairs of shoes given away

2 Worship services with the community

4 children and 1 adult confirmed

29 children baptized

1 Great Week of Blessings from our Triune God

On our way home..

We are in the air somewhere above the Atlantic right now on our way home. As usual, the Lord has reminded us of His love in many places and many ways. The Children of Love Foundation continues to take care of children who otherwise would not be receiving daily meals, education or love.

Six months ago, someone called the foundation to ask if they could take 4 children. This is usually too many to come at one time. One child, in particular, though struck at the heart. A little girl, just over two and a half years old, was just 13 pounds. The question continues as to how this can happen in a civilized society. Six months later, this little girl is healthy, gaining weight, happy and full of smiles. It is with extreme thanks to the Lord that you listen to this now three year old, lead 24 other children in prayer.

It is also with thanks, that we watched as two brothers and their older sister get baptized. These three children never knew their father and their mother has passed away. No extended family could take care of them. These three now know what a family can be like and have learned about Jesus. They are studying Luther's Small Catechism and memorizing Bible verses.

What an example these children set as they pray at meal time and bedtime. They join together to pray for each other, for their helpers and for us! They pray each day for those who support the foundation through money and prayer. They pray each day for the guidance of a loving Heavenly Father. They thank Him for the salvation they know that Jesus Christ has provided them.

Honduran society is not the United States. The government struggles with how to move people up a ladder that doesn't yet exist. They cannot afford to educate everyone. They cannot afford to bring companies in to their country. They cannot afford to provide everyone with clean drinking water. The people in turn see little for their futures other than getting food for today and some shelter.

Who would have thought there would be excitement over getting a drink from the faucet? In a place where everyone must buy water because the wells and city water are not safe, the new water purifier at the foundation is a true blessing. A new drinking fountain where the children can drink anytime they want is amazing! Now to work providing this resource to other homes in the community. Christ Lutheran in Perry, GA began with providing the system to seven homes!

So where do you start? The only answer that I can come up with is to start with the Word. These people need to know the God who loves them. They need to understand that they can live in joy even in the midst of their circumstances. They need to know that the Lord will provide for them as they care for each other.

Please pray for them. Look at the pictures of these children. Come back to this blog as we continue to share information about the needs of these children and the country of La Paz. Watch for details about how to provide drinking water systems. Bible books for the children. Educational supplies. Funding for staff. Scholarships for mission trips. Funds to buy land and build a worship facility. All these things to share God's love and to share the Gospel. Watch here.

Friday Evening Celebration

Today, we were overwhelmed with love from the children, and Blessings from our Father above. We traveled up, way up, in the mountains to the coffee and banana farm and God blessed us with a huge truck load of fresh cut bananas from the trees and filled 3 bags of tangelos - about 200 to 300 and about 300 bananas. Then we went to the local hospital to give out gift bags to the women that were about to give birth. Mama Doris then prepared a very special dinner for our final meal at night in the restaurant, and it was awesome, especially the dessert. It was like little pineapple and coconut frozen cream with cinnamon, or a pina colada flavor.

Then the children put on a final show to say goodbye in the chapel just for the St. Luke's helpers and staff here at the foundation. We pray that God keeps blessing this foundation of love, and help keep their little feet on His path to Glory, and the peace that passes all of our understanding. We all thank all who helped back at St. Luke's and Christ Lutheran churches. We will see you Sunday.

God Bless, Jeremy

Abuelita's bloggin' tonight!

Hola to our family at St. Lukes in Oviedo!

Today most of the mission team was up before the sun to start cooking. Paula did a fantastic job organizing food for 218 guests, plus our team, the children and workers at the orphanage.

 Jake, Mallory and Matt were asked by the children to be Godparents for the first time. All the rest of us were asked to become sponsors.

Pastor John Lehenbauer did the whole service in Spanish, and overwhelmed us all. You must see the service via video!

 If I were to relate all of the awesome things that happened here today, I'd keep you up all night. So I'll sign off, hoping the Lord has blessed you like he has for us this day.

 Your sister in Christ,
 Audrey Roglitz

Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids were up at 5 a.m. today cleaning up for today. The place should be spotless as we prepare for our service at 2 p.m. this afternoon. Please pray for all those who will be baptized (about 20 planned) and Kensy who will be confirmed. After the service we will have a dinner for all those who are here. Pray that the love of God in Jesus Christ will impact this community so that they may be bold to live their lives for Him.

Why yes, we climbed a mountain.(best day ever, until tomorrow!)

Today was another incredible day!

It began early (as does every day) but mostly chillin with los ninos until it was time to wash feet. And we had many many more today! About fifty kids showed up this morning for Operation Barefoot, and had their feet washed along with their brand new pair of zapatos.

After the first round of kids, it was time for the Americanos to take the kids on a walk to the caves. When they said walk, we didn't anticipate hike...

Three miles two streams and four or five barbed wire fences later, we took a break, then continued another half mile and through two more fences to scale a thirty foot cliff (which the children were all to eager to climb) where we found the cave! It was pitch black and there were bats everywhere, and several of the kids and adults went back in pretty far, but Matt went the furthest by far, eventually finding some sort of stash of bat dung. So basically a super successful trip :)

The hike back was easier as we found some side roads to walk on instead of the cow paths, and the kids had fun running down the hills. We got back to Audrey's bible study, which we were told would have about twenty women. There were fifty three there when we got back! It was awesome. Check out the photo albums (link on the right :) ) for a picture of Abuelita in the tiara they gave her!

There was some more playing con el ninos until supper - which was a wonderful meal of fried chicken tacos - when the unexpected happened.

The children getting baptized tomorrow asked us to be their godparents!!

Mallory and i are now the proud godparents of Kensy Mabel Bonilla Garcia, who is getting baptized and confirmed tomorrow! Consuelo, Junior, Ariel, Paola, Exon and Estacy will all be baptized tomorrow as well, along with several from the community :)

Tomorrow is already promising to be better than today, and we are already fearing the end of the week.

But God has blessed us much already, and it looks like there's no stopping :)

Buenas noches!!

--jake

Wednesday Morning

It's a beautiful 59 degrees this morning with a high of 81 today, and maybe a few rain showers. We uploaded photos of kids with names for you last night as well as pictures from our first Operation Barefoot day. Today will bring more people for shoes and a trip to visit the hospital to take them some gift bags as well. Check back later for some live streaming!

Honduras 11-22-2011

Woke this morning at 6am courtesy of the local roosters:)

Operation Barefoot went well this morning. We washed feet and provided new shoes for approximately 170 children. Later today, Mama Doris distributed another 150 pairs of shoes to the children in the communtiy.

In addition to Operation Barefoot, we installed a water purification system and repaired plumbing fixtures at the foundation.

This evening we went to Comayagua for computer supplies. Believe it or not, inside the tech store was a wonderful bakery. We brought home snowmen cupcakes for the children - a real treat for them.

Today's highlight....2 year old Crystal leading our group in prayer.

Another blessed day in Honduras.

Operation Barefoot Underway

We handed out about 170 pairs of shoes this morning. Check out the live stream!

Monday Noon

Since I'm from Christ Lutheran in Perry, Georgia, let me just share that the folks from St. Luke's are doing tremendous work down here. Jeremy gets kudos for arranging some 1,000 pairs of shoes. Audrey is so loved by the children who call her "abuelita" or "grandma". Steve and Jacob are both wonderful gifts in their technology and handyman skills with keeping the wireless internet repaired for all of us, and also utilizing technology to share this work with many others. Paula and Mallorie just have that loving and caring touch with the children. We're working on getting a water filter in place in the next couple days that should give clean drinking water to the entire facility. Shoes were given to children this morning. Take a look at the blog for more photos.

Monday morning!

It's an absolutely beautiful morning in La Paz. A little rain last night left us a little mud but it is drying up quickly. We helped the kids clean up a bit this morning and then enjoyed pancakes for breakfast.

We sorted the clothes, shoes and supplies from our bags this morning and then started handing out shoes to the children and employees of the foundation. Check out the livestream for some recorded video!

Lots more pictures to come today!

Day 2 is almost complete!

Hola personas!

We have finally completed unloading around a thousand pairs of shoes, matching them by size, type and gender in the Chapel. Jeremy has been hard at work making aisles and organizing, after the initial separation from the boxes.

The worship service this morning was filled with just enough chaos, as the bread wafers for communion got lost some where between Atlanta, my suitcase and La Paz. After no crackers could be found in the Foundation, bread from my suitcase was torn into tiny pieces, while Aubulita (Audrey) and Jeremy poured wine into cups.

One of the women helping around the foundation received her first communion, and some of the older children received communion, but everyone was blessed by Pastor John.

The worship service was really special, including the Spanglish spoken and sang. It was amazing to see that no matter the language spoken or the ethnicity of people present, God is present.

After worship, Paula, Rosibel, Jake, Jeremy and I headed to the market to look for some soccer balls for the Foundation. As we walked through La Paz, we greeted the people, and avoided the cars as traffic laws are of little importance in Honduras.

Rosibel, who was very excited to see Paula, Steve, John and Jake last night, has started to work as a nurse, as an internship for part of her nursing school, in a clinic in town. On our way back for the market, We saw the doctor, and he invited us to tour the clinic. We were so pleased to see how nice it was and to meet such a humble man. He started the clinic, just four months ago and has been seeing a lot of the children from the foundation.

The funniest instance that happened on our way home though was as we were walking down the road, a silver Honda Civic came speeding towards us. We all had to sprint to the sidewalk to avoid the car, only to find that the car had a Florida license plate.

After the market, we had a delicious lunch, and began the tedious job of shoe sorting. The children helped. as the girls browsed for their favorite pair, or just a fun pair of heels to show off to the camera.

After the children had dinner, we had the excitement of eating in the restaurant of the Foundation. We had some type of cheese, flat tortilla with vegetables.

Once dinner was completed there was some dancing (of course!) and lots of giggles, as los ninos went off to bed!

We live streamed a lot today, so make sure you check in tomorrow! Jake is about to upload some pictures!

Buenos noches!

Te quiero a la siempre! (newest thing I learned today!! I will love you forever).

Mallory

Good Morning!

Just had breakfast and preparing for worship!

The morning was spent with lots of hugs and attempts to communicate via Google Translator. The biggest hit of the morning was the Photobooth on Paula's Macbook! Los ninos loved taking pictures of themselves with their best and most silly face on, as well as Paula's hair in pigtails.

We will be worshiping with some of the people of La Paz soon, and the children will share more songs!

We'll try to show you as much as we can :)

Stay tuned!

Blessings

Planes. Buses. Cows. Police on bikes with machine guns. Coconuts. Kids singing our welcome. Fireworks. Chicken dinner. Mariachi band. Dancing. Play time. Family. Tired.

Sometimes it's difficult to put our days into words. The common thread for all of those words today though is “Blessings.” We are so blessed to be able to travel here. We are so blessed in our lives with safety and security. We are so blessed with the food we receive. We are so blessed to be given the reception of songs and hugs and smiles from the children. We are so blessed with being able to help out at this place which is a blessing to so many children and this community.

We were greeted by the children on the corner about ¼ mile from the foundation. They had made banners and sang us about five songs along with a guitar. We enjoyed the round of hugs and walked back to the foundation. After a little unpacking, we relaxed while the kids ate supper. Our supper arrived and it was delicious chicken, plantains, cucumbers, and bread. Much to our surprise, the lights went out and a Mariachi band arrived along with the children holding candles. (And of course, we had to dance a little with the band.)

After dinner was play time. Matt, Jeremy, Jake and Mallory were the ones who got the most exercise. The rest of us still had a lot of fun over the next couple hours as the kids were just ready to play. We ended the evening with prayers and a little group time to prepare for tomorrow.

We are uploading pictures and some video now. We will plan to do some live streaming tomorrow. We will be holding a Spanish worship service at about 10:45 a.m. Florida time. The afternoon will be spent getting some things ready for Operation Barefoot.

Thank the Lord for today as He reminded us of the blessing of His Son, our Savior. Pray that we can praise Him through our work in this place. Watch with us this week as Jesus works in and through us to spread the message of true salvation through faith in Jesus life, death and resurrection.

See you tomorrow.

We're here!

Sorry for the late post. We got here safely about 5 p.m. and have been busy since! I will write more in a little while. Come on back soon!

Ready to board

We are just about ready to get on.   Talk to you all this evening at the foundation.

Saturday 19 - Orlando to Atlanta Pics

Lots of planes in Atlanta! The clouds were thick and beautiful!

Safe landing in Atlanta

We are on the ground and ready to meet up with John and Mallory.

Orlando to Atlanta

Currently being entertained by the singing of a young boy behind me. :) Smooth sailing and on time. (I love having in flight wifi!)

Checked in!

We are all checked in and waiting at the gate. They even let Audrey bring  three cans of pumpkin! 

Steve Lehenbauer

Almost time!

We have many more shoes and clothes in the luggage to carry down to the families of La Paz. We are also carrying equipment to be able to provide clean drinking water! Pray for our trip as we fly out on Delta airlines at 7:15 tomorrow morning with a stop in Atlanta.

Almost Time!

Watch here for all the details of our Operation Barefoot trip. We will be leaving bright and early Saturday morning. We hope to live broadcast as much as possible during the week so stay tuned! Baptisms, confirmations, washing feet, shoes & socks, hospital visits, jail visits, worship & more will take place this week. Please pray for us to share the love of Jesus with La Paz Honduras!